Planet Hugill

The Song Within: Leeds Song Festival returns in April 2027 with a programme expanding the boundaries of the song recital

2026-11-09T08:53:18.355+00:00

Audience at Leeds Song Festival 2025 [Photo: Tom Arber]

Leeds Song Festival returns in April 2027 with a week of song from 10 to 17 April under the theme The Song Within, exploring what lies inside a song: memory, identity, poetry, place, connection and emotion, while bringing together artists, audiences and communities in unexpected way. The programmes range from early lute songs through the great Lied tradition to more unusual repertoire including Hildegard of Bingen, Egyptian song, Elizabeth Maconchy, Messiaen and beyond.

In partnership with South Asian Arts UK, sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun appears alongside vocalist Spoorthi Rao, while Degun and Errollyn Wallen meet for a conversation before Wallen performs her own music later that evening in the HAR Bar at Howard Assembly Room.

The Festival continues its relationship with the Leeds International Piano Competition, celebrating the music of its Artistic Director, Sir Stephen Hough. Support by the Royal Philharmonic Society is bringing forth new repertoire including a song cycle by London-based Chilean composer Anibal Vidal.

Some events are more than a song recital. Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, pianist Anna Tilbrook and illustrator James Mayhew combine song and live visual creativity, while soprano Carolyn Sampson's Star Falling, created with tenor and visual artist Andrew Staples and pianist Joseph Middleton, explores an immersive multimedia approach to performance and includes a world premiere by Roderick Williams.

Local poets and composers continue to be brought together in the Festival's A Leeds Songbook project, and this year visual artists respond to the new material by producing work that reflects the themes explored. There will be a Bring and Sing! mass performance of Mozart's Requiem, encouraging audience members to become performers.

The Festival's Young Artists Programme will feature masterclasses led by Sir Simon Keenlyside, Roger Vignoles, Kate Royal, Christiane Karg, Mark Padmore, Audrey Hyland and Christoph Prégardien,

Full details from the Leeds Song website.

Charm & youthful engagement: Ellen Pearson & Laurence Kilsby join Nigel Foster to open the 2026 London Song Festival

2026-11-09T07:48:45.896+00:00

Ellen Pearson, Nigel Foster, Laurence Kilsby [Photo: c/o Nigel Foster]

Reaching Out to a Distant Lover: Schubert, Chaminade, Faure, Menotti, Mahler, Duparc, Bridge, Wolf, Roussel, Amy Beach, John Ireland, Korngold, Strauss, Ernest Charles, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, and Rodgers & Hammerstein; Ellen Pearson, Laurence Kilsby, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed 5 November 2026

Two young singers join Nigel Foster to open the London Song Festival with an engagingly eclectic mix of songs in performances mixing charm and youthful engagement with touching moments

Nigel Foster opened his 2026 season of the London Song Festival with a concert inspired by the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell being granted a patent for the telephone. At Hinde Street Methodist Church on 5 November 2026, mezzo-soprano Ellen Pearson [whom we saw earlier this year in Elena Langer's Four Sisters at Covent Garden, see my review] and tenor Laurence Kilsby [last seen in Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn & strings with Ben Goldscheider, see my review] joined Foster for a programme of songs under the theme of 'Reaching Out to a Distant Lover'. Yes, we had ABBA's Ring, Ring, but Foster's eclectic mix of material also included Schubert, Chaminade, Faure, Menotti, Mahler, Duparc, Bridge, Wolf, Roussel, Amy Beach, John Ireland, Korngold, Strauss, Ernest Charles, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, and Rodgers & Hammerstein.

The programme took us through a wide variety of distance, both physical and metaphorical. Rather bravely and imaginatively, 'A message to the Distant Beloved' avoided Beethoven and concentrated on Schubert. Laurence Kilsby brought out the lyric beauty of 'Liebesbotschaft' from Schubert's Schwanenegesang, with charm and a sense of inner passion. Pearson used her richly vibrant voice to create a sense of urgency in an engaging account of Schubert's Suleika I ending on a quietly touching moment. Kilsby then returned to Schwanengesang with 'Die Taubenpost', combining beauty of line and tone with attention to the words. This was a youthfully engaging account of the song, ending in a touching manner.

Under the theme of 'So Alone...' we heard songs by Chaminade and Berlioz. Chaminade's Attente sounded interestingly exotic, with Pearson bringing out the ornaments in the vocal line as well as giving the whole an urgency. With his vibrant lyric voice and sense of line, Kilsby felt ideal for 'Absence' from Berlioz's Le Nuits d'Ete. He gave us finely moulded phrases whilst making the words mean something, bringing out the song's lyric melancholy.

'Separated by the Sea' featured Pearson in Faure's Les Berceaux, in an intent and concentrated performance with a lovely supple line. Then Kilsby gave us a relative rarity, Menotti's Gli amanti impossibili from his 1967 Canti della Lontananza written for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. This was a rather free, rhapsodic piece to which Kilsby brought urgency, intent and ultimately passion.

'Separated by War' saw Kilsby and Pearson joining forces for Mahler's Aus! Aus! The words come from Des Knaben Wunderhorn but the song is not from one of Mahler's formal sets of Wunderhorn songs, and it was never conceived as anything but with piano. Both singers brought charm and swagger to a narrative about a soldier marching away from his beloved. Kilsby then gave us a third dip into Schwanengesang with 'Kriegers Ahnung', here quiet and concentrated but developing urgency and ending bleakly. Pearson concluded the first half with Duparc's wonderful Au pays ou se fait la guerre, here rendered with melancholy yet also underlying power. Pearson made the abandoned lover feel feisty, and brought fierce power and strength of line to the climax.

The second half began with a jeux d'esprit, ABBA's Ring Ring, a song of great charm and it worked surprisingly well. List of song writers is interesting, not only Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, but also Stig Anderson, Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody.

'Thoughts and Dreams and Memories' saw Kilsby making Frank Bridge's Come to me in my dreams into something intimate yet urgent, avoiding the sense of over-the-top romance that can often mar this song. Pearson gave Wolf's Verschiegene Liebe (from Eichendorff-Lieder) a sense of real suppressed excitement. Then Kilsby sang another rarity, Albert Roussel's Flammes, written in 1908. On almost a monotone at first, the focus was on the fascinating, glittering piano part. Though developing urgent passion with a powerful climax, the monotone returned at the end. Finally in this group, Kilsby sang Amy Beach's The Western Wind, written in 1889. It had hints of the salon, yet Kilsby and Foster played it with all seriousness, bringing out the intense emotional undercurrents.

'Does he even think of me?' saw Pearson in touching form for John Ireland's Her Song setting words by Thomas Hardy. Pearson continued with Korngold's Liebesbrifen, a lovely song full of memorable motifs that hint at Korngold's later opera Die Tote Stadt, in a warmly engaging performance.

Despite Richard Strauss's Morgen being associated with the female voice (it was part of a group of songs written as a wedding present for his wife), there is a long history of male involvement. For a start, on both occasions when Strauss recorded it, it was with a male singer. Then the poem, by John Henry Mackay, was about a man. Mackay and Strauss got to know each other through a mutual interest in anarchism! Mackay did not go public with his interest in male-on-male intimacy until after Strauss set the song, so we'll never know quite how much the composer understood. But as sung by Laurence Kilsby it proved very moving. The intense beauty of Kilsby's vocal line combining with his attention to small but telling gestures made the song rather touching.

'We will never be together again...' saw Kilsby giving us Dawn by Ernest Charles, a composer very much associated with Broadway though his songs were sung by the likes of Kirsten Flagstad and Rosa Ponselle too. This was a big-hearted performance combining popular hints with a serious tone. Pearson made Cecil Armstrong Gibbs's The Cherry Tree into something rather touching, highlighting folk hints.

We ended with This nearly was mine from Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific. In the original sung as a solo by Ezio Pinza but here done as a duet.

As usual Nigel Foster's programme notes were full of detail along with some interesting nuggets! Roussel's Flammes was dedicated to Madeleine Aubry, the sister of the man who wrote the words. Her husband, Tony Jules Guerite was a French structural engineer living in London, who was largely responsible for introducing reinforced concrete to the construction industry in Britain. Then Cecil Armstrong Gibbs's father was a director of a firm, D & W Gibbs, responsible for Gibbs SR Toothpaste!

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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

La sonnambula: John Wilkie's intelligent chamber account of Bellini's opera for HGO benefitted from a glorious title role from Eyra Norman - review
To capture the fullness of what choral singing is: composer Nathan James Dearden on his debut album, i breathe - interview
Simplicity writ large: Iphigénie en Tauride makes an impact at English National Opera without impeding the glories of Gluck's music - review
Complexity & beauty: soprano Paula Sides & pianist Sergey Rybin explore songs on cusp of Modernism & Romanticism in Of Love & Transience - review
Forget Shakespeare: with Jacques Imbrailo & Haegee Lee as Hamlet & Ophélie, Chelsea Opera Group make a strong case for Ambroise Thomas's opera - opera review
A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - opera review
Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
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La sonnambula: John Wilkie's intelligent chamber account of Bellini's opera for HGO benefitted from a glorious title role from Eyra Norman

2026-11-08T11:44:38.394+00:00

Bellini: La sonnambula (Act Two finale) - HGO [Photo: Julian Guidera]

Bellini: La sonnambula; Eyra Norman, Hailey West, Mathilda Goike, Tobias Compos Santinaque, Michael Roche, dir: John Wilkie, cond: Stefano Boccacci, HGO; Jacksons Lane Theatre
Reviewed 7 November 2026

Daring to go where few companies do, HGO's version of La sonnambula is brought to life by a glorious account of the title role alongside a finely supportive cast and John Wilkie's highly intelligent chamber production

Bellini's La sonnambula has its origins in a ballet performed in Paris in 1827 (scenario by Eugène Scribe, music by Ferdinand Hérold) at a time when somnambulism was all the rage on the Parisian stage. In 1831, Bellini having discarded plans for an opera based on Victor Hugo's Hernani (which Verdi would set in 1844) lighted upon La sonnambula. Its full title is La sonnambula, ossia I Due Fidanzati svezzeri (The Sleepwalker, or The Two Swiss Betrothed), with the subtitle moving the focus onto the betrothed, whereas in the original ballet the title was The Sleepwalker, or The Arrival of a New Lord, placing the character that became Rodolfo more at the centre of the action. In fact, Felice Romani's libretto for Bellini seems to lose interest in Rodolfo after Act One, he starts as a mysterious figure but then become stock. There is much by play with the fact that Amina reminds Rodolfo of someone he once knew, tantalising us with a revelation that never comes. In fact, there are other loose strands in the plot, why does Amina have a step-mother rather than a mother? [see Note below]

The poet Felice Romani was notorious for missing deadlines and his focus was always on situations exploring the extreme emotions of the characters, something that Bellini was interested in. What seemed to matter less to the two was how the characters got into those situations. Their operas (and many of Donizetti's at the same period) required the heroines to be badly treated, misbelieved or traduced, thus leading them into extremes of emotion.

Bellini's La sonnambula is an opera that requires substantial suspension of disbelief, it is not an opera you go to for satisfying dramatic theatre. The Swiss pastoral setting and the credulity of the villagers is essential to the logistics of the plot yet Bellini and Romani do little to flesh out the details. The opera also requires a soprano who is able to identify with her heroine both dramatically and musically.

Bellini: La sonnambula - Tobias Campos Santinaque, Eyra Norman - HGO [Photo: Julian Guidera]

As such the work would perhaps seem rather a stretch for a small opera company, yet HGO (Hamstead Garden Opera) bravely went where few dare [Buxton performed La sonnambula in 2023. Before that Covent Garden gave it in 2011, reviving a production from 2002, with the previous 1960 production last being revived in 1981]. Not only that but HGO managed to assemble two extremely fine casts. True Verdi voices might be in short supply still, but clearly Italian bel canto and Baroque are thriving).

We caught the first performance by the alternative cast at Jacksons Lane on Saturday 7 November 2026. The production was directed by John Wilkie and conducted by Stefano Boccacci, with designs by Jennifer Gregory and lighting by Jacob Gowler. Eyra Norman was Amina, Hailey West was Lisa, Mathilda Goike was Teresa, Tobias Campos Santinaque was Elvino, Michael Roche was Rodolfo, and Ted Day was Alessio. There was a chorus of 12 and an orchestra made up of single strings, woodwind, and trumpet, plus two horns, and percussion.

The setting was completely abstract, simply a set of mobile black metal frames and three small step-pyramids. The result provided plenty of visual movement and changes of height. And on a small stage where everyone was present a lot of the time, it brought clarity to the staging. Wilkie and Gregory had dropped any sense of the pastoral or the Swiss village, we could have been anywhere. There is little they could do about the villagers' naivety or lack of information, we had to take as read that they believed in ghosts and had never heard of sleepwalking. Michael Roche's black-clad Count Rodolfo was introduced as some sort of dark fiddler figure (hinting at Delius's A village Romeo and Juliet with its Swiss setting, perhaps), and throughout he was a mysterious figure, the count-aspects played down and he was clearly a figure of authority and information (passing out books).

Bellini: La sonnambula - Ted Day (distant), Hailey West - HGO [Photo: Julian Guidera]

What Wilkie did do was to concentrate on the relationships of the three women involved, Amina (Eyra Norman), Lisa (Hailey West) and Teresa (Mathilda Goike). Before the opera starts, Lisa has been engaged to Elvino (Tobias Campos Santinaque) and is now making her way alone, as the proprietor of the inn. A flirtation with Rodolfo (Michael Roche) is interrupted by Amina's first bout of sleepwalking. Amina is treated incredibly badly by Elvino, who refuses to believe her innocent even though the villagers confirm that Rodolfo says she is. Teresa is more of an onlooker; surely, she must know of Amina's sleepwalking? But it is Teresa who finds the scarf that demonstrates that Lisa was in Rodolfo's room in Act One. Both Lisa and Amina are thus 'tainted' and both have aborted weddings - that of Amina and Elvino in Act One, that of Lisa and Elvino in Act Two.

The ending, with its gloriously joyful final aria for Amina, was re-focused as Norman's Amina tossed away her wedding ring and faced the future gloriously alone. Santinaque's Elvino was left a gibbering mess.

Eyra Norman's Amina could take all the attention focused on her. Norman's way with Bellini's vocal writing was a real delight. Her voice warm and rich, with a timbre that went all the way up, she had an expressive way with the fioriture that made emotional sense and was a long way from mere technical facility. From Amina's first notes, it was a joy to hear the way she shaped the music. The first act of the opera is horribly slow, it takes a long time for anything resembling a plot. What you do have is acres of spun melody, which Norman made you love. Listening to her, it was clear that she had listened to Callas's recording of the opera and taken it to heart, behind much of her phrasing you could hear La Divina. No bad role model, but I hope she goes on to develop her own personality.

Bellini: La sonnambula - Eyra Norman with Michael Roche, Mathilda Goike in the distance - HGO [Photo: Julian Guidera]

Hailey West made an equally impressive and very feisty Lisa. In both her arias, West impressed with her own command of bel canto, here distinctive with a vein of strength running through it that gave a nice contrast between the women. This Lisa was definitely her own woman, and West's singing made that completely clear. Mathilda Goike impressed as Teresa, using eyes and face to express emotions in a role that has limited air time. Goike projected a strong personality, but her behaviour in the opera suggested Teresa was someway conflicted.

Tobias Campos Santinaque has a lithe, lyric tenor that contrasted with the richness of Norman's voice. We heard him in Longborough this summer [as the sailor in Tristan und Isolde] and his roles have included Tamino and Nemorino. His approach to the role was fearless and his vocalism was athletic, though a certain dryness crept into his tone in the upper reaches. This Elvino was definitely a bit of a shit, and Santinaque brought out the incipient jealously and unreason, verging on the hysterical. But he also brought a slightly hang-dog feel to the character so despite his bad behaviour, at the end you rather felt sorry for him.

Michael Roche made an upright, solid Rodolfo, yet with just enough mystery to make you intrigued. There was a lovely firmness and shape to his approach to the bel canto. Ted Day made a personable yet diffident Alessio, a character doomed to be forever on the fringes. Even when Lisa was free she made it clear that she would never marry him!

Bellini: La sonnambula - Chorus, Ted Day & Eyra Norman (prone) - HGO [Photo: Julian Guidera]

The chorus was hard working; often on stage and often moving, they made an intriguing back-drop to the action. The orchestra had some notable solo moments, Bellini uses the horns to great effect for instance, and they provided a firm foundation for the singers. Conductor Stefano Boccacci clearly has a feeling for this music and his conducting allowed an element of fluidity from players and singers, without ever being self-indulgent. With Boccacci and the orchestra at the side of the stage, sight lines were difficult and there were moments when ensemble was not quite idea, but you sensed Boccacci feel for the music, he allowed the soloists space yet kept things moving.

Note: In the original, Rodolfo does turn out to be Amina's father (hence Teresa being her stepfather), though this was omitted from the production partly because of the singers ages.

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

To capture the fullness of what choral singing is: composer Nathan James Dearden on his debut album, i breathe - interview
Simplicity writ large: Iphigénie en Tauride makes an impact at English National Opera without impeding the glories of Gluck's music - review
Complexity & beauty: soprano Paula Sides & pianist Sergey Rybin explore songs on cusp of Modernism & Romanticism in Of Love & Transience - review
Forget Shakespeare: with Jacques Imbrailo & Haegee Lee as Hamlet & Ophélie, Chelsea Opera Group make a strong case for Ambroise Thomas's opera - opera review
A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - opera review
Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
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To capture the fullness of what choral singing is: composer Nathan James Dearden on his debut album, i breathe

2026-11-07T11:52:58.584+00:00

Nathan James Dearden in rehearsal with the National Youth Choir of Wales [Photo: Evan Dawson]

Composer and conductor Nathan James Dearden's debut album, i breathe, is out this month on Signum Classics. The album features choral music by Nathan performed by Choir of Royal Holloway, Kantos Chamber Choir and National Youth Choir of Wales, conducted by Rupert Gough [who I interviewed back in 2021], Ellie Slorach and Tim Rhys-Evans, alongside cellist Maxim Calver. Nathan describes the album as a personal collection and its themes draw on his Welsh identity, post-industrial landscape, memory and belonging.

Ideas for the album arose because he has had all sorts of fruitful collaborations with different choral groups yet no album. The idea for i breathe was that it would form a series of postcards of his different collaborations, representing ten years of friendships from the National Youth Choir of Wales (in which Nathan sang as a teenager) to professional choirs such as Kantos Chamber Choir to the Choir of Royal Holloway where Nathan is Composer-in-Residence.

The oldest music on the disc dates from some ten years ago and the remaining pieces are more recent. Nathan's Three Motets (from 2024) were written for the Choir of Royal Holloway, whilst Morals + Interludes (from 2020) was created in collaboration with the singers of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain Fellowship during the pandemic, completed during a residency at The Red House, Aldeburgh, the piece comprises five short choral ‘postcards’, each inspired by virtual memories drawn from the participants’ own lives, drawing on new ways of collective expression. Everything about us (from 2022) was written for the the National Youth Choir of Wales. Inspired by the young voices making music together, the piece developed out of workshops where the young singers came up with their own texts.

It is always hard putting a disc together, particularly the funding, and working with three different groups added an extra layer of challenge. But Nathan points out that you only get one debut disc. Having worked with so many different types of choir, he wanted the disc to capture the fullness of what choral singing is, from untrained rawness to sheer brilliance. When the National Youth Choir of Wales recorded Everything about us, they performed it from memory.

The Choir of Royal Holloway has very much been his learning ground. For Nathan they make a beautiful sound, a very specific sound, and their relish for the repertoire has influenced his writing. Kantos Chamber Choir is a group whose work Nathan loves, he enjoys the narrative thrust of their performances and the way they reach new audiences. Hearing them sing his pieces is like listening to his music afresh.

Nathan James Dearden & Kantos [Photo: Adam Critchlow]

Nathan has written a lot of choral music and potentially there would be material for three more discs! Themes that come out of the works selected for the disc include the landscape of his native Wales, the breath which is important both for singers and for everyone, and the idea of collective expression. He sees his pieces as postcards of moments in time, all coming together on the disc. In fact, it was only when he curated the disc that he realised there are connections between the pieces.

The texts on the album vary between ones that he has sourced, ones created in collaboration with the poet and ones he has written himself. He loves directness and 'hates fluff', texts that say this is the message with clear narrative or emotion. (This spreads into his musical tastes too and he loves the directness of the Minimalists.) One poet he mentions is Katherine Towers whose short form poems with their abstract narratives have immediacy and clarity. There is not a lot on the page but you can open doors with it. Nathan set one of Towers's poems in his song The way we go which was written for mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston in 2020.

He has set both Welsh and English, though the two are very different. He comments that there are a lot of potential problems with Welsh because of the way the language is structured, the pauses, the breath and the stress. There is a lot of baggage. He rather likes bilingual works, setting both Welsh and English. With English he treats the language quite abstractly, though he uses the pauses in the language and finds he can be more playful in English.

He started as a singer in the National Youth Choir of Wales, moving on to working as a professional singer with the BBC and others. Composing was initially an outshoot of having lots of singer friends. The teachers at Cardiff University encouraged him and in his second year he paid more attention to composing and began to devour other composers' scores. Vocal and choral music became his home language. Some years he has written a lot for voices and other years, the focus has been more in instrumental so that last year he wrote instrumental works including a piano trio, whereas this year's focus is on his new choral album.

Is there a Dearden symphony in him? Potentially. He has been teaching orchestration, but symphonic is not a language he is comfortable in and he finds it difficult to speak as Nathan. That said, he has worked with lots of orchestras but admits that the can come away wishing that he'd done that differently. His final comment about a symphony? If you set him in a dark room for a year...

He both composes and conducts; he confesses that he rarely conducts his own music (though he does so on the new disc). He feels that he is more analytical as a conductor whereas as a composer he is messy, he likes using some improvised elements and aleatoric passages. On the disc he conducts the Choir of Royal Holloway in one track, suo. He admits he struggled a bit, seeing the work with a different lens which was not helpful for the music. He is acutely aware of breath in his music, where the pauses happen. This is something he thinks about a lot, particularly when conducting his music in his head.

During 2026 his work Mamiaith (Welsh for mother tongue) was performed at the 2026 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol (National Eisteddfod). This is a work in progress, a collaboration with Music Theatre Wales, Tŷ Cerdd and Eisteddfod Genedlaethol. Three opera scenes setting words by Siwan Llynor, the piece examines a hard-hitting topic about the imprisonment of women protesting the equality of the Welsh language. Nathan says that it is a powerful story, though he admits that it is not his story. He comes from an English-speaking family who lived in a Welsh community and he learned Welsh as a second language. He feels that Mamiaith is doing something for different voices; the events it refers to are not long ago and are part of a forgotten history, something that fascinates Nathan, He has had interesting conversations with his librettist, Siwan Llynor and their ambition is for a bigger work, though he is also talking about other operatic ideas.

Currently the CD its release is taking up a lot of brain space. But looking ahead he has a project with Ruth Evans working in the eight ancient counties of Wales to tell stories in each of the places. The first was with a community ensemble in Wrexham, then in Powys they are working with local schools. The project has a social purpose, with people telling their stories. He has a project writing for Only Boys Aloud Choir, the choir for boys aged 13 to 19 run by the Aloud Foundation which aims to both keep Welsh traditions alive, and teach new skills. Nathan's project will involve the boys working with male voice choirs, so the boys get to sing with the original male voice choirs of miners, some of whom have been singing since the 1970s.

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

Simplicity writ large: Iphigénie en Tauride makes an impact at English National Opera without impeding the glories of Gluck's music - review
Complexity & beauty: soprano Paula Sides & pianist Sergey Rybin explore songs on cusp of Modernism & Romanticism in Of Love & Transience - review
Forget Shakespeare: with Jacques Imbrailo & Haegee Lee as Hamlet & Ophélie, Chelsea Opera Group make a strong case for Ambroise Thomas's opera - opera review
A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - opera review
Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
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Simplicity writ large: Iphigénie en Tauride makes an impact at English National Opera without impeding the glories of Gluck's music

2026-11-07T11:08:02.985+00:00

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride - Nick Pritchard, Jacques Imbrailo, Christine Rice - English National Opera, 2026 [Photo: Helen Murray]

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride; Christine Rice, Jacques Imbrailo, Nick Pritchard, Morgan Pearse, dir: Lyndsey Turner, cond: David Bates, English National Opera; London Coliseum
Reviewed 6 November 2026

Supple vocal lines, powerful suppressed emotions & modern classical style: Lyndsey Turner's production of Gluck's final masterpiece is never overdone and allows the principals to shine

English National Opera's current season has something of an uncompromising, contemporary streak to it, what with Du Yun's Angel's Bone dividing critics [see our review], and a new Tosca (review to come next week) paired with Kaija Saariaho's challenging Adriana Mater (to come later this month).

So it was with some trepidation that we went along to see the premiere of English National Opera's first ever production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at the London Coliseum on 6 November 2026, directed by Lyndsey Turner, a director best known for her theatre work but who directed Noyes Fludde in 2019 for ENO at Stratford East. David Bates conducted (making his ENO debut) with Christine Rice as Iphigénie, Jacques Imbrailo as Oreste, Nick Pritchard as Pylade and Morgan Pearse as Thoas. Designs were by Soutra Gilmore with lighting by Tim Mitchell.

The work was performed in its original French, which undoubtedly helped the fluidity of the singers vocal lines but few managed to get the words across in the London Coliseum (we were sitting at the rear of the stalls).

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride - Christine Rice - English National Opera, 2026 [Photo: Helen Murray]

Thankfully Turner and Gilmore had not tried to do anything with the opera, there was no attempt at creative dislocation. Gilmore's setting was abstract, relying mainly on Mitchell's lighting (at the first night there was a problem and Morgan Pearse had to re-start Thoas's first aria and perform much of it in gloom). The costumes for the women were classically styled and draped whilst the men were in contemporary dress, though this contemporary element was not pressed. Turner introduced elements of the daily life of the priestesses (sweeping, washing etc.). There was no choreographer and no danced element. The biggest innovation was that during Oreste's Act One vision the Furies were off-stage and we saw two children playing the youthful Iphigénie and Oreste, and these two reoccurred to trouble Pylade in Act Three.

The opera begins with a storm and here David Bates and the ENO Orchestra went all out with the percussion. But after this Bates drew a strong performance from the orchestra, concentrating on sculptural lines and fluid beauty. The orchestra has an important role in the opera and Bates ensured that there was as strong presence throughout.

Christine Rice made a subtle and beautifully modulated Iphigénie, her character drawn in a long arc from the opening moments - when she dreams of her mother killing her father, Oreste killing her mother and then Iphigénie herself killing Oreste - and the closing scene when she is forced to sacrifice Oreste. Her moments of trouble and despair were profound yet never overly dramatic, Rice relied on the suppleness of the line and gentle colour. This was a performance which might have told better in a smaller venue, there were moments in the first couple of acts when her voice did not quite rise above the power raised by Bates and the orchestra. But this was a cumulative performance, and one that relied also on Rice's interactions with the other members of the cast. Here she triumphed, with her cool professional disdain for Morgan Pearse's Thoas and his bloodthirsty desires, and most importantly in the scenes with Imbrailo's Oreste. One innovation that Gluck and his librettist made to Euripides's original was to delay the recognition scene to the end, so that for most of the opera Rice and Imbrailo made the two's interactions crackle with suppressed energy.

Imbrailo made a powerful Oreste, troubled and intense but never overly dramatic. Imbrailo brought a fine combination of strength and flexibility to Oreste's vocal lines. Oreste is deeply troubled, and Imbrailo brought this out without ever overdoing things. Oreste longs for death, yet Imbrailo highlighted how Oreste's visions were intertwined with the presence of Rice's Iphigénie. The opera is notable for the lack of any love interest, yet what has happened is that Gluck and his librettist focus on the intense friendship of Oreste and Pylade. It is worth noting that at the premiere Pylade was played by the Paris Opera's leading haut contre who had sung the title role in Orphée et Eurydice.

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride - Nick Pritchard, Jacques Imbrailo - English National Opera, 2026 [Photo: Helen Murray]

The libretto makes much play of with the word 'Amitié', and even in a conservative reading the relationship between Pylade and Oreste is queer-coded. Some productions lean into this [for example at Blackheath Halls Opera in 2025, see my review] and even if you don't an element of queer-coding comes over. Turner, Imbrailo and Pritchard seem to have come up with a solution which resembled a 1950s Hollywood film where the relationship was clearly queer-coded without every being explicit [at Blackheath, Danny Shelvey and Michael Lafferty kissed a the end]. And frankly, the opera does not make sense otherwise.

Imbrailo and Pritchard made the relationship very intense, as each character struggled with the other to be the one that died! Like Imbrailo and Rice's scenes in the opera, those of Imbrailo and Pritchard fairly crackled with unexpressed emotion. It was clear that this Pyldade was in love with Oreste but perhaps did not acknowledge it.

Prichard brought great lyrical beauty to the role of Pylade making the vocal lines float magically. Pritchard is a modern lyric tenor and as such brought modern tenorial solutions to the challenge of a haut contre role. He was never clarion, relying on sheer beauty and expressiveness (and it is worth remembering that Pritchard is an Evangelist par excellence in Bach's Passions).

At the very end, Turner had the three principals, Rice, Imbrailo and Pritchard, sitting close together in and intimate family group as the chorus thundered around them.

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride - Morgan Pearse, Katey Rylands, Sophie Goldrick - English National Opera, 2026 [Photo: Helen Murray]

Morgan Pearse was a very civilised Thoas. Besuited and modern, he managed to be threatening without being too uncouth (though his fellow Scythians all carried weapons). There was something of the modern gang boss about him, implying violence without ever being explicit. It helped that Pearse was able to make his powerful baritone respond to the flexibility needed for Gluck; as a singer Pearse's repertoire ranges impressively from Handel to Puccini's Scarpia [for Opera Holland Park, see my review]

The remaining roles were all well taken, these are more stand-out chorus roles than big solos but Olivia Rose Tringham, Amy Holyland, Sarah Gilford, Robert Winslade Anderson and Paul Sheehan made their moments tell whilst keeping in the mood. The only misstep was to have the role of Diana at the end sung by the young girl playing the youthful Iphigénie (Lucy Barton and Zoe Houghton sharing) and this was amplified which disturbed the balance of the performance.

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride - English National Opera, 2026 [Photo: Helen Murray]

In an ideal world ENO would have performed Iphigénie en Tauride in a smaller theatre, this is a work that demands relative intimacy. Instead, they were giving just four performances in the London Coliseum. Thankfully Lyndsey Turner did not try to fill the space with colour and movement, instead she, David Bates and their cast drew a finely shaped yet strongly projected musical line. This was simplicity write large.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Complexity & beauty: soprano Paula Sides & pianist Sergey Rybin explore songs on cusp of Modernism & Romanticism in Of Love & Transience - review
Forget Shakespeare: with Jacques Imbrailo & Haegee Lee as Hamlet & Ophélie, Chelsea Opera Group make a strong case for Ambroise Thomas's opera - opera review
A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - opera review
Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
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Soprano Roberta Philip on cat-walking for London Fashion Week, learning from models, and her upcoming recital at the London Festival of American Music

2026-11-06T12:33:04.152+00:00

Roberta Philip [Photo: Ben Reason]

Soprano Roberta Philip is a versatile performer working across opera and jazz idioms in settings ranging from the cat walk to the concert platform. She is passionate about bringing lesser-known works by African American composers into the spotlight and has been praised for her "powerfully expressive" (The Opera Critic) and "outstanding voice" (The Stage).

Roberta performs with pianist Valentina Wang at the London Festival of American Music at The Warehouse on 11 November 2026.

What inspired you to become an Opera singer?

I grew up in a naturally musical family. My family would often burst into song at home, and my Nana, who is now 99, is infamous for having a hymn for every situation - big or small. My parents didn’t have the opportunity to learn instruments themselves, so they made sure my siblings and I did. I studied classical piano and violin, but singing initially remained something I did for fun, whether that was singing pop and R&B at home, musical theatre groups or singing in small jazz bands and choirs.

It was actually at the University of Birmingham that I began to see singing as something more. I auditioned for the Birmingham University Singers Chamber Choir, led by Simon Halsey, singing ‘Memory’ from Cats (one of the only remotely “classical” pieces I knew). I was accepted and went on to sing with the choir throughout the year. Through Halsey’s involvement with the BBC Proms Youth Choir, I also found myself singing in the chorus of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius at my first BBC Proms.

Watching Roderick Williams, one of the soloists, sing with the orchestra at our first Royal Albert Hall rehearsal gave me chills. He was the first Black opera singer I had ever seen, and I remember thinking that this was what I wanted to do. The following year, the chamber choir audition panel encouraged me to take singing lessons, recognising my innate musicality. By the time I graduated, singing had become my principal study.

When I graduated, I began a full-time career in performing arts PR and had private singing lessons, sung with the London Symphony Chorus and used all my annual leave to do summer vocal development programmes.

A few years later, I went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where I completed my Master of Performance. My teacher, John Evans, was instrumental in transforming my voice and helping me recognise my versatility across genres as one of my greatest artistic strengths, showing me how it could inform and enrich my classical singing. Although my training has been rooted in classical music, my love of jazz and soul remains a fundamental part of who I am musically, and continues to influence the way that I approach performance.

In 2024 you performed at London Fashion Week. Are there parallels to be drawn between fashion and music?

In 2024, I was selected as one of a handful of Guildhall students to perform in British designer Patrick McDowell’s Orpheus Ball showcase for London Fashion Week. The collection explored the structures of orchestral music through fashion.

I performed Gershwin’s The Man I Love with my colleague Elizabeth Mwale on euphonium. We were the only musicians dressed in the collection, and we walked the catwalk whilst performing; a surprise twist within the show. I’m not a model, so it was a completely new experience, but I loved seeing how fashion and music could work together.

Through this show, I discovered a key parallel between opera and fashion. In opera, costume can be so much more than something you wear, it helps you inhabit a character and draws you into the narrative world. In the showcase, once wearing Patrick’s collection, I observed the very same transformation in the models, and experienced it myself.

You regularly collaborate with Pegasus Opera Company. What impact has this company had on your development as an artist?

Pegasus Opera Company has played a pivotal role in my development. I joined its mentoring programme in 2023–24, and had several opportunities to perform for industry professionals and connect with key organisations.

Pegasus also cast me in my first professional opera production, Ruth by Philip Hagemann, where I played the Narrator and covered the lead role of Orpah. In fact, I ended up performing both my own role and the role I was covering in every performance, which was an extraordinary learning experience and a significant step in my professional development.

My relationship with Pegasus has continued beyond that production, and I regularly perform in concert tours. Alison Buchanan, Artistic Director, has also been a huge mentor to me. What I value particularly is the way Pegasus has helped create opportunities while encouraging a broader and more representative operatic landscape. That connects closely with my own interests as an artist.

Your recital programme for the London Festival of American Music features music by William Grant Still, Gershwin and Florence Price, amongst others. How have you gone about putting this together?

I’m thrilled to be making my London Festival of American Music debut with a programme that explores the extraordinary breadth and evolution of African American music. I want to celebrate the richness of this repertoire, bring lesser-known works into the spotlight, and share the many different stories and musical traditions it encompasses.

One composer I’m particularly excited to feature is Brittney Boykin. I was introduced to her work during my time at Guildhall, where I discovered her song cycle Moments in Sonder, which sets poetry by Maya Angelou, one of my favourite poets. I contacted Brittney over email, and I was incredibly grateful that Guildhall purchased the collection for me to include in my Master of Performance final recital. It’s wonderful to be able to continue sharing this music beyond my studies.

For me, my LFAM programme captures a vast musical landscape; from the soulful roots of spirituals, to music shaped by the civil rights movement and the struggle for equality, to songs of unencumbered joy, intimacy and love. I’m passionate about broadening the classical canon and encouraging audiences to discover composers and works they may not know. This recital is an opportunity to celebrate that diversity, whilst showing that African American music cannot be defined by a single style, period or experience.

Roberta performs with pianist Valentina Wang on 11 Nov 2026, 7.30pm at the London Festival of American Music at The Warehouse, Waterloo.

Florence Price: Night, Hold Fast to Dreams, Travel's End , Sympathy
Brittney Boykin: Moments in Sonder
George Gershwin: 'Summertime' from Porgy and Bess
Undine Smith Moore: I am in Doubt, I Want to Die while you Love Me, Lyric for True Love
William Grant Still: 'Give me no Body without your Soul' from Blue Steel, Grief
Margaret Bonds: Three Dream Portraits
George Walker: I Got a Letter from Jesus, Ev'ry Time I Feel de Spirit
Moses Hogan: Were you There?
Hall Johnson: Ride on King Jesus

Joshua Weilerstein to be next chief conductor of BBC Philharmonic

2026-11-06T07:55:40.970+00:00

Joshua Weilerstein conducting the BBC Philharmonic in Dvorak's New World Symphony in April 2026

Hot on the heels of John Storgårds, (chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic until September 2028), launching his first season as musical director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra [see my article] comes the news of the appointment of Joshua Weilerstein as the BBC Philharmonic's next chief conductor.

Weilerstein is music director of the Orchestre National de Lille, and will conclude his tenure as chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra at the end of the 2027/28 season. His relationship with the BBC Philharmonic has developed through performances in Manchester and at the BBC Proms. His 2025 BBC Proms appearance with the orchestra included clarinet concertos by Copland and Artie Shaw alongside French composer Elsa Barraine’s Second Symphony (which was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938) and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances. In April this year he conducted the orchestra in Manchester in a programme that included Duke Ellington’s Harlem, and Soviet Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin’s Fourth Piano Concerto (with Frank Dupree) alongside Dvorak.

Born in 1987 to a musical family, Joshua Weilerstein's father was the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet. Joshua Weilerstein studied violin and conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music, and his conducting mentors have included Hugh Wolff. Winning the First Prize (and Audience Prize) at the 2009 Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen, he became the youngest first prize winner in the history of the competition. He launched the Sticky Notes podcast in 2017.

It demands to be heard: the CBSO return to Coventry Cathedral with Britten's War Requiem for Remembrance Day in advance of a European tour

2026-11-05T08:03:01.063+00:00

Coventry Cathedral [Photo: Garry Jones]

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is set to return to Coventry Cathedral for a performance of Britten’s War Requiem on Remembrance Day (11 November), also marking 50 years since Britten's death.

The CBSO gave the world premiere of the War Requiem at the Cathedral in 1962. The work was commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, and the reconsecration marked by an arts festival that also included the premiere of Michael Tippett's King Priam, and Bliss's The Beatitudes (which had to be premiered in the Belgrade Theatre because of scheduling problems relating to the opening services and rehearsals for the War Requiem).

For the Remembrance Day performance, the CBSO's music director, Kazuki Yamada conducts the orchestra, CBSO Chorus, CBSO Youth Choir and Trinity Boys Choir with soloists Olga Peretyatko, Andrew Staples, and Christian Gerhaher.

Following the Coventry concert, Kazuki Yamada and the orchestra will give performances of the War Requiem in Brussels, Luxembourg and Lucerne as part of a European tour which includes concerts in Freiburg, Nuremberg, and Viersen (which is near Düsseldorf). Rather strikingly the CBSO Chorus and Trinity Boys Choir also taking part in the performances of the War Requiem on the tour.

CBSO Chief Executive Emma Stenning said: "War Requiem is not a comfortable piece. It is, as Britten intended, a reflection on war and a cry for peace, and in many ways could not be more prescient, or more urgently needed from an orchestra right now. We are not staging it as an act of nostalgia. We are staging it because it demands to be heard."

Full details from the CBSO website.

The songs that make ordinary moments feel transcendent: Erik Sigurd's Sonnet live in Stoke Newington

2026-11-04T14:43:06.549+00:00

"There was a time when you could sit in silence without reaching for your phone, when you looked forward to long car rides for the space to think, when you would listen to an album from start to finish. We find the songs that make ordinary moments feel transcendent."

This comes from the manifesto of Silent Songs, an independent record label, publisher and curator. And whilst their name might seem something of a tautology, in fact they focus on contemporary classical and ambient music, and in creating carefully curated live experiences around their artists.

One of these is the British-Swedish composer Erik Sigurd, whose piano music is described at 'soft and cinematic'. Sigurd has his debut album, Sonnet out on 12 November and to celebrate that, Silent Songs has gathered Sigurd and friends together for a concert at the Old church, Soke Newington on 13 November 2026.

In the first half, Sigurd will play his own solo piano music alongside music by key pianistic influences. In the second half he will be joined by string quartet - Eleonora Consta, Roman Lytwyniw, Luba Tunnicliffe, Zachary Owen, saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi, double bass Sam Becker and harpist Oliver Wass, for Sonnet, Sigurd's 14 movement chamber work.

In fact Erik Sigurd is the pseudonym that jazz and classical composer/pianist Leif Kaner-Lidström uses for recording meditative, often improvised solo works. You can also catch Kaner-Lidström performing with his own quintet, the Levitation Orchestra and the Jess Gillam band.

Further details from dice.

Innovative repertoire, worthy winners & talent development: looking back at the final of BBC Young Musician

2026-11-04T10:47:13.016+00:00

BBC Young Musician final, 20206 - Sofia Demetriades [Photo: BBC / Betsan Evans]

It was heartening to hear three such talented young people in the BBC Young Musician 2026 final and to experience such imaginatively varied repertoire. Whilst the winner, violinist Sofia Demetriades played Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and impressed both audience and judges, recorder player Alma Nunez Debretzeni played Graham Fitkin's Recorder Concerto and saxophonist Kezia Colton played Takashi Yoshimatsu's Cyber Bird Saxophone Concerto. All three accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Alpesh Chauhan at Bristol Beacon.

I was very much taken with Graham Fitkin's Recorder Concerto, a work I did not know before. This was originally commissioned by Debretzeni’s teacher, Barbara Law, and it was given its premiere performance in 2017 by 2014’s Young Musician finalist, Sophie Westbrooke. Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu's influences range from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky through to Pink Floyd, Yes, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. His concerto for alto saxophone dates from 1993 with a title that refers to 'an imaginary bird in the realm of electronic cyberspace' and it was written for virtuoso saxophonist, Nobuya Sugawa. At Bristol Beacon, the Competition's 2022 winner, the percussionist Jordan Ashman, joined Kezia Colton onstage for Yoshimatsu’s concerto.

BBC Young Musician final, 20206 - Alma Nunez Debretzeni [Photo: BBC / Betsan Evans]

Violinist Sofia Demetriades has already been making waves. In March, she won the senior category of the Haslemere International String Competition with a prize including concerto performance engagement with the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) at the Haslemere Festival. Continuing the ECO connection, Demetriades will be ECO's inaugural New Horizons Artist Sofia Demetriades. New Horizons is the English Chamber Orchestra’s flagship talent development programme which is being launched next year. The programme will identify exceptional emerging musicians and composers and support them through a sustained two-year pathway from education into professional life.

The BBC Young Musician final 2026 is on BBC iPlayer.

Complexity & beauty: soprano Paula Sides & pianist Sergey Rybin explore songs on the cusp of Modernism & Romanticism in Of Love & Transience

2026-11-04T09:23:06.038+00:00

Of Love & Transience: Berg, Ullmann, Korngold, Strauss; Paula Sides, Sergey Rybin; VOCES8 Records
Reviewed 2 November 2026

Viktor Ullmann's settings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning translated by Rilke provide the powerful centrepiece in a recital that explores songs on the cusp of Modernism and Romanticism with performances that mine both the songs complexity and beauty

It's not obvious that the early 20th century would provide such richness in the song repertoire, particularly in the Austro-German tradition. Yet song-writing seems to have constantly drawn composers and exploring those on the cusp of modernism and romanticism can prove richly rewarding.

On this new disc from soprano Paula Sides and pianist Sergey Rybin, Of Love and Transience on the VOCES8 Records, they explore the songs of Alban Berg and Richard Strauss alongside those of Viktor Ullmann and Erich Korngold. The recital is bookended by Berg's Seven Early Songs and Strauss's Four Last Songs, but the lesser-known gems by Ullmann and Korngold prove to be equally rewarding.

Berg's Seven Early Songs date from 1905-1908 and reflect a fascinating synthesis between his early late-Romantic style and the rigour of his work with Arnold Schoenberg. Whilst the do exist in orchestral versions, the composer wrote them initially for voice and piano. In all seven, what draws both listeners and singers is the expressive lyricism of the vocal lines, soaring through and over the complex late-Romantic harmonies.

In Nacht (Night), Rybin's piano creates an evocative nightscape over which Sides' voice soars with surprising strength. She combines firmness of line with richness of tone along with an ease that disguises the complexity of this music. And despite the tessitura, she is surprisingly successful at getting the words over! Schilflied (Song amid the reeds) proves to be remarkably intimate, the poet confiding in us, whilst in Die Nachtigall (The nightingale), perhaps the best-known song in the group, Sides really revels in the sheer gorgeousness of the melody, yet neither she nor Rybin forgets that there is an expressive purpose here. Traumgekrönt (Crowned in dream) is darker and more complex, the voice weaving its way through thickets of chromaticism with apparent ease. There is something slightly cabaret-like to Im Zimmer (Indoors) with both performers alert to the possibilities of the song and sides giving full weight to the words. Liebesode (Ode to Love) is more stately with a feel that merges neo-classicism with something more romantic. Finally, Sommertage (Summer days) is urgently romantic, pushing the chromatic harmony to its limit.

Berg's Traumgekrönt sets the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, so it is fascinating to then move on to Viktor Ullmann setting three of Rilke's translations of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese. Ullmann published these as his Op. 29 in Prague in 1940. Ullmann had been forced to flee Germany in 1933 and had returned to Prague where he worked as music teacher and journalist, including working for Czech Radio. Whilst he was influenced by Schoenberg and studied atonal music, he was more independent minded.

The first song, 'My letters! all dead paper' is intense and concentrated, the power of music in its complete focus. Here Ullmann is less interested in gorgeous melodies and more in the sheer expressiveness of harmonic complexity. Again Sides and Rybin sail through this, expressive and with great beauty yet never shying away from the complexity and darkness in the harmony. 'Say over again' has an urgency and intensity to it that soars from the page, and Rybin brings out the beauties in the challenging piano writing. 'First time he kissed me...' has a very specific and rather strong atmosphere, with Sides really bringing out the intensity of Barrett Browning's story. All three of these songs are highly charged and pregnant with possibilities, tempting us to look into Ullmann's future through them.

As the child of assimilated Jews, Ullmann was not able to evade the concentration camp. The performers finish this group with a snapshot of Ullmann in Theresienstadt: his Yiddish song Berjoskele (The Little Birch Tree). There is something folk-like in its directness, but that does not stop Ullmann giving the piano some wayward and complex harmonies.

Erich Korngold, also Jewish and born the year before Ullmann, was luckier. In the USA as a result of being invited to work on Max Reinhardt's film of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Korngold was about ready to return home to Vienna, having had enough of Hollywood, when the Anschluss happened and returning home was out of the question.

We hear his Three Songs, Op. 22 which date from 1928-29. There is a lyricism here that is absent from the Berg and the Ullmann and we can hear the influence of composers such as Richard Strauss and Mahler, logical models for a young Viennese composer. It is worth bearing in mind that Korngold was a prodigy so had been composing for 20 years by the time he came to write the songs. 'Was Du mir bist?' (What are you to me?) is questioning, the music's beauty combining with complexity. 'Mit Dir zu schweigen' (With you in silence) is intense and intent, its focus gradually relaxing into harmonic beauty. 'Welt ist stille eingeschlafen' (The world has silently fallen asleep) gives us engagingly urgent textures. All three songs combine lyrical beauty with expressionist intent, enabling both performers to mine them for both beauty and profound expressivity.

We finish with the most recent songs on the disc, the elderly Richard Strauss looking back to his lyrical heyday. The songs were not conceived as a cycle (in fact there is a fifth 'last song', Malven which exists only in the piano version). But they were entrusted to Kirsten Flagstad, which tells us the sort of large, yet focused voice that Strauss envisaged. With Rybin's sensitive piano playing, Sides soars effortlessly. What we notice most though, is not the beauty of her tone (though there is plenty of that), but her acuteness, the way she treats these as lieder, songs setting poetry where the words are important. Occasionally hardness creeps in the tone, and you feel that she is working a little too hard, but overall there is a lot to enjoy in these acute performances.

I still miss the beauties of the orchestral versions, the luxury of a large voice floating at ease over the orchestra (if you can't get hold of the live recording of Flagstad, on YouTube, then try Jessye Norman). But here, Sides and Rybin give us something more intimate, more interesting, and the songs make a fascinating completion to this cycle of 20th century songs. And it is worth bearing in mind Strauss's extreme age, Sides and Rybin could have begun the cycle with Strauss writing before Berg!

Of Love & Transience
Paula Sides (soprano)
Sergey Rybin (piano)
Recorded on December 10, 11 and 12, 2025 at Champs Hill
VOCES8 VCM192D 1CD [55:47]

Album link: https://orcd.co/ofloveandtransience

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

Forget Shakespeare: with Jacques Imbrailo & Haegee Lee as Hamlet & Ophélie, Chelsea Opera Group make a strong case for Ambroise Thomas's opera - opera review
A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - opera review
Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
Here comes the 1980s: powerful solo contributions rescue Opera North's misguided updating of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin - review
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Music made with & by people, where they live & work, is what keeps orchestral music alive & relevant: Orchestras Live's 2026 Impact Review

2026-11-03T09:52:27.458+00:00

Orchestras Live: Culture Sounds [Photo: Chiara Dellerba]

Orchestras Live is the charity that works to bring the thrill and connection of live orchestral music to people who might not otherwise encounter it, and to use those shared experiences to spark confidence, wellbeing and a sense of belonging in both the individuals and communities. It has recently released its 2026 Impact Report, which makes for illuminating reading.

They work nationally with a focus in the East, North and the Midlands, often in coastal and rural communities where access to high-quality music experiences are often limited. The report covers some 35 projects and events, working with 37 local partners and 19 orchestral partners to create over 26,000 orchestral experiences.

Key projects include:

Our Music Our Way: providing first time experiences for children and young people, helping put music at the heart of communities in Redcar and Cleveland, with young children hearing an orchestra for the first time alongside residents co-writing and performing with professional musicians.

This involved an ongoing schools programme with Royal Northern Sinfonia, composer Michael Betteridge and teachers from Tees Valley Music Services.

Culture Sounds: trauma-informed creative opportunities for displaced children and young people in the UK care system, deepening understanding of how creative work can support belonging and confidence.

Musicians from One World Orchestra and Sinfonia Viva delivered workshops at a young people's residence in Leicester, working with local support workers. One World Orchestra has now secured funding to launch a full programme next year.

Good Company: creative dementia support for family carers and their relatives in Essex, helping them stay connected, independent and creatively engaged. Building on this, a new iteration will be delivered in Rayleigh, building on a legacy project established there by Dance Network Association.

Day of Psalms curated by Edmund de Waal at Schwarzman Centre, Oxford culminates in Aurora Orchestra premiering Frideswides Psalms by Nico Muhly

2026-11-03T09:09:01.237+00:00

St Frideswide in 14th century stained glass at Christ Church, Oxford [Photo: Wikimedia/Andrew Dunning]

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre is the University of Oxford's new centre for the arts and humanities. The Hopkins Architects-designed buildings house seven of the University's humanities faculties whilst the public performance spaces include a concert hall, studio theatre, and black box performance space.

As an example of the sort of cross-cultural fertilisation that we might expect, artist and writer Edmund de Waal is a Schwarzman Centre Cultural Fellow. He was been working with academics on exploring the continuing resonance of the Psalms across the three Abrahamic faiths and beyond. The culmination of this work is a Day of Psalms at the Schwarzman Centre on 28 November which includes a sunrise concert from GBSR Duo (piano and percussion), the Colin Currie Group in Steve Reich's Tehilim, and all manner of events exploring the psalms relevance from John Donne to writing workshops.

The evening concert will feature Nicholas Collon, Aurora Orchestra, the BBC Singers in a programme co-curated by Edmund de Waal. The concert features Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms (a work that celebrates Bernstein's Jewish heritage with music worthy of Broadway), and Bach's Magnificat (not strictly a Psalm but reflecting the Lutheran tradition), plus a new work by Nico Muhly.

Muhly's Frideswide Psalms has been co-commissioned by Aurora Orchestra and the Schwarzman Centre. Frideswide was an Anglo-Saxon princess, who become the patron saint of Oxford and the University of Oxford. She is credited as the founder of an Oxford monastery which became part of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Muhly's new piece involves 'several interwoven psalms, whose imagery circles the life of the early medieval Saint Frideswide' with texts both from the Book of Common Prayer and the 14th century Wycliffe translation.

There are three opportunities to catch the programme, at Saffron Hall on 27 November, at the Schwarzman Centre on 28 November and at Kings Place, London on 29 November.

Further information about the Day of Psalms from the Schwarzman Centre website, and see Aurora Orchestra's website for details of their concerts.

String instruments, they’ve been at the centre of my musical life for as long as I can remember.

2026-11-03T07:32:26.451+00:00

Rachael Montesino Young (Photo: Stuart Wood)

Cellist Rachael Montesino Young on the influence of Jacqueline du Pré, both of whom studied with William Pleeth, and looking forward to her concerts with London Virtuosi Ensemble.

[see Robert's 2015 interview with her, 'From ritual humiliation to meditation']

String instruments, they've been at the centre of my musical life for as long as I can remember. Whether it's the soulful, human sound of the cello – my own instrument, the thrill of a virtuoso violin, the sobering and heart-warming viola or the plangent tones of a viol. Whether played as a solo instrument, as a choir of strings in a string orchestra, or the sound of the collective string sections of a great orchestra, the alchemy of string instruments in whatever form, are somehow able to express the whole range of human experience and emotion and even beyond, reaching out and hinting at other worlds beyond ours.

And in the hands of a great artist such as Jacqueline du pre, the possibilities are for expression are truly without limits. She was one who was able to create an endless possibility of colours – pale and limpid, fierce and heroic, wondrous, tender, melting, heartbreaking, romantic, heart-warming, ennobling and on and on. And for me more than any other string player I've heard, she was the supreme artist for this.

So, it's unsurprising that all my recent projects –both upcoming and newly minted, have strings at their beating creative heart. My just recently completed a cello album called The Bearable Lightness of Being collaborates with the pianist Sophia Rahman and is dedicated to my cello heroine Jacqueline du Pre.

I was very fortunate to have shared the same cello teacher as du Pre, in the late, great William "Bill" Pleeth, and so have first-hand experience of the teaching and some of the qualities Bill would have focused on developing in du Pre's playing. She was of course her own greatest teacher, as all great artists are, but it took someone of Pleeth's artistry, imagination and approach to the cello, to develop her genius to its full fruition.

The Bearable Lightness of Being takes as its inspiration du Pre's 'Recital' recording - with a few additional surprises along the way and is due for release in January 2027.

But my upcoming orchestral projects in London involve a slightly bigger beast than a cello as they are collaborations with the London Virtuosi Ensemble – LoVE.

LoVE is a string orchestra ensemble I recently founded, with an aim to continue and foster the rich and great traditions of English string playing.

I grew up listening avidly to recordings of the great chamber orchestras active in London in the 1960's,70s and 80s. Ensembles such as The English Chamber Orchestra – at that time led by the wonderful Emanuel (Manny) Hurwitz, The Academy of St Martin's in the Field – founded and led by Sir Neville Marriner and the many wonderful recordings made by string quartets - the top of my list for me being The Amadeus Quartet but there were many more.

LoVE also takes as inspiration the supreme technique and impressive ensemble playing of Russian virtuosi string orchestras from the 1960s and 70s such as The Moscow Virtuosi.

A Terrible Beauty, LoVE's debut concert is on December 1st is part of the Temple Church's, London Winter Music Festival and is a journey through pre-war, 20th century English String Music and verse written between 1900 –1939.

And It's a great honour for us all to be performing alongside two eminent and supreme actors – Dame Harriet Smith and Toby Jones, who will be performing the themed verse interspersed throughout the musical works on the programme.

The Artistic Director of the Temple Winter Festival Robert Ogden writes, "A Terrible Beauty explores the extraordinary flowering of English string music in the first decades of the twentieth century — music of radiant lyricism and haunting emotional depth, written in the shadow of a rapidly changing world. This programme brings together some of the most evocative and beloved works in the English string repertoire.

At its heart lies a profound sense of beauty touched by fragility. Composed between the final years of the Edwardian era and the uncertain decades between two world wars, these works reflect a society poised between nostalgia and modernity, serenity and upheaval. The soaring lines of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis seem to suspend time itself, while the aching tenderness of Finzi's Romance and Elgar's Elegy speaks of loss, remembrance and longing. Frank Bridge's elegant Valse–Intermezzo captures the glittering surface of a vanished world, and Michael Tippett's exhilarating Concerto for Double String Orchestra bursts forth with rhythmic vitality, yet beneath its energy lies an undercurrent of tension and unease, hinting at the uncertainties and gathering shadows of a world on the brink of conflict.

From the sweeping grandeur of Elgar's Introduction & Allegro to the luminous spirituality of Vaughan Williams, this is music of extraordinary richness and emotional power - at once intimate and expansive, deeply English yet universal in its humanity.

A compelling and atmospheric evening of string music, A Terrible Beauty invites audiences into a sound world of warmth, passion and poignancy"

LoVE's second London December concert is at King's Place on December 18th. Again, it's an evening of classical music and poetry but this time curated and themed to take the audience on a journey through the winter solstice and the reflective introversion it can evoke.

I'm particularly looking forward to collaborating with the wonderful up and coming Estonian Violinist Hans Christian Aarvik who was winner of the Neilsen violin competition 2022. He is featuring as soloist in his compatriot Arvo Pärt's evocative work Fratres. As a fellow Estonian Hans brings a depth and subtlety of understanding to Pärts music, as I've witnessed many times when he has appeared as soloist with conductor Paavo Jarvi at Paavo's Parnu Music festival.

Hans Christian Aarvik will also feature as soloist in the rarely performed Souvenir d'un Lier Cher in an arrangement for string orchestra.

So, Fratres will set the atmosphere and mood for the evening and the evening will also include evocative music from Shostakovich and Sibelius and will conclude with one of Tchaikovsky's masterpieces, his Serenade for strings.

This serenade is a rich and highly colourful work that I like to think depicts the journey between autumn & spring – a winter's journey. From the encroaching darkness, we are led into the winter solstice and on through the slow return of light that heralds spring.

We begin with the sombre, sobering, autumnal beauty of a chorale reminiscent of Russian orthodox choirs and then on through to a winter ball of the second movement, with all its elegance, gaiety and gossip. We are then taken through to a deep, reflective and introverted Elegy – Tchaikovsky at his most richly expressive using the strings to their full sonorous power and possibility. And then on to the finale which begins by evoking a scene of a freezing winter morning on the icy Steppe. The music gradually reveals a frozen winter landscape, and then we might faintly begin to make out peasants slowly waking and readying themselves for work. What follows their toil is revelry, drinking and dancing and so onwards abruptly to return to the heart-warming, ennobling embrace of the sobering, sacred chorale of the opening. The peasants have the last word however as their gaiety gradually returns growing more insistent, driving on to a triumphant and exuberant end, heralding the return of spring and the light.

If these projects and concerts spark any interest, we'd LoVE to see you! But if you can't make either of them at this busy time of the year, we are planning our debut recording in March 2027, so maybe you can catch up with our work through this recording.

We will keep you posted .....

Love Rachael Montesino Young x

Samling Institute for Young Artists: Celebrating 30 years of transforming the landscape for classical singers growing up in North East England

2026-11-02T11:55:27.179+00:00

Samling Institute for Young Artists is celebrating its 30th birthday, that is 30 years of supporting early-career singers and pianists and through its innovative Samling Academy that has transformed the landscape for classical singers growing up in North East England.

In celebration, on Friday 6 November there is a gala at Wigmore Hall when with alumni from Samling’s programmes and special guest Adrian Lester.

The concert illustrates the power of music to change lives, how composers and poets have harnessed the power of music to tell its own story. Music performed includes Franz Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock, (with guest clarinettist Eliott Berdugo), Antonín Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs, Robert Schumann's Andersen Lieder and ends with one of the greatest love songs to art, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music in a special arrangement for eight solo voices.

Acting and a close attention to text are at the centre of Samling Institute’s teaching ethos and every programme includes a stage actor on the leadership team. Earlier this year, actor Adrian Lester, star of the RSC’s recent Cyrano de Bergerac, joined the Samling Artist Programme as a coach. Threading together the programme at Wigmore Hall, he will read poems by writers including Andrew Marvell, Walter de la Mare, Seamus Heaney and Carol Ann Duffy.

The performers will include British soprano Nardus Williams, Portuguese mezzo-soprano Cláudia Ribas, Scottish tenor Euan McDonald, Swiss baritone Felix Gygli, American pianist Jonathan Ware, British pianist Alfred Fardell, and four recent members of Samling Academy, soprano Tia Radix-Callixte, mezzo- soprano Lauren Bagge, tenor Benedict Munden and baritone Fabian Tindale Geere.

Full details from the Samling website.

Here be monsters! Prologue Opera bring Jonathan Dove's community opera The Monster in the Maze to Hastings

2026-11-02T11:30:59.918+00:00

Jonathan Dove's 2015 community opera, The Monster in The Maze was written for Simon Rattle, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Following those 2015 UK performances the work had to wait until 2024 to be performed again, when Music in the Round presented it in Sheffield [see my review]. For that performance, tenor Anthony Flaum played Theseus and now Prologue Opera, which Flaum founded in 2017, is bringing the production, directed by Rosie Kat, to Hastings.

Anthony Flaum, CEO & Founder, Prologue Opera. commented: "Jonathan Dove gave Hastings its first community opera on the pier in 1990. Nearly four decades on, the town isn't just the venue, it's the story. Every wave, every backstory, every voice in this production comes from Hastings itself. This is what happens when a community gets to tell its own myth."

The Monster in the Maze will be presented at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings with three public performances during half-term on 18 and 19 February 2027. For the production, Prologue Opera will be partnered by the White Rock Theatre, Hasting Philharmonic, The Bright Foundation, Dear Future Films and Sussex music hub Create Music.

The performances will combine professional soloists, conductor and creative team with White Rock Youth Theatre, children’s chorus from local schools, an adult community chorus, Hastings Philharmonic players and a Learning Orchestra of local young players and place-based elements to root the project in Hastings.

The Monster in the Maze: images from the project launch in Hastings

The performers will include Sir John Tomlinson as King Minos alongside mezzo-soprano Louise Winter, tenor Anthony Flaum (as Theseus) and Tim Nelson (as Daedalus). There will be puppetry from The Bright Foundation and Long Nose Puppetry.

Sir John Tomlinson added, "I have never before performed in a Jonathan Dove opera, but admired them greatly from the audience, so I look forward to being King Minos in 'Monster in the Maze'. The Monster I know well from the inside, having sung the title role in Birtwistle's 'Minotaur' at Covent Garden some years ago. Like all Myths, it's as relevant now in our own time as much as ever it was, and it's such a powerful, deeply emotional tale."

As well as working with local schools, there will be workshops with children to co-create a piece based around the myth and the themes in the show.

Full details from the Prologue Opera website, tickets from the White Rock Theatre.

Forget Shakespeare: with Jacques Imbrailo & Haegee Lee as Hamlet & Ophélie, Chelsea Opera Group make a strong case for Ambroise Thomas's opera under Jonathon Cole-Swinard's sympathetic direction

2026-11-02T10:02:03.192+00:00

Ambroise Thomas: Hamlet - Malachy Frame, Ruari Bowen, Jacques Imbrailo, Jonathan Cole-Swinard, Jay Broadhurst, Grace Durham, Richard Wiegold, Thomas D Hopkinson, Chelsea Opera Group [Photo: Julian Guidera]

Ambroise Thomas: Hamlet; Jacques Imbrailo, Haegee Lee, Richard Wiegold, Grace Durham, Jay Broadhurst, Chelsea Opera Group, Jonathan Cole-Swinard; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 1 November 2026

Thomas's Hamlet might not be quite top-drawer grand opera, but with superb solo contributions and some sophisticate orchestral playing this performance played to the work's strengths

Ambroise Thomas is the nearly man of French 19th-century opera. Born seven years before Gounod and thirty years before Massenet, he was effectively the advance-guard of the composers who developed French opera following on from Meyerbeer. As director of the Conservatoire he was responsible for both modernising the organisation and imposing a conservative curriculum, including attempting to prevent composers such as César Franck and Gabriel Fauré from influencing the students. Thomas wrote a significant number of operas, many of them opera comique and his best known is Mignon (based loosely on Goethe) which began as an opera comique in 1866 though he went on to add sung recitatives and the work was almost as popular as Gounod's Faust.

The librettists for Mignon were Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, who also wrote the libretto for Gounod's Faust. And in 1859 they turned to Shakespeare's Hamlet to create an libretto for Thomas for a five-act grand opera. Their source was Alexandre Dumas's French version of the play from 1847, which was truer to Shakespeare than earlier French versions but still introduced 'improvements' so by modern standards, it was a rather free adaptation of the original. No Fortinbras and no opening scene on the ramparts; a love scene for Hamlet and Ophelia added to the first act; Claudius does not send Hamlet to England, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not die; the rather striking ending has the ghost of Hamlet's father reappear and condemn Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes as they are dying.

The opera was premiered at the Paris Opera in 1868. Hamlet was sung by the baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure because no suitable tenor could be found (though the tenor version was eventually premiered in 2025). The opera was staged, in Italian, in London in 1869 and went on to be staged in Leipzig, Budapest, Brussels, Prague, New York City, Saint Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna within five years of the Paris premiere. A shorter version of the Finale with Hamlet's death is associated with the London performances but there is no record that this version was performed in Thomas's lifetime. The role of Ophélie was a great favourite of Nelly Melba and reputedly when she sang the role, the opera ended with her mad scene!

In 1980, the fledgling Buxton Festival presented a production of Thomas' Hamlet (with Thomas Allen in the title role). Since then, sightings of the opera in the UK have been relatively rare. Covent Garden presented it in 2003, for the first time since 1910 (!) and Opera North gave it in 1995, but it remains a rarity, dependent on the right baritone and soprano. Buxton returned to the opera in 2025 in a production directed by Jack Furness [see my review].

It was thus heartening to find Chelsea Opera Group (COG) presenting the work at Cadogan Hall on Sunday 1 November 2026 (the same weekend as Gothic Opera unearthed another French rarity, Halévy's La Dame de Pique, see our review]. COG's conductor was Jonathon Cole-Swinard (Head of Music and Chorus Director at Garsington Opera). Jacques Imbrailo was Hamlet [following on from his Pelléas in Aldeburgh earlier this year, see our review, and anticipating his Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at ENO] with Haegee Lee as Ophélie [last seen as Lakmé with COG in 2024, see my review]. Jay Broadhurst was Laërte [last seen with COG in Verdi's Macbeth last year when he sang Malcolm and jumped in as Macduff]. Richard Wiegold and Grace Durham were Claudius and Gertrude, with Ruari Bowen as Marcellus/Grave Digger, Malachy Frame as Horatio/Grave Digger, and Thomas D Hopkinson as the Ghost.

Thomas' Hamlet is a highly effective piece of musical theatre providing you forget about the complexity and depth of Shakespeare's original. Thomas has crafted two outstanding solo parts, Hamlet and Ophélie. At Cadogan Hall both Jacques Imbrailo and Haegee Lee seized all the opportunities, and the performance was well worth it for them alone. Thankfully, however, Jonathon Cole-Swinard and his forces brought out much else of the work's richness.

It has to be admitted, however, that stretches of the opera are somewhat more generic and the piece does not quite sustain the highest level of imagination throughout. There are the usual opera tropes, a mad scene for Ophélie, a drinking song for Hamlet, but the focus on Hamlet and the remarkable way he dominates the opera is something new for 19th century French opera and you feel that Massenet's Werther might have been rather different without the old opera's example.

Whilst the opening and closing scenes of the opera have a focus firmly on Hamlet and Ophélie, what Thomas also does is create some terrific operatic ensembles and the strength of Chelsea Opera Group's casting meant that these really crackled with energy. In Act Two, the players scene featured Thomas's innovative use of the saxophone thus creating a sense of aural tension though the players scene itself with its dumb-show with only whispered comments from the protagonists is tricky to bring off in concert. Thankfully, Thomas ends this with a terrific operatic ensemble, and here all concerned really did let rip, the earlier tension being released in a very satisfyingly operatic way.

But Act Three is the real heart of the opera as Thomas and his librettists created a series of tense encounters. Imbrailo's neo-Shakespearean solo ('To be or not to be' in French!) led to the strange yet powerful duet as Hamlet overheard Claudius (Richard Wiegold) praying, admitting his guilt yet Hamlet did nothing. There followed the trio for Hamlet (Imbrailo), Gertrude (Grace Durham) and Ophélie (Lee) which Thomas turns into one of the most powerful moments in the opera. Gertrude is a somewhat attenuated role, but Durham made the most of it and here she was positively thrilling, the engine of this terrific trio. In a rather Rossinian manner, the trio turns into a duo (as Ophélie is dismissed). Imbrailo and Durham both revelled in the tension here as Gertrude finally admits her guilt. But this is opera, and Thomas D Hopkinson's Ghost reappeared on the balcony above the stage for a visual coup, though I had wished Hopkinson was vocally more stentorian here.

From his first entry, Jacques Imbrailo made a vocally seductive and compelling anti-hero. He sang Thomas's vocal lines with beauty and suppleness of phrasing which rendered them finely sophisticated. Yet his diction was superb, and as Hamlet gradually ties himself in knots thanks to the revelation of the Ghost (Thomas D Hopkinson), and then Claudius's (Richard Wiegold) clear admission of guilt, Imbrailo became more and more intense. This was a persuasive and unassailable performance that elevated Thomas's opera to the ultimate.

If the role of Hamlet allowed Imbrailo to explore the role with some subtlety, Ophélie allowed less scope. Hagee Lee's lyric coloratura combined vibrancy and ease, she brought the rather limited character alive. Her duet with Imbrailo's Hamlet in Act One was rather a standard French opera trope, but the two definitely seduced us if not each other. In Act Three, Lee delivered what drama Thomas allowed her, but the focus was clearly on Act Four's mad scene. Here Lee abandoned her score entirely and gave us a wonderfully convincing dramatic scene enlivened by her vibrant coloratura. This is not the 'silver trumpet' of Melba's account of this role [available on YouTube] but a vividly coloured and intense lyric style.

At the end of this scene Ophélie dies and thus Gertrude (Durham) is denied her big solo 'There is a willow grows aslant a brook'. Instead the opera canters to a close quickly, including a funeral procession that seems inspired by the final act of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti's French version premiered in Paris in 1839). The return of the Ghost makes complete sense in a dramatic operatic way!

Grace Durham impressed as Gertrude, not just because of her powerhouse performance in Act Three but throughout the opera she made the most of very little. Durham's was a very alert performance, her face and eyes filling in the gaps in Gertrude's music. It helped that she was partnered by Richard Wiegold's fierce and rather uptight Claudius. It was easy not to like this Claudius, which made his prayer scene in Act Three all the more moving.

As Laërte, tenor Jay Broadhurst definitely got the short straw. With the transformation of the title role into a baritone, Laërte became the only major tenor role. However the drama allowed no expansion. Much like Valentin in Faust, Laërte bids Hamlet look after his sister before leaving court (for Norway), only to return in Act Five to find everything has gone to hell in a hand-cart. Broadhurst made a vibrant Laërte, singing with power and style, making his return rather compelling. Laërte and Ophélie's father, Polonius is a tiny (yet important role), here creditably sung by chorus members Kevin Hollands.

Ruairi Bowen and Malachy Frame made the most of their largely dialogue moments as Marcellus and Horatio. The two characters have important dramatic purposes though are not musically memorable, however Bowen and Frame made it work admirably with Bowen's role seeming to be the provision of ringing top notes in ensembles. And then in Act Five they returned with a bon bouche, as the two took over as grave diggers with their delightful duet. Thomas D Hopkinson, singing always from the balcony, made a striking Ghost though he could have made more of his vocal contributions. I don't think operatic ghosts should ever be discreet!

The chorus writing is not particularly sophisticated, Thomas expects them to mainly be jolly celebrating courtiers and they did that with alacrity. It is in the orchestra that Thomas concentrated all his more sophisticated efforts. It uses a big orchestra (the Paris Opera orchestra was the largest and best at the time), adding an extra harp, two cornets and saxophone to the usual full lineup, making for a very full stage.

The work began with a highly atmospheric prelude and throughout Thomas used interludes and imaginative orchestral writing to create the atmosphere. Cole-Swinard clearly loves the opera and he drew a finely sophisticated performance from his players. There were occasional fallible moments (the first horn seemed to be having a moment) but this did not interfere with the fine performance, sense of style and supple phrasing that the players gave us. Thomas's opera has its overly bombastic moments, but the players made us realis that here was more to it.

Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet is a long opera and COG gave us a pretty full version. The biggest loss was the ballet music, though it was a shame to lose Gertrude and Claudius's duet, and throughout the work there were little tucks. All the singers were dramatically credible and though simply strung in a line along the stage, none of them were score-bound and they managed to make the most of the various character interactions. With the high standard of solo contributions, the focus was inevitably on Jacques Imbrailo and Haegee Lee but the strength of this evening was the way their performances were embedded in a whole that made this Hamlet a most satisfying evening.

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Elsewhere on this blog

A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - opera review
Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
Here comes the 1980s: powerful solo contributions rescue Opera North's misguided updating of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin - review
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A gothic feast for the eyes with some very fine singing: Gothic Opera in the UK premiere of Halévy's La Dame de Pique

2026-11-01T10:15:56.553+00:00

Halévy: La Dame de Pique - Gothic Opera at Battersea Arts Centre [Photo: Craig Fuller]

Fromental Halévy: La Dame de Pique; Grace O’Malley, James Hutchings, Sam Utley, Charlie Epps, Alice Usher, director: Jonny Danciger, conductor: Hannah von Wiehler, arranger: Leon Haxby; Gothic Opera at Battersea Arts Centre
Reviewed by Saskia Bibb, 29 October 2026

For this year’s Halloween production from Gothic Opera, we are in the last days of the Ancien régime to witness the havoc wreaked by a pact with the devil — a legend of a magic ring and the three secret cards that guarantee success at the gambling tables.

Musically it is a triumph. Halévy’s opera lives up to its billing as an inexplicably neglected gem and the cast is a treasure trove of vocal talent. It is visually compelling: atmospheric sets, glorious costumes and clean, effective blocking. The drama falls down a little, with some clunky acting and the rather on-the-nose adapted dialogue.

We are first introduced to foreman of the miners, Andre Roskaw, played by Charlie Epps, and Lisanka, the governor’s daughter whom he aspires to marry if he can get enough money together, played by Alice Usher. Usher’s commanding, dramatic voice is put centre stage as she explains the Polowska family legend. In her interactions with other characters she is less convincing though, in particular her dialogue is rather stilted. Epps’s light, youthful baritone has a gentle and honest timbre that is a real gift to his characterisation of André, giving him an earthy, authentic quality. To start with his portrayal is naturalistic (his dialogue is impressively so given the rather crude material) but as the darkness within triumphs, Epps can see that only a healthy dose of melodrama will do. If you can’t pull out all the stops when driven mad by an ancient curse in a Halloween opera, then when can you?

Halévy: La Dame de Pique - Grace O'Malley, Charlie Epps - Gothic Opera at Battersea Arts Centre [Photo: Craig Fuller]

Lieutenant Constantin is the first to arrive on the scene, played by James Hutchings. He is the upright, chivalric figure that a good gothic yarn needs, convincingly portrayed with oratorical spoken delivery and a deeply romantic voice — at times softly caressing, at time bursting with passion. Hutchings’s spinning sound has impressive ease at the top, indeed the top C sounded so comfortable that I hope to hear him at even more stratospheric heights in the future.

Next to arrive is the delightfully ludicrous figure of Prince Zizianow, our comedy villain played by Sam Utley. He is certainly a caricature, but he is very funny, with something of the emigré from Blackadder the Third about him. Vocally he brings contrast to the group, much more hearty and booming than the other male characters, but stamina seems to have been an issue — there was some huskiness by Act Three.

Grace O’Malley gives the standout performance of the evening as Princess Polowska, the owner of the Chateau, and keeper of the secret of the cards. Her top notes have an icy brilliance and her coloratura is outstanding — clean and sparkling. Rather than delivering the acrobatics as a party trick, O’Malley pays great attention to maintaining the sense of the words through the florid lines. She is certainly one to watch. Dramatically she oozes gravitas and her dialogue has the crisp, tinkling intonation of a fairytale. Her wonderfully vulnerable aria in the mines added depth to her proud, poised character.

Halévy: La Dame de Pique - Sam Utley - Gothic Opera at Battersea Arts Centre [Photo: Craig Fuller]

These strong vocal performances did not always cohere into a compelling drama. This is partly due to the dialogue, an English adaptation by director Johnny Danciger, which is devoid of subtlety. It reads like a child’s guide to the French Revolution. That said, I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the line “Christ on a chaise longue!”. Perhaps struggling with this material, some of acting was less than convincing, in particular many of the spoken exchanges between characters were stiff. The love story between Constantin and the Princess is beautifully set up in the first act, but flounders when it reaches the dramatic climax, in which sparks were emphatically not flying. Elsewhere, the comic timing was often a frustrating hair’s breadth off.

Visually it all works brilliantly. As set and costume designer, Céleste Langrée deserves high praise. The sets are extremely well thought through. We open in the Princess’s Chateau, economically suggested by three portraits and small drawing room set-up. The space is deep and tiered, lending intimacy to the front platform, and a supernatural aura to events happening way up and back on the top platform. We then move to the mines, evoked mostly by darkness, smoke, and mining lanterns. It is fantastically spooky, and the architecture of the sets work well for sneaking around, creating a sense of dark corners and winding tunnels. Onto this, Danciger deploys his forces well: the well-considered blocking gives us grand and striking tableaus. For costumes we are treated to luxurious French Revolution period dress, from wigs and satins to tricolour rosettes and sans-culottes. In the gothic surroundings of Battersea Arts Centre, it is quite something. It is an amazingly ambitious set up for a small company (not least the moving surtitles), Gothic Opera certainly punch above their weight when it comes to production value.

Halévy: La Dame de Pique - Alistair Sutherland, Alice Usher - Gothic Opera at Battersea Arts Centre [Photo: Craig Fuller]

Underpinning all of this was an opera that hasn’t been staged in 150 years. The proposition at the heart of the production is that Halévy’s opera deserves some love, and they have a point. It does contain some really very good writing, not in the same league as the greats of 19th century opera, but, in places, not all that far off. Perky, jaunty tunes in the ensembles call to mind moments from Carmen (Bizet was a student of Halévy), and at its most lush it does have something of Puccini about it. It is strange that it has been quite so neglected, and one can only hope it doesn’t have to wait another 150 years for its next outing.

The ensembles exhibit some of Halevy’s best writing, and relishing these was a superb chorus. They make a rich, full sound, it is hard to believe there are only seven of them, and the diction is crystal clear. Each member is clearly an accomplished soloist in their own right, and their strong characterisations contribute significantly to the momentum of the drama.

The orchestral score has been arranged for chamber ensemble by Leon Haxby. It’s unrelentingly exposed with such small forces, but the instrumentalists are equal to the challenge and shine in their many lyrical solo moments. Hannah von Wiehler conducts with precision, but with space for much more wild abandon in the more passionate sections.

Halévy: La Dame de Pique - Grace O'Malley - Gothic Opera
at Battersea Arts Centre [Photo: Craig Fuller]

Opening night drew an impressively large crowd, and the reception was warm. Thanks in no small part to Andrew Lloyd Webber, opera has a strong link with the gothic in the public imagination. If opera houses want to attract new audiences, perhaps they should lean into the Halloween season. Based on tonight, a spooky night at the opera seems to be a winning proposition.

Saskia Bibb

Gothic Opera presents
La Dame de Pique
Composed by: Fromental Halévy
Adapted dialogue by: Jonny Danciger
Libretto by: Eugéne Scribe

Creative Credits

Stage Director: Jonny Danciger
Conductor: Hannah von Wiehler
Arranger: Leon Haxby
Set & Costume Designer: Céleste Langrée
Technical Design: Jonny Danciger
Co-Lighting Designer: Eli Hunt
Producer: Maryann Wright

Cast

Princess Polowska: Grace O’Malley
Constantin Nelidoff: James Hutchings
Prince Zizianoff: Sam Utley
André Roskaw: Charlie Epps
Lisanka: Alice Usher
Klaremburg: Alistair Sutherland
Sowbakin: HoWang Yuen
Casino Banker: William Costello
Chorus: Persha Darling, Naomi Kilby, Mia Serracino, Rebecca Anderson, Isobel Hughes, Charles Secombe, William Costello.

Battersea Arts Centre, Main Hall

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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

Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal - concert review
From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
Here comes the 1980s: powerful solo contributions rescue Opera North's misguided updating of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin - review
Do try & catch it! Femi Elufowoju jr's intelligent yet imaginatively accessible production of Verdi's Rigoletto returns to Opera North - opera review
Only love can bear the burden of truth: Ben Parry & Garth Bardsley on their new opera that premieres at Snape - interview
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Music crying out to be heard: the first instalment of Arcangelo's English Baroque Journey at Wigmore Hall focused on sacred music for the Chapel Royal

2026-10-31T11:23:08.253+00:00

Chapel Royal at St James's Palace

The Music More Full Than It Was: Christopher Gibbons, Matthew Locke, Pelham Humfrey, John Blow, Purcell, Handel, Maurice Greene; Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 30 October 2026

Exploring sacred music from the Restoration through to early Handel with a focus on the Chapel Royal, Arcangelo give us vibrant performances of lesser-known gems, music crying out to be heard

Histories of English music have a tendency to jump from Purcell to Handel as if they were the only major figures at the time. In fact, Purcell's friend and teacher, Blow, had as great a reputation as the younger composer during his lifetime and there were plenty of other composers whose music deserves to be part of the story.

At Wigmore Hall on Friday 30 October 2026, Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo presented The Music More Full Than It Was, the first event in the ensemble's multi-concert English Baroque Journey. For this first instalment we concentrated on sacred music with the programme that included music by Christopher Gibbons (1615-1676), Matthew Locke (c.1621-1677), Pelham Humfrey (1647-1674), John Blow (1649-1708), Henry Purcell (1659-1695), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) , and Maurice Greene (1696-1755), taking us from the revival of the Chapel Royal after the Restoration through to Handel writing in the early years of his residency in England.

There were eight singers - Hilary Cronin, Daisy Livesy, James Hall, Jeremy Budd, Hugo Brady, Matthew Long, Malachy Frame, Will Gaunt - and an instrumental ensemble of six strings, oboe (in Handel's Chandos Anthem), organ, theorbo and harpsichord (play by Jonathan Cohen). The singers fluidly moved between solo and ensemble and only in Handel's Chandos Anthem, O praise the Lord with one consent were there distinct arias. Similarly, the instrumental forces used moved between just continuo to full ensemble with a varied line up (oboe only in Handel, but no viola in some).

The music of the first half explored works that arose after the Restoration, Christopher Gibbons' Not unto us, O Lord, Matthew Locke's How doth the city sit solitary, Pelham Humfrey's O give thanks unto the Lord and John Blow's God spake sometimes in visions, the music dating from the period 1664 to 1685.

Christopher Gibbons, as the son of Orlando Gibbons, was well placed to take up the challenge of writing for the restored Chapel Royal. Not unto us, O Lord started low in the voices and instruments (no violins), and gradually built, creating slow, serious counterpoint. Rich, rather gorgeous, slow moving textures given a vibrant sound. Matthew Locke was involved in the early pre-Purcell semi-opera and theatrical experiments. As a Catholic, he wrote for the chapel of Queen Catherine (of Braganza), but wrote for the Chapel Royal too. How doth the city sit solitary is a verse anthem, solos and small groups interweaving with tutti, accompanied by just continuo. The full ensemble got little to do, and we could imagine Locke taking care not to tax the trebles (the Restoration found itself rather lacking in trained treble voices), and solo groupings focused on the men, though there were soprano solos. It was a serious and rather moving setting, with the sort of detailed attention to the words that we get from Purcell.

We then had an instrumental interlude, Purcell's Pavan in G minor Z752, which began with a substantial slow movement, intense and very chromatic, followed by a ground bass dance, in fact the Chaconne in G minor (which was not listed on a the programme and many thanks to a correspondent for informing me what it was!)

Pelham Humfrey was one of the boys brought in to be trained as a treble for the Chapel Royal. His talents went beyond that and King Charles sent him to France to train as a composer, though the best known fact about that is Samuel Pepys' famous put down. O give thanks unto the Lord began with a very civilised string introduction before a lively choral dance. String ritornellos linked the various sections together so that everything flowed beautifully. Hugo Brady and Malachy Frame gave us a fine duet, with Will Gaunt following this with a vibrant bass solo, though the whole of the long final section was tutti, all vibrantly sung with terrific detail. We ended the first half with John Blow, a composer whose modern neglect in concert is due not to the quality of the music but because much of his output does not fit into modern concert situations easily. God spake sometimes in visions began in stately manner with a string introduction. The first tutti section was sober and stately, though the solo sections had a lovely lightness to them and dance was never far away. Vibrantly performed, both singers and instrumentalists moved fluidly through the piece's frequent changes of metre, speed and style. Again there was a lovely detail to the word setting, and it benefitted from being performed in Wigmore Hall. You imagined much of this fastidiousness would be lost in a larger cathedral acoustic.

After the interval we moved forward in time. Maurice Greene was made Master of the King's Musick under King George I, yet Handel remained the preferred composer for the Hanoverians and the two composers had an uneasy relationship. Despite being some 14 years younger than Handel, Greene's music can have a somewhat backward-looking feel to it. Lord, let me know mine end, set for full vocal ensemble and continuo, was a sober piece, the vocal writing flowing over a ground bass. Though there was plenty of movement, it remained a serious and intent piece. Terrific in its way but more influenced by the work of the composers in the first half than the 'fam'd Italian masters' and definitely no match for Handel's brilliance.

Purcell's My beloved spake is an early work, written in his late teens. Its use of the full vocal ensemble was sparing, simply singing short choruses whilst the verses were all taken by small vocal groups taken from James Hall, Matthew Long, Malachy Frame and Will Gaunt, the sections all linked by ritornellos. It was vibrantly performed, with a fabulous sense of colouring the words and the dance never far away.

We ended with one of Handel's Chandos Anthems, written for the Duke of Chandos and performed in the church of St Lawrence that was completed well before his great mansion of Canons was finished. As such, it is one of the buildings surviving where we see (and hear) where Handel performed. O praise the Lord with one consent began in an infectiously perky manner, with the singers giving us vivid rhythms. Hugo Brady's solo had something of a lilt to it with Brady singing in lovely affecting tone. Matthew Long in his solo combined some lively rhythms with fine passagework, then Malachy Frame sang with robust, resonant tone. The final solo was from Hilary Cronin, lyrical and rather intimate, followed by the lively final choruses full of rhythmic acuity and, in the 'Alleluia', vivid runs.

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Elsewhere on this blog

From Whitehall to the World: Gregory Boardman on the impact of English Chamber Orchestra’s education & community programmes - article
Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
Here comes the 1980s: powerful solo contributions rescue Opera North's misguided updating of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin - review
Do try & catch it! Femi Elufowoju jr's intelligent yet imaginatively accessible production of Verdi's Rigoletto returns to Opera North - opera review
Only love can bear the burden of truth: Ben Parry & Garth Bardsley on their new opera that premieres at Snape - interview
Gamely going where few such companies dare: there is much to enjoy in New Sussex Opera's production of Charpentier's David and Jonathan - opera review
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From Whitehall to the World: Dr Gregory Boardman on the impact of the English Chamber Orchestra’s education and community programmes

2026-10-31T09:09:47.575+00:00

English Chamber Orchestra Royal Gala Fundraiser 2026

The labels music education or community music often come with baggage that often suggests a lesser quality of musical outcomes. In reaching out beyond the concert space, the English Chamber Orchestra’s (ECO) Close Encounters initiative nurtures excellence no matter where they are or what the level of activity. In doing so, the ECO delivers something vitally important; connecting our musical future with music making right now.

It’s not enough just to count all the happy faces, happy faces don’t guarantee long term sustainability. In delivering their projects and innovating how they engage people of all ages, the English Chamber Orchestra are working towards the longer-term impact and the wider benefits of this essential work.

Nurturing a new generation of skilled musicians and composers for the creative economy is a natural product of flourishing grassroots activity. The ECO's newly announced New Horizons programme will ensure that the orchestra delivers a commitment to those aspiring to the highest level of performance and professional development. However, for the team at the English Chamber Orchestra, the true joy lies in supporting a musical world for all. Whether the orchestra is on tour or in the classroom, the benchmark of success takes many forms.

English Chamber Orchestra: Lights, Camera, Score

The impact of the English Chamber Orchestra’s education and community programmes extends far beyond the performances themselves.

Following the delivery of their award-winning Lights Camera Score project, schools have reported remarkable improvements in attendance, alongside a doubling of GCSE Music cohorts. Meanwhile, in West Yorkshire, the ECO’s work has inspired local community groups to transform musical stories created by primary school pupils into community gardens, ensuring that the creativity and inspiration sparked by music continue to flourish long after the final notes have been played. Over the summer, they witnessed their work in the community evolve into a substantial four-day festival of music making at Shibden Hall in Halifax. A unique event that showed the long-term economic benefit and the value of active cultural participation. Whilst the ECO were focusing on an experience for all ages, they helped to commission a brand-new work from Yorkshire-based composer Benjamin Ellin. A multi-faceted piece that will sit at the heart of the English Chamber Orchestra's repertoire for years to come.

Winning a UNESCO ‘Seeds of Hope’ award and receiving a nomination for the prestigious Sanford St. Martin broadcasting awards suggests that they are doing very well communicating messages of sustainability, cooperation and cultural exchange not just around East London, not just around the English counties but around the globe. Within a six-month period, during 2026 they will have worked with young people across different continents, with Princeton in the US and also in Hong Kong, before going onto working alongside young musicians in Colombia early in 2027. The Orchestra encourages people of all ages to experience the emotional highs of engaging with instrumental music, their growing partnership with the Imperial War Museum also allows them to make a unique contribution to mark important occasions of national remembrance and reflection. As the ECO Close Encounters Team expands beyond key locations in London, Essex and Yorkshire, they are seeking new partners, training and developing new musicians and teachers to ensure that expansion does not diminish quality.

The Orchestra knows that grassroots activity needs constant re-evaluation, what works in one situation is not guaranteed to work in another. As musicians they are accustomed to listening, but they recognise that there is still so much to learn, especially at a time of technological change. By accessing ground-breaking and patented music technology, the Close Encounters Team is now exploring active music making in the ageing and dementia community, intending to attract the world’s leading researchers in this area.

Anyone who has engaged with the ECO in the last three or four years will be aware that every conversation begins with a focus on sustainability. If the resources cannot be replicated or amplified for the benefit of the many rather than a select few, then it’s back to the drawing board. An unavoidable aspect of the sustainability plan is funding so, on 17th October 2026, the orchestra welcomed friends new and old to the Banqueting House in Whitehall for a fundraising Gala. For many attending, the event provided a first opportunity to experience the orchestra's musicianship in person. By bringing together people from different professional, cultural and philanthropic communities, the Gala sought to open conversations about long-term patronage and corporate partnerships but also to raise awareness about projects, concerts and tours that are being planned.

English Chamber Orchestra: Lights, Camera, Score

When the ECO sees the beaming smiles of participants, appreciative school leadership teams, grateful parents, or jubilant audiences, it is easy to forget that the team must reach beyond their core supporters to speak up about the work they do, so that the whole musical community might benefit from what has been have learned so far. If they want to succeed, then orchestras and ensembles must change the way they work with communities, both locally and globally, in order to inspire new partnerships and collaborations that will maintain their legacy but also securing their on-going development.

To find out more, visit www.englishchamberorchestra.com

Dr Gregory Boardman
ECO's head of learning & participation

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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

Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America - record review
It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
Here comes the 1980s: powerful solo contributions rescue Opera North's misguided updating of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin - review
Do try & catch it! Femi Elufowoju jr's intelligent yet imaginatively accessible production of Verdi's Rigoletto returns to Opera North - opera review
Only love can bear the burden of truth: Ben Parry & Garth Bardsley on their new opera that premieres at Snape - interview
Gamely going where few such companies dare: there is much to enjoy in New Sussex Opera's production of Charpentier's David and Jonathan - opera review
Deeply problematic, both aesthetically & ethically: Du Yun's Angel's Bone from English National Opera at London Coliseum - review
Home

Parabola and Circula: Marc Blitzstein's forgotten Bauhaus opera to receive its premiere recording on Capriccio as part of new series by the Bauhaus-Archiv.

2026-10-30T08:13:39.875+00:00

Marc Blitzstein is one of those 20th century figures whose name is perhaps better known than his work. The name of his 1937 pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock still resonates, though his opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes, has not made it much past a first revelatory recording (from John Mauceri and Scottish Opera in 1992). His best known work is perhaps that undertaken on the music of another composer, Kurt Weill, as Blitzstein's translations and adaptations of The Threepenny Opera and Mahagonny played an important role in the widening appreciation of Weill's music in the period after the composer's death.

Blitzstein studied composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, then went to Europe to continue his studies. He failed to get on with Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin, but did study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Between 1929 and 1933 he travelled extensively in Europe, including a German tour with Aaron Copland. His music of this period includes his Piano Sonata (1927) and Piano Concerto (1931), works described as 'Boulanger-influenced products of American modernism' and which he referred to as "wild, dissonant and percussive."

Now, another side to this European Blitzstein has been revealed, his opera Parabola and Circula from 1929. In November 2026, Capriccio will release the world premiere recording of Marc Blitzstein’s Parabola and Circula, the work having been premiered in a concert performance at the Berlin Philharmonie on 21 September 2025, as part of Musikfest Berlin when the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra performed it under the baton of Karl-Heinz Steffens.

Marc Blitzstein in 1937
[Photo: Federal Theatre Project - Library of Congress]

The work was originally intended to receive its premiere in 1930 in collaboration with the Bauhaus in Dessau. However, the planned production never materialised, and the opera largely fell into obscurity. 1930 was the year that Hannes Meyer was fired as director of the Bauhaus, to be replaced by Mies van der Rohe who refocused the school's work to concentrate on teaching.

Since 2023, the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung has been exploring the largely overlooked musical history of the school through its Bauhaus Music project. The inaugural festival commemorated the legendary Bauhaus Week of 1923, presenting works by composers including Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill and Stefan Wolpe. In 2024, the festival took place under the highly topical theme of Freedom. A particular highlight of the research project followed in 2025 with the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s Parabola and Circula at Musikfest Berlin. The 2026 edition, taking place in Berlin on 13 and 14 November, explores the interplay of music, colour, movement and perception under the motto I Feel Air from Another Planet.

Parabola and Circula is set in an abstract world of geometric shapes and tells a tragic love story between a parabola and a circle. The couple live in seemingly perfect harmony with their adopted children, Rectangle and Point. However, their friends begin to question this unconditional love, arguing that it restricts the lovers’ freedom and independence. Parabola’s growing doubts ultimately lead to catastrophe, culminating in Circula’s death. In this opera of approximately one hour, Blitzstein combines geometric abstraction with the powerful human emotions at the heart of musical theatre.

Marc Blitztein's Parabola and Circula is released on the Capriccio label on 6 November 2026. Karl-Heinz Steffens conducts the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra with Aleksander Nohr, and Mari Eriksmoen. The release also marks the launch of a new CD series by the Bauhaus-Archiv. Full details from Capriccio.

John Storgårds launches his inaugural season as musical director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra with focus on Jean Coulthard

2026-10-30T07:50:46.974+00:00

John Storgårds & Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra [Photo: Curtis Perry]

John Storgårds launches a new chapter when he conducts his inaugural concerts as music director with Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra in Ottawa on 4 and 5 November 2026. Storgårds made his debut with the orchestra in 2013 and was principal guest conductor from 2015 to 2026. He succeeds Alexander Shelley, who led the ensemble for 11 seasons [see my 2023 interview with Alexander Shelly]. In the UK, Storgårds is best known as the chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

For the inaugural concerts, Storgårds conducts Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with soloist Élisabeth Pion (Gold Laureate of the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition), Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question, Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 3, and Jean Coulthard's Symphonic image: Vision of the North.

The presence of Coulthard's work reflects the way Storgårds' first season has a strong focus on Canadian voices, highlighting rising stars, celebrated performers, and some of the country's most influential composers.

A particular focus of the season is the music of Jean Coulthard (1908–2000), one of Canada's most significant composers. Thanks to a scholarship she studied at the Royal College of Music in 1928-1929 where she was a pupil of Kathleen Long, R.O. Morris, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. She went on to study with Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland, and Arnold Schoenberg and worked with Bernard Wagenaar of the Juilliard School, New York. In 1948, she met the British composer Elizabeth Poston (who was visiting Canada) and they began a long friendship and an extensive correspondence over the next 30 years.

Her work appears across three of the NAC Orchestra's orchestral programs and a chamber concert. In January 2027, Storgårds will lead the NAC Orchestra in Coulthard's Symphony No. 1, a work not performed in full since its 1950s premiere. He will also devote his first recording project with the Orchestra to Coulthard's music, bringing renewed attention to her remarkable artistic legacy.

Further information from the Orchestra's website.

Illuminating connections: in Kin, Lotte Betts Dean & Joseph Havlat explore folksongs from across Europe and North America

2026-10-29T07:39:12.635+00:00

Kin: Vaughan Williams, Moeran, Grainger, Britten, Doreen Senior, Canteloube, Bartok, Michael Finissy, Josephine Stephenson, Louise Drewett, Joseph Havlat, Isabella Gellis, Ruth Wall; Lotte Betts Dean, Joseph Havlat; DELPHIAN
Reviewed 19 October 2026

Two young Australians and a programme of folksongs culled from across Europe and North America conspire to create a programme by turns thoughtful and moving, as Havlat's sensitive piano complements Betts Dean's expressively plangent tone

Two young Australians, one with Czech and German origins, the other English and German Ashkenazi, both trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London where they met as students. On their new disc, Kin on Delphian, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts Dean and pianist Joseph Havlat explore their love of folksong with arrangements by Vaughan Williams, Moeran, Grainger, Britten, Doreen Senior, Canteloube, Bartok, Michael Finissy, Josephine Stephenson, Louise Drewett, Joseph Havlat, Isabella Gellis and Ruth Wall

In her booklet note, Lotte Betts Dean comments, "As two non-indigenous white Australians... we are perhaps always in search of a sense of homeland or belonging. We have also both left our ancestors' adopted home of Australia and are still 'expats'."

The songs on the disc are all firmly in the Western classical art song tradition, that epitomised by Vaughan Williams whose songs were intended to project folksong as art song. On the disc we hear his The Maiden's Lament which is an arrangement of one of the songs collected in Newfoundland by Maud Karpeles. Karpeles and Cecil Sharp would collect folksongs in places like Appalachia and Newfoundland, interested to track older English songs to foreign climes (where sometimes they remained more unchanged than their English counterparts). In The Maiden's Lament, Vaughan Williams takes quite a spare approach at first, and this allows full reign to Betts Dean's wonderfully plangent tone. Throughout the recital she takes a very personal approach the songs, creating performances that affecting and highly personal.

Also on the disc is The Broken Ring, arranged by Doren Horn Senior who collaborated with Helen Creighton on Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia. Little seems to be known about Senior (she became Devon County Music Advisor). The result is distinctly in the Cecil Sharp tradition, the piano relatively discreet, providing support for the voice.

Also less well-known are E.J. Moeran's Parson and Clark. and The Shooting of his Dear where the accompaniments reflect Moeran's own compositional idiosyncrasies and make for a lovely contrast to the better known songs on the disc.

Percy Grainger (born in Australia though trained mainly in the UK), was interested in collecting and arranging folksongs. But Grainger was aware of the gulf between those from whom the songs were collected, and the collectors themselves. In his arrangements, Grainger brought a greater sense of his own personality to bear whilst also intending for the songs to be portraits of the singers themselves. Of the Grainger songs on the disc, The British Waterside, The Pretty Maid Milkin' her Cow and Died for Love were all collected by Grainger himself. The accompaniments reflect the full richness of Grainger's imagination with the composer daring to go where few of his contemporaries dared when it came to folksong. The Twa Corbies already existed and reflects more Grainger himself, and the piano solo Scotch Strathspey and Reel was one of Grainger's imaginative constructs.

British folksong collectors like Cecil Sharp and Vaughan Williams used pen and paper to collect songs, and rather looked down on those who used more modern technology. Grainger followed the example of collectors like Bartok and Kodaly, using the phonograph to record the originals.

Bartok's Eight Hungarian Folksongs mix material from different collecting expeditions, the first five from the Csik district (then in Hungary and now part of Romania), and the last three are Szekely soldier's songs. Betts Dean really leans into the powerful intensity of some of these songs, particularly in the way she relishes the language. Bartok's piano writing can be remarkably romantic at times. These are not discreet arrangements, but distinct artistic creations though in spirit they perhaps reflect more Grainger than Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp.

All these songs have elements in common: the desire to preserve the original vocal line in as 'correct' form as possible but aligned to a piano accompaniment that creates a sense of art song. Thus enabling the songs to be sung by professional singers in classical recitals. Britten continued this tradition, though he was far less reticent in his accompaniments, probably because the majority of his folksong arrangements were written for him and Peter Pears to give in recital. And here we hear the familiar Sally in our Alley.

Far more interventionist, perhaps, were the songs of Joseph Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne. We hear two, La delaissado and Malurous qu'o uno fenno, though with just a piano accompaniment Canteloube's seductive orchestrations are lacking, and in Betts Dean's performance they come over as far more direct.

With contemporary composers, the route to be taken is more varied. Some follow Britten in adding personality to an arrangement that remains within the more traditional vein, whilst others do something more striking. Josephine Stephenson's Rosemary Lane uses a Somerset folksong and gives it a sensitive treatment that provides plenty of scope for Betts Dean's expressively plangent tones. Louise Drewett's Lambs on the Hillside sets a traditional Scottish/Irish tune and for the opening she surrounds Betts Dean's voice with sparely placed, suspended chords to create a distinct atmosphere without overly impacting the voice.

However, in her Montreal Songs, British-Canadian composer Isabella Gellis seeks to reflect the city's different identities - French, English, Jewish - with a French-Canadian song, an English-language one collected by Maud Karpeles and a Yiddish song collected by Ruth Rubin. The first delicate and remarkably touching, yet with the second we could almost be back in England, whilst the in third the vocal line seems to almost recede into the distance. Similarly Ruth Wall's version of My Lagan Love opts very much for supportive discretion, though we are hearing it in Havlat's arrangement.

In, Interlude-Premonition Joseph Havlat does something deliberately sketchy to a Czech folksong, the piano moving well away from the discreet art song and Betts Dean's voice vague in the background. Michael Finissy's piano solo How dear to me uses a tune that was originally associated with Thomas Moore's words The Twisting of the Rope.

As might be expected from these artists, this is a thoughtful and imaginative disc that wanders widely, illuminating connections and bringing out how composers own relationships with the past differed enormously

Kin: Josephine Stephenson, Ernest J Moeran, Percy Grainger, Benjamin Britten, Louise Drewett, Joseph Canteloube, Bela Bartok, Joseph Havlat, Isabella Gellis, Doreen H Senior, Vaughan Williams, Michael Finissy, Ruth Wall
Lotte Betts Dean (mezzo-soprano)
Joseph Havlat (piano)
Recorded on 21-22 January 2025 at St Cuthbert's Parish Church, Edinburgh
DELPHIAN RECORDS
DCD34362-CD 1CD [77:49]

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

It really deserves to be heard & seen: baritone Charlie Epps on Gothic Opera's UK premiere production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique - interview
Chameleon who changes colour very quietly & without attention: pianist/composer Belle Chen on her personal journey through her music - interview
Here comes the 1980s: powerful solo contributions rescue Opera North's misguided updating of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin - review
Do try & catch it! Femi Elufowoju jr's intelligent yet imaginatively accessible production of Verdi's Rigoletto returns to Opera North - opera review
Only love can bear the burden of truth: Ben Parry & Garth Bardsley on their new opera that premieres at Snape - interview
Gamely going where few such companies dare: there is much to enjoy in New Sussex Opera's production of Charpentier's David and Jonathan - opera review
Deeply problematic, both aesthetically & ethically: Du Yun's Angel's Bone from English National Opera at London Coliseum - review
Schubert's Baritone: A celebration of Johann Michael Vogl - James Newby & Joseph Middleton at Wigmore Hall - concert review
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Celebrating 250 years of diversity: Odaline de la Martinez's London Festival of American Music returns for its 10th edition

2026-10-28T15:56:45.675+00:00

Odaline de la Martinez's London Festival of American Music returns for its 10th edition from 9 to 13 November 2026 at The Warehouse. Celebrating 250 years of diversity, the Festival presents works by over 30 composers across five nights of concerts with three world premieres and 20 UK premieres. Over half the composers represented are women.

The Festival opens with Singapore-born conductor Tianhui Ng directing Lontano Ensemble in Latinos in America, a programme of works by Puerto Rican, Mexican American and Cuban American composers, many receiving their UK or world premieres. The next evening, Odaline de la Martinez conducts Lontano in Percussion!! featuring two works by Jewish émigrée Ursula Mamlok alongside three newly commissioned world premieres from Neva Derewetzky, Charles Shadle and Daniel Thomas Davis.

Soprano Roberta Philip joins forces with pianist Valentina Wang for African American art song from the classics of Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still to George Walker, Moses Hogan, and Hall Johnson — alongside the world of Britney Boykin's Moments in Sonder. Odaline de la Martinez and Lontano return with Solos, Duos and More, featuring Daniel Asia’s Pine’s Last Poems, Arlene Sierra’s A Young Mind in Old Bees, as well as works by Alfred Lerdahl, Barbara Jazwinski, Elena Ruehr, Augusta Reed Thomas, and Aaron Einbond.

The festival concludes with Suzi Digby conducting VOCE Chamber Choir in choral works b y American composers including Eric Whitacre, Caroline Shaw, Frank Ticheli, Nico Muhly, Reena Esmail, Michael Gordon, Nick Strimple, Jake Runestad, Dolly Parton and Odaline de la Martinez.

Full details from the Lontano website.

Inviting the audience to experience music as something that is not only heard but also seen, embodied and mediated.

2026-10-28T09:06:22.443+00:00

Lovemusic

On Sunday 1 November at the French Institute in London the French collective, Lovemusic is presenting an event that asks the question 'how do we listen when sound is inseparable from image, gesture, language and technology?'

Lovemusic specialises in new music, and the event blends together music, theatre, dance, video, light and technology for an experience where you’ll need to open your eyes as much as your ears. From a dialogue between flute and sign language by Helmut Oehring, Kuba Krzewiński’s unique approach to violin and cello, to Tine Surel Lange’s portrait of the contemporary urban landscape and Finbar Hosie’s ASMR and screening experiment. From Mathis Saunier’s performance to Neil Luck’s Production Apocrypha, discover a one of a kind programme supported by the Diaphonique fund for contemporary music.

Full details from the French Institute's website.