Polly Leech News Today

Record viewing and listening figures, plus keyboard wizardry from Paul Lewis, Benjamin Grosvenor and Stephen Hough, kicked off another year at the Proms. Elsewhere, Strauss’s Cretan romcom laid bare

David Truslove reflects on Natalie Romaniw's performance in Ariadne auf Naxos at Garsington Opera.

In opera, as in so much high-budget entertainment, expectation management is half the battle. With its massive Greek Revival mansion, approached through miles of rolling parkland, The Grange Festival has the grandest setting of any of the summer festivals; and that might have something to do with why the opera served up there has so

When tears well up during stretches of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s curious hybrid which you never expected to move you, something special's going on. The magic happened last night in an evening which I didn't anticipate equalling “the Carmelites experience” at Glyndebourne. But, in its very different way, it did, in terms of casting, conducting and a production (by Bruno Ravella) that wasn’t too interventionist but had some powerful ideas of its own.

Natalya Romaniw’s Ariadne shines in an unfussy production that is, at its best, breathtakingly effective and beautiful

First night in the theatre has its own rewards. Opera review by Robert Beale

Serious fun in a shrewd staging of this 'School for Lovers' . Opera review by Peter Quantrill