(Photo: Viktoria Kühne) The 2026 biennial Magdeburg Telemann Festival reached its zenith this week, offering a rewarding musical marathon that spanned centuries of political and musical history. Over the course of a single day, the festival presented two contrasting faces of Georg Philipp Telemann: the celebratory architect of Habsburg dynastic splendor and the pragmatic, experimental operatic bridge-builder. From the daylight {…}
Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik announces its program for the 2026 season. This article only features opera events. Opening the festival is the workshop concert which features a sneak peak into Ottavio Dantone’s reconstruction of Pietro Antonio Cesti’s “Il pomo d’oro.” This event is presented in a a hybrid format combining elements of concert and rehearsal. The Accademia Bizantina Ensemble {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) One of the more interesting events at Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival is its Oper Jung production, cast with singers who took part in the previous year’s Cesti Competition and who, therefore, are generally in the early stages of their careers. This summer’s presentation was Händel’s 1734 opera “Arianna in Creta,” which relates Theseus’s quest to kill the {…}
(Photo: ©pissarek) Innsbruck Festival of Early Music’s “Händel & Greber” program featured works that compliment and celebrate works by both composers in tandem with musical ideas that resonate across space and time. The evening included soprano Silvia Frigato and mezzo-soprano Mathilde Ortscheidt. Ortscheidt is the recipient of the first prize at last year’s “Pietro Antonio Cesti” Baroque Opera Competition in {…}
(Photo credit: Richard Hubert Smith) Britten Pears Arts has released the details of its Autumn 2024 season. Only opera and vocal events are included in this article. Singers and instrumentalists from the Composition and Performance course present Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” in a masterclass led by soprano Claire Booth and conductor Jonathan Berman. Performance Date: September 17, 2024 (Peter Pears Recital {…}
Programming for the 2024 Innsbruck Festival of Early Music has been announced. This article only features vocal performances. First up is a workshop for the upcoming performances of Giacomelli’s “Cesare in Egitto.” Soloists include Arianna Vendittelli, Emőke Barath, Filippo Mineccia, Margherita Maria Sala, Valerio Contaldo, and Federico Fiorio. Ottavio Dantone conducts the Accademia Bizantina. Performance Date: July 27, 2024 (Tyrolean {…}
© 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 {…}
