Angel Blue, Nicky Spence, Joyce DiDonato, Leah Hawkins, Rachel Willis-Sørensen & Charles Castronovo Lead BBC Proms’ 2026 Season

The BBC Proms has announced its 2026 season. Here are the vocal performances. The festival opens on with pianist Yunchan Lim and tenor Thomas Atkins joining Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for music by Ravel, Copland, Gershwin and Finzi. There will also be a world premiere by Josephine Stephenson. Performance Date: July 17, 2026 Gianandrea Noseda leads Beethoven’s Symphony {…}

Mar 20, 2026

Wratislavia Cantans Unveils 2026 Program

The Wratislavia Cantans announces its 2026 season. This article only features vocal events. Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila” stars Brian Jagde, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Kostas Smoriginas. They are joined by the NFM Choir led by Lionel Sow and the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. Thomas Guggeis conducts. Performance Date: September 3, 2026 Angelica Antonini performs with Il Giardino Armonico under the baton of {…}

Jun 11, 2025

Dunedin Consort Unveils 30th Anniversary Season

The Dunedin Consort announces its 2025-26 season. For the purpose of this article only voice performances are included. Bach’s “Matthew Passion,” BWV 244, features soloists Rowan Pierce, Hugh Cutting, Nicholas Mulroy, Marcus Farnsworth, Sarah Anne Champion, Hiroshi Amako, and Christopher Webb. John Butt directs. Performance Date: September 10, 2025 Bach’s “Markus Passion,” BWV 247, is presented with Concert Theatre Works. {…}

Dec 30, 2024

Q & A: Soprano Charlotte Bowden On Her Performances In Works By Monteverdi & Purcell

OperaWire met up with English soprano Charlotte Bowden between performances of Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria” and a double Purcell bill of “Hail! Bright St. Cecilia” and “Dido and Aeneas” at the Ravenna festival, in which she was essaying the roles of Melanto, a solo soprano and Belinda, respectively. Although she only recently graduated from the Royal College {…}

Dec 5, 2024

Ravenna 2024 Review: ‘Hail! Bright Cecilia’ & ‘Dido and Aeneas’

(Photo: Zani-Casadio) Following on from the previous day’s performance of Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” Ravenna’s Teatro Alighieri continued with a production of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” coupled with “Hail, Bright Cecelia,” presented by the same cast under the musical direction of Ottavio Dantone. The fact that Pier Luigi Pizzi, who had been responsible for the lackluster staging {…}

Dec 4, 2024

Ravenna 2024 Review: Il Ritorno Di Ulisse In Patria

(Photo: Zani-Casadio) In his program notes, the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, writing about “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” stated that “the opera speaks for itself,” adding, “we must not induce or force its interpretation… It is up to the audience to confront it, to think about it, and to decide for themselves whether or not it is worthwhile.” Even {…}

Jul 8, 2024

Ravenna Festival Unveils Autumn 2024 Festival Lineup

The Ravenna Festival has announced its autumn festival, which will run from Nov. 15 to 19, 2024, and be performed at the Teatro Aligheri. The festival will journey back in time to the roots of bel canto and the origins of opera, through the sounds and atmospheres of 17th-century Baroque music. Monteverdi’s “Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria” will be {…}

Nov 21, 2023

Glyndebourne Opera Festival 2023-24 Review: Don Giovanni

© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith Trigger warning: Mozart aficionados, look away now. One might think Wolfgang Amadeus to be somewhat overrated, and the fact that he was hugely prolific, widely acknowledged to be a prodigy and is almost globally asserted to have been a genius, does little by way of endearing his music to my ear. I {…}

Sep 21, 2023

Glyndebourne Unveils Fall 2023 Slate

Glyndebourne has unveiled its fall 2023 slate. Here is a rundown of the opera and vocal performances. First up is “L’Elisir d’amore.” The opera wills tar Mariam Battistelli, Filipe Manu, Theodore Platt, and Tiziano Bracci. Adam Hickox conducts the production, which will be directed by Annabel Arden. Performance Dates: Nov. 11 – Dec. 1, 2023 Also on the slate is “Don {…}

Aug 30, 2023

Mezzo-Soprano Mathilde Ortscheidt Wins Innsbruck Festival of Early Music’s 14th Cesti Competition

© Die Fotografen French mezzo-soprano Mathilde Ortscheidt has been named the winner of Innsbruck Festival of Early Music’s 14th Cesti Competition. Ortscheidt wowed the jury with arias “Dille, che nel mio seno serbo” from “Arianna in Creta” by Georg Friedrich Handel and “Ferri, ceppi, sangue, morte” from the opera “L’incoronazione di Dario” by Antonio Vivaldi. British soprano Charlotte Bowden came {…}

Jan 2, 2022

Kiandra Howarth, Charlotte Bowden & Hanna Husáhr Headline OperaVision’s January 2022 Streaming Lineup

(Credit: Chris Christodoulou) OperaVision has announced its streams for the month of January. Polly Graham’s production of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” from the Royal College of Music kicks off the streaming slate. The opera features Jamie Woollard as Sarastro, Michael Bell as Tamino, Charlotte Bowden as Pamina, and Clara Barbier as Die Königin der Nacht. The cast also includes Dafydd Allen, {…}