http://www.operatoday.com/ en-us gary@operatoday.com 2020-10-05T12:33:31-06:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/10/eto_autumn_2020.php English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing. 8609@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-10-05T12:33:31-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/10/eight_songs_fro.php Conductor Oliver Zeffman has commissioned the very first opera for a socially distanced world, which is now available to watch exclusively on Apple Music. Eight Songs From Isolation has been written by eight leading composers, specifically for streaming - rather than live performance - and is the first opera written for a time when the performers were unable to meet in person. 8607@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-10-05T12:23:00-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/10/let_music_live.php Leading freelance musicians unite in Parliament Square to call for targeted support for colleagues in the arts and entertainment sector. 8606@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-10-05T06:23:53-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/10/murphy_attridge.php Duo Lewis Murphy (composer) and Laura Attridge (writer) have launched a charitable song project entitled Notes From Isolation. The resulting songs, featuring some of the UK's top singing talent, are being released online between August and October 2020 and can be enjoyed free of charge. 8605@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-10-05T06:11:09-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/10/love_always_cha.php This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …). 8604@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-10-05T04:21:45-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/10/dreams_and_delu.php Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper. 8603@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-10-01T04:45:38-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/henry_purcell_r.php The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc. 8602@http://www.operatoday.com/ Recordings 2020-09-30T09:01:43-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/the_royal_opera.php The Royal Opera House is thrilled to announce an exciting, wide-ranging new line-up for its autumn programme. For the first time, extraordinary performances will be accessible online for a global audience through livestreams and for socially distanced live audiences at our home in Covent Garden. In a global first, we present a new opera in hyper-reality, alongside repertory favourites from both artistic companies. 8601@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-28T04:15:47-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/treasures_of_th.php Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy. 8600@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-27T04:04:22-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/anima_rara_ermo.php In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. 8599@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-26T08:38:00-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/_this_was_a_lon.php Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song. 8598@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-24T12:12:54-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/gala_concert_-_.php Some of the most famous and outstanding stars from the opera world are to take part in a very special evening from Wexford Festival Opera, including Aigul Akhmetshina, Joseph Calleja, Daniela Barcellona, Juan Diego Flórez, Igor Golovatenko, Ermonela Jaho, Sergey Romanovsky, and many more. 8597@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-24T04:21:56-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/requiem_pour_le.php Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive. 8596@http://www.operatoday.com/ Recordings 2020-09-23T12:50:19-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/operastreaming_.php Following its successful launch in 2019, OperaStreaming streams nine operas on YouTube from the historic opera houses of Emilia-Romagna during the 2020-21 season, with fully-staged productions of Verdi's La traviata in October from Modena and Verdi'sOtello from Bologna in... 8595@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-23T12:43:48-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/connections_acr.php ‘A brief history of song’ is the subtitle of the 2020 Oxford Lieder Festival (10th-17th October), which will present an ambitious, diverse and imaginative programme of 40 performances and events. 8594@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-22T01:10:20-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/the_sixteen_mus.php For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’. 8593@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-21T16:54:25-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/bampton_classic.php Bampton Classical Opera returns to the Baroque splendour of London’s St John’s Smith Square on November 6 with a concert performance of Gluck’s one-act opera The Crown, the first in the UK since 1987. The performance will also be filmed and available to watch on demand on the Bampton website from 9 November. 8592@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-21T09:32:28-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/iestyn_davies_a.php 'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’ 8591@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-19T08:46:22-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/a_new_opera_wri.php While many of us spent lockdown at home taking it a little easier, composer Andrew Synnott wrote an opera. 8590@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-18T09:59:03-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/grange_park_ope.php Owen Wingrave is part of the new Interim Season of 19 brand new events, all free to view online between September and December 2020. 8589@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-18T09:44:53-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/adam_fischers_1.php Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases. 8588@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-18T09:24:46-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/paradise_lost_t.php ‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ 8587@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-17T12:09:22-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/max_lorenz_tris.php If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing. 8586@http://www.operatoday.com/ Recordings 2020-09-17T07:04:15-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/music_and_theat.php The Arts Council has awarded innovative UK charity Music and Theatre For All (MTFA) a major new grant to develop three ambitious new projects in the wake of Covid 19. 8585@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-15T13:58:49-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/joyce_didonato_.php There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience. 8584@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-14T16:31:22-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/english_nationa.php English National Opera (ENO) will reopen the London Coliseum to socially distanced audiences on 6 and 7 November for special performances of Mozart’s Requiem. These will provide audiences with an opportunity to reflect upon and to commemorate the difficulties the nation has faced during the pandemic. 8583@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-14T07:05:00-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/where_all_roses.php ‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles. 8582@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-14T06:41:18-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/the_academy_of_.php The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’. 8581@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-13T13:52:52-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/the_royal_opera.php The Royal Opera House is proud to continue its curated #OurHouseToYourHouse programme into the autumn, bringing audiences the best of the ROH through a new series of Friday Premieres and cultural highlights. 8580@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-11T14:28:26-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/lucy_crowe_and_.php The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too. 8579@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-10T07:21:02-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/choral_dances_v.php With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz. 8578@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-09-06T12:00:02-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/royal_opera_hou.php Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’. 8577@http://www.operatoday.com/ Performances 2020-09-05T13:25:00-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/take_a_bow_roya.php After six months of closure, the Royal Opera House is thrilled to be opening its doors to the public as part of Open House London weekend, giving visitors a taste of one of the world’s most famous theatres for free. 8576@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-03T09:53:38-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/academy_of_st_m.php The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is thrilled to announce re:connect - an eight concert series with live socially distanced audiences at its namesake church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The autumn concerts will take place at 5pm & 7:30pm on two Saturdays per month with guest artists including baritone Roderick Williams, soprano Carolyn Sampson and composer-conductor-pianist Ryan Wigglesworth performing a wide range of repertoire. 8575@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-01T06:07:10-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/connections_acr.php Music and poetry unite and collide across centuries, from the Medieval to the Enlightenment to the present day. This year, the Oxford Lieder Festival will present a thrilling and innovative programme comprising more than forty events streamed over eight days. 8574@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-01T05:56:40-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/09/the_english_con.php The English Concert with artistic director Harry Bicket is delighted to announce a series of concerts from 1-15 October 2020. The concerts take place in historic London venues with star soloists and will be performed and streamed live to a paying audience at 7pm GMT on each performance date. The programmes include first-class vocal and instrumental works from the two pillars of the English Baroque, covering different aspects of the repertoire. 8573@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-09-01T05:12:34-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/glyndebourne_an.php Glyndebourne has announced plans for a ‘staycation’ series of socially-distanced indoor performances, starting on 10 October 2020. 8572@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-31T10:15:45-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/fading_the_gesu.php "Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us." 8571@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-08-31T08:09:39-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/met_stars_live_.php The doors at The Metropolitan Opera will not open to live audiences until 2021 at the earliest, and the likelihood of normal operatic life resuming in cities around the world looks but a distant dream at present. But, while we may not be invited from our homes into the opera house for some time yet, with its free daily screenings of past productions and its pay-per-view Met Stars Live in Concert series, the Met continues to bring opera into our homes. 8570@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-08-30T13:47:06-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/womens_voices_a.php The voices of six women composers are celebrated by baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and soprano Yunah Lee on this characteristically ambitious and valuable release by Lontano Records Ltd (Lorelt). 8569@http://www.operatoday.com/ Recordings 2020-08-27T13:23:57-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/precipice_the_g.php Music-making at this year’s Grange Festival Opera may have fallen silent in June and July, but the country house and extensive grounds of The Grange provided an ideal setting for a weekend of twelve specially conceived ‘promenade’ performances encompassing music and dance. 8568@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-08-25T01:36:10-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/royal_opera_hou.php The Royal Opera House is delighted to announce two packed evenings of opera and ballet, live from our stage in Covent Garden and available to view wherever you are in the world online. 8567@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-24T11:12:32-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/rosa_mystica_ro.php As Paul Spicer, conductor of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, observes, the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as ‘old as Christianity itself’, and programmes devoted to settings of texts which venerate the Virgin Mary are commonplace. 8566@http://www.operatoday.com/ Reviews 2020-08-22T13:43:49-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/new_edition_of_.php A new edition of Handel’s cantata Mi palpita il cor has been created by a group of students from Guildhall School’s Historical Performance department during lockdown. 8565@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-19T06:57:44-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/autumn_events_a.php Guildhall School of Music & Drama today announces its Autumn Season of events, which will all be delivered digitally and free of charge. 8564@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-19T06:53:47-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/wigmore_hall_ar.php John Gilhooly today announced repertoire and artist details for Wigmore Hall’s autumn series of 100 concerts, including 28 lunchtime concerts in association with BBC Radio 3. All 100 concerts will be live-streamed in HD and free to watch on demand for 30 days after broadcast on Wigmore Hall’s website. 8563@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-18T12:55:16-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/glyndebourne_ex.php Glyndebourne is extending its summer season of outdoor events, with an additional two weeks of open-air concerts and Open Gardens between 29 August and 13 September. 8562@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-18T12:49:33-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/the_prison_ethe.php 8561@http://www.operatoday.com/ Recordings 2020-08-18T12:20:06-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/songs_by_sir_ha.php ‘Hamilton Harty is Irish to the core, but he is not a musical nationalist.’ 8560@http://www.operatoday.com/ Recordings 2020-08-14T09:23:11-06:00 http://www.operatoday.com/content/2020/08/garsingtons_fid.php Garsington Opera is delighted to announce that its Fidelio in Concert will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 26 September, 6.30pm. 8559@http://www.operatoday.com/ Commentary 2020-08-12T07:56:17-06:00