Soile Isokoski / Marita Viitasalo ó Wigmore Hall, London

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,1806142,00.html

Weill Double Bill, OpÈra national de Lyon

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5402464a-0532-11db-9b9e-0000779e2340.html

Mark Morris Talks About Purcell, Making Opera Sexy at the ENO

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=aUfJaar5liKc&refer=culture

Puccini: Sogno díor

Anyone who knows Giacomo Puccini only for his operas is in for a treat. Puccini: Sogno díor presents Puccini the songwriter, and what is fascinating about this little-known repertory is that it prefigures many of the delightful melodies that later appeared in his works for the stage.

Vier letzte Lieder in Sofia and Varna

On June 9th in Sofia and 16th at the Varna Summer Festival, celebrated soprano Krassimira Stoyanova made her Richard Strauss debut in Vier letzte Lieder in her native Bulgaria.

GLUCK: Orfeo ed Euridice

All the excitement and activity in the classical recording company world now seems to be in the budget area.

“Castrato” ó In Search of a Lost Voice

Nestling artistically in a bowl, carefully arranged and lit to suit the camera early in the programme, the testicles seemed to glow softly with their hidden history, their inherent potential and, now, their very lack of future.

Gypsy Melodies

“Gypsies! Filthy, dirty, thieving gypsies!” cried Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank from one delightful Strangers With Candy episode years back. For those who have experienced a forced ‘chance’ meeting with one of these colorful characters in say, Granada, Spain, they may have espoused a similar belief in recent years.

Renato Bruson — Live in Concert

One sign that a media market has really come into its own, economically speaking, is the appearance of items previously released in other formats, items that one struggles to imagine a wide market for. DVDs must be doing fairly well, then, in the classical market.

Rigoletto

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-2232683,00.html