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Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari

2026-07-26T12:35:42.621+01:00

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera; Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari, Rosalind Plowright, dir: Rodula Gaitanou, City of London Sinfonia, cond: Michael Papadopoulos; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 25 July 2026

Superbly sung with a real sense of the underlying melodrama of the piece. Gaitanou's 1940s Hollywood setting really comes together for a highly taut and disturbing final act

Verdi's Un ballo in maschera has a famously complex history. Planned for the 1858 Carnival season at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, controversy over the subject matter and the heavy hand of the Neapolitan censors meant that the opera debuted in revised form in 1859 in Rome. The source for the libretto was Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué.

Verdi was familiar with French grand opera, he had had two not entirely successful attempts at writing in the genre - Jérusalem (a major rewrite of I Lombardi) in 1847 and Les vêpres siciliennes (with a libretto by Scribe) in 1855. He had also produced a grand opera version of Il trovatore as Le trouvère in 1856 [see my review of Le trouvère at Wexford Festival]. His fascination with the genre was partly economic and reputational - the Paris Opera paid well and success there was a significant event. But it would only be in 1867 with Don Carlos that he 'cracked' the genre, however his experience of French grand opera would cast a long shadow on his later Italian operas, so that Aida for instance has clear links to the genre.

Un ballo in maschera is a fascinating example of the way Verdi and his librettists took elements of the French grand opera genre but projected them onto a tauter dramatic structure. There is still a ball as the climax of the opera, but it has an important dramatic function. Similarly, the scene at Madame Arvidson's is stripped of frivolity and wrapped into the dramatic structure. And the opera has none of the length problems that beset Don Carlos when presented in Italian opera houses.

Opera Holland Park had a notable success with its 2019 production of Un ballo in maschera [see my review], which was also that year's Young Artists production [see my review]. Now the production has been revived for the first time with a largely new cast. We caught the opening night on Saturday 25 July 2026. Rodula Gaitanou again directed (with Harriet Taylor as assistant director), and Michael Papadopoulos conducted the City of London Sinfonia. Designs were by takis. Gustavo was sung by Matteo Desole, Amelia by Elin Pritchard, Anckarstrom by Dario Solari, Oscar by Rhian Lois and Madame Arvidson by Rosalind Plowright (who sang in the original production). The conspirators were Jihoon Kim and Duncan Stenhouse.

The production takes its inspiration from 1940s films with the requisite element of melodrama. It is this sense of melodrama that replaces Verdi's intention for some scenes to be Gothic. The problem is that this introduces a lighter element (audience members behind us found plenty to chuckle at). Madame Arvidson, now a society medium, is no longer quite so transgressive whilst in Act Two, Amelia visits a mental hospital rather than the area round the gallows. The result was effective, but lacked the dark, chaotic edges that Verdi needs. However, in the final act 1940s melodrama and Verdi's opera came together allowing the performers to shine. No titters here, simply a powerful stretch of operatic drama.

Soprano Elin Pritchard seems to be having something of a Verdi summer. Having sung Elisabetta in Verdi's Don Carlos for Grange Park Opera, she is now Amelia for Opera Holland Park. She sings with a fine-grained sense of line, yet her voice has the right intensity to carry in the big passages, and to really soar where necessary. Her Act Two duet with Matteo Desole's Gustavo was glorious, yet she also created a profound sense of melancholy that anchored the character. There was anxiety a plenty, but this Amelia was no passive doormat, standing up to Dario Solari's Anckastrom in Act Three, and it was a nice touch here to have her breast-feeding her son during her plea to him.

Matteo Desole was announced as being indisposed, but apart from a sense that he was being careful about volume, there was little indisposition on show. Desole is familiar to OHP audiences for his performances at Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata, also directed by Rodula Gaitanou (in 2018, 2021 and 2025, see my review). He made an elegant Gustavo, highly attractive with a nice swagger to him. This Gustavo was selfish in an engaging way, living life for its own sake. Any production needs to tie up Gustavo's character with the claims against him made by the conspirators Ribbing and Horn (whom Verdi treats highly seriously). Here, Gustavo's heedlessness could easily have given rise to these sorts of problems. His claim on Amelia were similarly thoughtless. For the first two acts he careered onward on his selfish path, and Desole's singing had real appeal here. Then at the very end of the opera, in a few bleak phrases, Verdi turns everything around and Desole's elegance and style paid dividends here.

Dario Solari, whom we saw as Michele and Gianni Schicchi in Puccini's Il Trittico with Welsh National Opera in 2024 [see my review] made a striking Anckarstrom. Beautifully sung and commanding of figure, this Anckarstrom was all style and warmth in the first two acts. A strong friend of Gustavo in Act One, Solari made his change of heart in Act Three quite believable as the man's emotions turned on a pin. Solari's account of 'Eri tu' was both beautifully sung and dramatic, leading us in a dramatic arc to the moment when he killed Gustavo.

The libretto's origins in a French grand opera goes some way to explaining the role of Oscar. This was the coloratura soprano needed to balance the more dramatic soprano Amelia. Oscar has a devil-may-care sense that runs through the opera, leading to the tragic moment when he allows Anckarstrom to almost trick him into revealing Gustavo's costume at the ball. As in the 2019 original production, Rhian Lois's Oscar was gender-fluid. The singer's own feminine characteristics merging with the masculine visual presentation. In Lois's hands, the results were delightful. Athletic in her person, she matched physicality with coloratura dexterity, bags of charm and a determination to have fun with the stuffed-shirts of Gustavo's court. There was a slight sense that Oscar was in love with Gustavo, but this is something that was hardly developed, alas.

Rosalind Plowright's incarnation as Madame Arvidson was visually and vocally compelling. Tall and elegant, Plowright leveraged this, complete with her remarkable tall headdress, making Arvidson a thing of mystery and leaving us in doubt about her credentials. In her interactions with Desole's Gustavo (in disguise), Plowright brought out Arvidson's conflicting emotions, clearly suggesting the woman might have recognised the king. Vocally Plowright does not attempt to disguise the different registers of her voice, but this meant that the lower lying passages were all the more remarkable. Plowright made her professional debut in 1975 (as Agathe in Der Freischütz)

Jihoon Kim made an admirably dark voiced Count Ribbing. There was never any doubt at all about the seriousness of his calling as a conspirator. Though Verdi writes quasi-comic music for the chorus of conspirators in Act Two, Kim was never in doubt as dark and intense. This was matched by Duncan Stenhouse's highly effective Count Horn, the two making a striking double act. Benson Wilson was rather luxury casting as Cristiano, the soldier who has his fortune changed when he visits Madame Arvidson. Robert Jenkins was Madame Arvidson's somewhat over-the-top helper, whilst Ian Massa-Harris-McFeely was Un Giudice (a judge, but her presented as a vicar).

The chorus was in great form and really leaned into the dramatic concept of the piece, from the male courtiers fencing to the over-the-top stylisation of the crowd attending Madame Arvidson to the comic yet highly disturbing conspirators at the end of Act Two. Then in Act Three it was all colour and movement as they showcased a series of dazzling costumes for the ball.

In the pit, Michael Papadopoulos conducted a sympathetic account of the score, with the right amount of dramatic impetus. There were perhaps moments when he gave the vocal lines a little too much leeway, but overall there was an admirable sense of tautness and flow to the drama. The orchestra, playing a reduction of the score, was in fine shape and the drama was never lacking.

Few productions of Un ballo in maschera come close to ideal, but here Rodula Gaitanou and Michael Papadopoulos created the right space to allow the singers to develop and shine. You feel that this production has a real chance of bedding in admirably, showcasing the genuine sense of interaction and partnership between Elin Pritchard, Matteo Deole and Dario Solari.

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Elsewhere on this blog

BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

Francesca Caccini's score, & Vache Baroque's performance, surprised & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero - opera review
Musically, an evening of complete enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs's playful 'Love Island' setting for Handel's Amadigi di Gaula - opera review
More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito brings out the work's real drama - opera review

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
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Virtuosity & discipline: John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto

2026-07-25T11:52:04.896+01:00

Walton: Cello Concerto - Jonathan Aasgaard, John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Verdi: Overture to La forza del destino, Walton: Cello Concerto, Respighi: Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome; Jonathan Aasgaard, Sinfonia of London, John Wilson; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 24 July 2026

Italian warmth and vivid orchestral detail in a concert that gloried in technical virtuosity allied with real control and style, giving us a sense of magic, plus a more intimate view of Walton's concerto

Having seen John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London recently at the Cheltenham Music Festival in an all-English programme [see my review], it was a pleasure to catch their first BBC Prom (they return in September) at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 24 July 2026 for a programme redolent of Italy. They began with Verdi's overture to La forza del destino and ended with Respighi, all three of his Roman tone poems - Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. In the middle was Walton's Cello Concerto with soloist Jonathan Aasgaard (principal cellist of Sinfonia of London), a work that Walton wrote whilst living at La Mortella in Ischia.

This was a big band concert, the Walton apart. The stage was full for the Verdi and by the time we came to 'The Pines of the Via Appia' from Pines of Rome things were full to bursting with around 120 orchestral players and sixteen extra brass.

Respighi: Pines of Rome - John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Verdi's overture opened with vivid brass and tight, urgent string sound. What was notable was the clarity of detail that Wilson brought to the music along with a sense of control with singing lines allied to a disturbing undertow, leading to urgent, incisive drama. An insouciant clarinet melody was overwhelmed by urgent brass and strings, the music driven to climax, then crisp excitement to the end. I know that this overture is very much complete in itself, but Wilson's account made you wonder what he'd be like conducting the whole opera.

Walton's Cello Concerto was the last of his three concertos, written for the great cellist Gregor Piatigorsky in 1956. For a long time, like much of Walton's late work, the concerto was felt not to compare to the earlier violin and viola concertos, but it has begun to come into its own.

We opened with a delicate, almost magical orchestral sound with Aasgaard's cello singing over the top of it. Aasgaard played with a sense of intimacy, his tone elegant rather than big-boned romantic. It worked because Wilson kept the orchestra firmly under control. This was an intimate, thoughtful account of the music, but still with lush harmonies along with Walton's familiar interesting spiky edge. When the opening material returned at the end of the movement it was so quiet as to be really daring. The second movement began crisp and vital, the music fast and vivid with the cello quietly furious. As with the first movement, Wilson and Aasgaard kept everything contained and intimate, yet Aasgaard's playing was always vibrant and highly concentrated, and at the end of the movement the playing, fast and brilliant, grew progressively quieter till it evaporated. The finale is technically a theme and variations, but Walton's structure is intriguing with two solo improvisations rather than a cadenza proper. Things opened with the soloist lyrically projecting the rather meandering theme over a barely-there orchestra. Then, when the soloist turned to quiet intense triplets, the orchestra produced some real magic, with a lovely sense of detail. The first solo improvisation was uncompromising, then the orchestral contribution was fast and tight, its sharp-edged brilliance very much harking back to early Walton. The second improvisation was thoughtful and intense, followed by a passage were the soloist threaded his way through lovely orchestral textures. The return of the material from the very opening of the work was more fluid, and if possible quieter and more intimate.

Walton: Cello Concerto - Jonathan Aasgaard, John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Walton's Cello Concerto can sometimes seem a backward-looking piece, harking back to the late-Romantic tradition. Aasgaard's playing lacked that big-boned, big-toned romanticism and replaced it with a sense of intimate elegance and concentration, with a fine-grained tone and sense of line. This worked because Wilson was clearly in sympathy and brought control, discipline and real magic to the orchestral contributions.

After the interval we had Respighi's three symphonic poems celebrating the landmarks of Rome, written between 1915 and 1928. The works can sometimes be dismissed as descriptive fluff, staying in the repertoire because they give orchestras a chance to show off. But John Wilson clearly rates them, and drew highly sympathetic performances from his players, showcasing real enjoyment and vivid playing.

We began with the least known, Roman Festivals (1928). 'Circuses' opened with a very filmic sound complete with tam-tams and extra trumpets along with a big, big orchestra. This was a sound-world that would be taken over by composers for the 1940s sword-and-sandals epics in films. Here, the result was complex multilayered excitement, full of colour and detail. 'Jubilee' was quiet and intense, with a sense of build and anticipation until the glorious noisy climax with bells when the pilgrims finally glimpse the holy city. 'The October Festival' was all upbeat excitement with plenty of tunes including a corny string tune played with an elegant sense of line. The movement felt strangely bitty, but Wilson and his players made it work. Finally, 'Epiphany' opened with raucous wind and lots else besides, creating a glorious noise. The fast chaos rather reminded you of the Shrovetide Fair from Stravinsky's Petrushka, and Wilson was adept at bringing clarity of detail without losing the overall pizzazz. And when it came to the big string tune, they players responded with real relish.

Fountains of Rome (1915-1916) was the work that made Respighi's international reputation: Toscanini premiered it in Rome then introduced the work to the USA with the New York Philharmonic. Of the Roman landmarks trilogy, it is the one that uses the most compact forces (relatively speaking), and has perhaps the narrowest expressive range, relying less on bravura and brash effects. 'The Fountains of Valle Giulia' was a gentle, elegant pastoral, full of quiet, almost neoclassical detail. 'The Triton Fountain' was all brass and vivid strings creating something urgent, joyful and very descriptive. Wilson's large orchestra was admirably quick on its feet, light and transparent textures. After the climax the music quietened quickly, before being overwhelmed by the next movement. 'The Trevi Fountain' was a vivid evocation of water, waves and more, full of busy detail which subsided into 'The Fountain of the Villa Medici', where we had some real magic with fine wind solos, music that was all elegance, clarity and sophistication.

Finally, we came to Pines of Rome (1923-1924). 'The Pines of the Villa Borghese' was all vivid, impetuous excitement, crisp detail leading to another passage evoking Stravinsky's Shrovetide Fair leading to a build up of excitement until 'Pines near a catacomb' loomed. Here the music was dark, mysterious and intense with a mournful off-stage trumpet. Wilson kept remarkable orchestral discipline, music was genuinely quiet, with lovely textures until the psalm-singing built to a climax. Then died. A ripple on the piano (two players) signalled 'The Pines of the Janiculum Hill', followed by a lovely clarinet solo. The transparent textures meant that for all the music's harmonic intensity it was rich but not thick, with a sophisticated sense of control. Then at the end, the recording of the nightingale which, at the premiere in 1924, must have seemed a daring modernity. Finally, a low throb in the orchestra indicated the distant marching of Roman troops for 'The Pines of the Via Appia'. The sense of excitement and build up was powerful and palpable, made manifest by the sixteen extra brass players sitting waiting around the auditorium. There was a lovely moment with a profoundly melancholy cor anglais solo, but then the brass build up created a climax that was simply a glorious noise!

Respighi: Roman trilogy - John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Respighi wrote the extra brass parts for an ensemble of six saxhorns, though the performance replaced these with modern instruments (trumpets, flugel horns, baritone horns, euphoniums and trombones). Having heard saxhorns used in Berlioz's Les Troyens (when John Eliot Gardiner conducted a staging of the work in Paris in 2013), I would be intrigued to hear what this would sound like in Respighi's work. And on another authentic detail, does anyone nowadays play the recording of the nightingale by using the correct sort of wind up gramophone and 78rpm record?

After the overwhelming audience response to 'The Pines of the Via Appia' there was even an encore, the 'galop' from Rossini's overture to William Tell!

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Elsewhere on this blog

It was Francesca Caccini's score, & Vache Baroque's performance, that surprised & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton - opera review
Musically, an evening of complete enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs's playful 'Love Island' setting for Handel's Amadigi di Gaula in Buxton - opera review
More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at the Buxton Festival brings out the work's real drama - opera review
Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
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It was Francesca Caccini's score, & Vache Baroque's performance, that surprised & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival

2026-07-23T08:55:03.915+01:00

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina; Camilla Seale, Jon Stainsby, Phoebe Rayner, Vache Baroque, director: Eloise Lally, music director: Jonathan Darbourne; Buxton International Festival at Pavilion Arts Centre

Dazzling instrumental playing with music that seduced in a trifle over-serious staging but with some fine individual performances make this a notable revival of Francesca Caccini's rarely staged gem

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina by Francesca Caccini has the reputation as the first opera by a woman composer. Certainly, it is Caccini's only surviving opera, written for the Medici court in Florence in 1625. It remains, however, on the fringe of the repertoire though Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) staged it in 2015 [see my review]

Vache Baroque have been presenting their production of Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival in the Pavilion Arts Centre (seen 21 July 2026), directed by Eloise Lally (who directed Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore for St Paul's Opera last year, see my review) with Jonathan Darbourne as music director. Designs were by Zahra Mansouri and lighting by Katie Kelly. Camilla Seale was Alcina, Jon Stainsby was Ruggiero, Phoebe Rayner was Melissa and Filippo Turkheimer was Nettuno with Betty Makharinsky, Harriet Burns, Alina Miyagi Magnell and Tom Kelly. Jonathan Darbourne directed from the harpsichord with an instrumental ensemble of three violins, viola da gamba, violone, three recorders, three sackbuts, theorbo and organ. The staging encompassed the whole stage with the instrumental ensemble spread around the auditorium. Caccini's full scoring does not survive; no credit was given in the programme so I presume that it is to Darbourne we have to thank for the particular orchestration here.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Phoebe Rayner - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The plot, based on Ariosto, is similar to the one from Handel only here Ruggiero is rescued by another sorceress, Melissa, and Alcina turns people into plants rather than animals. Eloise Lally's concept of the plot took her some way from Caccini's court entertainment which was written for a visiting prince (and originally ended with a horse ballet). Here magic was played down. Lally explained her concept in the programme book:

'Set within a world on the brink of collapse, this work explores the tension between preservation and reinvention. Through the opposing forces of Alcina and Melissa, it questions who has the right to shape the future: those who uphold existing systems of power, or those who seek to dismantle and rebuild them entirely.'

Katie Kelly's lighting was certainly atmospheric but it did rather obscure some of the details of the staging, making the plot a little opaque. The production worked best when it forgot about explaining the mechanics of the plot and concentrated on personal interactions and the sheer seductive power of Caccini's music.

The sound world was very much that of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607) with log fluid recitative lines shaped around the text, plenty of instrumental ritornelli and dances, and an instrumental palate that used groups of instruments in blocks. The result here dazzled and engaged, and in Vache Baroque's vital performance made you wonder why this music is not heard more. Judging from audience reactions it was Caccini's score, and Vache Baroque's performance, that surprised and captivated.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale & ensemble - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The production tried to avoid the trope of Alcina as evil yet seductive sorceress, though it has to be said that that is what Caccini and her librettist would have expected. As it was, you felt the concept was too earnest and lacked the required dramatic bravura at times. Camilla Seale made a sympathetic, mellifluous Alcina, singing with well-modulated tones. Her Ruggiero, Jon Stainsby was suitably vivid and not too passive. Some of the strongest and most compelling scenes were the ones between these two, especially towards the end when Ruggiero became more confident and Alcina more desperate, simply two people struggling with love and its various aspects.

Phoebe Rayner's Melissa was the 'good' sorceress, though she spent much of the opera as Atlas. Rayner was firm and perhaps a tad discreet, this Melissa was definitely serious. Her final struggle with Searle's Alcina brought a nice element of drama to proceedings.

The ensemble worked hard, encompassing both Alcina's retinue as well as the people turned into plants by Alcina. Filippo Turkheimer was a vivid Nettuno in the prologue. His performance compelling enough, not needing the extra bits of staging presented here. Tom Kelly having impressed in the prologue, was equally engaging as a fisherman on Alcina's island, whilst Harriet Burns made a strong showing as Oreste, Alcina's oracle.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Jon Stainsby, Harriet Burns, Tom Kelly - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

I rather echo one of my colleagues who commented that the production worked best when not taking itself too seriously, and I remember that BREMF's production as being serious fun. What made the event was the vivid yet sophisticated sound-world conjured by Jonathan Darbourne and his ensemble, and it made you regret the loss of Caccini's other music.

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The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.

Elsewhere on this blog

Musically, an evening of complete enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs's playful 'Love Island' setting for Handel's Amadigi di Gaula in Buxton - opera review
More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at the Buxton Festival brings out the work's real drama - opera review
Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
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Musically, an evening of complete enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs's playful 'Love Island' setting for Handel's Amadigi in Buxton

2026-07-21T11:26:25.892+01:00

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - Tim Morgan, Hilary Cronin, Rowan Pierce - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula; Tim Morgan, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, James Hall, director: Olivia Fuchs, the English Concert, conductor: Erin Helyard; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed 20 July 2026

By turns playful and distracting, Olivia Fuchs's production allowed a fine young cast to develop strong performances combining enjoyment and engagement with technical bravura

Handel's opera Amadigi di Gaula (1715) belongs to a small group of operas he wrote when he first came to London and the exact form of his style of opera seria was not yet fixed. Like its predecessor Teseo (1713), Amadigi is based on a French source and there are tantalising hints that the original plans for the opera included French elements such as dancing. [see my article on Handel's experimental early London period.] As it is, Amadigi has a freedom of form that makes it attractive to modern directors.

Olivia Fuchs has directed Handel's Amadigi di Gaula for the Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House. We caught the final performance on 20 July 2026. Erin Helyard (artistic director of Pinchgut Opera) conducted the English Concert with Tim Morgan (replacing Jake Ingbar) as Amadigi, Rowan Pierce as Oriana, Hilary Cronin as Melissa and James Hall as Dardano. Designs were by Eleanor Bull with lighting by Ben Pickersgill.

Both Cronin and Morgan have form with this opera. Tim Morgan sang the title role with English Touring Opera in 2021 (directed by James Conway, conducted by Jonathan Peter Kenny, see my review), whilst Hilary Cronin sang Oriana in concert with the English Concert (conducted by Kristian Bezuidenhout, see my review).

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - James Hall - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The opera has one of those 'black box' plots beloved of opera seria: the characters all confined to a single place. Here, four people in a love tangle: Melissa loves Amadigi who loves Oriana as does Dardano, all complicated by Melissa's power as a sorceress. What elevates the opera is the extraordinary power of the music for Melissa and Dardano, both of whom are disappointed in love.

Olivia Fuchs's playful production reinvented the piece as a sort of Love Island reality television programme, Melissa's Island with Melissa (Hilary Cronin) as the host and the other three characters as contestants. Short video clips gave hints and there was substantial dumb show during the overture. But as the programme book gave the classic plot, audience members had to be quick on the uptake to align the opening dialogue with what was happening on stage.The opera was cut (a running time of two hours 30 minutes including interval) and divided into two parts with Part Two beginning with Dardano's aria 'Pena tiranna io sento al core'. Dardano did not reappear as a ghost and James Hall also sang the deus ex machina Orgando, here the TV programme's producer. Part One was on the set of Melissa's Island whilst Part Two was backstage.

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - Hilary Cronin - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The problem with the concept was that in Part One, you never knew when emotion was performative, for the TV cameras, and when real. Melissa's intense aria in Act One when she lament's Amadigi's unfaithfulness was superbly sung by Hilary Cronin, but was this real or performative? The change of location for Part Two at least meant that James Hall's final aria was most definitely not performative. The ending relied on Melissa's power over Amadigi and Oriana being related to appearance and social media presence rather than being a matter of life and death.

The production was also extremely busy, with things constantly happening and very few arias were allowed to happen on their own.

Tim Morgan sang with light, elegant tone, his passagework fluid. His Amadigi was a naif, things were done to him and the character never really got the sort of bravura moment that Handel would write for later heroes (the castrato Senesino, who created 18 roles for Handel, always insisted on at least one bravura heroic aria). It is perhaps significant that we first saw him hymning the night, with Morgan doing so with wonderful elegance of line.

For all that Oriana his the hero's beloved, the key female role is Melissa. Here, Hilary Cronin, wearing an alarming purple wig and shiny fitted silver trouser suit, had a whale of a time as the manipulative television host. She made her tragic Act One aria really count, making us believe Melissa's pain. Then in Part Two she went to pieces magnificently. Cronin's voice has surprising heft and she brought real skill and vividness to Melissa's music, performing with clear relish.

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - Tim Morgan, Rowan Pierce - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

James Hall attacked Dardano's first two arias with wonderful gusto. There was little doubt that this Dardano was an action hero and Hall clearly enjoyed the sheer bravura of the role. It was a commanding performance that really cried out for a more sympathetic setting, crowned by an account of 'Pena tiranna' that was musical, intense and physically vivid. Hall made his return as Orgando, a totally different character, make complete sense.

As Oriana, Rowan Pierce was lumbered with a truly terrible wig (presumably deliberately). She had to begin as total airhead, but then develop real feeling when Oriana sees Amadigi apparently dead. As the opera progressed, Oriana's feelings became more intense, though Olivia Fuchs leveraged this by making Oriana increasingly reliant on alcohol. Pierce managed all this with aplomb, showing remarkable range allied to great charm.

In the pit, the English Concert were on terrific form under Erin Helyard. We had some fine solo instrumental moments particularly the bassoon in Dardano's final aria, and the trumpet duetting with Melissa in hers.

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - James Hall, Rowan Pierce, Tim Morgan, Hilary Cronin - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The combination of the superb singing and the orchestral contribution meant that whatever the views on the production itself, musically this was an evening of complete enjoyment.

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Elsewhere on this blog

More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at the Buxton Festival brings out the work's real drama - opera review
Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
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More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at the Buxton Festival brings out the work's real drama

2026-07-20T11:13:21.192+01:00

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito; Maria Stella Maurizi, Indyana Schneider, Xavier Mas, Frances Gregory, director: Corina Würsch, conductor: Adrian Kelly, Buxton International Festival; Buxton Opera House
Reviewed: 19 July 2026

A mainly young cast brings out the dramatic strengths in a semi-staging of Mozart's late opera with compelling performances from Maria Stella Maurizi and Indyana Schneider

Like the Grange Festival [see my review] last month, Buxton International Festival (BIF) has opted to explore Mozart's late masterpiece, La clemenza di Tito via a pair of concert performances (seen 19 July 2026). Adrian Kelly, artistic director of the Festival, conducted the BIF Orchestra (which mixes seasoned professionals with early career players) and the concert staging was directed by Corina Würsch who as assistant director/movement director on the Festival's recent production of Verdi's La traviata. Würsch was also movement director for Blackheath Halls Opera's 2025 production of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris [see my review].

Adrian Kelly is also head of the International Opera Studio (IOS) at Zurich Opera and the casting leveraged this connection. Italian soprano Maria Stella Maurizi (Vitellia) and Australian mezzo-soprano Indyana Schneider (Sesto) are current members of the IOS Zurich whilst New Zealand-born baritone Samson Setu (Publio) is a former member. Tito was played by French tenor Xavier Mas with Frances Gregory (whom we recently saw as Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo with Chelsea Opera Group, see my review) as Annio and Jessica Lawley as Servilia.

The orchestra was on stage which helped put them centre stage for once, though the sound was perhaps a little recessed. Adrian Kelly played the forte piano recitatives and the instrument a little too discreet for the space.

The acting space was a wide strip in front of the orchestra with Würsch's production concentrating on basics. The result was some admirably character-led drama. Costumes were simply variants of modern concert dress, though it was perhaps a trifle confusing to have Maria Stella Maurizi's Vitellia wearing trousers (albeit very elegantly) when two other women in the cast played en travestie. The chorus was off-stage for the conclusion of Act One but for the other appearances the singers efficiently filed on and off stage left.

Maurizi has already sung Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni and there is a dramatic undertow to her voice which made her Vitellia a striking portrayal. Very flirty with Indyana Schneider's Sesto in Act One, Maurizi made a surprisingly sympathetic Vitellia yet brought an intensity to her arias. She was strong indeed in the accompanied recitatives, making a particular impact in the ensemble towards the end of Act One where Vitellia realises her mistake in sending Sesto off to attack Tito. However in 'Non piu di fiori' her passagework was somewhat laboured but overall this was a significant dramatic achievement.

She was balanced by Indyana Schneider's poised, well-modulated Sesto. Her reaction to Maurizi's Vitellia's flirting in Act One was low key with a nice subtlety to 'Parto, parto'. Yet there was a sense of commitment to this Sesto allied to a stylish way with Mozart. During Act Two, Schneider's performance grew with moving intensity and determination.

As Tito, Xavier Mas was somewhat disappointing. He sang in a grand histrionic way that was perhaps intended to convey Tito's grandeur but felt mannered against the more immediate performances of the other cast members. There was little sense of Tito's personal crises and Mas struggled somewhat in the passagework in Tito's big Act Two aria.

Frances Gregory made an engaging Annio, somewhat anxious and rather soft-grained of tone yet never reticent. Touching with Jessica Lawley's Servilia in Act One, she made a strong impression in her scene with Sesto at the opening of Act Two. Jessica Lawley was a discreet Servilia, yet she had the strength to say 'no' to Tito in Act One then in Act Two her aria was touching indeed. Samson Setu made a strongly characterful Publio, impressing in his aria.

Adrian Kelly and the orchestra brought a fleetness and lightness to the music, keeping the drama flowing, with fine clarinet solos in Sesto and Vitellia's arias. Kelly ensured that the remarkable final scenes in Act One made their dramatic impact. That the end of Act Two did not have quite the same effect was partly down to Xavier Mas's Tito not quite engaging our sympathies.

Overall this was a impressive achievement. More than simply a concert, the performance showed Mozart's opera as drama bringing out the strengths of the ensembles and accompanied recitatives.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: Britten from Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival - review
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Against a backdrop of fear, surveillance and political violence, the play explores the absurdity of tyranny, the courage of resistance and the enduring power of art to speak truth when words cannot.

2026-07-17T15:59:36.871+01:00

A new play which premieres at Park Theatre on 27 August and runs until 10 October, is set to explore the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich. Holy Fool by Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers explores the tightrope he walked to stay in favour with Stalin, whilst resisting his tyrannical regime through music.

The play spans roughly 1936 to 1973, beginning with Stalin's attendance at Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Bolshoi and the subsequent denunciation that transformed Shostakovich's life. It then follows him through the years of censorship, war, political pressure and artistic compromise, right through to the later years of his life.

Rather than a conventional biographical drama, the play is about the moral choices artists face under authoritarian rule, and asks whether survival itself can become a form of resistance.

Shostakovich's music plays a central role in the drama, not just Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk but Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9. The long-suppressed Fourth Symphony becomes an important dramatic thread running through the play, representing both his artistic integrity and the personal cost of creating under Stalin's regime.

The play came about partly as a result of Rosalind Adler working on a play with Simon Russell Beale in mind. A meeting with him in his dressing room led her to ask him, "What subject would interest you more than any other?" His reply was instant: "Shostakovich."

Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers had already worked together on other projects and found they enjoyed collaborating. Whilst neither knew more than a bare minimum about Shostakovich, Sellers' degree was in Russian Studies and she also has a musical family. But the work also included mountains of research.

Rosalind Adler comments that "We enjoyed the picture that emerged of a generous, anxious, shy, brave man. We also fell in love with his music, both as an expression of his deepest self and as a response to the times he lived in. Our play is full of music...The more we felt deeply involved in Shostakovich's life and relationships, the more we relished working on the play. While being faithful to the facts, so many of which are dramatic in themselves, we also chose to test the character by pitting him against challenges and characters we invented."

Dramaturg Ali Bodin-Saphir also worked on tightening the script, and Kate Fahy directs.

Full details from the Park Theatre website.

Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons

2026-07-15T09:59:10.061+01:00

Vasily Petrenko’s Academy for Young Conductors in Yerevan, Armenia (Photo: © Primavera Foundation of Armenia)

Vasily Petrenko’s Academy for Young Conductors takes place each year in Yerevan, Armenia. The Academy brings together Vasily Petrenko, Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and a select group of emerging conductors from around the world for an intensive week of masterclasses, individual tuition and orchestral work with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. This year, the orchestra marks its centennial anniversary, making the 2026 edition a particularly significant occasion.

Following the success of his 2026 Academy for Young Conductors, Vasily Petrenko reflects on what it takes to shape the next generation of conductors – and what he wishes he’d been taught in his early years.

"This week, as I wrapped up the Academy for Young Conductors in the Armenian capital of Yerevan for another year, I was struck by a recurring thought: I wish something like this had been organised when I was a student conductor. The moments I have seen across the last four days when Academy participants were able to ask questions openly and get proper answers would have been immensely valuable to me as a developing conductor – they might even have cut my journey of musical development significantly shorter. That’s what the Academy for Young Conductors is about: using what I’ve learned over decades of experience on the conductor’s podium to nurture young conductors and support their growth. Not everyone has to learn ‘the hard way’.

"Since we launched the Academy in 2024, recognition of the programme has grown – we received applications from 22 countries this year – and the support we offer has grown with it. Participants on the 2026 programme rehearsed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra who co-organised the course alongside the Primavera Foundation Armenia and I. We have been working together across the last two years (and beyond) to help young musicians develop and progress to next stage of their career – and, ultimately, their life.

Vasily Petrenko (Photo: Ben Wright)

"In today’s world, there is unfortunately not enough attention paid to culture and, because of that, budgets tighten and it is more and more difficult for orchestras and concert organisations to take risks. These organisations, therefore, end up offering fewer and fewer chances for the young conductors. My Academy offers a rare chance for developing conductors to be gain visibility on the world stage here in Armenia.

"As well as supporting the country’s future conductors, the Academy works to nurture Armenia’s audiences of tomorrow too, with the Academy’s gala concert free to attend and specifically aimed at young people. We feel the future generation is key to promoting classical music, promoting conducting – and music – as a career.

"The Academy’s deep roots in Armenia are hugely significant – both for me as a conductor, and for what we’re able to offer. I first visited the country in the 1980s and was immediately struck by the warmth and hospitality of its people. This year, five out of six Academy participants were visiting Armenia for the first time, so the Primavera Foundation Armenia organised a sightseeing tour – it was all they talked about the following day.

"For me, travel has always been a source of enrichment for both my cultural understanding and my musical development: beyond the notes, a conductor has to learn a lot about context and history. We learn about each composer’s life, when each piece was written, why it was written, what the composers wanted to say – not just musically, but philosophically and historically. I began travelling at a very young age, first in a boys’ choir, and then later on as a singer and a conductor. To me, every trip was a chance for me to reach other cultures, see other traditions, other ways of life. This diversity of cultures in the world is what makes our planet so unique. I hope travel has enriched this year’s Academy participants too. As well as their experience with a professional orchestra and my advice, what I hope participants take away from their time at the academy is a piece of the culture of Armenia – and of its rich cultural and classical heritage – and I hope they will share it with the world.

"Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning. Every day we're trying to be better than yesterday, and through the Academy for Young Conductors we’re working to make that learning process easier to progress through. Since our launch in 2024, our goals have remained the same - but we now have a clearer vision of how we can support even more young musicians.

"In the future, I would like our programme to grow into a wider Academy for young musicians and perhaps even a festival, something like Verbier, Aspen or Tanglewood. With our committed co-organisers, and talented participants – particularly those hailing from Armenia – it’s just a matter of time."

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus

2026-07-14T11:33:36.599+01:00

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis)

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde; Peter Wedd, Catharine Woodward, Catherine Carby, Robert Hayward, Alistair Miles, director: Carmen Jakobi/Guido Martin-Brandis, conductor: Anthony Negus; Longborough Festival Opera
Reviewed 12 July 2026

An Isolde who prized tonal beauty, a vividly intense and heroic Tristan welded into a compelling performance where detailed personen regie was allied to strong musical values and an admirable lack of irritating concepts

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde was premiered in Munich in 1865 with Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the title roles. Their being husband and wife solving one of the work's problems - that the story and Wagner's treatment of it was considered somehow improper! But this was Wagner's first attempt at staging the work, even the well-funded Hofoper in Vienna had failed. Despite over 70 rehearsals between 1862 and 1864, Vienna entirely failed to stage the opera.

The confounding thing about Tristan und Isolde was not so much its length: works by Halévy and Meyerbeer at the Paris Opera lasted as long. But even Meyerbeer's Le prophète (the success of which Wagner both despised and envied), with its taxing tenor lead role, had long stretches when the tenor did not sing, the focus turning to other characters or large scale ensembles.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Ludwig & Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld - Hofoper, Munich 1865

Tristan und Isolde has none of these, Wagner's focus is largely on the two protagonists and the early attempts to stage it fell because singers struggled to learn the roles and the number of requisite voices able to sing them was probably small. Tristan requires a very different type of stamina to the Meyerbeer's large tenor roles, though later in the 19th century a tenor like Jean de Reske would sing both Meyerbeer and Wagner in the same season [see my 2015 review of Karen Henson's book Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteeth Century].

Longborough Festival Opera's production of Tristan und Isolde (its first ever) debuted in 2015, the product of the husband and wife team of director Carmen Jakobi and conductor Anthony Negus. Revived in 2017, it returned this year (seen 12 July 2026) with Guido Martin-Brandis as associate director. Peter Wedd returned to Tristan (a role he sang here in 2015 and 2017) and Catharine Woodward made her role debut as Isolde. Catherine Carby was Brangäne, Robert Hayward was Kurwenal, Alistair Miles was King Mark, Brian Smith Walters was Melot, Peter Bronder was the shepherd. Designs were by Kimie Nakano. Lucy Cullingford was movement director and intimacy coordinator.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd, Catharine Woodward - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis)

There have evidently been changes to the production since 2015 and what we saw this year combined simple yet effective abstract stage pictures with strong and detailed personenregie. The produced was admirably free of concepts. An intimacy coordinator was credited, so even before the first notes of the prelude we knew this was not one of those productions where Tristan and Isolde never actually touch. In fact, I felt that the maker's of Catharine Woodward's non-smudge lipstick deserved their own credit. Costumes were atmospheric and non-specific, though there was something evocative of The Last Samurai about Peter Wedd's outfit.

From the opening notes of the prelude it was clear that Anthony Negus and the orchestra brought both shape and direction to the music. Negus never made the mistake of getting lost in the beauties of individual phrases, this was about whole paragraphs with the end of each act clearly in sight at the beginning.

Act One is about Isolde's rage and oh boy did Catharine Woodward do furious intensely well. This Isolde was clearly aristocratic, poised and stylish with a nice line in put downs. There was a bright clarity and warmth to Woodward's voice, she relished beauty of tone, and we were never aware of the effort it took to make the vocal lines sound so appealing. It helped that in Anthony Negus she had a wonderfully supportive partner.

Catherine Carby sang Brangäne in this production in 2015. Her Brangäne was ardent and youthful so that the scene between her and Catharine Woodward's Isolde became compelling drama.

Peter Wedd's tenor had a dark baritonal quality without compromising the top. In Act One, this Tristan was very much a grizzled veteran, and it was clear that he was already very much in love with Isolde, so the love potion simply released what was already present. It is a long time since I have seen and account of the final scene to Act One that was as compelling as this. Wedd and Woodward had us on the edge of our seats whilst making the music soar.

For both Act One and Act Two, Robert Hayward made a gruff, supportive, older Kurwenal, care for his master tempered by a brusque manner.

The detailed personenregie really paid off in this production, these were real people not archetypes and throughout the opera Jakobi was clearly able to enliven the stage with details. So that, for instance Brian Smith Walters' silent entry as Melot at the end of Act One made much sense of the later drama.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Catherine Carby, Catharine Woodward - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis)

In Act Two, Carby made Brangäne's injunctions for Isolde to take care into something that really mattered. So the scene between her and Woodward's wide-eyed, ardent Isolde took on real significance rather than simply being the prelude to the love scene.

The love scene is long: yes, Wagner does structure it but the challenged is what to do with the singers over such a long span. Initially, in the instrumental sections Wedd and Woodward were all over each other but later on the staging became more conceptual. There were, however, moments when you felt the body chorography had been developed in 2015 on a very different Isolde and you wished time had been available to restage it so that the scene really flowed with Wedd and Woodward.

However, musically things were near mesmerising from start to finish. The ardency of Woodward's tone matched by the intensity and sheer feeling of Wedd's Tristan. Whilst Woodward's Isolde radiated ardent rapture and beauty of tone, Wedd's Tristan was more robust, focusing on individual words and phrases, the slight gruffness of tone lending character and contrasting with Woodward. The end of the love duet was as close to coitus interruptus as it might be possible in the theatre.

From his first entry, Alistair Miles's King Mark was tall, controlled, rigid and well fierce. Miles made every word count and turned the screw admirably. This led naturally to the moment when Tristan asked Isolde if she will follow where he is going.

There was little that was mystical here. Wedd's Tristan was a broken man, one whose world had collapsed and he saw no other way. Woodward's Isolde, however was almost radiant. The ending saw Tristan effective walk into Melot's sword with Smith Walters making a strong impression as Melot (he is covering Tristan during the run).

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd, Robert Hayward, Peter Bronder - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis)

The opening of Act Three is Kurwenal's and Robert Hayward really came into his own here. On complete display was the man's care for Tristan, his disdain (perhaps dislike) for Isolde, his amour propre as a fighting man and something approaching tenderness. With a youthful Kurwenal the homoerotic possibilities of this scene are striking, but Hayward managed to suggest these in a different context and the results really tugged the heart strings. And though Hayward might have projected a gruff, bluff image, but tonally he was focussed an expressive.

Tristan's climactic final scene was, of course, given complete. Wedd's performance was tireless and heroic, in control until the very end. His was a highly histrionic approach to the scene; throughout the opera this Tristan had been very vigorous, very much the action man. This was allied to great tonal variation, Wedd giving importance not so much to line as expressivity and colour. At times, it felt almost too much, and I would have preferred less histrionics, but faced with such a commanding account of the role it feels complaint is unnecessary.

Alistair Miles made King Mark's speech into something profoundly moving, however the sudden eruption of Jacobean-revenge-tragedy-style killing seemed to break the mood unnecessarily.

However, Catharine Woodward's account of the final Liebestod was in many ways transcendent. Aiming for radiance and an element of transfiguration, Woodward drew out a surprising amount of tonal beauty to crown a fine, compelling performance.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd, Alistair Miles, Catharine Woodward - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis)

The chorus was hard-working throughout. Their choruses in Act One were admirably vigorous with Tobias Campos as the sailor and Fraser Robinson as the helmsman. Later Peter Bronder brought a touching solicitude to the shepherd, now an older man.

In the pit, Anthony Negus and the orchestra were very much as one. Yes, the strings sometimes lacked an element of ideal tonal beauty, but this was a Tristan und Isolde where you felt every gesture was thought through and meant something.

Never miss out on future posts by following us

The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.

Elsewhere on this blog

Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: Britten from Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating evening - opera review
Exploring Sullivan's range & experiencing how he evolves artistically: conductor John Andrews on his continuing exploration of the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan including a new disc of songs - interview
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Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella

2026-07-14T09:24:22.136+01:00

John Wilson & Sinfonia of London at Cheltenham Town Hall, Cheltenham Music Festival
(Photo: Still Moving Media for Cheltenham Festivals)

Sullivan, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Richard Rodney Bennett, Walton, Eric Coates, Elgar, Haydn Wood, Robert Farnon, Vivian Ellis; Sinfonia of London, John Wilson; Cheltenham Music Festival at Cheltenham Town Hall
Reviewed 11 July 2026

Eric Coates rarely performed Cinderella Phantasy was the climax of a delightful summer programme benefitting from the way John Wilson and the orchestra combined technique with style and enjoyment

Last year, Cheltenham Music Festival celebrated its 80th anniversary, bringing the festival to a close with a concert where Gergely Madaras and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales explored music performed at the first festival and music commissioned by the festival, with Elgar, Arnold and Britten [see my review]. For the final concert of this year's festival on Saturday 11 July 2026 at Cheltenham Town Hall, John Wilson conducted his Sinfonia of London. If the 2025 concert was an exploration of British music in the 20th century, the John Wilson and his orchestra seemed to offer an alternative view, taking us from Sullivan and Elgar, through Delius's The walk to the Paradise Garden, Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending (with Charlie Lovell-Jones), and Walton, to Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Farnon, Haydn Wood, Vivian Ellis and Eric Coates ending with a rare performance of Coates's tone poem Cinderella.

We began with Sir Arthur Sullivan's overture to The Yeoman of the Guard, one of the few Savoy Opera overtures that Sullivan actually wrote. This is music that benefits from being played by a fine orchestra. Here Sullivan's orchestration sparkled, everything crisp and clear: light strings, classy wind, fine-toned brass and vivid excitement.

In his spoken introduction to the concert John Wilson said for him the best definition of light music was that 'the tune is more important than what you do with it'. What followed in the first half was less light music than composers in more approachable mode.

In its original context in Delius's opera A Village Romeo and Juliet, where it forms an interlude whilst the protagonists walk to the pub before committing suicide, Delius's The walk to the Paradise Garden is hardly light. You wonder if it would have done so well as an independent piece if the pub name had been Crown & Anchor rather than Paradise Garden!

John Wilson took an admirably clear-sighted view of the work, all clarity and focus, clear lines, sophisticated phrasing and admirable lack of romantic gloss. All beginning with barely there strings and a fine oboe solo.

Richard Rodney Bennett wrote Summer Music for flute and piano in 1982, an example of his more approachable, tonal style and he later orchestrated the work. In three short movements, there was a distinct neo-classical feel to the piece. First a flute-led, lightly jaunty movement, delightfully sophisticated with a real tune. Then a slower, more blues-inflected movement that veered into big romantic film music territory, and finally a jaunty movement with a distinct gleam in its eye.

Charlie Lovell-Jones, the orchestra's leader, took the spotlight in Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending. In his opening cadenza, Lovell-Jones made the violin flourishes quite swift, his tone fine-grained, focused and singing. It became clear that neither Lovell-Jones nor Wilson viewed the piece with rose-coloured spectacles and the performance was all the better for this sense of clarity and intimacy. The faster, folk-inspired section was engaging with controlled excitement. Then the orchestra evaporated to barely there for Lovell-Jones's final, off-stage solo. Pure magic.

The first half ended with William Walton in film music mode: his Spitfire Prelude and Fugue, sophisticated music originally written to accompany a film about the first spitfires! The prelude was all discipline and excitement alongside tonal beauty and terrific brass playing. There was a sense of vivid glamour and crisp rhythms in the fugue, with a magical, lyrical middle section.

We began the second half with Eric Coates's well known march, Calling All Workers. The work was premiered at Cheltenham Town Hall by the BBC Theatre Orchestra (the predecessor of the BBC Concert Orchestra) in 1940. Like a lot of British light music of the 20th century, the work is intimately linked to the medium of radio. There results here were exciting with vivid, controlled rhythms.

Elgar wrote Chanson de Matin and Chanson de Nuit around the time he was working on Enigma Variations. These are no early pot-boilers. Originally written for violin and piano, they were deliberately designed to be approachable and saleable, sophisticated salon music that would be popular with amateurs. Sinfonia of London gave Chanson de Matin with style and love whilst Chanson de Nuit had surprising depth and became rather touching.

Haydn Wood was a contemporary of Eric Coates. His London Landmarks suite depicts three London scenes, honing in on a contemporary vogue (Coates wrote a similar suite). Here we heard The Horseguards in Whitehall, a delightful piece where the performance captured the work's spirit along with the players sense of enjoyment.

Canadian-born Robert Farnon became a later, interestingly transatlantic thread in 20th century British light music. His Lake of the Woods is an early work, inspired by his native Canadian landscape. Misty harmonies paid homage to 20th century music developments yet created some lovely aural effects. High atmospheric with perhaps a touch of Delius.

Vivian Ellis is better known for his musicals but his train-inspired piece Coronation Scot (actually written on the less euphonious Cornish Riviera Express) became well-known when used at the signature tune for the BBC Radio series, Paul Temple. Full of train effects, it was delightful, light yet imaginative.

Eric Coates had a distinguished career as a viola player with the Queens Hall Orchestra, working with such luminaries as Richard Strauss, Debussy and Beecham. His Cinderella Phantasy was the third of his fairy-tale inspired tone poems, with Coates using his sophisticated orchestration skills to present a narrative in every way a match for Strauss's storytelling in works like Don Juan or Don Quixote (in which Coates performed the viola solos with Pablo Casals as solo cello).

Wilson gave us a highly amusing yet very informative potted summary of the work, just to ensure maximum narrative clarity. Coates use of the orchestra is delightful, and he clearly relished this style of tonal story telling, plus a few bangers when it came to tunes. The first waltz at the ball was delightful and then when the Prince and Cinderella dance we had a lovely slow waltz that eventually got faster and faster until....!

There were hints of melodrama, touches of schmaltz and lots of fine detail. This might be light music, but it is technically demanding, and the performance benefitted from the way the orchestra combined technique with style and enjoyment. The final section became almost a pot-pourri of earlier themes, leading to a vivid end.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: Britten from Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating evening - opera review
Exploring Sullivan's range & experiencing how he evolves artistically: conductor John Andrews on his continuing exploration of the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan including a new disc of songs - interview
American themes at Aldeburgh: a quartet by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & an absorbing orchestral programme highlighting Elizabeth Ogonek - review
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There is no iceberg, no skeleton key; Finnegans Wake is not a cipher. It is only itself.

2026-07-10T15:48:42.738+01:00

A drawing of Joyce (with eyepatch) by Djuna Barnes from 1922,
the year in which Joyce began the 17-year task of writing Finnegans Wake

"Finnegans Wake has been ill-used by approaches that attempt to 'decode' it through what is absent: in ignorance of the sheer joy that the language embodies. There is no iceberg, no skeleton key; Finnegans Wake is not a cipher. It is only itself", opines composer Alastair White thus giving us an intriguing lead-in to his ambitious thirteen-year project to create a cycle of works based on James Joyce's epic, modernist novel.

White's project is intended to lead up to the work's centenary in 2039 (!) It is worth bearing in mind, however, that Joyce took 17 years to complete Finnegans Wake: he started sketching in 1922 and the work was finally published in book form in 1939. Joyce died twenty months later in Zürich, on 13 January 1941.

As an initial line in the sand, white is presenting the opening concert of the cycle, Finnegans Wake: Here Comes Everybody at the London Irish Centre on Saturday 5 September 2026.

This first instalment — a one-hour reimagining of an operatic overture — is performed by veteran avant-gardists Roger Redgate and Ensemble Éxposé. Ensemble Exposé was formed in 1984 by the composers Richard Barrett, Roger Redgate and Michael Finnissy, and is recognised for championing the most challenging of contemporary music.

Full details from the London Irish Centre's website.

Full circle: Blackheath Halls Community Opera celebrates 20 years with a return 'Carmen', the opera that launched the company

2026-07-10T09:39:47.273+01:00

Twenty years ago, Blackheath Halls launched an ambitious annual community opera project with a production of Bizet's Carmen. This September, the project returns to the opera that started it all, celebrating two decades of creativity, collaboration and community.

The company has never been one to shy away from a challenge. Last year they presented Gluck's rarely staged Iphigenia in Tauris [see my review] and other works have included Bernstein's Candide [see my review], Blow's Venus and Adonis [see my review], Mozart's Idomeneo, and Weber's Der Freischütz (The Magic Bullets).

For the 20th anniversary production, Carmen will be directed by Harry Fehr and conducted by Christopher Stark [the team responsible for Blackheath's production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana in 2024, see my review] with performances from 20 to 27 September 2026. Mezzo-soprano Katie Bray will make her role debut as Carmen with Oliver Johnston as Don Jose [he sang Turiddu in Blackheath's Cavalleria Rusticana], Chuma Sijeqa as Escamillo and Meeta Raval as Micaela. The production brings together professional opera singers, Trinity Laban vocal students, community orchestra and a community chorus of local performers aged 8 to 80+, including students from partner school Charlton Park Academy, a Special Academy for students with complex special educational needs.

Blackheath Halls Community Opera has welcomed thousands of people from across south-east London since 2007, creating an extraordinary intergenerational community brought together through opera. Several members of this year's community chorus and orchestra also performed in the very first production of Carmen, and they are returning to the stage alongside first-time participants.

Tom Butler, who is performing Morales, sang in the Blackheath Halls Opera chorus as a child, and he is currently studying at the Royal Academy Opera School at the Royal Academy of Music. He comments:

"Blackheath Halls is pretty much the entire reason that I’ve gone into opera - I sang in multiple productions as part of the children’s chorus, and as one of Noah’s Sons in Britten’s 'Noye’s Fludde', then again in the chorus as a teenager for Weber’s 'The Magic Bullets'.

My brother also sang in the children’s chorus before me and my Dad now sings in the chorus every year, so it’s a big part of my life, and I’ve gone to see the opera every year! It’s thrilling to be able to return as a principal, and I’m honoured to be involved again."

Full details from Blackheath Halls' website.

New research links Handel's organist in Dublin with the Scottish fiddler & composer Charles Macklean

2026-07-09T11:34:10.893+01:00

Dr Aaron McGregor (Photo: Campbell Parker)

Advertisements for Handel's performances in Dublin in 1741 and 1742 (when he premiered Messiah) give the name of his organist as “Mr M’Lean” or “Mr Maclaine” and that is all we knew.

Until now, when research by Dr Aaron McGregor of the University of Aberdeen has linked this figure with an 18th-century Scottish fiddler and composer, Charles Macklean, thanks in part to documents arising from Macklean's complex marital history.

Dr McGregor explains: "Charles Macklean has always been a fascinating but somewhat shadowy figure in Scottish musical history. He appears in north-east Scotland as a music teacher, establishes himself among Edinburgh’s leading musicians, produces some remarkable Scottish fiddle music and publishes a collection of violin sonatas, but then seems to disappear from the historical record. Once I started to delve into the sources, the project grew enormously."

Dr McGregor originally began investigating Macklean because of his connections to north-east Scotland, where he taught and was later appointed master of Aberdeen’s music school. Macklean was already known to scholars of Scottish music as a violinist and composer of Scots tunes and Italianate sonatas, but his wider career and connections beyond Scotland remained largely unexplored.

Central to the discovery was a complex legal petition compiled by Macklean’s wife, Jean Larini, after he abandoned her, and she needed to prove the validity of their marriage. The daughter of a celebrated 18th-century acrobat noted for her ability to perform on a rope, Larini belonged to a travelling performance troupe in which Macklean himself appears to have been involved during the early part of his career.

The document brought together detailed testimony about Macklean’s travels, employment and personal life, thus allowing Dr McGregor to make the connection to Dublin and Handel, placing Macklean in Handel’s professional circle during the composer’s celebrated Irish season of 1741–42, which culminated in the premiere of Messiah.

Research also uncovered evidence linking Macklean romantically and professionally with the soprano Christina Maria Avolio, one of Handel’s leading singers. Avolio later appeared in Dublin, where records suggest she performed under the name 'Mrs McLean'. There is evidence that Macklean and Christina Maria Avolio were living together in Edinburgh by 1741, with Macklean’s profession recorded as an organist.

Dr McGregor has completed a scholarly article on Macklean’s life and work, further details from the University of Aberdeen website.

The research also informs a performance at the Glasgow Barons Early Music Festival, taking place at Govan Old Parish Church on 24 July. The performance will launch the new early music ensemble The Curious Collection, featuring Dr McGregor on violin alongside soprano Mhairi Lawson, cellist Alison McGillivray, and harpsichordist William Cole. Further details from the ensemble's website.

Upping its game: 10th anniversary Windsor Festival International String Competition concludes with concerto finale with orchestra for the first time

2026-07-09T09:27:24.424+01:00

The 2026 Windsor Festival International String Competition (WFISC) is the 10th anniversary competition and for this WFISC is upping its game and introducing a concerto final. The competition runs from 27 September to 2 October 2026 with semi-finals on 29 and 30 September and then the final on 2 October.

The final will allow the final three competitors to perform a complete concerto with full orchestra, selecting a concerto from a set list that includes works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky (violin), Stamitz, Hoffmeister, and Walton (viola) and Haydn, Schumann, and Elgar (cello).

The first prize includes a cash prize, a solo recording opportunity with WFISC recording partner Champs Hill Records, a concerto performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in Windsor Castle during the 2027 Windsor Festival and further concerto performances with the orchestra on tour. Another first for WFISC is a concerto commission from Sally Beamish, and world premiere London performance with Orpheus Sinfonia in 2027.

The Windsor Festival was founded in 1969 with Yehudi Menuhin and Ian Hunter as Artistic Directors. Based around the participation of the Menuhin Festival Orchestra with Yehudi Menuhin using St George's Chapel, the State Apartments of Windsor Castle and other venues around Windsor and Eton. WFISC was launched in 2008, in memory of festival founder, and violinist, Yehudi Menuhin and recent winners include: Jiyoon Lee, Nathan Meltzer, Jonathan Swensen and Daniil Bulayev.

The competition is open to all violinists, violists, and cellists, aged 16-26, of all nationalities and the closing date for applications is 29 July 2026. Full details regarding eligibility, timeline, repertoire requirements, and the application process can be found on the official website.

The Bridgewater Hall celebrates its 30th birthday drawing together various strands of Manchester's music making

2026-07-07T13:27:45.000+01:00

The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester is celebrating its 30th birthday! The opening concert was on 11 September 1996 and the hall has just announced a celebratory 2026/27 season.

Manchester's historic concert venue, the Free Trade Hall (which was built in 1853-56 on the site of the Peterloo Massacre) was damaged in World War Two and patched up in the 1950s. It remained a somewhat unsatisfactory concert venue until the Bridgewater Hall's plans came to fruition. The new hall is named for the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater whose eponymous canal runs through Manchester (and is often described as the first great achievement of the canal age). Ironically, the Bridgewater Hall actually sits on a specially constructed arm of the Rochdale Canal!

Almost to the day there is a 30th anniversary concert which brings together various strands of Manchester's music making including guest artists Rowetta, Matt Wilde, Banksie, Roberto and Vulva Voce. The evening will also see the debut of the Greater Manchester Youth Orchestra which is being led artistically by Untold Orchestra, a Manchester-based collective known for innovative, genre-crossing orchestral work.

The BBC Philharmonic continues its season in the hall beginning with Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, and featuring Simone Young and pianist Cédric Tiberghien in Schumann's Konzertstück Op. 92 and Introduction and Concert Allegro Op. 134 plus Strauss's Alpine Symphony (quite a concert!), Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, Brahms' Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 4, and ending with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The Hallé Orchestra opens its bold season under music director Kahchun Wong with Thomas Adès, whose work These Premises Are Alarmed was premiered at the Hall's very first concert in 1996, returning as Principal Guest Conductor (see my season preview for further details)

The International Concert Series brings orchestras from Germany, Ukraine and Japan to Manchester alongside recitals, opera and chamber music, opening with The Sixteen and concluding with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd and the Goldmund Quartet.

Visiting orchestras include NDR Philharmonie Hannover under Stanislav Kochanovsky; Stuttgart Philharmonic with pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason; the London Philharmonic Orchestra pairing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (with Benjamin Grosvenor) with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10; Sinfonia of London under John Wilson in Walton’s Viola Concerto with Edgar Francis, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; the Ukrainian National Philharmonic Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar, and Osaka Philharmonic under Tadaaki Otaka with Viktoria Mullova in Prokofiev.

Opera North present Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and other visitors include pianist Angela Hewitt, Sir Karl Jenkins conducting The Armed Man, Freya Ridings, Katherine Jenkins, African Soul Rebels, Bellowhead and Rebecca Ferguson.

Associate Artist Jonathan Scott presents a season of lunchtime organ concerts celebrating 30 years of the Hall's Marcussen Concert Organ, while Manchester Midday Music - one of the UK's longest-running lunchtime concert series, founded in 1915 - returns for a full new season.

Further details from the hall's website.

Jacob was wrestling in the arms of a stranger: London Concord Singers to premiere Robert Hugill's 'Aubade & Love Song'

2026-07-07T10:28:26.241+01:00

Back in the late 1990s one of the origins for ideas for new musical works was the moment during mass when I tuned the homily out and my mind went into a sort of free association.

I sang in the Latin Mass choir at St Mary's Cadogan Street; both the choice of readings and the Gregorian chant that we sang fed into my musical ideas. Jacob wrestling with the angel (from Genesis) was one such moment.

A striking yet somewhat unsatisfactory image, the story has a tantalising, gnomic quality as if something was being missed out. There is, of course, a famous Gauguin painting inspired by the story, Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) now in the Scottish National Gallery, along with other interpretations by Rembrandt, and others.

And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over all that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. - Genesis 32

But my thoughts of 'what if' led to the idea of filling in the gaps in the story, making the wrestling a metaphor for something far more sexual. The result was Jacob and the Angel - a nocturne for choir and orchestra, which was premiered in June 1999 by my own choir, FifteenB, conducted by Paul Ayres with the Camerata Santa Dorotea.

The work is in five movements, the first and the last - Nocturne and Envoi - use my own text based on the Genesis story. The second movement, Ludus has a wrestling scene very much inspired by the one in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love, and following this are two movements setting lines from the Song of Songs - Aubade and Love Song. In both these latter, my selection of text deliberately focused on the more homo-erotic lines from the Song of Songs, and there are some remarkably spicy ones!

Following the premiere the piece rather lay fallow, a work I intended to come back to but never did. Then early this year, we were discussing the programme for London Concord Singers' 60th anniversary celebrations. My music has been a feature of the choir's programmes for a number of years, with the 50th anniversary and 40th anniversary programmes both including a premiere of one of my pieces. The choir's conductor, Gerard Lim, asked if I had any settings of the Song of Songs.

This was one of those moments when the gap between thought and deed was quite small. The two movements from Jacob and the Angel happen to be my only settings of the Song of Songs and the string accompaniment transferred to organ with relative ease. The resulting work, Aubade and Love Song is something more than a simple transcription. Decisions needed to be made about voicing and more, and then I decided to use material from the rest of the cantata to link the two original movements together.

The new/old work, Aubade and Love Song will be premiered at St Giles Cripplegate on Friday 10 July 2026 by London Concord Singers, conductor Gerard Lim, organist Hilary Punnett as part of a programme that includes Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe, Jonathan Dove's Seek Him That Maketh The Seven Stars, and music by Pierre Villette, Britten, Finzi, and Dowland.

Full details from TicketSource.

Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London

2026-07-06T10:38:36.146+01:00

Verdi: La traviata - Christian Joel, Isobel Hughes, Ted Day - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Verdi: La traviata; Lizzie Ryder, Christian Joel, Owain Gwynfryn, director: Edwina Strobl, music director: Adrian Salinero, St Paul's Opera; St Paul's Church, Clapham
Reviewed 4 July 2026

A varied and vivid incarnation of Violetta's demi-monde as punk with an upfront, take-no-prisoners account of the title role from Lizzie Ryder

The problem for any production of Verdi's La traviata is not so much that we no longer have a demi-monde but that its denizens, in the modern world, have changed radically from the 1850s. Period productions generally hide this culture clash behind nice frocks and few stagings manage to evoke the outrage that surrounded the first London performance of the work in 1856. Yet changes in attitudes mean that simply moving the setting to modern day rarely works, the culture clash just is not compelling enough.

In her production of Verdi's La traviata for St Paul's Opera, director Edwina Strobl's decision to choose a punk setting for Violetta's milieu might have had a big element of budgetary necessity (punk outfits come cheaper than big frocks), but it works in terms of dramaturgy and emotional journey.

We caught the final of St Paul's Opera's performances of Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Church in Clapham on Saturday 4 July 2026. Directed by Edwina Strobl and designed by Pin Chen with choreography by Agur Arrien, the work featured Lizzie Ryder as Violetta, Christian Joel as Alfredo, Owain Gwynfryn as Germont, Salome Siu as Flora and Rebecca Hart as Annina. Music director Adrian Salinerno directed a small instrumental ensemble.

Verdi: La traviata - Christian Joel, Ted Day, Lizzie Ryder, Salome Siu - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Designer Pin Chen's abstract set did admirable duty for all the opera's locations and having Violetta's bed raised up towards the rear of the stage in the final scene worked well. The set also successfully disguised the fact that we weren't actually in a theatre but a church. The costumes for the punks - effectively everyone but Alfredo (Christian Joel) and Germont (Owain Gwynfryn) - were varied and vividly imaginative with two or three having direct reference to Vivienne Westwood (later a Clapham resident), Malcolm McLaren and their circle.

The production set the action within the context of Violetta's funeral during the prelude, and throughout the opera Strobl's production used a great deal of the space including the church's Angelus bell.

There is no doubt that the whole company addressed the punk concept with engaging enthusiasm and wholesale vigour, but what made it work was Strobl's real eye for detail. Throughout, she made sure of her dramaturgy whether it be in the moment between the Barone (Ted Day) and Violetta (Lizzie Ryder) just before the Brindisi, or the way the entire scene between Germont (Owain Gwynfryn) and Violetta demonstrated the ever-present gulf between the two with no risk of getting mired in an added layer of sentimentality.

Verdi: La traviata - Lizzie Ryder, Owain Gwynfryn - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Lizzie Ryder (who sang Donna Anna in Hurn Court Opera's Don Giovanni in 2024, see our review) made a gutsy Violetta. This was an admirably upfront, take-no-prisoners performance that chimed in with Violetta's punk origins. Ryder's voice has an element of spinto metal to it and in the tricky church acoustic she could have afforded not to push quite so much. The coloratura in Act One, particularly the final scene, was admirable though it felt more 'fuck you' than implying any incipient hysteria. But it felt as if Act Two was Ryder's preferred home, the long final scenes working well. In Act Three her death was moving yet not sentimental. Perhaps she has not quite learned to pace this tricky scene and this Violetta took her time to die.

There was a formality and stiffness to Christian Joel's Alfredo that worked well in terms of the character and the setting, but I wanted him to have a moment when I felt the singer really set go. Joel's voice combined fluidity with a dry edge that gave his Alfredo a remarkable intensity. Anger came easily, this Alfredo was clearly tightly wound up and his outburst to his father at the end of Act Two, Scene One was very vivid. Ardency perhaps less so, but then this Alfredo was very much a fish out of water. Even in the opening scene of Act Two it was clear that Violetta's country residence was somewhat ramshackle, her 'servants' still her beloved punks, not exactly Alfredo's scene. But in the opera's closing scenes he did finally let rip.

We first saw Owain Gwynfryn as Sid in St Paul's Opera's 2022 production of Britten's Albert Herring (see my review). His Germont was an impressive creation. A tweed-wearing, stick-using country gentleman, the gulf between him and Violetta's punk demi-monde was never so obvious. Both Gwynfryn and Ryder ensured that this gulf was present throughout their scene. No matter how moving the music, these two characters remained either side of a significant divide. And for once, Germont's appearance and mode of dress at Flora's party was not dramatically risible. This Germont never quite relaxed or relented, the barrier between his country world and Violetta's punk demi-monde remained just too great. And that was what Verdi intended, wasn't it?

The supporting roles were all vividly taken, with the characters moving in and out of the wider ensemble, creating an engaging backdrop for the action.

Verdi: La traviata - end of Act Two - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Salome Siu made the most of Flora. Vocally the role is underdone but Siu leveraged everything to dramatic effect. Rebecca Hart was a gutsy Annina, taking no prisoners. Naveen Kanamarlapudi was a vocally distinguished Gastone if somewhat dramatically reticent. Ted Day made the Barone into a real piece of work and clearly had much fun doing it, whilst Thomas Rayner pulled Dr Grenvil's various appearances together into a dramatic whole. Isabel Hughes, Megan Artemova-Thomas and Llewllyn St David made strong work of the various servants.

The chorus (technically there were only three chorenes, the rest made up of the ensemble of eight) produced a vivid and gutsy sound. All concerned clearly had fund with the visuals and the characterisation. There were moments when it was a bit much in the church acoustic but what the hell! It was fun. Interestingly, in this highly coloured setting the entertainment at Flora's party became much less of a set piece and simply part of the action, which was probably how Verdi intended the scene.

Adrian Salinero directed the instrumental ensemble from the piano. The orchestral reduction by Emanuele Mazzola / Musical Beam worked well enough but the instrumental line-up - two violins, viola, cello, clarinet, flute - was a little top-heavy and the sound only really came together when Salinero added piano. We could have done with two or three more middle and lower instruments (double bass, bassoon, horn), though on a tight budget every note counts.

Verdi: La traviata - end of Act Three - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

This wasn't the perfect La traviata by any means. But the production successfully reinvented the work in a way that captured the imagination. And in this gusty and vivid performance we were involved from the word go.

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The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.

Elsewhere on this blog

Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece - opera review
It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: Britten from Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating evening - opera review
Exploring Sullivan's range & experiencing how he evolves artistically: conductor John Andrews on his continuing exploration of the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan including a new disc of songs - interview
American themes at Aldeburgh: a quartet by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & an absorbing orchestral programme highlighting Elizabeth Ogonek - review
Truly captivating: Nicola Alaimo & Carlo Rizzi celebrate Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project with Donizetti & Friends - concert review
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The colour of love: a film of Augusta Holmès's Au bois dormant celebrates lovers in Soho

2026-07-04T10:33:26.438+01:00

Irish-French composer Augusta Holmès's Au bois dormant from Paysages d’Amour is an uplifting song, full of joys the love-drunk lovers, and was recorded by tenor Thomas Elwin and pianist Lana Bode on the 2025 album le vase brisé [see my review]. Here the song forms the soundtrack to a lovely new film, released for Pride, which celebrates a pair of lovers, Ru Charlesworth and Michael Magennis, wandering around Soho, the colour of love gradually emerging in the film.

See on YouTube.

Carmen to the fore

2026-07-04T09:52:16.988+01:00

Bizet's perennially popular opera Carmen, a work capable of multiple reinventions, is popping up in two UK regional productions. Northern Ireland Opera has announced cast and creatives for its first-ever production of Carmen which debuts at Belfast's Grand Opera House on 12 September 2026. Before then, Devon Opera present Carmen at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter on 24 July.

Northern Ireland Opera's production of Carmen is directed by the company's artistic director, Cameron Menzies [read my 2023 interview with him], with Greg Arrowsmith as musical director (he was the musical director for the company's production of Sondheim's Follies last year). The production is very much a reinvention with Arrowsmith creating arrangements for an on-stage instrumental quintet who will perform in partnership with the orchestra in the pit.

Don Jose and Carmen are played by American guests, Noah Stewart who is no stranger to these shores and Ruby Dibble, Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition national finalist. Local talent includes soprano Mary McCabe as Micaëla, mezzo-soprano Jenny Bourke as Mercédès and soprano Petra Wells as Frasquita.

Further details from the Grand Opera House website.

Founded as New Devon Opera in 2004 with an amateur chorus, Devon Opera now produces full professional performances in the original language. The company's production of Carmen is directed by Anna Gregory, with Pavel Timofeyeski as music director. Don Jose and Carmen are played by Matthew Curtis and Emma Roberts. Curtis was Lensky in HGO's recent production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Roberts was awarded the 2nd prize for Bampton 2025 Young Singers Competition.

Further details from Devon Opera's website.

Saxophones in the City: saxophonist Jess Gillam invites saxophonists & clarinettists to come & play for massed event as part of CBSO in the City festival

2026-07-01T12:31:32.553+01:00

CBSO at New Street Station as part of CBSO in the City, 2024 (Photo: Hannah Fathers)

As part of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)’s 2026 CBSO in the City festival (27 to 31 August), CBSO Collaborative Artist Jess Gillam is inviting the next generation of Birmingham’s musical talent to ‘come and play’ as part of a new initiative.

Birmingham-based saxophonists and clarinettists will have the chance to rehearse and perform with Jess Gillam. She will lead amateur musicians in a rehearsal session on Saturday 29 August, before performing with the massed saxophone and clarinet ensemble in the city-centre’s vibrant waterside gathering spot, Brindleyplace.

Keen musicians of all ages are invited to sign up on the CBSO website before midday on 20 July. Rehearsal sessions will take place on the morning of Saturday 29 August at the CBSO Centre, while the performance will take place that afternoon in Brindleyplace.

The CBSO’s annual Birmingham-wide CBSO in the City festival returns for 2026 with five days of free music running from Thursday 27 to Monday 31 August across the summer bank holiday weekend. The 2026 programme will present performances from full orchestral spectacles to duos, quartets and free family concerts.

Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece

2026-06-26T10:55:33.857+01:00

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Zheng Jiang, Owen Willetts, Jess Dandy - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto; Tim Mead, Sarah Brady, Jess Dandy, Zheng Jiang, James Atkinson, director: David Alder, Early Opera Company, conductor Christian Curnyn; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 25 June 2026

Superbly satisfying musical performances all round from a cast who enter with a will into director David Alden's eclectic vision, clearly responding to his approach no matter how scattershot the ideas.

When watching modern productions of Handel's Giulio Cesare it is easy to get a bit blazé. But it is worth remembering quite how far we have come. New York City Opera's ground-breaking production of the work with Beverly Sills dazzling as Cleopatra and a bass Cesare (Norman Treigle), came in 1966, the first uncut performance (in modern times) with voices at the correct pitch was at the Barber Institute in Birmingham in 1972, then English National Opera's production directed by John Copley, conducted by Charles Mackerras with Janet Baker and Valerie Masterson came in 1978. This was cut, but sympathetically, and Copley's production was rather stately yet it demonstrated that this type of opera belonged in the modern opera house. By 2005, at Glyndebourne, David McVicar's production had the confidence to reinvent the work without doing it violence and we now had period instruments in the pit.

Veteran director David Alden's career has paralleled much of this timeline. He began directing at Opera Omaha in the 1970s and his first European production was Verdi's Rigoletto for Scottish Opera in the late 1970s (and yes, I was there). He became famous (infamous) for his productions at ENO during the powerhouse era and I remember his production of Handel's Ariodante as being a powerful example of the way modern theatre direction could be brought to Handel.

Alden's enthusiasm for Handel seems undimmed and the Grange Festival invited him to direct a new production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at this year's festival. It turns out to be the first time Alden has directed by work. We caught the final performance on 25 June 2026. Christian Curnyn conducted the Early Opera Company with Tim Mead as Giulio Cesare, Sarah Brady as Cleopatra, Hugh Cutting as Tolomeo, Jess Dandy as Cornelia, Zheng Jiang as Sesto, James Atkinson as Achilla, Owen Willetts as Nireno, and Tristan Hambleton as Curio. Designs were by Jon Morrell, movement by Tim Claydon and lighting by Matthew Richardson. There was no chorus (the choral numbers were sung by the ensemble), but there was a movement group of five. Continuo was provided by Oliver John Ruthven (harpsichord), Eligio Quinteiro (theorbo) and Andrew Skidmore (cello).

Giulio Cesare is a long opera. When English Touring Opera performed it uncut in 2017 they spread it over two evenings (a brave experiment, see my review). At the Grange it was performed cut (of course) with one interval, mid-way through Act Two.

Alden and Morrell's approach to the work seems to have involved a lot of free association. Egypt, right? So Nireno (Owen Willetts) was a mummy, there were lots of Ancient Egyptian symbols, Tolomeo's (Hugh Cutting) garden was full of oppressive plants and dangerous animals (including snakes). When, at the end of Act Two, Sarah Brady's Cleopatra says she's dying (a metaphorical turn of phrase), the jackal-headed god appeared to row her to the underworld, and elsewhere in the opera she had a fascination with asps! Costumes were similarly eclectic with different frames of reference. Curio (Owen Willetts) was a real Roman centurion, but Cesare (Tim Mead) seemed stuck in the mid-20th century, whilst Sesto (Zheng Jiang) was a schoolboy who when girding himself for action, dressed as an American footballer!

The whole approach felt a bit scattershot, and rather reminded me of the worst of 1980s and 1990s opera direction. Some scenes were (deliberately) funny such as the musical chairs during Tolomeo and Cesare's first meeting. Other moments were found funny by the audience but I was unclear whether Alden intended this. The result was busy, with the stage nearly always full of colour and movement. The hardworking movement group were constantly used. Some decisions were clearly practical: the opening scenes of Act Three were played in front of the curtain because the set for Cesare's emergence from the sea was complex. Yet, given the curtain, Alden could not resist a series of gags with singers crawling under it and failing to find the split in the curtains. Not for the first time, I felt that non-English directors should be given a crash course in English humorous references (curtain gags are pure Morecambe & Wise).

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Hugh Cutting, Sarah Brady - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

What made the evening work for me was the sheer quality of the musico-dramatic performances. Whatever was happening on stage, and whatever you thought of it, Alden and Curnyn drew profoundly satisfying accounts from each of the soloists.

Tim Mead sang Cesare with an enviably full and even tone, making each of the arias a profoundly satisfying experience. He could swagger as well as the next man, but he was also giddily in love and made this opera's emphasis on Cesare the man work well. 'Va tacito' was superb (with terrific horn solo from Ursula Paludan Monberg), so much so that you rather regretted all the musical chairs shenanigans as detracting from this. Except that for all the chaos around him, Mead held our attention fully. Yet at the end of Act Two, when the attack comes, he was all vivid vigour and bravura. His reappearance in Act Three, on a pile of rubble, was touching and again Mead held our attention despite plenty of other goings on. All in all this was a most satisfying all round performance and I simply wanted more please. Can someone find a way for Tim Mead to sing the role complete!

Sarah Brady was announced as being unwell, but she sounded anything but. In her opening scene, she sparred admirably with the Tolomeo of Hugh Cutting. Here she cut an interestingly androgynous appearance but this was replaced by something more vamp-ish for 'Lidia'. Alden's approach to the character might be typified by Brady wearing a Louise Brooks type black bob wig. For the scenes with Tim Mead's Cesare she was very much the sloe-eyed vamp. What made this work was the electricity between Mead and Brady, so that unusually Cesare and Cleopatra's relationship fair crackled. 'V'adoro pupille' was in some ways disappointing. The nine solo instruments were simply in the pit (though the sounds were magical), and the visuals seemed to reference cabaret more than anything else. But Brady's performance was terrific. But then, with the attack on Cesare, Brady deepened the character. 'Per pieta' and 'Piangero' were both, in their way, completely knock out with barely a gimmick on stage. And Brady developed Cleopatra's character arc in a satisfying way so these were not just showpieces. Then at the end, after more sexy fun with Cesare, the pair dazzled.

Hugh Cutting was a delightfully slutty Tolomeo who, at times, seemed almost a villain out of a Batman film (particularly the green outfit which matched the plants in his garden). Cutting was clearly having great fun, but also managed to make the man creepy. And this was allied to a fine musical performance, demonstrating not only his technical skill with Handel but his confidence in building Handel's musico-dramatic world.

Jess Dandy, in a somewhat dowdy 1950s-style outfit, cut a conventional figure at first. Yet though sober and serious, she was feisty too and for a moment in Act One I wondered whether Alden was going to go down a less conventional dramatic route. This did not happen, but Dandy brought great variety to what can be a somewhat sombre character arc. Her duet of farewell with Zheng Jiang's Sesto was profoundly moving, yet as Act Two progressed, Dandy's Cornelia seemed to dissociate and by the end of the opera she was on the bottle. That said, towards the end of the opera you felt that Alden had lost interest in the Cornelia/Sesto character arc and when Sesto killed Tolomeo in Act Three it was done simply in dumb show.

Zheng Jiang made an engaging Sesto, creating an earnest and eager schoolboy. Jiang's tone was warm yet light, and definitely very fluent in the faster numbers. His approach to Sesto's bravura passagework had a lightness of touch and fleetness to it that made the character less intense than a full, female mezzo-soprano voice. Yet towards the end, denied a real dénouement, Jiang was left to posture wearing his American football costume.

The smaller roles were all very well taken. James Atkinson's performance as Achilla was such that we welcomed him getting both arias. Wearing uniform and full medals, this Achilla was visually over the top and Atkinson's vicious performance matched the cartoonish behaviour of his master, Tolomeo. Yet there was nothing cartoonish about Atkinson's singing and I hope he gets chance to sing some of Handel's more rewarding baritone roles in oratorio.

Owen Willetts proved admirably musical as Nireno, though hampered by his mummy get-up. Tristan Hambleton provided fine support as Curio and swaggered admirably in his Roman centurion's outfit.

In the pit, Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company gave a steady and secure account of the score, bringing out its richness without luxuriating. We benefitted from plenty of fine solo performances, not just the horn, but Catherine Martin's on-stage violin solo in Cesare's first solo in Act Two, and of course the various instruments for the muses in 'V'adoro pupille'.

No-one, whether singer or instrumentalist, gave any hint that they were performing on one of the hottest evenings on record. Whilst I found Alden's production somewhat too scattershot and with too much levity for my taste, the musical performances were all compelling.

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Sarah Brady, Tim Mead - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

At the end of the evening, Michael Chance (the company's outgoing artistic director, to whom the production is dedicated) asked the audience if they would support the production returning in a few years time for a longer run. The answer was a resounding yes.

But my thought is that the company ought give a vote of confidence to its audience's ability to appreciate Handelian opera seria. Present the opera starting an hour earlier, have two intervals and include 30 minutes more music, allowing us to see the characters in more depth. How about it?

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Elsewhere on this blog

It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in celebratory Turandot - review
Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: Britten from Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating evening - opera review
Exploring Sullivan's range & experiencing how he evolves artistically: conductor John Andrews on his continuing exploration of the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan including a new disc of songs - interview
American themes at Aldeburgh: a quartet by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & an absorbing orchestral programme highlighting Elizabeth Ogonek - review
Truly captivating: Nicola Alaimo & Carlo Rizzi celebrate Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project with Donizetti & Friends - concert review
A day at Aldeburgh: Lise Davidsen's Aldeburgh Festival début in Schubert and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande semi-staged - concert review
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It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in powerful, celebratory Turandot

2026-06-25T09:45:41.007+01:00

Puccini: Turandot - José de Eça - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Pablo Strong)

Puccini: Turandot; Anne Sophie Duprels, José de Eça, Fflur Wyn, Jihoon Kim, Robert, Burt, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Joseph Buckmaster, Zwakele Tshabalala, director: Eleanor Burke, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Naomi Woo; Opera Holland Park

A powerful evening from Opera Holland Park's chorus, youth chorus and the City of London Sinfonia who fill the auditorium with music, in a performance perhaps unsubtle at times yet always thrilling.

Puccini's Turandot is the only one of the composer's operas not performed at Opera Holland Park. To celebrate the company's 30th anniversary, the centenary of the first performance of Turandot and soprano Anne Sophie Duprels 25-year association with the company, Turandot was presented in a concert staging on Tuesday 23 June at Opera Holland Park. Naomi Woo conducted with Duprels as Turandot, José de Eça as Calaf, Fflur Wyn as Liu, Jihoon Kim as Timur, Robert Burt as Altoum, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Joseph Buckmaster and Zwakele Tshabalala as Ping, Pang and Pong, and Wonsick Oh as the Mandarin.

Though performed in a reduced orchestration the City of London Sinfonia spilled out of the pit and onto the stage (trumpets and trombones stage right, percussion with its array of tam-tams stage left). An expanded Opera Holland Park chorus sat on the main stage and sang from copies, and were joined at times by the Opera Holland Park Youth Chorus. This latter was formed in 2025 and this was its first appearance on one of OHP's operatic stagings.

Puccini: Turandot - Anne Sophie Duprels - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Pablo Strong)

From the outset, Naomi Woo shaped the opera commandingly and the orchestral sound filled the auditorium with colour and movement. Too much so, at times, frankly, as in the work's more intimate moments you felt that lack of a pit to cover the sound. This was a loud performance of a loud opera, and the quieter, more reflective passages could have done with being emphasised more. That said the orchestra and choral contributions were effectively the real highlights of the evening. For Turandot to work you need to be carried away by the whole, not just thrilled by 'Nessun dorma' and here Woo and her forces definitely blew us away.

There is a story about soprano Joan Sutherland meeting fellow soprano Pauline Tinsley backstage after one of Tinsley performances as Brunnhilde in The Ring. Tinsley was a soprano who famously made the journey from early Verdi heroines to Wagner and Strauss (she was a memorable Elektra). Sutherland asked Tinsley whether she thought Turandot was a lyric role, and Tinsley said she thought it was (Tinsley sang Turandot with Welsh National Opera in the late 1970s). Sutherland then turned to her husband, Richard Bonynge and said words to the effect of 'told you'. Sutherland famously recorded Turandot in 1972.

The accepted modern way of approaching the role is for Wagnerian and neo-Wagnerian sopranos to bring real heft to the part. Few if any, however, can manage the laser-like concentration and line of the ideal (listen to the live recordings from Covent Garden in 1937 with Eva Turner on YouTube).

It is clear that the role is on the edge of the possible for Anne Sophie Duprels, at least with an orchestra so vividly present as this one. And unlike many of the soloists, who sang from the fore-stage, she was largely confined to the main stage, behind the orchestra. We did not get the sort of icy, laser-like line that Turner gives us (and Sutherland, too, perhaps with help of the microphone). Instead, Duprels' Turandot was all fierce intensity allied to iron control. This was an impressive incarnation, even if not quite what we imagine.

Though billed as a concert staging, the soloists were all off the book and dressed with some thought. Duprels wore an off the shoulder black gown that seemed to hover between Sargent's Madame X, Gone with the Wind and Eva Peron! Throughout the riddle scene this sense of display and controlled fury were to the fore. This contrasted strongly with José de Eça's burnished, firm baritonal tenor in way that managed to work, and to thrill. Then in Act Three, she did not so much thaw as suddenly crack.

There was some minimal production, directed by Eleanor Burke. Largely this was simply efficient blocking, but there were quirks. We had a child Turandot (with a music box) who was present at the beginning and end of the opera. And, more disturbingly, during the closing scene there was something rather coercive about José de Eça's Calaf along with Duprels submission as Turandot. Burke seemed to be suggesting a reading that could be explored further.

José de Eça brought a firm, burnished baritonal quality to Calaf, singing with admirable firmness and cohesion. He could and did sing quietly, but these moments were rare. The performance, though admirable and with much to admire, narrowly missed being stentorian: I wanted more light and shade. However, in the great moments he did thrill and successfully conveyed the character's weird obsessiveness, almost controlling.

Fflur Wyn made a touching Liu, singing with moving sensitivity in her death scene. Earlier on she made 'Signore ascolata' into something beautifully touching. However, in these moments Puccini thins his orchestra out to allow the soprano space, but elsewhere in the opera soprano singing Liu has to find an element of spinto grit too. Wyn does not quite have this yet, and sensibly she did not force which meant that her contributions to the ensembles were a little recessed in terms of sound. But all in all it was a moving role debut.

There was little that was comic about Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Joseph Buckmaster and Zwakele Tshabalala as Ping, Pang and Pong. In Acts One and Three they were fierce rather forbidding figures, yet in their opening scene to Act Two they revealed a touching element of humanity. Robert Burt made a fine Altoum, bringing a real sense of personality to the role. As Timur, Jihoon Kim was duly rather noble in Act One, but in Act Three he dug far deeper and his closing scene was moving indeed. Wonsick Oh made a vibrant Mandarin, commanding in his presence and even manning the wind machine at times! Chorus member Jamie Formoy managed to die thrillingly as the Prince of Persia.

Eleanor Burke clearly has some interesting thoughts about Turandot and many of her solutions to the challenges of a concert staging were effective and thoughtful, but the stray points I mentioned earlier left you thinking that she has a more considered production of the opera in her.

In the programme book, George Hall contributed and admirably lucid account of the work's complex textual history. We heard it in the traditional version, i.e. Alfano's ending as revised and cut by Toscanini. I am not sure that the full Alfano ending has ever been staged in London (certainly it has been performed in concert, albeit rarely).

This was an evening where the music counted. For all the fine solo contributions it was the magnificent contribution of the chorus and orchestra that counted, along with Naomi Woo's commanding way with the score.

Never miss out on future posts by following us

The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.

Elsewhere on this blog

Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC NOW at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo - opera review
From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: Britten from Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival - review
Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating evening - opera review
Exploring Sullivan's range & experiencing how he evolves artistically: conductor John Andrews on his continuing exploration of the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan including a new disc of songs - interview
American themes at Aldeburgh: a quartet by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & an absorbing orchestral programme highlighting Elizabeth Ogonek - review
Truly captivating: Nicola Alaimo & Carlo Rizzi celebrate Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project with Donizetti & Friends - concert review
A day at Aldeburgh: Lise Davidsen's Aldeburgh Festival début in Schubert and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande semi-staged - concert review
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80th anniversary: the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates with its new season & music director Vasily Petrenko looks forward

2026-06-24T08:02:04.157+01:00

Vasily Petrenko (Photo: Ben Wright)

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has announced nearly sixty concerts in twelve venues as part of its plans for the 2026/27 season when the orchestra celebrates its 80th birthday.

The season is spread across multiple venues with concerts at Cadogan Hall (London), the Royal Albert Hall, Hull City Hall, Royal & Derngate (Northampton), The Hawth (Crawley), The Hexagon (Reading), Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, G Live (Guildford), the Royal Concert Hall (Nottingham), The Glasshouse (Gateshead) and the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall (London).

Music director Vasily Petrenko will be making his London debut at Cadogan Hall as well as conducting concerts at Hull City Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, The Glasshouse in Gateshead and The Hexagon in Reading. Petrenko conducts Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances – as well as conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at 80 concert to open the season.

The bicentenary of Beethoven's death sees the orchestra performing the Triple Concerto; Piano Concertos Nos.1, 4 and 5; the Violin Concerto; Symphonies Nos.5 and 9 and Egmont Overture. The season also includes six major works by Tchaikovsky.

The season will also feature four premieres: world premieres of Errollyn Wallen’s FLARE commissioned by the RPO for its 80th anniversary and Sun Sundered Head: Nocturne for Cello and Orchestra by Laurence Osborn. There will also be the UK premiere of Joe Hisaishi’s Concerto for Orchestra and the London premiere of Swarm Fanfares by Dobrinka Tabakova.

In addition to the RPO's proven and popular Noisy Kids family concerts and a Relaxed Performance, designed for audiences who may find traditional concerts challenging, the RPO will launch a new concert format, Revealed. Following research from the RPO's annual audience report, the new concert format responds to the 29% of people new to the orchestral genre saying they like to research a piece of music before attending a concert. For this new series, writer and historian Leah Broad will unwrap music by Tchaikovsky and Mozart in conversation with the conductor and RPO musicians, followed by a complete performance of each symphony.

The RPO's music director, Vasily Petrenko looks forward to the RPO's 80th anniversary season:

"Eighty years is both a long time and not very long at all. In the world of great orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic is, if we are being honest, still in something of a young age. Many of the finest European ensembles carry histories stretching back 150 years or more. And yet 80 years is also a very mature age. We have carried an extraordinary legacy since Sir Thomas Beecham founded this orchestra, and today, I look around at the musicians and feel something entirely unambiguous: the RPO is in the best shape I have ever seen it. So for me, our 80th anniversary season is a moment to look both ways. There is immense pride in where we have come from. And there is great excitement about where we are going.

"This is also the first season in which I will be performing with the orchestra at all three of our London venues. The Royal Albert Hall has always felt like our great cathedral, the place for the large, epic symphonic statements, where the sheer scale of the music can fill every corner. The Royal Festival Hall brings its own tradition and grandeur. But what excites me especially this year is Cadogan Hall. It is more on the chamber scale, and that changes everything. The audience feels closer to the music, more included in the process, more genuinely part of what is happening on stage. And for a conductor, working in a smaller hall demands a different kind of discipline: you are attending to details of balance and ensemble that simply cannot be heard from eighty metres away in the Albert Hall. There is something very beautiful about that.

"At Cadogan Hall we’ll perform Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, and this brings me to something new we are introducing: RPO Revealed. Before the performance, I will give an extended introduction, not simply talking, but playing fragments, illustrating the role of specific instruments, explaining what Mozart was thinking, and connecting the work to the broader compositional world of his time. My belief is simple: if you understand something of how a great symphony is built, how the ideas develop, what each instrument is contributing and why, then when you sit down to hear it performed, you hear it in an entirely different depth. You do not need to be an expert to experience that. You need only be curious.

"When it comes to the season's great centrepieces, I would start with Ein Heldenleben. This symphonic tone poem by Richard Strauss is a remarkable vehicle for an orchestra, because it asks so many musicians to step forward and shine as soloists, as individual voices within the narrative. It is a monumental statement, and it feels exactly right for our 80th anniversary.

"Then there is Mahler's Second Symphony. We have performed this before, and that is precisely part of what makes it meaningful now. I want to understand the trajectory, to hear what has changed between that first performance and this one. What have the orchestra and I grown into together over that time? That kind of developmental arc, built across years of shared work, is what a long-term relationship between a Music Director and the orchestra can produce. We shall find out together.

"And then, Beethoven's Fifth. I know that this symphony has been recorded more times than perhaps any other, and that everyone has a view on how it should sound. But this is exactly why it continues to fascinate me. Every time I return to it, I find a new corner, something I want to approach slightly differently, always within what Beethoven has written, always following his markings and his intentions, but always searching for fresh energy. Because the energy in this piece is extraordinary.

"From the sheer anxiety of those opening bars, that knocking at the door, to the blazing C major of the finale, which is one of the most sustained bursts of forward momentum in all of music. That never diminishes.

"Our 80th anniversary season has, I believe, something for everyone. And I do not mean that lightly. Classical music has never belonged only to those who already know it. The greatest works speak to anyone willing to listen. That is what this season is built around: the belief that when you give people real access to this music, something happens. Something that is very difficult to put into words. That is, perhaps, the whole point."

Further details from the RPO website.

As Ryan Wigglesworth steps down as chief conductor of BBC SSO, his replacement is announced as Antony Hermus, principal guest conductor of Opera North

2026-06-23T10:23:44.736+01:00

Antony Hermus (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

Next year, Ryan Wigglesworth completes a remarkable five seasons as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra [see my recent interview with Ryan focusing on his being Featured Artist at the Aldeburgh Festival]. It has now been announced that Dutch conductor Antony Hermus will take over as chief conductor of BBC SSO in September 2027.

Ryan Wigglesworth, commented: "It has been an immense privilege to serve as the BBC SSO’s Chief Conductor, and I thank all my wonderful colleagues for their support, commitment and remarkable musicianship throughout these past seasons. I send my warmest congratulations to Antony and wish him and the orchestra every possible success in their partnership over the years ahead. Stepping down in order to dedicate more time to other projects was always going to be an extremely difficult decision, but I feel very fortunate to have so many exciting collaborations with the BBC SSO still on the horizon."

Hermus completes his tenure as chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra this summer and then becomes conductor laureate. Hermus is also principal guest conductor with Opera North. He led the company's powerful concert staging of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra last year [see my review] and he conducts the company's new staging of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde next year.

Hermus made his debut with BBC SSO in 2018 with a programme that paired Ligeti’s avant-garde Mysteries of the Macabre with a 70-minute distillation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. This autumn, Hermus leads the BBC SSO in performances of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony across Glasgow (8 Oct) and Perth (9 Oct), pairing it with Mors Aeterna a haunting meditation on loss, Mahler, and mortality by fellow Dutch composer Willem Jeths.

Across his career, Hermus has championed outside-the-box projects. He brought Ligeti to over 8,000 festival-goers at Holland’s adventurous outdoor cultural event Lowlands with the North Netherlands Orchestra (of which he is Honorary Conductor for Life), presented Mahler and Stravinsky through Symphonic Cinema at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, initiated the award-winning Scratch concerts bringing amateur voices onto the stage with a professional orchestra, and led Tweetfonie (52 world premieres in a single day) during his residency at the International Kurt Weill Festival in Germany.

Full details from the BBC SSO website.

Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Kevin John Edusei at Aldeburgh Festival

2026-06-23T09:52:55.482+01:00

Tansy Davies: Earthworks - Colin Currie, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Tansy Davies: Earthworks, Shostakovich: Symphony No.10; Colin Currie percussion, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Kevin John Edusei; Snape Maltings Concert Hall (Friday 19 June 7.30pm)

Rachmaninov: Romance (andante expressivo) from String Quartet No.1 in G minor, Freya Waley-Cohen: Dances, Songs and Hymns for Friendship, Ravel: String Quartet in F; Sacconi Quartet; Orford Church (Saturday 20th June 11am)

Elizabeth Ogonek: Sleep & Unremembrance, Freya Waley-Cohen: Violin Concerto for Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances; Tamsin Waley-Cohen, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Kevin John Edusei; Snape Maltings Concert Hall (Saturday 20 June 7.30pm)
Reviewed by Tony Cooper

A pair of high emotive concerts from BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the first high octane featuring Colin Currie in Tansy Davies' concerto, and the second more contemplative with Tamsin Waley-Cohen in concerto by her sister Freya, complemented by more Freya Waley-Cohen from the Sacconi Quartet

Opening a ‘noisy’ and high-octane Friday night concert at Snape Maltings as part of the 77th Aldeburgh Festival fell to the well-known minimalist work Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams. Although only lasting a mere four minutes, this bright and driving orchestral fanfare packs a punch like no other and is always exciting and refreshing to hear especially when played by the likes of an orchestra of the calibre as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Kevin John Edusei.

Specifically designed to capture the exhilarating and sometimes terrifying sensation of a high-speed ride in a sports car, I liken the piece to an F1 racing car on the starting grid. Comprising a relentless beat played by a woodblock imitating a metronomic engine, the orchestra weaves complex, overlapping rhythms round a constant percussive pulse with the rush of brass fanfares simulating the fast-paced shifting of gears and the building of speed. This frenzied pace continues without pause thereby creating an energetic and hypnotic wall of sound that Stan Kenton (the innovator of the ‘Wall of Sound’) would have been truly proud of.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

The percussive beat of this brilliant concert continued with Tansy Davies’ Earthworks, a 25-minute percussion concerto specifically written for the internationally renowned virtuoso percussionist, Colin Currie, the work drew heavily from vast geoglyphs and ancient monuments such as the Uffington White Horse in which Davies imagines these colossal shapes carved into the earth as a form of ancient language, a primal communication, say, between our ancestors and the future.

Musically speaking, the work’s exemplary and, indeed, a well-constructed piece as one would expect coming from the likes of Davies, a composer of high ranking. And it was tremendously performed by the ‘man-of-the-moment’, Colin Currie, marking the 40th concerto premiere of his career.

Enjoying a long-standing association with Davies, he’s widely regarded as the foremost percussion soloist of his generation and was most certainly in his element surrounded by so much ‘knocking gear’ at the front of the stage while his active solo passages for a ‘futuristic drummer’ navigated a host of booming orchestral textures and rhythmic patterned grooves thereby capturing the energetic and danceable feel to the work overall.

The concert ended in a bang and a flourish with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales basking in glory with Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 in E minor conducted by guest conductor, Kevin John Edusei, who dug deep into Shostakovich’s harrowing and seemingly unsettled score to deliver an alert, ravishing and enticing performance.

One of Shostakovich’s most celebrated and intensely personal works written in 1953, it’s widely interpreted to be a harrowing response to the terrors of the brutal and hostile era of Stalin. Structured into four distinct movements, they explore themes of oppression, anxiety and ultimate personal triumph.

Short and not-so-sweet! The fast and lively second movement (about five minutes’ long) produced a violently aggressive attack from the strings that eventually enveloped the whole orchestra in what musicologists and historians interpret is a relentless and terrifying account of Stalin while the third movement introduces the composer’s famous musical motif - DSCH.

This four-note musical sequence translates to D, E flat, C and B natural and Shostakovich derived these notes from the German spelling of his name (Dmitri Schostakowitsch) employing the German musical notation system. Therefore, D remains the note D; S (Es) translates to E flat; C remains the note C; H (Ha) represents B natural. As such, this motif served as a direct musical stamp allowing Shostakovich to weave himself directly into the narrative of his works.

And by living under the heavy censorship and political terror of the Soviet regime, the symbol also serves as a message of human survival and artistic resistance thereby representing the triumph of the individual’s spirit over the act of tyranny.

The finale was a ‘fight-to-the-finish’ beginning slowly before erupting into a fast-paced almost manic celebration with the ‘Stalin’ theme briefly rearing its ugly head only to be completely crushed by a powerful and triumphant declaration of the DSCH motif coming from the brass and timpani.

This year’s Aldeburgh Festival (notching up its 77th edition) has seen town of Aldeburgh and its surrounds basking in glorious sunshine, cloudless skies and so much more thereby adding so much to the overall fun and pleasure of spending time in Suffolk and the festival which this year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Britten who founded the festival in 1948 with tenor Peter Pears and writer/producer Eric Crozier.

Sacconi String Quartet at Orford Church (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

A Saturday morning concert by the Sacconi String Quartet at Orford Church (dedicated to St Bartholomew) about five miles from Snape Maltings was simply delightful to take in between two blistering and highly emotive concerts by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The church was packed, the environment just right for a string quartet concert and I found myself gaining a seat at the very last minute perched on the historic parish chest. I was sitting on ‘history’ so to speak as the strong oak-made chest dates from the early 17th century and was designed to securely store parish ‘valuables’ such as registers of births, deaths and marriages.

Therefore, in order of preventing theft, the priest and four elected churchgoers were each entrusted with the key to a single lock therefore all five individuals had to be present to open the chest - which is positioned next to the baptismal font at the back of the nave - further strengthened by a series of steel reinforcement bands tightly wrapped round its medieval timber frame.

Anyhow, I found it a comfortable seat and enjoyed an immensely comfortable performance by the Sacconi Quartet which I’ve heard on so many occasions to great delight. They opened their concert offering a tender reading of Rachmaninov’s ‘Romance’ from his unfinished String Quartet No.1 in G minor which was followed by a new work by Freya Waley-Cohen’s Dances, Songs and Hymns for Friendship, premièred in February of this year at the Wigmore Hall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sacconi Quartet. Happy birthday!

Roughly, a 25-minute piece covering six well-crafted and rhythmically-pleasing movements comprising ‘Spin, ‘Sing’, Play’, ‘Step’, ‘Pray’, ‘Be’, they all seem to relate to one another in a folksy musical style and were delivered in an unhurried and gentle performance by violinists Ben Hancox/Hannah Dawson, violist Robin Ashwell and cellist Cara Berridge. Judging by the reception the audience gave to these gifted and talented performers, they truly took them to their hearts.

Ending their concert with Ravel’s String Quartet in F major, dating from 1902, it’s the only string quartet that he wrote. A staple of the classical and impressionist repertoire it proved an excellent choice fitting so well the programming overall.

Elegant melodies, sweeping harmonic gestures and driving rhythmic energy stamp the credentials of this fine work by Ravel, a piece widely considered one of the most important and frequently performed masterpieces in the chamber-music repertoire. Therefore, a lovely recital all round in a lovely building boasting a parish chest most probably carved from a single hollowed-out oak trunk which from my point of view became ‘the best seat in the house’. Alleluia!

Like the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra earlier in the festival, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales enjoyed a ‘stayover’ in Suffolk, too, thereby offering a second concert at Snape Maltings which opened in style with a grand 12-minute piece by American composer, Elizabeth Ogonek.

Her composition Sleep & Unremembrance, a distinctive 12-minute ravishing orchestral piece, was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the Panufnik Composers’ Scheme and performed in March of this year at Barbican Hall under François-Xavier Roth.

An interesting, rhythmic and dynamic work, demonstrating and exploring the vagaries of memory and otherworldly magical connotations, the wanderings of the subconscious flooded one’s mind tinged with fragmented flashes of human recollection and the unseen mechanics of thought and the deep-seated depths of the psyche.

Taking its starting-point from Wisława Szymborska’s poem While Sleeping, the work chronicles the timespan when life, drawing to a close, spins recollected thoughts of human activity in one’s dreams thereby capturing the spirit of the soul as it makes its journey to ‘a heavenly place’ depending, of course, entirely upon one’s religious, philosophical or personal beliefs.

Freya Waley-Cohen: The Dreamer - Tamsin Waley-Cohen, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Therefore, Freya Waley-Cohen’s new violin concerto The Dreamer brilliantly performed by her sister, Tamsin, could well be said acts as a companion piece to Ogonek’s stirring and thoughtful ‘dreamful’ work. Such an accomplished and relaxed performer, I’ve heard Tamsin Waley-Cohen so many times and she never fails to delight her audience, therefore her performance of her sister’s highly-emotive and challenging violin concerto, gracefully employing the full use of the orchestra, was so highly desirable to listen to in her capable hands thus showing off her musicality and technical mastery of her chosen instrument.

A work in four movements of 30 minutes’ long, The Dreamer (receiving its world premiere) offered the packed house at Snape Maltings a violin concerto to remember and one to chalk up with the soloist getting very little rest in this concerto.

For instance, in the opening movement, Tamsin Waley-Cohen had to navigate some tricky and intense playing reaching the depths of the lowest part of the violin while gradually growing in status to the instrument’s upper reaches with the orchestra shifting, rallying and spinning round the soloist’s line in a massive orchestral pattern truly showing the composer’s aptitude and skill in writing for large musical forces. I sincerely hope that this violin concerto gains momentum and finds its way into concert halls the world over. It thoroughly deserves to.

The second movement, quiet and subtle, could well be described as ‘a song without words’ with the orchestra darting round the central voice of the violin in a pleasant and amicable manner while the third movement, an earthy scherzo, witnesses the soloist strongly bowing against heavy orchestral writing to exciting effect with the final movement capturing the dreamer against the ticking of time while the soloist stands as the individual against the machine and the lone dancer is just a face in a crowded room. All of us are dreamers, though! Freya Waley-Cohen’s invigorating and compelling violin concerto truly reminds us of that fact.

A brilliant concert under the disciplined baton of Kevin John Edusei ended with a stirring and commanding performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, a three-movement orchestral suite completed in 1940 which offered the excellent BBC National Orchestra of Wales their last big ‘shout’ at the 2026 Aldeburgh Festival.

The composer’s final major composition, it’s also Rachmaninoff’s only major work written entirely in the United States and is celebrated as a brilliant summation of his life’s work blending late-Romantic melodies with dynamic 20th-century rhythms.

Peppered with driving syncopated rhythms, the well-known opening movement showcases a deeply lyrical solo for alto saxophone offering a nod to the composer’s American surroundings while the haunting melancholic waltz of the second movement conjures up a shadowy, nostalgic and ghostly atmosphere that slowly gives way to the final and intense movement creating a sort of a musical tug-of-war between the grim medieval chant of the Dies irae (representing death) with a melody from the composer’s All-Night Vigil (representing the Resurrection) which in the final bars puts the Dies irae (Day of wrath) duly in its place. Summing up his deep Orthodox faith, Rachmaninoff wrote on the final page of the score: ‘I thank thee, Lord.’ Alleluia!

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Allow yourself to be seduced: Tsinandali Festival features the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra at historic estate in Georgia

2026-06-22T16:08:25.690+01:00

Tsinandali Festival amphitheatre

The current Foreign Office travel advice for Georgia is somewhat inconclusive, yet the country has long seduced European travellers. Friends of mine travelled to Tblisi last year and not only had a terrific time but would have no hesitation in returning.

Which means that I feel moderately comfortable about sharing information about the eight edition of the Tsinandali Festival which returns to the Tsinandali Estate in the centre of Georgia's wine country. The Tsinandali Estate is noted for the manor house and historic winery-estate which once belonged to Georgian poet Alexander Chavchavadze (1786–1846), and is now owned by one of the leading private investment groups active in the Caucasus and Central Asian region. They have restored the manor as a luxury hotel.

Festival performances are housed in two new buildings, an open amphitheatre with a retractable roof seating 1,200 people and the Chamber Concert Hall which seats 600 people. This year's festival runs from 3 to 13 September 2026.

The beating heart of the festival and perhaps a real reason for travelling there is the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra, which brings together young musicians from across the Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The young musicians are given the opportunity to learn from internationally renowned conductors, coaches and soloists in a four-week residential training programme culminating in four performances under maestros Gianandrea Noseda, the Festival’s Music Director; Daniel Harding and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.

The orchestra gives four concerts as part of this year's festival:

03 Sep: Gianandrea Noseda, Lisa Batiashvili & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1; Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade
06 Sep: Gianandrea Noseda, Pinchas Zukerman & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Beethoven Violin Concerto; Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
09 Sep: Rafael Payare, Chen Reiss, Okka von der Damerau & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Mahler Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’
13 Sep: Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Davit Khrikuli & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2; Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Suite; Ravel La Valse

Festival highlights also include the Sukhishvili National Ballet of Georgia, a Lisa Batiashvili Foundation Concert and Bizet’s La Tragédie de Carmen.

The historic manor house on the Tsinandali Estate

Further details from the festival website.