(Photo credit: Tristram Kenton) Profane escapes scale heights heretical in offbeat tales. These contests of one-upmanship with God breed killers; lesser sinners stray with strangers. Dvořák’s unnamed “Spectre’s Bride” – the leading lady of his 1885 cantata – steals away with a dead demon. Four decades later a Chinese adventurer is robbed and killed in Bartók’s “The Miraculous Mandarin,” a {…}
(Credit: ©2025 Marc Brenner) This David McVicar production of “Faust” is its sixth incarnation. It is a cornucopia of demonic dabbling and delightful witticism combined with some rather dark, if not thoroughly perturbing, moments; balanced with some stellar acting and some pretty glorious singing! Under revival director Peter Relton we are presented here with a gamut of prancing devils, cabaret girls {…}
At the risk of repeating myself, opera should be all about the music and the voice. If I’m ever asked to quantify that statement, I readily proffer “Turandot” in support of my assertions. For here is a ridiculous, cruel, convoluted tale that is impossible to like and grasp, perpetrated by a pair of unpleasant, thoroughly dislikeable characters with, were it {…}
(Photo: Marc Brenner/Royal Ballet & Opera) Entombing doom in monochrome, director Robert Carsen’s 2022 production of “Aïda” buries its protagonists before they’re dead. Façades of forced conformity define it – popping through parades of khaki uniforms, authentic footage of exploding bombs and regimented training. A fictitious flag that features stars and stripes across red, white and blue confirm its commentary {…}
(Photo credit: Clive Barda) It’s curtain down, the opera has just ended and the cast are – dressed in 18th century attire – each taking their turns to bow to the applause, to the sound of “Così’s” ouverture. Confused? Well, that was just the start to an evening that was as whacky as it was amusing, if not also a {…}
The Royal Opera House continues its #OurHouseToYourHouse program with a screening of ZooNation’s family-friendly “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” on Friday, July 31 at 7:00 p.m. BST. ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, a British hip-hop influenced dance company, reimagines Lewis Carroll’s classic tale with a 21st-century twist, zeroing in on perceptions of mental illness and the concept of “normality.” ZooNation {…}
