rowenasmith
Scottish Opera Ainadamar review – vibrant and deft production brings Golijov’s opera to the UK
Deborah Colker’s staging of the Argentinian composer’s tale of the poet Lorca is clever and effective, with Scottish Opera’s orchestra capturing the musical colours and the score’s collage of influences
Rowena Smith
04, Nov, 2022 @10:33 AM
SCO/Emelyanychev/Benedetti review – MacMillan’s violin concerto discomfits and intrigues
James MacMillan’s evocative Second Violin Concerto was premiered by Nicola Benedetti and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a committed and accomplished performance
Rowena Smith
30, Sep, 2022 @3:49 PM
Thérèse review – deliciously over-the-top drama puts the soap into opera
Scottish Opera’s semi-staged performance of Massenet’s opera about a love triangle during the French Revolution is delightful - full of passionate outbursts and high emotion
Rowena Smith
12, Sep, 2022 @7:21 PM
Philadelphia Orch/Nézet-Séguin review – Florence Price has a persuasive advocate
Yannick Nézet-Séguin ensured that Price’s First Symphony was worth hearing, and there was much to admire in Lisa Batiashvili’s Szymanowski
Rowena Smith
29, Aug, 2022 @10:40 AM
Bergen Phil/Gardner/Ólafsson review – crowd-pleasing but never dangerous
Edward Gardner led the orchestra in a controlled performance, with an exquisite but tentative Víkingur Ólafsson on piano
Rowena Smith
16, Aug, 2022 @12:17 PM
Candide review – Voltaire and Bernstein enter the social media era
A brilliantly reimagined and boldly immersive promenade performance, complete with flashmob choir, plays to the strengths of Leonard Bernstein’s witty operetta
Rowena Smith
14, Aug, 2022 @2:32 PM
The Bridge festival opening night review – massed strings span 900 years of music
More than 50 virtuoso string players from across Europe played works from the very old to the brand new in an evening with plenty to admire but which fell short of its bold concept
Rowena Smith
22, Apr, 2022 @1:11 PM
The Miserly Knight/Mavra review – Russian opera double-bill sees Scottish Opera shine
The vocal performances are excellent but it’s Scottish Opera’s orchestra which is the real star of this staging of two contrasting operas based on works by Pushkin
Rowena Smith
21, Mar, 2022 @12:05 PM
A Midsummer Night’s Dream review – Scottish Opera triumphs with nightmarish take on Britten
Staged as a dystopian psychodrama, this sure-footed production is played with beautifully delineated detail
Rowena Smith
03, Mar, 2022 @1:03 PM
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/MacMillan review – Capperauld’s dance of death has style but lacks substance
Jay Capperauld’s macabre new work – Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death – is full of orchestral colour but felt unresolved. The premiere was preceded by serene performances of Wagner and Ives
Rowena Smith
12, Nov, 2021 @1:44 PM
The Gondoliers review – a picture-postcard Gilbert and Sullivan from Scottish Opera
The company celebrated its return to the Theatre Royal with some good old-fashioned – if not downright antiquated – fun and frivolity
Rowena Smith
17, Oct, 2021 @12:41 PM
Dunedin Consort review – Monteverdi up close and personal
The secular side of the composer’s output was the focus of this imaginative and vivid festival programme
Rowena Smith
17, Sep, 2021 @9:11 AM
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