On Opera

Contemporary debates over the “suitability” of many operas leaves us with only English productions

The ENO’s production of The Valkyrie may lack flames, but it is convincing nonetheless

While belly-laughs are not frequent, there’s terrific fun to be had in this massive soap-opera-style family melodrama

Why on earth would we want to see the same tawdry old stories endlessly re-enacted?

A large proportion of the English drive themselves mad with a baroque cocktail of fury, snobbery and self-hatred over Gilbert and Sullivan

Robert Thicknesse on the woes of modern, British opera

Robert Thicknesse on Rossini’s extraordinary de-cluttering of the musical atmosphere

Robert Thicknesse on how the idea that foreign poetry was better than local soon became established dogma

Robert Thicknesse reveals how in searching for meaning, opera adaptations are becoming more obscure

People are terrified of modernity’s great gift: the sudden freedom to make appalling noise, says Robert Thicknesse