ROH
10 Questions for Opera singer Rolando VillazónMonday, 17 December 2012
Few singers provoke more debate than Rolando Villazón. His off-piste projects - from his Romantic exploration of the Baroque to his spell as a talent contest judge - have been much discussed over the years. By comparison, there's something strangely... Read more... |
Royal Opera House chief Tony Hall to the BBC - now what?Thursday, 22 November 2012
So Tony Hall moves from heading the Royal Opera House to taking over the BBC as its new Director-General. I can't for a moment imagine a rerun of that crucial mini-conversation between Helen Boaden and George Entwistle over the Jimmy Savile... Read more... |
FAR, Wayne McGregor / Random Dance, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera HouseSaturday, 17 November 2012
Make no mistake; this is dancing of the highest order. The classically trained members of Wayne McGregor's company Random Dance demonstrate such exceptional mastery of technique that their movements should have one drooling in admiration. And since... Read more... |
Viscera/Infra/Fool's Paradise, Royal BalletSunday, 04 November 2012
A new Liam Scarlett ballet has become an event, even as, in this case, Scarlett’s home company, the Royal Ballet, is recreating a work he choreographed last January for Miami City Ballet – the young choreographer’s first international commission.In... Read more... |
Swan Lake in world's cinemas tonight launches new offensive on elitismTuesday, 23 October 2012
Tonight the Royal Ballet's live Swan Lake opens the most extensive season yet of live screenings to cinemas worldwide of the Royal Opera House's productions. Zenaida Yanowsky and Nehemiah Kish, in the leading roles of the Swan Queen and her evil... Read more... |
Russian superstar Natalia Osipova to perform with Royal BalletTuesday, 31 July 2012
The virtuoso Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova will guest with the Royal Ballet this autumn with Carlos Acosta in the opening run of Swan Lake. Osipova, whose partnership with the phenomenal Ivan Vasiliev has become the most talked-about in world... Read more... |
Otello, Royal Opera HouseFriday, 13 July 2012
Pardon the anomaly of a lightly browned-up Latvian Moor married to a German-Greek beauty. This, after all, is not Shakespeare’s play but Verdi’s opera, for which all too few are born to sing heroic tenor Otello and lyric-dramatic soprano Desdemona.... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Massenet, David Russell, WeinbergSaturday, 26 May 2012
Massenet: Werther Rolando Villazón, Sophie Koch, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Antonio Pappano (DG)Massenet’s Goethe adaptation needs a lot of love to make it convince as a drama. Fortunately this live Covent Garden performance, taped... Read more... |
Ballo della Regina/ La Sylphide, Royal BalletTuesday, 22 May 2012
Ballo della Regina is a strange piece, for many reasons. A piece of minor Balanchine, it was created late in life for a dancer he clearly admired but who was not core to his vision. Strangest of all, he used music by Verdi, a composer whose music he... Read more... |
Maestro at the Opera, BBC TwoSaturday, 05 May 2012
Even in this age of desperate reality TV, you have to have doubts about any show that tries to convert “celebrities” into serious contenders in an alien field. Is it serious or a padded-out joke? To an extent we’ve been here, or close by, before.... Read more... |
Polyphonia/ Sweet Violets/ Carbon Life, Royal BalletFriday, 06 April 2012
All year we've had to wait for a world premiere, and two come along at once. Last night was built to make some noise about the three most impressive young names in Royal Ballet choreography, and that will be where the PR story ends, but not where... Read more... |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), Royal BalletSunday, 18 March 2012
"I told you butter wouldn’t suit the works," accuses the Mad Hatter. "It was the best butter," replies the March Hare apologetically, in Lewis Carroll’s original tale. Butter might or might not suit the works onstage in the Royal Ballet’s everything... Read more... |
