Review: Review: The Garden (Forest Collective)
A delightful show full of surprises despite some inconsistencies.
A delightful show full of surprises despite some inconsistencies.
The great Verdi tenor passes on two weeks after his 90th birthday.
McVicar’s ghoulish, gothic Don triumphs despite the odd vocal let-down.
Fine Melbourne cast make the most of Sondheim's fractured fairy-tales.
Orchestra and unions accuse Peter Gelb of long-planned cynical strategy.
Controversial director Frank Castorf accuses Wagner's heirs of artistic interference.
Amidst tough competition, Tabatha McFadyen has been awarded first prize at this year’s contest. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A look at Philip Glass’s epic Portrait Trilogy; the minimalist’s answer to the Ring Cycle.
That enfant terrible of the opera stage Calixto Bieito must be mellowing in his middle age – either that or we have become numbed to the edgy Spanish director’s naughty ways. How else to explain why his take on Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Boris Godunov has less shock value than your average episode of Midsomer Murders? True he does have the Simpleton shot by a teenage girl, not to mention one of the crowd beaten to a pulp – oh and in Boris’s great death scene the pretender Dmitri strangles Xenia and suffocates the Tsarevich Fyodor. This Bayerische Staatsoper production is set in recent times. We know this because the chorus hold up posters of Putin, Bush, Sarkozy and Berlusconi. Bieito ditches the third act but strangely this causes little collateral damage. That’s because Bieito has a trump card in 38-year-old Ukrainian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk, who is undoubtedly on the verge of a stellar career. He has everything – good looks, dramatic nous and a gorgeous voice that has delicacy as well as power. He’s backed by a first-class cast including Anatoli Kotscherga as Pimen and Vladimir Matorin who makes a good Varlaam, looking uncannily like the famous portrait of the…
A libretto is more than an excuse for music when writing an opera about Russian poet.
Lighting designer proves a musical ‘catholic’ who four years of Wagner’s Ring didn’t convert. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Kaufmann, four Strauss operas, 12 unknown operatic gems and Philip Glass's minimalist answer to the Ring Cycle.
Disgraced soprano will perform in support of sexual minorities and victims of violence.