| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 18-Oct-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Connolly and Terfel stand out in a thought-provoking Walküre at Covent Garden | David Karlin |
 If you've been brought up with the Judaeo-Christian ideal of an all-powerful, all-good God, Norse mythology can come as a bit of a shock. Wotan, the father of the gods, is philandering, deceitful, power-hungry, sentimental, violent and ultimately weak - the gamut of human frailties writ large. Combine all of those with a magic spear and the ability to control the weather and you know that things aren't going to end well.
Read full review... | ||
| 22-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 11: Les Troyens | Katy S Austin |
 David McVicar’s production of Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House last month was notable for several reasons. Firstly, stellar vocal performances from world-class lead singers; secondly, brilliant acting; thirdly, ravishing music; and lastly, a memorable set – including a curious giant horse and human made out of what looked like scrap weapons and tools.Read full review... | ||
| 25-Jun-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Berlioz's magnum opus Les Troyens at Covent Garden | David Karlin |
 It's one of the most famous, most studied, most archetypal passages in epic poetry: in Book I of Virgil's Aeneid, the Trojans, exhausted from their voyage and desolate at the loss of their city, gaze down on the city of Carthage as it rises from the African soil, its people scurrying like worker bees in their manifold tasks. It provided the high point in the Royal Opera's new staging of Berlioz's magnum opus Les Troyens last night: a brightly costumed chorus singing down from a terraced city carved into a red sandstone cliff, inspired by views of Morocco.
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| 12-Sep-2011 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Pappano's Trittico makes a storming season opener | David Karlin |
 BILL COOPER.jpg) Murder. Suicide. Grand larceny. Puccini's triptych of short operas, two tragedies followed by a riotous farce, always makes for an evening of variety, with the potential for many snatches of greatness. Antonio Pappano is a fan - he recorded Il Trittico with the LSO in 1998, and featured Gianni Schicchi in his BBC series on Italian opera - and undoubtedly had a large hand in its being chosen to open the Royal Opera's 2011-12 season.Read full review... | ||
| 4-Mar-2011 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Anna Nicole | David Karlin |
COOPER.jpg) In case you've somehow missed the hype, Anna Nicole is the Royal Opera's newly commissioned opera about the life of Anna Nicole Smith, a girl from Texas who married an elderly billionnaire, became a model and celebrity sex symbol who received gigantic media exposure, and died of a drug overdose a few months after the death of her son. It's Mark-Anthony Turnage's third major opera, and the first that he has written with librettist Richard Thomas. The salacious material of the story ‐ sex, drugs and celebrity abound ‐ has attracted an extraordinary media blitz.Read full review... | ||
| 30-Dec-2010 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Bychkov and Botha do Tannhäuser | David Karlin |
 My last opera of the year was also my first Wagner: a new Covent Garden production of Tannhäuser, directed by Tim Albery and conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
First things first: Bychkov was magnificent. His phrasing wowed me time after time, the dynamics and matching of the music to the action were impeccable, and some glorious textures came from the orchestra in passages of all sorts, particuarly in Wagner's trademark brass writing. In just under four hours of music, there was hardly a foot wrong and never a dull moment.
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