| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Oct-2012 Leeds Grand Theatre | Opera North's Faust at Leeds Grand Theatre |
 The set for this Faust is a series of blank screens, which slide about quickly and frequently, tall canvases for constantly changing images provided by Berlin-based video artist Lillevan. This, along with large white cubes which become boxes for Marguerite’s jewels and for the extracted hearts collected by Méphistophélès, make it seem as if the whole thing is part of an elaborate installation, spellbinding in itself. It would not be out of place in Tate Modern.Read full review... | |
| 17-Jul-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Havergal Brian's monumental Gothic Symphony |
 A work scheduled to last nearly two hours could be excused for starting with a long slow build up, but Havergal Brian’s massive Gothic Symphony (the longest symphony ever composed) bursts onto the scene with a brisk and bustling march-like flourish, contrasted briefly with a delicate violin solo that reminds us that this is very much an English composition. The rest of the first movement is musically intense as the tension is tightened in a series of harmonically complex climaxes, aided for the last few bars by the massive sound of the organ.Read full review... | |
| 8-Jun-2011 The London Coliseum | Simon Boccanegra at English National Opera |
 Verdi's Simon Boccanegra explores how the characters of powerful men change (or don't) with age and fortune: the action happens over several decades, and the character of Simon gives wonderful scope for some serious character acting. As with Il Trovatore, also based on a play by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez, large amounts of the key action happens off-stage either before the opera starts or in the intervals, which can make the plot extremely difficult to understand.
Read full review... | |
| 15-Feb-2011 Theatre Royal | Opera North's Carmen - still the same story |
 The story of Carmen is a tale of people at the bottom of the heap; factory workers, gypsies, bullfighters, ordinary soldiers, yet the romance of Spain and Bizet’s exuberant and unforgettable tunes have combined to give us a prettified, glamorous idea of Carmen, full of flamenco costumes, castanets, handsome toreadors and none of the rough edges. Daniel Kramer’s new production of Carmen for Opera North goes straight back to the heart of the story – as the promotional literature put it, “passion, obsession, destruction”.
Read full review... | |
