| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 15-Dec-2012 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Gloom, doom, stormy seas, and a Dutchman flown over from Zurich: A concert Flying Dutchman in London |
| Opera being a strongly visual art form as well as a musical one, the idea of a pure concert performance seems a little strange to those unfamiliar with the form. However, removing the necessity for singers to run around (often in uncomfortable-looking costumes), negotiate (sometimes uncooperative) props and scenery, and bodily convey their thoughts and feelings in a manner visible to amphitheatre Row W, allows for 100% concentration on the music, in particular the expression of character and emotion through voice alone. Read full review... | |
| 31-Aug-2012 Usher Hall | Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh play Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich |
 'First impressions are often the truest', wrote Hazlitt. I was immediately struck by the amount of space on the Usher Hall stage, recently filled by so many large symphony orchestras. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra had plenty of space, a feature which was soon to be borne out in the music.
Read full review... | |
| 27-Nov-2011 National Theatre | More Bieito than Beethoven: Fidelio at the Bayerische Staatsoper |
 Beethoven took over nine years to write and edit Fidelio, his only opera. It tells the story of Leonore, whose husband Florestan is being illegally held in prison. She disguises herself as a man, Fidelio, and gets a job in the prison in an attempt to save him. Over the course of its creation it turned from a three-act opera into a two-act one, changed its name, and went through four separate overtures!Read full review... | |
| 18-Oct-2011 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Ghostly ships and demonic captains ahoy: Der Fliegende Holländer at Covent Garden |
 As The Flying Dutchman nears its close, the crew of Daland's ship are celebrating their safe homecoming and yelling at the Dutchman's unseen crew to join them. To their horror, they realise that they have indeed woken the dead: the Dutchman's crew are ghosts who have wandered the oceans for centuries: the storms cannot burst their sails for they are protected by Satan.
Read full review... | |
