ETO at Home: Ferrandini’s Il pianto di Maria

English Touring Opera’s ETO at Home project has seen the company produce a series of films of operas, large scale vocal works, chamber music and song which can be viewed…

Into Opera welcomes five new Trustees to its Board

Into Opera begins 2022 by welcoming five new trustees to its board. George Chambers, Rosenna East, Jaime Morgan Hitchcock, Elizabeth Llewellyn and Harriet Wybor have joined the charity’s five other…

After 20 years, James Conway steps back from full-time role as Artistic Director at English Touring Opera

After 20 years leading English Touring Opera – and approaching an interesting birthday – Director James Conway has decided to take a step away from a full time position with…

Sir William Walton: a centenary Façade from SOMM and the Orchestra of the Swan

The critics condemned the ‘entertainment’ as a ridiculous hoax.  Noel Coward stormed out.  After the show, one disgruntled elderly lady was rumoured to be lying in wait for the ‘soloist’…

Exile and Isolation: Julian Anderson’s Suite from Exiles, the LSO and Simon Rattle

Often you go to concerts and the programming isn’t especially obvious – why are these works being played besides each other?  This is particularly the case with concertos and symphonies.…

Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House

As an exploration of 18th-century class structures Le nozze di Figaro is a timeless classic which no number of revivals will diminish.  With its thumb-nosing at society’s upper echelons, it’s no…

Iestyn Davies and Arcangelo: Bach cantatas

In 2017, Iestyn Davies added an MBE, for his services to music, and a Gramophone Award, for his Hyperion recording with Jonahan Cohen and Arcangelo of three of Bach’s solo…

Hasse’s serenata, La Semele, at Wigmore Hall

The cultural influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses is immeasurable.  A source of inspiration for artists, sculptors, novelists, poets and composers for centuries, its myths have furnished countless composers and librettists with…

Juliana: a ‘naturalistic tragedy’ for our times

In the Preface to his 1888 play, Miss Julie, August Strindberg argued for a new, less artificial form of dialogue – associative, flowing naturally, as in life: ‘I have avoided…

Canciones: Bach-Brouwer – cultural fusions from Andreas Scholl and Edin Karamazov

The mere mention of the word ‘crossover’ can be enough to raise the hackles of classical music lovers for whom the genre-splicer suggests not a genuine instinct for synchronous musical…