The Rape of Lucretia at the ROH is a muddled show that signals opera has a long way to go opera The Rape of Lucretia at the Royal Opera House is almost a great success. Director Oliver Mears’ intense staging possesses moments of pure violence and raw emotion, impressively pulled off by a cast drawn exclusively from operatic young artist programmes. However, it’s not quite a win for The Linbury Theatre, with the sexual politics of [...]
La Bohème at The Royal Opera House review opera Richard Jones’s La Bohème, now in its fourth revival at The Royal Opera House, is filled with glittering snow, bright lights, bold colours, and the (all too familiar) invisible hand of death and disease. Apologies for the doom and gloom, but no amount of 19th century Christmas jollity can make up for this Puccini classic [...]
The Boy with Two Hearts, National Theatre, review: Poignant tale of love THEATRE REVIEW The Boy With Two Hearts is a true story turned into a book by Hamed and Hessam Amiri, about their own journey from Herat to Cardiff, focusing on their brother Hussein and his chronic heart condition. Transformed into a play by Phil Porter and the Wales Millennium Centre, it is a poignant tale of love [...]
Tosca is the English National Opera show to catch this autumn October 7, 2022 The English National Opera returns for a brand new season – and it does so in style! Last seen at the Finnish National Opera in 2018, Christof Loy’s production of Puccini’s Tosca is the opening gambit of the 2022-2023 offering. Tosca not only includes some of Puccini’s finest arias, but is undoubtedly one of opera’s [...]
Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the ROH is a mixed bag of a production October 2, 2022 Mozart’s Don Giovanni is famously difficult to stage, what with its intricate combination of comedy, tragedy, and a Don Juan who is so completely grotesque that he makes Daemon Targaryen look like a saint. If you are thinking that no review that starts like this can signal a five-star show, you’re right. This revival of [...]
Aida at the ROH is a thrilling opera set against a bleak backdrop October 2, 2022 Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida is an opera usually characterised by unabashed spectacle. When the original production opened in Cairo in 1871, the stage was adorned with all manner of ancient Egyptian finery. Many contemporary productions follow this original formula, more or less, but director Robert Carson swerves away from it in this brand-new Royal Opera House [...]
Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House review July 8, 2022 Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Name a more dramatic duo… I’ll wait. Opera’s favourite double act returns to the Royal Opera House in the form of Damiano Michieletto’s Olivier Award winning production, with all its ‘slice of life’ tragedy intact. Cleverly intertwining the double bill, Michieletto’s ‘Cav and Pag’, revived here by [...]
A Doll’s House Part 2 at the Donmar is a welcome sequel to Ibsen’s classic June 24, 2022 A visit to A Doll’s House Part 2 prompts a question – why can’t we leave Nora alone? Lucas Hnath’s play at the Donmar Warehouse is just the latest in a long line of spinoffs based on Ibsen’s quintessential feminist text. The original A Doll’s House famously ends with Nora leaving her husband, Torvald, and, more [...]
