On Opera

Digging for gold

La fanciulla del West, Opera Holland Park

Operatic satire is a Shaw thing

The old Art has an armoury of skunk-like defence mechanisms to keep the unwashed at bay

These violent delights

Pagliacci made the murder the true apex of the show

Jolly boating weather

The Gondoliers, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire

Mass hysteria

Sancta, Flanders Opera, Antwerp

Sexy sisters and holy hotties

Less Sister Simper, more Attila the Nun

A show to make you afraid of the dark

Opera is the repository of everything crass and depraved in what is laughingly called European “civilisation”

When Kurt was better without Bert

Musical theatre forgets all but the smashiest hits from its past

Vivid nostalgia

The Cunning Little Vixen, Irish National Opera, Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo

All’s fair in love

Così fan tutte, English National Opera, Coliseum