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Music: Leos Janacek Director: Nicholas Bone Musical Director: Nicholas Fletcher Reviewer: Greig Ratcliff The Public Reviews Rating: ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ is rather an influential marker in the history of opera. First performed in 1924, its audiences were exposed to more novel operatic writing including orchestral interludes, speechless singing, mime and ballet, which broadened and expanded the concept [...]

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte Director: Tim Albery Conductor: Justin Doyle Reviewer: Ruth Lovett The Public Reviews Rating: Cosi fan tutte literally translates to ‘thus do all [women]’- but is often translated to ‘women are like that’ and looks at the idea that all women are fickle and their affections can be turned easily and [...]

Writer: Philip Glass Directed by Phelim McDermott Reviewer: Lauren Rare The Public Reviews Rating: This opera charts the life and influences of Ghandi and his quest to educate people about the need for peaceful resistance as a way of attaining political ends. It explores how Tolstoy, Tagore and Luther King inspired him, and in Tolstoy’s case, actively supported [...]

Music: Arthur Sullivan Libretto: William Schwenck Gilbert Director: Jo Davies Reviewer: Malcolm Wallace The Public Reviews Rating: Opera North truly deserve the excellent reputation they have built up over years for producing fine quality productions of opera, musicals and operetta. In their latest production, Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1887 operetta Ruddigore, they have not let themselves down. Once again [...]

Music: Johann Strauss Adaptor: Jeff Clarke Director: Jeff Clarke Choreographer: Jenny Arnold Musical Director: Jeff Clarke Reviewer: Jimmy Hardwick The Public Reviews Rating: Do the British ‘get’ opera? The question, which appears in the program for this production of Die Fledermaus, is a good one and one which I think I many people would answer in the negative. [...]

Writer: Gaetano Donizetti Director: Jonathan Miller Reviewer: Lauren Rare The Public Reviews Rating: Jonathan Miller’s latest offering at the ENO, Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, started with a superb orchestral opening conducted by a most enthusiastic Pablo Heras-Casado, making his UK debut one to remember. Set designer Isabella Bywater had opted for sophisticated simplicity and as the curtain [...]

Music: Gaetano Donizetti Libretto: Salvadore Cammarano, after The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott English translation: Amanda Holden Director: David Alden Conductor: Antony Walker Reviewer: Lilla Grindlay The Public Reviews Rating: Lucia di Lammermoor is not for the faint-hearted. Set amongst feuding clans in 19th Century Scotland, it tells a powerful, tragic tale of passion, murder and [...]

Composer: Giacomo Puccini Original Libretto: Luigi Illica & Guiseppi Giacosta Translator: Robin Norton-Hale Director: Robin Norton-Hale Conductor: Andrew Charity Reviewer: Deborah Klayman Nestled in the intimate space that is the Cock Tavern Theatre, a gem is waiting to be discovered. Adapted from Puccini’s world famous Opera and updated from 1830s Paris to modern-day Kilburn, this [...]