Performer: Craig Colclough

Great singing and imaginative spectacle cannot turn an ambitious operatic premiere into a convincing whole. 

Lucas Meachem’s portrayal suggests a paraphrase of what another Hollywood Don Juan, Errol Flynn in 1949, said to his Leporello in excusing his escapades. “My dear friend, there’s a little bit of Don Giovanni in every man, and since I am Don Giovanni, there must be more of it in me!” 

A two-week Ralph Vaughan Williams retrospective closed with his gentle, folksy spin on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.

A strong cast and a masterclass in Wagnerian conducting from Jakub Hrůša complement David Alden’s disturbing staging.

Verdi's Rigoletto in Weimar Germany? A half-baked concept, but Bartlett Sher's new production is certainly dramatic and it is gorgeously sung. 

Craig Colclough's Don Pasquale is arrogant, boyishly hopeful, outraged and pathetic by turns, his singing free of silly buffo mannerisms, the voice grand.