Sukanya: close but no sitar

By Timmy Fisher, 17 January 2020

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“there is something noble in Shankar’s attempt to combine these disparate musical traditions”

Reviewed at Royal Festival Hall, London on 15 January 2020

Shankar, Sukanya (Concert performance)

David Murphy, Conductor

Suba Das, Director

Susanna Hurrell, Sukanya

Alok Kumar, Chyavana

Michel de Souza, Baritone

Njabulo Madlala, Baritone

Gauri Diwakar, Choreography

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Ravi Shankar’s Opera Sukanya Delights in Birmingham

Robert Gainer, 15th May

Five years after the composer's death, his musical collaborator David Murphy ensures that Shankar's only operatic work finally gets heard.

****1

Chasing the American Dream: UK premiere for Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up

Mark Pullinger, 1st June

Amy Lane directs an intimate staging of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s 2018 chamber opera in the compact Milton Court Theatre.

****1

Longborough Festival Opera season starts slow with Orlando

Eleanor Knight, 30th May

Beth Taylor gives the lows and highs of Handel's heroics an almighty, whole-body shakedown in Sinéad O'Neill’s new staging of Handel's Orlando.

***11

Bang! Mozart’s volcano erupts in Opera Holland Park’s Così fan tutte

Peter Quantrill, 28th May

Mount Vesuvius looms over Cecilia Stinton’s compelling new production of Così fan tutte.

****1

Viennese splendour in Garsington’s Rosenkavalier revival

Roy Westbrook, 28th May

Bruno Ravella's splendid 2021 production of Strauss' opera of Viennese manners returns with a fine cast.

****1

A witty hotel Don Giovanni opens Blackwater Valley Festival

Andrew Larkin, 27th May

Tom Creed’s witty production at Lismore Castle delivers strong singing, sharp comedy and lively orchestral playing, even if the opera’s darker supernatural edges are somewhat diminished.

****1

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Timmy Fisher

Timmy read musicology at Durham University, studying composition with Richard Rijnvos. He has written for Gramophone and The Spectator, and composes for both film and the concert hall. He has a special interest in contemporary choral music, and co-hosts The Classical Music Pod with Sam Poppleton, available on iTunes and Spotify. Follow him on twitter at @timmy_fisher.