French soprano Sabine Devieilhe seems to find feisty adolescence a neat fit. I first encountered her when she assumed the role of a pill-popping nightclubbing ‘Beauty’ – raced from ecstasy-induced wonder to emergency ward – when I reviewed the DVD of Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production of Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Aix-en-Provence in 2016.
Author: Claire Seymour
Mozart’s Travels: Classical Opera and The Mozartists at Wigmore Hall
There was a full house at Wigmore Hall for Classical Opera’s/The Mozartists’ final concert of the 2018-19 season: a musical paysage which chartered, largely chronologically, Mozart’s youthful travels from London to The Hague, on to Paris, then Rome, concluding – following stop-overs in European cultural cities such as Munich and Vienna – with an arrival at his final destination, Prague.
A terrific, and terrifying, The Turn of the Screw at Garsington
One might describe Christopher Oram’s set for Louisa Muller’s new production of The Turn of the Screw at Garsington as ‘shabby chic’ … if it wasn’t so sinister.
A Rachmaninov Drama at Middle Temple Hall
It is Rachmaninov’s major works for orchestra – the Second and Third Piano Concertos, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Symphonic Dances – alongside the All-Night Vespers and the music for solo piano, which have earned the composer a permanent place in the concert repertoire today.
McVicar’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro returns to the Royal Opera House
David McVicar’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has been a remarkable success since it debuted in 2006. Set with the Count of Almaviva’s fearfully grand household in 1830, McVicar’s trick is to surround the principals by servants in a supra-naturalistic production which emphasises how privacy is at a premium.
The Cunning Little Vixen at the Barbican Hall
The presence of a large cast of ‘animals’ in Jan·?ek’s The Cunning Little Vixen can encourage directors and designers to create costume-confections ranging from Disney-esque schmaltz to grim naturalism.
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at Grange Park Opera
When Engelbert Humperdinck’s sister, Adelheid Wette, wrote the libretto to Hansel and Gretel the idea of a poor family living in a hut near the woods, on the bread-line, would have had an element of realism to it despite the sentimental layers which Wette adds to the tale.
Handel’s Belshazzar at The Grange Festival
What a treat to see members of The Sixteen letting their hair down. This was no strait-laced post-concert knees-up, but a full on, drunken orgy at the court of the most hedonistic ruler in the Old Testament.
Kenshiro Sakairi and the Tokyo Juventus Philharmonic in Mahler’s Eighth
Although some works by a number of composers have had to wait uncommonly lengthy periods of time to receive Japanese premieres – one thinks of both Mozart’s Jupiter and Beethoven’s Fifth (1918), Handel’s Messiah (1929), Wagner’s Parsifal (1967), Berlioz’s RomÈo et Juliette (1966) and even Bruckner’s Eighth (1959, given its premiere by Herbert von Karajan) – Mahler might be considered to have fared somewhat better.
An interview with composer Dani Howard
The young Hong Kong-born British composer Dani Howard is having quite a busy year.