Robert Thicknesse

Robert Thicknesse is the Critic's opera critic

The Rhinegold, English National Opera, Coliseum

Opera North and English Touring Opera have plied an honourable trade without trying to gain kudos

Children are always unwelcome in Opera, except in The Magic Flute

Having the hots for Tosca

A summer of ecstatic, eccentric and not-so-operatic audiences at opera fringe

A powerful, moving adaptation of Puccini

A gloomy production of a glittering opera

The elegant narrative solution of suicide has had no greater cheerleader than opera

Opera directors are utilising programme books to purvey their moral and ethical wisdom