Category: Commentary

This summer, Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s opera double bill has been transformed from the physical to the digital stage, with the creative team and artists from across the School bringing the productions to life from their homes using digital technology. It is now available to stream for free until Wednesday 1 July 2020.

The 69th Wexford Festival Opera further develops its digital presence for 2020 to present a reimagined Festival: Waiting for Shakespeare…The Festival in the air, from Sunday, 11 October – Sunday, 18 October 2020.

Today the Royal College of Music (RCM) has announced that French soprano Clara Barbier Serrano will become the first recipient of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation-Community Jameel Scholarship. The scholarship means Clara will join the world-renowned RCM Opera Studio this September on the Artist Diploma (ArtDip) in Performance course at one of the world’s greatest conservatoires, ranked the top institution for Performing Arts in the UK for five consecutive years (QS World University Rankings).

English Touring Opera are starting a live series of conversations with the company’s Artistic Director, James Conway. Each week James will be joined by a special guest and ETO Associate Artist Bradley Travis, and they hope listeners can join us and be part of the conversation.

TÍte ‡ TÍte: The Opera Festival 2020 is rooted in themes of unreal and fictional worlds, impending political doom and apocalyptic futures, reflecting a real world in a state of unease.

12 – 28 June 2020 would have been the 73rd Aldeburgh Festival and this is the first time in its history that it will not go ahead. During the period that the Festival would have taken place, Britten Pears Arts presents a celebration of the Festival’s unique programming over more than 70 years, in collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four, part of BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine, keeping the arts and culture in the homes of the public despite the impact of lockdown which has seen festivals and performance venues unable to open.

At English Touring Opera we are working to produce a live season of lyric theatre this Autumn, touring in October and November. This programme is being designed to observe social distancing guidelines in the interest of the safety of our artists and audience.

Opera Holland Park is aware of the #BlackOutTuesday movement among parts of the music industry that began to gather pace yesterday. For several weeks, we have planned to mark what would have been the opening night of the 2020 season with a streaming of our production from 2019 of Un ballo in maschera on our website and YouTube channel.

Opera Holland Park’s 2021 season with resident orchestra City of London Sinfonia will open on 1 June with new productions of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Jana?cek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, and a revival of the company’s celebrated 2018 staging of Verdi’s La Traviata. On what would have been the opening night of the 2020 season OHP is pleased to look to the future.

When the Government announced the national lockdown, Grange Park Opera, Surrey – like all cultural venues across the world – was forced to close its doors and fall silent.
That was until its indefatigable founder Wasfi Kani refused to accept defeat, and created The Found Season.