A Choral Odyssey with The Sixteen

2020 marked the 20th anniversary of The Sixteen’s annual Choral Pilgrimage tour.  In 2000, founder and director Harry Christophers instituted the Choral Pilgrimage, taking the ensemble to English cathedrals from York to…

English Touring Opera perform Tippett and Britten

Covid-19 brought English Touring Opera’s Spring 2020 tour of Giulio Cesare, Così fan tutte and the St John Passion to an untimely halt, but the company got back on the…

The 2020 Kathleen Ferrier Award Final

Regular Opera Today readers will know that the annual Kathleen Ferrier Award Final is a keenly anticipated event in my musical year.  This year the Competition’s progress, inevitably, was somewhat…

The Royal Opera House Christmas Concert

Lockdowns and homeworking have made pyjamas the sartorial style of choice during 2020, so who would be surprised that director Dan Dooner decided to turn the Royal Opera House’s Christmas…

Messe de Minuit: I Fagiolini

Long, long ago,Oh! so long agoChrist was born in BethlehemTo heal the world’s woe. On Christmas Eve in 1940, while he was a prisoner of war at Laufen Castle in…

VOCES8 sing Winter Tales

VOCES8’s concerts often resemble a Christmas tin of Quality Street chocolates – there’s something for everyone, and ‘favourites’ abound.  But, the ensemble’s range – and ambition – is impressive; during…

Iestyn Davies and Arcangelo, at Wigmore Hall

I have a vague memory of having heard Iestyn Davies sing Handel’s Nine German Arias before at Wigmore Hall, perhaps ten or so years ago … but my review files…

Roderick Williams joins Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé

Roderick Williams has had a busy pandemic.  The last couple of weeks alone have seen the baritone joining with VOCES8 for a concert in their Live from London – Christmas…

A virtual ‘Der Lindenbaum’: Streetwise Opera bring the 2020 Ryedale Festival Online to a restful close

Streetwise Opera were joined by baritone Roderick Williams, the Brodsky Quartet and Genesis Sixteen for a special ‘virtual’ performance of Schubert’s ‘Der Lindenbaum’, the fifth song of the composer’s song-cycle Winterreise, bringing this year’s Ryedale Festival Online to a pensive close.