Comedy at the Proms used to consist of the Prommers' collective badinage. Now that source of wit has dried up, this first Comedy Prom was designed to fill the giggle gap... more
After stealing the Olivier Award away from its big rivals, the pub-based OperaUpClose is at work on its next £1,000 production - The Coronation of Poppea, reworked and directed by Mark Ravenhill
... more
This witty, jeans-and-trainers, pub-piano La Bohème has been packing them in for a record-breaking six months at the Cock Tavern, Kilburn. Now it is at the Soho Theatre... more
Don’t go to La Boheme expecting the Puccini orchestra; there is just a piano, which makes Puccini spikier while purging him of melodramatic excess.... more
The first big event in London’s music calendar is the UK premiere of Die tote Stadt, Korngold’s 1920 work that finally brought opera into the real world... more
Kitted out in Welsh red dragon coat trimmed with saltire and cross of St George, Bryn Terfel led the lusty crowd in Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night of the Proms.... more
Grimeborn is an opera festival that strives to be everything that Glyndebourne isn't. Odd, then, to open with one of the most grime-free of composers.... more
The irony of this staging of La Bohème is that to create Puccini's Bohemian world of impecunious pleasure and pain, a ton of money must be spent. ... more
The Royal Opera House's free, open-air screenings of ballet and opera have become essential events. This summer there are a trio of classics to choose from.... more
Following his Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk triumph, Richard Jones has returned to Covent Garden with a sparkling double-bill of Ravel at his most inventive and Puccini at his funniest.... more
The Royal Academy of Music's double-bill pleased the audience with nimble productions by Orpha Phelan and no shortage of youthful promise from all over the world.... more
There has been much debate about whether Madam Butterfly is racist or not but no one watching this production at the Royal Albert Hall could mistake where Puccini's sympathies lay. ... more
Garish and often over-heated, the London Schools Symphony Orchestra under artistic director Peter Ash put on a show at the Barbican that would have made many full-time orchestras pround.... more