Symphonic excess in a spiritless exposition of Tchaikovsky’s sacrifice of youthful love. Greek conductor Vassilis Christopoulos came to fame at the Athens Opera with an Elektra, and then gained even…
Month: September 2022
The English Concert at Wigmore Hall: Purcell and Blow
Harry Bicket assembled the ‘Dream Team’ for this English Concert programme of music by Henry Purcell and John Blow. Seven internationally renowned singers were joined by new-kid-on-the-block, countertenor Hugh Cutting,…
A wonderfully vivid evening: Blackheath Halls Opera in Bernstein’s Candide
Bernstein’s Candide has been through innumerable versions since the work’s disastrous premiere on Broadway in 1956, and in many ways, it remains a sequence of songs in search of a…
England Under the Tudors: The Marian Consort at Ightham Mote
Now in its twelfth year, the Music@Malling Festival presents concerts and events in historic venues in and around West Malling in Kent, and the Marian Consort invited us to the…
Antony and Cleopatra in San Francisco
A John Adams premiere is about the biggest news event the opera world can generate. Here’s the news from San Francisco. Antony and Cleopatra is the first opera John Adams…
Magic and Music: Wexford Festival Opera 2022 – in conversation with Rosetta Cucchi
Magicians and monsters, gods and ghosts, witches and the wonderous: the mysterious and the marvellous are woven into the fabric of opera, the music itself expressing the enigmatic and ineffable…
A due voci: Iestyn Davies and Hugh Cutting at Wigmore Hall
This truly lovely recital represented the fruits of the introduction of the basso continuo at the end of the sixteenth century, which liberated polyphonic voices from their fundamental harmonic role…
Garsington’s Orfeo on OperaVision
With Autumn in the air, Garsington Opera is delighted to offer viewers the chance to relive one of the highlights of the summer festival. The 2022 production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo will…
Welsh National Opera’s The Makropulos Affair: a magnificent achievement
The question of why we should crave immortality is central to Janáček’s penultimate opera. As a composer he defied old bones and enjoyed an Indian summer, finding recognition during his…
Visionary new-style classical music experience to launch with starry performance of Handel’s Messiah
A new vision for live classical music with a star-studded and spectacular performance of Handel’s Messiah from Classical Everywhere, a new venture from Immersive Everywhere the multi-award-winning creators of extraordinary theatrical events …