Opera Reviews

Idomeneo, Garsington Opera

David Nice Thursday, 23 June 2016

Natural disaster, in the shape of a metaphorical sea-monster ravaging classical Crete, might make a director's imagination work overtime on Mozart's first, jagged masterpiece. Alas, only unnatural disasters have been inflicted upon us in productions at Glyndebourne, ENO and the Royal Opera, with singers going some way to make amends.

Don Giovanni, Classical Opera, Page, Cadogan Hall

Gavin Dixon Saturday, 18 June 2016

Mozart operas on period instruments – it’s hardly a new idea, but it’s still the exception rather than the rule. The 18^th–century sound has a lot to offer in Don Giovanni, as Ian Page and his Classical Opera Company demonstrated this evening. Clear string tone and vibrant woodwind colours were the order of the day. There was plenty of drama too, with Page expertly pacing the narrative and drawing an impressive and often robust tone from his modest forces.

Be With Me Now, Britten Studio, Snape

David Nice Thursday, 16 June 2016

As the hand-held credits popped up on screen to pianist and musical director Manoj Kamps's superb quartet arrangement of Mozart's Magic Flute Overture, the European Union's Culture Programme logo brought a spontaneous burst of applause. Not the norm for Suffolk this week, I'm told, but this audience knew how international opera is, how we're all connected in Europe's musical world.

The Beggar's Opera, University of Birmingham

Richard Bratby Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Memo to self: never read the director’s programme essay.

The Iris Murder, Hebrides Ensemble, Edinburgh

David Kettle Tuesday, 14 June 2016

It just goes to demonstrate the breadth and ambition of the Hebrides Ensemble’s work.

Comment

The Cunning Little Vixen, Glyndebourne

stephen Walsh Monday, 13 June 2016

Is The Cunning Little Vixen a jolly children’s pantomime, or is it a searching study of issues of life and death, Man and Nature? The answer, naturally, is that it’s both. Children dress up as animals, and sing and prance about. But at the same time grown-ups (both animal and human) dream and fantasize, couple and procreate, hunt and kill. Remarkably, it’s a tragedy that leaves no bitter taste. The heroine dies, but Nature goes on.

La Bohème, Opera Holland Park

alexandra Coghlan Sunday, 12 June 2016

Boy meets girl; girl and boy fall in love; boy loses girl. In true bohemian fashion, La bohème can lay its operatic head anywhere from Paris to Peshawar, in any era from 90s punk to the Belle Epoque, and still make sense. What matters are the emotions; do we believe in the relationship between Rodolfo and Mimi, the camaraderie between Rodolfo and his friends?

Illuminations, Tynan, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Snape Maltings

Helen Wallace Saturday, 11 June 2016

Nothing galvanises an audience quite like physical risk. As soprano Sarah Tynan rose on a hoop into the darkness, intoning the final words of "Départ" from Britten's song cycle Les Illuminations, you could almost hear her heart race. Beneath, a troupe of circus performers held the rope – and her life – in their hands.

Tristan and Isolde, English National Opera

David Nice Friday, 10 June 2016

"Bad Star Trek episodes" is how one director describes a certain unfortunate look in would-be intergalactic opera productions. The late Nikolaus Lehnhoff came perilously close to it in his Glyndebourne Tristan und Isolde but offered a coherent vision. Daniel Kramer, now ENO's Artistic Director, has a few "bad Star Trek episodes" and many good ideas that don't always join up or else outstay their welcome.

Comment

Tannhäuser, Longborough Festival Opera

stephen Walsh Friday, 10 June 2016

Wagner was never satisfied with Tannhäuser, and it’s not hard to see why. Essentially a study of the tension between sensual and spiritual love, it was composed at a time when, by his own later confession, he lacked the resources to deal properly (that is, improperly) with the sensual element, and even in any profundity – one might feel – with the spiritual. The piece went through numerous revisions, extensions, compressions, tinkerings of one sort or another.