Tag Archives: Ed Lyon

Theodora, Royal Opera, January 2022

Handel, considered this his finest oratorio though it flopped with the public, but in Katie Mitchell’s new staging it was sublimely musical, and the performance compelling. Handel’s operas tend to be a sequence of recitatives and arias, but his oratorios have a far weightier role for the chorus, as in some modern operas — my review …

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Turn of the Screw, Garsington Opera, July 2019

A hauntingly memorable interpretation of Britten’s masterpiece based on the Henry James story, with Sophie Bevan expressing the naïve yet fevered emotions of the Governess. Wonderful singing from all the cast, including Ed Lyon as Quint — see my review in The Article.

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Abduction from the Seraglio, Grange Festival, June 2018

The one non-singing role in this Mozart Singspiel— the Ottoman Pasha Selim — at the very end turns out to be the noblest character in the story. In the meantime his unrequited passion for Konstanze has led him to threaten terrible punishment if she fails to reciprocate his ardour. She has been purchased as a …

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The Exterminating Angel, Royal Opera, ROH, Covent Garden, April 2017

Thomas Adès’ previous opera The Tempest, set on Prospero’s mysterious island, finds a counterpoint here in the ostensibly mundane setting of an elegant dinner party — but all is not as it seems. Both operas feature very high soprano roles, Ariel in the Tempest and three of the ladies in Angel, again with the idea of …

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Tristan und Isolde, Royal Opera, ROH, Covent Garden, December 2014

Does Tristan know Isolde intends to kill him with the drink in Act I? No doubt at all in Christof Loy’s production where both of them lie down to die. But though Isolde sings of hatred, the orchestra carries the truth — love — and Mr. Loy, concerned that the emotional content of the stage action …

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Ariadne auf Naxos, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, June 2014

Returning to direct this second revival of his 2002 production, Christof Loy gave us an Act I that presented the young composer in far better form than the first revival of 2008. Beautifully and strongly sung by Ruxandra Donose, he (she) showed fire in the belly, and frustration with the philistines around him. It was …

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L’Ormindo, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, March 2014

The last time the Royal Opera House put on a Cavalli opera was in autumn 2008 with an elaborate post-modern take on La Calisto. This time the emphasis is on authenticity, and the star of the show is the new small and intimate Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, a candlelit auditorium recently attached to the Globe Theatre. …

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Hippolyte et Aricie, Glyndebourne, July 2013

This is the third Rameau opera I have seen in as many years, and I understand the problem. Rameau’s delightful music — played here on original instruments by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under the excellent baton of William Christie — is full of wonderful dance rhythms. The question is what to do …

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