(Photo credit: Christian Kleiner & Theo Williams) The Leeds Lieder Festival has announced the 2024 event schedule. For its 20th anniversary celebration soprano Nikola Hillebrand, Joseph Middleton and Oliver Casanovas Nuevo perform the “Schubertiade lunchtime opening recital.” Performance Date: April 14, 2024 The “Young Artists Schubertiade” features Richard Stokes and the Leeds Lieder Young Artists. Performance Date: April 14, 2024 {…}
Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. In this edition, a leading Bel Canto interpreter delves into mad scenes with her new alum while a rarely performed opera by a female composer gets a new release. There is also a special Wagner recording out this week. Rheinberger & Mendelssohn Choral {…}
Mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones is set to deliver a solo song recital at the BBC Proms on Monday, August 29, 2022 at Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The mezzo-soprano, who was a last second participant and then winner in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2021, will perform music by a vast array of composers including Ethel Smyth {…}
Photo: © CLIVE BARDA/ArenaPAL Opening night was delayed due to a storm – very on brand for Leoš Janáček, though perhaps more apt for “Kat’a Kabanova” – so nature very much had the upper hand when this new production of “The Cunning Little Vixen” opened at the London Coliseum on Sunday. Director Jamie Manton has previously made an impact with {…}
(Credit: Philip Vile) The Aldeburgh Festival has announced its 2022 season. The festival opens on June 3, and runs through June 26, 2022. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the vocal works. Here is the full slate. Baritone Kieran Rayner performs music by Schubert, Debussy, and Finzi alongside pianist Bradley Wood. Performance Date: June 4, 2022 {…}
(Credit: Fay Fox/Jaclyn Simpson/Lynn Lane) It’s been a tough 2021. After some hope settled into the opera world with the reopening of most companies around the globe, the end of the year seemed to revert to what we saw for much of 2020 – more lockdowns, more COVID, more cancelations. But despite what seems like a dark ending to the {…}
(Credit: © Tristram Kenton) It is some 20 years since ENO saw a complete “Ring.” Over the next few years they launch a new production, beginning with “The Valkyrie,” reverting next year to “Das Rheingold,” and then on. It is a bold undertaking to launch a new “Ring” in these challenging times for opera, with no little financial and artistic {…}
The Cardiff Singer of the World has announced the winners of the 2021 competition. The winner of the main prize went to baritone Gihoon Kim who took the Cardiff Trophy and £20,000. Meanwhile, the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize went to Claire Barnett-Jones who won £2,500 and a crystal trophy. Kim has performed at the Glyndebourne Festival and at Bayerische Staatsoper and {…}
(Credits: English National Opera official website/Benjamin Ealovega) The Grange Festival has announced a series of live performances between August 21-23, 2020. Director Sinéad O’Neill has created “A Precipice,” an outdoor immersive poetic sequence using the many natural stages offered by the buildings at The Grange. Each performance will last an hour and will be presented to small guided audiences of {…}
(Credit: Simon Jay Price) The London Philharmonic Orchestra has announced that it will be performing two complete Ring Cycles this winter under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski. The two cycles are set to take place between Jan. 25-31 and Feb. 5-10, 2021 at the Royal Festival Hall. The cycles will be a culmination of a project that initiated back in {…}