Opera and Classical Reviews
by Dominic McHugh
Tanya McCallin and in particular to the warm but unfussy conducting of Sir Colin Davis.The man’s a miracle: at almost 80 years of age, he…
by Yangen Xu
There are many different kinds of music in this world, but few have infuriated music scholars quite like film music.The difference in standards of composition...
by Johnny Johnson
Puccini had composed four operas before taking his pen to Tosca, following the completion of La bohme which had been popularly but not always critically,...
by Dominic McHugh
In his famous book Opera and Drama, the critic and musicologist Joseph Kerman wrote that Handel’s operas could never get away from sounding enervated.Without doubt...
by Johnny Johnson
Cos fan tutte‘s original title La Scuola digli Amanti (A School for Lovers) coincides nicely with director Nicholas Hytner‘s Tony award-winning production The History Boys...
by Dominic McHugh
For over forty years, the Royal Opera clung to Franco Zeffirelli’s legendary production of Puccini’s Tosca like a leech.It served such great figures as Placido...
by musicOMH
One of the cornerstones of every Opera Holland Park season is a selection from the verismo era, that period at the end of the nineteenth...
by Dominic McHugh
The picnic hampers are out, the big tent is up in the park, and the great and the good are all heading to the country....
by Sara Miller
‘She’s exquisite!’ whispered my companion to me, as I sat there in awe, only able to nod mutely.We were talking about Grace Nikae, who kept...
by Dominic McHugh
The first two decades of the twentieth century were a remarkable time for the development of opera.In reaction to the excesses of the Wagnerian and...
by Dominic McHugh
At the height of Act 1 of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, Don Pizarro’s prisoners are freed and they sing of the joy of being allowed...
by Dominic McHugh
In this year of Mozart’s 250th birthday, the composer’s piano concerti have been popping up in the concert programmes of every major orchestra, to varying...
by Yangen Xu
Prior to this concert, supermarket giant Waitrose kicked off the evening with a complimentary box of Belgian chocolates for every single member of the audience,...
by Yangen Xu
Written for the UK’s very own Birmingham Festival, Mendelssohn’s Elijah is one of the most popular oratorios today. However, as with all performances of music,...
by Yangen Xu
There are times when one’s linguistic abilities are completely inadequate to describe one’s feelings after hearing a perfect concert.Midori’s recital at the Barbican Hall was...
by Yangen Xu
There are few things in this world as enjoyable as an evening of Mozart’s sacred music. Under the baton of recent 70 year old birthday...
by Dominic McHugh
This concert with the Hall Orchestra under their Music Director, Mark Elder, was quite simply the most technically consistent and enthusiastically played programme I have...
by Yangen Xu
As this concert confirmed, the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s self-proclaimed commitment to 20th and 21st Century music is extraordinarily strong.The UK premiere of Salonen’s Wing on...
by Dominic McHugh
In his second concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, Yuri Temirkanov juxtaposed two youthful works by Mahler and Prokofiev. And the talented Paul Watkins made...
by Sara Miller
Last Sunday afternoon, the soprano Yvonne Kenny and her accompanist Iain Burnside transformed the Wigmore Hall into a small haven for the gods. They presented...
by Dominic McHugh
After the high spirits of last week’s Beethoven cycle with Bernard Haitink, the London Symphony Orchestra under Russian maestro Yuri Temirkanov had a lot to...
Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
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Vapour Theories – Celestial Scuzz
Stereolab – Electrically Possessed (Switched On Vol Four)