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Richard Bratby

Richard Bratby

The Spectator

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The stupidity of the classical piano trio

The stupidity of the classical piano trio
16.01.2025 8

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Theatre / A miracle at the RSC: genuinely funny Shakespeare

Theatre / A miracle at the RSC: genuinely funny Shakespeare

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? Most subsidised theatres hanker for political relevance. Even so,...

06.01.2025 20

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

A miracle at the RSC: genuinely funny Shakespeare

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? Most subsidised theatres hanker for political relevance. Even so,...

02.01.2025 1

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Our verdict on Pappano’s first months at the London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Antonio Pappano began 2024 as music director of the Royal Opera and ended as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Around the...

02.01.2025 5

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Opera / Meet the king of comic opera

John Savournin has been busy. That comes with the territory for a classical singer – things often get a little hectic as the music world barrels...

17.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Opera / Meet the king of comic opera

John Savournin has been busy. That comes with the territory for a classical singer – things often get a little hectic as the music world barrels...

17.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Vivid, noble and bouyant: AAM’s Messiah reviewed

More than a thousand musicians took part when Handel’s Messiah was performed in Westminster Abbey in May 1791. It wasn’t the only item on the...

12.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Meet the king of comic opera

John Savournin has been busy. That comes with the territory for a classical singer – things often get a little hectic as the music world barrels...

12.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Spellbinding: Herbert Blomstedt’s Mahler 9 reviewed

Ivor Cutler called silence the music of the cognoscenti. But there’s silence and there’s silence, and a regular concertgoer hears a fair bit of...

05.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Opera / A keeper: ENO’s new The Elixir of Love reviewed

There was some light booing on the first night of English National Opera’s The Elixir of Love, but it was the good kind – the friendly kind, aimed...

30.11.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Fails to ignite: Royal Opera’s Tales of Hoffmann reviewed

I couldn’t love anyone who didn’t love Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Everything – everything – is stacked against this opera. Offenbach...

14.11.2024 3

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

The Listener / The striking musical world of Welsh composer Grace Williams

Grade: A- There are neglected composers, and then there are Welsh composers. It’s just a question of geography. When Grace Williams’s Fairest of...

10.11.2024 4

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

One beauty – one turkey: Wexford Festival Opera reviewed

‘Theatre within Theatre’ was the theme of the 2024 Wexford Festival and with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s The Critic, that’s exactly what...

07.11.2024 4

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Classical music / The BBC Singers Centenary Concert was toe-curling

When does a new opera enter the repertoire? Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert has only had a couple of UK productions since its première at English...

16.10.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Aggressively jaded: Edinburgh’s Marriage of Figaro reviewed

‘Boo!’ came a voice from the stalls. ‘Boo. Outrage!’ It was hard not to feel a pang of admiration. British opera audiences don’t tend to...

29.08.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Save our steam engines!

Last week, if you’d known what to listen for, you might have heard a chorus of miniature whistles in gardens across the UK. Other sounds too: the...

29.08.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Britain’s youngest summer opera festival is seriously impressive

Waterperry is one of the UK’s youngest summer opera festivals: it started up in 2018, at the northern limit of the species’ natural habitat. You...

22.08.2024 20

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Left reeling / Edinburgh is ruined by the Festival

As an arts journalist, you know you’re getting old when you scan the Edinburgh Festival programme, and instead of thinking ‘Wow, look at all...

16.08.2024 3

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

In defence of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Grand Duke

Artistic partnerships are elusive things. The best – where two creative personalities somehow inspire or goad each other to do better than their...

15.08.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Forget the Proms and Edinburgh – the Three Choirs Festival is where it’s at

The Proms have started but there is a world elsewhere, and in Worcester Cathedral the 296th Three Choirs Festival set sail with a concert that...

01.08.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

A major operatic rediscovery: Birmingham Opera Company’s New Year reviewed

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time. One of the most thrilling aspects of the Tippett revival has been the discovery that...

18.07.2024 3

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Go whistle / I’m a total, unrepentant sportsphobe

It’s 1 a.m. in our small cathedral city and car horns are honking in jubilation. From down the street comes the sound of smashing bottles, and a...

17.07.2024 8

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Sparky and often hilarious: Garsington’s Un giorno di regno reviewed

Hang out with both trainspotters and opera buffs and you’ll soon notice that opera buffs are by far the more trainspotterish. It’s the pedantry,...

11.07.2024 10

The Spectator

Richard Bratby