Fool for love: Handel’s Orlando at the Barbican
Some operas are just begging for a strapline: and if Orlando had one, it would surely be “Dorinda’s Dreadful Day”. First, Dorinda is plagued by doubts that the handsome African prince…
A huge slice of Handel: Tamerlano, Il Pomo d’Oro, Barbican
It is just possible that Il Gran Tamerlano (music by A. Scarlatti) might have been the first opera Handel saw in Italy. Handel would have recently arrived in Florence in…
The power of love: Between Worlds, ENO /Barbican
A new co-commissioned production from English National Opera and the Barbican sees Tansy Davies tackle the most harrrowing of modern subjects: 9/11. The opera itself becomes a ritual, an act…
Not quite heroic: Handel’s Hercules at the Barbican
The English Concert play beautifully, the chorus is in superb voice, but a disjointed cast of unconvincing singers mean Hercules never reaches heroic heights. Adapting Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, Handel’s librettist…
Once bitten, twice intrigued: Shchedrin’s The Left-Hander (Levsha)
Shchedrin’s opera is itself, charmingly, a present: the score is dedicated to Valery Gergiev for his 60th birthday, and Shchedrin has filled it with musical references to favourite composers, making…
Self-sacrifice, then and now: Handel’s Theodora at the Barbican
Despite Nietzsche’s best efforts, God is not dead. Whether He is alive, beyond existence or merely too busy with the weather these days, there is no doubt that our world…