‘The world’s most acclaimed Soprano’: the programme booklet produced for Ermonela Jaho’s Wigmore Hall debut was keen to emphasise the Albanian soprano’s prestigious status, as judged by The Economist, and it was standing-room only at the Hall which was full to capacity with Jaho’s fervent fans and opera-lovers.
Author: Claire Seymour
Vladimir Jurowski conducts a magnificent Siegfried
“Siegfried is the Man of the Future, the man we wish, the man we will, but cannot make, and the man who must create himself through our annihilation.” This was Richard Wagner, writing in 1854, his thoughts on Siegfried. The hero of Wagner’s Siegfried, however, has quite some journey to travel before he gets to the vision the composer described in that letter to August Roeckel. Watching Torsten Kerl’s Siegfried in this – largely magnificent – concert performance one really wondered how tortuous a journey this would be.
Bieito’s Carmen returns to English National Opera
‘Men Behaving Badly’ wouldn’t be a bad subtitle for Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen, currently being revived at ENO.
Twilight People: Andreas Scholl and Tamar Halperin at Wigmore Hall
Twilight people: existing betwixt and between states, slipping the bounds of categorisation, on the edge of the norm.
A French Affair: La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall
A French Affair, as this programme was called, was a promising concept on paper, but despite handsomely sung contributions from the featured soloists and much energetic direction from David Bates, it never quite translated into a wholly satisfying evening’s performance.
Philippe Jaroussky and JÈrÙme Ducros perform Schubert at Wigmore Hall
How do you like your Schubert? Let me count the ways …
Crebassa and Say: Impressionism and Power at Wigmore Hall
On paper this seemed a fascinating recital, but as I was traveling to the Wigmore Hall it occurred to me this might be a clash of two great artists. Both Marianne Crebassa and Fazil Say can be mercurial performers and both can bring such unique creativity to what they do one thought they might simply diverge. In the event, what happened was quite remarkable.
‘Songs of Longing and Exile’: Stile Antico at LSO St Luke’s
Baroque at the Edge describes itself as the ‘no rules’ Baroque festival. It invites ‘leading musicians from all backgrounds to take the music of the Baroque and see where it leads them’.
Richard Jones’ La bohËme returns to Covent Garden
Richard Jones’ production of Puccini’s La bohËme is back at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden after its debut in 2017/18. The opening night, 10th January 2020, featured the first of two casts though soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who was due to sing MimÏ, had to drop out owing to illness, and was replaced at short notice by Simona Mihai who had sung the role in the original run and is due to sing Musetta later in this run.
Diana Damrau sings Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder on Erato
“How weary we are of wandering/Is this perhaps death?” These closing words of ‘Im Abendrot’, the last of Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder, and the composer’s own valedictory work, now seem unusually poignant since they stand as an epitaph to Mariss Jansons’s final Strauss recording.