Puccini
La bohème, Opera North review - still young at 32Monday, 20 October 2025
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... Read more... |
Tosca, Royal Opera review - Ailyn Pérez steps in as the most vivid of divasThursday, 25 September 2025
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... Read more... |
Tosca, Welsh National Opera review - a great company reduced to brillianceMonday, 15 September 2025
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... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Suor Angelica, LSO, Pappano review - earthly passion, heavenly griefWednesday, 20 August 2025
At first, I had my doubts about Puccini’s Suor Angelica in this concert performance at the Proms with Sir Antonio Pappano and his London Symphony Orchestra.With the big band (up to and including Richard Gowers’s organ) arrayed far behind the... Read more... |
Tosca, Clonter Opera review - beauty and integrity in miniatureWednesday, 23 July 2025
At first sight, it seemed that Clonter Opera’s decision to tackle Tosca this year might be a leap too far. Its once-a-year complete production, dedicated to nurturing emerging talent in the security of the Cheshire countryside, must always be an... Read more... |
That Bastard, Puccini!, Park Theatre review - inventive comic staging of the battle of the BohèmesThursday, 17 July 2025
Before Luigi Illica wrote the libretti for Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly, he had joined the composer as the librettist in a race to stage the first production of La Bohème. The race was against Ruggero Leoncavallo, a composer Illica had once... Read more... |
Il Trittico, Opéra de Paris review - reordered Puccini works for a phenomenal singing actorTuesday, 27 May 2025
So here in Paris, as at Salzburg in 2022, it’s no longer “Puccini’s Trittico” but “the Asmik Grigorian Trittico 3-1-2”. Which would be a very bad idea if she were a lazy diva like Anna Netrebko. But Grigorian works selflessly within wonderfully... Read more... |
La rondine, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - sumptuous orchestral playing in an underrated scoreWednesday, 11 December 2024
There are no battlement leaps or murderous vows, no pistols or daggers, not so much as a slight cough disturbs the serene plot of La rondine – the Puccini opera once labelled a “poor man’s Traviata”.And yet it’s all the better for it. This is a... Read more... |
Il trittico, Welsh National Opera review - welcome back (but not a good sign)Tuesday, 01 October 2024
This revival of Puccini’s Trittico a mere three and a half months after it was first shown on the Millennium Centre stage seems to bear witness to WNO’s current financial uncertainty. In effect, it reduces their 2024 repertory to half what it was a... Read more... |
Suor Angelica, English National Opera review - isolated one-acter lacks emotional inscapingSaturday, 28 September 2024
Puccini elevated the operatic tearjerker to tragic status in three masterpieces: La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Suor Angelica, rivalling the other two in intensity despite its brevity. Its special atmosphere works best as the central part of a... Read more... |
The Butterfly House, Clonter Opera review - Puccini in biographical briefsWednesday, 24 July 2024
For 50 years Clonter Opera, the song-on-the-farm project in rural Cheshire, has been encouraging would-be opera stars by giving them a chance to perform in undemanding conditions under the guidance of experienced professional.It all began with... Read more... |
Il Trittico, Welsh National Opera review - another triumph for a hard-pressed companyMonday, 17 June 2024
It’s somehow typical of the Welsh National Opera I’ve known now for the best part of sixty years that it should confront its current funding difficulties with brilliant productions of two of the more challenging works in the repertory.The company’s... Read more... |
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