Some of the most beloved operas come freighted with the heaviest cultural baggage. Consider Madama Butterfly, Puccini’s 1904 opera. Set in Nagasaki,
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:14PMThe boundless cruelty of a government that imprisons and tortures its opponents, the soul-destroying complicity of functionaries who uphold the state’s brutality
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:26PMThis year marks the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, and his life and works are being celebrated around the world
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:15AMA stirring if fanciful epic poem about the First Crusade by Italian Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso has, for centuries, been a rich
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:47AMDonizetti’s comic opera classic receives an invigorating new English-language production at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington. A co-production of King’s Head and
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:15AMIn 1918, birth-control advocate Marie Stopes published Married Life, a book that ignited a firestorm of controversy for its daring premise that
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:03AMThe Picture of Dorian Gray has inspired many playwrights and composers to translate it to the stage. A new operatic adaptation by
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:27AMAn opera about a singing contest would seem an obvious candidate for a modern-era production and that’s exactly what Fulham Opera has
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:50AMEnglish composer Stephen Storace was a contemporary and friend of Mozart, and his 1785 opera Gli Sposi Malcontenti contains all the essential
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:40AMPolitical drama or romantic tragedy? Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera has elements of both with its plot about the assassination of the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:33AMTo launch a new Ring cycle is an ambitious undertaking for any opera company. It’s even more audacious when the company in
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:33AMOn the day of the European Union elections, to see Peter Sellars’ staged version of an a cappella Renaissance choral work, Orlando
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:20AMRichard Eyre’s production of La Traviata is a mainstay of the Royal Opera House, and Bob Crowley’s lavish design is one major
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:45AMAmerican composer Jake Heggie is best known for his opera Dead Man Walking. His predilection for turning to popular sources continues with
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:42AMLa Traviata is all about passion. Passion propels the opera’s drama forward, from the moment the impulsive Violetta decides to abandon her
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:35AMThe feisty opera company at the King’s Head Theatre, under the artistic direction of Adam Spreadbury-Maher, likes to drill down to the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:44AMFrom a feminist perspective, the character of Salome is seriously problematic. In Richard Strauss’s opera, based on Oscar Wilde’s play, she’s a
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:10AM“Since it is not by merit we rise or we fall, but the favour of Fortune that governs us all.” That sounds
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:23PMIt’s no wonder that Greek, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s first opera, made the 28-year-old composer’s name in 1988. Turnage’s brilliant, percussive score took an
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:01AMHad Rossini not composed Le Cenerentola in 1817, it’s possible that the most famous operatic version of Perrault’s fairytale Cendrillon would be
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:09AMHot on the heels of a well-received revival of Mascagni’s forgotten Isabeau, Opera Holland Park chalks up its first Richard Strauss opera with a
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:11AMRossini’s The Barber of Seville requires a fine balance between fast-paced slapstick and stand-and-deliver vocal showpieces, and an enjoyable new production from
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:52AMEnglish Touring Opera’s revival production of Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi provides a reminder of the wide range of emotion Puccini crammed
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:12AMThe operas of John Adams – Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic and The Death of Klinghoffer among them – confront the American
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:07AMThe course of love never does run smooth and neither does the course of most fairytales. Random cruelty and stunning setbacks abound
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:29AMDirectors of Mozart’s Don Giovanni are often seduced into seeking out a plausible explanation for the title character’s unrepentant womanising. For the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:13PMIt’s a beautiful sunny day in Naples, but it might as well be the frozen North for two young men who have
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:51AMVerdi’s Aida lends itself to spectacle. Set in ancient Egypt, and with temple scenes and triumphal processions crucial to the plot, it’s
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:54AMWho can resist hummus, that delicious blend of chickpeas, olive oil and garlic? It’s a Middle Eastern cultural touchstone and the name
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:21AMExactly why composer Andre Tchaikowsky – gay, Jewish and depressive – chose The Merchant of Venice, with its heavy-handed anti-Semitism, as the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:35AMPoulenc’s one-woman opera La Voix Humaine opens with a woman, Elle, sitting alone, waiting for her lover to ring. She swings from
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:49AM