FIELDING a cast of thousands may be exhilarating - and lovers of the epic certainly weren’t short-changed at the International Festival last week with the Opera de Lyon’s Mazeppa - but musical experiences don’t have to be big to be epic. Anyone who was in the Queen’s Hall on Tuesday morning to hear the 11-strong Scottish Ensemble and guests would be inclined to agree. Continue reading ››
AS I SIT with composer Stuart MacRae in the plush suite of underground rooms at Covent Garden Opera House reserved for rich ‘Friends’ who donate large portions of their children’s inheritance, I can’t help remembering that Mozart died in penury. It is a fact that the waiter, who has just pointedly removed the silver tray of tea and luxurious biscuits, clearly has in mind too. Continue reading ››
WHEN the design team came up with the exploding lightbulb motif for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival programme, they can hardly have imagined it would become so terribly apt. What with the alarm sounding during Elektra’s first night and the failure of Troilus and Cressida’s opening show to get beyond the first half due to set problems, one might have thought that the Festival fabric itself was keening over the departure of Brian McMaster. Continue reading ››
IT IS the end of a hot and sultry day in southwest London. Above a crowded high street in an old municipal building, German director Peter Stein and his 33-strong group of actors are slogging through the final fight scenes of Shakespeare’s epic Troilus and Cressida, a joint production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the International Festival which opens the theatre programme next week. Continue reading ››
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