The weather was fortuitous for Oxford Lieder’s live, online mini-festival, Winter into Spring. Across the UK, the blossom buds and nudging crocuses were bathed in warm sunshine, the thick dawn…
Month: February 2021
Purcell Royal Odes: music for royalty superbly fashioned by The King’s Consort
Robert King has been addressing the music of Henry Purcell for over thirty years, and his ground-breaking anthology of odes and welcome songs begun in 1988 brought fresh insights to…
A unique Das Lied from Karajan and a highly charged Salzburg Fifth
Herbert von Karajan started conducting Mahler in 1955 when he performed Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Those performances were given in the United States – Chicago and New York – and…
Royal Opera House announces two new Friday Premieres: Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations
The Royal Opera House is delighted to continue its #OurHouseToYourHouse programme, featuring online broadcasts that can be accessed by audiences around the world for just £3. Join us on Friday 5 March at…
Longborough Festival Opera to stage three productions in Circus Big Top this season
Longborough Festival Opera has introduced a new venue for 2021: the Big Top. Three of the festival’s 2021 productions will take place in this new venue: Cosi fan tutte, The…
English National Opera announces new staging of Wagner’s Ring Cycle
Directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Martyn Brabbins, The Valkyrie will form the first part of a complete Ring cycle over the next five years. English National Opera (ENO) is to…
A formidable new Mahler Fourth from Jakub Hrůša and Anna Lucia Richter
Jakub Hrůša has some impeccable credentials as a Mahler conductor. I described a gripping Resurrection in February 2020 with the Philharmonia Orchestra as one from the Golden Age; one that…
Live@Lakeside: Manchester Collective with soprano Ruby Hughes
“This music builds so much adrenaline that you feel you have to let that out at the end!” With a smile and a giggle, violinist Rakhi Singh, co-founder of the…
Pygmalion: Bach Motets
Issued last September but only recently brushing my radar, Pygmalion’s alpha-plus Bach disc is a revelation. Raphaël Pichon, founder of the specialist Baroque ensemble in 2006, has had a rewarding…
Opera Holland Park introduces the 2021 Season, including casting and a reimagined auditorium
A breath of fresh air Working with the set designer takis, Opera Holland Park has reimagined the stage and auditorium of its theatre. The new dynamic and exciting performance space…