| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 4-Apr-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | The British in Egypt: McVicar's Giulio Cesare triumphs at the Met |
 When David McVicar’s Giulio Cesare opened at Glyndebourne in 2005, international attention was focused on the breakdown of Iraq into a civil war that its American and British occupiers couldn’t control. A production offered by a formidably aristocratic opera house in East Sussex – with its champagne-and-strawberries picnics, enforced black tie, and cows at pasture – could only ever be quaint in its political indictments.Read full review... | |
| 13-Dec-2012 Howard Assembly Room | Alice Coote and Julius Drake perform Winterreise in Leeds |
 By adding Schubert’s Winterresie to her repertoire Alice Coote joins a long tradition of female interpreters including the likes of Christine Schäfer and her own mentor Brigitte Fassbaender. In this performance of Schubert’s great song cycle, however, it was the piano playing of Julius Drake, rather than Coote’s singing, which penetrated to the heart of the work.
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| 22-Nov-2012 Wigmore Hall | Britten Sinfonia and Alice Coote celebrate Britten's birthday in style at Wigmore Hall |
 22 November 2012 would have been Benjamin Britten’s 99th birthday. Wigmore Hall marked the occasion with the first concert in a series of nine events in November and December. However, rather than focusing exclusively on Britten’s music, it built towards the climax that saw Britten’s angst-ridden late masterpiece Phaedra searingly performed.
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| 26-Oct-2012 Holywell Music Room | French song from Alice Coote and Julius Drake at the Oxford Lieder Festival |
 Drawing names such as Sarah Connolly and Dame Felicity Lott to the dreaming spires, the Oxford Lieder Festival has defined itself as a leading musical exponent on an international level. It was fitting, then, that Alice Coote and Julius Drake should open the final weekend of the eleventh festival. Ranging from the romanticism of Berlioz to Poulenc’s sardonic humour, the recital encompassed an eclectic mix of French repertoire from the late 19th century into the early 20th. I was interested to see what Coote and Drake would bring to the programme.
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