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Showing 29 of 29 reviews

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Predictable and polite: Coleridge-Taylor’s bloodless passion at the Three Choirs Festival

By Simon Cummings, 31 July 2025

Though musically flawed, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s choral work The Atonement is given a superb performance at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford Cathedral.

**111

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**111

Hereford

01 Aug 2025

Coleridge-Taylor’s bloodless passion at the Three Choirs Festival

By Simon Cummings

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Moreton-in-Marsh

At home with the Wagners: Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried receives its UK premiere

By Mark Pullinger, 27 May 2025

Longborough Festival Opera, built on Wagnerian foundations, stages the UK premiere of Avner Dorman’s ambitious cautionary tale about the Wagner clan and establishing the composer’s legacy.

***11

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***11

Moreton-in-Marsh

28 May 2025

Dorman’s Wahnfried receives its UK premiere at Longborough

By Mark Pullinger

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Glasgow

From Wales to Scotland, The Makropulos Affair defies the march of time

By Mark Valencia, 15 February 2025

Orla Boylan’s creation oozes charisma and reeks of entitlement, driven to emotional cruelty by the lassitude of a life too-long lived.

****1

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****1

Glasgow

17 Feb 2025

The Makropulos Affair defies the march of time

By Mark Valencia

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Moreton-in-Marsh

An enthralling Walküre at Longborough Opera Festival

By David Karlin, 18 June 2024

Who wouldn't relish the chance of seeing a Ring cycle at close quarters? Longborough's Die Walküre isn't perfect, but it consistently delivers on the story and on character interpretation.

****1

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****1

Moreton-in-Marsh

19 Jun 2024

An enthralling Walküre at Longborough Opera Festival

By David Karlin

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Cardiff

Welsh National Opera stages Death in Venice for the first time... and it’s a triumph

By Mark Valencia, 07 March 2024

Olivia Fuchs solves the problems of Britten's thorny opera in a brilliant new production that hits the heights, featuring Mark Le Brocq as earthbound scholar, Gustav von Aschenbach.

*****

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*****

Cardiff

09 Mar 2024

WNO stages Death in Venice for the first time and it’s a triumph

By Mark Valencia

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West Horsley

Death-devoted duo: a superb new Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park Opera

By Roy Westbrook, 08 June 2023

Charles Edwards' ambitious production is well served by a strong cast as Grange Park Opera opens its season in the Theatre in the Woods.

****1

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****1

West Horsley

09 Jun 2023

Death-devoted duo: a superb Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park Opera

By Roy Westbrook

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Edinburgh

RSNO season begins with marvellous Britten but too pristine Stravinsky

By Simon Thompson, 30 September 2022

Stefan Jackiw makes Britten's Violin Concerto sing, but Thomas Søndergård's RSNO Rite of Spring is too well-behaved and David Fennessy's Riot Act is dull.

***11

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***11

Edinburgh

01 Oct 2022

RSNO season begins with marvellous Britten but too pristine Stravinsky

By Simon Thompson

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Cardiff

Beware of what you wish for: The Makropulos Affair at Welsh National Opera

By David Karlin, 16 September 2022

Olivia Fuchs gives a powerful staging of Janáček's morality tale of the perils of eternal youth, with an excellent cast, but there are reservations about the title role.

****1

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****1

Cardiff

17 Sep 2022

Beware of what you wish for: The Makropulos Affair at WNO

By David Karlin

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London

Grimeborn delivers a wholly satisfying Half Ring at Hackney Empire

By Roy Westbrook, 06 August 2022

Using Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick's distillations of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the company concluded its miniature Ring cycle in under five hours, without sacrificing musical or dramatic tension.

****1

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****1

London

07 Aug 2022

Grimeborn delivers a wholly satisfying Half Ring at Hackney Empire

By Roy Westbrook

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West Horsley

Taking the Pils: Grange Park Opera proves that rare Janáček is no small beer

By Matthew Rye, 26 June 2022

Janáček’s satirical opera The Excursions of Mr Brouček may not be among his greatest dramatic works, yet it earns its place in the limelight for its musical, visual and dramatic wit at Grange Park Opera.

****1

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****1

West Horsley

27 Jun 2022

Taking the Pils: Pountney proves that rare Janáček is no small beer

By Matthew Rye

Glasgow

Stylish, powerful Nixon in China from Scottish Opera

By David Smythe, 22 February 2020

Scottish Opera’s Nixon in China in a stylish, living history production from John Fulljames, with strong performances across the board, Joana Carneiro stoking the fires in the pit.

****1

****1

Glasgow

24 Feb 2020

Stylish, powerful Nixon in China from Scottish Opera

By David Smythe

London

War and Peace: Welsh National Opera comes to London to parade its wares

By Mark Valencia, 23 July 2019

It’s a small miracle that the production has been recreated so well in such a short time frame.

****1

****1

London

24 Jul 2019

War and Peace: WNO comes to London to parade its wares

By Mark Valencia

Glasgow

Anthropocene: a timely chiller from Scottish Opera

By David Smythe, 26 January 2019

Climate change, challenged egos and a strange Ice woman tell a gruesome tale in Anthropocene, a finely sung new opera from Stuart MacRae, with libretto from Louise Welsh, set in the Arctic with a cinematic score.

***11

***11

Glasgow

28 Jan 2019

Anthropocene: a timely chiller from Scottish Opera

By David Smythe

London

The Silver Tassie makes a triumphant return

By Stephen Pritchard, 10 November 2018

Mark-Anthony Turnage's First World War opera both moves and dazzles at the Barbican.

*****

*****

London

11 Nov 2018

The Silver Tassie makes a triumphant return

By Stephen Pritchard

Cardiff

Ferocious intensity: David Pountney's new War and Peace at Welsh National Opera

By Rohan Shotton, 15 September 2018

WNO make a compelling case for Prokofiev's gargantuan War and Peace.

*****

*****

Cardiff

16 Sep 2018

Ferocious intensity: Pountney's new War and Peace at WNO

By Rohan Shotton

London

Crime, punishment, forgiveness, redemption: Dead Man Walking finally reaches London

By David Karlin, 20 February 2018

Jake Heggie's spectacular vocal writing combine with Terence McNally's perfectly paced libretto to provide intense music drama which forces you to confront darkness.

*****

*****

London

21 Feb 2018

Crime, punishment, forgiveness, redemption: Dead Man Walking finally reaches London

By David Karlin

Cardiff

An arresting From the House of the Dead at Welsh National Opera

By Rohan Shotton, 08 October 2017

David Pountney's House of the Dead makes for high entertainment at Welsh National Opera.

****1

****1

Cardiff

10 Oct 2017

An arresting From the House of the Dead

By Rohan Shotton

Cardiff

Stark and spellbinding: Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina leads WNO's Russian season

By Katherine Cooper, 23 September 2017

Welsh National Opera’s new season commemorating the centenary of the 1917 Revolution with three Russian-themed works opens with both a bang and a whimper with this trenchant revival.

*****

*****

Cardiff

27 Sep 2017

Stark and spellbinding: Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina

By Katherine Cooper

Dublin

A deeply moving Dream of Gerontius: Markson plumbs the depths with soloists and NSO

By Andrew Larkin, 19 May 2017

Mark Le Brocq portrays a convincing Gerontius while other soloists, choir and orchestra deliver a fine, moving performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

****1

****1

Dublin

21 May 2017

A deeply moving Dream of Gerontius

By Andrew Larkin

London

Simply brilliant: Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus at Sadler’s Wells

By Matthew Rye, 11 November 2016

The first UK production of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s 1930s anti-war opera Simplicius Simplicissimus is a musical and dramatic triumph, and as pertinent as ever

*****

*****

London

12 Nov 2016

Simply brilliant: Simplicius Simplicissimus

By Matthew Rye

Cardiff

All that glitters: Tchaikowsky's The Merchant of Venice staged by Welsh National Opera

By Simon Rees, 16 September 2016

André Tchaikowsky's version of The Merchant of Venice combines his love of Shakespeare with his recollections of a harsh childhood as a Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto.

***11

***11

Cardiff

17 Sep 2016

All that glitters: WNO stages The Merchant of Venice

By Simon Rees

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London

Dipping a toe into the Rhine: Wagner therapy from Opera North

By Mark Pullinger, 28 June 2016

Opera North's cycle offers a form of personal Wagner therapy: all four music dramas in concert performances, but with carefully choreographed video and lighting effects.

****1

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****1

London

29 Jun 2016

Dipping a toe into the Rhine

By Mark Pullinger

Cardiff

From the Somme's trenches: Iain Bell's In Parenthesis opens at Welsh National Opera

By Simon Rees, 13 May 2016

David Jones' First World War epic poem comes to musical life in Iain Bell's newly-commissioned opera.

****1

****1

Cardiff

14 May 2016

From the Somme's trenches: Iain Bell's In Parenthesis

By Simon Rees

Leeds

Opera North's exciting Der fliegende Holländer at Leeds Town Hall

By Richard Wilcocks, 27 June 2015

Der fliegende Holländer at Leeds Town Hall shows Opera North at its most exciting, in a production conducted by Richard Farnes, with Béla Perencz and Alwyn Mellor.

****1

****1

Leeds

28 Jun 2015

Opera North's exciting Der fliegende Holländer

By Richard Wilcocks

Cardiff

Leaving J.M.Barrie dangling: High-flying Peter Pan at Welsh National Opera

By Simon Rees, 16 May 2015

Richard Ayres's Peter Pan, in a new WNO production, leaves J.M. Barrie's story dangling.

**111

**111

Cardiff

17 May 2015

High-flying Peter Pan at WNO

By Simon Rees

Cardiff

Usher House double bill fails to stand up

By Simon Rees, 13 June 2014

How does Usher House stand up? Like the house, it doesn’t. Welsh National Opera's double bill based on The Fall of the House of Usher underwhelms.

**111

**111

Cardiff

20 Jun 2014

Usher House double bill fails to stand up

By Simon Rees

Cardiff

Scant Sodom, no Gomorrah, but a riveting Moses und Aron

By Simon Rees, 24 May 2014

A riveting performance of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, despite the absence of the golden calf, the burning bush, Sodom and Gomorrah.

*****

*****

Cardiff

27 May 2014

Scant Sodom but a riveting Moses und Aron

By Simon Rees

Leeds

Opera North's triumphant Peter Grimes returns to Leeds

By Richard Wilcocks, 14 September 2013

A very welcome and triumphant revival of Peter Grimes begins Opera North’s Festival of Britten season, soon to be followed by A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Death in Venice. The work has often been described as Britten’s greatest, the paeans of praise beginning soon after its first performance just after the Second World War, often involving the word “enigma”.

*****

*****

Leeds

16 Sep 2013

Opera North's triumphant Peter Grimes returns to Leeds

By Richard Wilcocks

Edinburgh

Opera North's production première of The Makropulos Case at the Edinburgh Festival

By David Smythe, 11 August 2012

The strange yet compelling story of the 350-year-old opera singer Elina Makropulos was Opera North’s showcase in a production première at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. Leoš Janáček wrote The Makropulos Affair, his penultimate opera, based on the Karel Čapek play about Elina Makropulos, who was given a potion to preserve her youth when she was sixteen.

***11

***11

Edinburgh

13 Aug 2012

Opera North's production première of The Makropulos Case at the Edinburgh Festival

By David Smythe