(Photo: Festival Janacek Brno) Janacek’s song cycle “The Diary of One Who Disappeared” is a regular inclusion at the Janacek Brno Festival. Yet such have been the variety of performances, they can often appear as very different works. At the 2020 festival, the cycle was presented as a staged work using Janáček’s own staging instructions, with Pavol Breslik in the {…}
(Credits: © McQueen / Deutsche Oper am Rhein official website / © Jean-Baptiste Millot / Jiyang Chen) Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, France has announced its 2021-22 season. Here is the full slate. Operas Hans Abrahamsen’s “The Snow Queen” will spotlight Lauren Snouffer, Rachael Wilson, Helena Rasker, David Leigh, Michael Smallwood, Owen Willetts, Floriane Derthe, and Moritz Kallenberg. Robert {…}
(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Janacek’s unorthodox song cycle, “The Diary of One who Disappeared” is a theatrical work, to the extent that it is nowadays often presented as a staged, costumed drama, sometimes with an orchestrated score. It even allows for a variety of interpretations such as Ivo von Hove’s recent production which saw the protagonist cast as a photographer looking {…}
This morning I headed off to Brno’s Romany Museum, the only one dedicated to the Roma people, their history, and their culture in Europe. Situated in a fairly poor area of the city in which the Roma people had been forcibly settled I was greeted by a most enthusiastic and knowledgable guide who was happy to give me a personal {…}
Credit: Gregor Hohenberg/Sony Gramophone has announced the recordings that have advanced to the final round of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2020. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on vocal, choral, and opera categories. The first contestant in the opera category is the Barber’s “Vanessa,” performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Chorus, under the musical {…}