Opera and Classical Reviews
by Gareth Webb
This was a very big night for Scottish Opera.For over a year the company has been dark and extremely quiet, presenting no staged productions in…
by Dominic McHugh
Despite being a product of his maturity – it was written years after his most popular three operas – Puccini’s La rondine (The Swallow) continues...
by Dominic McHugh
track listingDVD 1. Acts 1 + 2DVD 2. Act 3 + interviewsThere are a fair few DVDs of La traviata around, but this new release...
by Dominic McHugh
It takes a really great orchestra to play Beethoven’s first and last symphonies with equal conviction in the same programme.Under Bernard Haitink, the London Symphony...
by Sara Miller
The London Symphony Orchestra has innovatively combined with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to present all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas as free...
by Helen Wright
First performed in 1607, Claudio Monteverdi’s masterpiece Orfeo wasn’t quite the first opera written – that honour goes to Peri’s Dafne – but it’s testament...
by Dominic McHugh
Can Haitink’s Beethoven get any better? This was the question on many lips during the interval at the fifth concert in the Amsterdam-born conductor’s complete...
by Dominic McHugh
Bernard Haitink’s Beethoven cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra is already synonymous with music-making of the highest quality.During this fourth concert in the series, however,...
by Yangen Xu
Easter would hardly be Easter without a performance of Handel’s Messiah. And this rendition, given by the Royal Choral Society and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at...
by Yangen Xu
Shostakovichs graduation work, his First Symphony in F minor Op. 10, was written when the composer was at the tender age of 20. The London...
by Yangen Xu
I owe all my readers and the LSO an apology for being late to this concert. Due to major delays on the tube, I had...
by Helen Wright
Vaughan Williams wrote the most glorious orchestral music but is less well known for his operatic work.Sir John In Love, based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives...
by Helen Wright
It’s a long time since I’ve been helpless with laughter at an opera house. I blame the sheep.Actually it happened more than once – and...
by Dominic McHugh
To read our reviews of the Royal Opera’s 2007 run of The Ring, check here from 3 October Gtterdmmerung (Credit: Clive Barda)With Twilight of the...
by Zan Buckner
For her first foray into opera, Broadway soprano Audra McDonald takes on a world premire as part of an ambitious one-woman double bill.McDonald has won...
by Dominic McHugh
Jonathan Miller’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto remains not only his best production of any opera I can remember him directing in London, but also one...
by Dominic McHugh
At the height of the first scene of Verdi’s ninth opera, Attila, a Roman general tries to strike a bargain with the notorious Hun: ‘You...
by Ben Hogwood
Riccardo Chailly‘s was just such a performance, andwent some way to proving the Leipzig Gewandhaus are ontheir way back to recapturing past glories. Theperformance fizzed...
by Dominic McHugh
track listing1. Amapola2. Besame Mucho3. Kes Feuilles Mortes4. Mi Manchi5. Somos Novios (with Christina Aguilera)6. Solamente Una Vez7. Jurame (Feat. Mario Reyes)8. Pero Te Extrano9....
by William Norris
This was an exhilarating concert – even the five curtain calls at the end couldn’t do it justice.The early nineteenth-century Austrian composer Franz Schubert was,...
by Dominic McHugh
Twenty years on, Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado remains witty and diverting.It’s without a doubt the greatest of the Savoy operas by W. S....
