Opera & Ballet

Collected opera and ballet reviews

Luxuriating in legendary voices and grand style in the Met’s 1988 Il trovatore

by

United StatesUnited States Verdi, Il trovatore: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York / James Levine (conductor). 15.10.1988 performance reviewed as Nightly Met Opera Stream on 7.7.2020. (RP)

Éva Marton (top l), Delora Zajick, Sherill Milnes & Luciano Pavarotti (bottom l) 

Read more

ENB’s 2019 Cinderella has a ball in-the-round and in 2020 dancers bring poignancy to an empty Theatre in the Woods

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom ENB at Home – Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella: Dancers of English National Ballet, English National Ballet Philharmonic / Gavin Sutherland (conductor). Performance from 5.6.2019 and reviewed as a live stream for #ENBatHome on 8.7.2020. (JPr)

English National Ballet’s Cinderella (c) Laurent Liotardo

Read more

Beverly Sills bid farewell to the Met in this 1978 Don Pasquale as we say farewell to Gabriel Bacquier in 2020

by

United StatesUnited States Donizetti, Don Pasquale: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York / Nicola Rescigno (conductor). 11.1.1979 performance reviewed as Nightly Met Opera Stream on 5.7.2020. (JPr)

The Metropolitan Opera’s Don Pasquale

Read more

Will we ever hear their like again? Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, and Christa Ludwig in a 1989 Met Die Walküre

by
Hildegard Behrens (Brünnhilde) and James Morris (Wotan)

United StatesUnited States Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York / James Levine (conductor). 8.4.1989 performance reviewed as a Nightly Met Opera Stream on 1.7.2020. (JPr)

Read more

Live from Covent Garden showcases some impressive singers from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Various composers, Live from Covent Garden: Singers of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, Patrick Milne (harpsichord and piano), Edmund Whitehead (piano), soloists of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor). Hosted by Katie Derham, streamed live and reviewed on 27.6.2020. (JPr)

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano)

Read more

Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: despite the magnetic Alessandra Ferri, Wayne McGregor’s triptych will not be for you

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works – a triptych: Dancers of The Royal Ballet, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Koen Kessels (conductor). 8.2.2017 performance streamed online and reviewed on 27.6.2020. (JPr)

Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli in Tuesday © Dave Morgan

Read more

Lockdown View from the Villa takes in a magisterial Lohengrin from Netrebko, Beczala, and Thielemann

by

GermanyGermany Wagner, Lohengrin: Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden, Sinfoniechor Dresden, Sächsische Staatskapelle / Christian Thielemann (conductor). Performance of 25.5.2016 and reviewed as a Semperoper Weekend Stream on 27.6.2020. (JPr)

Piotr Beczala and Anna Netrebko (c) Daniel Koch

Read more

Live from Covent Garden: Dame Sarah Connolly’s triumphant return to singing with her moving Mahler

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Gluck, Mahler – Live from Covent Garden: Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor), Vadim Muntagirov (dancer), soloists of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor). Streamed live from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 20.6.2020. (JPr)

Dame Sarah Connolly (c) Tristram Kenton

Read more