Neue Kritikenmehr...
A brilliant barrack room ballad: Otello at Grange Park Opera
Gwyn Hughes Jones, Elizabeth Llewellyn and Sir Simon Keenlyside star in David Alden's setting of Otello in a militarised Cyprus.
Devilish downpour cannot dampen The Soldier's Tale at the EIF
Rarely has so distinguished a group been assembled to give this work live; it would have shone as a highlight even in a normal year of visiting foreign ensembles and performers.
Romantic love blooms in the lost garden of West Horsley
Olena Tokar's assured coloratura made an immediate success of the waltz with her convincingly adolescent appearance, rhythmic verve and stylish phrasing.
Miller's Rigoletto makes a flawed return to ENO
Jonathan Miller's production remains a work of brilliance, but poor conducting amongst other things keeps this revival from getting off the ground.
A charismatic Fiddler on the Roof
Dancing, jokes, a pogrom and Bryn Terfel balancing on milk vats. It could only be Fiddler on the Roof. Grange Park Opera took an eclectic combination and planted if successfully on the Proms stage.
A Fine Pocket-Sized Macbeth from Scottish Opera
The most Scottish of operas, Verdi's Macbeth, makes big demands on its soloists and is packed with choruses, so it was interesting to see how Scottish Opera's production managed with only seven singers and a chamber orchestra.