After an eighteen-month absence, at least at the Coliseum, English National Opera is back on home turf and marking its return to live performance with a reboot of Philip Glass’s…
Author: David Truslove
Mid Wales Opera tour Puccini’s dark-hued Il tabarro
Mid Wales Opera is back! Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this enterprising touring company launched its autumn season with Puccini’s one act tragedy Il tabarro. It was given at Brecon’s Theatr…
Mixed delights from The King’s Consort in Purcell’s Birthday Odes for Queen Mary
Between the years 1689 and 1694 Henry Purcell conceived six successive Birthday Odes for Queen Mary who, until her death in 1694, ruled jointly with her husband William of Orange.…
Ruby Hughes in spellbinding form in Songs for New Life and Love
At first glance Charles Ives and Gustav Mahler make unusual bed fellows. But on this excellent CD from BIS they flank a song cycle by Helen Grime to form a…
Sumptuous performances of Schnittke and Pärt from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Another coupling of Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt from BIS brings together three unaccompanied choral works of the 1980s. Two close contemporaries, their spiritual journeys coincided with the revival of…
Cinquecento present an outstanding collection of music by Heinrich Isaac
After hearing this excellent disc which Cinquecento have devoted to the music of Heinrich Isaac, I was compelled to find other recordings. How seldom the music of this Flemish-born composer…
Hurn Court Opera’s Dido and Aeneas
An outing to the handsome Romanesque-revival church in Wilton, Wiltshire for a performance of Dido and Aeneas by Hurn Court Opera provided food for thought. Established in 2017, this Dorset-based…
Polished performances from Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Bach & Handel
There’s no denying the energy and precision Sir John Eliot Gardiner can still coax from the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, founded by him over fifty years ago. In…
The Complete Songs of Fauré Vol. 4: varied performances highlight vocal diversity
The final instalment of Signum’s four-part Fauré exploration comes, as previously, with the ever-reliable collaborator Malcolm Martineau. This disc’s two dozen plus songs are shared by a luxury line-up of…
Restrained passions in West Green Opera’s Eugene Onegin
‘Being in love is a complicated matter; although anyone who is prepared to pretend that love is a simple, straightforward business is always in a strong position for making conquests’.…