The Grange Festival has announced its 2027 season. The season opens with “The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor,” a gripping chamber opera after Britten. Ted Huffman directs a cast that includes Dominic Sedgwick, Toby Spence, Hugo Brady, Thomas Chenhall, Richard Gowers, George Barton, and Siwan Rhys. Benedict Kearns conducts. Performance Dates: May 23-29, 2027 Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” will get a new {…}
(Credit: Pablo Strong) Tenor Dafydd Jones has joined Keynote Artist for worldwide general management. He is a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper Opernstudio and is set to perform Der Verteidiger in “Der Englische Katze,” Gefangenerin “Fidelio,” and Dritter Knappe in “Parsifal.” This summer he is set to perform with the Garsington Opera as Telemaco in John Caird’s production of Monteverdi’s {…}
Welsh tenor Dafydd Jones has won the 2024 Gold Medal in the Royal Over-Seas League’s 72nd Annual Music Competition. The final, which was held at London’s Wigmore Hall, saw four soloists compete in the final. Among the finalists were violinist Jordan Brooks, pianist Ignas Maknickas, and flutist Daniel Shao. The adjudicators were John Gilhooly CBE (chair), Geoff Parkin, Alexandra Dariescu, {…}
The Royal College of Music Opera Studio will give the UK premiere of Libby Larsen’s “Barnum’s Bird” on June 28. Grammy Award-winning composer Libby Larsen’s chamber opera “Barnum’s Bird” tells the true story of PT Barnum and his star opera singer, Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. In two acts Larsen tells the story of the famous tour of America in 1850 {…}
(Photo: Stephen Cain Photography) This year’s North Wales International Music Festival presented the world premiere of “Gelert,” a work labelled as a “community opera” by its composer, Paul Mealor, and librettist, Grahame Davies. By deliberately labelling a work in this manner, it is inevitable that the curious among the audience will want to know its significance. What does “community opera” {…}