The Academy of Ancient Music opens its 40th anniversary season with brilliantly staged L'Orfeo

By Nahoko Gotoh, 02 October 2013

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Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 28 September 2013

Monteverdi, L'Orfeo (Orpheus), SV318

Academy of Ancient Music

Choir of the AAM

Richard Egarr, Conductor

John Mark Ainsley, Orfeo

Sophie Bevan, Euridice

Daniela Lehner, La musica, La speranza

Paul Gerimon, Caronte

Thomas Hobbs, Apollo

Christopher Lowrey, Countertenor

Dawid Kimberg, Baritone

Ed Lyon excels in Monteverdi’s Songs of Love and War

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Tenor Ed Lyon fulfils a long-held ambition to sing Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals, conducted by his former teacher, Laurence Cummings at Milton Court.

*****

Strong team for a Good Friday St John Passion

Roy Westbrook, 18th April

The greatest music of the 18th century – no arguments, please – is given a fine reading at London's Barbican.

****1

Academy of Ancient Music delivers a majestic Messiah

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Laurence Cummings and the AAM serve up Messiah-shaped serenity at the Barbican.

****1

Actéon and Pygmalion: three transformations for the price of two

Roy Westbrook, 9th October

Ovid’s Metamorphoses makes an ideal curtain-raiser to the Academy of Ancient Music's new season, with works by Charpentier and Rameau conducted by Laurence Cummings... who also sings!

****1

Academy of Ancient Music are inspired in Handel's Orlando

Roy Westbrook, 30th June

“A concert performance with neither scenery nor action would be a sacrilege,” wrote one authority of this opera. Nobody told the Academy of Ancient Music...

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Sons of England: a fresh look at English Baroque from the AAM

Susannah Moody, 30th May

Countertenor Reginald Mobley and the Academy of Ancient Music shine in an alternative history of English Baroque, with a new work by Roderick Williams.

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Nahoko Gotoh

Nahoko is a UK-based Japanese music journalist with a background in musicology. She writes regularly for various Japanese media including Ongaku no tomo and Mostly Classic magazines.