The Handmaid’s Tale, ENO, review: brave new staging of Poul Ruders’s opera is terrifyingly relevant
When Poul Ruders’s opera of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale opened in Copenhagen in 2000, the famous TV adaptation of her dystopian novel was in the future….
Anyone Can Sing: the TV show claiming it can turn the tone deaf into opera singers
“Why do you think you can’t sing?” a vocal coach asked Chris, participant in Anyone Can Sing (Sky Arts). “I’ve listened to myself,” shrugged Chris. Finally, a…
How scary, sweary soprano Nellie Melba ‘put Australia on the map’
Disdaining mealy-mouthed modesty, Nellie Melba liked to claim she had “put Australia on the map”. Such bravado wasn’t baseless: this opera soprano, born Helen Mitchell in Melbourne…
How scary, sweary soprano Nellie Melba ‘put Australia on the map’
Disdaining mealy-mouthed modesty, Nellie Melba liked to claim she had “put Australia on the map”. Such bravado wasn’t baseless: this opera soprano, born Helen Mitchell in Melbourne…
ENO: The Cunning Little Vixen, review: animal passion drives the most curious of operas
Buffeted by the storm, Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen was blown from Friday night’s cancelled premiere to a Sunday afternoon opening – but she emerged fresh and strong…
Simon Keenlyside interview: ‘Don’t ever say that opera is irrelevant to everyday life’
Now Keenlyside, fiercely self-critical and often quite scathing about his own performances if he feels under-prepared, is taking on Verdi’s sinister, manipulative Iago. “I was going to…
The Valkyrie, London Coliseum, review: ENO’s Wagnerian spectacle never catches fire
It is high time that the fire was lit under a new full staging of Wagner’s Ring in London: it is five years since Opera North’s semi-staging…