First Revival of Oliver Leith’s Last Days at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden

Last Days, by composer Oliver Leith and librettist Matt Copson, is based on Gus Van Sant’s eponymous film of 2005. In 1994 Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of rock band Nirvana, took his own life. Van Sant’s film is not strictly the story of Cobain’s demise, but, by focusing on a fictitious musician named Blake, it tries to imagine what he might have gone through in his final three days, which still remain something of a mystery. Van Sant initially thought that the film might...

English National Opera has a long and proud tradition of performing works by Gilbert and Sullivan, although the productions they have presented have differed markedly in style. Jonathan Miller’s 1986 staging of The Mikado, which is still going strong having last been revived in 2019, placed the action in a 1920s hotel and revealed the highest levels of exuberance and professionalism. On the other hand, Mike Leigh’s 2015 version of The Pirates of Penzance, most recently seen...

It is unusual for an operatic production to remain in the repertory for more than forty years, and rarer still for it to continue looking fresh and youthful. This Elisir d’amore, which will occupy the Liceu throughout the Christmas season, has a long and distinguished history. In 1983 Barcelona’s Grec Festival presented a staging of L’Elisir by Mario Gas in open-air performances; in the early 1990s it was revived at the Festival de Peralada; towards the end of that decade...

Georg Friedrich Haendel’s Partenope, which premiered at the King's Theatre in London on 24 February 1730, follows the structure and forms of opera seria. It can hardly be described as such, however, since it is so humorous in tone, while the music is relatively light textured. Its libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from one originally written in 1699 by Silvio Stampiglia, and the story’s frivolous nature led the opera company the Royal Academy of Music to reject the...

Composed between 1923 and 1925, The Makropulos Case, with music and libretto by Leoš Janáček, is based on Karel Čapek’s eponymous play. Originally set in Prague in 1922, it concerns a hundred year old probate case entitled Gregor v. Prus. When Baron Joseph Ferdinand Prus died in 1827 his cousin claimed the estate, but so too did one Ferdinand Gregor, who asserted that the Baron had promised it to him. While the people originally involved are long dead, their...

Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, with a libretto by Terrence McNally, premiered in 2000 at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, and has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera. In spite of this, it has only ever enjoyed a smattering of outings in the United Kingdom, including a semi-staged performance at the Barbican in 2018, and productions by Welsh National Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2019 and 2023 respectively. In fact, Annilese Miskimmon’s new...