| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Oct-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Tippett and Wagner at the Barbican |
 Michael Tippett died 14 years ago but his diverse canon has been relatively underrepresented since, the pacifist A Child of Our Time being perhaps the exception. In tonight’s Barbican outing, it was surprising but refreshing to see his Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello, written in 1978–9, paired with Henk de Vlieger’s orchestral contraction of Wagner’s Ring cycle. The two mammoth works share the central concept of a journey but are otherwise rather different beasts.Read full review... | |
| 20-Jul-2012 Prinzregententheater | Mozart's Mitridate in Munich through a child's eyes |
 Mozart wrote the opera seria Mitridate at the age of fifteen. The Bayerische Staatsoper’s clever and strangely beautiful production positions it as the work of a child, full of rebellious teenagers and projected scenery seemingly drawn from a primary school art class. But unfortunately even excellent singing and much directorial invention cannot disguise that this is a rather bland opera, and its four hours pass slowly.
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| 26-Feb-2012 Hong Kong Cultural Centre: Grand Theatre | Bavarian State Opera: Così fan tutte at the Hong Kong Arts Festival |
 Wilfried Hösl_MG_7941.jpg) For its 40th anniversary, the Hong Kong Arts Festival chose Mozart’s Così fan tutte as its main opera offering. Whatever you may call it – opera buffa, comedy of manners, or “dramma giocoso” – Mozart’s lovely music makes Così fan tutte wonderful entertainment. That’s what the Bavarian State Opera delivered on Sunday afternoon to commemorate this important milestone of the Festival.
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| 22-Oct-2011 Hong Kong Cultural Centre: Concert Hall | Beethoven, Elgar and Wagner with the Hong Kong Philharmonic in soul-cleansing evening |
 It sounds almost like heresy to describe a Beethoven composition as “light”, but it would be appropriate for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert on Saturday. His Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68, Pastoral, was like soufflé to the crème brûlée of Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture. Placing the Wagner overture at the end was a clever stroke in programming that prevented the Beethoven work from becoming an anti-climax.
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