Royal Opera Christmas Concert online review – pajama party around the Nutcracker tree

★★★★ ROYAL OPERA CHRISTMAS CONCERT ONLINE Vivacious opera and cheesy carols 

Vivacious opera and cheesy carols under the lively baton of Mark Wigglesworth

So Hansel and Gretel can’t cuddle up together in the dark forest, Musetta doesn’t fall into long-suffering lover Marcello’s arms and there’s no audience to play to (as there would have been three days earlier).

First Person(s): soprano Susan Bullock and baritone William Dazeley on filming Britten’s Owen Wingrave

FIRST PERSON(S) Susan Bullock and William Dazeley on filming Britten's 'Owen Wingrave'

Grange Park Opera makes the most of Covid restrictions by producing a TV opera

Two of the singers in an ambitious project to film Britten’s opera based on a Henry James story – part timeless tale of repressive tradition which chimed with the composer's pacifist beliefs, part ghost story – which was originally “made for television” and premiered on the BBC, give their impressions close to the time of filming.

William Dazeley

The Seven Deadly Sins, Opera North online review - viscerally thrilling

★★★★ THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, OPERA NORTH Viscerally thrilling

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's indictment of capitalism in a vibrant new production

Theatres are currently banned from moving scenery and props about on stage and you might expect this to present a major obstacle to a production of The Seven Deadly Sins. How else is the opera’s protagonist to be seen to visit seven American cities, succumbing to a different sin in each? But Opera North’s version of Kurt Weill’s 1933 “sung ballet”, in a new translation of Bertolt Brecht’s libretto, a new orchestration for 15 players and with new choreography by director Gary Clarke, has found unlikely inspiration in the restrictions.

Ariodante, Royal Opera online review – stylish, but confined

★★★ ARIODANTE, ROYAL OPERA ONLINE Stylish, but confined

Accomplished ensemble tries its best to cross the footlights in livestream-only Handel

“After black and gloomy night, the sun shines all the brighter,” sings hero Ariodante after a life-threatening bout of jealousy nearly scuppers a royal wedding. There’s a snag in Handel’s dramaturgy: all that sunshine in preparation for the nuptials in Act One isn’t really earned.

‘Our whole industry is supported by vulnerable freelance creators': Chen Reiss on the artist in a time of Coronavirus

FIRST PERSON: SOPRANO CHEN REISS on the artist in a time of Coronavirus

The soprano, now on screen in the Royal Opera 'Ariodante', on recognition for performers

I am not the first to say this, and I won’t be the last, but what a strange year 2020 has become! I am learning afresh what it is to be both a singer and a parent and, although we have all been kept closed in our little home “bubbles,” we are learning what our world and culture looks like to those outside the “music bubble” – about how society values the arts and how different countries have been approaching the problems we are all currently facing.

Bluebeard's Castle, LSO, Rattle, LSO St Luke's online review - slow-burning magnificence

★★★★★ BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE, LSO, RATTLE, LSO ST LUKE'S ONLINE Slow-burning magnificence

Perfectly cast, perfectly played concert performance of Bartók’s early masterpiece

Poulenc’s La voix humaine comes close, but Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle has to be the perfect lockdown opera, this heady tale of two mismatched souls stuck in a confined space (admittedly an enormous one) alarmingly pertinent.

The Magic Flute, Glyndebourne review - deeply moving light in darkness

★★★★ THE MAGIC FLUTE, GLYNDEBOURNE Deeply moving light in darkness

Ninety minute concert staging showcases superb young singers

How does Mozart do it? His music can provoke deep emotions even in the unlikeliest operatic situations, if well done, and present circumstances stirred them up all the more on Sunday afternoon. Those flirtatious ladies flouncing around the prone prince in the first musical number of The Magic Flute – no overture here – only had to sing “although it breaks my heart in two/I have to bid farewell to you/until we meet again" for another tearful turn of the screw.