The Father by Florian Zeller at Oldham’s Coliseum
You have come to see a play which follows the progress of a dementia sufferer as his condition deteriorates. It is likely to be a moving, poignant experience, particularly if you know, or have known, someone with this condition and…
The Pulverised by Alexandra Badea at York’s Theatre Royal
The presentation of continental European drama on the British stage has become too rare for comfort in recent times, so the appearance at York’s Theatre Royal of The Pulverised by the Romanian-French writer Alexandra Badea is to be warmly welcomed….
A Weinberg Korngold Double Bill in Heidelberg
The idea of the Heidelberg Theatre to bring together in a double bill two short operas by Mieczyslaw Weinberg (Mazel Tov) and Erich Korngold (Der Ring des Polykrates) seemed to be a good one. Both were written by Jewish composers…
Schnittke’s Life with an Idiot in Giessen
First performed in 1992, Schnittke’s opera Life with an Idiot initially achieved some notoriety and success across Europe but recently seems to have fallen out of favour. That is a pity because unquestionably it is a masterpiece. It is remarkable…
José Cura’s Peter Grimes in Bonn
Suppose that you were the artistic director of a medium-sized German opera company. A very famous Argentinian tenor, in the autumn of his career, has wanted for some years to sing the title role in Peter Grimes, and says…
Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète in Essen
It sometimes happens that you leave an opera house with a sense of irritation gnawing away at you. This occurred last night at Essen after a performance of Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète. No, it was not the staging, though in many…
Der Freischütz in Münster
Considering the importance of Der Freischütz in the history of opera, and of romantic art generally, it has received surpisingly few performances outside Germany in recent times. This is probably because, notwithstanding a remarkable score, juxtaposing fluent melodies with striking…
The Goat by Edward Albee at London’s Haymarket Theatre
If you have had the experience of being irritated in a theatre when members of the audience laugh inappropriately at serious aspects of a drama – I have had it many times – then I recommend that you go to…
World Première of Francesconi’s Trompe-la-Mort in Paris
A major event of the 2016-17 season in Paris has been the world première of Luca Francesconi’s Trompe-la-Mort. While any attempt to recreate in operatic terms a single volume of Balzac’s monumental Comédie Humaine might have been far too ambitious,…
Aeschylus at Manchester’s Royal Exchange
I have always had a penchant for ritualistic theatre and there is no better medium for experiencing it than Greek drama. The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus, presented by the Actors Touring Company at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, provides an excellent…
La Rondine in Graz
La Rondine is the least often performed of Puccini’s mature operas. This may be because of its lightness – almost in parts of an operetta character; or because, with its Traviata-like Third Act, it is not perceived to have a…
Vivaldi’s Arsilda in Bratislava
The première in Bratislava of the first staging in modern times of Vivaldi’s seventh work for theatre, Arsilda, Regina di Ponto, was momentous. The score by itself justifies the piece’s resuscitation. Although it has the conventional features of baroque opera,…
Leeds Lieder: Mahler’s Knaben Wunderhorn
Although Mahler’s Knaben Wunderhorn songs with orchestra are well known, one rarely encounters them with piano; and this version, presented by Leeds Lieder at the University of Leeds, was a revelation. Of course one misses the variety of instrumental sound,…
La Cenerentola in Leeds
La Cenerentola is without doubt my favourite Rossini opera. It may not have the brilliant arias of the Barber but its perky ensembles are unrivalled. The score requires plenty of zing, but also poise, humour and, at points, tenderness. Wyn…
Prince Igor in Amsterdam
Borodin’s Prince Igor is a ramshackle affair, a series of episodes – personal and political – loosely strung together with some fine music. It needs a strong directorial hand and in Dmitry Tcherniakov, restaging for the Dutch National Opera in…
Opera della Luna’s Offenbach Double Bill
Jacques Offenbach wrote nearly 100 operettas, many of which have not been staged in recent years. So it was enterprising of Opera della Luna to present a double bill of Croquefer and The Isle of Tulipatan. This was my third…
Death of a Salesman at Harrogate
At a time when we are trying to make sense of what is going on the other side of the Atlantic, what better than to experience Arthur Miller’s tragedy about the American Dream, Death of a Salesman? Particularly when the…
Minghella’s Butterfly in Vilnius
You have travelled 1300 miles to see opera in Vilnius and you find a production that you could have seen in London. Admittedly it is Anthony Minghella’s renowned staging of Madam Butterfly and a decade or so after its original…
Lucia di Lammermoor in Kaunas
I was in Lithuania for my first visit to Kaunas, the country’s second city. The local theatre, which is best known for operetta and musicals, had on offer a bel canto tragedy, Lucia di Lammermoor. How would it fare? The…
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snow Maiden in Leeds
The operas by Rimsky-Korsakov are not as often performed as they deserve. Perhaps his mixture of fairy tale, exoticism and Russianism, and the absence of “big tunes”, are thought not to appeal to a wide audience. But my experience in…