The first instalment of Barrie Kosky’s Ring for the Royal Opera left us with the indelible impression – except for some critics who were bemused or offended by the sight of an elderly, naked woman […]
On one level an old-fashioned Sunday afternoon matinee, this impressive concert was also a more than usually comfortable fit for two ongoing series: the RPO’s own ‘Lights in the Dark’ strand and the Southbank Centre’s […]
Now that only the over-seventies can recall the half-century of semi-neglect which followed the world premiere of the Eighth, paradoxically Mahler’s biggest success in his lifetime, the old problem is stood on its ahead. Performances […]
Not yet 25, the latest Finnish Wunderkind (of partly Filipino heritage) began studying with renowned conducting teacher Jorma Panula at the age of 14. Today he has posts in Riga, Toulouse and Hong Kong, having […]
A respectable turnout greeted this quietly audacious programme. We began with the only item likely to be familiar to mainstream concertgoers whatever the variability of its line-up. The BBC Singers, who might have been joining […]
Floridante (1721) was the second full length work which Handel composed for his opera company, the Royal Academy of Music (in between that and Radamisto in 1720 had come his one Act contribution to Muzio […]
Once again, Chelsea Opera exhumes an operatic rarity, one probably only known reasonably well by opera buffs with extensive collections of recordings, presenting a cogent argument for it being better known – perhaps even afforded […]
For the second time in a fortnight the LPO welcomed a lean, long-limbed guest conductor on top form. Hannu Lintu, currently chief conductor at the Finnish National Opera, began with a more than usually substantial […]
Vaughan Williams’s The Poisoned Kiss (completed 1928, premiered 1936) mixes gothic fantasy (or fairy tale) with quirky (if sometimes simplistic) humour, arriving at an improbably happy resolution with no fewer than six couples paired off in marriage […]
This was both an impressive concert in its own right and a more comfortable fit for the RPO’s ongoing ‘Lights in the Dark’ series than some of its scheduled instalments. All three featured composers, obliged […]
