Glyndebourne
The Tom Paine effect: Billy Budd in LewesTuesday, 01 June 2010When Billy Budd, too-innocent hero of Britten's opera by way of Melville's trouble-at-sea novella, bids farewell to the Rights o'Man, his superior officers prick up their ears at the implications of mutiny. It's a ship he hymns, but the connection... Read more... |
Così Fan Tutte, Glyndebourne Festival OperaSunday, 23 May 2010Cosi fan tutte’s arc of human experience is peculiarly effective when heard at Glyndebourne. With the mid-way picnic and wine in the setting sun, how much more aware are you of how easy it is as a day goes by to take leave of one’s senses and behave... Read more... |
Billy Budd, Glyndebourne Festival OperaThursday, 20 May 2010Silence. Near-darkness. Oozy weeds of orchestral strings twist in the mind of Edward Fairfax Vere (John Mark Ainsley), remembering the tragic events of 1797 when he was Captain of the HMS Indomitable. From that awe-inspiring start through to one of... Read more... |
Glyndebourne announces 2011 operasMonday, 17 May 2010It used to be a treat saved up for the end of the season, when a Christie of Glyndebourne would step before the curtain and announce the next year's operas. Now, like everyone else, Glyndebourne is jumping in quick with its plans, partly, I guess,... Read more... |
Bernstein on Broadway, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 08 April 2010One girl can hit a high C, and how; the other would surely melt the iciest-hearted in Rodgers and Hammerstein torchsongs. That's Roberta Alexander, on the evidence of her "Somewhere" last night. Together with classy lyric-coloratura Claron McFadden... Read more... |
Lawyers and LibrettiTuesday, 16 February 2010Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first: if a law firm is going to put on an opera, it should probably be Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury. Instead, having progressed through G&S’s Mikado and Pirates of Penzance in previous years,... Read more... |
Glyndebourne Opera, 2010 SeasonMonday, 25 January 2010Glyndebourne Opera's headline news this summer is its first-ever production of Britten's Billy Budd, to be directed by Donmar Warehouse director Michael Grandage in his own first venture into opera. A new Don Giovanni with Gerald Finley and a... Read more... |
Classical and Opera 2000-9: The Highs and LowsSunday, 27 December 2009No great new movements or radically transformational figures emerged to dominate classical music in the Noughties (not even him up there). Just one small nagging question bedevilled us: will the art form survive? Well, it has. What appeared to... Read more... |
A Merry Little Christmas Eve: theartsdesk recommendsThursday, 24 December 2009As we all have only one shopping day left, theartsdesk hopes to make Christmas Eve a little easier by offering a few enlightened recommendations. From our writers on new and classical music, opera and ballet, film and comedy, here is a list of CDs... Read more... |
- ‹‹
- 11 of 11