Barbican Centre at 40: shortcomings and memorable moments

London’s Barbican Centre is 40 years old. Its inaugural concert back then for the official opening of the Barbican Centre – given on the 3rd March – had been played…

Academy of Ancient Music to perform Handel’s Messiah – livestreamed from the Barbican, London

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) celebrates a return to live music making on December 19th with a performance of a seasonal classic, Handel’s Messiah as part of the Live from the…

Michel van der Aa Sunken Garden, ENO London

Michel van der Aa’s Sunken Garden had its world premiere at the Barbican Theatre, under the auspices of the ENO. Van der Aa is a well respected artist, closely associated with the Nederlandse Opera. His Up Close, presented together with Pierre Audi’s Liebestod in 2011, won a Grawemeyer award. Sunken Garden is a huge leap ahead from Up Close, and also from the earlier After Life, also presented at the Barbican and in Amsterdam. Sunken Garden is altogether more ambitious, and successfully achieves van der Aa’s dreams of linking different art forms to create a Gesammstkunstwerk for the age of technology. It will divide opinion, however, as anything truly experimental usually does.

Radamisto at Barbican Hall

Handel’s Radamisto HWV 12a confirms the Barbican Hall as one of the finest places for baroque in London. Superb performances from David Daniels, Luca Pisaroni, and Patricia Bardon, with Harry Bicket conducting The English Concert from the harpsichord

Grieg : Peer Gynt, Barbican Hall London

Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt op 23 is rarely heard in full, though the Suites thereon are ubiquitous. At the Barbican Hall in London, Grieg’s incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play was heard complete, enhanced by incidental speech.

Gerald Barry: The Importance of Being Earnest

Irish composer Gerald Barry’s opera The Importance of Being Earnest
premieres at the Barbican, London on April 26th. It is a joint commission between the Barbican and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, GSMD

There were high hopes for the 2012 debut production of A Midummer Night’s Dream by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Opera programme .

La clemenza di Tito — Barbican

The last opera seria — Mozart’s late, austere masterpiece, and vividly brought it to life.

Dvo?·k’s The Jacobin, London

In advance of the new Rusalka at the Royal Opera House, the Barbican and the BBC Symphony Orchestra brought an electrifying performance of Dvo?·k’s The Jacobin to London.

Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream

British composer Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream came to London four years after its premieres at the Holland Festival and in Luxembourg.