2023 Reviews

Venue: Opera Holland Park
Date: 22nd June 2023
Written by: Giuseppe Verdi; Libretto - Francesco Maria Piave (based on the 1832 play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo)
Directed by: Cecilia Stinton; Conductor: Lee Reynolds
Staring: Stephen Gadd (Rigoletto); Alison Langer (Gilda); Alessandro Scotto di Luzio (Duke of Mantua)

Wonderful singing, mad setting...

Only one Opera Holland Park production to see this year, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and it lives up (or down) to expectations.

Venue: Glyndebourne Festival Theatre
Date: 20th June 2023
Written by: Donizetti
Directed by: Annabel Arden
Staring: Matteo Desole (Nemorino); Nardus Williams (Adina); Biagio Pizzuti (Belcore); Renato Girolami (Dulcamara); Maxime Nourissat (Dulcamara’s assistant)

My first Glyndebourne Festival Opera of 2023 is Donizetti's L'Elisir D'Amore, directed by Annabel Arden.

Venue: Menier Chocolate Factory
Date: 13th June (4th Preview night)
Written by: Books & lyrics Don Black & Christopher Hampton; Music George Fenton from a novel by Graham Greene
Directed by: Trevor Nunn
Staring: Sam Underwood (Holly Martins); Natalie Dunn (Anna); Simon Bailey (Harry Lime/ Crabbit); Edward Baker-Duly (Calloway); Derek Griffiths (Porter).

I was at the fourth preview night of The Third Man at the Menier.

Venue: Southwark Playhouse
Date: 25th May 2023
Written by: Music and Lyrics: Frank Loesser. Book: Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock & Willie Gilbert, based on the novel by Shepherd Mead
Directed by: Georgie Rankcom
Staring: Tracie Bennett; Gabrielle Friedman; Allie Daniel

The Southwark Playhouse is my (almost rep) local theatre, offering this month How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

I finally got to see Rose at the Ambassador’s Theatre.

Venue: Sadler's Wells
Date: 16th May 2023
Written by: From the novel by F Scott Fitzgerald, Choreographer David Nixon, score by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

The Northern Ballet’s Great Gatsby (at Sadler’s Wells) attracted an enthusiastic crowd at sadler's Wells, hardly a surprise, I suppose.