Peter Grimes, WNO, April 2025
April 10, 2025This new production by the Welsh National Opera portrays Grimes, brilliantly performed by Nicky Spence, as a bully. Brutal but with a hugely vulnerable side that is desperate for the love of the young widow Ellen Orford. She would take him in a heartbeat, but he insists on acquiring the respect of the local community …
Mary Queen of Scots, ENO, February 2025
February 17, 2025If you ever wondered about the history of Mary Stuart and her period on the throne of Scotland this opera by Thea Musgrave explains the intrigue, the competition for her hand in marriage, and the religious tensions. The only downside is that there is no let up from the tension — see my review in …
Festen, Royal Opera, February 2025
February 14, 2025This new work by Mark Anthony Turnage is an operatic adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg’s claustrophobic family drama that unfolds over the course of a single evening. The title means celebration, in this case of the 60th birthday of Helge, paterfamilias and sexual abuser — see my review in The Article.
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