Mainly Opera and Ballet
This is a copy of my review in the Sunday Telegraph on 29th July 2018. The Wagner Festival in Bayreuth dates from 1876 when the composer’s extraordinary new opera house, with its recessed orchestra pit invisible to the audience, hosted the first complete performance of his four-part Ring cycle. After Wagner died in 1883, his …
Italian composer Pietro Mascagni never repeated the huge success of Cavalleria Rusticana, his first opera written at age 26, but he had a jolly good try — see my Telegraph review on 15 July 2018.
Although the three acts of Meistersinger – Wagner’s 1868 opera about the tussle between creativity and convention – are normally performed on a single evening, this was an exception. The opening night of Andrea Moses’ new production saw only the first two acts, with the third following next day. My review appeared in the Telegraph, …
