Friday, February 14, 2020
Some of the most beloved operas come freighted with the heaviest cultural baggage. Consider Madama Butterfly, Puccini's 1904 opera. Set in Nagasaki,
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:14PM[SHARE]Monday, January 13, 2020
The boundless cruelty of a government that imprisons and tortures its opponents, the soul-destroying complicity of functionaries who uphold the state's brutality
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:26PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 12, 2019
This year marks the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death, and his life and works are being celebrated around the world
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:15AM[SHARE]Monday, October 28, 2019
A stirring if fanciful epic poem about the First Crusade by Italian Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso has, for centuries, been a rich
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:47AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Donizetti's comic opera classic receives an invigorating new English-language production at the King's Head Theatre, Islington. A co-production of King's Head and
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:15AM[SHARE]Monday, September 23, 2019
In 1918, birth-control advocate Marie Stopes published Married Life, a book that ignited a firestorm of controversy for its daring premise that
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:03AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 10, 2019
The Picture of Dorian Gray has inspired many playwrights and composers to translate it to the stage. A new operatic adaptation by
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:27AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 15, 2019
An opera about a singing contest would seem an obvious candidate for a modern-era production and that's exactly what Fulham Opera has
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:50AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 24, 2019
English composer Stephen Storace was a contemporary and friend of Mozart, and his 1785 opera Gli Sposi Malcontenti contains all the essential
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:40AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Political drama or romantic tragedy? Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera has elements of both with its plot about the assassination of the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:33AM[SHARE]Monday, June 10, 2019
To launch a new Ring cycle is an ambitious undertaking for any opera company. It's even more audacious when the company in
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:33AM[SHARE]Friday, May 24, 2019
On the day of the European Union elections, to see Peter Sellars' staged version of an a cappella Renaissance choral work, Orlando
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:20AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Richard Eyre's production of La Traviata is a mainstay of the Royal Opera House, and Bob Crowley's lavish design is one major
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:45AM[SHARE]Monday, November 26, 2018
American composer Jake Heggie is best known for his opera Dead Man Walking. His predilection for turning to popular sources continues with
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 16, 2018
La Traviata is all about passion. Passion propels the opera's drama forward, from the moment the impulsive Violetta decides to abandon her
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:35AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 3, 2018
The feisty opera company at the King's Head Theatre, under the artistic direction of Adam Spreadbury-Maher, likes to drill down to the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:44AM[SHARE]Monday, October 1, 2018
From a feminist perspective, the character of Salome is seriously problematic. In Richard Strauss's opera, based on Oscar Wilde's play, she's a
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:10AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 5, 2018
"Since it is not by merit we rise or we fall, but the favour of Fortune that governs us all." That sounds
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:23PM[SHARE]Monday, August 13, 2018
It's no wonder that Greek, Mark-Anthony Turnage's first opera, made the 28-year-old composer's name in 1988. Turnage's brilliant, percussive score took an
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:01AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Had Rossini not composed Le Cenerentola in 1817, it's possible that the most famous operatic version of Perrault's fairytale Cendrillon would be
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:09AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Hot on the heels of a well-received revival of Mascagni's forgotten Isabeau, Opera Holland Park chalks up its first Richard Strauss opera with a
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:11AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Rossini's The Barber of Seville requires a fine balance between fast-paced slapstick and stand-and-deliver vocal showpieces, and an enjoyable new production from
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:52AM[SHARE]Monday, March 5, 2018
English Touring Opera's revival production of Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi provides a reminder of the wide range of emotion Puccini crammed
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:12AM[SHARE]Monday, November 27, 2017
The operas of John Adams " Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic and The Death of Klinghoffer among them " confront the American
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:07AM[SHARE]Monday, November 13, 2017
The course of love never does run smooth and neither does the course of most fairytales. Random cruelty and stunning setbacks abound
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:29AM[SHARE]Friday, October 27, 2017
Directors of Mozart's Don Giovanni are often seduced into seeking out a plausible explanation for the title character's unrepentant womanising. For the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:13PM[SHARE]Monday, October 9, 2017
It's a beautiful sunny day in Naples, but it might as well be the frozen North for two young men who have
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:51AM[SHARE]Friday, September 29, 2017
Verdi's Aida lends itself to spectacle. Set in ancient Egypt, and with temple scenes and triumphal processions crucial to the plot, it's
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:54AM[SHARE]Friday, August 4, 2017
Who can resist hummus, that delicious blend of chickpeas, olive oil and garlic? It's a Middle Eastern cultural touchstone and the name
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:21AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 20, 2017
Exactly why composer Andre Tchaikowsky " gay, Jewish and depressive " chose The Merchant of Venice, with its heavy-handed anti-Semitism, as the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:35AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Poulenc's one-woman opera La Voix Humaine opens with a woman, Elle, sitting alone, waiting for her lover to ring. She swings from
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:49AM[SHARE] 
