sun 04/05/2025

David Nice

David Nice's picture
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

Jenůfa, English National Opera review - searing new cast in precise revival

Read more...

Giant, Linbury Theatre review - a vision fully realised

Read more...

Murray, Vlaams Radiokor, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - visual ‘interpretation’ blunts sonic brilliance in Szymanowski rarity

Read more...

The Duchess of Malfi, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - the good end badly, but act best

Read more...

Gerstein, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - American glitter and sinew

Read more...

The Creation, Alder, Clayton, Mofidian, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - dancing gay in green meadows

Read more...

St Matthew Passion, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin review - fluency, fire and some jaw-dropping solos

Read more...

'Migrations' String Quartet Weekend, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - memorials and masterpieces

Read more...

Sánchez, National Symphony Orchestra, Martín, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - Spanish panache

Read more...

Turning the Screw, King’s Head Theatre review - Britten and the not-so-innocent

Read more...

Alder, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - strings and soprano sing their hearts out

Read more...

The Handmaid's Tale, English National Opera review - last chance saloon for sub-Atwood baggy monster

Read more...

Elijah, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - vivid declamation powers Old Testament blockbuster

Read more...

The Traitors, Series 2, BBC One review - back to the mind-labyrinth

Read more...

Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review - every note of Brahms’ late genius carefully weighed

Read more...

Elektra, Royal Opera review - moral: don’t wait too long for revenge

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Fake, ITV1 review - be careful what you wish for

The art of the conman is persuading their victim to fool themselves, which is the premise that lies at the core of this Australian drama series....

theartsdesk Q&A: film director Déa Kulumbegashvili on he...

One of the most exciting new voices in Eastern European film, Déa Kulumbegashvili is not concerned with conventional shot lengths. She has been...

Music Reissues Weekly: John McKay - Sixes and Sevens

Sixes and Sevens is a surprise. A big one. Since leaving Siouxsie and the Banshees in September 1979, John McKay has...

Pimpinone, Royal Opera in the Linbury Theatre review - farce...

Full marks to the Royal Opera for good planning: one first night knocking us all sideways with the darkest German operatic tragedy followed by...

Krapp's Last Tape, Barbican review - playing with the l...

In the Stygian darkness of a bare room, a table on a low platform with a light hanging overhead starts to emerge. Then a door briefly...

Formula E: Driver, Prime Video review - inside the world...

The success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive not only provoked a viewer-stampede towards the world’s most expensive sport, but also...

Die Walküre, Royal Opera review - total music drama

Wagner’s universe, in the second of his Ring operas which brings semi-humans on board to challenge the gods, matches exaltation and misery, terror...