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Category Archives: Cultural Matters
Casting Back
Casting Back The Estancia, Martín Cullen, Adelphi, ￡20, hb, 399 pp, reviewed by Stoddard Martin As a rule, this reader finds tales of childhood dull. True growing-up happens with first love, sexual encounters, jobs, facing the adult world on one’s … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Cultural Matters, QR Home
Tagged Buenos Aires, Martín Cullen, Proust, Stoddard Martin, The Estancia
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Death by Des Grieux
Death by Des Grieux Review of Manon Lescaut, dramma lirico in four acts, music composed by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Marco Praga, Giuseppe Giacosa, Domenico Oliva and Luigi Illica, directed by Karolina Sofulak, conductor Peter Robinson, new production at Investec … Continue reading
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Tagged Elizabeth Llewellyn, Karolina Sofulak, Manon Lescaut, Opera Holland Park, Puccini
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ENDNOTES, June 2019, Choral Music of Norway
Endnotes, June 2019, Choral Music of Norway; Sergey Levitin plays Stanford at the English Music Festival, reviewed by Stuart Millson Recorded in the impressive acoustic of Domkirken, Bergen, a new CD from Chandos Records highlights the achievements of Norwegian composers, … Continue reading
In a Place of Tears
In a Place of Tears Review of Tosca, melodrama in three acts, music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, conducted by Alexander Joel, directed by Jonathan Kent, Royal Opera, 27th May 2019, reviewed by Leslie Jones … Continue reading
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Tagged Bryn Terfel, Kristine Opolais, Puccini, Tosca
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Reign of Tenor
Reign of Tenor Review of Andrea Chénier, dramma istorico, music composed by Umberto Giordano, libretto by Luigi Illica, directed by Sir David McVicar, conducted by Daniel Oren, Royal Opera, 20th May 2019, reviewed by Leslie Jones At Contessa de Coigny’s soirée, … Continue reading
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Tagged Andrea Chenier, Puccini, Umberto Giordano
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ENDNOTES: May 2019
Endnotes: May 2019 From Meadow to Mayfair – Stuart Millson pays tribute to the English light music tradition The great tone-poems of English music need little introduction: Bax’s epic evocation of Cornish myth and landscape, Tintagel, and Holst’s mysterious Dorset … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural Matters, ENDNOTES:Music, QR Home
Tagged Eric Coates, Haydn Wood, Ronald Binge, Sir Adrian Boult, Vernon Handley
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Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea
Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea Review of Billy Budd, opera in two acts, music by Benjamin Britten, libretto by E M Forster and Eric Crozier, conducted by Ivor Bolton, directed by Deborah Warner, Royal Opera, 23rd April 2019, reviewed … Continue reading
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Tagged Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Deborah Warner
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Hell has no Limits
Hell has no Limits Faust, opera in five acts, music by Charles-François Gounod, libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, conducted by Dan Ettinger, director David McVicar, 5th revival of the 2004 production, Royal Opera, Thursday 11th April 2019, reviewed … Continue reading
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Tagged Erwin Schrott, Faust, Gounod, Stéphane Dégoût
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Two Poems by Velaj
Two Poems by Velaj The Hymn of Madness The old women witch river banks Wetting white sheets of snow And wrapping dead mouse in them God forgive them They do not know what they are doing The sheets belonged … Continue reading
ENDNOTES, April 2019
ENDNOTES, April 2019 by Stuart Millson In this edition: musical meditations on death and national decline From Chandos records, come two less-frequently-performed masterpieces by the doyen of English music, Sir Edward Elgar: The Music Makers (written in 1912) and The Spirit … Continue reading →
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