‘Aloneness’ does not immediately seem a likely or fruitful subject for an opera. But, loneliness and isolation – an individual’s inner sphere, which no other human can truly know or enter – are at the core of Yasushi Inoue’s creative expression.
Actress x Stockhausen Sin {x} II – a world premiere
Is it in any sense aspirational to imitate – or even to try to create something original – based on one of Stockhausen’s works? This was a question I tried to grapple with at the world premiere of Actress x Stockhausen Sin {x} II.
The London Handel Festival and The Royal Opera announce a co-production of Handel’s Susanna starring members of The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme
The London Handel Festival and The Royal Opera today [14 May 2019] announced a co-production of Handel’s oratorio Susanna as part of the 2020 London Handel Festival. The new production, performed in English in the Linbury Theatre [5 – 14 March 2020], will star members and Link Artists from The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. Handel’s Susanna was written for Covent Garden and had its premiere on the site in 1749, but has not been performed at Covent Garden since.
Royal Opera House announces 17 new productions for its 2019/20 Season
The Royal Opera House today launches its 2019/20 Season, unveiling an exciting range of new commissions, world premieres and much-loved revivals, supported by a diverse range of ticketed and free daytime events, activities and festivals for people of all ages.
In the first full Season since the completion of the Royal Opera House’s three-year Open Up renovation, The Royal Opera Company unveils a host of innovative new work, with 13 new productions, including two world premieres, in the Season ahead.
The BBC Singers and the Academy of Ancient Music join forces for Handel’s Israel in Egypt
The biblical account of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is the defining event of Jewish history. By contrast, Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt has struggled to find its ‘identity’, hampered as it is by what might be termed the ‘Part 1 conundrum’, and the oratorio has not – despite its repute and the scholarly respect bestowed upon it – consistently or fully satisfied audiences, historic or modern.
Measha Brueggergosman: The Art of Song – Ravel to John Cage
A rather charming story recently appeared in the USA of a nine-year old boy who, at a concert given by Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, let out a very audible “wow” at the end of Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music. I mention this only because music – whether you are neurotypical or not – leads to people, of any age, expressing themselves in concerts relative to the extraordinary power of the music they hear. Measha Brueggergosman’s recital very much had the “wow” factor, and on many distinct levels.
In interview with Polly Graham, Artistic Director of Longborough Festival Opera
What links Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cavalli’s La Calisto? It sounds like the sort of question Paul Gambaccini might pose to contestants on BBC Radio 4’s music quiz, Counterpoint.
World premiere of Cecilia McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem
The quincentennial of the death Leonardo da Vinci is one of the major events this year – though it doesn’t noticeably seem to be acknowledged in new music being written for this.
Mahler: Titan, Eine Tondichtung in Symphonieform – FranÁois-Xavier Roth, Les SiËcles
Not the familiar version of Mahler’s Symphony no 1, but the “real” Mahler Titan at last, as it might have sounded in Mahler’s time! FranÁois-Xavier Roth and Les SiËcles present the symphony in its second version, based on the Hamburg/Weimar performances of 1893-94. This score is edited by Reinhold Kubik and Stephen E.Hefling for Universal Edition AG. Wien.
Martin Duncan directs the first UK staging of Offenbach’s Fantasio at Garsington
A mournful Princess forced by her father into an arranged marriage. A Prince who laments that no-one loves him for himself, and so exchanges places with his aide-de-camp. A melancholy dreamer who dons a deceased jester’s motley and finds himself imprisoned for impertinence.