Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
@markvalencia.bsky.social
Critic for Opera, Bachtrack and Musical America. 7 decades a Southender. Francophile, grandfather, passionately pro-EU. Previously with the blue bird until it got sick. Much happier here.
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
This Labour government’s talent for punishing its own natural supporters without gaining any new ones is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in politics. What on earth are they smoking
November 23, 2025 at 10:57 PM
This Labour government’s talent for punishing its own natural supporters without gaining any new ones is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in politics. What on earth are they smoking
Telling juxtaposition on the @bbc website
November 23, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Telling juxtaposition on the @bbc website
I cannot bear the desperation of hungry children but @teamlabouruk.bsky.social seems sanguine about it. Techno-Starmer thinks hunger can somehow be solved by speculative long-term politics. It's as wicked as 'trickle-down wealth' greed and just as pernicious. Kick the issue into the long grass, eh?
November 23, 2025 at 5:12 PM
I cannot bear the desperation of hungry children but @teamlabouruk.bsky.social seems sanguine about it. Techno-Starmer thinks hunger can somehow be solved by speculative long-term politics. It's as wicked as 'trickle-down wealth' greed and just as pernicious. Kick the issue into the long grass, eh?
The GOAT
Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale in, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
November 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
The GOAT
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November 23, 2025 at 12:19 AM
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Me on Partenope. It's a bit of all white. @bachtrack.com
Cocteau-esque camp: Alden’s Partenope returns to English National Opera
✍️ Mark Valencia
bachtrack.com/review-parte...
✍️ Mark Valencia
bachtrack.com/review-parte...
November 21, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Me on Partenope. It's a bit of all white. @bachtrack.com
Well I'll have a go...
November 21, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Well I'll have a go...
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
I believe anyone could have done better than Johnson.
Here's a quiz I made to prove it.
Here's a quiz I made to prove it.
November 20, 2025 at 4:39 PM
I believe anyone could have done better than Johnson.
Here's a quiz I made to prove it.
Here's a quiz I made to prove it.
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
Quiet piggy!!
November 20, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Quiet piggy!!
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
❗️ This winter, we expect to provide an emergency food parcel to someone every 10 SECONDS.
The rising cost of essentials like heating and food - and our weak social security system - will drive thousands of people to the doors of a food bank for the very first time.
The rising cost of essentials like heating and food - and our weak social security system - will drive thousands of people to the doors of a food bank for the very first time.
November 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
❗️ This winter, we expect to provide an emergency food parcel to someone every 10 SECONDS.
The rising cost of essentials like heating and food - and our weak social security system - will drive thousands of people to the doors of a food bank for the very first time.
The rising cost of essentials like heating and food - and our weak social security system - will drive thousands of people to the doors of a food bank for the very first time.
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...
Covid inquiry live: ‘Inexcusable’ delays under Johnson led to 23,000 deaths
Lockdowns may have been avoided if Boris Johnson’s government had acted faster, damning report finds
www.thetimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
Put a penny in the slot and I'll tell you what I really think of that chancer, that fraud, that oaf.
November 20, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Put a penny in the slot and I'll tell you what I really think of that chancer, that fraud, that oaf.
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
People used to tell me that Boris was the kind of chap you'd want to have a drink with.
To those people I'd say - widen your circle of friends
To those people I'd say - widen your circle of friends
November 20, 2025 at 4:37 PM
People used to tell me that Boris was the kind of chap you'd want to have a drink with.
To those people I'd say - widen your circle of friends
To those people I'd say - widen your circle of friends
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
This is what happens when you put a preening, lazy, populist, dilettante in charge of a country.
Johnson was completely out of his depth and more concerned with his pathetic perceived popularity than leading this country through the greatest crisis since 1939.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
Johnson was completely out of his depth and more concerned with his pathetic perceived popularity than leading this country through the greatest crisis since 1939.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
November 20, 2025 at 4:29 PM
This is what happens when you put a preening, lazy, populist, dilettante in charge of a country.
Johnson was completely out of his depth and more concerned with his pathetic perceived popularity than leading this country through the greatest crisis since 1939.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
Johnson was completely out of his depth and more concerned with his pathetic perceived popularity than leading this country through the greatest crisis since 1939.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
Handel's Par-10-opy tonight at ENO. I'll be thermalled up and reviewing it for @bachtrack.com .
#Partenope
#Partenope
a couple of m & m 's hugging each other with the words so c-c-cold below them
ALT: a couple of m & m 's hugging each other with the words so c-c-cold below them
media.tenor.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Handel's Par-10-opy tonight at ENO. I'll be thermalled up and reviewing it for @bachtrack.com .
#Partenope
#Partenope
If you love Les Mis but despised Tom Hooper's 2012 film version, this video will be up your street. A tad hyper but right on the money.
youtu.be/1ikqU6G6Xgs?...
youtu.be/1ikqU6G6Xgs?...
Why the Music in Les Misérables (2012) is Worse than you Thought
YouTube video by Sideways
youtu.be
November 19, 2025 at 11:03 PM
If you love Les Mis but despised Tom Hooper's 2012 film version, this video will be up your street. A tad hyper but right on the money.
youtu.be/1ikqU6G6Xgs?...
youtu.be/1ikqU6G6Xgs?...
End of my 90 word streak
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November 19, 2025 at 12:05 AM
End of my 90 word streak
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Interval time at the Coliseum.
I still have doubts over the tone of Dead Man Walking (it descends too easily into maudlin musical schmaltz for my taste, given the subject matter) but I couldn't imagine it being better staged than it is here by Annilese Miskimmon for ENO. A tremendous company show.
I still have doubts over the tone of Dead Man Walking (it descends too easily into maudlin musical schmaltz for my taste, given the subject matter) but I couldn't imagine it being better staged than it is here by Annilese Miskimmon for ENO. A tremendous company show.
November 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Interval time at the Coliseum.
I still have doubts over the tone of Dead Man Walking (it descends too easily into maudlin musical schmaltz for my taste, given the subject matter) but I couldn't imagine it being better staged than it is here by Annilese Miskimmon for ENO. A tremendous company show.
I still have doubts over the tone of Dead Man Walking (it descends too easily into maudlin musical schmaltz for my taste, given the subject matter) but I couldn't imagine it being better staged than it is here by Annilese Miskimmon for ENO. A tremendous company show.
All these trigger warnings for Dead Man Walking. The last one is making me nervous.
November 18, 2025 at 6:17 PM
All these trigger warnings for Dead Man Walking. The last one is making me nervous.
Tonight I'm going to the London Coliseum to catch the last night of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking.
Here's an inappropriate gif
Here's an inappropriate gif
a man and a woman in a scene from a disney + movie
ALT: a man and a woman in a scene from a disney + movie
media.tenor.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Tonight I'm going to the London Coliseum to catch the last night of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking.
Here's an inappropriate gif
Here's an inappropriate gif
Intermission came very late in La Damnation de Faust at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. It's been running half an hour and counting - which adds insult to injury. Will the house still be full when it resumes? The suspense is killing me.
November 12, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Intermission came very late in La Damnation de Faust at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. It's been running half an hour and counting - which adds insult to injury. Will the house still be full when it resumes? The suspense is killing me.
Early flight to Paris to see Benjamin Berheim and Les Siècles in La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz.
Reviewing for Musical America
Reviewing for Musical America
a woman in a trench coat is standing in front of a river with the words bonjour paris on the bottom
ALT: a woman in a trench coat is standing in front of a river with the words bonjour paris on the bottom
media.tenor.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Early flight to Paris to see Benjamin Berheim and Les Siècles in La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz.
Reviewing for Musical America
Reviewing for Musical America
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
Reposted by Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
This is the most abysmal, pathetic thing. The BBC head resigning because the corporation is not supine *enough* to the far-right.
🔴 Breaking I Davie faced mounting criticism that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by Donald Trump
➡️ Read more: trib.al/I0iw7aP
➡️ Read more: trib.al/I0iw7aP
November 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
This is the most abysmal, pathetic thing. The BBC head resigning because the corporation is not supine *enough* to the far-right.