mon 22/09/2025

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

Best of 2022: Classical music concerts

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Best of 2022: Opera

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theartsdesk in Brno - a visionary at home in his ‘Moravian Bayreuth’

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Pavel Kolesnikov, Wigmore Hall review - conjuring spirits from solstitial darkness

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Bach Christmas Oratorio, Monteverdi Choir, EBS, Gardiner, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - soul-piercing song and dance

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Don Pasquale, Irish National Opera review - stock comedy shines at close quarters

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Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - a performance to make the heart beat faster

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It’s a Wonderful Life, English National Opera review - Capra’s sharp-edged sentiment smothered in endless schmaltz

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Watts, Williams, The Bach Choir, Philharmonia, Hill, RFH review - Vaughan Williams, from decadence to metaphysics

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Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Wigmore Hall review - nine haute cuisine courses, twelve happy musicians

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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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'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
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Between bouts of that far from shabby, still shocking masterpiece Tosca, Royal Opera music director Jakub Hrůša ...

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Why are the Irish such good storytellers? The historical perspective is that the oral tradition goes way, way back, allied to the gift of the gab...

Hadelich, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Man...

Concerts need to have themes, it seems, today, and the BBC Philharmonic’s publicity suggested two contrasting ideas for the opening of its 2025-26...

Album: Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Plays Mulatu

The tour by the 81-year-old Mulatu Astatke which is currently under way and this album seem to be giving off different...

Music Reissues Weekly: Sly and the Family Stone - The First...

The remarkable The First Family: Live At Winchester Cathedral 1967 represents the first-ever release of a previously...

Monteverdi Choir, ORR, Heras-Casado, St Martin-in-the-Fields...

35 years ago, persona-now-non-grata John Eliot Gardiner revealed how performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito...

Dracula, Lyric Hammersmith review - hit-and-miss recasting o...

If a classic story is going to be told for the umpteenth time, there is a good bet it will come with a novel spin on it. So it proves...