If this comes off, it could be spectacular! Design unveiled for a new Hamburg opera house: www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news...

Ein Kolossal Katastrophe. Left at interval. This Damnation de Faust at TCE is by far the worst production I have seen in my life at the opera. Nothing to save, with Bernheim gone. And Van Horn needs to stop trying to play devils in French opera. He’s just not good and massacres the text. I’m angry.

Tchaikovsky in miniature: my take on recent albums from Yunchan Lim and Daniil Trifonov canzonetta.substack.com/p/review-tch...

Tchaikovsky in miniature: my take on recent albums from Yunchan Lim and Daniil Trifonov canzonetta.substack.com/p/review-tch...

Who doesn’t enjoy a French postcard from Spain? Reviewing the @liverpoolphil.bsky.social’s latest on Onyx: www.gramophone.co.uk/review/chabr...

Happy Sunday! 🦛 💙 Adorable ancient Egyptian blue faience hippos made by artisans some 4,000 years ago! 📷 by me #Archaeology

Excellent interview by @kevinng.bsky.social with soprano Nadine Sierra on bel canto, new roles... and the Met Sonnambula that very nearly didn’t happen: bachtrack.com/interview-na...

I filled my Katie Mitchell bingo card with ease ✅, but she presents a convincing case for Janáček’s Makropulos at The Royal Opera. My @thetimes.com review 👇 www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

What a tremendous opera Respighi’s Lucrezia is… superbly staged and sung at @guildhallschool.bsky.social, especially Hannah McKay in the title role.

Any Glyndebourne Members at the Open Day tomorrow (8 Nov) do consider coming along to my lecture on The Birth of Opera. There will be naughty aristocrats, musicological scandals, bags of Monteverdi, and a little help from my friends Sarah Lenton and Martyn Bennett

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died on this day in 1893. I've done a few Gramophone Collections on Tchaikovsky works, but this one on Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) is the most recent: www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...

I filled my Katie Mitchell bingo card with ease ✅, but she presents a convincing case for Janáček’s Makropulos at The Royal Opera. My @thetimes.com review 👇 www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

This is a refreshing interview. Ausrine Stundyte talks to Flora Willson on the set of The Makropulos Case: www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

Who says Haydn doesn’t sell? A packed @wigmore-hall.org.uk to see Il Giardino Armonico’s invigorating performances. Added bonus seeing Hilary Finch in the interval!

A film you've seen more than seven times with a gif

Haydn2032 comes to London: greatly looking forward to seeing Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico in Symphonies 44 and 52 @wigmore-hall.org.uk this evening www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202...

In the new issue of Opera Now, my Postcard from the Salzburg Festival www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/fe...

In the Burggarten…

A (very long) Night in Venice: Carnival meets Batman at the Volksoper My Opera Now review 👇 www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

Killing Carmen at the Volksoper… what a terrific show! 💃🏻

A (very long) Night in Venice: Carnival meets Batman at the Volksoper My Opera Now review 👇 www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

At Theater an der Wien, Stefan Herheim’s Fledermaus has fangs 🦇 My Opera Now review 👇 www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

For today’s 200th anniversary of the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss II, Elisabeth and I selected a celebratory top ten playlist 🥂🍾 bachtrack.com/playlist-top...

And to celebrate Johann Strauss II 200, join me and Elisabeth as we visit the top ten Strauss sites in Vienna! bachtrack.com/feature-joha...

Celebrating Johann Strauss II’s 200th in style this weekend in Vienna: Die Fledermaus at Theater an der Wien (where it premiered in 1874) and Eine Nacht in Venedig at the Volksoper 🥂🍾

Alexei Ratmansky’s Callirhoe is massive fun at the Wiener Staatsballett Review 👇 bachtrack.com/review-calli...

Ratmansky Time! 🩰

Slowly working my way through the Fritz Reiner box and my, this is some punchy big-band Rossini! Huge fun.

Louvre robbery. French police release image of suspect.

Absorbing Lee Miller exhibition at Tate Britain. I can see how the mangled Remington appealed to her surrealist side. Pic 3 is Irmgard Seefried performing among the ruins of the Wiener Staatsoper. Pic 4 is Picasso with Miller’s son.

“Daddy, my daddy!” The Railway Children gets a Cold War thriller makeover (yes, really) at Glyndebourne. Mark-Anthony Turnage talks to Nancy Durrant : www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

Really saddened to hear the American soprano Roberta Alexander died yesterday at the age of 76. A wonderful Jenufa at Glyndebourne, and Handel's Theodora on disc with Harnoncourt. Here singing Samuel Barber's Sure on This Shining Night. A lovely, lovely artist. RIP www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgsk...

What does English National Opera's Albert Herring tell us about the company's future, its challenges and ambitions? Some thoughts on this cracking show for the I Paper: inews.co.uk/culture/arts...

A very fine house debut from Marie Jacquot in this excellent Royal Opera Magic Flute revival My @thetimes.com review is now online: www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

A very fine house debut from Marie Jacquot in this excellent Royal Opera Magic Flute revival My @thetimes.com review is now online: www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

His early-mid years were some of the most glorious tenor singing I've heard. I occasionally binge on every youtube recording/video of him from the '60s-'70s. My nomination for tonight is the Mascagni's Cherry Duet. <3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DNP...

Luciano Pavarotti was born 90 years ago today in Modena. A great tenor – in all senses – his voice was like golden sunshine. I was lucky enough to see him three times, twice in Tosca – a wonderful Cavaradossi. He left so many great recordings. Your favourites?

Charity shop vinyl discovery: Huguette Tourangeau singing rarities by Balfe, Bizet, Auber, Vaccai and others. I had no idea this album existed.

Autumn stroll, listening to the new Lucia di Lammermoor 🍂

Buon compleanno, Giuseppe! 🥳 My top ten Verdi playlist... bachtrack.com/playlist-top...

It’s good to see Calixto Bieito’s Carmen back at the Coli, but... www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

At the Coli for the return of Calixto Bieito’s Carmen

Taylor Swift, eat your heart out: my @thetimes.com review of Handel's Giustino, back at Covent Garden for the first time since 1737 @lanuovamusica.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

My review of an intense Rape of Lucretia for English Touring Opera @etopera.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

A Wilde afternoon ahead…

Have you seen John Bridcut's bio-doc on Delius? It's a probing, revelatory 2012 film on BBC4. I've been blown away by it. 'Delius: Composer, Lover, Enigma'. Do search it out.

Here's Claudia Pritchard's write up of the Critics' Circle Music Awards 2025: criticscircle.org.uk/music-awards...

Another fab Vêpres! Great to see it up close and personal!

Rossinian farce at its best: I really enjoyed L’occasione fa il ladro at the Kammeroper last night www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

Morning visit to the House of Strauss: