 Opera news: Villazon, Voigt, Kaufmann in Opera national de Paris 08-09 season The Opéra national de Paris has announced details of its 2008-09 season, which will feature appearances by opera stars Rolando Villazon, Waltraud Meier, Jonas Kaufmann, Deborah Voigt, Ramon Vargas, Susan Graham, Joyce DiDonato and Violeta Urmana. The season proper starts on 24 September... more> |
 Opera News: English National Opera announces 2008/09 season Details have been announced for the opening productions of ENO 's 2008-09 season, providing a broad range of repertoire including new productions of Cav and Pag, Handel's Partenope and, in his anniversary year, Vaughan Williams's rarely-heard Riders to the Sea. Peter Rose will take on the title role in Boris Godunov ... more> |
 Feature: Contemporary Opera in London: Three Premieres, a New Staging and a Revival For Londoners committed to the cause of contemporary music, and for those interested in adventurous productions of fresh and innovative operatic works, the coming months should prove something of a boon. Starting in March and concluding in May, this de facto mini-festival of contemporary opera... more> |
 Classical News: Proms 2008 announced Details have been announced for BBC Proms 2008 which run from 18 July to 13 September. It is the 114th season and the first under the festival's new Director, Roger Wright. The headlines are likely to draw attention to the Doctor Who Prom on the morning of 27 July, which features music from the TV series, and is followed in the evening... more> |
 CD COMPETITION: Win a copy of Nigel Kennedy's new Beethoven CD! In our third competition of the month, we're offering readers the chance to win one of five copies of Nigel Kennedy's new recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Mozart's Fourth Concerto, the artist's first Mozart recording. Answer a simple question to win his unusual and controversial new CD. more> |
 CD COMPETITION: Win a signed copy of Rare Verdi, the new CD from Johan Reuter! In our second competition of the month, we're offering readers the chance to win one of five signed copies of Rare Verdi, the exciting new CD from Danish bass-baritone Johan Reuter which will be released on 31 March 2008 on the. Answer a simple question to win his new CD. more> |
 News: Hvorostovsky and the Mariinsky Opera headline the Edinburgh Festival 08 The world-famous Edinburgh International Festival has announced details of its summer 2008 season, which will feature performances by the Mariinsky and Scottish Opera companies, concerts with Karita Mattila and Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the usual range of ballet and theatre events. more> |
 News: Operatic highlights with De Niese, Evans and Coote at Barbican's Mostly Mozart Festival The Barbican Hall has announced details of this summer's annual Mostly Mozart Festival, which is this year rich with operatic treasures. Rebecca Evans, Danielle de Niese, Alice Coote and Toby Spence are just some of the big names which the major venue has attracted for the summer concert season. more> |
 CD competition: WIN Copies of Karl Jenkins' new Stabat Mater EMI Classics have recorded a major new work by Karl Jenkins, the Stabat Mater, and to celebrate we are giving you the opportunity to win your very own copy! The work will be released to coincide with the world premiere performance on Saturday 15 March 2008 in Liverpool Cathedral, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. more> |
 Opera news: Harteros replaces Stemme in ROH Boccanegra Following the announcement that Swedish soprano Nina Stemme will no longer be making her role debut as Amelia Grimaldi in the Royal Opera's revival of Simon Boccanegra in May 2008, the company has now confirmed that she will be replaced by German soprano Anja Harteros for most of the performances, with Austrian... more> |
 Preview: Baden-Baden's Festspielhaus If Rome is the Eternal City, Baden-Baden is the Eternal Spa. During this season, Baden-Badeners can witness the Glyndebourne Tristan as well as new productions of The Flying Dutchman, Fidelio (a co-production with the Teatro Real Madrid under Claudio Abbado) and the new Mariinsky Tannhäuser; Cecilia Bartoli in La sonnambula... more> |
 News: Royal Festival Hall's 2008-09 season The Southbank Centre has announced the line-up for its 2008-09 Shell Classic International Series.Featuring several of the world's greatest orchestras, conductors and soloists, it will see the Royal Festival Hall play host to mouth-watering visits from the Vienna Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta... more> |
 News: Philharmonia's 2008-09 season The Philharmonia Orchestra has announced initial details of the 160 concerts which make up its 08-09 season – Esa-Pekka Salonen's first as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor. There's a project based around the music and culture of Vienna between 1895-1935, and the return of Muti, Schiff, Mackerras & Dohnányi, plus Alfred Brendel's last-ever UK concerts. more> |
 News: LSO announces 2008-09 season Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev will lead ten concerts of music by composers who went into exile from their homeland, including Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Bartók, plus Act III of Parsifal with René Pape, while President Sir Colin Davis will return for seven programmes including the Verdi Requiem and a series focusing on British music of the 1930s. more> |
 News: ROH Young Artists' Summer Concert; BP Big Screens; Aronica in ROH Boheme; Copley stages ENO Widow; Buxton Festival The Royal Opera House has unveiled details of the annual summer concert given by the talented professionals on its Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. In their most ambitious concert yet, the Young Artists will perform two fully-staged extracts. more> |
 News: LPO announces 2008-09 season Tchaikovsky is the order of the day as Vladimir Jurowski slides into his second season as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The LPO will present a feast of the Russian composer's lesser-known works under the heading Revealing Tchaikovsky. World premieres and opera in concert form the backbone of the rest of the season more> |
 News: ITV's South Bank Show to profile Lang Lang Chinese Pianist Lang Lang is to be profiled on ITV1's flagship arts programme, the South Bank Show. The pianist is already a mega-star in his native China as well as a Unicef Ambassador and 'global ambassador' for Rolex and Audi. He records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon and is credited with bringing classical... more> |
 News: BBCSO cancels Composer Weekends in favour of Composer Days The BBC Symphony Orchestra has decided to end its annual January Composer Weekend format after 21 years of highly-acclaimed programmes celebrating the work of a single composer over a weekend packed full of events. Today the orchestra announced that the festival of the music of Judith Weir which took place... more> |
 Casting news: Anna Netrebko cancels two performances of ROH Traviata After a thrilling performance as Violetta on the first night of Covent Garden's current revival of Verdi's La traviata, Anna Netrebko has had to withdraw from the third performance of the run tomorrow, Sunday 20 January 2008. She also withdrew from last Thursday's performance, after a bronchial infection from which... more> |
 Casting news: Nina Stemme out of ROH Boccanegra; Kristin Chenoweth in ENO Candide The Royal Opera has fallen victim to yet another star singer withdrawing from a major production. Nina Stemme will not now perform the role of Amelia Grimaldi in the 2008 revival of Simon Boccanegra. Tony Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth will sing Cunegonde in ENO's production of Bernstein's Candide. more> |
 News: WNO announces 2008-09 season International opera stars Rebecca Evans, Dennis O'Neill, Ann Murray, Sally Burgess, Amanda Roocroft and Rosemary Joshua will all appear in Welsh National Opera's 2008-09 season. Sir Charles Mackerras will also return to conduct a one-off concert performance of Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto. The season is characterised by strongly-cast... more> |
 Opera news: Barbican joins Met Opera HD Broadcasts scheme London's Barbican Cinema has announced that it will broadcast six of the Metropolitan Opera's productions live from New York. Audiences in London will be able to experience a range of productions starring world-class singers, many of them in roles we might not normally get to see them perform at Covent Garden. more> |
 Feature: January 2008 Concerts Preview With the Christmas rush out of the way, it's time to start thinking of how to fill those long January nights. The wealth of concerts on offer can be bewildering, with as many as five different venues presenting a diverse range of programmes on any one night. The temptation may be to stick to safe bets such as Gergiev's Mahler cycle.... more> |
 Top 12 Operas and Review of the Year 2007 The 61 performances of operas reviewed in these pages since the creation of Musical Criticism are a salutary reminder of the breadth of productions staged every year in the UK. For me, the reports in the national press about the demise of ENO and the consistency of the ROH... more> |
 Movie review: Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute I am all in favour of the idea of making films of operas. So many of them seem to invite cinematic treatment, since they frequently contain stage directions which are impossible to realise convincingly in the theatre. The Magic Flute has its fair share of fantastical goings on, so I was very excited at the prospect of a film version. more> |
 Barbican: Great Performers 2008 The first details have been released for the Barbican's flagship Great Performers series for the 2008-2009 season. In a press reception before the first concert of Esa-Pekka Salonen's Sibelius cycle – a highlight of this season's series – the Barbican's Managing Director, Nicholas Kenyon, and Head of Music, Robert van Leer, seemed impatient to reveal the delights they... more> |
 Top 20 Concerts and Review of the Year 2007 After only ten months of existence, MusicalCriticism.com has covered nearly a hundred concerts in London, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh and beyond, and if nothing else this collection of reviews is an ample reminder of the vast amount of high-quality music making available to us in the UK. Our experiences have varied... more> |
 Top 12 Recordings and Review of the Record Industry in 2007 Each year there's more gloom-mongering yet each year music-lovers remain spoilt for choice in terms of recordings. Opera fans in particular have been enjoying the fruits of several unusual and exciting projects. Naxos continue with their issues of Rossini operas, the universally acclaimed Vivaldi series on Naďve... more> |
 Recordings news: Deutsche Grammophon launches DG Web Shop As record companies look for ways to exploit technology and reach a larger audience, one of the classical world's oldest and most established players, Deutsche Grammophon (part of Universal Classics) has unveiled their DG Web Shop offering CD quality downloads of 'the majority of their huge catalogue.' more> |
 Cast change: Christopher Maltman withdraws from ROH Ariadne Hot on the heels of the announcement of Elina Garanca's departure from The Royal Opera's forthcoming production of Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos has come the news that British baritone Christopher Maltman will no longer appear as Harlequin in the same production. He will be replaced by Markus Werba. more> |
 Feature: Why is the Wigmore Hall at the forefront of London's classical music scene? The Wigmore Hall has retained its distinction as the UK's premier venue for smaller scale concerts ever since it opened as The Bechstein Hall in 1901. A change in ownership during the First World War saw it renamed and reopened in 1917 in its current guise, but the interior is essentially unchanged. more> |
 Cast change: Elina Garanca withdraws from ROH Ariadne Yet another high-profile singer has pulled out of a Royal Opera House production. Elina Garanca, the glamorous Latvian mezzo whose performance in the company's recent revival of Cosi fan tutte won high plaudits all round, will not be singing in the June 2008 revival of Ariadne auf Naxos. She will be replaced by Kristine Jepson. more> |
 News: Star singers in Chelsea Opera Group's 2007-08 season A number of excellent singers, including Majella Cullagh, Sally Silver, Nelly Miricioiu and Liora Grodnikaite, will appear in this year's performances of Italian bel canto and Romantic French rarities by the Chelsea Opera Group. The season opens this coming Saturday with Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, a work which was lost for many years... more> |
 'I hope Five:15 will help to make opera an important energy in Scotland' says Scottish Opera When Alex Reedijk, General Director of Scottish Opera, announced his plans for the 2007-08 season, the big news was the commissioning of Five:15, 5 new 15-minute operas by leading Scottish composers and writers who are new to the art form, including Ian Rankin and Craig Armstong. more> |
 News: Mackerras appointed Honorary Member of the Guildhall At an awards ceremony in Central London yesterday, The Guildhall School of Music & Drama appointed the great opera and orchestral conductor Sir Charles Mackerras an Honorary Member of the School. In addition, ten further distinguished professors and past students of the School have been made Fellows. more> |
 Feature: Opera on the Big Screen Two leading opera houses have taken the initiative to bring opera out of the theatre and into the cinema in the coming months. The Met's 'HD Live' scheme premiered in the 2006-07 season and was so successful that they have increased the number of relays this year. Hot on their heels, Glyndebourne Festival Opera has hatched a deal with Odeon to broadcast... more> |
 News: Opera Holland Park Announces 2008 Productions Opera Holland Park has announced the six operas which will make up its summer 2008 season. According to the London-based summer opera company, Verdi's Il trovatore, Donizetti's La Fille du régiment, Mozart's The Magic Flute, Puccini's Tosca, Ponchielli's La Gioconda and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta will make up the season. more> |
 Feature: The ROH's Student Rheingold It has to be one of the boldest and most admirable initiatives in the recent history of the Royal Opera, then, to put on a performance of Das Rheingold exclusively for students. Tickets for last Friday's performance were sold at a fraction of their normal cost (top price tickets, normally costing over Ł200, were made available for under forty pounds). more> |
 Review round-up: ENO's Carmen 'Free your mind of every picture-postcard image of Bizet's Carmen.' So opens Edward Seckerson's review for the The Independent. He could be talking directly to the critics of the other national broadsheets, whose reviews displayed a bewildering range of disagreements regarding the key performances and the designs, but all felt excluded by Potter's production. more> |
 Cast change: Korchak and Secco replace Villazon at the ROH The Royal Opera House has announced who will step into Rolando Villazón's shoes in an important new production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore after the tenor cancelled all his autumn engagements for health reasons. Two young singers will now share the role of Nemorino. more> |
 Opera news: Glyndebourne Festival Opera announces the 2008 Season Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the original and most prestigious summer opera festival in the UK, has announced details of its productions and some casting information for next year's season, which runs from 18 May-31 August. A world premiere, two new productions and three revivals... more> |
 Classical Feature: Sir Colin Davis at 80 A champion of the works of Mozart, Berlioz, Sibelius and Tippett, Sir Colin has brought many previously neglected works back into the repertoire, while his substantial discography includes many recordings that are considered benchmarks against which few others compete. He has held many of the major conducting jobs this country has to offer. more> |
 Opera Feature: Opera North 2007-08 Preview Following on from another season in which the company has received almost unanimously positive reviews, Opera North has announced its plans for the 2007-8 season and beyond. And in spite of the Government's delayed decision as to the future financing of the arts in this country, the company's plans include five new productions. more> |
 Feature: Luciano Pavarotti dies aged 71 Amongst the most iconic figures of the twentieth century, Luciano Pavarotti will probably be remembered by the majority of people for his concert appearances in outdoor arenas. He entertained the crowds with arias such as 'Nessun dorma' and Neapolitan songs such as 'Torna a Surriento'. But what the world has lost through his death at 71... more> |
 Cast change: Rolando Villazon at the ROH Only a week after The Royal Opera announced that Bryn Terfel has withdrawn from the new production of The Ring Cycle, a further press release has just announced that tenor Rolando Villazón has similarly withdrawn from all performances of the company's new production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. more> |
 Feature: BBC Proms 2007 retrospective And so, the world's greatest classical music festival, the 113th season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC (to give it its full title!), is over, at least for this year. It marks the end, too, for Nicholas Kenyon, who after twelve years as Director of the BBC Proms leaves the BBC for the Barbican Centre, where he will replace Sir John Tusa. more> |
 Scottish Opera: 2007-08 the beleaguered company's fortunes have been turning round. Last year, a highly-acclaimed new production of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier by David McVicar became one of the big events of the opera calendar, and will be seen next year at English National Opera. Their current tour includes Lucia di Lammermoor and Madama Butterfly, both of which have been extremely... more> |
 ENO: 2007-08 For a company that is supposedly on the brink of collapse (though haven't we been hearing that for years now?), English National Opera's 2007-8 season shows remarkable artistic confidence and imagination. Every production without exception features at least one singer of international importance; and there are 11 new productions... more> |
 Royal Opera: 2007-08 An important new account of the history of music written and presented by one of Britain's most respected broadcasters is the focus of this special competition. The Making of Music shows the BBC at its best, devoting significant airtime to this important project. more> |
 LSO: 2007-08 After more than a decade as Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis recently became their President, with Russian maestro Valery Gergiev taking charge in his place. Gergiev has inherited the LSO in top condition and it's clear from his plans for his first complete season as Principal Conductor that he intends to cherish and sustain their history and musicianship. more> |
 South Bank Centre: 2007-08 Perhaps the most important event for classical music enthusiasts this year is the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall after a two-year refurbishment. Time will tell whether the new facilities and reconfigured acoustics are up to scratch but there's no doubt that the programming for the new season is thoroughly exciting. more> |
 Barbican: Great Performers 2007 Building on an exciting mix of music and artists in the current season, the Barbican's Great Performers Series 2007-8 once more brings together the best of the world's singers, conductors and musicians in an eclectic feast of great music. As ever, some of the most renowned singers are appearing in a number of programmes. more> |
 Andras Schiff: Bartok Festival 2007 The forthcoming Bartók mini-festival at the Queen Elisabeth Hall (5, 7 and 10 June) is likely to be of an exceptional artistic quality and it provides an unusual programme. All six of Bartók's string quartets will be performed; each concert will feature two of them (at the beginning and at the end of the concert respectively)... more> |
 Birthday Honours 2007 Mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright and tenor Stuart Burrows have been awarded the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to music. In addition, the early music soprano Emma Kirkby has been appointed Dame of the British Empire. One of Britain's most beloved singers, Rosalind Plowright has graced the stages of all the world's great opera houses. more> |
 Opera Holland Park: 2007 It's business as usual this summer for Opera Holland Park - which means a selection of six diverse operas, both well-loved and almost unknown, performed in tranquil surroundings. The good news is that the old tent that used to house the productions is to be replaced by a new, larger canopy, which will provide an even better environment for performers and audiences alike. more> |
 Edinburgh Festival: 2007 The new director of the Edinburgh International Festival, Jonathan Mills, has just announced his plans for this year's programme. From the classical music point of view it promises to be as ambitious and varied an event as is traditional, marrying musical works to their ideal performers in many cases. Running from 10 August to 2 September 2007, the Festival starts two days earlier than has normally been the case in the past. more> |
 Royal Opera House buys Opus Arte The Royal Opera House has long wanted to consolidate its transmission of productions to a wider audience by releasing more recordings by the Royal Ballet and Opera companies, so it ought to come as little surprise that the House has today announced the purchase of the leading DVD label, Opus Arte UK Ltd, in order to do just that. more> |
 Cast changes: Thais/Benvenuto Cellini Concert performances of two operas in London have just announced late artist replacements. At the Royal Opera House, baritone Thomas Hampson has withdrawn from the role of Athanaël in next week's sold-out concert performances of Massenet's Thaďs. Simone Alberghini will now play Athanaël. Alberghini has appeared in the role in Louisville, USA. more> |
 Cardiff Singer of the World: 2007 Twenty-three-year-old bass-baritone Shen Yang from China was crowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007 last night after a nail-biting final. The youngest competitor, Yang performed Banquo's aria from Verdi's Macbeth, Mozart's 'Mentre ti lascio, o figlia' (K. 513) and Aleko's cavatina from Rachmaninov's Aleko. more> |
 The Making of Music: competition An important new account of the history of music written and presented by one of Britain's most respected broadcasters is the focus of this special competition. The Making of Music shows the BBC at its best, devoting significant airtime to this important project. more> |
 BBC Proms 2007: preview There are a number of very high-profile conductors and symphony orchestras appearing throughout the summer. Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of Santa Cecilia, Rome, in Rossini's Stabat Mater on 16 July; Kurt Masur conducts both his orchestras - the London Philharmonic and Orchestre National de France... more> |
 Royal Opera Ring Cycle Cast Changes Bryn Terfel, one of the most beloved singers of today, has withdrawn from The Royal Opera's production of the Ring Cycle in Autumn 2007, the company announced today. He will be replaced in the role of Wotan/Wanderer by Sir John Tomlinson, widely acclaimed for his assumptions of the role around the world... more> |
Classical and Opera: News and Features
Opera news: The Royal Opera House announces the 2008-09 Season at Covent Garden The Royal Opera has announced details of the 2008-09 season at London's Covent Garden. The new productions include Cavalli's La Calisto, Rossini's Matilde di Shabran with Juan Diego Florez, Hansel und Gretel with Angelika Kirchschlager, Korngold's Die todte Stadt with Gerald Finley, Wagner's Die fliegende Hollander with Bryn Terfel , a double bill of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Handel's Acis and Galatea, and Berg's Lulu. Roberto Alagna returns... more>