The Latest Breaking News from Richard Hubert Smith

Mass at Donmar Warehouse: An easy win for a smugly liberal audience

3/5 This drama about a US school shooting has fine acting but can’t rise above hand-wringing

Evening Standard · Apr 30

The Railway Children opera review: 'Were kids this nice in the 80s?'

3/5 This version of the classic children’s tale does not entirely convince by setting it in the Eighties

Evening Standard · Nov 10, 2025

A Visit to Friends at Aldeburgh Festival: 'an opera with a totally new harmonic language'

4/5 Composer Colin Matthews has produced his first opera and sprung a huge surprise with this ambitious work at Aldeburgh Festival

Evening Standard · Jun 16, 2025

Don Giovanni review – obsession, distress and danger in uneven new production

Mariame Clément’s thoughtful staging brings depth and insights but feels, at times, at odds with the score’s sensuality and demonic fire. In the pit, conductor Evan Rogister favours speed over dramatic weight.

The Guardian - UK · May 21, 2023

Lucrezia Borgia review – dark and atmospheric Donizetti from English Touring Opera

Eloise Lally straightforwardly tells this convoluted story of concealed identity ending in a mass poisoning

The Guardian - UK · Mar 5, 2023

The week in classical: glass human; An Anatomy of Melancholy; The Moon Hares review – opera for a lonely world

A new chamber opera explores isolation and connection, a John Dowland recital strikes a note of exquisite pain – and a community opera enchants with a modern fable

The Guardian - UK · Nov 5, 2022

La Bohème review – Death stalks Puccini’s lovers in a riveting Glyndebourne show

Floris Visser’s new production puts a dark spin on this story of doomed lovers – which only heightens the life-affirming vibrancy of the music

The Guardian - UK · Jun 12, 2022