Reviews

Weinberg The Passenger, English National Opera (Rated 3/ 5 )

The railway tracks to Auschwitz hit the buffers just above the orchestra pit – the fount of so much heavenly music. Now there’s an irony.

Inside Reviews

St Matthew Passion, Royal National Theatre (Rated 4/ 5 )

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ may not be an opera, but its operatic power can lead people to treat it as one.

Gounod Faust, Royal Opera House (Rated 4/ 5 )

Monday, 19 September 2011

“This is my domain”, says M�phistoph�les, and suddenly we his audience are behind the footlights looking into an auditorium just like ours.

Il trittico, Royal Opera House, London
Ivana Gavric/Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place, London
John Cage Night, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Sunday, 18 September 2011

Oh, Sister! Where have you been all these years? Puccini's finest effort, a trio of one-act operas, makes a rare showing in its entirety

Owen/Apekisheva/Chilingirian, Kings Place (4/5, 3/5)

Sunday, 18 September 2011

When Kings Place opened three years ago, it was expected to challenge the Wigmore Hall’s hegemony.

The Elixir of Love, English National Opera (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 16 September 2011

Created in a few hurried weeks in 1832 to fill a gap in the schedules, Donizetti’s ‘L’elisir d’amore’ is a perfect comic opera.

Album: Steve Reich, WTC 9/11; Mallet Quartet; Dance Patterns (Nonesuch)

Friday, 16 September 2011

Steve Reich's commemoration of 9/11 mingles three string quartet parts (all played by the Kronos Quartet) with vocal fragments.

Album: Toshio Hosokawal, Landscapes (ECM New Series) (Rated 5/ 5 )

Friday, 16 September 2011

Toshio Hosokawa's work involves dialogues between East and West, and ancient and modern – here represented in the form of the Japanese bamboo mouth organ, the sh�, and the orchestra, respectively.

Album: Les Arts Florissants, Lamentazione (Virgin Classics) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 16 September 2011

In Lamentazione, the early-music and vocal group Les Arts Florissants offers a selection of baroque laments performed in the stile antico manner of imitative polyphony, involving rich vocal textures and spectral harmonies in almost acappella settings, save for a subtle continuo of cello, organ and theorbo.

Puccini Il Trittico, Royal Opera House (Rated 5/ 5 )

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

The accepted wisdom on Puccini’s trio of one-acters, Il Trittico, is that Gianni Schicchi is the masterpiece, Suor Angelica of very particular and questionable taste, with Il Tabarro, all shadow and melodrama, bringing up the rear.

John Cage Night, Apartment House, Queen Elizabeth Hall (Rated 5/ 5 )

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

The Southbank season began with a pianist walking to the piano, putting his hands on the keys and maintaining that posture soundlessly, while in the auditorium was heard a sigh, some shuffling of feet, a female cough, some turning of pages – the sound of many people striving to make no noise. After precisely four minutes and thirty-three seconds, the pianist rose, bowed, and was warmly applauded.

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