Category: Music

Medieval Madness

I saw Ariadne auf Naxos again on Wednesday at Holland Park; a very different kettle of fish to Longborough. This time the players were allocated caravans to change in, not dissimilar to the ones given to Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren when they were making Arabesque in Wales.

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Devil in the Detail

I have just finished the last of the three books by Frank Gardner that I was given for my birthday: Crisis. The first two are autobiographical and this is a thriller with an unimaginative title.

Longborough

You can teach an old dog new tricks. What I discovered on Sunday evening is Longborough Opera.

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Goodbye to Dresden

Rigoletto at the Semperoper in Dresden on Sunday evening was a revival of a production first seen in 2006. It has had quite a few outings since then of which the best was surely when Dian Damrau sang Gilda and Juan Diego Flórez the Duke.

Good Show, ENO

Gosh, it was 2 1/2 years ago when I wrote No, No, ENO. It concluded with the hope that ENO would extricate itself from its travails. Well it hasn’t.

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Bravo, Michael

Peter Gelb has become synonymous with the New York Met, yet he has only been General Manager for twelve years. Closer to home, for me, is Opera Holland Park where Michael Volpe has been General Director since OHP was founded in 1996.

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Madama Butterfly

A visit to Glyndebourne is for many a chance to admire the gardens and settle into a serious picnic in the evening sunshine, regrettably interrupted by a couple of naps during the opera.

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The Grammar of Ornament

A book first published in 1856 and still in print deserves to be called a classic. That’s The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones.

Opera

Three evenings at the opera last week and I didn’t see a single complete opera.

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Three Times a Lady

My third Tosca since October: first Rome, then Live from the Met and on Saturday, Covent Garden. Saturday matinees are always popular.