Total reviews: 42
Positive reviews
Mixed reviews
Negative reviews
16 February 2020
Therefore, with Alexander Joel’s conducting also being good, there is still much of merit in the evening. It just seems a shame that for a work that only comes to any of London’s major opera houses every ten or twenty years, this has to be the staging on offer.
Read the original review25 November 2019
The evening is conducted superbly by Richard Farnes who achieves the right balance between attaining clarity and conveying a sense of intrigue. The cast is also superb with Mark Padmore as von Aschenbach unleashing his tenor in a role for which it would seem made.
Read the original review18 November 2019
Geoffrey Paterson’s conducting is excellent as it captures the right senses of smoothness on the one hand, and intrigue on the other. The cast is also strong with Nicholas Lester’s Orphée, Sarah Tynan’s Eurydice and Nicky Spence’s Heurtebise all standing out.
Read the original review16 October 2019
As a result, it places more demands on a director to make the evening colourful, and Damiano Michieletto’s new production for the Royal Opera, which represents a co-production with the Opéra National de Paris and Teatro Massimo di Palermo, does what is necessary through its combination of strong overarching concept and thoughtful touches.
Read the original review5 October 2019
Overall the standards of singing, playing and dancing are high, but the production as a whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts. No-one can doubt the strength of the dancing, which reveals both McGregor’s natural style of choreography, and how he has cleverly ‘adjusted’ it to make it fit for purpose here.
Read the original review20 September 2019
Erwin Schrott in the title role reveals a tremendous bass-baritone (the final scene when he is at the front of the stage is particularly impressive), and projects the Don as a large and jovial character on the one hand, and quite a desperate and needful person on the other.
Read the original review26 April 2019
Ivor Bolton conducts superbly, while the strong, and primarily British, cast includes several notable performances. Toby Spence is a highly sensitive Captain Vere who when he virtually laughs at the idea that Billy is anything other than high-spirited reveals the real tragedy of the opera.
Read the original review6 February 2019
On her Royal Opera debut, Amanda Majeski is exceptional in the title role as her voice possesses an underlying strength that enables it to achieve quite remarkable things in all registers as she uses it, and her eyes, to highlight the character’s desperation, sense of wonder and affinity with nature.
Read the original review18 January 2019
If, however, the production has always been strong, its sixteenth revival is made truly extraordinary by the quality of the performances. Ermonela Jaho embodies the character of Violetta to an almost superhuman degree, projecting her public persona so effectively that she almost seems conceited, and yet revealing in ‘Sempre libera degg’io’ just how emotionally shattered she feels every time that she hears Alfredo’s voice.
Read the original review16 January 2019
Musically, the evening is strong with Sir Antonio Pappano’s conducting proving extremely astute. It is just a shame that being told that music is tempestuous or dramatic by seeing Tchaikovsky conduct, or sit at the piano playing, it actually makes it feel less so, because it suddenly speaks less naturally to our emotions.
Read the original review29 September 2018
Once again, conductor Sir Antonio Pappano delivers a beautiful and rousing account of the score, with the few criticisms that might have been levied against the orchestral performance in Das Rheingold not applying at all in the second instalment of the Ring Cycle.
Read the original review11 March 2018
If the staging might still be classed as a qualified success, the evening’s musical credentials are exceptionally strong with conductor Mark Wigglesworth entirely capturing the essence of, and numerous nuances within, Janáček’s enigmatic score.
Read the original review17 July 2017
Clément’s production reveals so many details that the subtexts it highlights and ‘sub-plots’ it introduces are enough to ensure we are kept gripped from start to finish. The standout performance comes from Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Dr Malatesta, whose robust baritone combines with a strong ‘all-seeing’ presence.
Read the original review