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Tim Ashley

Tim Ashley is a Guardian classical and opera critic, though he's also keen on literature and philosophy so you might sometimes find him cross-referencing all three. His work has also appeared in Literary Review and Opera magazine and he is author of a biography of Richard Strauss

May 2025

  • Nicholas Daniel conducting Britten Sinfonia and Smith Square Sinfonia at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. An orchestra playing instruments in front of the large, ornate altar of the cathedral, with the audience watching

    Britten Sinfonia/Sinfonia Smith Square review – quiet fervour and formal grace

    Conducting duties were shared between Nicholas Daniel and Benjamin Nicholas in a sombre and moving programme whose main work was Messiaen’s great memorial to the dead of both world wars

April 2025

  • Dancers on stage at Daphnis and Chloé at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

    Circa/LPO/Gardner review – Exhilarating, exquisite and extraordinary as Ravel melds with acrobatics

    Multitudes festival opened with a stunningly effective collaboration between the Australian circus company and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • ‘Effective anchor’ … William Christie (centre) directs from the organ

    Les Arts Florissants/Christie review – austere and exquisitely beautiful Charpentier for Holy Week

    Candlelight set the tone for the ensemble of superb focus, great refinement and real depth of feeling
  • Hypnotic force … BPO conducted by Joanna MacGregor with soloists Joseph Havlat and Cynthia Millar

    Brighton Philharmonic/MacGregor review – compelling Messiaen played with panache

    The orchestra marked its centenary in style with a superbly articulated performance of the Turangalîla Symphony that captured the emotional immediacy

March 2025

  • Furious energy and commitment … Chelsea Opera Group in a previous performance of Le Roi d'Ys at Cadogan Hall.

    Le Roi d’Ys review – the floodgates open to Lalo’s thrilling tale of love, rage and war

  • Bullied … Lola in Uprising.

    Uprising review – ravishingly sung opera rails against older generation destroying the planet

February 2025

  • Emma Tring singing at the podium

    Ordo Virtutum review – BBC Singers sound heavenly in MacMillan premiere

  • She crouches behind bars, looking woebegone

    Mary, Queen of Scots review – trouser suits and relentless tension in Musgrave’s bleak opera

January 2025

  • The conductor at the podium

    LPO/Jurowski review – a fervent treatment of two works rich in intensity

    Haydn’s Mass in Time of War met John Adams’s elegy for victims of 9/11 in this dramatic concert, superbly controlled by Vladimir Jurowski

December 2024

  • Breathtaking … the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

    Monteverdi Choir/English Baroque Soloists/Rousset review – joyous and immaculate festive programme

    Under the baton of Christophe Rousset, the Monteverdis sounded exquisite in a celebration of Advent that balanced reflection with exultation

November 2024

  • Uneasy listening … Ilan Volkov conducts the LSO performing Helmut Lachenmann’s My Melodies at the Barbican, London.

    LSO/Volkov review – Lachenmann’s My Melodies offers eerie mutterings, brutal force and unpitched sounds

    The work is immensely taxing for orchestra and audience alike but was performed with precision and virtuosity, while, in the second half, a lean and lithe Beethoven’s Seventh made for a gracious companion piece
  • A glorious blaze in her tone … Erin Morley.

    Morley/Montague Rendall/Martineau review – Wolf’s Liederbuch sounds exquisite

    The singers were on wonderfully expressive form for this performance of Hugo Wolf’s song cycle – one of music’s great disquisitions on the nature of love
  • Superbly expressive … Rhian Lois as Adina in The Elixir of Love at the Coliseum, London.

    The Elixir of Love review – Donizetti’s romcom staged as second world war sitcom is hugely enjoyable

    Set among land girls and flying aces Harry Fehr’s new staging is a lot of fun, with Thomas Atkins making a fine ENO debut and Rhian Lois a terrific lady of the manor

October 2024

  • Marin Alsop conducts the Philharmonia.

    Philharmonia/Alsop review – contrasting voices of the complex Mahlers side by side

  • Elisa Verzier as Violetta in La Traviata at Glyndebourne.

    La Traviata review – perfectly pitched staging with Verzier and Federici breathtaking

September 2024

  • Rice slumps at a desk while Campbell-Wallace sobs into a handkerchief

    Suor Angelica review – Puccini’s maternal tragedy gets a haunting modern update

    A Magdalene laundry in 1960s Ireland is the setting for ENO’s semi-staged production, which conveys quiet anger and deep sadness
  • Antonio Pappano conducts the LSO at the Barbican.

    LSO/Pappano review – new era begins with ghosts and great beauty

    Chief conductor’s kicks off his first season with the London Symphony Orchestra with energy and thrilling drama in beguiling Sibelius and a new work from James MacMillan
  • Subterfuges and mistaken identities … Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Opera House.

    The Marriage of Figaro review – revival sparkles with young cast

    David McVicar’s detailed staging of Mozart’s comedy opens Covent Garden’s new season, with conductor Julia Jones bringing energy and drive and Ying Fang, making her house debut, as an exquisite Susanna

August 2024

  • Extraordinarily elegant on the podium … Lahav Shani.

    Prom 44 Rotterdam Philharmonic/Shani review – a tour de force of conducting and pianism

  • Captivating … The Fairy Queen.

    Prom 24: The Fairy Queen review – street-dance, hip-hop style suits Purcell surprisingly well

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