Keith Burstein may be a respected British composer but his Manifest Destiny, has given him a major headache since it first premiered in the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh 2005. The opera, set in the geopolitical context of the Middle East, is the tale of Daniel, a British Jewish composer; Leila, a Palestinian poet, and Mohammed,…
Tag: opera
Slick and Soulful. ENO’s production of Partenope is a Handel Hit
Partenope was Handel’s first comic opera and was first performed in1730 at the King’s Theatre, London. It is the tale of Queen Partenope’s search for love and the romantic complications she and her circle of suitors encounter along the way. I attended the opening night of Partenope to see Christopher Alden’s award-winning staging of Handel’s…
“Why, I auteur…”: ‘The Makropulos Case’ (mostly), Royal Ballet & Opera, London
The latest in the Royal Opera’s Janáček cycle, this is their first production of ‘The Makropulos Case’ – and mine, too. I was excited to be seeing at last this piece that I’d read about but, appropriately enough, had difficulty imagining as a real experience. Please note that this write-up includes ‘spoilers’ to a certain…
Darkness divisible: ‘L’Orfeo’ and ‘Elias’, Opernhaus Zürich
Our recent Swiss holiday closed with a lightning visit to Opernhaus Zürich, to catch two performances in one day: a matinée of Monteverdi’s ‘L’Orfeo’, followed by a staged version of Mendelssohn’s ‘Elias’ (or ‘Elijah’). Both were rewarding experiences. I had never seen a production of ‘L’Orfeo’ before (a rather important omission, now happily rectified) and…
‘Merry Widow’ on target despite mafioso misfire
When Franz Lehar’s Merry Widow premiered in Vienna in 1905 it was an instant hit. Its catchy score had men whistling it in the street. Women of all ages and class, swayed to the Merry Widow Waltz imagining themselves in the arms of the Merry Widow’s dashing romantic lead, Danilo. Audiences also loved the central character,…
Opera Holland Park enters new waters with Wagner’s ‘Flying Dutchman’
This season Opera Holland Park has had a first stab at Wagner with The Flying Dutchman, this work being a doable two and a half hours as opposed to the usual four. The legend of a Dutch sea-captain, condemned to sail the ocean forever, until he finds the love of a good, faithful, woman, was…
Communicating Without Words, a Family Speciality
Great performances of chamber trios and quartets often rely on the special relationships of players who communicate without words. But brothers and sisters have a natural advantage, having learned music from childhood together. Body language, discreet nods and the composer’s own “dialogue” work best among groups of siblings. The Pascal Trio (father and two sons)…
ENO orchestra accompanies NOS young artists to stardom at Sinfonia Smith Square
Have you ever wondered how opera stars are made? One tends to think of a simplistic scenario, one in which opera stars are born with a god-given voice, which, eventually, projects them to fame. But life is not a TV competition. For most young artists, there is a process, and it can be lengthy, lonely…
Blood ties: ‘Festen’, Royal Opera; ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’, English National Opera
It’s been an intense week. Two operas, over two consecutive evenings, spent with two explosively dysfunctional onstage families. Time to decompress. If you keep an eye on London operantics, you’ll be aware of the world première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Festen’ (libretto by Lee Hall, directed by Richard Jones) at Royal Ballet & Opera. And if…
Bywater’s staging of Britten’s Turn of the Screw lifts the opera to new heights
Benjamin Britten’s opera, The Turn of the Screw, is a psychological thriller based on Henry James’s novella of the same title. In the world of opera, psychological thrillers are thin on the ground and for good reason – it is hard to express narrative ambiguity or uncertainty in musical theatre. Isabella Bywater’s production at English National Opera…
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