Arts OPERA REVIEW: The Marriage of Figaro : ENO ENO A Theatrical Anatomy of Desire, Power, and Performance By Eric Page • 3 min read
Interviews Nicky Spence – creating his own queer triple threat Brian Butler meets international opera sensation Nicky Spence By Brian Butler • 4 min read
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Górecki; English National Opera; London Coliseum; London, UK; 25 April 2023; Nicole Chevalier – soprano; Lidiya Yankovskaya – Conductor; Isabella Bywater – Director/Designer; Roberto Vitalini – Video Designer; Jon Driscoll – Lighting Designer; Photo: © CLIVE BARDA/ArenaPAL; Music Classical REVIEW: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs @ ENO This haunting performance of Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony is a startlingly but soothing staging from the ENO yet again showing us what a dedicated team of people can do with imagination, flair and a determination to explore and share the very best of music with a diverse and invested audience. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Yeoman of the Guard @ ENO A successful night and a polished introduction to a remodelled Yeoman. Offering a fine evening of nostalgic semi-serious opera with its heart of G&S essential silliness maintained. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts SPOTLIGHT ON: Queer plays, an opera and a ballet In the first of two articles, Brian Butler surveys a feast of queer theatre coming soon By Brian Butler • 3 min read
Arts Liminal by Le Gateau Chocolat Le Gateau Chocolat is one of the UK’s leading drag performers. By Alex Klineberg • 3 min read
Arts OPERA REVIEW: Marnie @ENO Daughter. Liar. Wife. Thief. She has been running for so long, no one knows the real Marnie, least of all herself. A world premiere opera from composer Nico Muhly, with a libretto by Nicholas Wright, Marnie is based on the novel by Winston Graham although alludes to the Hitchcock film. It examines t By Eric Page • 5 min read
Arts OPERA REVIEW: Nabucco With some charming walk on by local young people and children from The Theatre Workshop this was a lovely engaging piece of opera presented in Ms Kent’s trademark way, lot’s of drama, quality singing and an intimate feeling of seeing good opera done in a straight foreword way By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Mikado: ENO Set in an ever-so English 1930s seaside hotel, bleached white with privilege and wealth Jonathan Miller’s Marx Brothers-inspired song-and-dance Mikado is a popular hit with audiences of all ages. A distant picture of Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa is one of the only gentle echos of this operettas By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Force of Destiny: ENO While not perfect this new ENO production is an exciting, challenging and interesting night out with quality singing and a sumptuous orchestral score, director Bieito has done bloody well to get so much out of this difficult Verdi epic. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts 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. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts 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 By Eric Page • 5 min read
