During the 1880s and 1890s, Italian publishers were making a concerted effort to find a successor to Giuseppe Verdi who, however, remained a towering force in Italian operatic life. The…
Author: Robert Hugill
Pauline Viardot’s Cinderella: a Christmas treat from Northern Opera Group
Pauline Viardot was the scion of a distinguished vocal dynasty. Her father, Manuel Garcia (tenor, impresario, teacher) took part in the premieres of Rossini’s Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra and Il barbiere…
Schubert in the spotlight: Roderick Williams and ‘Momentum’ artists perform Schwanengesang
Led by Artistic Director Anthony Friend, Bandstand Chamber Festival, which presented a memorable series of concerts in the bandstand at Battersea Park this Summer, has returned with a Winter series.…
Rusalka at the Teatro Real in Madrid
For all the popularity of what might be termed its hit number, Dvořák’s opera Rusalka has a somewhat odd history in the UK. It had to wait until 1959 before…
The Seven Deadly Sins: Opera North at Leeds Playhouse
Kurt Weill’s ballet chanté, Die sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins), is a work of exile in troubled times, Weill and Brecht wrote it in 1933 in Paris shortly after…
Richard Danielpour – The Passion of Yeshua
A contemporary telling of the Passion story which uses texts from both the Christian and the Jewish traditions to create a very different viewpoint.