UK premiere of Barnum’s Bird at the Royal College of Music

‘I believe hugely in advertising and blowing my own trumpet, beating the gongs, drums, to attract attention to a show.’  So wrote Phineas Taylor Barnum to a publisher in 1860, adding, ‘As…

Barbara Hannigan appointed Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music

The Academy is proud to announce that distinguished soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is to become Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music. This new…

A ‘fantastic’ Respighi-Ravel double bill at the Royal College of Music

If you thought that fairy tales were for children, then this fantastic – in all senses of the word – double bill at the Royal College of Music would teach…

Orpheus in the Underworld at the Royal College of Music

Identifying the influences which inform her new production of Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at the Royal College of Music, director Louise Bakker cites ‘everything from Brideshead, Blackadder and…

Taking wing at the Royal College of Music: Jonathan Dove’s Flight

“I am stuck in Heathrow.  Flight cancelled and no way, or no one, to tell me to leave the airport.”  A Tweet by a frustrated passenger caught up in this…

A brilliant Hansel and Gretel from Stephen Barlow and the Royal College of Music

The escalating cost of living crisis may soon result in many children in the UK sharing Hansel’s hunger pangs: ‘O Gret, it would be such a treat, if we had…

A patriarchy-punching Magic Flute directed by Polly Graham at the Royal College of Music

At first glance, Polly Graham’s decision to set Mozart’s The Magic Flute in a secondary school seems an inspired one.  After all, in Schikaneder’s journey from darkness to light the…

Separation and Reconciliation: Opera Scenes presented by the Royal College of Music Opera Studio

‘Separation and reconciliation’: a fitting way to sum up the experience of many of us during the past months.  And, also, the theme which united the Opera Scenes – drawn…