Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen is a perplexing but masterful opera, full of darkness, yearning and joy. On the surface it is a fantastical story, that of a Vixen who is captured by a Forester and who escapes, after causing a minor Orwellian revolution amongst the hens. She falls for a Fox, and my apologies for the spoiler,…
Category: review
Countertenor Orliński embraces film with Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater
On a wet February evening, I attend a cinematic event at London’s Soho Hotel. Countertenor, Jakub Jósef Orliński, fresh from his successes at the Royal Opera, is starring in a film of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater. In the screening theatre, Orliński sits in the front row with an audience of journos, prs, record company execs behind him. …
Material worlds: ‘Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life’ at the Hepworth, Wakefield
As you can see from the first image below, this marvellous exhibition is about to close at the Hepworth. However, it rapidly gains new life as a touring show: first to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art from 9 April to 22 October 2022, then to Tate St Ives from 26 November 2022 to…
Louise Bourgeois Continues to Astonish and Fascinate with Woven Child at Hayward Gallery
Most people will have heard of and seen Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider, Maman .You couldn’t miss it in 2000, where it soared above visitors’ heads in the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern. Supported on slender legs of steel of over thirty feet in height, Maman, far from being a monster, was a symbol of maternity, protection, strength, and creation. Maman…
Kitchen-sink drama: Handel, ‘Theodora’, at the Royal Opera House
Handel’s ‘Theodora’ is an oratorio. In other (well, more) words, it’s a vocal/choral work that would normally have a plot at its core, but presented as a purely aural experience. Traditionally, oratorios would be sung in concert with no staging, movement, or action to speak of. The music must propel any narrative, drive every reaction,…
In ENO’s Bohème Conductor Ben Glassberg Breathes New Life into Puccini’s Score.
It has been a few years since I last saw La Bohème performed at ENO. In 2019, soprano Natalya Romaniw, sang a magnificent Mimi in that mournful timbre of hers, beautifully conveying the soul of Puccini’s ill-fated seamstress. For the 2022 season, soprano, Sinéad Campbell-Wallace has taken on the iconic role. Her bright-sounding soprano couldn’t be more…
Cantus Covid Sessions A Singing Tour de Force
American ensemble Cantus recorded The Covid-19 Sessions back in March 2020 on their home territory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the time, Cantus were facing a year of cancelled concerts. The future was so dire, they believed that the recordings would be the last time they would perform together. I failed to listen to their album when it released in August 2020….
‘Distant Fathers’ Marina Jarre’s Classic Memoir
Having just put down Marina Jarre’s page-turning memoir ‘Distant Fathers’, I am amazed that I have never heard of her before. I am an avid reader of European authors but it seems that even in Italy where she lived, she has been forgotten about. All this will soon change if her autofiction is anything to go…
The dark ascending: Dead Space Chamber Music, ‘The Black Hours’
This is music at once vivid, immediate – and at the same time, otherworldly, almost surreal. In its heady combination of genres, approaches and sounds, the album feels both timeless and original. In the best sense, it’s a sonic trap, daring you to identify familiar elements and motifs, only to snatch them away and re-purpose…
Retrospecstive 2021: slight return
One more look in the rear-view mirror before 2021 disappears completely… After the multi-course blowout of choosing 25 recordings of the year, this is more of a digestif, if you will. A few events and developments that gave me cause for celebration: one each for pop, classical, TV, media and film. Bon ‘Voyage’: the return…
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