It was clear which ‘queen’ the capacity audience at the Barbican had come to see, and it wasn’t the tragic Queen of Carthage whose downfall and death are brought about…
Author: Claire Seymour
The Carver Choirbook is ‘unwrapped’ by The Sixteen at Kings Place
Kings Place’s annual celebration of a particular ‘theme’ has entered its sixteenth year, and in 2024 it is the turn of Scotland to be ‘unwrapped’. The year-long series will explore…
Dreams, Desires, Desolation: English Song
In Dreams, Desires, Desolation, baritone Trevor Alexander and pianist Peter Crockford present a miscellany of English song. There are both art songs – some well-known, others less familiar – and…
Northern Opera Group Unveils Programme for the 8th Annual Leeds Opera Festival in 2024
Northern Opera Group has unveiled the programme for its 8th annual Leeds Opera Festival, taking place from 17 August to 8 September 2024. This milestone promises to captivate audiences with…
‘Love, viewed from the dark side’: Christof Loy’s production of Strauss’s Elektra at the Royal Opera House
Skimming through some of the critical literature on the myth of Electra – who, following the murder of her father, the Mycenaean King Agamemnon, at the hands of her mother…
Homelands: songs of exile, alienation and escape
Homelands is the title of this programme, curated by pianist and writer Aron Goldin and released by Rubicon last October. However, in the context of creative artists’ representation of ‘home’,…
Longborough Festival Opera appoints Emily Gottlieb as Executive Director
Longborough Festival Opera has appointed Emily Gottlieb as its new Executive Director from April 2024. Gottlieb joins Longborough from the National Opera Studio where she served as Chief Executive for…
Die schöne Müllerin: Thomas Guthrie and Barokksolistene take Schubert’s song-cycle back to its roots
The first complete performance of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin took place in Vienna’s Musikverein on 4th May 1856, by the baritone Julius Stockhausen (1826–1906) accompanied by the Viennese Vice-Hofkapellmeister, Benedict…
Songs of Antiquity: James Newby and Joseph Middleton at Wigmore Hall
Titled Songs of Antiquity, this recital by baritone James Newby and pianist Joseph Middleton began and ended both in the past and in darkness, the Prologue and Epilogue composed by…
The Lady of Satis House: an operatic monodrama by Jacques Cohen
“Miss Havisham is essentially an operatic character!” says composer-conductor Jacques Cohen, when we meet to discuss the recording of his operatic monodrama for soprano and string quartet, The Lady of…