Heartbeat Opera’s radical adaptations of classic titles can soar or fall flat, but one constant has always been music director Dan Schlosberg, whose ingenious maverick arrangements—such as February’s ...

Celebrating its sixth revival, David McVicar’s critically acclaimed production of Faust is a spectacular success with stunning sets and costumes, a magnificent cast, and some of Gounod’s greatest ...

It’s one of the most famous tales of a bad boyfriend in Western literature—a lonely scholar called Faust makes a deal with the devil and drags everyone else down with him—but in Sara Holdren’s new ...

First seen in 2004, McVicar’s staging still has all the illicit sheen and lure of Marguerite’s jewels. In an era of austerity (even at the Royal Opera) this kind of old-school, expensive theatricality ...

When David McVicar’s production of Gounod’s Faust was new in June of this year, the experience was hell in all but the literal sense. McVicar simply didn’t take the work seriously enough, and clearly ...

5.0 out of 5.0 starsAfter a glorious opening night at Glyndebourne, it’s a pleasure to be back at the Royal Opera House for the stunning visual and musical feast that is the all-star 6th revival of ...

Gounod's Faust is many things: vaudeville act, sentimental romance, Gothic tragedy, Catholic catechism, in short, a wholly unrealistic but winningly schizophrenic work that should be taken about as ...

It seems appropriate that the Royal Opera should start its French-themed season with Gounod’s Faust, perhaps the grandest of all grand operas. Over the coming months we’re being treated to a mixture ...