Catalani “La Wally”, Opera Holland Park
The aria – “Ebben? Ne andrò lontano” – famously adorning the films Diva and A Single Man is almost as ubiquitous as the eponymous heroine’s name – which features in the Guinness Book of Records as being…
Prom 9: Hallé Orchestra, Elder, Royal Albert Hall
Homecomings, real and imagined, marked out this season’s Hallé Prom. For Sibelius, brazen horn fanfares and myriad string ostinati carried us at the gallop to the heart of the Finnish heartlands. Everything in his rarely performed Scènes…
Prom 4: Brian “Gothic Symphony”, Royal Albert Hall
Two entire blocks of stalls and at least a third of the arena had been commandeered by the children’s choruses and four brass bands, each with its own timpanist; the combined BBC National Orchestra of Wales and…
Prom 2: Rossini “William Tell”, Royal Albert Hall
You couldn’t see the Lone Ranger for dust – and I doubt we’ve ever heard the most famous gallop in music despatched with such fleet-footed (or should that be hooved) panache. But there are another four or…
Puccini “Tosca”, Royal Opera House
Bring together three of the most intuitive talents (and biggest stars) on the planet, meld them under the baton of Antonio Pappano whose command of every caress, swoon, and dramatic impulse of Puccini’s Tosca is not learned…
Massenet “Cendrillon”, Royal Opera House
The words are in French but still familiar – “Once upon a time….” – and the story which follows, Cendrillon (that’s Cinderella to you and me), is writ large across the surfaces of Barbara de Limburg’s set,…
Handel “Rinaldo”, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
It’s the second school “outing” of the season. First Christopher Alden took Britten back to visit his past in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at ENO and now Robert Carsen is playing schoolboy heroics and fantasy football with…
Puccini “Madama Butterfly”, Royal Opera House
One can only hope that the ill wind which strips away the cherry blossom at the close of Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser’s feeble 2003 production of Madama Butterfly might soon carry off the entire staging. I’ve…
Muhly/Lucas “Two Boys”, English National Opera
The most surprising thing about Two Boys is the consonance and quiet sensuality of the score. Many words spring to mind: elegiac, mournful, poetic, melismatic – a digital age score without digitalisms, without electronics, actual or simulated,…
Britten “Peter Grimes”, Royal Opera House
Willy Decker’s 1994 production of Britten’s Peter Grimes has not worn well and pales now in the shadow of David Alden award-winning staging down the road at English National Opera. That, too, is due for revival. Decker’s…