Last updated on March 16th, 2019London, why on earth did it take your opera houses so long to stage Porgy and Bess? Thank goodness the English National Opera has corrected this cultural misdemeanour by staging the opera’s first major outing since the 1980s. It’s a sensory feast all round, perfect for opera lovers and novices…
Oxford Lieder Festival 2018
Last updated on January 7th, 2019It was a full house on Friday night at the opening of the Oxford Lieder Festival, the UK’s largest art song festival. And to mark a nation gone bonkers with Brexit, the organisers chose an apt theme: The Grand Tour, A European Journey in Song. Talk about sticking a chorus…
Review: Carmen la Cubana
Last updated on August 16th, 2020If you’ve ever been to Cuba, you may have visited La Guarida, one of Havana’s most famous paladar restaurants and which attained mythical status after Beyoncé sashayed in and out of it with Jay Z. Its gloriously-faded staircase is the set design inspiration for the sizzling new musical, Carmen La Cubana,…
The Skating Rink at Garsington Opera
Last updated on August 16th, 2020I always approach contemporary opera with a dose of trepidation. Often inaccessible and veiled in discordant notes, it’s easy to veer in the direction of more traditional composition. But as I headed back to Garsington Opera in Wormsley earlier this week, I was pleasantly surprised and somewhat bowled over by…
Le Nozze di Garsington Opera
Last updated on February 3rd, 2020The French for twilight is crépuscule, a word which conjures up that gleaming, twinkling time of day which is neither light nor dark, when the Goddess Nyx starts her magic dance. And Garsington Opera puts on a witching hour like no other with the thrilling sound of music and song…
Review: Satyagraha at the ENO
Last updated on October 29th, 2018I would like some of what Philip Glass is on, please. I would like to crawl into his brain for a few hours and see what makes him tick. In the ENO’s production of Satyagraha, the American composer’s operatic masterpiece has been placed in the capable hands of director Phelim…
A day out at Garsington Opera
Last updated on May 15th, 2022The Chiltern hills in Wormsley are alive with the sound of music. This Buckinghamshire haven, where Garsington Opera has its home, is England at its most seductive, the sort of place where pastoral dreams are made. And the vocal fireworks that burst from Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia last Thursday…
Restaurants near the opera in London
Last updated on May 14th, 2024Off to the Royal Opera House or the English National Opera? Whether you’re a Baroque buff or a ‘Norma’ novice, seated in the gods or near the pit, with the children or with your grandmama, it’s always best to take a pew after a proper supper. A night at the…