Mainly Opera and Ballet
This Handel opera centres on two strong women: Agrippina and Poppea, with Joyce DiDonato at the top of her game as a smoothly scheming Agrippina, and Lucy Crowe as a charmingly pretty Poppea. A very strong cast beautifully conducted from the harpsichord by Maxim Emelyanychev, but the self-indulgent production by Barrie Kosky was way over the …
Based on a drama by Voltaire, this Rossini opera centres round the legendary if fictional Queen Semiramide (Semiramis) of Babylon, a source of endless fascination for Classical and Renaissance authors, who based their fables on Persian sources. The legend is derived from at least two Assyrian queens: Sammuramat (the origin of the name) in the …
Monteverdi’s Orfeo is a triumph of harmony, both musically and in the Classical lines of its dramatic construction. This Proms performance too was a triumph, sidelining the artless production put on by the Royal Opera at the Roundhouse in January. First composed in 1607 for the Gonzaga court at Mantua where Monteverdi was director of …
