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 [...]
