Love, pity, horror: Jack Thorne’s new Woyzeck at The Old Vic
Jack Thorne’s explosive new Woyzeck brings Büchner’s unfinished working class tragedy to Berlin in 1981, with our hero a British Army private, trying to adjust to life on the German…
Monteverdi’s Poppea, Hampstead Garden Opera
If you turned on BBC Radio 3 for more than 20 mins over the weekend, you might have noticed that we are joyously celebrating the 450th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi,…
Cauliflower power: Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Donmar Warehouse
How do you get, keep and wield power? What do you use it for, and why? And, if you will stop at nothing, how can the rest of society stop…
Snog, Marry, Avoid: Romeo and Juliet, The Globe, SE1
Daniel Kramer’s production of Romeo and Juliet for The Globe’s ‘Summer of Love’ season opens with a powerful visual image: two women in labour, wheeled onto the stage on…
Fresh, funny, frivolous: Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience from English Touring Opera
A joyous explosion of tuneful Victorian satire provides an unlikely, yet ideal, contrast to English Touring Opera‘s Tosca as their Patience tours the UK in this finely-cast, period-perfect rendition. Director Liam…
Mixed Bach: Bach Reconstructed from The Academy of Ancient Music
The more concerts you experience, the more grows your confidence in being able to pick a good one. And this promised to be good, given the exceptional skill of the…
Heartfelt heroics: a triumphant Siegfried from Saffron Opera Group
Since their affecting Das Rheingold and resplendent Die Walküre in 2016, the Saffron Opera Group’s Ring Cycle has become something of a talking point in Wagnerian circles. Using a local orchestra, but attracting…
Baroque this Christmas: La Notte di Natale with Spiritato! and Cambridge Early Music
A Christmas concert with a difference – and, thanks to superb playing from Spiritato!, an immensely enjoyable one. Cambridge Early Music offered a sumptuous feast of Italian Baroque music as their Christmas…
Melodic, comic, colonial: Franz von Suppé’s A Trip to Africa
A sense of real excitement surrounded the revival (and UK premiere) of Franz von Suppé’s A Trip to Africa at the Maddermarket Theatre, the culmination of several years of work…
Adventure on the opera horizon: Preview of Franz von Suppé’s A Trip to Africa
Any great opera experience is, to some extent, a process of discovery. Whether I find myself reimagining a familiar piece thanks to incisive direction, noticing an aria afresh due to…