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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Fiona Maddocks's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Francesca Zambello.
Cast: The Royal Opera, Maria Bjornson (des), Charles Mackerras (cond), Antonio Pappano (cond, Sep 27 & 30, Oct 2), David Syrus (cond, Oct 4), Simon Keenlyside (Don Giovanni), Mariusz Kwiecien (Don Giovanni, Sep 27 & 30, Oct 2 & 4), Marina Poplavskaya, Patrizia Ciofi (Donna Anna), Joyce DiDonato, Emma Bell (Donna Elvira), Kyle Ketelsen, Lorenzo Regazzo (Leporello), Robert Gleadow, Alex Esposito (Masetto), Miah Persson, Rebecca Evans (Zerlina), Eric Halfvarson (Commendatore), Ramon Vargas, Robert Murray, Ian Bostridge (Don Ottavio)
Description: Francesca Zambello's lavish staging of Mozart's tale of dissolution and retribution, with Simon Keenlyside as the philandering Don (Mariusz Kwiecien, Sep 27 & 30, Oct 2 & 4). Sung in Italian with English surtitles.
Trains: Tube: Covent Garden 
Phone: 0207304 4000
Website: www.roh.org.uk
Email: onlinebooking@roh.org.uk
Extra info: Food, Air Conditioning
Formidable cast: Erwin Schrott - a dream Don Giovanni - with Ana Maria Martinez as the wronged Elvira
Women beware women. The glamorous Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko, now a top of the world diva league, pulled out of the Royal Opera's revival of Don Giovanni because of a throat infection.
Her replacement was another Russian, Marina Poplavaskaya, who has all the signs of being an equally huge star.
Tall, blonde and slender with hair down to her waist, this Jette Parker Young Artist has a compelling stage presence and a rich, muscular voice which she projects with no sign of effort.
Only in highest notes was there occasionally a slight silvering of tone.
This was Poplavaskaya's big break and she dazzled.
She was already due to sing Donna Anna in one performance of Francesca Zambello's austere staging, with sombre Spanish designs by the late Maria Bjornson and conducted by Ivor Bolton.
Now she will also appear in tomorrow's BP Big Screen Piazza relay.
Well established in Russia but hardly known here, she has major Tchaikovksy and Verdi roles scheduled with the ROH next season. Take note of the name.
This was a formidable cast all round, with a dream Don Giovanni in Erwin Schrott, the Uruguayan bass who sang Leporello in this production in 2003.
He can do anything with his voice and body -which we saw quite a lot of, and very nice, too -and was ideally paired with Kyle Ketelsen, who himself has sung the title role.
Fittingly, Zambello has master and sidekick looking like twins and even the footmen are Giovanni clones.
Is this a comment on the awful interchangeability of men? Who can say.
Ana Maria Martinez's desperate Elvira, the wronged woman with all the best music, showed blazing tenacity.
As the young newly weds Masetto and Zerlina, Matthew Rose and Sarah Fox were fiery and argumentative, adding flesh to these sometimes twodimensional roles.
But for all the fine singing, something was awry between stage, pit and podium.
From the start, ensemble was ragged. Recitative was bizarrely stop-start and mannered.
Slow arias, and this opera has a few, seemed all too elastic in length, especially Don Ottavio's Dalla Sua Pace, which was excruciatingly slow, not saved even by Michael Schade's elegant delivery.
At times I feared I might expire before the rake himself.
The bright optimism of the D major finale came not a moment too soon.
With a massive injection of speed, all will be well.
Until 8 July. Information: 020 7304 4000. Tomorrow, live relay Covent Garden Piazza, 7pm.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
I honestly thought that this was the best production of Don Giovanni I've ever seen, and that's saying something because I own every DVD it is possible to own of this, my favourite opera.
I agree that the orchestral playing and Conducting left much to be desired, and I found myself disappointed by the overture. But all my doubts vanished as the curtain rose and we came face to face with Kyle Ketelsen's Leporello. This was, without a shadow of doubt, the best interpretation of the role I have seen. His singing was perfect, he's a fantastic actor, and it was nice to have a Leporello that was easy on the eye for a change. Although the audience seemed more enraptured by Netrebko's Donna Anna and Schrott's Giovanni, for me Ketelson was the star of the show. He managed to make me scream with laughter with merely a delicious turn of a musical phrase at the end of his Catalogue aria.
He and Erwin Schrott made a fantastic pairing. Every little aspect of the relationship between Don Giovanni and Leporello was played out beautifully. I've never seen the relationship done so well. As for Schrott's Don Giovanni, it was fantastic. He was charming, sexy, and his arrogance was a joy to behold.
I was disappointed by Netrebko, finding her to be a very weak actress, and the Ottavio's voice seemed a little forced, but I could not fault the rest of the cast. My particular favourites were Sarah Fox's Zerlina and Ana Maria Martinez's Elvira.
- J Sarah, London
An opera needs three components, singing, music and staging. In this case, the singing is quite exceptional (however, in my opinion, Marina Poplavskaya is still learning her trade and while she has the voice, it is not refined enough (or secure enough) to deal with a role such as this). As to the connection between the orchestra and the singers, we have seen to recently the lack of communication between the pit and the stage (see Fidelio) and the orchestra seemed to be unsure of the direction that they should take. As to the staging, this production was not well received in its first outing and nothing really has improved. It is a bland and unimaginative production, that, while allows the singers to express themselves, adds nothing to the opera. Finally, was it just me, but were the stage hands very sloppy and noisy (I am sure that I heard them talking during one of the quieter arias?)
- Roh Regular, London, England
