I Fagiolini like a ‘hook’, and they’re expert at devising one. On this occasion it was a painting, or, rather, a series of paintings – The Four Seasons by Pieter…
Month: August 2021
Heartfelt: truth and directness from Roxanna Panufnik
This Signum Classics recording of a selection of Roxanna Panufnik’s chamber music, for varied vocal and instrumental forces, is titled Heartfelt – and it is indeed a generous programme, sincerely…
British Youth Opera: a superb cast shine in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro
Rossini’s libretti often require one to leave logic at the theatre entrance and embrace the absurd – stock buffa characters, stolen and switched identities, arranged marriages, double nuptials, an inevitable…
Irish National Opera 2021-22: an explosion of opera
Irish National Opera’s biggest-ever seasonWednesday 7 July 2021 to Saturday 25 June 202258 performances in 26 spaces at 20 different locations, 9 new productions,6 operas by Irish composers, including 4…
Academy of Ancient Music to launch new season with Haydn’s The Creation
The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) opens its first season under new Music Director Laurence Cummings on Tuesday 28 September, with a performance co-produced by the Barbican. In an evening celebrating new beginnings, Cummings…
Cries in the High Desert
Beginning in 1957, the venerable Santa Fe Opera festival embarked on an ambitious journey that included presenting world premieres, in which series this summer’s The Lord of Cries is the…
Figaro la, Figaro qua in Santa Fe
Like the barber in another famous piece, Santa Fe Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) is frequently all over the place. There may be a number of…
Santa Fe Opera Fields a Dream Team
If ever there was a nigh perfect match of an opera with idyllic outdoor surroundings, Santa Fe Opera’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is surely the one. The opening thirty minutes…
Gilchrist and Williamson offer insights and new avenues in One Hundred Years of British Song Vol.2
In October 2020 tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Nathan Williamson opened their three-volume survey of the less well-traversed byways of the British song repertoire, One Hundred Years of British Song,…
The 20th Oxford Lieder Festival, 8-23 October 2021: Nature’s Songbook
Oxford Lieder, the UK’s biggest festival of song, marks its 20th year with its most ambitious programme to date, featuring more than 100 events, both in-person and live-streamed. · 20 new works…