Opera Holland Park

Acis and Galatea review – a hectic take on Handel’s perfectly formed confection

The pared down City of London Sinfonia are exquisite and the main singers splendid – although the overworked ensemble hop around, draining the work of sincerity

Clive Paget

21, Jul, 2024 @11:26 AM

The week in classical: Il segreto di Susanna/Pagliacci; Spring Snow; Giorgi Gigashvili – review

A double bill of jealous minds moves from visceral tragedy to the joyfully comic, while Schubert and kabuki find surprising parallels

Stephen Pritchard

20, Jul, 2024 @12:00 PM

Il Segreto di Susanna/Pagliacci review – a double whammy of sexual jealousy

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s barbed 1909 comedy Il Segreto di Susanna feels like a Noël Coward play set to music, while Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is a powerful story of a woman’s murder by an abusive partner

Tim Ashley

18, Jul, 2024 @10:42 AM

Edgar review – Puccini was right, his biggest flop is a dud

The composer himself wrote off his second opera. In this OHP semi-staging, there are sumptuous musical moments but the major plot problems are baked in

Flora Willson

03, Jul, 2024 @12:08 PM

The week in classical: Andrea Chénier; The Barber of Seville review – brio and ballistic B-flats

Antonio Pappano bows out with a blazing performance of Giordano’s red-blooded opera, while a fine cast brings out the vitality of Rossini’s classic in spite of the weather

Peter Conrad

08, Jun, 2024 @12:00 PM

The Barber of Seville review – Rossini’s opera gets a British Victoriana makeover

Cecilia Stinton injects a whiff of EM Forster’s A Room With a View to the comic masterpiece’s well-worn plot

Erica Jeal

05, Jun, 2024 @11:58 AM

The week in classical: Platée; Tosca review – a reality TV winner and shades of Callas

Breathless action and Rameau’s fizzing score ignite in Louisa Muller’s ingenious take on French baroque, while Stephen Barlow’s 60s-set Puccini sparkles in a long-overdue revival

Stephen Pritchard

01, Jun, 2024 @12:00 PM

Keel Watson obituary

Versatile opera singer who could move effortlessly between Wagner and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Barry Millington

15, Nov, 2023 @4:05 PM

Ruddigore review – straight staging leaves G&S’s satire and silliness in

It’s a stretch to make this slight 19th-century satire speak to a modern audience, and tremendous singing is not enough to make it do so here

Flora Willson

10, Aug, 2023 @12:11 PM

The week in classical: Itch; Semele; Prom 16: Hallé/Elder – review

Jonathan Dove transforms Simon Mayo’s ripping yarn into an exhilarating instant classic; it’s Thebes by way of Port Talbot in Adele Thomas’s Glyndebourne debut; and all hail the Hallé

Stephen Pritchard

29, Jul, 2023 @11:30 AM

La Bohème review – fine performances but Puccini is swamped by busy staging

Although musically very strong and with Katie Bird a lovely Mimi, Natascha Metherell’s relocation of Puccini’s bohemians to a 1950s film studio brings as many distractions as it does insights

Tim Ashley

20, Jul, 2023 @1:23 PM