Monteverdi “The Return of Ulysses”, ENO/Young Vic
Human Frailty wears a latex mask and a dog-collar – a plaything of his cruel masters, Time, Fortune, and Love. Eye and mouth holes are crudely cut out of the mask as if perhaps to conceal horrific…
BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Bychkov, Barbican Hall
Ask not for whom the bell tolls. Rachmaninov didn’t: he knew. Or rather he was convinced that they all tolled for him. His splendid choral symphony The Bells is full of ominous premonition with even the “Silver…
LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall
Send in the clowns. Or at least that was Vladimir Jurowski’s musical thinking in bringing together the mighty foursome of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Haydn, and Shostakovich and seeing just how far their capricious natures might take us. The…
Orchestra of the Accademia Nationale Di Santa Cecilia, Pappano, Anvil Basingstoke
The Orchestra of the Academia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Rome, brought a little something home grown on this their fleeting UK tour. While their counterparts at the Royal Opera in London were tracing out the ethereal opening…
Verdi “Aida”, Royal Opera House
David McVicar’s darkly primitivist Aida was a necessary antidote to the whole tedious tradition of sub-De Mille spectacle in this piece. The cleverest thing about his staging – and I cannot for the life of me work…
London Symphony Orchestra, Rattle, Barbican Hall
Another ingeniously apposite piece of programming from Simon Rattle – but this time the Berlin Philharmonic had stayed in Berlin and a long awaited re-match with the London Symphony Orchestra presented two mighty instrumental canvasses as startling…
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Pappano, Cadogan Hall
Exactly one week after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra memorably presented key players in a chamber setting, Antonio Pappano has done likewise with his Royal Opera House Orchestra – and what’s more found a common denominator. You go…
The Mikado, English National Opera
Not many directors return to rehearse productions 25 years old but Jonathan Miller likes to keep a handle on his properties. They have a habit of digging in for the long term and his wickedly inventive Mikado…
Hallé Orchestra, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
The connection between Verdi’s Overture to Luisa Miller and Mozart’s G major Piano Concerto No.17 may not immediately have been apparent but a few pages of both quickly pointed up operatic common ground. The curtain was duly…
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Barbican Hall
They’ve called this unprecedented five-day residency “The London Concerts” and having already shown off the youthful core of players at the heart of this venerable and venerated orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra duly expanded from chamber to…