Hackmann/Boggess/Sinfonia of London/Wilson(Chandos, two CDs)John Wilson's scrupulously prepared recording gives us exactly what the audience would have heard on the musical's opening night i…
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London Although well sung and staged, Lliam Paterson's score and Pamela Carter's text fail to make a substantial opera out of this Don DeLillo short stor…
Britten Studio, Snape, SuffolkPart two of Harrison Birtwistle's Greek myth double bill lacks The Corridor's dramatic impact, but performers and production are exceptional and beautifully nua…
Coliseum, LondonThe comic business is deftly done, and the cast is a good one " with Claudia Boyle a standout as Mabel " but director Mike Leigh offers few insights or surprises in his opera…
King's theatre, EdinburghWith its unique instruments and otherworldly rituals, Harry Partch's opera is strange, beautiful and utterly compelling Harry Partch how Heiner Goebbels bought Del…
Festival theatre, Edinburgh Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera make Berlioz's magnificent opera seem routine Continue reading...
Spence/Stout/Gadd/Suart/Opie/Thomas/Evans/Wyn-Rogers/BBC NOW & Chorus/Macdonald(Chandos, two CDs)Even at the height of their success together, Arthur Sullivan's partnership with WS Gilbert w…
Parabola Arts Centre, CheltenhamFour years ago, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group introduced David Sawer's Rumpelstiltskin, which he designated a ballet, but defied precise categorisation.…
Seven Wagner operas are performed at the Proms, Aldeburgh and Covent Garden celebrate the Benjamin Britten centenary and Glyndebourne goes for French baroqueSongs from the Same EarthNine wor…
Barbican, LondonThough its origins go back more than a decade earlier to a talk he gave in New York, John Cage's Lecture on Nothing was included in his first and most important collection of…
Minerva, ChichesterIt was Olivier's legendary production of this play 50 years ago that put the new Chichester theatre on the map, and there are times when Jeremy Herrin's production seems l…
Royal Opera House, LondonInternational opera houses such as Covent Garden need fail-safe productions of works that feature in most seasons, in which multiple casts can be accommodated as unf…
Coliseum, LondonNico Muhly's first opera may have its origins in a true story from Manchester in 2003, but, as presented in Craig Lucas's libretto, Two Boys seems far removed from any kind o…
Barbican, LondonIf anyone can claim a tradition of performing Candide, it is surely the London Symphony Orchestra. It was with the LSO and its Chorus that Leonard Bernstein conducted hi…
Coliseum, LondonAt first sight it seems really perverse to invite Terry Gilliam to cut his teeth as an opera director on a work that isn't really an opera at all.Berlioz labelled it a "drama…
Symphony Hall, BirminghamPerhaps Klaus Obermaier's digitised presentation of Stravinsky's ballet seemed more innovative in 2007 than it does now that 3D movies have become commonplace. Oberm…
A new music-theatre piece celebrates the life of the novelist Anaïs Nin, while the CBSO completes its Mahler cycle with Das Lied von der Erde under the baton of Simon RattleAnaïs NinLo…
Royal Academy of Music, LondonMore than a decade after saying he had written his final theatre piece, the chance to compose a work for and about students has lured Peter Maxwell Davies back …
Coliseum, LondonSince it was created at the Coliseum in 1999, Nikolaus Lehnhoff's staging of Wagner's final opera has been seen across Europe and the US, but it has not been revived by Engli…
Royal Opera House, LondonTannhäuser has been described as the "most boring of all great operas", and it remains a work that separates the truly committed Wagnerites from the merely interest…
Barbican, LondonLike so many of his works, the songcycle György Kurtág created from settings of tiny extracts from Franz Kafka's letters and diaries adds up to far more than the sum of i…