| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 2-Mar-2013 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | All round excellence in the Royal Opera's Tosca |
 Few operas are as specific in time and place as Puccini's Tosca: the date is 17th June, 1800, shortly after the battle of Marengo (in which Napoleon Bonaparte wrested control of Northern Italy from Austria), while each of the three acts is located in a specific landmark in Rome: the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese and the Castel Sant'Angelo. But few are as universal in theme: the brutal abuse of power in a police state, where a single weakness can cost your life and those of your loved ones.
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| 19-Jan-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | The Met live in HD at the Barbican: Maria Stuarda |
 It was with great curiosity that I set off for the Barbican on Saturday night. I’ve never been to see an opera in the cinema before – I don’t think I’ve even sat through a pre-recorded film of an opera for many years, as I am a great fan of the “real thing”: opera performed live on stage. And yet I was extremely keen to find out what an opera filmed live, in front of a packed audience, and broadcast around the world was like, so off I went!Read full review... | |
| 9-Apr-2011 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | Met’s ‘Ory’ Bubbles Like Champagne |
 When Franz Liszt conducted Le Comte Ory in Weimar, he said it “bubbled like champagne,” according to the Metropolitan Opera’s program note. It also noted that Liszt arranged for the audience to be served champagne in Act II. Met operagoers didn’t require champagne to feel bubbly, not even during intermission of the New York house’s first-ever production of Le Comte Ory when hundreds of flutes were likely consumed. Like champagne froth spilling over a too-full glass, laughter rippled out of the audience from the opening notes of the overture.
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