Mark Pullinger
@larkingrumple.bsky.social
Music critic, editor, programme note writer. Happy to be ambushed by cake. Best when caffeinated. https://canzonetta.substack.com/
A postcard from Salzburg: reviews (Carmen, Ariadne, Saint François) and views from this year's festival canzonetta.substack.com/p/a-postcard...
A Postcard from the Salzburg Festival
Festivals are a place for risk and innovation.
canzonetta.substack.com
Ariadne auf Mars, courtesy of Ersan Mondtag at the Salzburg Festival 🪐 🤔 www.opera-now.com/content/revi...
Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos at Salzburg Festival | Live Review - Opera Now
Mondtag’s Ariadne auf Mars mission should have been aborted soon after the design phase
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Ritualistic immersion into Messiaen: my review of Saint François d'Assise at the Salzburg Festival: www.opera-now.com/content/revi...
Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise at Salzburg Festival | Live Review - Opera Now
At over six hours (including two lengthy intervals), some will find it an endurance test – an act of penance, if you will – but it is best approached as a me...
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Carmen get it: the most hotly anticipated production at this year’s Salzburg Festival, reviewed for Opera Now: www.opera-now.com/content/revi...
Bizet: Carmen at Salzburg Festival | Live Review - Opera Now
There is much here that proves riveting, but as much that fails
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Three years ago, Asmik Grigorian told me that if she was ever going to sing Carmen, it should be sooner rather than later. Tonight, at the Salzburg Festival…
Opening night of the (expanded) revival of Christof Loy’s Così fan tutte staging at the Salzburg Festival
Perspectives of belief: ahead of his new production of Parsifal for The Royal Opera, my Opera Now interview with director Evgeny Titov 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...
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Early morning hike up the castle (where Richard the Lionheart was once imprisoned)
Jerry Lee Lewis meets Beyoncé: Omer Meir Wellber enjoys an energetic workout with DKam at the BBC Proms bachtrack.com/review-wellb...
Elin Pritchard a world class Amelia in @operahollandpark.bsky.social's excellent Ballo in maschera revival Review: www.opera-now.com/content/revi...
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera at Opera Holland Park | Live Review - Opera Now
Pritchard’s lirico-spinto soprano is supple and has poise, power and finesse, the perfect cocktail of ingredients required for mature Verdi
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You can kill a French vampire with a baguette. It's a painstaking process but it works.
Loved the Sinfonia of London's Roman holiday at the Proms (even if Audrey Hepburn was nowhere to be seen) bachtrack.com/review-wilso...
This was a fascinating chat... a deep dive into Mozart soprano roles – especially Susanna and the Countess – with Louise Alder: bachtrack.com/interview-lo...
Love on the Rocks: Laurent Pelly leaves Ariadne high and dry at Glyndebourne www.opera-now.com/content/revi...
Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne | Live Review - Opera Now
Music Director Robin Ticciati injected the score with life and colour
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"the piece is always going to be greater than any performance you can give of it, and you are always striving to find the perfect truth": lovely interview with John Wilson as.ft.com/r/431c2c17-c...
Conductor John Wilson: ‘I make no apologies for my love of light music’
He and his Sinfonia of London range from Ravel and Rachmaninov to Broadway tunes — and are a hot ticket at the BBC Proms
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Mephisto, by Joaquín Espalter y Rull, 1872, 📸 by Dan Mullan
Off to Glyndebourne today for Ariadne auf Naxos, my final country house opera of the season. It's been a glorious summer – thanks, in no small part, to the weather – so here's a collection of snaps from my travels: canzonetta.substack.com/p/picture-po...
Picture postcard from the country house opera festivals
April, according to TS Eliot, is the cruellest month, but for those opera critics afflicted with FOMO, that cruellest month would be June...
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And they're off! Silky Ravel from Yunchan Lim to kick off the BBC Proms... bachtrack.com/review-first...
“Music keeps me young!” Happy 99th birthday to Herbert Blomstedt! 🥳 I have fond memories of a 2020 interview where he sang much of Schubert's Great C major Symphony to me down the phone! bachtrack.com/interview-he...
it’s hot. may I recommend a crypt for these trying times?
The Art of the Encore: A few thoughts after Sonya Yoncheva's @wigmore-hall.org.uk recital this evening... open.substack.com/pub/canzonet...
The Art of the Encore
Always leave ‘em wanting more. Sound advice, soundly followed by soprano superstar Sonya Yoncheva...
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Back at @wigmore-hall.org.uk, this time for Sonya Yoncheva’s hall debut: Italian songs in the first half, Puccini operatic bangers in the second…
Extra time (but no penalties) in last night's Wigmore Hall recital, a showcase for Julia Lezhneva with Il Giardino Armonico. Guess how many encores she sang! bachtrack.com/review-lezhn...
Barrie Kosky and Klaus Mäkelä deliver a knockout Die Frau ohne Schatten at Festival d’Aix www.opera-now.com/content/revi...
Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence | Live Review - Opera Now
With all due respect to the fabulous vocal line-up, it was Mäkelä and the orchestra who earned the evening’s instant standing ovation
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In Aix-en-Provence, perfecting the art of the flâneur…
“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! 💃🏻
Weeping willows and a cavatina: the @quatuorebene.bsky.social’s Beethoven reviewed at @wigmore-hall.org.uk They're playing another Beethoven programme this evening, so get booking! bachtrack.com/review-quatu...
