| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 22-Mar-2013 Mayflower | Welsh National Opera's Butterfly at the Mayflower, Southampton |
 and Cheryl Baker (Madam Butterfly) photo credit Jeni Clegg 33.jpg) 35 years and many revivals after it was first seen, the late Joachim Herz’s version of Madam Butterfly (“Madama” spelt without the “a” here) is still going. For WNO’s themed series of “Free Spirits”, Caroline Chaney took on the revival director’s mantle. The result was a reliable production lacking in originality but not in warmth. Puccini’s Butterfly, so much changed after is disastrous original première in 1904, has rightly found a place among the most popular operas in existence.Read full review... | |
| 16-Feb-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | Rigoletto in flashing neon lights at the Met in HD |
 Verdi’s Rigoletto is possessed of a truly tragic plot. A physically disabled jester keeps his innocent daughter locked up except for weekly church visits, a situation which she only lightly resists. Rigoletto believes a curse is to blame for his daughter being killed, although she only dies as a substitute for the man Rigoletto himself has arranged to be assassinated. It’s a tragic, sexist and uncomfortable story which belongs firmly in the 16th century.Read full review... | |
| 8-Feb-2013 University of Southampton: Turner Sims | The Academy of Ancient Music master Bach's Orchestral Suites in Southampton |
 Today it is thought that J.S. Bach’s chamber and ensemble music, including the four Orchestral Suites, date from his time in Leipzig from the 1720s onwards. When all the Orchestral Suites (BWV1066–1069) are put together, their inventive and varied nature is evident. The suites make great use of all ensemble instruments and incorporate a range of structures, as well as internal forms and dances.Read full review... | |
| 26-Jan-2013 CLF Art Cafe, Bussey Building | Dido and Aeneas, as told by Opera in Space |
 The name of experimental opera and theatre company Opera in Space refers to its aim of interacting with the spaces in which it performs (no, nothing to do with astronauts or sci-fi interpretations). The Bussey Building was the chosen space for its most recent operatic subject. Tucked away off Rye Lane in Peckham, it’s a gritty, eerie and somewhat bleak place – a world away from the major opera houses. Moving across three floors, with the audience often sat on the floor around the action, this building was the unorthodox setting for an appropriately unusual Dido and Aeneas.
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| 5-Jan-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | The Met in HD: Hymel is the hero in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens |
 It’s very difficult to write about Berlioz’s Les Troyens without mentioning its length. Tonight’s cinema screening of Fransesca Zambello’s lush production was billed at 341 minutes – that’s 5.6 hours. But beamed live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, those 5.6 hours entailed spectacular operatic entertainment. Several times larger than life, even the indulgent or unnecessarily long episodes (of which there are many) were engrossing.
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| 1-Nov-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Nicola Benedetti and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall |
 For those who like their orchestral music Romantic, strident and generally unrelenting, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert on 1 November was just the job. Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major, played by Nicola Benedetti, was sandwiched in between two emotionally charged pieces of Tchaikovksy as the RPO under Diego Matheuz played to a packed Royal Festival Hall.
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| 19-Oct-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Tippett and Wagner at the Barbican |
 Michael Tippett died 14 years ago but his diverse canon has been relatively underrepresented since, the pacifist A Child of Our Time being perhaps the exception. In tonight’s Barbican outing, it was surprising but refreshing to see his Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello, written in 1978–9, paired with Henk de Vlieger’s orchestral contraction of Wagner’s Ring cycle. The two mammoth works share the central concept of a journey but are otherwise rather different beasts.Read full review... | |
| 5-Oct-2012 Limehouse Town Hall | Madama Butterfly through her son's eyes: Finding Butterfly |
 The opera group The Wedding Collective describes Finding Butterfly as a “re-interpretation” of Puccini’s revered Madama Butterfly. Indeed, their version takes the heroine as the core of its plot – but this is a very different opera to Puccini’s. Set inside the old, peeling-painted and somewhat unloved Limehouse Town Hall, Butterfly’s tragedy is played out according to the diary her son discovers in 1948.
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| 16-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 46: Vaughan Williams Symphonies |
 Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies. Tonight, the middle three were lined up in an engrossing triptych, written by a mature composer who, in his sixties and seventies, showed no lack of energy. Andrew Manze, Associate Guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, took a relaxed approach to all three allowing the emotion written into the score to emerge unrepressed.
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| 10-Aug-2012 Riverside Studios: Studio 2, Hammersmith | Thrashing the Sea God – with feeling |
 The 2012 Tête à Tête opera festival is continuing on the bold course begun in 2007. Over halfway through its breathless 18-day schedule, it all seems as fresh as when it started. Its sixth season contains some typically outlandish operatic gems, most relatively brief in length. Plots have included physicists, sado-masochists, Mike the Headless Chicken and mermaids (not at the same time, of course).
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| 22-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 11: Les Troyens |
 David McVicar’s production of Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House last month was notable for several reasons. Firstly, stellar vocal performances from world-class lead singers; secondly, brilliant acting; thirdly, ravishing music; and lastly, a memorable set – including a curious giant horse and human made out of what looked like scrap weapons and tools.Read full review... | |
| 19-Jul-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Jette Parker Young Artists Tenth Anniversary celebrated at ROH: Il Viaggio a Reims |
 BARDA.jpg) The Tenth Anniversary of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Scheme is a landmark of no small size. This summer performance brought back some of the best singers it has produced for a semi-staged rendition of Rossini’s one-act 1825 opera Il Viaggio a Reims. It was a celebratory display of virtuoso held together with a generous dose of self-indulgence.
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| 26-Jun-2012 The London Coliseum | Dr Dee at ENO |
 Fact is, they say, stranger than fiction. Damon Albarn’s latest foray onto the operatic stage certainly makes strange the true-life story of Elizabethan intellectual and philosopher John Dee. With Albarn overseeing the altercations between Elizabethan realms and forbidden mystical realms, not to mention numerous giant expanding books, Dr Dee, his latest project from on high, shapes up as theatrically stunning but musically uneven.
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| 9-Jun-2012 Christ Church, Spitalfields | The Sixteen bring An Immortal Legacy to Spitalfields Festival |
 by Mark Harrison - Copy.jpg) The Sixteen’s three appearances in the line-up for this year’s Spitalfields Music Festival showcase the breadth of their repertoire. On June 15 and 16, they will premiere Alan Roth’s new musical setting of Beckett monologues, Old Earth. First, on June 9, was something altogether more familiar. Tonight’s ‘ Immortal Legacy’ encompassed some gems of English 16th century polyphony and sacred music, along with both profound and exciting pieces by giants of contemporary British music.Read full review... | |
| 20-May-2012 LSO St Lukes | Trio Mediaeval at LSO St Luke's |
CF-Wesenberg_kolonihaven.no.jpg) The voices of Trio Mediaeval take you by surprise. Essentially, they take French, English and Norwegian polyphony and give it an electronically amplified, spaced-out twist. Much of Norway’s early musical history is unknown, the largely Christian folk tradition passed down orally rather than in writing, although monasteries from the 12th century onwards played a large role. On tour around the UK in May, they have still to perform at the Sage Gateshead and Manchester’s Victoria Baths.Read full review... | |
| 21-Mar-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | James MacMillan and Guildhall Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican |
 With countless accolades in recent years, and his chamber opera Clemency nominated for Best New Opera Production in this year’s Olivier Awards, James MacMillan continues to enjoy a place as one of Britain’s most prestigious living composers – not that this appeared to intimidate the young but highly capable throngs of the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, whom he conducted on Wednesday evening. Coached by LSO players as part of the LINK Alliance scheme, they graced the Barbican with a generally stunning delivery of an equally stunning programme.Read full review... | |
| 9-Feb-2012 Fairfield, Ashcroft Theatre | Thelma makes her Debut with Surrey Opera |
 It had lain in the archives of the British Library since around 1986. Now, rediscovered by a PhD student and transcribed by Stephen Anthony-Brown, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s opera Thelma has at last received its world première in the capable hands of Surrey Opera.
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| 6-Jan-2012 Kings Place: Hall One | From Bridge to Vaughan Williams: The Orchestra of St John's at Kings Place |
 Frank Bridge, his pupil Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams: three composers defined by their role in steering English music into the twentieth century. With Britten’s centenary approaching in 2013, Kings Place’s two-concert series of English string music was a timely reminder of the musical imagination that flourished in this country at the turn of the twentieth century. Tonight’s selection – arguably too brief by a piece or two – reminded us of the brooding sensitivities of their music and the folk roots upon which all three men drew.
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| 24-Nov-2011 Kings Place: Hall One | 50 Years of Minimalism at King's Place: Dawn |
 Sometimes it seemed as though the sun would never set on Dawn. At nearly three hours long, it made for a blockbuster opening to the '50 Years of Minimalism' festival. Thankfully, the Labèque sisters, a rock ensemble, electronic keyboard and the obligatory tape machine on stage were brilliant company for the whole, overlong affair.
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| 4-Nov-2011 Royal Opera House: Linbury Studio Theatre | Heart of Darkness | Royal Opera House |
 4.jpg) Originally penned by Joseph Conrad in 1903, Heart of Darkness deals with the deepest, most dangerous misunderstandings between human beings. Set during the era of imperialism, ship’s captain Charlie Marlow relates to his London dockyard comrades a disconcerting tale of a journey to the heart of an African jungle. As Alan Oke’s Marlow moves between the present and the voyage, evil ivory dealer Kurtz dominates the narrative.Read full review... | |
| 21-Oct-2011 Royal Opera House: Linbury Studio Theatre | Jette Parker Young Artists: Le Portrait de Manon, Les Nuits d'été |
 SMITH.jpg) The Jette Parker Young Artists double bill of Jules Massenet’s rare one-act opera Le Portrait de Manon (sequel to Manon) and Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, featured romance, mystique and sumptuous singing. It has its inelegant features but the latest offering from the Royal Opera House’s emerging artists team brought imagination and wit to the programme, difficult to stage though it must surely have been.
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| 15-Oct-2011 Barbican Centre: Hall | Steve Reich at 75: LSO at the Barbican |
| Steve Reich has been a Barbican mainstay of 2011. In his 75th birthday year, the composer’s significant influence on contemporary classical music was honoured with the Reverberations Festival in May. Now, the London Symphony Orchestra has dedicated this third week in October to his work including this concert of Reich works for an orchestra of symphonic proportions under the spritely baton of Kristjan Järvi. Clapping Music featured Reich himself on stage, displaying his personal and musical humour as one of the Clapping pair. Read full review... | |
| 9-Sep-2011 King's Head Theatre, Islington | Manifest Destiny 2011 |
 Music and politics combine to form a potent mix. Art in its exclusive pursuit, can arguably avoid making a political statement; but it can also shine a bitingly harsh light on political themes, thus bringing them close to home through personal acts of dramatisation. Manifest Destiny 2011 proudly does the latter.
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| 2-Sep-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 64: Late-Night Audience Choice: A Spontaneous Showcase with a Hungarian Flavour |
 BBC-Chris Christodoulou.jpg) Ivan Fischer is acquiring, if he hadn’t already, a reputation as one of the great musical mavericks alive today. Shortlisted for this year’s Gramophone Artist of the Year award, he has a track record for accessibility and great musical energy. Not surprisingly, the announcement that his ‘late-night’ Prom 64 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra would be ‘Audience Choice’ caused a flurry of excitement, even though it is just one of many unconventional turns of concert style taken this season.Read full review... | |
| 22-Aug-2011 Soho Theatre | Don Giovanni, but not as you know it |
 How much wine can a cast pretend to drink over the course of one production? If such a record has been set Adam Spreadbury-Maher, Ben Cooper and Robin Norton-Hale’s Don Giovanni presents a good challenge. For much of this production characters, music and set seemed drunk on wine and melodrama, high on the drug of their own confident style – but all were ultimately weakened by their instability.
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| 4-Aug-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 28: Tallis Scholars are victorious with de Victoria |
 The first thing I must say about the Tallis Scholars’ Prom 28 is that it was my most moving experience of this year’s Proms so far. Bar none.
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| 4-Aug-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 27: An engaging Holloway Premiere by Runnicles and the BBC SSO |
 There are some works that appear year after year in a subtly different, equally sumptious incarnation. Strauss’s Four Last Songs ranks among that number. In 2010, Sir Simon Rattle, Karita Mattila and the Berliner Philharmoniker brought us this soulful masterpiece for Soprano and orchestra in one of the season’s most memorable Proms. This year it was the turn of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Donald Runnicles to deliver Strauss’ classic, along with the World Premiere of Robin Holloway’s evocative Fifth Concerto for orchestra that surprised many in its drama.
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| 2-Aug-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 24: Elgar, Grainger and Strauss |
 On paper, Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche seems a non sequitur to choral and orchestral works by Elgar and Grainger. In Proms 24, Elgar’s part-song There is sweet music and Violin Concerto in B minor were at home next to Grainger’s setting of Londonderry Air and likeable In a Nutshell suite. But Strauss’ fifth symphonic poem dwarfed the rest in its capacity to excite, a much-needed dose of exhilaration.
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| 31-Jul-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Noseda's Rachmaninov |
.jpg) From Soprano Svetla Vasseliva’s vampish allure to Gianandrea Noseda’s warrior-like conducting, Prom 22 was a quintessentially Romantic affair with Russia at its heart. This Proms Choral Sunday, devoted to the music of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov, brought impassioned performances from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (with Noseda at the helm), the Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre and a hat-trick of Proms debutant soloists. Vocally speaking, precision was sometimes sacrificed to the gods of exuberance, but the rewards were frequently thrilling.
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| 29-Jul-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 19: Knussen, Booth, the BBC SO and six sensual feasts |
 Oliver Knussen has taken the BBC Symphony Orchestra on some interesting journeys during his relationship with them, as both composer and conductor. Of all these journeys, Prom 19 surely ranks among the most fascinating. Under Knussen’s masterful conducting, the orchestra and Claire Booth gave us a scintillating if sometimes overwhelming exhibition of six intense early Twentieth Century works.
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| 17-Jul-2011 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Venice - six scenes, ten young singers. |
 RICHARD H. SMITH 2011.jpg) A split-level stage featuring an ornate stairwell and scaffolding was the setting for this the tenth Jette Parker Young Artists’ Summer Performance. Entitled ‘Veneziana’, the specially compiled programme embodied the visions of Venice dreamt by Rossini, Donizetti, Britten and Offenbach in six sets of Opera Scenes. Greek-born Rodula Gaitano directed ten young singers in a selection of impassioned Venetian scenes from the nineteenth to twentieth-century opera repertory.Read full review... | |
| 13-Jul-2011 Wigmore Hall | Four Quartets; Webern and Bartok, Kurtag and Beethoven. |
 The Wigmore Hall on July 13th was The Jupiter Quartet’s only UK appearance on their America-based Summer tour. They used the opportunity to showcase the innovations which occurred within the String Quartet repertoire through the twentieth century , ending with a homage to the form’s Classical peak. To start, three succinct and distinct works by contemporaries Webern and Bartok, and their natural successor Kurtág.Read full review... | |
| 10-Jul-2011 LSO St Lukes | Aurora put their unique mark on the Pastoral |
| With their appetite for musical diversity and youthful enthusiasm, the six-year-old Aurora Orchestra and their principal conductor, Nicholas Collon, have grand ambitions. With ‘When Doves Cry’ they did not disappoint, showing both their exceptional aptitude for showcasing contemporary music and a promising ability to inject freshness into seminal classical works. Read full review... | |
| 28-Jun-2011 Barbican Centre: Hall | Mozart Mass in C Minor and Vesperae solennes de confessore |
 This was the second vocal concert of late (the last being Ariodante with Joyce DiDinato) to feature an exemplary female soloist caged inside an otherwise nondescript performance. Jérémie Rohrer tried in vain to force energy out of French chamber choir Les Elements and period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie. Ultimately though, despite moments of sudden verve from conductor and ensembles, the night belonged to soprano Sally Matthews.Read full review... | |
| 22-Jun-2011 Undisclosed location, East London | The Secret Consul at an Undisclosed Location in London |
 The Secret Consul starts with a magic trick. Christopher Whitelock as Nika Magadoff, a Magician, selects one of the audience and performs a disappearing trick with their ring. It is here, however, that fantasy ends and cold hard realism begins. Steve Tiller has made of Gian-Carlo Menotti's The Consul a site-specific, hour-long guerilla opera inside a dilapidated town hall which one is permitted only to refer to as 'An Undisclosed Location'. The experience of being herded around the building is bizarre, but the production is saved from being too rough and ready by its musical achievements.Read full review... | |
| 3-Jun-2011 Kings Place: Hall One | Written Unwritten | London Sinfonietta with Matthew Bourne |
 Maverick improviser Matthew Bourne and London Sinfonietta’s reliable principal players created an extraordinary concert in this second of the Sinfonietta’s Written/UnWritten series. Despite the harmonics and echoes behind a diverse collection of twentieth-century pieces and irreverent improvisations, few risks were taken by anyone other than Bourne, but the result was an impressive and often hypnotic series of the most carefully crafted contemporary classical music of the last fifty years.
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