The Great Gatsby: A Masterpiece of Design at the London Coliseum

L’Incoronazione di Poppea, first performed in Venice in 1642, is unique in the history of opera, not because of its remarkable age or the high quality of its music, after all, there are other operas from the same years, and Monteverdi, the composer of the music, equalled and perhaps surpassed the level reached in this work in other immortal titles such as Orfeo or Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. If L'Incoronazione di Poppea is a unique work, it is because of its...

Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo, which premiered in 1867 in Paris as Don Carlos, exists in several versions, and, depending on which is performed, is either his longest or one of his longest operas. Although the first performance was in French, Nicholas Hytner’s 2008 production for the Royal Opera, which represents a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, employs the Modena version of 1886. This is one of several to...

Bushra El-Turk’s Woman at Point Zero, with a libretto by Stacy Hardy, is based on Nawal El Saadawi’s 1975 novel Point Zero. Having already appeared in France (at the Aix-en-Provence Festival), Belgium and Luxembourg, it now comes to the Royal Opera House to take centre-stage at this year’s Engender Festival, an initiative to transform gender representation in opera and music theatre. The production is by LOD Music Theatre, and it is co-presented as part of the Aldeburgh...

The raw material for the show, Henry Purcell's opera Dido & Aeneas, was of the highest quality. The ensemble Les Arts Florissants led by its founder, William Christie, a world reference in the field of Baroque music performance, guaranteed a good instrumental and choral performance. The vocal soloists also seemed adequate. The intention was good: presenting Dido & Aeneas in a danced version seemed like a good idea, it has been done with this same title on other occasions...

David et Jonathasby Marc-Antoine Charpentier thrills at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci French Baroque at its best The French just know how to do it ... in this case, it is both an opera from 1688 and the production, including costumes and stage design. No wonder ... this is a co-production with the Opéra Royal/Château de Versailles Spectacles with the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci and first shown in Versailles in November 2022. David et Jonathasis a...

Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore of 1853 is based on Antonio García Gutiérrez’s play El trovador. Set in fifteenth century Spain it tells of the noble lady Leonora who is in love with the troubadour Manrico, but is herself loved by the Count di Luna, a nobleman in the service of the Prince of Aragon. The Count’s younger brother Garzia supposedly died in infancy when a gypsy was burnt at the stake for allegedly bewitching him, and the charred body of a...