Hogarth five ways at the Royal College of Music
Hogarth’s art is both irreverent and deadly serious; moralising, and worldly. It was no surprise to me, therefore, that today’s students at the Royal College of Music can find a…
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…
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…
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,…