My third and final review from this year’s Festival Verdi in Parma. A visually striking Nabucco from 96-year old director Pier Luigi Pizzi and a vocally striking Abigaille from soprano Lidia Fridman: bachtrack.com/review-nabuc...
Mark Pullinger
@larkingrumple.bsky.social
Music critic, editor, programme note writer. Happy to be ambushed by cake. Best when caffeinated. https://canzonetta.substack.com/
Nile spectacular: Franco Zeffirelli’s intimate Aida revived in Busseto 🤩 bachtrack.com/review-aida-...
Carry On Up the Nile… (embarking on a new Gramophone Collection)
“I’m not coming to destroy Wagner. That’s not my purpose.” Evgeny Titov on directing Parsifal at the Royal Opera (opens on Thursday www.opera-now.com/content/feat...
Perspectives of belief: Evgeny Titov - Opera Now
As director Evgeny Titov prepares to stage Wagner’s Parsifal at the Royal Opera, he speaks about politics, perspective and criticism when it comes to the art...
opera-now.com
WNO’s rebel voices triumph in Bartók and Stravinsky After years of funding cuts and upheaval, Welsh National Opera opens its new season with two demanding works and formidable artistic energy ✍️ Fiona Maddocks https://bit.ly/4ynfBO8
WNO’s rebel voices triumph in Bartók and Stravinsky
After years of funding cuts and upheaval, Welsh National Opera opens its new season with two demanding works and formidable artistic energy
bit.ly
Firing blanks: Tosca, the inaugural production by Oxford International Opera, underwhelms... bachtrack.com/review-tosca...
The nominees for the 2026 International Opera Awards, to be held at MusikTheater an der Wien in November, have been announced: operaawards.org/archive/2026/
“Have I just written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music?” More than a whiff of the theatre about the Monteverdi Choir’s performance of Rossini's Petite messe solennelle. Review 👇 bachtrack.com/review-rossi...
As if the album cover isn't inspired enough, take a peek inside the booklet of Cyrille Dubois' new Britten disc!! 🐸☂️
Happy Maurice Jarre's birthday! Let's celebrate with one of the great match cuts in cinema history paired with one of the great themes in film score history. A score written in just six weeks by Jarre (1924-2009) who was David Leans's THIRD composer choice! Goosebumps, every time. #filmsky #moviesky
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) - The Match Cut
This is the famous match cut from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) directed by David Lean - followed by the segue to the desert and the sweeping main theme by Maurice Jarre
vimeo.com
“Asmik Grigorian... invests the soprano part with every bit of drama and intensity that she wrings out of her operatic roles” Review of the Cleveland Orchestra in Verdi's Requiem for Gramophone www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/verd...
Spinning around: Kasper Holten's Don Giovanni is back to open the new Royal Opera season bachtrack.com/review-don-g...
“I could have danced all night…” Well, Nadine Sierra could have sung all night… and very nearly did. EIGHT encores to open the @wigmore-hall.org.uk season in spectacular fashion!!
This evening @wigmore-hall.org.uk!
Mark Pullinger@larkingrumple.bsky.social · 3mo ago“It’s not just a vocal performance. It’s a show!” This was fun! Chatted with Nadine Sierra for the cover story in the summer issue of Score, @wigmore-hall.org.uk’s magazine. Ahead of her hall debut, we talk roles, repertoire… and gowns! 💃🏻
“I had hoped I wouldn't fall in love with another orchestra, but in fact I did.” It's easy to hear why. Simon Rattle and the Freiburg Baroque play Schumann at the Proms: bachtrack.com/review-rattl...
“Martha Argerich plays Beethoven”: four words guaranteed to fill the Royal Albert Hall. (Her Ravel encore with Lahav Shani was pretty special too). Review 👇 bachtrack.com/review-arger...
Et tu, Brute? A pocket-sized Giulio Cesare graces London’s East End #Grimeborn bachtrack.com/review-hande...
Another in the occasional series, ‘Musicians who've forgotten their instruments...’
This is always fun to put together... my pick of rising stars to watch out for on the opera and classical scene in the new season! bachtrack.com/feature-risi...
Much espresso required after a deep immersion into Nielsen’s maverick, impetuous Clarinet Concerto, my latest Gramophone Collection assignment. Physical CDs represent the tip of the digital iceberg…!
The most dramatically engaging Aida staging I’ve ever witnessed (I know, six of the productions I've seen have been in London, so that sets a low bar, but still...) My review of Noa Naamat's powerful Aida, opening the Finnish National Opera season 👇 bachtrack.com/review-aida-...
Tonight’s entertainment… and the view from the back of the opera house! 🇫🇮
“Sumptuous, hedonistic, highly calorific”: Yannick's back at the Proms, this time bringing his Met Orchestra and Elza van den Heever as a knockout Salome. bachtrack.com/review-nezet...
This interview with Russ Abbott by @shattenstone.bsky.social is lovely. Abbott had a career, a good one. He had a lovely time. And then he stopped. And that's fine. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
‘In 1984, I worked 363 days’: how Russ Abbot soared to success – then walked away
The comedian dominated Saturday night TV in the 1980s, with his sketch shows attracting 18 million viewers. Next came the West End musicals and sitcoms. But in 2016 he quietly disappeared from the lim...
theguardian.com
Interesting thoughts on the Salzburg Festival post Markus Hinterhäuser @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/a...
The Salzburg Festival Navigates Uncertain Times Without a Captain (Gift Article)
The renowned classical music festival is at a turning point after ousting its artistic director as it prepares for a disruptive $600 million renovation project.
nytimes.com
Rumble! My Prom of the year (thus far...) The @londonsymphony.bsky.social shake the soul in Berlioz's Requiem: bachtrack.com/review-pappa...
Can seriously recommend Alexandra Richter's review of the AI Ring cycle at Bayreuth (now translated into EN): “404 Regie not found”: bachtrack.com/kritik-wagne... “What remains is an audience that is disappointed and rightly angry at being taken for fools.”
