Soprano Zoë Brookshaw joins the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment directed by Steven Devine for a programme of music from the Restoration period which includes Purcell and Blow alongside Giovanni Battista Draghi and Louis Grabu. There are performances at King’s Place, London (October 13) as well as the Aula, Oslo University (October 17). Both artists will be back at King’s Place on October 31 for the latest installment in the OAE’s Bach the Universe and Everything series

Baritone Dietrich Henschel returns to the Oxford Lieder Festival with a programme of Schubert songs about the sea and ocean concluding with the setting of Schiller’s epic ballad Der Taucher. Performances take place at St John the Evangelist, Oxford at 17:30 and 20:15 on October 12 with Henschel accompanied by Festival Director Sholto Kynoch. “…such is his artistry, the eloquence of his delivery of the text could hardly fail to move in his partnership with Kynoch.” The Times commented on their Winterreise earlier this year.

Tenor Andrew Irwin makes his début at Stadttheater Bremen performing Cochenille, Frantz and Pitichinaccio in Les Contes d’Hoffmann with performances on September 25, October 3, 9, 15, 17 and November 4. Marc Niemann will conduct the production by John Pölzgutter. This is the first of his role for the company as a member of the ensemble where this season Andrew will also perform roles in die Entführung aus dem Serail and The Emperor of Atlantis.

Tenor Samuel Boden sings the role of Idamante in Campra Idoménée for Opéra de Lille. The new production by Àlex Ollé is conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm and opens on September 24 and there are further performances on September 26, 28, 30 and October 2. Idoménée  is a co-production with the Staatsoper Berlin where performance are scheduled for November 5, 7, 10, 12 &14, 2021.

Caroline Phillips will be attending the 30^th International Artists Managers Association International Conference at the spectacular headquarter of Danish Radio in Copenhagen this week. See you there!

Director Harry Fehr stages a double bill for Pegasus Opera Company. The programme comprises Philip Hagemann’s  chamber adaptation and English translation of Debussy L’Enfant Prodigue (The Prodigal Son) alongside Hagemann’s opera from George Bernard Shaw’s comic melodrama Passion, Poison and Petrifaction,  probably the only opera plot that hinges on the contents of a soda siphon. Performances at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music take place on September 10, 11 and 12 (m) and are conducted by Hagemann.

Mezzo soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett recently made her BBC Proms debut with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists as alto soloist in Handel Dixit Dominus. The complete concert is available to hear again on BBC Sounds and to view on BBC Iplayer. The occasion marked Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s 60^th appearance at The Proms and the programme was repeated at the Berlin Festival.

Tenor Samuel Boden sings Acis in Handel Acis and Galatea at the Buxton International Festival in a production by Martin Constantine with Christian Curnyn conducting the Early Opera Company. The performances at Buxton Opera House take place on July 12, 19 (pm & eve) and 20 (pm & eve).

Director Polly Graham, Artistic Director of Longborough Festival Opera, appears as a guest on BBC Radio 3 In Tune on July 9. Her staging of Monteverdi The Return of Ulysses will be performed in the Big Top at the festival on July 13, 15, 17 & 18. Conducted by CPM artist Robert Howarth the production also features tenor Andrew Irwin as Telemaco. View Graham’s short animated film here.

Conductor and harpsichordist Steven Devine joins host Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune on July 5 talking about his varied career. He appears with The Mozartists at Cadogan Hall, London on July 8 playing CPE Bach Harpsichord Concerto in C Minor and will be joined by CPM artists mezzo Bethany Horak-Hallett and tenor Guy Cutting at King’s Place, London for the next instalment of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Bach, The Universe and Everything series, of which he is Artistic Director, on July 11. The programme will include Bach Cantata 156 and will be live streamed on KPlayer.