Mark Pullinger
@larkingrumple
Critic, Bachtrack editor, programme note writer. Best when caffeinated. https://canzonetta.substack.com/ Also found where the Sky is Blue... 😉
Still hot and sweaty after this heady, erotic Salome from a cast lead by Asmik Grigorian with the @londonsymphony bachtrack.com/review-salome-…
Many things to like in the meticulously rehearsed return of Richard Jones' Falstaff to Glyndebourne. But... bachtrack.com/review-falstaf…
2026 programme for the 150th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival | @WagnerFestival : #Rienzi will make a singular appearance, staged by Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka, conducted by #NathalieStutzmann, with #AndreasSchager in the title role. There will also be a new…
Nessun dorma … That might be because, even a month after midsummer, it’s still light as Turandot ends at Savonlinna @operafestivalfi.
Behind the scenes of Lucia di Lammermoor with Jennifer France, Cecilia Stinton, José de Eça and Morgan Pearse. 🎟️Just 5 more chances to catch Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Holland Park: bit.ly/44m5HQ7 #OHPLucia #LuciadiLammermoor #Donizetti #OperaHollandPark #OHP #opera
Sun drying tomatoes at the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily
Have your say! @wexfordopera Wexford Festival Opera’s artistic director Rosetta Cucchi is inviting the public to vote on one of the titles for 2026’s 75th anniversary season. Vote here until August 22: wexfordopera.com/vote-for-your-…
Super Alexandre Kantorow interview by @Becca_JF21 in today's Times. He really is a fabulous pianist and the prospect of his Saint-Saëns 5 at the @bbcproms this weekend is something to relish: thetimes.com/culture/classi…
Not all the staging ideas work, but @operahollandpk's new Lucia di Lammermoor contains some fabulous singing. @timesculture thetimes.com/culture/classi…
The most beautiful church ceilings in the world A thread 🧵 1. Santissima Annunziata, Florence
The phrase ‘to wing it’ as in ‘to improvise’ comes from 19th-century theatrical slang where it meant ‘to study a part in the wings having undertaken it at short notice’.
Returning from my first ever foreign trip in order to see an opera - Faurê’s glorious Pénélope (well worth the effort!). And the joy of travelling without a cello! Everyone should try it once…Only SLIGHTLY marred by the panics every five minutes :’Oh God - Where is it???’
Your favourite Norrington recordings? Along with the revolutionary Beethoven cycle, I’d pick out his outrageously fun Rossini, his Schubert Great C major and, with the SWR, a remarkable Elgar 1.
“It’s been very serious, but serious fun.” The conductor Sir Roger Norrington has died, aged 91. bachtrack.com/news-roger-nor…
This is a shock. Mezzo-soprano Béatrice Uria-Monzon dies, aged 61.
Mezzo-soprano au timbre ambré inégalable, Béatrice Uria-Monzon est décédée. De Paris à New-York, de Vienne à Toulouse aux Chorégies d'Orange, elle a marqué à jamais par sa voix et sa présence scénique le rôle-titre de Carmen, de Bizet. l.francemusique.fr/Lho
In 2019, I asked Roger Norrington if he’d write an article for our Berlioz150 series. I received a brief response: “Yes I’ll try to do that for you, Mark. Sir R” A week later, an email: “Is this any good for you?” 950 perfect words followed. bachtrack.com/feature-berlio…
So sad to hear that Sir Roger Norrington has left us. Such a unique, life-affirming character and musician. I think that he always felt like an outsider - which made him insecure, but also contributed to the freshness and originality of his music-making. Farewell and thank you.