Alexandra Coghlan

United Kingdom

Classical Music Journalist at Freelance

Classical music journalist. Occasionally also writes about books, plays and films. Author, Carols From King's, Ebury, 2016.

Articles

Telemann's Pimpinone: A Rare Baroque Gem Comes Up Sparkling at the Royal Opera

1 week ago | criticscircle.org.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

Pimpinone and Serpetta, photo © Camilla GreenwellA maidservant on the make and her foolish-fond employer – you barely need to fill in the details. But in Pimpinone Telemann takes a classic operatic gambit and pours so much musical verve, invention and heart into the slenderest of plots that it feels absolutely fresh.
Pyromaniacs won't be disappointed by Barrie Kosky's Die Walküre

1 week ago | inews.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

Previously, on Wagner’s Ring Cycle… When we left Barrie Kosky’s brand-new Das Rheingold for the Royal Opera back in 2023, all was rainbows. Wotan and his dysfunctional family of gods had a new palace, Fafner the giant had the all-powerful ring, and – barring a small matter of a dead brother, an angry dwarf and the Rhinemaidens’ curse – things were about as rosy as they get in the Australian director’s charry apocalyptic landscape.
Opera is in crisis, yet summer opera is thriving

2 weeks ago | thetablet.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

Because while the Arts Council holds the subsidised sector in a chokehold, strangling creativity in the name of relevance and accessibility (defined in such narrow and self-destructive terms as to stifle the very thing it claims to support), the commercial sector is giving the audience what it wantsWith so many options to choose from, where do you start? Here’s our guide to the companies hitting the high notes this summer.
Never mind Ravel’s exquisite music - I was scared someone would die on stage

2 weeks ago | inews.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan |Louisa Saunders

Classical music is occasionally terrifying, often thrilling and always charged with risk, but it’s rarely death-defying in a literal sense. Watching the acrobats of Australian troupe Circa hurtling head-first down a 20ft pole towards the floor, only the grip of their thighs between them and a broken neck, inspired all kinds of emotions.
“Ontological shocks”: new transformations for sustainability through psychedelic tourism

3 weeks ago | tandfonline.com | Alexandra Coghlan |Girish Prayag

AbstractThis study uses the concept of ontological shocks and the emerging phenomenon of psychedelic tourism to link sustainability to tourism and individual behavior through the deep, paradigmatic shifts proposed by Meadows’12 system-dynamics leverage points. Ontology concerns itself with the nature of reality – it addresses the question of “what exists?” or “what is?” and precedes epistemology, that is, how we come to know that reality.
The Bevan Family Consort – the UK von Trapps – are back - The Tablet

1 month ago | thetablet.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

Attende Domine from the Bevan Familuy Consort is out on Signum this weekend. Often, singing as children feels like something that happens at school, says Dominic. “Whereas for us it was something joyful that we got to do with family afterwards. For me it all starts with falling asleep on my dad’s lap while he sang Gregorian chant in the middle of the night.
Puccini: Turandot at Royal Opera House | Live Review

1 month ago | gramophone.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

⭐⭐⭐Andrei Serban's production of Puccini's Turandot, The Royal Opera (Photo: Tristram Kenton)None shall sleep! Princess Turandot has proclaimed. And who could, with Andrei Serban’s production (which has racked up well over 40 years and 100 performances since its 1984 premiere) throwing everything and the kitchen wok at its audience. Golden thrones descend on golden clouds; acrobats tumble; red silk streamers cascade; masked choruses process; giant death-masks snarl and gush ribbon-blood.
Renée Fleming is still the reigning grande dame

2 months ago | inews.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

You know you’re dealing with a proper, old-school opera diva when the soprano’s jewellery gets a credit in the programme. At 66, American soprano Renée Fleming is the reigning grande dame of opera – a name who can sell out the Royal Festival Hall on a school-night with the promise of barely half an hour of singing.
A musical pilgrimage

2 months ago | thetablet.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

‘People come and have this moment of meditation or mindfulness, getting away from the stress all around us’A quarter of a century on, and the Pilgrimage goes from strength to strength. Those 12 annual concerts have become some 30 each year, performed from Truro to Edinburgh and beyond, supplemented with outreach and educational partnerships.
The South African star reinventing classical music

2 months ago | inews.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

Abel Selaocoe isn’t so much a cellist as a magician. The South African musician is on a neon-lit stage in Camden – lights, microphones, crowd. He starts to play and suddenly we’re in a forest – bird calls, twigs cracking underfoot, leaves rustling and rain starting to drip, drip. There’s no digital trickery.