Chess, leaves and eagles: New works at the Purcell Room

By Paul Kilbey, 21 May 2013

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Reviewed at Purcell Room, London on 15 May 2013

Britten, Canticle III, Still Falls the Rain, for tenor, horn and piano, Op.55

Kendall, On the chequer'd field array'd for piano (world première)

Bray, Yellow leaves, for soprano and piano (world première)

Davies, Sea Eagle

Claire Booth, Soprano

Nicky Spence, Tenor

Richard Watkins, French horn

Andrew Matthews-Owen, Piano

Opera by committee: Opera Philadelphia premieres Complications in Sue

Cameron Kelsall, 4th February

Opera Philadelphia commissions ten composers to tell the story of an ordinary woman's idiosyncratic march from cradle to tomb.

****1

Karpman’s opera Balls tells a great story, but overshoots the line

David Karlin, 20th November

An entertaining portrayal of the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs is marred by ham-fisted amplification.

**111

Hrůša’s ambitious but uneven Night at Covent Garden

Mengguang Huang, 20th September

Dvořák’s rarely heard oratorio The Spectre’s Bride fails to ignite, leaving a performance caught uneasily between respect and restlessness.

***11

ENO, BBC join forces in stunning Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Mark Valencia, 1st September

David Pountney's vernacular translation and Ruth Knight's vivid staging lent a thrilling immediacy to Shostakovich's chilling opera.

*****

Glyndebourne revives Michieletto’s Kátya Kabanová

Mark Valencia, 3rd August

Damiano Michieletto’s production of Janáček’s opera breaks a key tenet of high-concept opera: where it should reveal, it obfuscates.

***11

Redemption Song: Jenůfa triumph signals a bright future for Hrůsa

Eleanor Knight, 15th January

Corinne Winters is phenomenal as the self-possessed Jenůfa in The Royal Opera's revival of Claus Guth's powerful staging.

*****

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Paul Kilbey

Paul was Reviews Editor at Bachtrack from 2012 to February 2014. He has written on music and culture for publications including Culture Wars, the Huffington Post, the Independent and the Guardian. He holds BA and MPhil degrees in music from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and is particularly passionate about contemporary music of all types. His website is here.