The Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone is typical of the sort of intimate venue in which Hampstead Garden Opera customarily presents its productions, which showcase young singers and musicians in performances…
Apollo of the Arts: Lost Lamentations – a concert for connoisseurs at Winchester College Chapel
It’s rare these days to find a new vocal ensemble prepared to dip its toe in the water of Marian-themed repertoire that is virtually unknown. Such is the case with…
An irreverent but stylishly sung Imeneo at the Royal Academy of Music
Imeneo, Handel’s penultimate opera, has a somewhat chaotic history. It was the only one of Handel’s forty or so operas to be presented as an ‘operetta’ – perhaps to make…
Martin Graham steps down as Chairman of Longborough Festival Opera
Having recently celebrated his 80th birthday, Martin Graham, founder of Longborough Festival Opera, is stepping down from the Board which he has chaired for over 20 years. Martin will retain his…
Royal Opera House launches 2022/23 apprenticeship programme
The Royal Opera House has announced the launch of its 2022/23 apprenticeship programme, which offers nine apprentices high-quality training and two years of paid employment at one of London’s leading…
Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida bring darkness and dreams to Wigmore Hall
Mark Padmore continued his season-residency at Wigmore Hall with a programme of lieder by Beethoven and Schubert. In the latter’s ‘Ihr Bild’, one of the Heine settings in Schwanengesang, the…
Laurence Equilbey and the Insula orchestra bring a very ‘human’ Fidelio to the Barbican Hall
Sometimes, less really is more. Such was confirmed by this powerful and affecting concert performance at the Barbican Hall of Beethoven’s lone opera, Fidelio, by Laurence Equilbey’s Paris-based Insula orchestra…
Tormento d’amore: Italian love laments from Ian Bostridge and Cappella Neapolitana
The booklet article by the musicologist Dinko Fabris which accompanies Tormento d’amore – Ian Bostridge’s most recent recording, with Antonio Florio’s Cappella Neapolitana – is titled ‘From Venice to Naples…
Zipangu and Lonely Child: Two Claude Vivier masterpieces in magnificent performances by the London Sinfonietta
The Quebquois-born composer Claude Vivier – still largely neglected, despite many of his works having an almost fearless intensity entirely relevant for today – was the subject of a rare…