Mozart
The Marriage of Figaro, Welsh National Opera review - no concessions and no holds barredSaturday, 08 February 2025
Drained as they are at present of crucial funds, WNO are managing to put on only two operas this spring, and spaced out to the point where it could hardly be called a season. For their new Peter Grimes we must wait till April. Meanwhile we can... Read more... |
The Marriage of Figaro, English National Opera review - long on laughs, short on kerb appealThursday, 06 February 2025
Who’s in and who’s not – on the secret, the joke, the relationship, the family, the club? That’s the fulcrum of Joe Hill-Gibbins’ ingeniously simple Figaro for English National Opera. A white box and a row of doors supply the only set to speak of... Read more... |
Gigashvili, Hallé, Cox, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - beauty and style from a winning pianistFriday, 24 January 2025
There was excellent music making in the Hallé concert in Manchester last night, and there was self-admitted “noise”. Briefly, the two coincided in one work.The outstanding music making of the evening came from pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, winner of... Read more... |
First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertosWednesday, 13 November 2024
One former teacher of mine said of their recording of the Mozart horn concertos “I’m not really sure why I bothered”. Said recording is excellent, so they were probably just being excessively modest. Nevertheless, every new version of these pieces... Read more... |
First Person: Bob Riley on Manchester Camerata's championship of a Centre of Excellence for Music and DementiaThursday, 24 October 2024
In May, it was announced that Greater Manchester was to become the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia, hosted by Manchester Camerata.The Centre is an incredible opportunity and the result of the vision and energy of many people,... Read more... |
Le nozze di Figaro, The Mozartists, Page, Cadogan Hall review - cogency, intelligence and reverenceWednesday, 23 October 2024
Ten years ago, Ian Page launched his and the Mozartists’ (then Classical Opera’s) remarkable endeavour to play music by WA Mozart 250 years after it was written, starting with a programme of material from 1765 by eight-year-old Mozart, and his... Read more... |
The Marrriage of Figaro, Opera Project, Tobacco Factory, Bristol review - small is beautiful indeedMonday, 07 October 2024
The Marriage of Figaro is undoubtedly one of the greatest operas ever written. Mozart’s masterpiece is a display of musical perfection that never ceases to touch the heart and stimulate the musical mind.This gripping and enormously entertaining tale... Read more... |
The Magic Flute, Opera North review - a fresh vision of Mozart’s masterpieceSaturday, 28 September 2024
In an autumn season of three revivals, Opera North begin by inviting James Brining, artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, to oversee his own production from five years ago of Mozart and Emanual Schikaneder’s extraordinary musical play. It’s the... Read more... |
Bavouzet, Nemecz, McLachlan, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - finish line of a remarkable marathonSaturday, 21 September 2024
“Mozart, made in Manchester”, the project to perform and record an edition of the piano concertos plus all the opera overtures, seemed a distant destination and an unlikely marathon when Manchester Camerata embarked on it eight years ago.But with... Read more... |
Le nozze di Figaro, Komische Oper Berlin, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - great singing wastedTuesday, 20 August 2024
I’m all in favour of the EIF taking artistic risks, and of them bringing a high-prestige international production to Edinburgh. This Marriage of Figaro from Berlin’s Komische Oper is both of those things, because it is the first production by Kirill... Read more... |
Prom 36, McGill, BBCSSO, New review - summery Shakespearean mummerySaturday, 17 August 2024
My three Proms so far this year have all featured regional BBC orchestras conducted by women, all excellent, and it surely reflects well on the Proms management that they have done so much to address this gender imbalance in recent years. In last... Read more... |
Le nozze di Figaro, Garsington Opera review - fine-tuned telling it as it isSaturday, 29 June 2024
“Tradition is sloppiness,” Mahler the opera conductor is credited with saying. But in the case of old master John Cox’s long-serving Garsington production of the greatest of operatic comedes, not if it’s refreshed with the subtlest insights in to... Read more... |
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