Today is the Holocaust Memorial Day here in the UK. For that, I’m reposting here (verbatim) a bit I published in my other blog about two years ago, after seeing Mark Hayhurst’s play Taken at Midnight. It’s story of a young lawyer who challenged Hitler in the early days of his pursuit for power, ending … More This day of remembrance
There haven’t been many weeks like this. Over the space of just seven days, I have seen Renee Fleming’s farewell performance at the Royal Opera, watched Simon Russell Beale play Prospero in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest, and finally listened to Martha Argerich play Prokofiev in the Sheldonian. I have been trying to write … More Lately
New year, new-ish season. I had originally decided against booking Der Rosenkavalier – it was too close to Christmas holiday etc. But as the ROH public booking opened, I ended up grabbing a £20 standing ticket to what turned out to be Renee Fleming’s farewell performance at the Royal Opera (she will retire from the … More Der Rosenkavalier
I made several attempts at getting everything I saw in one mosaic. Turns out that I don’t have an pictures from the Ariadne auf Naxos I saw in the spring, and only a curtain photo of Boris Godunov. And quite possibly nothing at all from Nabucco (either that, or I’m blind). The two recitals that … More It was a very good year. In some respects.
My career of loving music goes very roughly like this: My father was a professional musician, and so it would have been quite natural that my parents would take me to see Verdi’s Aida when I was 5. It was in Savonlinna, and I remember standing on my seat to see better (the other punters … More In praise of… Sir Thomas Allen
This past Sunday I went to Salisbury Cathedral for their famous Advent service. This is the Church of England at its ceremonial grandest, a procession of clergy and choirs, with the staffs and crosses, even the embroidery on the gonfalons* sparkling in the candlelit darkness, designed for maximum impact. As the clock struck, the lights … More It was a very cultured week
On Saturday I went to see the first of my November operas, Alban Berg’s Lulu at the Coliseum. Couple days before I had seen somewhere online a picture of the Frederic Leighton House, and a weekend’s entertainment was ready – the museum, a walk around the nearby Holland Park, a quick trek to Liberty and … More A rainy day in London
For the last two Saturdays I have trekked to London to see Bellini’s Norma at the Royal Opera; the first round was a bit of a lucky windfall – a friend, who had the tickets, couldn’t go and so I got to go and have a proper outing; museums and shopping, and drinks on the … More Norma, or my mad-ish autumn of opera
Now, this is opera. Il Trovatore is one of the major works by Verdi, a smash hit from the get go – within the first three years of its 1853 premiere, it had been performed thousands of times, in over two hundred different productions. I have heard it being described as a hit parade in … More My mad summer of opera, Part 4: Il Trovatore
Werther is, for me, a strange opera. It’s full of beautiful music, it’s all about tragic love, and yet if fails to thrill. It’s based on Goethe’s late 18th century novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, and simply tells the story of a young, comfortably off middle class man falling in love to for a … More My mad summer of opera, Part 3: Werther
Shakespeare for absolute beginners 