Tag Archives: John Findon

Jenufa, English National Opera, March 2024

This opera marks the beginning of Janáček’s personal style, with a series of five operas in the standard repertoire. The ENO production is excellent, set in the grey times of post WW2 communism, and the orchestral performance was outstanding. See my review in The Article.

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Peter Grimes, English National Opera, September 2023

Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes portrays its eponymous character as neither hero nor villain. Like everyone else in George Crabbe’s story his life is controlled by the sea, their destinies forged and circumscribed by powerful forces, just as Britten’s was in the Second World War when he left Britain for America where this work was …

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Bartered Bride, Garsington, July 2023

This opera from the later days of the Austrian Empire, written in the local vernacular of the Czech lands, is a romp. Rather than the Germanic influence of Austria however this has the flavour of Czech folk music. It should be played with complete passion, and under the excellent baton of Jac van Steen it …

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Rheingold, English National Opera, February 2023

This new staging of Rheingold is part of a new production of Wagner’s Ring being produced in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Director Richard Jones has given us a clear set of allusions in a modern setting, rather than a simplistic interpretation overlaid with subtleties that no audience member can fathom without reading …

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