Robert Murray – Mark Ronan (original) (raw)
Tag Archives: Robert Murray
The Turn of the Screw, English National Opera, Oct 2024
Posted on 15 October 2024
This new production is by someone who has previously made her name as a stage designer, and I found the designs too clever by half. The key to this opera is ambiguity, but this was absent. The mystery of the story however was heard in the excellent performance of Britten’s music and the carefully crafted …
Un giorno di regno, Garsington, July 2024
Posted on 14 July 2024
Congratulations to Garsington for putting on this feisty production of Verdi’s second opera. The story is absurd, but the music is full of oomph and the staging was a delight. — see my review in The Article.
Peter Grimes, in concert at the Royal Festival Hall, Dec 2019
Posted on 2 December 2019
Wow, this semi-staged concert performance under the direction of Edward Gardner with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra was sensational — see my review in The Article.
Belshazzar, The Grange Festival, June 2019
Posted on 21 June 2019
A terrific home run for the Grange Festival in Hampshire, where since taking over in 2017 counter-tenor Michael Chance has encouraged superb productions of opera from the baroque period. This year was the turn of Handel’s oratorio Belshazzar, never before professionally staged in this country. See my review in The Article.
The Merry Widow, English National Opera, London Coliseum, March 2019
Posted on 4 March 2019
The opening night of this new production lacked the snap, crackle and pop of Lehár’s music. Yet when the conductor left the orchestra pit to join in the curtain calls, the orchestra continued under a more energetic conductor, and the music suddenly showed the pizzazz it had lacked earlier. On the other hand, Max Webster’s production …
Lakmé, Opera Holland Park, OHP, July 2015
Posted on 16 July 2015
This Delibes opera about the days of the Raj, when a British officer falls in love with the daughter of a Brahmin priest, expresses a late nineteenth and early twentieth century fascination with exotic locales — think Pearl Fishers and Madama Butterfly — and like Butterfly is based on a work by French novelist and …
Pirates of Penzance, English National Opera, ENO, London Coliseum, May 2015
Posted on 10 May 2015
On opening night the Coliseum was packed to the rafters for this new production, with the ENO already having scheduled two extra performances. The pre-performance enthusiasm was well judged because director Mike Leigh, who made that wonderful film Topsy-Turvy about Gilbert and Sullivan, has given us a production that is fun without sentimentality or camp …
Grimes on the Beach, Aldeburgh, June 2013
Posted on 23 June 2013
It all started with a Spitfire, flying low across the sea, first one way then the other, before looping the loop and vanishing into the distance. This reminder of 1945 fitted the costumes and ostensibly precarious sets by Leslie Travers in Tim Albery’s excellent production. Watching Britten’s Grimes on a set that ran along the …
The Mikado, English National Opera, ENO, London Coliseum, December 2012
Posted on 6 December 2012
The Mikado himself in this fantasia of English eccentricity was gloriously played by Richard Angas, with Robert Murray excellent as Nanki-Poo, and Richard Suart giving a brilliant performance of Ko-Ko in his 25thanniversary of the role. This vintage production continues to sparkle with bounce and fizz, and is so extraordinarily up to date that Ko-Ko’s …
Don Giovanni, English National Opera, ENO at the London Coliseum, November 2010
Posted on 7 November 2010
This production by Rufus Norris with sets by Ian MacNeil had some nice aspects … but the plethora of good ideas was all a bit too much for me.
Idomeneo, English National Opera, ENO at the London Coliseum, June 2010
Posted on 19 June 2010
… The music is wonderfully expressive of the conflicting emotions, and was superbly conducted by Edward Gardner …