The Modern Major-General may dismiss its whistled airs as “infernal nonsense”, but the songs of HMS Pinafore have lost none of their appeal during the near 150 years since Gilbert…
Author: Claire Seymour
A standing ovation for Lisette Oropesa in the Royal Opera House’s revival of La traviata
Given the tubercular demise of Verdi’s tragic heroine, it’s tempting to describe the ROH’s latest reprise of Richard Eyre’s 1994 production of Verdi’s La traviata in pandemic terms – in…
Glyndebourne Tour hits the road + screenings of Chaplin’s City Lights with live orchestral accompaniment
Glyndebourne Tour hits the road in November taking performances of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (pictured), Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Handel’s choral masterpiece Messiah to The Marlowe, Canterbury (3 – 5 November), Milton Keynes Theatre (10 –…
dream.risk.sing: elevating women’s voices at the Oxford Lieder Festival
British-Australian soprano Samantha Crawford and American pianist Lana Bode describe dream.risk.sing as a ‘love letter to women of all ages … a programme for women and for those who love…
Music opens the doors of memory: new opera company, Theatre of Sound, launches with a radical retelling of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle
Forbidden chambers, corpses dangling from wall-hooks, pools of clotted blood, stigmata of guilt: ‘Bluebeard’, which first appeared in literary form in Charles Perrault’s seventeenth-century collection, Tales of Mother Goose, is…
London Oriana Choir announces new choral scholarship programme
London Oriana Choir has announced the launch of a new Choral Scholarship Programme , offering a select number of funded places for singers aged 18-25 for its 2021-22 season, as part of its commitment to…
everything grows extravagantly: an impressive new song-cycle by Cheryl Frances-Hoad at the Oxford Lieder Festival
The Oxford Lieder Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year; the Oxford Botanic Garden marks its 400th birthday. Cheryl Frances-Hoad, in her third and final year as Oxford Lieder’s…
Sarah Hopwood, Managing Director at Glyndebourne, to retire in autumn 2022
Glyndebourne has announced that Sarah Hopwood, Managing Director, will step down in autumn 2022 at which time she will join the Board as a Trustee. Sarah’s career at Glyndebourne has…
Soprano Hilary Cronin wins First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2021 Handel Singing Competition
After a thrilling final, 29-year-old soprano Hilary Cronin won the £5000 First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2021 Handel Singing Competition last night. Hilary Cronin impressed the judges with a performance…
Glyndebourne Encore, a new streaming service giving on-demand access to its filmed operas
Glyndebourne is launching a new streaming service called Glyndebourne Encore, giving on-demand access to its back catalogue of world-class opera, as well as all future filmed productions. Glyndebourne has been…