Rather than compiling a Top Ten of Baroque Hits, The Enchanted Island amounts to much more than a gallimaufry of choice gobbets, seasoned with French galenterie.
Paring the action down to just four singers, La Tragédie de Carmen is the perfect vehicle and venue for a handful of the Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists to strut their stuff.
In-Nocentes is wonderful. Michael Keegan-Dolan and his team have drawn from the gifts and commitment of these young dancers to create original, rich and extraordinary dance.
There’s something decidedly odd about pitching up at Glyndebourne sans picnic hamper, wrapped up in heavy layers, the aroma of mulled wine wafting through the foyer...
Figaro rules the roost on the main stage this autumn, but buried in the Nibelheim of the Linbury Studio, Rossini'ss early comedy La scala di seta receives its first ever production by the Royal Opera.
The Secret Marriage has been a hit from its earliest days. At its 1792 première in Vienna, King Leopold II was so delighted by the performance that he ordered the whole company to repair to his mansion, be treated to a magnificent dinner, “and then play the entire opera through again, immediately”. Later, Verdi called The Secret Marriage “a perfect comedy, which contains everything that an opera buffa should”.
Wit is the ruling spirit of British Youth Opera’s delectable production of Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden’s operetta Paul Bunyan, directed by Will Kerley.
The last night of the Bristol Proms was experimental. A full house at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre was greeted by artistic director Tom Morris to introduce this semi-staged version of Handel’s Messiah – last performed in the venue in 1782, when it was too sacrilegious for churches.
British Youth Opera have been fostering the best of young British vocal talent for 25 years, and it’s a delight to see them celebrating their anniversary this year with a work precisely as old as they are: Judith Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera dates from 1987, and made for a lively showcase for these rising stars at London’s Peacock Theatre last night.
The Jette Parker Young Artists double bill of Jules Massenet’s rare one-act opera Le Portrait de Manon (sequel to Manon) and Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, featured romance, mystique and sumptuous singing.
En l'église de St Martin-in-the-Fields à Londres, la Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris se joignait aux musiciens du Southbank Sinfonia pour un voyage mozartien éclairé à la bougie.
