CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

Julian Anderson's Thebans comes to the ENO Saturday. I'm intrigued because Anderson has always been a good "visual" co...

Last year's Wexford Festival  Massenet's Thérèse on BBC Radio 3. Claire Seymour reviewed it for Opera Today (link HERE) : ...

It's May and all the buds are bursting into bloom !  O Earth, O sun, O joy, O hope,, O love, O Love !  The protagonist loves the gi...

" From terrorism, invasion and despair through to miracles, enlightenment and joy, two millennia of history, four centuries. of (op...

Shepherdesses, gods and supernatural sylphs, jostling merrily together in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Zaïs,  performed by the Orchestra of...

" Lass zu dem Glauben dich bekehren: Es gibt ein Glück, das ohne Reu! " sings Elsa von Brabant, confronting Ortrud. At this ...

Press coverage of the 2014 BBC Proms has been bizarre. Is ithe BBC mindlessly self-destructive or is the media so gullible that it thinks...

How to help kids love opera? These days every decent house needs "outreach" partly to develop genuine interest and partly to ju...

PSYCHIC POWERS! I guessed the First Night of the BBC Proms 2014 - Elgar The Kingdom, Andrew Davis BBC SO (the BBC house band). Read more...

After hearing Andrew Davis conduct Elgar The Apostles (op 49, 1902-3) at the Barbican ( read my review here) , I decided to revist it...

Time to end the Missionary position in classical music, where middle class western pundits pontificate on what's best for lesser bein...

For Easter, the glorious Arthur Honegger: Cantique de Pâques   for  soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, female choir and chamber orchestra. ...

Why is this Easter bunny wearing an ammo belt and beating a marching drum ? And why are these soldiers arresting the bunny ? Perhaps the i...

Priority case for Sajid Javid.  The South Bank should be the nation's cultural flagship, if only because it's gobbled millions. Sin...

The very idea of the Berliner Philharmoniker playing Puccini operas  should raise a wry smile when one thinks of the orchestra's mag...