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Gustave Charpentier's Louise, revived and in excellent form at the Buxton Festival.

The benefits of opera in concert are felt in Manchester with the BBC Philharmonic, with a performance of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. 

Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream lacking a little magic at the RNCM.

John Wilson directs the National Youth Orchestra directs the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in a staggering performance of unbridled enthusiasm.

The RNCM's beautiful production of Lehar’s The Merry Widow is the perfect musical accompaniment to the festive season. 

2014 marks the centenary of Rutland Boughton’s record-breaking score, The Immortal Hour. Here, it was squeezed into a small room above the Finborough Pub. 

Coming to a head in a production of wit, charm and depth, the RNCM's production of Sondheim's Company is splendidly designed and excellently directed.

A superb concert performance of Der Rosenkavalier with the CBSO and Andris Nelsons receives a rapturous reception. 

Remarkable commitment from the RNCM Vocal Department in an entrancing Gluck double bill, of the forgotten L’ivrogne corrigé and the famous Orfeo ed Euridice.

Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore is perhaps one of the most delightful operas ever written; full of romance and comedy underpinned by a witty and charming score makes it the perfect light-hearted entertainment. The RNCM presented an excellently compelling production.

Hooray for John Wilson and the magnificent musicians of his orchestra, for this programme of classics from Hollywood's golden age performed at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Handel and the Huddersfield Choral Society go way back, and their union is probably listed somewhere in the Old Testament.

Celebrating the Wagner centenary in 1913, the Hallé Orchestra gave a concert performance in Manchester of Acts II and III from Wagner’s epic final masterpiece Parsifal.

Princess Ida holds her court amongst the rarer Gilbert and Sullivan operas; their eighth collaboration, it opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, running for 246 performances.

Over the centuries, the Three Choirs Festival has developed a commendable trait in presenting the very best in English choral music; in more recent years the Festival has been committed to resurrecting once popular works that have been considered worthy of reassessment and, following on from last year’s performance of George Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims, this year the lot fell to Samuel Coleridge-T

Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe made history twice over on its opening night of 25 November 1882: in the first instance it was the first G&S production to play at the recently completed Savoy Theatre; and in the second, it was the first to open (almost) simultaneously at the Standard Theatre, New York City, beginning barely an hour after the conclusion of the London performance on the same d

The Pirates of Penzance is without a doubt one of the most popular and most successful of the G&S canon, containing some of Gilbert’s most amusing lyrics and characterisations, alongside examples of Sullivan’s best music.

There can be little doubt that two principal draws of the Buxton Festival are the annual opportunity to experience little-known and sometimes totally unheard-of repertoire and composers, and forgotten repertoire by familiar composers; the co-operation of such a festival committee, patrons and backers that supports the production of rare works is a gift to any artistic director – especially one as

Since the death of conductors like Isidore Godfrey, Malcolm Sargent and Charles Mackerras, all of whom feature heavily in the Gilbert and Sullivan discography with many excellent soloists of the last century, there has been no mainstream conductor that has really given the work of Gilbert and Sullivan its due; countless amateur dramatic societies and a few professional opera houses have done their

Sibelius is an extraordinarily well represented composer in Manchester and, ever since Sir John Barbirolli’s conductorship of the Hallé, all his symphonies have been presented here many times by both native and visiting orchestras – even within the last decade a Sibelius symphony cycle has been undertaken by the Hallé, and tonight marks the third and final concert of the BBC Philharmonic’s 2013 Si

The consequence of any war is destruction, and though ancient buildings continue to crumble under the terrific blast of modern warfare, the spirit of a people undefeated invariably gives way to creation with renewed fervour.

Though Rossini’s name is synonymous with 19th-century comic opera, his contribution to sacred music is not inconsiderable; a sizeable collection of masses, hymns and cantatas reach the pinnacle of their popularity in two works that still make an entertaining evening in the concert hall or church.

The bicentenary of Richard Wagner’s birth is inescapable, and it comes as no surprise that, however brief their offering, an institution as august as the Huddersfield Choral Society (HCS) could not allow the moment to pass without taking advantage of the opportunity to perform one of Wagner’s most impressive choral outbursts – “Wacht auf! Es nahet gen den Tag” (Awake! the dawn of day draws near) f

Any venue, cathedral or concert hall, that advertises a Good Friday performance of J.S. Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion is likely to sell out; even Birmingham’s vast Symphony Hall is no exception, today being full to bursting with eager parishioners making their annual pilgrimage to wallow in Bach’s all-consuming musical ministry.

Shostakovich’s 1959 operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki (“Paradise Moscow”) is to date one of the most uncomfortable evenings I have ever spent in a theatre, though, I hasten to add, not because of the performance.

Conductor H.K. Gruber’s visits to the BBC Philharmonic are guaranteed to be unmissable concerts of the season; with unquenchable enthusiasm and pride in the music he programmes, Gruber, (known affectionately to all as “Nali”), always assures a stirring performance.

On 29 January 1728, at John Rich’s theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, playwright John Gay and composer Johann Christoph Pepusch presented to the London public a new ballad opera that would shake the foundations of musical entertainment.

Mozart and Mendelssohn are surely two of the most popular composers for both the seasoned elitist and the irregular classical listener; tonight’s offering of time-tested favourites wrapped in the summer breeze of familiarity, coupled with the rare and exciting prospect of hearing Mendelssohn’s complete incidental music for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was likely to be a draw – and it w

The 2013 Britten centenary celebrations are now well under way with every major and minor musical institution, British and foreign, scheduling a broad range of works in honour of Britten’s birth.

The sea has been the inspiration for many concert works; Debussy’s La mer springs to mind immediately as perhaps the most popular, but in England during the first half of the 20th century nautical themes sustained an important presence. Amongst Delius’ Sea Drift, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Britten’s Four Sea Interludes sits Frank Bridge’s short and splendid suite The Sea.

Assembling tonight in Leeds Town Hall for a programme of English and American scores by Adams, Britten and Holst, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, directed by John Wilson, presented three fiendishly difficult works.

Since its inception in 1972 the Royal Northern College of Music has gained a reputation for excellence in the field of opera, having often staged extraordinary productions of repertoire familiar and forgotten.

Manchester’s musical history is extensive and impressive. Ranging from the founding of the UK’s oldest professional symphony orchestra (the Hallé – founded in tandem with the UK’s oldest and largest specialist music shop, Forsyth Bros. Ltd.

The solo violin repertoire is rich; from Bach to Bartók and beyond, the instrument has an enviable catalogue of impressive works. Prokofiev’s principal contribution to the solo violinist’s career consists of two sonatas (one also favoured amongst flautists), and two concerti. However, in 1947, Prokofiev was commissioned to write a piece for 20 or 30 talented student violinists playing in unison.

Professional performances of English operas are rare – they always have been – and it is presumably the 60th anniversary of The Pilgrim’s Progress specifically that has prompted this 2012 revival. It seems that without a significant anniversary to justify blowing the dust off a score, English operas tend to lie unheeded – the exception of course is Benjamin Britten.

Since the end of September, the Manchester concert scene has been in full swing; performances from the city’s native and visiting ensembles (orchestral and chamber) are all speeding towards a diverse and exciting season of familiar and forgotten works in chamber recitals, orchestral concerts and opera. One especially well-represented composer this season is Finland’s Jean Sibelius.

The music of Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius (1862–1934) is a love or hate affair. Whether you bask in the romantic lushness of his godless and nature-influenced ramblings, or find yourself drowning in a poor-quality school soup consisting of unappetisingly vague harmonic shifts, he is a composer that inspires passionate discussion.

One hundred and sixteen years ago, on 7 March 1896, Gilbert and Sullivan presented before the London public their final Savoy Opera: The Grand Duke.

Few 19th-century operettas exceed HMS Pinafore in style, wit and musical accomplishment; the principal candidates in English are The Mikado, and The Yeoman of the Guard, plus a few offerings by Lionel Monckton and Sidney Jones. Any foreign contender would surely be one of the champagne-soaked Viennese delicacies by the Strauss family or Carl Zeller.

A second scorching day in Hereford at the Three Choirs Festival concluded with another excellent concert.Before an audience that filled the cathedral to capacity, the Philharmonia Orchestra assembled on the platform and a warm welcome was given to conductor Peter Nardone.The concert opened with John Ireland’s evocative orchestral opus A London Overture.

Among the fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, it must be acknowledged that there are glimpses of weakness. The Gondoliers maintains one of Gilbert’s typically insane plots, which is best described as ‘topsy-turvy’ until the final scene, when order is restored. Likewise the music is far from Sullivan’s strongest score, but there are moments of inspired vocal writing.

The Gilbert and Sullivan canon perhaps achieves the pinnacle of its greatness with The Mikado. The ninth of their fourteen collaborations, it was premièred at the Savoy Theatre in 1885 and the gentlemen were rewarded with an extraordinary success.

Sir George Dyson (1883–1964) is now principally remembered by the generations of grown-up schoolchildren who sang his many songs for educational use, and more recently by church choirs and congregations for his religious music.

Henry James’ chilling 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw is a curious story and might be considered a gift to any composer as the basis of an extraordinarily sinister opera libretto.

Buxton, a small spa town in Derbyshire, has been home to one of the most imaginative and important festivals in Britain for over thirty years.

Elgar’s oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906) are the manifestation of a fascination that he had held since his childhood in Worcester.

Whatever your theological convictions, Christian or otherwise, it is doubtless that the collective elements that make up The Dream of Gerontius contribute to one of the greatest works of both English literature and the English Choral Tradition.

Why attend a concert performance of an opera? What is the point without the action and the spectacle collectively resulting in, hopefully, the awe-inspiring whole? In answer to this I should like to suggest that concert performances of opera are the perfect opportunity to really ‘get under the skin’ of a work, for two principal reasons.

Once upon a time it was standard practice that most public concerts in Britain would be preceded by the National Anthem; last night in Huddersfield Town Hall a great many members of the audience were caught off guard when a brass and percussion fanfare struck up into the loudest, most ecstatic rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’ I have ever heard.

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra are at once to be commended for colourful programming, and this evening’s concert was an excellent example of their facility in imagination. Tonight the audience dreamed with Debussy, swung with Gershwin, were lulled and bathed in the Spanish sunshine by Granados and, finally, blown from their seats and into the streets with Mussorgsky.