From Hyperion, Gerald Finzi choral works with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Layton. An impressive Magnificat (1952) sets the tone.
Year: 2019
The 2019 Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Performance
This year’s Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Performance offered a veritable operatic smˆrgÂsbord, presenting sizable excerpts from operas ranging from Gluck to Saint-SaÎns, from Mozart to Debussy, by way of some Italian masterpieces, courtesy of Rossini and Verdi.
Bill Bankes-Jones on the twelfth TÍte ‡ TÍte Opera Festival
“We need to stop talking about ‘diversity’ and think instead about ‘inclusivity’,” says Bill Bankes-Jones, when we meet to talk about the forthcoming twelfth TÍte ‡ TÍte Opera Festival which runs from 24th July to 10th August.
Cilea’s L’arlesiana at Opera Holland Park
In a rank order of suicidal depressives, Federico – the ProvenÁal peasant besotted with ‘the woman from Arles’, L’arlesiana, who yearns to break free from his mother’s claustrophobic grasp, who seeks solace from betrayal and disillusionment in the arms of a patient childhood sweetheart, but who is ultimately broken by deluded dreams and unrequited passion – would surely give many a Thomas Hardy protagonist a run for their money.
The Italian Opera Connection at ‘The English Versailles’: The Duchess of Buccleuch and the Georgian Stage at Boughton House
As part of its annual programme of events, Boughton House in
Northamptonshire hosts ‘A Passion for Opera’, a rare exhibition
portraying the musical life of Lady Elizabeth Montagu (1743–1827) and the
world of Georgian operatic culture.
Prom 1: Karina Canellakis makes history on the opening night of the Proms 2019
The young American conductor Karina Canellakis made history as the first woman to conduct the First Night of the Proms last night (19 July 2019) as she conducted the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall with soloists Asmik Grigorian (soprano), Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano), Ladislav Elgr (tenor), Jan MartinÌk (bass) and Peter Holder (organ) in Zosha Di Castri’s Long is the Journey, Short Is the Memory (the world premiere of a BBC commission), Antonin Dvo?·k’s The Golden Spinning Wheel and Leoö Jan·?ek’s Glagolitic Mass.
Barbe & Doucet’s new production of Die Zauberflˆte at Glyndebourne
No one would pretend that Emanuel Schikaneder’s libretto for Mozart’s Die Zauberflˆte would go down well with the #MeToo generation. Or with first, second or third wave feminists for that matter.
Pavarotti: A Film by Ron Howard
Ron Howard’s latest music documentary after The Beatles: Eight Days a Week and Made in America is a poignant tribute that allows viewers into key moments of Pavarotti’s career – but lacks a deeper, more well-rounded view of the artist.
Three Chamber Operas at the Aix Festival
Along with the celestial Mozart Requiem, a doomed Tosca and a gloriously witty Mahagonny the Aix Festival’s new artistic director Pierre Audi regaled us with three chamber operas — the premiere of a brilliant Les Mille Endormis, the technically playful Blank Out (on a turgid subject), and a heavy-duty Jakob Lenz.
Garsington Opera: Five Young Singers Win Prestigious Awards
Winners of this year’s prestigious Leonard Ingrams Foundation awards are mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew and tenor Oliver Johnston. These awards support, encourage and nurture the best young artists involved in the creative process of bringing opera to the stage, and are made in memory of Garsington Opera’s founder Leonard Ingrams, to ensure the continuity of his vision.