Mikael Karlsson - Melancholia Royal Swedish Opera, 2023 Andrea Molino, Sláva Daubnerová, Lauren Snouffer, Anne Sofie von Otter, Rihab Chaieb, Ola Eliasson, Jens Persson Hertzman, Johan Edholm, Mikael Stenbaek, Anton Textorius, Klas Hedlund ARTE Concert - 2nd November 2023  I don't envy any composer - and to be honest can't even understand their motivation - for choosing to make an opera based on a fairly recent film. It's not that it's necessarily a bad idea in itself; cinema is a valid source of inspiration to opera and theatre directors and Kryzsztof Warlikowski and Ivo Van Hove in pa ..read more

Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde Bayreuther Festspiele, 2024 Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson, Semyon Bychkov, Andreas Schager, Günther Groissböck, Camilla Nylund, Olafur Sigurdarson, Birger Radde, Christa Mayer, Daniel Jenz, Lawson Anderson, Matthew Newlin BR-Klassik - 25th July 2024 It's not often I am at a loss of words to describe or give an impression of a production of Tristan und Isolde, particularly one at the Bayreuth Festival which usually gives plenty to think about and unusual directorial touches to describe, but in the case of the new production that opens the 2024 festival I think t ..read more

George Frideric Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno Buxton International Festival, 2024 Christian Curnyn, Jacopo Spirei, Anna Dennis, Hilary Cronin, Hilary Summers, Jorge Navarro Colorado Buxton Opera House - 18th July 2024 Performances of Handel operas can be hard work for the audience as much as a challenge for a director to make something of them, but they really shouldn't be. His oratorios works evidently need an extra little bit of dramatic action when performed as staged works, and those that you could categorise as allegorical fables even more so. The Buxton International F ..read more

Giuseppe Verdi - Ernani Buxton International Festival, 2024 Adrian Kelly, Jamie Manton, Roman Arndt, André Heyboer, Alastair Miles, Nadine Benjamin, Jane Burnell, Emyr Lloyd Jones, Theo Perry Buxton Opera House - 17th July 2024 "Please be aware: This production involves death, blood, themes of physical and mental abuse, torture and suggestion of gun violence" If you didn't know which opera you were going to see, the trigger-warning signs placed around the Buxton Opera House would at least give you a reliable hint that it could only be an early Verdi opera. In fact it could be any early Verdi ..read more

Richard Wagner - Götterdämmerung (Zurich, 2024) Opernhaus Zürich, 2024 Gianandrea Noseda, Andreas Homoki, Klaus Florian Vogt, Daniel Schmutzhard, Christopher Purves, David Leigh, Camilla Nylund, Lauren Fagan, Sarah Ferede, Freya Apffelstaedt, Lena Sutor-Wernich, Giselle Allen, Uliana Alexyuk, Niamh O'Sullivan, Siena Licht Miller Zurich Opera Ring für alle - 26th May 2024 If there's initially a sense that the 2024 Opernhaus Zürich's Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle is getting a little tired and lacking in surprises by the time we get to Götterdämmerung, it's probably as much to do with ..read more

Ensemble Écoute - Across Borders / entre les horizons Ensemble Écoute, 2024 Fernando Palomeque (conductor), Rachel Koblyakov (violin), Emma Lloyd (solo violin), Emmanuel Acurero (cello), Samuel Casale (flute), Youjin Jung (clarinet), Ezequiel Castro (piano), Quentin Dubreuil (percussion) The Night With... at the Black Box, Belfast - 6th July 2024 Emma Lloyd – Orbites Rebecca Saunders – the under-side of green David Fennessy – The room is the resonator Matthew Whiteside – Points Decay Sofia Avramidou – An absurd reasoning Pierre Boulez – Dérive I A France-Ireland-UK project, the aim of Across ..read more

Robert Ashley - The Bar, from Perfect Lives Louth Contemporary Music Society, 2024 Gelsey Bell, Brian McCorkle, Paul Pinto, Dave Ruder, Aliza Simons, Amirtha Kidambi, Caoimhe Hopkinson, Sean Carpio, Steve Welsh  The Spirit Store, Dundalk - 15th June 2024 A performance of Robert Ashley's The Bar could in the context of the Louth Contemporary Music Society festival be considered a moment of light relief, a bonus extra in addition to the full performance of the composer's final opera Crash the previous evening, but it was also - as the performances at the Spirit Store in Dundalk are turning ..read more

Robert Ashley - Crash Louth Contemporary Music Society, 2024 Gelsey Bell, Brian McCorkle, Paul Pinto, Dave Ruder, Aliza Simons, Amirtha Kidambi An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk - 14th June 2024 The LCMS, the Louth Contemporary Music Centre, have been hugely imaginative in their programming over their 18 year history, finding accessible yet challenging and innovative ways to bring new music to a wider audience. Some of the names invited to put on performances of their work in Dundalk include Terry Riley, Philip Glass, John Zorn, Salvatore Sciarrino and Kaija Saariaho, but founder Eamonn Quinn make ..read more

Richard Wagner - Siegfried Opernhaus Zürich, 2024 Gianandrea Noseda, Andreas Homoki, Klaus Florian Vogt, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Tomasz Konieczny, Christopher Purves, David Leigh, Anna Danik, Camilla Nylund, Rebeca Olvera Zurich Opera Ring für alle - 24th May 2024 Following the first two installments of the Andreas Homoki Ring Cycle for Zurich there was good reason to look forward to their continuation of the epic work in Siegfried. That's not always the case for me. After Das Rhinegold and Die Walküre, I often feel it's more of a duty to see a Ring Cycle through to the ..read more

Richard Wagner - Die Walküre (Zurich, 2024) Opernhaus Zürich, 2024 Gianandrea Noseda, Andreas Homoki, Eric Cutler, Christof Fischesser, Tomasz Konieczny, Daniela Köhler, Claudia Mahnke, Camilla Nylund, Sarah Cambidge, Ann-Kathrin Niemczyk, Barbara Senator, Anna Werle, Simone McIntosh, Siena Licht Miller, Michal Doron, Noa Beinart Zurich Opera Ring für alle - 20th May 2024 Sometimes - not often but sometimes - you get the impression that as critical as the Siegfried and Sieglinde story is to Die Walküre and the impact it is to have down the line in Der Ring des Nibelungen, that it i ..read more