The cast could scarcely be bettered" " Gold-standard quality"

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The Rake's Progress is a lot for an opera company to take on, but The Grange Festival has done it proud...

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With a young cast of strong voices,...,the production bowled along happily; bolstered by a well-drilled chorus in glowing voice

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[Alexandra] Oomens delighted the audience with the sweetness of her tone and the earnestness of her commitment to the text

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Alexandra Oomens' Anne: wide-eyed, yes, but also genuinely steely. As ultra-baddie Nick Shadow, Michael Mofidian was persuasive, his bass-baritone immense and sumptuous.

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...the principals are all well directed; Mofidian in particular gave each swish of his cloak impact and meaning

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The combination of visual clarity and expressivity with finely balanced and youthfully engaging performance, along with some superb discipline, gave us a terrific evening in the theatre, whilst at the same time we really came to care for these characters. Something that does not always happen in this opera

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very truely a five-star production, and easily one of the best interpretations of Monteverdi or a Baroque opera I have seen.

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Kitty Whately was a voluptuous, charismatic Poppea who had no trouble in showing why Nerone became infatuated with her, and she phrased her music with her accustomed musicality

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Fiona Kimm, as Ottavia's nurse, was a real force to be reckoned with, her natural stage presence holding the audience in the palm of her hand with every word of advice to her mistress.

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the real masterclass in Monteverdian declamation is given by Anna Bonitatibus's magnificently wronged Ottavia, laser-sharp, every word sculpted.

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Jonathan Lemalu is a joy, drawing us right into Seneca's final moments, with an earthly voice to savour.

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A richly layered depiction of characters in all their fallibility

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As Poppea herself, Kitty Whately was a beautifully strong presence

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The men were splendid, particularly Jonathan Lemalu's velvety deep Seneca and Christopher Lowrey's troubled and weak Ottone. As the drug inflicted Nero Sam Furness was excellent.

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in a fine cast of soloists, Bonitatibus stood out, not only for the beauty of her voice and the clarity of her diction, but for the physical control that marked the Empress out as a wronged but determined woman of single-minded intent

[Francesca Tiburzi's] outbursts of anger are both thrilling and truly terrifying

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Truly memorable realisation

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William Vann achieved splendours with The Grange Festival Chorus, filling the auditorium with a glorious "Te Deum"

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Wonderful music, magnificent theatre, and in Francesca Tiburzi, a Tosca for the ages

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Andrew Manea's hirsute, besuited Scarpia looks as suave as he sings, embodying a sly, compelling vision of evil rather than a caricature

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In the title role, making a vivacious Grange Festival debut, Francesca Tiburzi sings as much with her eyes as her voice

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This was as close to perfection as any Così can be, and it was achieved not only through Martin Lloyd-Evans' production but the superb conducting of Kirill Karabits and the glorious singing of a young yet confident cast.

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Guglielmo’s rakishness is ably served by Nicholas Lester’s lithely-wrought performance which exudes a casual charm

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Director Martin Lloyd-Evans prises open Mozart's opera's emotional complexity in a production that might be set in traditional dress but engages with today's concerns

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Martin-Lloyd Evans has taken the darkest, basest and most unpalatable truths of the piece and dressed them up in the prettiest, most authentic designs we've seen for years

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Samantha Clarke's bold, emotionally charged soprano gives three dimensions to Fiordiligi's inner conflict

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Karabits and the orchestra, provided deeper insight aplenty, in a performance that seemed almost to have come from the golden age of orchestral Mozart.

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Martin Lloyd-Evans’s production puts us face to face with an absurd, entertaining and increasingly troubling drama from which we cannot avert our eyes, and a set of moral dilemmas that we cannot ignore.

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compelling authenticity

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Anush Hovhannisyan’s lavish soprano fits the vocal bill as impressively as her tireless engagement shades in her character’s tragic vulnerability.

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Hovhannisyan portrayed her anguish magnificently, while Martynyuk was virtuosic in showing us Herman’s descent into insanity, each winding up the intensity of the other as the duet progresses.

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Quite simply, Barstow presented a masterclass in singing-acting.

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this revival shows how to revive G&S today, updated with a light touch that allows the simple emotions to blossom in this supremely effective music

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Strong performances and an intelligently modern-dress staging make Handel's darkest operatic drama a gripping evening

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Two superb countertenors enact the love-hate relationship between the emperor and his rival in Daniel Slater’s superbly acted and sung production

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Another countertenor, Patrick Terry, is excellent as Andronico. Sophie Bevan is lustrously toned as Asteria, and Angharad Lyddon is suitably icy as Irene. However, it is the veteran Paul Nilon who dominates as Bajazet, singing with intensity.

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The Grange Festival has a strong history with Handel, but this latest production, directed by Daniel Slater, may be the best yet.

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Raffaele Pe, who not only sings this very difficult music with bravura but manages to inject a kind of bemused humour into the brutal character, forever threatening mayhem against his enemies but never quite getting round to it.

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Angharad Lyddon’s sophisticated Irene is the perfect match for Tamerlano, her singing bringing to mind Jean Rigby’s in the English National Opera’s Xerxes with its warm tone and classic phrasing.

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Countertenor Raffaele Pe, a playboy Tamerlano, delivered the goods in style in his showpiece aria

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Italian countertenor Raffaele Pe consistently held the ear and eye, slipping insidiously between dangerous monster and playful oppressor.

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Paul Nilon brings passion and integrity to the hero of Handel's historical epic

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Slater’s production compellingly realises the spirit of this masterpiece and shows how the formalities of Baroque opera seria can be reimagined to speak convincingly to a contemporary audience

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This production was a remarkable achievement. Verdi's Macbeth is an opera that is so easy to do badly, and here The Grange Festival gave it to us on a highly concentrated scale, full of character, well paced and with some fine singing indeed.

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The Grange Festival’s Macbeth is a remarkable production musically and dramatically, that drips with symbolism, pertinent symbolism.

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From the Preludio’s dark premonitions, with its wriggling woodwind, through to the slaying of Macbeth, this new production seethes with dramatic tension, and is blessed with finely judged performances from both chorus and principals.

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The tenors come late to Verdi’s bloodbath, but when they do arrive, it’s pretty exciting. Samuel Sakker is all sob and throb in Macduff’s shattering lament, ‘Ah, la paterna mano’, his fleshy breadth of tone almost immediately challenged by the narrower blade of Andrés Presno’s Malcolm. Their Act IV duet is a highlight.

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Myshketa gave us a Macbeth who slid from a military affability to a chilly isolation, effectively capturing the change in character as the bodies pile up. His Act 4 aria “Pietà, rispetto, amore” was one of the highlights of the evening, plangently sung with attention to the text and an elegant sense of line.

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The best of the central performances is Judith Howarth’s Lady Macbeth. An experienced and expert singer, she understands the reason for every word of the text and every single one of Verdi’s notes – delivering both with outstanding authority. Her complex character is firmly and thoughtfully conveyed.

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The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is conducted with a fiery intensity by Francesco Cilluffo, keeping a firm balance on the music that romps along, at times sweeping and fierce, then gentle and controlled, and occasionally almost film music-like driving the pace of the action

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the augmented choir of The Sixteen - impeccably disciplined, supremely stylish - are the true stars of this enthralling show

Robert Murray made a wonderfully outrageous Belshazzar, conspicuous in his consumption, omniverous in his sexual tastes and generally self-indulgent

The Sixteen and their allies...sang, especially in the sublime choruses of the enslaved Jews, with a heart-lifting power that united dazzling vocal discipline with an emotional force that might have knocked those walls down by itself

Robert Murray's Belshazzar steered that very fine line between undue histrionics and credibility very skillfully, and made it possible for one to believe that this personable young tenor was actually a very bad man indeed. His singing was both powerful and beguiling

Murray, in one of his finest performances to date, makes an exceptional Belshazzar, superbly sang, attractive yet cowardly, unthinking and vainglorious

Many bigger companies could learn a thing or two from this astounding little festival that could

Conducted by the exceptional Francesco Cilluffo, Christopher Luscombe's production for The Grange Festival succeeds beyond any possible expectations

Easily the best thing I've seen at The Grange Festival

Christopher Luscombe's production is savvily updated, precisely calibrated and musically captivating

It's rare to find an evening of comedy that seems so perfectly assembled, but the Grange delivered the full package

Robert Hayward made a delightful Falstaff, an old roue who has no idea that he is ridiculous but who can scrub up well (for his Act Two seduction scene) when needed. Hayward made Falstaff's self-absorbtion into an enjoyable part of his routine and his nimble performance was the centrepiece which anchored the production

With a fine cast and a production of rare wit and poignancy, this is one of those occasions which reminds us that Le nozze di Figar is truely one of life's great operatic experiences

Ellie Laugharne stood out as Susanna for clarity of tone and quality of legato; tightly-wound, she showed just the right combination of frustration and amusement. Barely able to conceal her physical repulsion of Almaviva, we were given a women determined to do her utmost to take control of her fate

Lloyd-Evans and his team ensured that the closing miracle of forgiveness and reconciliation worked its magic without cynicism, with Mihai's Countess no longer a scorned, frantic victim but a vision of healing grace

Ellie Laugharne's grounded Susanna and Mihai's sorrowful Countess offer real depth of feeling, and the opera's final healing message of love and forgiveness rings completely true

Wallis Giunta's Cherubino balances the layered artifice of appearing boyish while more than once playing a boy playing a girl; her innate vocal warmth lends her pubertal pageboy a winning appeal

Things are similarly impressive vocally, with Kiandra Howarth on full throttle as Konstanze, one of Mozart's most challenging coloratura roles.

Copley's production is good fun and plays it by the book, so we actually get Osmin up a tree, picking figs, just as the libretto tells us

Making stronger impressions are bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu as a grand-scale Osmin who savours the comic possibilities of his role, and actor Alexander Andreou in the spoken role of Pasha Selim - a character to whom he brings considerable humanity and dignity

Kiandra Howarth sang as fine a Konstanze as I have ever heard, Christine Shcafer included, coloratura clear and meaningful, line finely spun. Humanity breathed into her character was Mozart's - yet her's too

There have been some brilliant productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia but this one beats them all...by a whisker

This was a busily engaging performance, drawing strong performances out of the cast to ensure that the wit and musical brilliance of Rossini's opera came over

Charles Rice as Figaro is a charismatic presence right from his famous first aria, while David Soar as the heavyweight Don Basilio also boasts impressive talent

With an excellent performance from the chorus and a vivid effervescent sound from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of eminent Rossinian David Parry, this was a corker of an evening - one to catch if at all possible

In all it's a terrific show, and the only Handel production I've ever seen which obeys the old showbiz principle: leave your audience wanting more

this is classy, provocative entertainment, and hugely enjoyable

Walter Stucliffe's production trades in the thrills and spills, deceptions, seductions, and revelations, cutting out the recitatives so that the whole thing rushes along as if there's no tomorrow

Its glorious music, political satire and imaginative staging make this an absolute must-see production

There is nothing to equal the collaboration of real experts in their field, as The Grange Festival has demonstrated yet again with this stunning Agrippina

A production such as this breathes new life into Baroque opera, showing to those open-minded enough to see it, how such works can still excite attention and pleasure

This cracking production, with its gripping mix of sex, power, schemes, politics, lies, lust and love, could have been written for the box-set age

Anna Bonitatibus richly captures the role of ruthless mother

As the opening offering of its second opera season, this is the stuff that will propel The Grange Festival to the top

Rigorous classical technique underpinned the contemporary stylings; McGregor’s company dancers brought a surging energy, buoying up jewel-like moments from the RB stars – Soares borne aloft, Hayward whipping through the air with fierce determination; an oh-so-delicate Stix-Brunell. It was a fittingly grand finale for this first foray to the country.

David Parry drove this sparkling score forward with ease and drew polished playing from members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Trinity Laban

a finely crafted, instantly attractive opera

Personality oozes from Sarah Pring's Lady Bertram and Jeni Bern's Mrs Norris

I would put an Austen tenner on this becoming a summer opera favourite, not least because it is both amusing and heartfelt. Dove and his librettist, Alasdair Middleton, are in tune with Mansfield Park's sense and sensibilities

Martin Lloyd-Evans directs the staging energetically, framed by Dick Bird's simple but elegant design

Dove and his brilliant librettist Alasdair Middleton, did provide us with charming entertainment which was stylishly and slicky staged by director Martin Lloyd-Evans and designer Dick Bird

The grandiose architecture of The Grange was a fitting place to stage this new operatic production of Mansfield Park celebrating Jane Austen's 200th and extending The Grange Festival's successful 2017 season

a delicious delight...impeccably directed, conducted and sung

as delightful as the day it was written

Copley's expertly crafted production extracts every ounce of humour from Britten's cosy comedy; in the pit, Steuart Bedford brings precision and sensibility

This is the best show I've seen there since the daring shot at Prokofiev's The Gambler a decade ago

John Copley directs a peach of an Albert Herring for The Grange Festival

Pinkstone allowed his performance to become more animated and the final scene was a brilliant mixture of comedy and seriousness

The cast was a true ensemble one, without a weak link in its golden chain

reassuringly skillful stagecraft

Bizet's orchestration, sparklingly dispatched by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud

[this Carmen] has one of the most chilling scenes I've seen in a theatre all year

Na'ama Goldman, who happens to look a lot like the late Amy Winehouse, was terrifically cast in the title role'

a vividly engaging account of Bizet's opera performed with a sure sense of style

No one could accuse director Annabel Arden and designer Joanna Parker's production of Carmen of not being innovative or accessible'

Annabel Arden's production certainly brings a fresh approach

Anna Bonitatibus hit the emotional bull's eye

Meticulously directed by Tim Supple and inventively designed by Sumant Jayakrishnan

A bold and innovative launch to the new Grange Festival

Nilon wonderfully captures Ulisse's noble anguish

Paul Nilon turns in an extraordinary Ulisse