Posts Tagged ‘review’
The Magic Flute
Mozart’s classic ‘Singspiel’ The Magic Flute is a ravishing, glittering success. If you are new to Opera, this is probably one of the best ways to get an introduction, and this production will delight and surprise even the most seasoned opera fan. It’s in the form of what was known as a ‘Singspiel’ – telling…
Read MoreLocal Hero
It’s a big risk to take such an iconic, well-loved Scottish film and turn it into a stage musical. But Local Hero at The Lyceum is a triumphant, joyous and uplifting success. From the start, sparse, simple staging and subtle washes of light create an intimate, evocative atmosphere, with earthy humour and a distinctly Scottish…
Read MoreKátya Kabanová
Scottish Opera seems to have caught the zeitgeist with this production, which is one of three Kátya Kabanovás running in the UK at the beginning of this year, with Opera North and Covent Garden also joining in the Katyamania. But, even without seeing the others, I can be confident in saying that this looks very…
Read MoreTouching the Void
I can recall many theatre performances. But I can only once recall seeing anything quite as accomplished, astonishing and as well crafted as Touching the Void.* Story. Dialogue. Characters. Lighting. Sound. Set. Props. Movement. Music. All fused together to provide a jaw dropping spectacle that was an immersive and complete work of art. I was…
Read MoreAnthropocene
There was a tangible buzz in the air for the world premiere of this opera in Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. With music by Stuart MacRae and libretto by author Louise Welsh, the story is set in the frozen wilderness of Greenland, where a scientific expedition comes to grief when plummeting temperatures cause the exploration ship King’s…
Read MoreWendy and Peter Pan
The Lyceum’s Christmas production of ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’ is heart warming, funny, with elements of pantomime (but not too overdramatized). The first half of the show follows the traditional storyline of Peter Pan with Peter, John and Michael wanting to do nothing but play games and fight after arriving in Neverland. But there is…
Read MoreThe Journey
This is an excoriating, disturbing and intense hour of theatre in the round, and it highlights the desperate plight of refugees in a hard-hitting and unforgettable way. Three actors play the role of a family who are ‘found by war’ and graphically portray their plight as war comes to their unnamed home and gradually but…
Read MoreRigoletto
Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda is an innocent who is first deceptively seduced, then kidnapped, and raped – behind this are powerful men acting with complete impunity and treating a woman as nothing more than a disposable object for their pleasure. Written in 1850, Rigoletto was perhaps the first opera to deal openly with the issue of…
Read MoreCyrano de Bergerac
Yon Cyrano has a muckle great neb, and this yin’s a pure dead brilliant show. You’re immersed from the start in glorious rhyming Scots with Edwin Morgan’s seminal translation, and it combines with the semi-industrial but inventive set design pulls you into this cracking piece of theatre completely. Brian Ferguson as Cyrano dominates almost effortlessly…
Read MoreTwelfth Night
Gender-bending, gloriously psychedelic, and deeply, madly groovy. This is a riot of music and colour carried off by a stellar cast, bringing this complex story to life with an energy and flair that is jaw-dropping, and includes the most show-stopping second half opener I have seen in years. The action opens in a debauched 60s /…
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