wed 17/09/2025

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

Trouble in Tahiti/A Quiet Place, Linbury Theatre review - top cast plays unhappy families

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Nobodaddy, Teaċ Daṁsa, Dublin Theatre Festival review - supernatural song and dance odyssey

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Béatrice et Bénédict, Irish National Opera, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - sung and spoken triumph

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Elisabeth Leonskaja, Wigmore Hall review - a universe of sound and emotion in Schubert’s last three sonatas

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Andsnes, London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Gardner, RFH review - total clarity in classic-romantic and prophetic Rachmaninov

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Suor Angelica, English National Opera review - isolated one-acter lacks emotional inscaping

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Eugene Onegin, Royal Opera review - the heart left cold

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Pavel Kolesnikov, Wigmore Hall review - unpredictable magic

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theartsdesk in Bradford - Leeds International Piano Competition 2024 finalists shine in St George's Hall

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Beethoven Sonata Cycle 1, Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall review - running the gamut

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LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - singular adventures for a new era

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Prom 68, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Garsington Opera review - eerie beauty sometimes faintly glittering

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Proms 63-65, Choral Day review - from Harris to Handel/Mozart via Alabama, with love

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Prom 62, Mahler's Sixth Symphony, Bavarian RSO, Rattle review - sound over momentum

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Kaos, Netflix review - playing fast and profuse with the Greek myths

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Prom 58, Orchestre de Paris, Mäkelä review - risky reinvention pays off in part

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latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
The Producers, Garrick Theatre review - Ve haf vays of makin...

Unexpectedly, there’s a sly reference to James Joyce’s Ulysses interpolated into Act One (in case we hadn’t caught the not...

Appl, Levickis, Wigmore Hall review - fun to the fore in cab...

Concerts at the Wigmore Hall offer many types of pleasure, but not...

Album: The Divine Comedy - Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Neil Hannon has been recording and touring as the Divine Comedy since 1989 and has tried a fair few flavours along the way, from chamber pop to...

Lammermuir Festival 2025, Part 2 review - from the soaringly...

My colleague Boyd Tonkin visited the Lammermuir Festival for the first time this year. His eyes and ears have been opened to its treasures, but...

Frances Wilson: Electric Spark - The Enigma of Muriel Spark...

How do you tell the story of a person’s mind? In the preface to Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, published this year by...

Blu-ray: The Sons of Great Bear

Westerns had long been popular with German cinema audiences, some of the most successful being early 1960s West German adaptations of novels by...

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review - comedy rock band f...

That difficult second documentary – or if you will, “rockumentary” – seems to have been especially challenging for...

Tosca, Welsh National Opera review - a great company reduced...

So it’s come to this: WNO’s autumn season reduced to two operas, a Tosca borrowed from Opera North and a revival of their own Candide...

Not Your Superwoman, Bush Theatre review - powerful tribute...

The Bush is likely to continue its fine recent run of hit plays, with this funny, poignant, culturally authentic and beautifully acted two-hander...