English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.
Conductor Oliver Zeffman has commissioned the very first opera for a socially distanced world, which is now available to watch exclusively on Apple Music. Eight Songs From Isolation has been written by eight leading composers, specifically for streaming - rather than live performance - and is the first opera written for a time when the performers were unable to meet in person.
Leading freelance musicians unite in Parliament Square to call for targeted support for colleagues in the arts and entertainment sector.
Duo Lewis Murphy (composer) and Laura Attridge (writer) have launched a charitable song project entitled Notes From Isolation. The resulting songs, featuring some of the UK's top singing talent, are being released online between August and October 2020 and can be enjoyed free of charge.
The Royal Opera House is thrilled to announce an exciting, wide-ranging new line-up for its autumn programme. For the first time, extraordinary performances will be accessible online for a global audience through livestreams and for socially distanced live audiences at our home in Covent Garden. In a global first, we present a new opera in hyper-reality, alongside repertory favourites from both artistic companies.
Some of the most famous and outstanding stars from the opera world are to take part in a very special evening from Wexford Festival Opera, including Aigul Akhmetshina, Joseph Calleja, Daniela Barcellona, Juan Diego Flórez, Igor Golovatenko, Ermonela Jaho, Sergey Romanovsky, and many more.
Following its successful launch in 2019, OperaStreaming streams nine operas on YouTube from the historic opera houses of Emilia-Romagna during the 2020-21 season, with fully-staged productions of Verdi's La traviata in October from Modena and Verdi'sOtello from Bologna in...
‘A brief history of song’ is the subtitle of the 2020 Oxford Lieder Festival (10th-17th October), which will present an ambitious, diverse and imaginative programme of 40 performances and events.
Bampton Classical Opera returns to the Baroque splendour of London’s St John’s Smith Square on November 6 with a concert performance of Gluck’s one-act opera The Crown, the first in the UK since 1987. The performance will also be filmed and available to watch on demand on the Bampton website from 9 November.
While many of us spent lockdown at home taking it a little easier, composer Andrew Synnott wrote an opera.
Owen Wingrave is part of the new Interim Season of 19 brand new events, all free to view online between September and December 2020.
The Arts Council has awarded innovative UK charity Music and Theatre For All (MTFA) a major new grant to develop three ambitious new projects in the wake of Covid 19.
English National Opera (ENO) will reopen the London Coliseum to socially distanced audiences on 6 and 7 November for special performances of Mozart’s Requiem. These will provide audiences with an opportunity to reflect upon and to commemorate the difficulties the nation has faced during the pandemic.
The Royal Opera House is proud to continue its curated #OurHouseToYourHouse programme into the autumn, bringing audiences the best of the ROH through a new series of Friday Premieres and cultural highlights.
After six months of closure, the Royal Opera House is thrilled to be opening its doors to the public as part of Open House London weekend, giving visitors a taste of one of the world’s most famous theatres for free.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is thrilled to announce re:connect - an eight concert series with live socially distanced audiences at its namesake church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The autumn concerts will take place at 5pm & 7:30pm on two Saturdays per month with guest artists including baritone Roderick Williams, soprano Carolyn Sampson and composer-conductor-pianist Ryan Wigglesworth performing a wide range of repertoire.
Music and poetry unite and collide across centuries, from the Medieval to the Enlightenment to the present day. This year, the Oxford Lieder Festival will present a thrilling and innovative programme comprising more than forty events streamed over eight days.
The English Concert with artistic director Harry Bicket is delighted to announce a series of concerts from 1-15 October 2020. The concerts take place in historic London venues with star soloists and will be performed and streamed live to a paying audience at 7pm GMT on each performance date. The programmes include first-class vocal and instrumental works from the two pillars of the English Baroque, covering different aspects of the repertoire.
Glyndebourne has announced plans for a ‘staycation’ series of socially-distanced indoor performances, starting on 10 October 2020.
The Royal Opera House is delighted to announce two packed evenings of opera and ballet, live from our stage in Covent Garden and available to view wherever you are in the world online.
![Bryn Terfel [Photo by Harlequin Agency Limited]](http://www.operatoday.com/Bryn_Terfel.gif)
With just one month to go before facing the judges in the world’s most prestigious singing competition what could be better than some advice from past competitor and opera super star Bryn Terfel?
That was the opportunity for three of the singers representing their countries in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in June who were able to enjoy some pearls of wisdom from Bryn.
The world famous Welsh singer took time out to meet the young singers at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, scene of many of his triumphs.
Bryn took part in the Cardiff competition 20 years ago and won the Lieder Prize (now the Song Prize). He had only weeks before won the Gold Medal at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Bryn met Natalya Romaniw from Swansea who this year follows in his footsteps, representing Wales in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World straight from being a student at the Guildhall.
He also chatted with this year’s Japanese contestant Eri Nakamura and the Korean contestant Ji-Min Park, both of whom are members of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House.
Bryn, who last sang Der fliegende Holländer at the Royal Opera and returns in July to sing Scarpia in Tosca, told them; “Remember that your performance starts the moment you walk on to that stage so have a big smile on your face.”
Keep hydrated was his “top tip”. “You will be doing so many rehearsals, interviews and then the performances just keep on drinking water, keep it in your bag and drink it whenever you can.”
Eri appears at St David’s Hall in the concert round on Sunday, June 7; Ji-Min on Monday, June 8 while Natalya makes her claim for the title of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World on Wednesday, June 10. The final is on Sunday, June 14.
All three are also taking part in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize is also held that week at the city’s New Theatre with its own final at ST David’s Hall on Saturday, June 13.
(l-r) Natalya Romaniw, Eri Nakamura, Bryn Terfel and Ji-Min Park [Photo by Brian Tarr]
Although Bryn quickly rose to international stardom he did not win that coveted BBC Cardiff Singer of the World title but did take the Lieder Prize (now the Song Prize).
“I had never won anything at college,” Bryn said. “I tried jazz and Gilbert and Sullivan, English songs and nothing! But then I won the Gold Medal! Cardiff Singer was the first time I had sung with an orchestra.
“I told the singers you must enjoy the competition and, yes, it is important but you still have to do your auditions, sing to conductors. But it is a great platform to be given the chance to make yourself know to these people before you do have to take those auditions.”
After meeting Bryn, Natalya said, “It is really busy now. I have a table of how many days are left! I have my final recital at the Guildhall on May 28 which is part of my degree and then I finish. In the recital I am incorporating songs from the Competition so it will be kind of like a mock run.”
Ji-Min from Seoul was performing in Lohengrin at the Royal Opera that evening but said he did not want to miss the chance to meet one of his heroes. “It is one of my dreams to sing in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. I bought a DVD of the competition and I listen to hit hundreds of times and listen it every day,” he said.
Eri from Kagoshima is in the first year of the Young Artists Programme and sings in L’Esire d’amore at Covent Garden before setting her sights on the Competition. “Before coming to London I was in the Opera Studio in Amsterdam and my colleagues there were talking about this competition and I checked the website and when I got contract here in London I decided to try. It is exciting to go to another city because I am always here in London.”
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, June 6 to 14. Tickets from New Theatre, Cardiff: 029 2087 8889, St David’s Hall, Cardiff 029 2087 8444 or online at www.stdavidshall.co.uk