Cosi Fan Tutte premiered a year before Mozart’s death in 1791. It’s probably one of our most popular operas today, largely due, but not exclusively, to its exquisitely crafted arias, which Mozart produces one after another for his female singers. I attended opening night of Cosi at English National Opera with mixed feelings however. I…
Tag: theatre
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…
English Touring Opera kick starts its 2024 Autumn Season with an entrancing production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Snowmaiden’
Last week English Touring Opera opened their Autumn touring season with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snowmaiden. The Snowmaiden premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, in 1882 and the Hackney Empire’s plush red stage curtain certainly brought a flavour of Imperial Russia to this evening’s performance.. The stage was lit with a circle of light – glass panels encased wintry…
ENO staging of ‘Suor Angelica’ recalls a dark time in Ireland’s female history
Suor Angelica is a rarely performed, one-act opera by Puccini. When played at all, it is often sandwiched together between two other short operas, Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi which probably explains why the work has been overlooked (Gianni Schicchi has tended to be favoured over the other two). Director of ENO, Annalise Miskimmon, was…
English National Opera brings comedy to the fore with The Barber of Seville
Rossini’s Barber of Seville doesn’t often get the attention it deserves. Perhaps because it has often been unfavourably compared to Mozart’s weightier opera, Marriage of Figaro. The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro started life as plays by eighteenth century playwright, Pierre Beaumarchais. Sharing the same main characters, the operas are often confused….
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