Bizet
Carmen, Welsh National Opera review - intermittent brilliance in a gloomy, unclear environmentSunday, 22 September 2019
You can love Carmen as much as you like (as much as I do, for instance), and still have a certain sympathy for the poor director who has to find something new to say about a work so anchored in a particular style and place. For all its musical and... Read more... |
The Firebird triple bill, Royal Ballet review - generous programme with Russian flavourThursday, 06 June 2019
You can’t accuse the Royal Ballet of lightweight programming: the three juicy pieces in the triple bill that opened at the Royal Opera House on Tuesday add up to a three-hour running time. That’s a lot of ballet for your buck. Whether they actually... Read more... |
L'heure espagnole, Mid Wales Opera review - Ravel goes like clockworkSaturday, 01 December 2018
Mid Wales Opera makes small-scale touring look fun – even when you suspect that, behind the scenes, it really isn’t. Barely 24 hours before this performance of their current production of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, and 11 dates into their current 16... Read more... |
The Unknown Soldier, Infra, Symphony in C, Royal Ballet, review - WWI ballet honours obscure tragedyWednesday, 21 November 2018
Pity fatigue is a risk for any artwork marking the anniversary of the 1918 Armistice. There can’t have been a man or woman in the Royal Opera House on Tuesday night who hadn’t already read, watched, or otherwise had their fill of the horrors of the... Read more... |
CBSO, Leleux, Birmingham Town Hall review - oboe extraordinaireThursday, 18 October 2018
There’s always a special atmosphere when the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra returns to Birmingham Town Hall, and it’s not just because of the building’s Greek Revival beauty: the gilded sunburst on the ceiling, or the towering, intricately... Read more... |
Carmen, Royal Opera review - clever concept, patchy singing, sexy dancingWednesday, 07 February 2018
Roll up, dépêchez-vous, for Carmen the - what? Circus? Vaudeville/music-hall/cabaret? Opéra-ballet, post-Rameau? Not, certainly, a show subject to the kind of updated realism which has been applied by just about every production other than the... Read more... |
Strictly goes to the PromsFriday, 22 July 2016
The glitterball has landed. After loaning out Proms queen Katie Derham to Strictly Come Dancing last series, where she hauled comedy pro Anton Du Beke all the way to the final, the Beeb’s Saturday-night juggernaut returned the favour by... Read more... |
10 Questions for Choreographer Matthew BourneMonday, 29 February 2016
Choreographers are not generally household names, but Matthew Bourne must come close. Not only does his company tour frequently and widely, with a Christmas run at Sadler’s Wells that many families regard as an essential fixture of their seasonal... Read more... |
Matthew Bourne's The Car Man, Sadler's WellsMonday, 20 July 2015
The original idea for the subtitle of this show, first made in 2000 and last seen at Sadler's Wells in 2007, was apparently "An Auto-Erotic Thriller". Yes, groan. But "erotic thriller" is a much straighter description of The Car Man than its actual... Read more... |
Carmen, Glyndebourne Festival OperaSunday, 24 May 2015
After Calixto Bieito’s radical reimaging of Carmen, which opened at English National Opera this week, David McVicar’s version at Glyndebourne was bound to seem conservative. But it turned out to be a comparison of apples and Seville oranges: Bieito... Read more... |
Carmen, English National OperaThursday, 21 May 2015
Crotch-grabbing, suggestions of oral and anal sex, stylized punching and kicking and other casual violence offer diminishing returns in your standard Calixto Bieito production. Sometimes a scene or two flashes focused brilliance, which only makes... Read more... |
Carmen, Mid Wales OperaFriday, 26 September 2014
It’s only a few days since I was remarking, à propos the WNO revival, that Carmen usually survives its interpreters. Now WNO’s humble neighbour, Mid Wales Opera, are proving the same point, but in a more positive spirit, by touring a new production... Read more... |
