Renée Fleming

“Magic’s what I try to give to people,” Renée Fleming sang. The words come from A Streetcar Named Desire, which André Previn turned into an opera for Fleming several years ago. The partial standing ovation that followed her performance of … Continue reading →

The Death of Klinghoffer

When the BBC was planning its weekend-long festival of the music of John Adams, it must have made perfect sense to launch it with the first London performance of his second opera. Since it was premiered in Brussels in 1991, … Continue reading →

Bryn Terfel

“I know a good doctor in London,” Bryn Terfel remarked, breaking off his performance of Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel in an attempt to deal with the audience’s protracted fits of coughing. It was one of several moments in his … Continue reading →