Nigel Wilkinson

Nigel has attended regularly, in Paris and elsewhere, for over 40 years. His focus is more on live, staged opera, warts and all, than recordings. His reports, which started as an aide-mémoire but were soon shared with friends and eventually became a blog, aim to encapsulate the unique experience, warts and all, of an ordinary, paying opera-goer. His other interests include travel, food and friendships, and he collects art by (mostly) young artists from around the world. UK-born and a graduate of Trinity College Cambridge, he has lived and worked in Iran and Turkey, but settled in Paris and, Brexit oblige, is now French.

Playing midwives to an egg Playing midwives to an egg

Nigel Wilkinson reports on Teodor Curentzis and Peter Sellars‘s new production of Rameau‘s Castor et Pollux in Paris.

on January 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Roadkill, twice over Roadkill, twice over

Though I’ve sometimes complained that the Paris Opera, while supposedly short of cash, changes its productions nearly as often as the rest of us change our socks, André Engel’s Cunning Little Vixen first appeared there 17 years ago. At the time it was billed as ‘new’, though it actually dates back further still, to 2000 at the Lyon Opera. I saw it when it arrived at the Bastille and wrote it up at the time.

on January 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Quand sur la plage Quand sur la plage

What can you say, other than that everything was fab?

on December 24, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Seek to set him right Seek to set him right

It was, at least, a jolly good show. Whether or not it actually suited Stravinsky’s music or Auden and Kallman’s text, is another question.

on December 17, 2024 at 9:00 AM
The best way to spread Christmas cheer The best way to spread Christmas cheer

Back to Brussels last Sunday for my third new opera of the season (after The Time of our Singing, also at La Monnaie, and Picture a day like this, at the Opéra Comique): Mikael Karlsson’s Fanny and Alexander, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek.

on December 13, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Rise and look around you Rise and look around you

My first opera of the new season in Paris, after kicking off in Brussels with Kris Defoort’s thought-provoking The Day of our Singing, was another nearly-new work, totally new to me: Sir George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this.

on November 08, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Neither fish nor fowl Neither fish nor fowl

Nigel Wilkinson reviews Kris Defoort‘s kaleidoscopic, unsettling new opera in Brussels.

on November 01, 2024 at 10:00 AM