Rusalka, Glyndebourne, August 2009
Posted on 26 August 2009…this was a revelation, and I congratulate Glyndebourne for putting it on.
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Visit to London, July/August 2009
Posted on 24 August 2009This summer [the Mariinsky] brought to London the works of some great composers: Wagner’s Ring, and three great full-length ballets (two Tchaikovsky, one Prokofiev), along with a Balanchine triple bill.
Tristan und Isolde, Glyndebourne, August 2009
Posted on 19 August 2009This was Glyndebourne’s 2003 production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff,…[and] it works terrifically well, with a set by Roland Aeschlimann featuring a broken vortex of huge curved girders.
Review of Sleeping Beauty, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009
Posted on 15 August 2009The corps de ballet danced superbly, Igor Kolb made a very fine prince, and Maxim Zuzin danced delightfully as the bluebird. All might have been well if Pavel Bubelnikov could have done a decent job conducting
Homage to Balanchine, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009
Posted on 13 August 2009Symphony in C … to Bizet’s Symphony No. 1 … is a blaze of action, … designed to show off a classical ballet company…
Hamlet, Donmar production, Wyndham’s Theatre, August 2009
Posted on 12 August 2009Altogether this was a good production, well worth seeing, but I wish Hamlet’s speeches had been given with less force and more subtlety.
Swan Lake, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009
Posted on 9 August 2009… the evening belonged to the corps de ballet, which danced magnificently …
Katya Kabanova, Holland Park Opera, August 2009
Posted on 8 August 2009This performance was a team effort, led with great emotional sensitivity by Stuart Stratford in the orchestra pit.
Helen, Globe Theatre, August 2009
Posted on 4 August 2009This Euripedes play was given in a new translation by Frank McGuinness, and… it worked well here, directed by Deborah Bruce, with designs by Gideon Davy,
Romeo and Juliet, Maryinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009
Posted on 4 August 2009The music was excellently conducted by Covent Garden’s Boris Gruzin with the Maryinsky Theatre Orchestra, but that is not enough to compensate for staging that belongs in the dustbin of Soviet relics.