Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2024 Review: The Merry Widow

(Photo © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Tristram Kenton) There was much to fuel the excitement around a brand new production of Franz Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” for Glyndebourne Festival Opera this year. It’s the first time the work has ever been mounted there, and it’s always a treat to see what the slickly-oiled operatic operation, with its six weeks of {…}

Nov 6, 2021

English National Opera 2021-22 Review: HMS Pinafore

(Photo Credit: Tristan Kenton, 2021) Cal McCrystal returns to English National Opera (ENO) for his second Gilbert & Sullivan operetta at the Coliseum, following up 2019’s riotously silly “Iolanthe” with “HMS Pinafore.” His is an interventionist approach that will surely not please G&S traditionalists: not that there seemed to be any disapproving looks from them on opening night! As the {…}