Columns linked to David McVicar

Fresh Feeling Cast Brings a Lightness of Touch to The Magic Fl...

Sam Smith

Unlike the ballet The Nutcracker, which is also currently on at Covent Garden, The Magic Flute is not strictly a Christmas piece. However, Mozart’s final opera, which premiered on 30 September 1791 just a few months before his death, is both enchanting and humorous, meaning it is perfect fare for the festive season. The work, which takes the form of a Singspiel that combines singing with spoken dialogue, sees the Queen of the Night persuade Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina...


Star Performances Cap an Excellent Production of Salome at the...

Sam Smith

Opening night of Salome proved to be the first night of the Royal Opera’s 2022/23 season, although this was not by design. Don Giovanni was to have opened it the preceding evening, but the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II saw the performance cancelled as a mark of respect. Twenty-four hours later Salome did go ahead, preceded by a tribute led by Director of Opera Oliver Mears, a minute’s silence and the playing of the National Anthem by the Orchestra of...


McVicar’s Old Zauberflöte continues to be Magical

Xavier Pujol

David McVicar’s production of Die Zauberflöte commissioned by London’s Covent Garden was premiered almost 20 years ago and it has now reached Liceu after touring the world and becoming a reference amongst the many stagings of Mozart’s Singspiel in the last decades. This wasn’t Liceu’s first choice, however, as when the season – now almost over – was first announced it featured a production form the Dutch National Opera signed by Simon...


Tenth Revival of David McVicar’s The Magic Flute at the Royal ...

Sam Smith

Sir David McVicar’s 2001 production of Rigoletto for the Royal Opera may just have been displaced by a new version by Oliver Mears, but his The Magic Flute of 2003 is still going strong. Mozart’s final opera, which premiered on 30 September 1791 just a few months before the composer’s death, takes the form of a Singspiel that combines singing with spoken dialogue. In it, the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity...


Excellent Singing and Staging in Death in Venice at the Royal ...

Sam Smith

Death in Venice of 1973 is Benjamin Britten’s final opera. Based on Thomas Mann’s eponymous novella of 1912, it tells of a writer Gustav von Aschenbach who becomes obsessed to the point of madness with a youth who he repeatedly sees while in Venice. Given that the pair never speak to each other, it might not feel like obvious dramatic material but it has spawned a classic film (starring Dirk Bogarde) as well as Britten’s own masterpiece. It is possible to see the...


Excellent Revival of David McVicar’s Faust at the Royal Opera ...

Sam Smith

Charles-François Gounod’s Faust premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris on 19 March 1859. It underwent several revisions over the following decade, including the insertion of a ballet into Act V to meet the expectations of grand opera, and was extremely popular in the nineteenth century. It was the work with which New York’s Metropolitan Opera opened for the first time on 22 October 1883, while Covent Garden included it in its...