Mikhail Timoshenko News Today

<strong>Royal Opera House; Queen Elizabeth Hall; Conway Hall, London</strong><br>Puccini’s genius shines through as his centenary year gets under way. Elsewhere, a good week for the Mendelssohns, and a Carrot Revolution

Are you supposed to laugh at the end of Don Giovanni? Audiences often do, and they did at the end of Mariame Clément’s new production at Glyndebourne. It’s usually the bit where Donna Anna’s fiancé Don Ottavio suggests that they get married sharpish, and she immediately asks him for a year’s delay. Readers of Middlemarch

Direction and music are as one in Deborah Warner’s gripping new Royal Opera production, while a fine young cast redeems thoughtful if low-key Mozart

TULLY POTTER: Booked for the last four performances of LElisir dAmore, in the key role of Nemorino, Matteo Desole ended up having to sing all 14 - and scored a triumph on the first night.

Everything was set for a glorious start to Britains finest annual opera festival in Sussex: the sun was shining, the lawn was immaculate and ready for the operatic hordes to descend for their picnics during the traditional long interval and a complimentary glass of Nyetimber English champagne awaited each of us.

A pair of nuanced and contemporary reimaginings

Mariame Clément’s thoughtful staging brings depth and insights but feels, at times, at odds with the score’s sensuality and demonic fire. In the pit, conductor Evan Rogister favours speed over dramatic weight.

Julia Hansen’s multi-tiered set looks like something out of a Wes Anderson movie. Opera review by Rachel Halliburton

Whether it’s going cinematic with this year’s song contest or returning to Hyrule with Link, our critics have you covered for the next seven days

February 17, 2023, 06:28 - BLiTZ - News In a situation where the armed forces of Ukraine are concentrating troops in the Artemivsk region, "strike from