Tag Archives: Catherine Wyn-Rogers

Peter Grimes, Royal Opera, March 2022

In her new production of Peter Grimes Deborah Warner brought the setting up to date with detritus on the beach and yobbos threatening Ellen Orford. As Grimes himself Allan Clayton was outstanding, rough and ready but with mental issues in Warner’s sympathetic portrayal. Excellent contributions from Bryn Terfel as Captain Balstrode, and John Tomlinson as Swallow …

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Peter Grimes, in concert at the Royal Festival Hall, Dec 2019

Wow, this semi-staged concert performance under the direction of Edward Gardner with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra was sensational — see my review in The Article.

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Le Vin herbé, Welsh National Opera, WNO, Cardiff, February 2017

The French title (the wine infused drink) refers to the love potion shared by Tristan and Isolde, and at its first fully staged performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1948 it took the German title Der Zaubertrank (the Magic Drink). Wagner’s famous Tristan und Isolde was partly inspired by his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonk while …

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Eugene Onegin, Royal Opera, ROH, Covent Garden, December 2015

In February 2013 this was Kasper Holten’s first new production after being appointed opera director, and it is ironic that this revival occurs less than two weeks after he handed in his notice. It is now a co-production with Turin and Opera Australia, and has undergone changes. There is slightly less use of the dreadful …

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Grimes on the Beach, Aldeburgh, June 2013

It all started with a Spitfire, flying low across the sea, first one way then the other, before looping the loop and vanishing into the distance. This reminder of 1945 fitted the costumes and ostensibly precarious sets by Leslie Travers in Tim Albery’s excellent production. Watching Britten’s Grimes on a set that ran along the …

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Peter Grimes, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, June 2011

This production brings out the horrid awkwardness of Grimes’s estrangement from the local community, eliciting our sympathy for him …

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