tue 08/04/2025

David Nice

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Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

Alcina, Royal Opera review - sharp stage magic, mist over the pit

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The Yeomen of the Guard, English National Opera review - half-good shot at an unusual G&S misalliance

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Britten Weekend, Snape review - diverse songs to mostly great poetry overshadow a problem opera

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theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera - the bad, the good and the glorious

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Vaughan Williams Anniversary Concert, Wigmore Hall review - choices, choices

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La bohème, Glyndebourne Tour review - Death and the Parisienne doing the rounds

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Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller, Barbican review - a feast of sagas and psychic masterpieces

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Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall review - power and grace in elegies and monuments

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Only an Octave Apart, Wilton's Music Hall review - instant charm, infinite variety

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Tosca, English National Opera review - a tale of two eras

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Purcell's Playhouse, Bevan, Barokksolistene, Eike, Purcell Room review - kaleidoscopic delights

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Aida, Royal Opera review - dour but disciplined

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Gurrelieder, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - everything in place, but still something’s missing

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theartsdesk at Musikfest Berlin - orchestral and choral rainbows around the clock

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Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall review - Brahms the chameleon

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BBC Proms 2022 - silence after Mass

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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

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Emotions run high at WNO these days. When the company’s co-...

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Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass

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Music Reissues Weekly: Ibex Band - Stereo Instrumental Music

Stereo Instrumental Music was recorded in July 1976 and originally issued only on cassette. The release was organised by...

Blu-ray: Yojimbo / Sanjuro

Akira Kurosawa described his 1961 hit Yojimbo as a tale of “rivalry on both sides, and both sides are equally bad… we are weakly caught...

Levit, Sternath, Wigmore Hall review - pushing the boundarie...

Igor Levit is a master of the unorthodox marathon, one he was happy to share last night with 24-year-old Austrian Lukas Sternath, his student in...

Rhinoceros, Almeida Theatre review - joyously absurd and abs...

Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today’s world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you can satirize daily life by...