Hugo Shirley is a Berlin-based writer and musicologist. He has written widely as a critic, including for The Spectator, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, and has held editorial posts at both Opera and Gramophone. He was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015) and is currently working on a critical study of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, based on his doctoral thesis. He blogs at http://hugoshirley.blogspot.co.uk and tweets as @hugojeshirley.
The pairing of controversial director and bad-boy conductor brings some thrills but the Salzburg Festival's new Don Giovanni proves disappointingly uninvolving.
The Berlin Philharmonic's experimental concert not only paves the way to a return to near normality, it presents performances of stunning drama and power.
The Komische Oper's new, socially-distanced Offenbach staging shows plenty of glitzy defiance in its brief appearance before Germany's latest lockdown.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra presents a superb programme executed with power and urgency to herald the return of public music-making at the Pierre Boulez Saal.
Nicola Raab's production doesn't quite provide the bold rethinking it promises, but stylish execution and a fine cast make for an effective modern Traviata.
Daniel Barenboim conducts an underwhelming cast in the Staatsoper's new Samson et Dalila, and Argentinian director Damián Szifron's operatic debut is stale and cliché-ridden.
There's undeniable power in the Berliner Philharmoniker's playing, but Zubin Mehta needed to offer a stronger sense of where his Bruckner was heading and why.
The Israeli conductor and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra explains how the Bamberg Symphony's Mahler Competition provided a launchpad for his career.
