Tag Archives: Charpentier

Hamlet, Four Shorts, and Orphée at the Buxton Festival, July 2025

Posted on 16 July 2025

This was my first encounter with the Hamlet of French composer Ambroise Thomas, and very moving it was. The Festival also performed a brief seventeenth opera, Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers, plus four short operas, two of which were interesting — see my review in The Article.

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Medea, English National Opera, London Coliseum, February 2013

Posted on 16 February 2013

Spectacular success for the ENO gives audiences the British premiere of this baroque jewel that has lain in the shadows for about 300 years. With an excellent libretto by Thomas Corneille, well translated by Christopher Cowell, this terrific production by David McVicar makes compelling theatre. Excellent choreography by Lynne Page suits both music and drama, Paule Constable’s lighting gives …

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