In this instance dictionaries do not leave room for ambiguity: a revolution is a sudden, fundamental change. As a branding name, it has been much prized by all kinds of…
Author: Alexander Hall
PROMS 2026: The CBSO and Kazuki Yamada Pay Tribute to John Adams at the BBC Proms
Bruckner, Sibelius, John Adams: you only need to hear a snatch or two of their writing to recognise the composer in question. In the case of Adams, the label of…
PROMS 2026: The Great Known Unknown: Ryan Bancroft Views the Afterlife with BBC Welsh Forces
When that final cut-off point arrives, when the Great Reaper pays us all the inevitable visit, are we really any the wiser as to the next step, what follows, what…
PROMS 2026: Noseda returns to the BBC Philharmonic at the Proms
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: Beethoven’s Ninth at the Proms. A regular annual fixture, for a long time it occupied the final Friday before the Last Night,…
Two Large Servings of German Romanticism with Florian Boesch
Loewe: the German word for lion. There was Lerner and Loewe, of course. Except that the 20th century example of Loewe is rarely mentioned on its own. But there is…
Doomed from the Start: the Fate of Dido and Aeneas in Purcell’s Opera
The balcony scene of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet includes Juliet telling Romeo: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.” Names matter…
Rattle Returns to the LSO with Gerhard, Richard Strauss and Mahler
Vocal qualities matter enormously. Not just when it comes to the process of casting in the opera house, but when radically different items are programmed together in concert. I have…
A Musically Triumphant New The Barber of Seville in Hamburg
How far are you prepared to go if you really, really want something? Would you stop at nothing, save perhaps murder? When it’s a question of naked political power, all…
Unanswered Questions: Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia for Hampstead Garden Opera
What price constancy in a society where fidelity is not much prized? Like its immediate predecessor, Peter Grimes, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia has corruption at its core and a…
It Doesn’t Always Have to be Cav and Pag: A Bartók and Zemlinsky Double Bill Plus a Song Cycle in Hamburg
How long does an opera need to be? How long is a piece of string? On being asked for his favourite opera Sir Thomas Beecham instantly replied, La Bohème. Why…