REVIEW: Barber Of Seville: ENO
This was a fun and enjoyable night out at the ENO, full of laughter and delightful performances. I’d recommend this production for a first timer as it will leave you humming and smiling all the way home.
ENO
REVIEW: Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk: ENO
Famously damned by Pravda, supposedly on Stalin’s say so as ‘muddle rather than music’ Shostakovich’s opera was premiered in 1934 and the public loved the merciless parody heaving with lust, sex, violence, corruption and the spearing of male power.
OPERA REVIEW: The Pirates of Penzance: ENO
This highly anticipated swashbuckling farce with its new staging is directed by Mike (I’ll never direct an opera) Leigh, who made his operatic debut this evening. I liked his version, all geometric sets and ultra-simplistic colours from Alison Chitty, they worked well, softly gliding and sliding int
OPERA REVIEW: The Indian Queen
In this vibrant production, devised by acclaimed director Peter Sellars, the rich and transcendent score of Purcell’s final unfinished opera is reworked around a new text and the inclusion of a number of Purcell’s most ravishing religious anthems. This new retelling of The Indian Queen recounts the
OPERA REVIEW: La traviata
I was totally absorbed by its headlong rush into tragedy and the singing and music was of astonishing quality. Overall a music triumph, but with a confusing narrative, but a rich lush evening none the less.
OPERA REVIEW: The Gospel According to the Other Mary
This is something new, modern but accessible, understandable and moving. I would highly recommend this engaging production by the ENO, and if the music bores you a little, you can always float away with Banks and his vibrant, rhythmic angelic crumping or allow the chorus to astonish you.
REVIEW: Marriage of Figaro
This second outing of Fiona Shaw’s Figaro has mellowed and matured in the few years since the last time it graced the ENO stage. The wit is still there, the endless movement and r revolving stage allowing us insight and side squints into the upstairs/downstairs business of this grand space and the s