East O’The Sun, West O’The Moon at Tête à Tête
Gleaming with creativity and humour, this beautiful minimalist production by workshOPERA for the Tête à Tête Festival at Central St Martins will charm audiences of all ages, and comes thoroughly…
Bonkers, busy Bizet: Pop Up Opera’s Le docteur Miracle
Bizet’s Le docteur Miracle is no serious opera: it is, by contrast, frivolous in the extreme. Uniquely among operettas, it contains a (beautifully-written) quartet in praise of an omelette – which turns out…
If you go down to the Rhine today: Das Rheingold at Fulham Opera
Stripped back, bare, minimalist: not epithets you’d automatically apply to Wagner, the man who expects you to give over four days of your life to him every time you experience Der…
Slow-motion memories: Remember Me
Claudia Molitor‘s elegant and contemplative work, more performance art than opera, is charming and original – with particularly clever and beautiful design details – yet ultimately frustrating. Click here to…
Sob-along-a-Verdi: OperaUpClose’s La Traviata
La Traviata has always been up close and personal. Its 1853 première was actually a critical failure, due to a revolutionary decision by Piave, Verdi’s librettist, to give the opera…
The Inaugural Clapham Opera Festival
On Friday 4th October, the inaugural Clapham Opera Festival opened with dazzling youthful vigour at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Narbonne Avenue. A carefully selected programme of Bel…
Strawberry fields forever: OperaUpClose’s Two Caravans at the King’s Head Theatre
Based on Marina Lewycka‘s 2007 novel of the same name, Two Caravans takes us into the rough, sad but somehow amusing world of Ukrainian strawberry-pickers in Kent, and reflects back some uncomfortable…
Back to the grindstone: The Miller’s Wife at Grimeborn
“The windmill goes round and round… It is a simple life”. The Miller‘s Wife opens, and almost closes, with a similar scene: the miller’s wife in the garden of the mill, while…
Dive in: Dart’s Love at Tête à Tête
A glorious, desperate love story with a dark twist, set in and starring a memorable river created by a trio of fabulous sopranos, Dart’s Love is a treat for the eyes and…
Don’t sleep now: Black Sand at Tête à Tête
What began as an operetta at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama has now developed into a full opera for the Tête à Tête opera festival at Riverside Studios,…