The two works in Guildhall School’s Baroque opera double bill, Thomas Arne’s The Cooper and Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista had little in common except that both are rarely performed, yet somehow made quite good bedfellows.
Seeing Zürich Opera’s new production of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria made me wonder why this is the least performed of Monteverdi's three surviving operas.
In her long-awaited major solo appearance in London, young Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva explored Handel's Italian-period works with the vibrant Baroque ensemble Il Giardino Armonico.
As a highlight of this year's London Handel Festival, the composer's rarely heard oratorio Deborah was given a strong and committed performance by Laurence Cummings and a fine cast.
The sensational countertenor Franco Fagioli led an all-male cast in an extravagant staging of Vinci's Artaserse, a neglected Baroque opera, at the Royal Opera House at Versailles.
As part of Spitalfields Winter Festival, Lawrence Zazzo and La Nuova Musica presented a beautifully curated programme of operatic gems by Handel and his lesser-known contemporaries Bononcini and Ariosti.
Starring celebrated heldentenor Klaus Florian Vogt, Kasper Holten's highly-praised production of Korngold's Die tote Stadt for Finnish National Opera is brilliantly revived.
Opera Lyrica is a new addition to the thriving small opera company scene in the UK. Founded in 2012 by artistic director Paola Cuffolo and producer Nick Simpson, it gives aspiring professionals valuable opportunities.
Music associated with the eighteenth-century Dresden court was the theme of Thursday's excellent concert by the European Union Baroque orchestra under the leadership of the violinist Gottfried von der Goltz.
Billed as a “concert hall staging”, the Academy of Ancient Music’s season-opening performance of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo was brilliantly staged at the Barbican by the director Orpha Phelan and designer Caroline Hughes – as close as one could get to a full production in a concert hall without a pit.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra made a welcome return to the Proms after two years’ absence (their last appearance was in the late night Prom in 2010), led by their youthful principal conductor Robin Ticciati, who has already been in the post for four years. They brought a programme showcasing the early 19th-century repertoire which Ticciati has recently been exploring with this orchestra.
Friday’s two Proms had a theme running through them: Resurrection, Easter and Ascension. I wasn’t quite sure how I would feel about listening to Bach’s small-scale oratorios after Mahler’s mighty “Resurrection” Symphony, but I needn’t have worried. Compared to Mahler’s angst and doubt in the symphony, Bach’s unwavering Christian faith was reassuring.
After all that tonal instability in last week’s Wagner marathon at the Proms, Daniel Harding and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s programme celebrating C major came as a breath of fresh air. The Royal Albert Hall had cooled down a bit too.
On Monday lunchtime, the rising Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang and the Tashkent-born pianist Michail Lifits launched this year’s Proms Chamber Music series in the relatively intimate space of Cadogan Hall.
Nabucco in a shopping mall – this is Graham Vick’s concept for his new production of Verdi’s early masterpiece created specifically for New National Theatre Tokyo.
