La Bohème Italian Style at Opera Holland Park

 Giacomo Puccini’s Bohème was Opera Holland Park’s popular offering this week. Natasha Metherell, Director of this production, forewent the traditional Parisian setting and opted for an Italian film set of the 1950s. This was a nod to Puccini’s homeland and a gamble which didn’t quite pay off. The stage filled with megaphones, spotlights, film cameras and…

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. …

‘Owen Wingrave’. A Family at War

For its Interim Season, Grange Park Opera is offering several new filmed operas to the public. Owen Wingrave, filmed in September of this year, is a rarely performed work by Benjamin Britten and was originally conceived as a TV opera. It was broadcast on BBC2 in 1971. For this reason alone I was very curious to see it.  For…