UK Edition
Lear: this Korean opera-style reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy packs a punch
It’s a marvellous spectacle, but the National Changgeuk Company of Korea’s emotionally extreme production flattens the Bard’s subtleties
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Rigoletto, Welsh National Opera: a powerful and disturbing battle cry
The beleaguered company called off a planned strike, and gave it their all in this shocking, committed production
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Opera star Kristina Mkhitaryan: ‘I’m so lucky. I get to die all over the world’
As she returns to Covent Garden in Eugene Onegin, the soprano talks about discovering opera aged seven and why nothing beats a tragic climax
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Ben Thapa, commanding operatic tenor with the buskers G4 who nearly won the original X Factor
Away from celebrity, Thapa became well-known as an opera and choral singer who became a mainstay of choirs in major Catholic churches
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Oedipus Rex, Scottish Opera: this weird operatic experiment pays off
This immersive staging of Stravinsky’s tragedy at the National Museum of Scotland is simultaneously accessible, humanistic and even humorous
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Tristan und Isolde, Glyndebourne: this superb revival combines mythic grandeur and humanity
There have been more passionate stagings of this opera, but it would be hard to find one which makes its essential message so seductive
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Island of Dreams, Grange Park Opera: a quixotic, overly literal take on The Tempest
Composer Anthony Bolton has an admirable go at adapting Shakespeare’s play but fails to add enough to the text
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Oasis? Derivative and dire: 14 cultural ‘sacred cows’ that are actually terrible
The Gallagher brothers, Prince, Wagner, Kubrick, Mad Men… Are they really above criticism? Our writers think not
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New Year, Birmingham Opera Company, The Dream Tent: Fascinating revival of a bonkers but brilliant work
The iconoclastic composer Michael Tippett would have absolutely loved Keith Warner’s reworking of his eccentric production
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Il trionfo del tempo e disinganno: Handel reimagined as a suburban psychodrama – with devastating results
This inventive take on the 1707 dramatic allegory is an astonishing reflection on the human condition and the dynamics of family life
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Verdi’s Ernani is a ludicrous opera, but this performance is excellent fun
No-one would call Verdi’s fifth opera perfect, but Buxton’s singers, led by Nadine Benjamin as heroine Elvira, spin straw into gold
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Un Giorno di Regno, Garsington: Verdi’s maligned comedy gets a dynamite makeover
This joyous revival of Verdi’s opera sends up weddings, karaoke and Donald Trump – but the singing remains the main draw
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Eight must-see operas to book tickets for this summer 2024
From a Mozart makeover to hip-hop meets Purcell, classics are imagined anew this season
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The Rake’s Progress: A handsome new staging that brings out the opera’s pathos
Grange Festival’s revival is clean and classical – but the music doesn’t quite capture the incisiveness Stravinsky’s score requires
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Shakespeare’s comedies are about as funny as lobotomy – but this adaptation is a triumph
Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is notoriously tricky to get right, which makes this Garsington production an unexpected delight
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Die Walküre, Longborough Festival Opera: A magnificently lucid staging that lets Wagner’s drama roar
The music rampages under Anthony Negus’s conducting in this fine production that strips back everything to its essentials
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Katya Kabanova, Grange Park Opera: a spare, tense reading of a deeply affecting score
This new staging of the 1921 opera beautifully captures one of the most concentrated and eloquent of Janáček’s works
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Midsummer Night’s Dream, Garsington Opera: A production full of craft but short on warmth
The major roles in Britten’s retelling of Shakespeare’s tale brought out the music’s uncanny lyricism, but lacked chemistry
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No eating, no speaking! The secret life of Joanna Lumley’s maestro husband
Opera grandee Stephen Barlow on his unusual pre-concert routine, why conducting has nothing to do with emotion – and his distinctive hair
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The Merry Widow, Glyndebourne: Danielle de Niese shines in a stunning, if jokey, production
The Merry Widow in this most rarified of country-house settings? She may not entirely belong here, but this staging sweeps you along even so
