| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 1-Nov-2012 Guildhall School Theatre | Martinů has the last laugh at the Guildhall |
 Opera school productions are designed to provide experience for their students and showcase their talents to an audience sprinkled with casting directors. Clearly, the Guildhall School have decided to extract maximum value from their current production by staging not one opera but three, with different casts and even different orchestral musicians. For added interest, they have chosen three short works that were highly successful in their day but have faded from the current repertoire: two romantic operas by Massenet, followed by a surreal 20th century comedy by Martinů.
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| 24-Jul-2012 Holland Park Theatre | Verdi's Falstaff at Opera Holland Park |
 With Verdi's centenary coming up, his last opera Falstaff has had more attention than usual, with this production at Opera Holland Park following hot on the heels of Robert Carsen's new production at Covent Garden. I don't know whether OHP's director Annilese Miskimmon was aware of Carsen's production, but she certainly ended up with a similar aesthetic, set in twentieth century England with pastel-clad posh housewives and much brown clothing for the men.Read full review... | |
| 5-Aug-2011 Holland Park Theatre | Catalani's La Wally - a hard hitting verismo gem |
| Alfredo Catalani's La Wally is the last of three rarely performed Italian operas from the late 19th century verismo period to feature in Opera Holland Park's 2011 season. Catalani belongs to group of composers whose place in the modern repertoire suffers from the problem of "not being Puccini," the more poignantly since he was born in Puccini's home town of Lucca.
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| 26-Feb-2011 The London Coliseum | Jonathan Miller's Mikado returns to the ENO |
 Jonathan Miller's much-loved production of The Mikado for English National Opera is now 25 years old and well remembered. But not, I confess by me. My last experience of Gilbert and Sullivan was on the other side of the curtain, as a sister, cousin or aunt in a school production of HMS Pinafore, an experience sufficiently scarring that I resolved never to go to a G&S opera again. But I admit that forty years was probably overdoing it, and I went along to the Coliseum last night fully bent on enjoying the evening.
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