Sam Smith

4 days ago | musicomh.com | Sam Smith

Could this presentation of the tale feel any more ghostly? It is hard to believe that The Flying Dutchman is the first opera by Richard Wagner that Opera Holland Park has ever presented, because it suits the venue so well. The shapes found in the roof of the tented auditorium naturally suggest sails, and are imitated on this occasion in the backdrop to the stage.

1 week ago | musicomh.com | Sam Smith

An opera about, rather than by, Wagner. Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried: The Birth of the Wagner Cult, with a libretto by Lutz Hübner and Sarah Nemitz, premiered in Karlsruhe in 2017. It considers the ways in which Richard Wagner’s legacy is preserved, or even distorted, as different people fight for control of the narrative following his death. The central character is Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an English entomologist who embraced Wagner and his operas with a fanatical zeal.

2 weeks ago | musicomh.com | Sam Smith

Superb cast makes for a first rate revival. When Annabel Arden’s staging of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia first appeared at Glyndebourne in 2016, it marked the bicentenary of the opera’s premiere. It consequently felt like an important occasion, and a BBC 4 documentary was made about the production’s creation. It did not quite live up to expectations. Now, on its second revival, it delivers in a way that was always intended as the staging has settled well, and combines with an excellent cast.

4 weeks ago | musicomh.com | Sam Smith

Michael Spyres and Joyce DiDonato head a strong line up of soloists. Composed in 1751, George Frideric Handel’s Jephtha is based on the story from Judges XI and George Buchanan’s 1554 play Jephthes, sive Votum. It is recognised as his final oratorio, since The Triumph of Time and Truth of 1757 represented a revision of an earlier work, and as he wrote it he was increasingly troubled by his gradual loss of sight.

1 month ago | musicomh.com | Sam Smith

The Royal Shakespeare Company production at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre. Mark Ravenhill’s play Ben and Imo tells the story of Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst over the nine months in which they worked together on the opera Gloriana, which was performed at Covent Garden in June 1953 to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.