Opera + Classical Music Reviews
by Helen Wright
Rossini churned out so many operas (39 in 19 years) that it’s tempting to think every one is a rehash of previous work, and to some extent the music is rather interchangeable. Il turco in…
by Helen Wright
There are always fresh flowers on Monteverdi’s tombstone in Venice. After a performance as uplifting as ENO’s new production of The Coronation of Poppea, this is understandable. A fresh, new translation and a wonderful post-modern...
by Helen Wright
A visit to Glyndebourne is always a treat, partly because of the glorious setting but mostly because the performances are so consistently stunning – both musically and artistically. Year after year there are exciting new...
by Helen Wright
Oh, joy: an evening of massage for the spirit. The Mark Morris Dance Group collides with ENO – and both win. Handel’s oratorio, written in 1740, is based on the twin poems of John Milton...
by Helen Wright
There’s an end-of-term feel at ENO as its season draws to a close, with the Mark Morris Dance Group presenting the Anglo-American double bill reviewed here, and their version of the Handel oratorio, L’Allegro, il...
by Helen Wright
First performed at La Fenice in Venice in 1844, Ernani is early, unsophisticated Verdi and all the more fun for that. Why it is so rarely performed is a mystery. The plot (based on a...
by Helen Wright
Celebrating Easter 2000 and the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, the ENO made the bold decision to stage one of his great dramatic Passions, which normally unfold the Easter story in static performance. Of course...
by Helen Wright
After all the hype (including a CD of ‘highlights’ sent to ticket holders in advance) this World premiere was eagerly awaited but, perhaps inevitably, a disappointment. Turnage has been influenced by Britten but says that...
by Helen Wright
La Bohème, Puccini’s tale of the Bohemian life, has been updated to the 1950s and one suspects that this is more in the interests of saving costume budgets than giving a new perspective. The lives...
by Helen Wright
The music for Harrison Birtwistle’s opera about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was loudly heckled at its Covent Garden premiere in 1991, partly because parts of it are so complex – and so loud...
by Helen Wright
The trouble with Handel is that his original audiences didn’t have so many distractions. They were quite happy to sit for hours while his singers came on, sang a nice aria, sang it again with...
LSO completely at home with old and new from Hummel, Tchaikovsky and Ngwenyama
