Tag Archives: Victoria Simmonds

Don Giovanni all at sea at Opera Holland Park

Mozart: Don Giovanni ** Opera Holland Park, 3rd June 2017 This production opens like the perfect whodunnit. Passengers embark with their luggage aboard an ocean liner for a transatlantic cruise, busily locating their cabins. Within moments there’s an attempted rape, … Continue reading

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Reflections on fallen men: Mark Padmore at Wigmore Hall

Schumann, Wigglesworth, Janáček: Mark Padmore *** Wigmore Hall, 12th May 2016 There isn’t an ideal English title translation for Verdi’s La traviata. Often given asThe Fallen Woman, it can be more accurately translated as “the woman who has gone astray”. Even … Continue reading

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Signed off with an orchestral flourish: Written on Skin at the Barbican

Benjamin: Written on Skin ***** Mahler CO/Benjamin, Barbican, 19th March 2016 There is no doubt that George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin is a modern masterpiece. Since its 2012 première at Aix-en-Provence, it has conquered the world. Shorn of Katie Mitchell’s … Continue reading

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Taking wing: Dove’s Flight a soaring success for Opera Holland Park

Dove: Flight ***** Opera Holland Park, 10th June 2015 Flight represents a brave new departure for Opera Holland Park. Jonathan Dove’s tale of airport life, which first took to the skies at Glyndebourne in 1998, is the first contemporary opera … Continue reading

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