When we think of the ‘English oratorio’, the composer whose name
most readily comes to mind is George Frideric Handel, the ‘adopted’
Englishman who in the first half of the eighteenth-century both anticipated and dictated English musical and theatrical taste.
Category: Commentary
The English Oratorio: A Celebration (Barbican Hall, London)
Piotr Beczala
Piotr Beczala, the Polish lyric tenor, stars in the current La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, London.
Ten Years of Celebrating Song: Oxford Lieder Festival 2011
In just ten years, the Oxford Lieder Festival has become Britain’s most important Lieder festival, with an international following.
The Inaugural Cambridge Handel Festival: a rosy dawn?
The haughty beauties that are the ancient colleges of Cambridge were definitely feeling the heat this past weekend, and not even the cooling streams of the Cam and its tributaries could assuage the heat of an Indian summer in the Fens of Eastern England.
Raffaele Cardone, Miami Lyric Opera
Remember when opera was all the rage? Remember when you could walk across to any town and experience a whole different opera scene, a different opera house, different orchestras and singers?
“Opera is like a tree” — ZhengZhong Zhou
In Gounod’s Faust at the Royal Opera House in October 2011,
Zhengzhong Zhou is alternating with Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the part of
Valentin. Alternating, not covering or substituting. Since Zhou is very young,
it’s quite a challenge.
Luca Pisaroni sings Handel at Glyndebourne
Luca Pisaroni is one of one the more exciting young bass-baritones of his
generation. In July 2011, he sings Argante in the first ever Handel Rinaldo at
the Glyndebourne Festival.
Madama Butterfly by Caurier and Leiser
Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser’s Madama Butterfly is such a classic that it is being filmed for the second time at the Royal Opera House, London.
Vivica Genaux — An Interview
I spoke with Vivica Genaux in December 2011, when she stopped in New York at
the end of one of her concert tours.