Claims to create ‘a new and fresh perspective’ in the pre-release publicity for this St Matthew Passion are bold. We are led to expect ‘raging choirs, intimate chorales and emotionally…
Year: 2021
Handel’s London Altos: Iestyn Davies at Kings Place
At Kings Place it’s currently half-portions and double-helpings: to ‘get round’ the 50% capacity restrictions, the answer is simply to perform the concert twice – and Iestyn Davies and the…
Rewarding performances from Philippe Herreweghe in three of J.S. Bach’s choral works
Every freshly minted disc from Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale Gent prompts a rapturous fanfare. We take for granted the quality of each recording venture from this 74-year-old Belgian, but how…
Leeds Lieder Festival: Benjamin Britten’s Five Canticles
Benjamin Britten’s five Canticles span his compositional career, from 1947 to 1974, and reflect the eclectic musical, poetic and cultural influences and idioms which he integrated into an independent expressive…
Natalya Romaniw and Iain Burnside: a wonderful lunchtime recital at Leeds Lieder 2021
Natalya Romaniw’s compelling but frustratingly foreshortened debut as Cio-Cio San at English National Opera in February 2020 was one of the last live performances I heard before the theatres of…
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Ivan the Terrible at Grange Park Opera
Rimsky-Korsakov wrote 15 operas yet few have attained any sort of currency outside of Russia. As part of its Spaced Season 2021, Grange Park Opera presented Rimsky-Korsakov’s Ivan the Terrible…
Baritone Gihoon Kim from Republic of Korea crowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021
Baritone Gihoon Kim, from Republic of Korea became on Saturday evening (19th June) the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. The announcement was made during the broadcast of the…
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha wins the Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021
Twenty-seven year old soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, from South Africa, was yesterday named the winner of the Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. The announcement was…
Glyndebourne announces two new trustees and Creative Conspirators ‘think tank’
Glyndebourne has announced the appointment of two new members to its Board of Trustees – Sharmila Nebhrajani OBE, Chair of NICE, and top solicitor Helen Ward, a partner at Stewarts…
An excellent Figaro at Opera Holland Park
What a welcome return to Holland Park this proved to be. Glorious weather helped, of course—quite a change from an earlier visit to Glyndebourne with altogether necessary overcoat and umbrella—but…