Recently in Commentary
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.
Commentary
11 Jun 2020
First recipient of Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community Jameel Scholarship to start at the Royal College of Music
Today the Royal College of Music (RCM) has announced that French soprano Clara Barbier Serrano will become the first recipient of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community Jameel Scholarship. The scholarship means Clara will join the world-renowned RCM Opera Studio this September on the Artist Diploma (ArtDip) in Performance course at one of the world’s greatest conservatoires, ranked the top institution for Performing Arts in the UK for five consecutive years (QS World University Rankings).
Designed to open the door to gifted singers from around the world who wish
to study full time at the RCM, the Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community
Jameel Scholarship waslaunched in November 2019during a visit to the College by legendary musician Andrea Bocelli and representatives from the
Andrea Bocelli Foundationand
Community Jameel
, the global philanthropy, including the founderMohammed Jameel KBE andFady Jameel, President, International of Community Jamee
The scholarship is awarded to talented musicians chosen both on merit
assessed at audition and their need for support to overcome barriers and
access world-class training at the RCM.
Clara Barbier has been studying violin and choral singing since the age of
six. In 2016, she began her Bachelor studies at the Hochschule für Musik
und Theater in Leipzig and has since given recitals in the Netherlands and
Germany and developed a rich and diversified song repertoire, performing
numerous solo soprano parts in concert. Clara has also appeared on the
opera stage in La Petite Bande Summer Academy in Italy in 2015 and 2017, at
the Klassik für Kinder festival in Leipzig, and the Verbier Festival
Academy 2019.
Clara comments: ‘It is an honour to be the first Andrea Bocelli
Foundation-Community Jameel scholar. It has been my dream to study at the
RCM for many years but personal circumstances meant I was unable to afford
the tuition fees myself. This scholarship will give me the opportunity to
refine my craft with some of the most renowned vocal professors and
operatic coaches in the world. I am so excited to begin my studies and I am
grateful to the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and Community Jameel for this
wonderful opportunity!’
Stefano Aversa, Chairman, Andrea Bocelli Foundation, stated: ‘As the Andrea
Bocelli Foundation continues on its mission to
empower people and communities worldwide, we are proud to support Clara Barbier as the first recipient of the
Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community Jameel Scholarship. We look forward to
watching this talented soprano further develop her skills and fully express
her potential at one of the world’s greatest conservatories.’
Fady Jameel, President, International - Community Jameel and Founder and
Chairman - Art Jameel,
said: ‘The Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community Jameel Scholarship combines
two pillars of Community Jameel’s activities - promoting creative arts and
culture around the world through Art Jameel, and supporting students in
their personal and educational development via our
Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) at MIT.’
The Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community Jameel Scholarship was founded as
part of the RCM’s
More Music: Reimagining the Royal College of Music Campaign. More Music represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the
conservatoire and double the size of its South Kensington campus. Along
with building brand new facilities, the RCM is fundraising to expand its
scholarship programme and ensure that no talented musician is denied an RCM
education for want of funds. In the 2018/19 academic year the RCM gave
£3million in scholarships to over half the student body.