Monthly Archives: January 2017

Defying dictators: Soviet blockbusters given the St Petersburg Philharmonic treatment

Martha Argerich; St Petersburg Philharmonic/ Yuri Temirkanov ***** Royal Festival Hall, 29th January 2017 “Our business is rejoicing. Our business is rejoicing.” Dmitri Shostakovich learnt when to toe the political line. After his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was denounced … Continue reading

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Karina Canellakis skippers a French voyage with the Oxford Philharmonic

Saint-Saëns, Debussy: Canellakis/Oxford Philharmonic *** Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 28th January 2017 Oxford may well be far from the coast, but it played host to a bracing French voyage last night at the Sheldonian Theatre. Cramped in the decks beneath Sir … Continue reading

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Starry, starry night: Birmingham Royal Ballet’s celestial Cinderella provides magic

Prokofiev: Cinderella ***** Birmingham Royal Ballet, Mayflower, Southampton, 25th January 2017 Compared with his raw, heartrending music for Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev composed a sassier, slinkier score for Cinderella and this has given choreographers licence to lend the ballet a … Continue reading

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Love in a cold climate: rare Rimsky-Korsakov opera revived by Opera North

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Snow Maiden *** Opera North, Grand Theatre, Leeds, 21st January 2017 Always winter, never spring. No, not Narnia, but The Snow Maiden, Alexander Ostrovsky’s 1873 fairy tale, rooted in Russian folklore, in which Snegurochka, daughter of Father Frost … Continue reading

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Ethereal Alina Cojocaru a heartbreaking Giselle for English National Ballet

Adam: Giselle ***** English National Ballet, Coliseum, 11th and 14th January 2017 It’s bold artistic leadership by Tamara Rojo for English National Ballet to programme its classic Giselle in the same season as Akram Khan’s pulsating rewrite. Mary Skeaping’s production … Continue reading

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