fri 07/02/2025

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

Medea, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Barbican review - lacerating contemporary tragedy

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Bernheim, Finley, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - top Italians in second gear

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A Midsummer Night's Dream, Guildhall School review - earthy, energetic Britten

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A Previn treasury

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Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Ádám Fischer, Barbican review - ferocious Mahler 9 without inscape

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Gently Down the Stream, Park Theatre review - gay history sifted for compact drama

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Elīna Garanča, Malcolm Martineau, Wigmore Hall review - towards transcendence

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Ek, CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - epics of sea and land

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Schumann Series 3 & 4, LSO, Gardiner, Barbican review - upstanding brilliance

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The Good Person of Szechwan, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Barbican review - slick Russian Brecht

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Rachvelishvili, ROH Orchestra, Pappano, Royal Opera House review - perfect night and day

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Katya Kabanova, Royal Opera review - inner torment incarnate

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Lupu, Philharmonia, Järvi, RFH review - concerto magical in parts, symphony stupendous

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Bach B minor Mass, BBCSO, Butt, Barbican review - large-scale losses and a few gains

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Die Walküre, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - love shines out

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Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kings Place review - a kaleidoscope of vibrant sound and vision

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

It followed some...

Elektra, Duke of York's Theatre review - Brie Larson...

We live in tragic times given over to cataclysmic events that require outsized emotions in return. That may be one reason to account for the...

Widmann, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - razor-sharp attack...

Perhaps all great music counterpoints and comments on the times, but Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra have been searingly...

Bring Them Down review - ramming it home in the west of Irel...

“You know what they say: where there’s livestock, there’s dead stock,” says Jack (a brilliant Barry Keoghan). Never a truer word. There’s an awful...

Album: Rats on Rafts - Deep Below

Deep Below’s first track is titled “Hibernation.” “A winter breeze blows through my mind,” intones a colourless, dispirited male voice....

First Person: writer Lauren Mooney on bringing bodies togeth...

It started with a Guardian long-read. I’m ashamed to admit it since so many shows could say the same, but that was the beginning.

It was the...

The Marriage of Figaro, English National Opera review - long...

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...

September 5 review - gripping real-life thriller

There’s a common understanding about journalists, especially ones at the top of their game, that they’re flying by the seat of their pants –...

Oedipus, Old Vic review - disappointing leads in a productio...

The opening scene of the Old Vic’s Oedipus is dominated by a giant backdrop of a skull-like face, eyes shut and rock-like. It...

Album: Hifi Sean & David McAlmont - Twilight

It was only six months ago that Hifi Sean and David McAlmont released their Daylight album. A fine disc of summery dance pop that was...