Buxton International Festival are currently staging Verdi’s first, 1847 Macbeth, written for the Teatro della Pergola, Florence, a theatre similar in size to the Edwardian jewel-box of Buxton’s own Opera House…
An old man, hunched and stooping, clambers onto a stage. With an air of exhausted bitterness, he smears white paint onto his face, dons a jester’s horned cap, picks up…
Macbeth’s turbulent emotions and fierce storms make it ironically ideally suited to an English summer evening, as the clouds gather menacingly overhead (although I managed to stay dry at Iford).…
Sung with glorious musicality by a fine cast, there is no better chance to get really close to this extraordinary work than Fulham Opera’s clear, dynamic production. Director Fiona Williams’ 1980s…
From its very first chords, Buxton Festival’s Giovanna d’Arco had the shivers rolling down my spine. The curtain lifts on asymmetrical slanting black surfaces, glossy as a grand piano, forming…
Sung in beautifully clear English, Timothy Nelson’s small-scale production for Iford pulls the audience right inside Verdi’s vortex of emotions which keeps Ballo so gripping from beginning to end. Cricket whites,…
Fulham Opera’s Falstaff opens in a modern day pub: crisps are on the table, children are playing with mobile phones, and Falstaff himself is in tracksuit bottoms. It’s effectively a case…
Opera Loki’s vision for Rigoletto is strongly Victorian, with white painted faces, stage makeup and traditional, yet simple costumes. Directed by Rae Leaver, the production’s vision is that of “a ragged group…
Grange Park Opera’s sharp new monochrome production takes La traviata to poolside bars awash with cocktails and pills, where Violetta clutches onto reality with breathless desperation in Fifties Hollywood. Claire Rutter…
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…