Thursday, November 14

London

Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Royal Opera House (2016 Revival Production)
14Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Royal Opera House (2016 Revival Production)

Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann is the most enduring ‘serious’ opera from a composer better known for his operettas and this 2016 revival of legendary film director John Schlesinger’s sumptuous 1980 production provides the perfect vehicle in which Offenbach’s story – in turn witty, erotic, and macabre – and highly melodious music come together to form a deeply and satisfying whole. Set in the 19th C, the great storyteller Hoffmann (Vittorio Grigòlo) is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf (Thomas Hampson), claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… First Hoffmann tells of his infatuation for the mechanic...
Read More
Royal Ballet: Back on Stage – Royal Opera House
12Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Royal Ballet: Back on Stage – Royal Opera House

Describing what has happened to the performing arts as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is difficult and upsetting. In a time when the arts were needed more than ever, stages were emptied and orchestras were silenced for the sake of safety. Royal Opera Houses’ ‘Royal Ballet: Back on Stage’, is more than just a selection of ballet excerpts, but a battle cry on behalf of artists up and down the nation who work on and off stage. It urges us to dream of a future when the arts will be safe and possible again. As the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House begins the Overture from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake under the baton of Jonathan Lo, one could be forgiven for thinking the mess was all over-that we were once again back to normal.  At this moment, the orchestra, the dancers, and the theatre ...
Read More
Tonight at the Coliseum: Kerry Ellis
11Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Tonight at the Coliseum: Kerry Ellis

As most theatre lovers will know, Take Two Theatricals in conjunction with Carter Dixon Productions and stream.theatre began streaming a series of one-off concerts on 18th September, and this week was the turn of Kerry Ellis. Best known in theatreland from her time as Elphaba in Wicked and Meat in We Will Rock You, Ellis is also an extremely successful recording artist, and she finished recording her sixth album, Feels Like Home, just before lockdown. Produced by Nikki & Joe Davison at Auburn Jam Music, Ellis had intended to sell the album as exclusive merchandise at her 2020 live gigs, but when the coronavirus pandemic put an end to her touring plans, she decided to sell the album online. Tonight, with a backdrop of the empty Coliseum as a haunting reminder of the current challenge...
Read More
Così fan Tutte – Royal Opera House (2019)
9Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Così fan Tutte – Royal Opera House (2019)

Jan Philipp Gloger’s production from 2019 starts not at the beginning of the show but rather at the end with a curtain call for a traditional period-piece – perhaps Così – being played out during the overture, after which the four young lovers emerge from the audience into a world of theatrical fantasy orchestrated by Don Alfonso (Johannes Martin Kränzle), who proceeds to put the two young couples – Ferrando (Daniel Behle) and Dorabella (Angela Brower), and Guglielmo (Alessio Arduini) and Fiordiligi (Corinne Winters) – through their respective paces with the assistance of an oft-disguised Despina (Sabina Puértolas). With an emphasis on the artificiality of the plot and the need for strong theatrics to pull it off, we are taken on a time-travelling whistle-stop tour of sets that include ...
Read More
Il Trovatore – Royal Opera House (2017)
6Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Il Trovatore – Royal Opera House (2017)

Verdi wrote Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) – with libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano – hot on the heels of Rigoletto, with its premiere in 1853 a mere two months before that of La Traviata. German director David Bösch made his UK debut with his original production at the Royal Opera House in 2016 with this revival in 2017 overseen by Julia Burbach. The Count di Luna (Vitaliy Bilyy) loves Leonora (Lianna Haroutounian), but she loves Manrico (Gregory Kunde), the Count’s military enemy. Manrico’s mother Azucena (Anita Rachvelishvili) tells him how her mother was burnt to death for supposed witchcraft against the Count’s baby brother. Azucena intended to throw the baby onto the fire – but blinded by revenge she lost her own child to the flames. The Count captures Manrico and ...
Read More
Tonight at the London Coliseum: Cassidy Janson
3Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Tonight at the London Coliseum: Cassidy Janson

The most recent acoustic concert in the Tonight at the London Coliseum series features the star of Beautiful: the Carole King Musical and & Juliet, Cassidy Janson. Having already watched her livestream from her house earlier in the year, and seen her live in the intimate setting of the Coliseum’s Balcony Bar back in February, I have become familiar with her choice of songs, and this concert very much focuses on the crowd-pleasers and big-hitters. It remains a sad feeling to see any show broadcast from an empty space where an audience should be, however large or small. The beautiful Coliseum auditorium is lit up in reds, golds, and blues but without an audience there is a lack of energy and atmosphere. Janson, however, is a likeable and perceptive performer, and brings warmth to the ...
Read More
Romeo & Juliet – Shakespeare’s Globe
3Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Romeo & Juliet – Shakespeare’s Globe

Romeo & Juliet is a favourite for school examiners, and we see it re-appearing onto the curriculum at regular intervals.  The Globe have joined with Deutsche Bank, who for the last 10 years have funded online resources for their youth engagement programme, to enhance their ‘Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank’ project.  Each year 20,000 free tickets are given to schools for shows that have been specially created for students to introduce and nurture a greater understanding of Shakespeare and the performance of his plays.  This exceedingly useful resource offers students a chance to come to the home of the Bard to experience the thrill of live performance.  This experience undoubtedly helps the words to leapfrog from the page into their young minds, to help to vis...
Read More
Madama Butterfly – Royal Opera House
27Sep By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Madama Butterfly – Royal Opera House

A staple of the operatic repertoire around the world, this was my third Madama Butterfly this year although in contrast to the first two live productions, this was a televised performance of ROH’s 2017 offering, directed by Moishe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. We open with marriage broker Goro (Carlo Bosi) showing US naval lieutenant Pinkerton (Marcelo Puente) round the home he will share with his Butterfly bride-to-be. Pinkerton is obsessed about possessing her even if he crushes her fragile wings, whilst American Consul Sharpless (Scott Hendricks) warns him of the tragic consequences his game could have. The Butterfly duly lands in the form of young Japanese girl Cio-Cio-San (Ermonela Jaho) supported by maid Suzuki (Elizabeth DeShong), and they are married by the Commissioner (Gyula Nag...
Read More
Tonight at the London Coliseum: Carrie Hope Fletcher
25Sep By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Tonight at the London Coliseum: Carrie Hope Fletcher

From the moment I saw Carrie Hope Fletcher, I was mesmerised. A petite girl-next-door with a big voice, she blew me away when I saw snippets of her 3-year stint as Les Misérables’ tragic demi-heroine Éponine at the Queen’s Theatre, London, from 2013-2016. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to review a one-time exclusive pre-recorded event - a night at the London Coliseum with Fletcher herself, delivered by Broadway on Demand. As the show was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance took place in front of an empty theatre, but Carrie’s talent is such that all she needed was a microphone, a piano, and her tremendous voice. That was enough to fill the London Coliseum twice over, with plenty more to spare. What a performance it was! The only thing that was missing was th...
Read More
La Bohème Live at The Drive-In – ENO, East Car Park, Alexandra Palace
25Sep By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

La Bohème Live at The Drive-In – ENO, East Car Park, Alexandra Palace

Monty Python used to say, and now for something completely different, and ne’er was a truer word said than with ENO director P.J. Harris’ contemporary English language adaptation of Puccini’s classic opera, and it is also transformed from its 19th C Parisian location to a modern-day encampment in a disused London car park, where we meet our four struggling hipsters: poet Rodolfo (David Butt Philip); painter Marcello (Roderick Williams); philosopher cum photographer Colline (William Thomas); and musician Schaunard (Benson Wilson), who arrives having had some good fortune. They are interrupted by Benoît (Trevor Eliot Bowes), a security guard, but cleverly trick him to avoid paying him his dues. Whilst the others leave, Rodolfo remains but is interrupted by a young lady needing a light for...
Read More