RAM Opera double bill: Dido and Aeneas and The Lighthouse

By Emily Owen, 20 May 2013

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Reviewed at Royal Academy of Music: Sir Jack Lyons Theatre, London on 16 May 2013

Purcell, Dido and Aeneas

Davies, The Lighthouse

Royal Academy Opera

Royal Academy of Music Sinfonia

Iain Ledingham, Conductor

Lionel Friend, Conductor

John Ramster, Director

Sarah Shorter, Dido

Samuel Pantcheff, Aeneas

Sónia Grané, Belinda

Samuel Queen, Blazes

Iain Milne, Sandy

Andri Björn Róbertsson, Arthur

The Royal Academy's Carmen has too many what-if moments

Dominic Lowe, 18th November

Presenting a work like Carmen is a punchy move by a conservatoire. The Royal Academy of Music's production has conceptual weaknesses, but features some good singing.

***11

Royal Academy Opera stages a magical Zauberflöte

Mark Valencia, 18th March

A lyrical yet zesty account of Mozart's' adorable score, in a production that is on the nose and off the wall.

****1

A dystopian Hansel und Gretel at the RAM

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Jack Furness serves up an unappetising mess of Humperdinck's delicious masterpiece for Royal Academy Opera.

***11

Keeping it surreal: Martinů double-bill at the Royal Academy of Music

Dominic Lowe, 8th May

With typical spirit, the students at the Royal Academy of Music did an excellent job in bringing Martinů’s Comedy on the Bridge and Alexandre bis to life – two lesser-known pre-war surrealist gems.

***11

Unreal city: The Rake's Progress at the Royal Academy of Music

Benjamin Poore, 22nd November

Frederic Wake-Walker's realisation of the Hogarth-inspired opera is visually bracing and assuredly sung.

****1

Emotion and mayhem: a golden double bill from Royal Academy Opera

Stephen Pritchard, 18th March

Students triumph in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges.

****1

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Emily Owen

A postgraduate student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama specialising in early music, Emily Owen is a freelance soprano, singing with numerous ensembles. She deputises in churches around London and also manages the newly formed London Youth Choir. Her website is here.