Georg Frideric Handel and Richard Strauss may make unlikely bedfellows, but for this inaugural performance at the Barn at Old Walland, in Wadhurst, Sussex, Bampton Classical Opera wittily presented Handel’s…
Category: Performances
A stirring The Dream of Gerontius from Edward Gardner and the LPO at the Proms
The final weeks of this Proms festival are serving up some terrific big choral works and, sitting in the stalls before this performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, how wonderful…
Bath Camerata on excellent form at Leominster Priory
Now in its fortieth year, the Presteigne Festival once again brought an eclectic mix of cultural events (music, film, art and poetry) to this unassuming Welsh border town. Under the…
Stateliness and sincerity from John Butt and the OAE: Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Proms
Why Bach wrote the B minor Mass is a puzzle that keeps musicologists occupied. How to perform it today is a probably unresolvable question for practitioners. The Mass began life…
Prom 49: An overwhelming ‘Resurrection’ Symphony from Sir Simon Rattle
There can be no better venue in London for a performance of Mahler’s ’Resurrection’ Symphony than the Royal Albert Hall. Those fortunate enough to acquire tickets for this sell-out concert…
Sir John in Love: Vaughan Williams’ opera is presented with wit, charm and affection by British Youth Opera
Of Shakespeare’s characters, only Sir John Falstaff has inspired so many operas. Alongside accounts of his amorous adventures by Salieri, Nicolai, Balfe, Verdi and Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ four-act comedy,…
VOCES8 and the VOCES8 Scholars perform Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G in Milton Abbey
The closing concert of VOCES8’s annual summer school and festival at Milton Abbey was a contribution to this year’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan…
Le Comte Ory at the Rossini Opera Festival
It was a South American mafia, Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez as the deceitful Count Ory, Venezuelan Diego Matheuz as conductor and Argentinian Hugo de Ana as metteur en scène.…
Rossini’s Otello at Pesaro’s Vitrifrigo Arena
Two high concept productions: Rossini’s Otello set in a kitchen with Rossini’s Le Comte Ory providing some eggs. More or less. For its large scale productions the Rossini Opera Festival…