wed 29/10/2025

Opera Reviews

La bohème, Opera North review - still young at 32

Robert Beale

Phyllida Lloyd’s production of La Bohème for Opera North is over 32 years old but still feels young. And for its audiences it still has the ability to capture – as the opera is designed to – the experience of youthful love and separation, its ecstasy and its heartbreak.

Read more...

Albert Herring, English National Opera review - a great comedy with depths fully realised

David Nice

Britten’s Albert Herring is one of the great 20th century comic operas; only Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest draw such whole-hearted laughter. If it’s never been performed in the London Coliseum before, that’s because it’s a chamber opera with a 14-piece ensemble in the pit. This clever compromise shouldn’t be going to Lowry, Salford for its third and fourth performances but touring the country in much smaller houses.

Read more...

Carmen, English National Opera review - not quite dangerous

David Nice

“Safe” is a word used far too often in ENO’s bizarre new version of a programme, full of uncredited articles, at least two of which look as if they’re AI generated. Everything intimacy director Haruko Karoda, Niamh O’Sullivan (Carmen) and John Findon (Don José) say makes sense, but the context is worrying. What’s a Carmen without real danger? Revival director Jamie Manton has toned down Calixto Bieito’s once-semi-controversal production, and it shows.

Read more...

Giustino, Linbury Theatre review - a stylish account of a slight opera

alexandra Coghlan

It’s a good year to be Handel-lover. No sooner have summer runs of Rodelinda (Garsington) and Saul (Glyndebourne) finished than we’re into autumn and Opera North’s Susanna, Giustino at the Royal Opera’s Linbury Theatre, with Ariodante still to come on the main stage.

Read more...

Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel oratorio

Robert Beale

Turning Handel oratorio into opera can be a rewarding enterprise. Charles Edwards’ presentation of Joshua, over 15 years ago, for instance, was very effective for Opera North in using projection as well as costume design to make a parallel of the biblical story with Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. And the score offered some vintage material, including the original version of “See the conquering hero comes” and “O had I Jubal’s lyre”.

Read more...

Ariodante, Opéra Garnier, Paris review - a blast of Baroque beauty

mark Kidel

The revival of Robert Carsen’s production of Handel’s Ariodante at the Opéra Garnier in Paris under the direction of Raphaël Pichon, with his Ensemble Pygmalion and a top-notch cast, is well worth a trip to Paris. At over four hours, it might seem daunting, but the show is as close to perfection as opera can be, bursting with vitality and emotion, and never feels a second too long.

Read more...

Cinderella/La Cenerentola, English National Opera review - the truth behind the tinsel

Boyd Tonkin

When you go to the prince’s ball, would you prefer a night of sobriety or excess? Julia Burbach’s new production of Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola) for English National Opera frankly errs on the side of theatrical over-indulgence.

Read more...

Tosca, Royal Opera review - Ailyn Pérez steps in as the most vivid of divas

David Nice

Forget Anna Netrebko, if you ever gave the Russian Scarpia’s former cultural ambassador much thought (theartsdesk wouldn’t). It should be uphill from now on as Aleksandra Kurzak takes over the role of a diva out of her depth. Last night, though, she was unwell, and the role was taken by Ailyn Pérez, a lyric soprano who knows how to pull out all the right stops and whose dramatic truth complemented Oliver Mears’ production to perfection, presumably on little rehearsal time.

Read more...

Tosca, Welsh National Opera review - a great company reduced to brilliance

stephen Walsh

So it’s come to this: WNO’s autumn season reduced to two operas, a Tosca borrowed from Opera North and a revival of their own Candide from two years back; then two next spring. a revival of their Valleys saga Blaze of Glory (about mine closures and singers who won’t give up) and a new Flying Dutchman.

Read more...

BBC Proms: The Marriage of Figaro, Glyndebourne Festival review - merriment and menace

Boyd Tonkin

One door closes, and another one opens. A lot. It’s extraordinary what value those two simple additions to the Royal Albert Hall stage lent to Glyndebourne’s performance of The Marriage of Figaro at the Proms.

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Hedda, Orange Tree Theatre review - a monument reimagined, p...

Hedda Gabler is a Hollywood star of The Golden Age – or rather, she was. She walked off the set of two movies into a five-film...

theartsdesk Q&A: director Kelly Reichardt on 'The M...

Kelly Reichardt has a thing about losers. You often see them in her films. It's the failure of American individualism that concerns her...

Emma Doran, Leicester Square Theatre review - domestic life...

The Irish diaspora in London were out in force for Emma Doran’s appearance at Leicester Square Theatre. Her online work and her...

Lily Allen's 'West End Girl' offers a bloody,...

Even in our garish online age, most celebrities and...

The Assembled Parties, Hampstead review - a rarity, a well-m...

There’s a line in the late Richard Greenberg’s 2013 play that refers to a recently elected showbiz type turned politician who sports...

theartsdesk Q&A: director Stefano Sollima on the relevan...

In his celebrated TV-series Gomorrah (based on the bestseller of the same name by author Roberto Saviano) Italian director...

Blu-ray: Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy is a road movie with a...

Music Reissues Weekly: Joe Meek - A Curious Mind

A curious mind, indeed. Outer space, and what may be there. Communicating with those in the hereafter. Spooks, vampires and other horror film...