It might be deduced that the only thing worse than working with children and animals would be working with children as animals. But Leos Janacek was unfazed by the old Hollywood adage and his cartoon-strip derived opera The Cunning Little Vixen was spirited from page to stage with uncynical conviction and, it has to be … [Read More]
Edward Seckerson
Reviews, Blogs, Podcasts
Reviews, Podcasts and Blogs
Classical music, Opera and Musical Theatre reviews
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Janacek “The Cunning Little Vixen”, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Tagged with: emma bell, glyndebourne festival opera, janacek, london philharmonic, lucy crowe, melly still, the cunning little vixen, tom pye, vladimir jurowski
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Magdalena Kozenà, Mitsuko Uchida, Wigmore Hall
It’s extraordinary how the symbiosis of spirit and rightness of timbre between an artist and a composer can turn a recital around. The Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena is not a natural recitalist tending to overwork and over-illustrate texts with a physical manner and overactive hands better suited to the stage. But when she and the … [Read More]
Tagged with: debussy, magdalena kozena, mahler, messiaen, mitsuko uchida, wigmore hall
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Verdi “Falstaff”, Royal Opera House
Where there’s Falstaff there’s food. And Robert Carsen’s new staging of Verdi’s final operatic masterpiece plays like an ode to gastronomical excess. It begins with a binge and ends with a banquet and even the scene of the fat knight’s ill-fated liaison with Alice Ford takes place in her spanking new kitchen: state of the … [Read More]
London Symphony Orchestra, Kavakos, Gergiev, Barbican Hall
One bar into this timely celebration of his work and the composer’s identity could not be in doubt. The voice is unmistakable, of course, but so too a sense of the era in which he lived and worked. And even the idea of programming this opening concert in reverse chronology said something about how Igor … [Read More]
Tagged with: leonidas kavakos, london symphony orchestra, stravinsky, valery gergiev
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Puccini “La Boheme”, Royal Opera House
Not just another revival of a venerable old staging but its 25th showing in the 50th year of director John Copley’s work at the Royal Opera House. They served up a cake and a vintage cast for the occasion – and the snow fell once more on the Latin Quarter swelling the Christmas Eve crowds … [Read More]
Tagged with: carmen giannattasio, john copley, joseph calleja, la boheme, puccini, royal opera house, semyon bychkov
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
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