(Photo credit: Mark Allen/Barbican) What tenor Allan Clayton doesn’t know about misery probably isn’t worth knowing. His latest successes have been studies in anguish, specializing in alienated outsiders, or figures squatting on the borderland between life and death: Brett Dean’s “Hamlet,” “Peter Grimes” at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Met, and, latterly for London audiences, a standout {…}
(Credit: © Cordula Treml) “An Anatomy of Melancholy” is a new 75-minute show from countertenor Iestyn Davies and lutenist Thomas Dunford, designed and directed by Netia Jones. Its title comes from Robert Burton’s famous seventeenth-century treatise on the various varieties of despair and mania that make up what now wears the guise of depression and anxiety. The musical thread connecting {…}
London’s Barbican Centre has announced its 2022-23 season. For the purposes of this article, our focus will be on vocal showcases. Laurence Cummings leads the Academy of Ancient Music in a performance of Haydn’s “The Seasons” with Sophie Bevan, Benjamin Hulett, and Jonathan Lemalu as the soloists. Performance Date: Oct. 4, 2022 Baritone James Newby and pianist Joseph Middleton perform {…}
Jake Heggie’s 2000 opera “Dead Man Walking” – based on the memoirs of Sister Helen Prejean and inspired by the film of the same name – hardly conforms to operatic standards. An intersection of “Porgy and Bess”-like motifs, rock opera recitatives, and the echoes of New Orleans jazz, it treats the opera template with a moderate respect: scant arias and {…}