Sir Roger Norrington and a strong cast joined a Baroque-style London Philharmonic Orchestra in a highly accomplished Dido and Aeneas, preceded by Handel’s clean and stately Water Music.
It was especially effective to hear the line “One ever hangs where shelled roads part” with the vast hanging crucifix with its portrait of Christ dominating the scene behind.
Thomas Dausgaard, Seattle Symphony’s Music Director Designate, arrived in town to lead the orchestra and its chorus in an impassioned account of Kullervo, the rarely heard Sibelius epic.
BBCSSO with Thomas Dausgaard, the Lund Male Choir and soloists gave a thrilling performance of Sibelius’ Kullervo with Finnish folk musicians joining the forces.
John Butt and the Dunedin Consort closed the Oslo Church Music Festival with fine performances of CPE Bach and Mozart, even though the concert didn't prove quite as innovative as advertised.
Saint-Saens' “Dance of Death” and Orff's gaudy, medieval satire framed a stunningly-realised new commission from Guy Barker, with Alison Balsom playing against type.
I’m sure before long I’ll see a production of Daisy Pulls It Off that opens with modern day soldiers charging onto the stage waving rifles about – it seems to be the first image directors reach for these days.
Despite a relatively easy-to-follow storyline, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro is an opera that is hard to pull off entirely successfully. Musically, it requires enormous vigour from both cast and orchestra; dramatically, this opera buffa demands strong acting skills in order to eke out its moments of farce.
Otto Nicolai’s very German take on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor was a big hit in the mid-19th century but has been infrequently performed since then, largely because Verdi’s version, Falstaff, completely eclipsed it.
