Mozart “The Magic Flute”, Garsington Opera at Wormsley
The sun really smiled on the opening of Garsington Opera’s handsome new summer pavilion at the Getty’s Wormsley estate – but in doing so it rather turned Mozart’s Magic Flute on its head flooding light and enlightenment…
A Conversation With JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER
http://media.blubrry.com/seckerson/p/www.edwardseckerson.biz/media/podcasts/Edward-Seckerson-Julian-Lloyd-Webber.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download… [Read More]
London Symphony Orchestra, Uchida, Davis, Barbican Hall
It says something for Sir Colin Davis’ eternal vitality and musical curiosity that he should come to the dynamic Carl Nielsen symphonies so late in life. The Sixth and last of them carries the elliptical subtitle “Sinfonia…
Verdi “Macbeth”, Royal Opera House
Phyllida Lloyd’s 2002 staging of Verdi’s Macbeth is prematurely looking like a parody of itself – an exhibit in one of designer Anthony Ward’s gilded display cases. But it’s sounding rather terrific in this second revival and…
Wagner “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Some pieces you just have to trust and trust implicitly. When a text is as good as Wagner’s Die Meistersinger it’s a wise director who takes a step back and let the words, the characters, the bountiful…
Britten “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, English National Opera, London Coliseum
Viruses, it seems, make no distinction between mortals and spirits. Even Fairy Kings can succumb. And so it was that Iestyn Davies, a much-anticipated Oberon, acted the role on stage while William Towers provided his singing voice…
London Symphony Orchestra, Bronfman, Gergiev, Barbican Hall
As sometimes happens in live performances a soloist’s encore might display a brilliance and precision that one might have felt lacking in the main event – or, in this case, events. Yefim Bronfman’s account of the Paganini-Liszt…
Massenet “Werther”, Royal Opera House
Rolando Villazón is back. That was the overriding headline of this highly emotional revival of Massenet’s heartbreaker. The other was how and why Benoit Jacquot’s painterly staging came to be so lambasted from some quarters when it…
Philharmonia Orchestra, Maazel, Royal Festival Hall
Watching Lorin Maazel in this the latest instalment of his Philharmonia Mahler cycle was a puzzling and unsettling experience. He was there and yet not there; he was controlled and yet not; he conducted from memory but…
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Petrenko, Royal Festival Hall
It must be hard comprehending death when you’ve barely begun living – but the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain has a corporate sixth sense about the subtext of music that never ceases to amaze. Their latest…
