wed 06/08/2025

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

The Walworth Farce, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - dysfunctional Irish myth-making

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Rusalka, Royal Opera review - ravishing sounds, torpid staging

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The Rhinegold, English National Opera review - tacky, edgy, brilliant

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Jerusalem Quartet, Leonskaja, Wigmore Hall review - freedom and rigour in perfect balance

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Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall review - tonal beauty trumps subjective romantics

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LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - exhilarating, hilarious mock-heroics

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Dmitri Alexeev, Leighton House review - shadows and light from a master pianist

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DVD: Babylon Berlin, Season Four

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Philharmonia, Hrůša, RFH review - total brilliance in Bartók, Dvořák and Strauss

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Tannhäuser, Royal Opera review - true goodness triumphs in the end

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Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall / Secret Byrd, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - genuine versus theatrical

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Jansen, LSO, Noseda, Barbican review - hearts of darkness

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Castalian String Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - genius in works and performance

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Lowe, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall - an education, not quite a triumph

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Least Like the Other, Irish National Opera, Linbury Theatre review - the harrowing of Rosemary Kennedy

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Faust, Tamestit, EBS, Gardiner, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - countless shades of brilliant

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Káťa Kabanová, Glyndebourne review - emotional concentration...

Even more perhaps than straight theatre, opera seems to draw attention to the meaning behind what may on the face of it appear a simple story....

The Count of Monte Cristo, U&Drama review - silly telly...

Alexandre Dumas’ novel has been filmed an immeasurable number of times (there was a new French version only last year) and...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Lost Lear / Consumed

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Alison Spittle / Christopher...

Alison Spittle, Monkey Barrel ★★★

Alison Spittle is fat, she tells us at the top of the show. But not as...