sun 03/08/2025

Opera Galleries

'I'm the photographer. Any nudity? Any fighting?'

Bill Knight

We are sitting in the lobby of the National Theatre in the early afternoon waiting for the photocall for Dara to begin. Six or seven photographers, one woman, all dressed in jeans and dark jackets with large camera bags, some on wheels. There is not much conversation. As a relative newcomer I don't normally speak, but on this occasion I venture a remark.

“I have seen this play.”

After a pause one of the company says, “You're keen.”

Read more...

Gallery: Stars of the Glyndebourne Chorus

theartsdesk

Its constituent parts come in all sizes, tall and small, compact or full-bodied, and span the ages. But put them all together and an operatic chorus is a vast but single organism that sings – and moves – as one. The current Glyndebourne Chorus consists of 15 sopranos, 12 mezzos, 13 tenors and 18 basses. The longest-serving member has been singing with the Chorus for 18 years, but there is an annual intake from music colleges which will include several aspiring soloists.

Read more...

Performers: A Season in Photographs

theartsdesk

A stage performance in any art form communicates through sound and motion. A photographer's task is to capture the dramatic experience in the silence and stillness of the 2D image. In the worlds of ballet and opera, none does it with more commitment to truth and drama than the great Laurie Lewis. To mark the end of the 2012-13 season, we present 25 images selected by the photographer exclusively for theartsdesk.

Read more...

Production Gallery: The Royal Opera's La Fille Du Régiment

theartsdesk

Click on a picture for full view and to enter slideshow

  1. Dessay (Marie) and Corbelli (Sulpice)
  2. Dessay (Marie) and Florez (Tonio)
  3. Florez (Tonio)
  4. Dessay (Marie) and the Vingt-et-unième
  5. Dessay (Marie) and the Vingt-et-unième
  6. Dessay (Marie), Dawn French (Duchesse de Crackentorp)
  7. Dessay (Marie) and Florez (Tonio)

[bg|/OPERA/ismene_brown/fille_du_regiment]

Read more...

Production Gallery: Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser at the Royal Opera House

Jasper Rees Adultery alla Rossini: Il turco in Italia stars Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Selim and Aleksandra Kurzak as Fiorilla

As co-directors of opera, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser's fidelity to each other's artistic vision is one thing. Their devotion to Rossini is also relatively unusual. Their loyalty to and faith in their designers is almost as deep. In this ravishing set of photographs, memorialising five of their productions at the Royal Opera House, the set designs are all by Christian Fenouillat, costume designs are by Agostino Cavalca and lighting is by Christophe Forey. Click on the images to view them...

Read more...

Design gallery: The Tsarina's Slippers, Royal Opera

Ismene Brown

A new production by The Royal Opera of Tchaikovsky's The Tsarina's Slippers opens on Friday at Covent Garden, directed by Francesca Zambello, designed by Mikhail Mokrov and Tatiana Noginova, and with an all-Russian cast of principals conducted by Alexandr Polianichko.

Read more...

Production gallery: Duke Bluebeard's Castle, ENO

theartsdesk

English National Opera's new production of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle is photographed here by Johan Persson. Directed by Daniel Kramer, designed by Giles Cadle and lit by Peter Mumford, it updates Charles Perrault's 1697 fairytale to a horrific modern reality. Clive Bayley and Michaela Martens sing Duke Bluebeard and Judith. See Ismene Brown's review.

Read more...

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Music Reissues Weekly: Chip Shop Pop - The Sound of Denmark...

One of the more interesting tracks on Paul Weller’s fascinating new cover versions album Find El Dorado is his interpretation of “When...

theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - Passion in the Ca...

“Powerful, Timeless, Inspiring” it says on the front cover of the programme-book for this year’s supposedly 297th Three Choirs Festival at...

Natalia Ginzburg: The City and the House review - a dying ar...

Many readers and writers think of epistolary novels as old-fashioned, just as letter writing itself can seem a bit quaint nowadays. The genre...

Album: Mansur Brown - Rihla

I like to think I’m open to most things, but even so I never thought that I’d be getting an education in prog metal in the summer of 2025. Let...

BBC Proms: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kaljuste rev...

Arvo Pärt was into his 40s before he made had his Big Musical Idea: simplicity. He has spent the subsequent half-century pursuing this ideal,...

Top Hat, Chichester Festival Theatre review - top spectacle...

After 76 years, you’d have thought they could’ve come up with a better story! Okay, that’s a cheap jibe and, given the elusive...

Late Shift review - life and death in an understaffed Swiss...

Floria (the superb Leonie Benesch: The Crown; The Teachers’ Lounge; September 5) is a nurse, working the severely understaffed...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Alright Sunshine / K Mak at t...

Alright Sunshine, Pleasance Dome ...

The Naked Gun review - farce, slapstick and crass stupidity

The original Naked Gun series (spun off from the Police Squad! TV show) brought reliable belly-laughs to the Eighties and...