| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 30-Mar-2013 Semperoper | A dream cast: Rigoletto at the Dresden Semperoper |
 Dating from 2008, the Semperoper’s current production of Rigoletto is quite intriguing. It’s set in what appears to be a swanky 21st-century Berlin apartment – industrial, sparse and effortlessly cool – and in many ways this is an interesting choice. Berlin life is notoriously debaucherous, and this matches well to the Duke’s court in the opera, where sin and vice are not just condoned, but encouraged. There’s also something about the bleak simplicity of the set, which makes it seem almost timeless, emphasising the eternal nature of the emotions played out on stage.Read full review... | |
| 9-Mar-2013 Dorothy Chandler Pavilion | LA Opera's Flying Dutchman sails past the point |
 While the term “Eurotrash” gets thrown around more often than it should, it is one that has unfortunately become synonymous with many of the Wagner opera productions that take a non-traditional approach. As opera-goers go, I tend to sympathize with the directors and find that this approach can work fantastically well in bringing Wagner’s logistically impossible scenarios to life. Los Angeles audiences are all too acutely familiar with such controversial productions, having experienced Achim Freyer’s polarizing telling of The Ring just a few years ago.Read full review... | |
| 16-Feb-2011 The London Coliseum | Tomlinson and Skelton outstanding in the ENO's Parsifal |
 The ENO’s production of Parsifal, which opened last night, is a revival of their 1999 staging, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. This is Wigglesworth's first Parsifal, and he's made a triumphant start. The fifteen minute prelude was like listening to a symphony all by itself, and I was grabbed from the very first note. For the whole evening, the orchestra gave a wonderful account of Wagner’s complex variety of textures and harmonies.Read full review... | |
