Alexandra Coghlan

How do you present Bach’s cantatas in a way that honours their original Lutheran context without making a contemporary audience sit through an hour-long sermon in a cold church? The OAE's Bach, The Universe & Everything is back: www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/celesti...

ENO takes a risk with its first Manchester show – but it pays off Britten's Albert Herring is a bold choice to open their new chapter, but this cracker of a show proves the relocation might just come off

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...

You've got it!

I too have read this book for review. V interesting to see @alexandracoghlan.bsky.social’s take on it - lots we agree on. My review out on @theartsdesk.bsky.social shortly

Robin Holloway lambasts some of our most beloved composers Irreverent, outspoken and unfailingly opinionated, with knowledge as broad as his vocabulary, Robin Holloway is exactly the person you’d want to sit next to at a concert. The warmest of interval chard...

Robin Holloway's Music's Odyssey is certainly an epic. I took the journey and lived to tell the tale
@spectator www.spectator.co.uk/article/robi...

Giustino, Linbury Theatre review - a stylish account of a slight opera It’s a good year to be Handel-lover. No sooner have summer runs of Rodelinda (Garsington) and Saul (Glyndebourne) finished than we’re into autumn and Opera North’s Susanna, Giustino at the Royal Opera...

'Much more fun than a Classical biopera might sound' ★★★★ GIUSTINO #LinburyTheatre @royaloperahouse.bsky.social - Gods, mortals and monsters do battle in #Handel's charming drama - @alexandracoghlan.bsky.social enjoys a stylish account of a slight opera theartsdesk.com/opera/giusti...

The Rape of Lucretia: intimate and tender Read our review of The Rape of Lucretia: Robin Norton-Hale’s new production for English Touring Opera pulls the audience close

Tenderness and intimacy from @etopera.bsky.social new Rape of Lucretia: www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-...

Oum – A Son’s Quest for His Mother review at the Barbican Hall: Engrossing Read our review of Oum – A Son’s Quest for His Mother at London's Barbican Hall. Bushra El-Turk and Wout van Tongeren’s opera is never less than engrossing

"A fascinating experiment" - review of Bushra El-Turk's Oum: A Son's Quest for his Mother @thestage.co.uk www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/oum-...

Arvo Pärt at 90 - The Tablet Who is the world’s most performed living composer? According to statistics, the answer is John Williams: classical music’s commercial king of Hollywood. No

Ahead of the Barbican's Arvo Part at 90 exhibition, I explored the blanched sonic world of Estonia's greatest living composer: www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/arvo-pa...

Verdi: Les Vepres Siciliennes at Royal Opera | Live Review It's all undeniably gorgeous – and, if you can hold on to the slippery double-narrative –compelling

Is it time to stop worrying and learn to love Verdi's operatic bomb? I enjoyed a third visit to Stefan Herheim's Vepres Siciliennes @royaloperahouse.bsky.social
gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

Requiem in memoriam Josquin Desprez: I. Introitus - Requiem aeternam

It was a gift to have a reason to spend far too much time listening to the many - and very varied - recordings of Jean Richafort's ravishing Requiem
for Gramophone magazine - try this and marvel: open.spotify.com/track/2KTkXA...
www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...

'Putin's Diva' sparked protests - but she brought star-power to Tosca The first new staging for almost 20 years brings the shock-factor back to Puccini's opera

The Royal Opera's new Tosca delivers just enough shock without scaring the horses: inews.co.uk/culture/arts...

I remember Christine Brewer in there - she made the half-dome ring and then some!

Grimeborn's Sense and Sensibility is edgy yet unmemorable This opera-musical at the Arcola Theatre in East London has a nifty DIY quality, but fails to capitalise on its strengths

Is it a musical or an opera? Grimeborn's Sense & Sensibility: The Musical should pick a lane: inews.co.uk/culture/arts...

Always the case with the Proms. Bit tricky that the people paying for the tickets get a reliably inferior experience to those listening at home, but...

Wild Arts Opera at Opera Holland Park | Live Review The Essex-based company presents Eugene Onegin and The Elixir of Love

An opera company makes its London debut: review of Wild Arts' sober Eugene Onegin & a giddy Elisir d'amore at Opera Holland Park: gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

V much agree. And often the smallest things can work brilliantly - it’s mid-size that’s the problem… Was also surprised not to be more persuaded by the Arvo Part Prom.

Loved the music, hated the hall - pace purists, but it's time for some inauthentic solutions to early music at the Proms...

And there was me restraining myself all tastefully from ‘head to severed head’…!

This new Hyperion album contains a piece by someone new to me, a man with the BEST FRENCH COMPOSER NAME EVER. Does anyone know anything about Didier-Gaston de l'Aubergine? #classicalmusic #cello #frenchcomposers

Good to be going head to head with @larkingrumple.bsky.social again in Gramophone - this time about a classic recording of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites:

That’s so kind of you to say - thank you Christian!

Alexandre Kantorow is superb - but Maxim Emelyanychev was the star Emelyanychev brought this broad and delicate performance of Betthoven's Fifth  together

**** Some seriously classy playing from Kantorow and a Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing like a crack baroque band for Emelyanychev: BBC Proms review @theipaper.com inews.co.uk/culture/arts...

Busy month!

Verdi: Macbeth at West Green Opera | Live Review The real musical thrills here are all on the stage. Male and female choruses set the tone: zingy, strongly projected and articulated – serious talent-in-waiting

Very much enjoyed my first trip to West Green Opera www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

First visit to @westgreenopera_ last night - what a magical garden and place. Bonus points for three-man duck security team shaking down picnickers for crumbs…

The Impresario review at Buxton Opera House: Multilayered Read our review of The Impresario at Buxton Opera House. Directed by Christopher Gillett, a contemporary rewrite gives Mozart's operatic oddity new comic zest

Plenty of laughs and some cracking orchestral playing in this rewrite of Mozart’s The Impresario at Buxton Festival. Debut review from me @TheStage
www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-...

My top picks from a fab BBC Proms 2026 season for @thetablet.bsky.social www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/the-pro...

The Proms are back in full voice - The Tablet The pandemic was a watershed in the arts: the BC/AD of funding, programming, planning – of survival, even. The BBC Proms are classical music’s

My season guide to the Proms for @thetablet.bsky.social t www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/the-pro...

Debussy: Pelléas et Melisande at Longborough | Live Review Light – and its lack – is everything in Ogilvie’s production

Longborough beyond Wagner: the festival’s first Pelléas is rich and thoughtful: www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...