fri 07/11/2025

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

Proms at...Cadogan Hall 1, Perianes, Calidore String Quartet review - mysteries and revelations

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Prom 3, BBC Young Musician at 40 review - multi-layered birthday cake

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Isabeau, Opera Holland Park review - Mascagni's lumpy Godiva-ride rarity

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theartsdesk at the East Neuk Festival 2018 - Bach as bedrock

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Pelléas et Mélisande, Glyndebourne review - frigid metatheatre

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Anthony Marwood and Friends, Peasmarsh Festival - elegies in a country church

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The Turn of the Screw, ENO, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - one dimension, not four

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Kiss Me, Kate, Opera North, London Coliseum review - Cole Porter delivered in true company style

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theartsdesk at Leipzig's Blüthner Piano Factory - a perfect family business

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Julius Caesar, BBC Four review - electrifying TV launch of all-women Shakespeare trilogy

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Mamzer Bastard, Royal Opera, Hackney Empire review - inert Hasidic music-drama

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theartsdesk at the Setúbal Music Festival 2018: youth leads the way

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Lohengrin, Royal Opera review - swan mystery musically illuminated

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La finta semplice, Classical Opera, QEH review - consummate musicianship stokes early Mozart

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Capriccio, Garsington Opera review - a classy evening with words and music

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Bavarian State Orchestra, Kirill Petrenko, Barbican review - Mahler's Seventh as dance suite

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What defines a life? Money and success? Happiness? Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams employs a narrator, much as Terrence Malick’s...

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It’s weird, right? We’ve somehow stumbled into a world where, for all we’re told that algorithms homogenise music, actually more people than ever...

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“Rebellion begins with a breath,” an opening aphorism declares in this first film recounting Palestine’s 1936-39 Arab Revolt, long historically...

Relay review - the method man

Ash (Riz Ahmed) is one of cinema’s capable men, the kind of monastically devoted pro made to be a hitman or getaway driver. David Fincher’s ...