Stuart Skelton’s visceral Peter Grimes is matched by a strong cast with thrilling playing and singing from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus grow in stature through an evening which provides a good introduction to the virtues of Dvořák’s seldom-played large scale choral work.
Frank Martin’s Le Vin herbé is as anti-Wagnerian a work as you could imagine. It is also the odd one out in Welsh National Opera’s “Love’s Poisoned Chalice” spring season.
Superb Schubert followed by some altogether more mysterious and disorientating Mahler makes for a Sunday night treat at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Josep Pons.
“If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” There was certainly plenty of Shakespeare-inspired music on the bill for the London Philharmonic Orchestra's celebration of The Bard.
A successful concert hall Rake's Progress at the Edinburgh International Festival with an impressively strong cast of singers, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Conservatoire Voices under Sir Andrew Davis.
The Rape of Lucretia may be something of a problem piece, but Fiona Shaw's production is an excellent piece of ensemble theatre set around some very fine performances of music of rare beauty.
A dark and minimalist staging doesn't quite fire Wagner's Flying Dutchman into life at the Royal Opera House, despite worthy performances from Bryn Terfel, Adrianne Pieczonka and others under the direction of Andris Nelsons.
It’s so good to hear Tippett’s ravishing opera, The Midsummer Marriage, performed in full at the Proms, particularly in Britten’s centenary year. Tippet’s work is like an antidote to Britten’s drier, more literal operatic style – so overflowing with warmth, colour and hope.
The last night of the Bristol Proms was experimental. A full house at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre was greeted by artistic director Tom Morris to introduce this semi-staged version of Handel’s Messiah – last performed in the venue in 1782, when it was too sacrilegious for churches.
RSNO concerts begin, for me and around 100 others, with the pre-concert talk. I'm especially glad of these when new to a work, such as Mendelssohn’s 1846 Elijah. A talk by those who have prepared the music for us adds something to even the most extensive “presearch”.
Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s contribution to the Britten 100 celebrations, was supposed to have been conducted by Sir Colin Davis; it was instead dedicated to his memory following his death last Sunday.
Willy Decker’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, which originated at La Monnaie in Brussels in 1994 and was revived at London’s Royal Opera House in 2004 and 2011, has now reached Tokyo. The work opened the new season of the New National Theatre Tokyo, the capital’s main opera house, currently celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Young man spurns the love of a good woman. Time passes. Man realises the error of his ways, but it is too late. It's not exactly the most taxing of plot lines, but in Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin turned it into a masterpiece.
The final concert of the RSNO’s 2010-11 Usher Hall season was a journey from John Adams’ reflection on the tragedy of 11th September 2001 to Beethoven’s joyful statement of brotherhood in his Symphony No. 9. John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to mark the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
This evening’s programme showed us two aspects of Prokofiev’s output – his serious concert works for the stage and on the other hand his more populist music composed for film. Both were highly exciting, colourful works, and both typical of Prokofiev in different ways.The First Violin Concerto was a curious mixture of the ethereal and rustic.
Le samedi 30 janvier 2016, La Ville Morte de Korngold était programmée à l'Auditorium de la Maison de la Radio. Marzena Diakun dirigeait un Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France en pleine forme et une distribution vocale dominée par Camilla Nylund. Un délice.
