Planet Hugill

Thrilling moments, terrific theatre, intimacy & transcendence: Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Berlioz's Requiem at BBC Proms with London Symphony Orchestra

2026-08-16T11:46:49.574+01:00

Berlioz: Requiem - Sir Antonio Pappano, London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Berlioz: Grande messe des morts (Requiem); Julien Henric, London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus, conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 15 August 2026

Thrilling moments and great visual theatre in a performance that combined grandeur with control and clarity, creating some remarkably intimate, austere moments and real transcendence at the end

Berlioz's Grande messe des morts (Requiem) might seem to have been made for the Royal Albert Hall. Certainly there are few venues in London to contain it, though I remember a memorable performance with Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at St Paul's Cathedral in 2012 [see my review].

On Saturday 15 August, it was Sir Antonio Pappano conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in the work at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms with the London Symphony Chorus (chorus-master Mariana Rosas) and BBC Symphony Chorus (chorus-master Neil Ferris) with tenor Julien Henric in his Proms debut. (Was it his UK debut too? Possibly).

Whereas Sir Colin Davis put the four brass bands in the dome and allowed the acoustic of St Paul's Cathedral to do its thrilling worst, at the Royal Albert Hall Sir Antonio Pappano was more interested in clarity. And a remarkable amount of clarity can be achieved in the venue if carefully handled.

Berlioz: Requiem - Sir Antonio Pappano, London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

The massed timpani (ten players in charge of 19 drums) were placed in an arc behind the orchestra. Behind them came two of the extra brass ensembles, with the other two at the back of the choir. This meant that Pappano had a remarkable degree of control over his ensemble, but that we lacked the real spatial effect that Berlioz planned for his dramatic work.

Another point to bear in mind is that the massed brass and timpani only really contribute to three movements. Berlioz's conception of the Requiem is not one of blood and thunder, and much of it is contemplative. For many of the movements, Pappano and his forces brought an austere clarity to the piece with a definite sense of presence to Berlioz's striking passages made from just two or three ideas, each strongly drawn. What I missed at the Royal Albert Hall was the sense of bloom that a resonant acoustic like St Paul's brought to the work (and I must admit that that experience definitely depended on where you sat!)

Berlioz wanted an orchestra of 140 and a chorus of 200, though I suspect we got rather more singers than he wanted, but we need to offset that against the issue of modern orchestras being loud. Certainly, in terms of balance Pappano and his forces did not disappoint, whether in the quiet moments or the loud ones and the loud ones were suitable overwhelming. Exactly what Berlioz wanted, I suspect.

The work opened with the orchestra, quiet yet very present. The chorus's initial entry had a lovely combination of floated tone and strong, pointed accents. There were moments of urgency and power, but the overall feel was quiet intensity until the finally thrilling 'Requiem aeternam'. And then the 'Kyrie' was remarkably spare. Throughout this performance I found myself using the words 'spare' and 'austere' rather a lot in my notes.

Berlioz: Requiem - Sir Antonio Pappano, London Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

The 'Dies Irae' began in a similar manner, developing to wonderfully strong choral counterpoint, with Pappano pushing on with some urgency. With the positioning of the 'off-stage' brass in visible sight, the sound of them was very present and very thrilling. Both the sight and sound of that first moment in the 'Tuba mirum' when the timps start going was tremendous. Yet you were aware that Pappano had things on tight control. There was a lovely mysterioso quality to 'Mors stupebit', and whilst 'Liber scriptus' was thrilling, it was here that I wanted more antiphonal effects for the extra brass. The tenors and basses produced some lovely hushed tone in 'Liber scriptus', with Berlioz again astounding with his control of such few forces. 'Rex Tremendae' was full and grand (all those horns - eight in total) but then surprisingly intimate and throughout this movement Pappano made the most of the contrasts. He was able to draw some remarkably quiet and controlled singing from his chorus. In 'Quaerens me' the chorus was intimate and largely unaccompanied, quite a triumph, with some austere counterpoint. Then the 'Dies Irae' sequence concluded with a remarkably operatic 'Lacrimosa', the extra brass joining at the end to create music of thrilling complexity.

For the 'Offertorium' the focus turned to the strings, with Pappano encouraging them to provide some strong phrasing, and developing a terrific build up. In the 'Hostias' the lovely choral tone was contrasted with some positively Brucknerian trombones (from the extra brass) including some wonderfully farty moments.

Berlioz: Requiem - Julien Henric - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

In the 'Sanctus', Julien Henric provided some fine grained tone and elegant style, along with superb projection. This contrasted with vigorous counterpoint in the 'Hosanna', and then in the repeat of the 'Sanctus', Berlioz introduced eight pairs of cymbals (!) to created that shivering whoosh (apologies, I am sure there is a technical term for it). The 'Agnus Dei' was low key with warm hushed choral tone and those Brucknerian farting trombones again. Then as the orchestra joined in, Pappano ensured wonderfully precise placing of the chorus.

The final chorus beginning 'Te decet hymnus' had a warm slow to it, with moments of thrilling drama and moments of intimacy, leading to something like real transcendence at the end.

Listening to this modern instrument performance, I did have some various thoughts as regards achieving a more authentic sound. What pronunciation of French would Berlioz have expected? And what instruments. I know that he wrote extra brass ensembles in Les Troyens for groups of saxhorns (something John Eliot Gardiner did in his performances in Paris in 2013). Would Berlioz have used those for the performance of the Requiem?

Berlioz: Requiem - Sir Antonio Pappano, London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

The concert is available on BBC Sounds for 57 days. There were no TV cameras present in the hall, alas, so we cannot relive the visual theatre.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Salzburg Festival

Memories are made of this: Tugan Sokhiev & Vienna Philharmonic in Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, Debussy & Ravel with Lang Lang - review
Heavenly joy & earthly travails: Philippe Sly is compelling as St Francis in Romeo Castellucci's mesmerising & frustrating vision Messiaen's opera - opera review
Darkness visible: remarkable performances from Jonathan Tetelman & Asmik Grigorian in Bizet's Carmen directed by choreographer Gabriela Carrizo - opera review
Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag's futuristic vision of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos - opera review
Mozart's Cosi fan tutte: director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more - opera review
Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims - opera review

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
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Redefining how classical music is experienced: Between Mountains Festival returns with an expanded programme,

2026-08-15T11:35:09.072+01:00

Between Mountains Festival

Following a successful inaugural edition, Between Mountains Festival returns to Holdenweid in Hölstein, Switzerland, from 4-6 September 2026, expanding from a one-day premiere into a three-day festival experience. Set among the rolling hills of Basel-Landschaft at the foot of the Jura Mountains, the festival once again brings together classical music, electronic sounds and experimental forms in a unique natural setting.

At the heart of Between Mountains is a simple idea: to create an open space where music can be experienced beyond traditional boundaries. While the programme spans a wide range of genres, classical music remains a central pillar of the festival, presented in a way that feels welcoming, contemporary and accessible to new audiences. Chamber music, contemporary works and genre-defying performances unfold alongside electronic live sets, inviting listeners to discover music without preconceived categories.

The 2026 classical programme features internationally acclaimed artists including Dobrawa Czocher, Beatrice Berrut, Alexandra Maria Seywald, Simon Höfele, Kai Schumacher, Detect Ensemble, Junges Kammerorchester Baselland, Kebyart, Los Sara Fontan, duo equinox, maTrigal and Maximilian Wolfgang Schwarz. On the electronic side, the festival welcomes Acid Pauli, Sebastian Mullaert, Stimming, Robot Koch, Earth Trax and AFAR, creating a programme that moves seamlessly between attentive listening, sonic exploration and collective celebration.

New for 2026 is the expansion into a full festival weekend, including on-site accommodation and camping, allowing visitors to fully immerse themselves in the unique atmosphere of Holdenweid and experience music, nature and community over three days. Ahead of this year's edition, we spoke with co-founder and conductor Baldur Brönnimann about the festival's vision, creating new audiences for classical music and why listening without labels matters more than ever.

Between Mountains has grown from a one-day event into a three-day festival in just its second year. What inspired this expansion?

The long-term vision was always to create a three-day festival. The first edition allowed us to test the concept and see how audiences would respond. The reaction from visitors, artists and the press was overwhelmingly positive, so we decided to take the next step. Expanding the festival also allows us to create a more complete experience. This year, visitors can camp on-site and stay throughout the weekend, making Between Mountains feel like a true destination rather than simply a series of concerts.

Classical music sits alongside electronic and experimental performances throughout the programme. How did this concept emerge?

Listening habits have changed dramatically. Today, people discover music through playlists that naturally combine different genres. We wanted the festival experience to reflect that reality. We deeply believe in the power of classical music, but we don't believe it should exist in an ivory tower. Bach, Debussy or Lachenmann deserve to be experienced alongside other ambitious music, without audiences feeling they need specialist knowledge before attending. Ultimately, we hope people stop thinking about genres altogether and simply enjoy great music.

This year's programme features internationally recognised soloists alongside emerging musicians. How do you curate the classical programme?

Our programming follows three principles. First, we want to give young artists opportunities to present their work and reach new audiences. Second, supporting local musicians is essential because sustainability is one of the festival's core values. Finally, we are drawn to artists with broad musical curiosity - musicians who perform across different styles and periods, compose, arrange, improvise and collaborate across disciplines.

Throughout your career you've championed contemporary repertoire and new concert formats. How has that influenced Between Mountains?

I actually think there are more people interested in classical music today than ever before - but many of them simply don't attend traditional concerts. If classical music wants to remain relevant, we need to reconnect with today's composers and today's aesthetics, while also creating formats that feel natural, welcoming and engaging, without unnecessary formality. That's really the central idea behind Between Mountains.

How does the Holdenweid setting change the experience of listening to classical music?

Nature becomes part of the performance. Whether you're hearing birds outside, water flowing nearby or looking through the trees while listening to music, the surroundings add another dimension to the experience. People can move freely, meet the artists, have a drink and continue listening throughout the day. That creates a much more democratic way of experiencing classical music than the traditional concert hall.

Many organisations are trying to attract younger audiences to classical music. How does Between Mountains approach this challenge?

We're certainly part of that conversation, and many organisations are curious about the format. More importantly, though, we simply want to create unforgettable musical experiences. If people discover classical music because they came for the atmosphere - or because they were also interested in electronic music - that's exactly what we hope for.

Someone might hear a chamber concert in the afternoon and an electronic live set at night. What do you hope audiences take away from those encounters?

We want people to follow their ears rather than categories. Algorithms increasingly recommend only what we already know and like. That shapes not only how we listen but also how we think. Music should do the opposite - it should introduce us to unexpected ideas and experiences. The mix of genres at Between Mountains is our way of encouraging curiosity and openness.

Supporting young and regional artists is another important part of the festival. Why is that so central?

We don't want the festival to arrive once a year like a meteorite and disappear again. Supporting local musicians creates a lasting connection with the region, while also ensuring public funding directly benefits the artistic community that surrounds us. We hope Between Mountains leaves a legacy beyond the festival weekend itself.

As the festival grows, what role do you hope it will play within the classical music landscape?

Hopefully, Between Mountains can demonstrate that classical music can be presented in ways that are both informal and artistically ambitious. There are many wonderful festivals working towards similar goals, and we'd like to contribute by showing that classical music doesn't lose its depth when presented differently. If anything, it becomes more accessible, more democratic and more surprising.

Memories are made of this: Tugan Sokhiev & Vienna Philharmonic in Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, plus Debussy & Ravel with Lang Lang in Salzburg

2026-08-13T08:48:01.824+01:00

Tugan Sokhiev, Vienna Philharmonic - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Marco Borrelli)

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G, Debussy: La Mer, Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (excerpts); Lang Lang, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Tughan Sokhiev; Salzburg Festival at Grosses Festspielhaus
Reviewed 8 August 2026

Vividly etched movements and a sense of real danced drama in episodes from Prokofiev's ballet alongside Lang Lang in somewhat self-indulgent mood in Ravel

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Tugan Sokhiev are old friends. He has conducted them on several tours as well as the gala concert to celebrate Johann Strauss's 200th birthday, and this year they have a European tour.

On Saturday 8 August, Tugan Sokhiev conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in a matinee concert at the Salzburg Festival in the Grosses Festspielhaus with Ravel's Piano Concerto in G (soloist Lang Lang), Debussy's La Mer, and Sokhiev's own selection of movements from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet suites.

We began, unusually, with the concerto. Lang Lang started out light, almost reticent, a twinkle rather than dazzle contrasting with crisp jazz in the orchestra. But then with the second subject, his approach was intimate, laid back with plenty of rubato rather leaving blues and jazz behind. Throughout the movement there was this strong contrast between mood and tempo and I confess I found Lang Lang's more laidback passages somewhat self-indulgent. The second movement began quiet, slow and thoughtful, though intensity picked up as the orchestra joined the soloist. Yet overall, it seemed remarkable to sustain the intensity at such a slow temp. The third movement really did give us fast, vivid dazzle, with a strong orchestral personality and fine woodwind solos. The end was so fast it felt like Lang Lang saying 'look at me'.

Lang Lang, Tugan Sokhiev, Vienna Philharmonic - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Marco Borrelli)

La mer seemed to start from nothing, magic sounds that were barely there. Sokhiev kept a richly layered watery flow with plenty of detail, clarity here rather than impressionistic effects. From the fabulous cello section the music ebbed and flowed, though occasionally it felt becalmed as if Sohkiev concentrated on detail. The second movement was all fragments of shimmering textures, swift and delicate. Sokhiev seemed more about detail than overall shape, fast and vivid climaxes, barely there moments and magic at the end of the movement. The last movement began with anxiety and urgency, the excitement controlled. We had a wonderfully poignant oboe solo and terrific trumpet tonguing. The final climax, when it came, was urgent but felt too little too late.

After the interval, Sokhiev and the orchestra seemed transformed. His speeds in Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet always conveyed a sense that this was danced drama, each movement vividly etched, showing the orchestra off, true, but creating real drama.

Sokhiev's selection of movements consisted of the second suite plus two movements from the first. Montagues and Capulets began with strong, intense brass contrasting with quietly sustained strings, leading to a vivid dance ('Dance of the Knights') with remarkably strong bass. Juliet as a young girl was all delightful skittering and full of contrasts. Friar Laurence was rich and dark followed by Dance that was fast and vivid with crisp detail and sharp solos. Romeo and Juliet before parting (the balcony scene) began atmospherically with and elegant flute. There was a classicism to Sokhiev's approach and the music lack real romantic sweep until the full orchestra joined in. Dance of the girls with lilies had a delicate elegance to it, even the tambourine, with a fine violin solo giving a chamber music feel. Then Romeo at Juliet's tomb was intense and urgent, a steady tread in the orchestra having real weight to it, leading to pure magic. From the first suite we heard the controlled excitement of Masks then the vivid impetus and urgency of Tybalt's death slowing to powerful anger.

Inevitably, a good performance of Romeo and Juliet comes with images. I first saw the ballet in Kenneth MacMillan's version for the Royal Balled in 1970 or 1971 as an impressionable teen. Natalia Makarova was an unforgettable Juliet (in one of her earliest appearances following her defection). MacMillan's ballet made a big impression and those images reoccur in a good performance of the music in concert. And I can tell you, this was a performance full of such memories.

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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

Salzburg Festival

Heavenly joy & earthly travails: Philippe Sly is compelling as St Francis in Romeo Castellucci's mesmerising & frustrating vision Messiaen's opera - opera review
Darkness visible: remarkable performances from Jonathan Tetelman & Asmik Grigorian in Bizet's Carmen directed by choreographer Gabriela Carrizo - opera review
Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag's futuristic vision of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos - opera review
Mozart's Cosi fan tutte: director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more - opera review
Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims - opera review

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
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Heavenly joy & earthly travails: Philippe Sly is compelling as St Francis in Romeo Castellucci's mesmerising & frustrating vision Messiaen's opera in Salzburg

2026-08-11T16:29:52.458+01:00

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Philippe Sly - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise; Philippe Sly, Lauranne Oliva, Sean Panikkar, Russell Braun, director: Romeo Castellucci, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Maxime Pascal; Salzburg Festival at the Felsenreitschule
Reviewed 9 August 2026

An evening like no other: a selfless & compelling performance from Philippe Sly illuminates a production of Messaien's mammoth opera that was by turns mesmerising & frustrating as director/designer Romeo Castellucci sought a physical counterpart to the music's transcendence.

Mounting Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d’Assise remains a bold undertaking. Premiered at the Paris Opera in 1983, it had to wait until 1992 for a further production at the Salzburg Festival, with the festival reviving it in 1998. The sheer length and complexity of the work, allied to the numbers of performers required allied to the striking subject matter (how does one stage a long scene where St Francis receives the stigmata?) and the challenge of the huge title role (Jose van Dam sang it both in 1983 and 1992) all mitigate against the piece. Yet if a company dares, then the rewards are remarkable.

For 2026, the Salzburg Festival has returned to Messiaen's Saint François d’Assise with a new production directed, designed and lit by Romeo Castellucci at the Felsenreitschule. Dramaturgy was by Christian Longchamp, and choreography by Yasmine Hugonnet. Maxime Pascal conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with the chorus of the Vienna State Opera off-stage throughout.

Philippe Sly was St Francis, with Lauranne Oliva as the Angel, Sean Panikkar as the voice of the Leper, Russell Braun as Brother Leo, Leo Vermont-Desroches as Brother Masseo, Aaron-Casey Gould as Brother Elie, Willard White as Brother Bernard, Marius Aron as Brother Sylvestre, and Ivan Lyvch as Brother Rufin. Additionally, there were twelve dancers (six angels, six Franciscan brothers), plus twenty actors along with sheep, a dog and a pea-hen.

The orchestra was in a cramped pit with percussion in two banks either side of the auditorium. I could not see where the Ondes Martenots were placed, played by Nathalie Forget, Augustin Viard, Cecile Lartigau. The full width of the stage was used and often Castellucci's dramatic lighting was such that details were difficult to discern. The opera is in eight scenes lasting a total of over four hours of music. In Salzburg the work was played with two long intervals making a total of over six hours in the theatre.

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Whilst Messiaen's dramaturgy is relatively clear, the opera leaves a lot of space for directorial intervention. Judging by Castellucci's dramatic yet idiosyncratic staging, his view of St Francis is somewhat less sanguine and less unquestioning than Messiaen's. For much of the first two acts, Philippe Sly's St Francis seemed borderline disturbed, whilst the final two acts were very dark indeed (both emotionally and physically). In fact, Castellucci seemed to have taken the decision not to stage Messiaen's music. If the orchestra and chorus poured forth Messiaen's vision of heavenly joy, then Castellucci depicted the earthly travails that are its counterpoint.

Much of the iconography was puzzling, though I gather from other reviewers that much was part of the director/designer's lexicon. The opening scene (not in Messiaen's opera) saw Philippe Sly's St Francis stripping naked. Then The Cross subjected Francis and his new brothers to all manner of rain and dirt. For Lauds the brothers baked real bread in real ovens, so that by the end of Act One the smell of newly baked bread was wafting through the theatre. And the activity enabled Philippe Sly to play with dough and cover himself in flour! The scene with the Leper involved Sean Panikkar (onstage and singing) but with the Leper incarnated by an actor (apparently uncredited in the programme book). This must have been a challenging scene to rehearse as the actor stripped naked as Sly's St Francis washed him (all over) and kissed him.

In Act Two, the angel (Lauranne Oliva) was rather sinister. In The Journeying Angel the brothers were making pottery, whilst the Angel destroyed the pots. And more mysterious still was the moment when the Angel painted her leg and hand gold. Then in The Angel Musician the Angel's viola was buried in sand whilst the Angel and her companions removed their wings. Cue copious quantities of (very red) Angelic blood, but also some sheer magic in the orchestra for the heavenly melody that Francis hears. The Sermon to the Birds began with St Francis and the brothers mopping up the blood like relics whilst Sly's St Francis strapped the excavated viola to his back. There was also the brothers' painting of their legs blue.

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Philippe Sly - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus

In Act Three, the staging turned dark. The Stigmata began with Sly's St Francis seeming to dig his own grave, then the eath rose up (in the form of eight actors) leaving Sly's St Francis semi-naked and covered in dark matter. There was no light here, that was all in the glorious transfiguration depicted in Messiaen's music. For the final scene, Death and the new life, all remained dark. Rather touchingly the Angel and the Leper reappeared with the Leper washing Sly's St Francis's body ready for death. There was no cross, just darkness and the earth complemented by the dance of joy in Messiaen's music. After St Francis's death, his body was brutally retrieved and left naked (as the opening scene) whilst a flock of sheep appeared on stage, all the while the chorus (frustratingly still off stage) sang with heavenly joy.

Musically, Messiaen combines steady, declamatory chant with vivid and highly mobile orchestral fireworks. The orchestra was huge (quadruple woodwind), but used with great sophistication in terms of colour palate and material. This was the first time I had experienced the work and by the end I was starting to find the vocal lines a little too dogged, or perhaps this was my tiredness talking. But Castellucci never seemed to allow Sly's St Francis to be transfigured.

Philippe Sly's performance, however, was all encompassing and whole-hearted both musically and dramatically, from stripping naked to embracing the dirt, dark and strangeness of Castellucci's vision to sustaining Messiaen's musical vision of St Francis for over four hours of music. It was astonishing. Selfless is the wrong word, because there was a lot of Sly's self in the performance, but he embrace the entirety of the role wholeheartedly.

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Lauranne Oliva -- Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Russell Braun made a dignified, supportive Brother Leon, St Francis's first disciple with Leo Veermot-Desroches as the engaging Brother Masseo who had a lovely disquisition on birds before St Francis's sermon. Aaron-Casey Gould was a wonderfully bad-tempered Brother Elie, whilst Willard White was a dignified yet chipper Brother Bernard, the only brother to answer the Angels questions on pre-determination correctly. Marius Aron and Ivan Lyvch were the smaller roles of Brothers Sylvestre and Rufin. Lauranne Oliva's Angel managed to combined the mysterious and the sinister. In both her scenes in Act Two she kept us guessing about the Angel's real intent. A masterly performance.

There were many moments when it wasn't individuals that matter, but the collective. There was indeed something selfless about the way singers, dancers and actors came together as a dramatic ensemble.

In the pit and on the side balconies, the orchestra was tireless and outstanding. There was never a moment when this music seemed to strain the technique of the players, they always responded easily and flexibly to the direction by Maxime Pascal. He brought a remarkable amount of clarity and detail to this complex score. To my ears it was an outstanding and exemplary performance.

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus

This was an evening like no other. Romeo Castellucci created a complex and thought-provoking spectacle that complemented and commented upon Messiaen's score rather than illuminating it. It was left to Maxime Pascal, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the cast to really illuminate Messiaen's musical vision. But over all it was the astonishing figure of St Francis embodied by Philippe Sly, deny self to illuminate.

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Philippe Sly - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus

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

Salzburg Festival

Darkness visible: remarkable performances from Jonathan Tetelman & Asmik Grigorian in Bizet's Carmen directed by choreographer Gabriela Carrizo - opera review
Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag's futuristic vision of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos - opera review
Mozart's Cosi fan tutte: director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more - opera review
Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims - opera review

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

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Darkness visible: remarkable performances from Jonathan Tetelman & Asmik Grigorian in Bizet's Carmen directed by choreographer Gabriela Carrizo in Salzburg

2026-08-09T10:34:13.092+01:00

Bizet: Carmen - Asmik Grigorian - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

Bizet: Carmen; Asmik Grigorian, Jonathan Tetelman, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Davide Luciano, director: Gabriela Carrizo, Utopia Orchestra, conductor: Teodor Currentzis; Salzburg Festival at the Grosses Festspielhaus
Reviewed 8 August 2026

Shorn of dialogue & with an added dance element, this experimental production created a remarkably dark-toned Carmen with fierce undertones leading to an astonishing final scene.

With Carmen, Bizet left us with something of a conundrum. Not that the opera is incomplete, but first off what does Bizet's final version of the opera consist of? A new edition by Paul Prevost for Bärenreiter publishes all surviving versions of material thus allowing companies to choose. Though it has to be pointed out that Bizet published his own final vocal score of the piece.

Then there is the spoken dialogue. Before his death, Bizet had signed a contract with the Court Opera in Vienna, so he obviously intended to provide sung recitatives. Ernest Guiraud's recitatives are a workman-like solution to the problem and definitely in character, but what would Bizet have done? The question tantalises. The Opera Comique version of Carmen has a remarkably sympathetic way of modulating between dialogue, melodrama and fully sung, so you can't help feel Bizet would have had a similarly imaginative solution to creating grand opera Carmen.

Modern day opera companies tend to prioritise Bizet's own version of the opera with dialogue yet stretches of spoken French remain a challenge.

Bizet: Carmen (Act Two) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

At the Salzburg Festival, a new production of Carmen was entrusted to director and choreographer Gabriela Carrizo, founder of Peeping Tom dance company, and conductor Teodor Currentzis and his Utopia Orchestra. The performance included Currentzis's Utopia Choir and Bachchor Salzburg with eight members of Carrizo's Peeping Tom company. Design was by Christof Hetzer, lighting by Tom Visser and sound design by Raphaelle Latini.

Asmik Grigorian was Carmen with Jonathan Tetelman as Don Jose, Kristina Mkhitaryan as Micaela, Davide Luciano as Escamillo, Iveta Simonyan as Frasquita, Anita Monserrat as Mercedes, Matthias Winckhler as Zuniga, Liviu Holender as Morales, Michael Arivony as Le Dancaire, Mingjie Lei as Le Remendado and Amparo Cortés as Lillas Pastia.

With Brussels-based Peeping Tom, Gabriela Carrizo's artistic practice involves dance and theatre, using hyperrealism and surrealism to reveal characters' hidden desires and impulses. Carmen seems to have been her first opera and for all the brilliant moments in the staging, you felt she struggled somewhat with the rather fixed nature of the operatic form - this is the score, perform it!

The most controversial decision was to remove the spoken dialogue (something Sally Potter did in her ill-fated Carmen for ENO in 2007), though with such an international cast (Lithuanian, Chilean/American, Armenian, Italian, Russian, British, German, Austrian...) this is understandable in a way. Replacing the dialogue with dance/drama passages using Latini's sound designs - disturbing tonally - was not altogether successful in filling in the gaps. In the first two acts, you rather had to know the story. Quite what a first time attender made of it, I don't know. The first time we hear Don Jose, he is singing to Micaela and we never hear Carmen laugh, nor does she taunt Don Jose.

Bizet: Carmen - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

A large result of these changes was to minimise the smaller characters. It was less clear who Frasquite (Iveta Simonyan), Mercedes (Anita Monserrat), Zuniga (Matthias Winckhler), Morales (Liviuo Holender), Le Dancaire (Michael Arivony) and Le Remendado (Mingjie Lei) were. And the more operetta-like elements in the first two acts distinctly receded from view, leaving the work darker and more intense.

At the opening of Act Two, Amparo Cortés (a cante jondo performer from Seville) sang a traditional song as Lilas Pastia, doing so again in Act Three: striking moment but somewhat tonally disturbing in terms of Bizet's score. In Act Three there was a long sequence for a religious procession to one of Latini's sound designs (functionally the procession seemed a way for Kristina Mkhitaryan's Micaela to get on stage). The best element of the change was the space it gave Jonathan Tetelman and Asmik Grigorian to develop their characters in other ways, so that they effectively redefined their relationship using mime in Act Three. By the end of this act, Tetelman's Don Jose was near feral whilst Grigorian's Carmen definitely could not care less.

Carrizo's dance language was gestural, often dance complemented the music and operatic drama. Sometimes these gestures were complex and sometimes not obvious. A pool of water was a strong feature of all three acts. Eurodike De Beul, as Don Jose's mother, was a near constant presence, though in Act Three why did she strip naked and eventually drown in said water. The opening of that act featured two men with antlers as deer fighting, one of which was chased by the smugglers. And then there was the dancing Christ-like figure during Mkhitaryan's bit solo as Micaela.

At the opening of Act Two, however, the dance was simply astonishing without a hint of stage Spain. That is a problem with Carmen. Though Bizet's characters are remarkable, the opera itself is build from gestures that have their origins in the 19th century French image of Spain, not the reality. Here, Carrizo did success in creating something other, and as the opera proceeded her vision developed something very dark indeed.

Bizet: Carmen - Amparo Cortés - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

Asmik Grigorian was a soprano Carmen, her middle and lower registers no quite having enough weight in the ensembles in this large theatre with a large orchestra. But this has to be balanced against a remarkably free, unhackneyed musical performance. This was a serious Carmen, we never heard her laugh nor did she rail against men. Her Carmen attracted men but did not use her sexuality as a weapon, there was a freedom and independence to her. The Habanera was beautifully sung, nearly mesmerising. But it was in her interactions with others that the drama really crackled.

Jonathan Tetelman made a near ideal Don Jose. Tall and slim with distinct, if seemingly unconscious, sexual magnetism, his dark-toned tenor found its way around Don Jose's music with ease and whilst possessed of a ringing top, he also could fine his tone down. In Act One, we missed the dialogue, Don Jose and Carmen's interactions were limited to gesture and did not quite tell against the busy staging. However, in Act Two, Grigorian's Carmen developed real bitterness and fierceness. Her Seguidille included plate smashing in lieu of castanets, and for all Tetelman's sophisticated and moving performance of the Flower Song, it was Grigorian's fierceness that carried him over.

In Act Three, the card scene looked remarkable with its group of dancing spectres, and Grigorian's performance mesmerised even though we were aware her lower register did not do what Carmen normally does. Iveta Simonyan and Anita Monserrat also gave fine performances though without dialogue we had little context. But then the scene ended with a near fight between Tetelman's Don Jose and Grigorian's Carmen, taking Bizet's music to a different place.

Bizet: Carmen - Liviu Holender, Kristina Mkhitaryan - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

All this set the scene for the final confrontation. Act Four was shorn of its opening chorus and for Don Jose and Carmen's final encounter there was no dance either. Simply a blood-red set and a roof gradually lowering to seemingly crush them. The encounter was astonishing in its power and freedom, and truth to Bizet's music. It lifted the whole opera to a remarkable degree.

Davide Luciano made a near ideal Escamillo. In Acts Two and Three he had a dancer double who looked far closer to Toreador physique. But Luciano's voice did everything needed, a lovely freedom at the top along with enough power in the lower register that the low notes did not threaten to disappear. Kristina Mkhitaryan made a contained yet focused Micaela. Her Act One duet with Tetelman was moving yet serious. Then in Act Three, as a long figure with no dialogue context, she held the stage in her aria to a remarkable degree. This was a Micaela who dared, whilst never seeming to lose her good girl demeanour.

The other characters formed a powerful backdrop. Amparo Cortés's contributions made a powerful impression even though not musically apposite. Iveta Simonyan and Anita Monserrate created background characters for Frasquita and Mercedes, making the most of both the opening to Act Two and the card scene in Act Three. The men fared less well. Their two bandit compatriots were reduced to bit parts and failed to register properly. Though Mathias Winckhler as the Lieutenant made the most of his moment in Act Two, in the first act neither he nor Liviu Holender's Morales registered properly.

Bizet: Carmen - Iveta Simonyan, Anita Monserrat, Asmik Grigorian, Michael Arivony - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

The large chorus was a vivid presence throughout. Carrizo tended to use them in blocks so that their simple movements were amplified to a remarkable degree. Vocally they were thrilling too, whilst their physical exuberance in Act Four provided a strong contrast to the emotional intensity to come.

The technique of Carrizo's dancers was astonishing. At times this served to amplify the drama, but at other times it distracted. Definitely a work in progress. Overall, however, there was a darkness to Carrizo's vision that cohered, running in an arc from the soldiers vicious mistreatment of a man in Act One to the confrontation between a feral Don Jose and a care less Carmen in Act Four.

As for the edition use, yes there were moments that were different though I suspect few in the audience were susceptible to the subtleties of changes to orchestration and such. Currentzis and his orchestra, however, did create a vivid account of Bizet's score. From the very upfront sound of the opening notes of the overture, this orchestra was a very demonstrative partner in the mix. And it wasn't all sound and fury. Despite the fierceness of Currentzis's approach, there were moments of tenderness and simplicity too.

Tom Visser's lighting and Christof Hetzer's sets created some remarkably pictorial stage images, particularly in tandem with the way Carrizo manipulated peripheral characters in silhouette. Hetzer's abstract set was flexibly yet came into its own in Act Four as it threatened to crush Don Jose and Carmen. Visser's lighting was highly atmospheric but he and Carrizo seem to have forgotten that opera is a performative art and we like to be able to see a singer's mouth clearly.

Bizet: Carmen - Asmik Grigorian, Jonathan Tetelman - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

The staging was a remarkable experiment. You suspect that Carrizo might have preferred to create a smaller scale work 'after Bizet's Carmen'. But here, her strikingly dark vision of the opera carried weight and complemented Bizet's music to a remarkable degree, setting the stage for the astonishing final scene from Jonathan Tetelman and Asmik Grigorian.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Salzburg Festival

Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag's futuristic vision of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos - opera review
Mozart's Cosi fan tutte: director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more - opera review
Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims - opera review

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

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Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag's futuristic vision of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Salzburg Festival

2026-08-08T14:43:19.721+01:00

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Michael Porter (Scaramuccio), Lukas Enoch Lemcke (Truffaldin), Ziyi Dai (Zerbinetta), Leon Košavić (Harlekin), Theodore Browne (Brighella) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos; Kate Lindsey, Christina Nilson, Eric Cutler, Ziyi Dai, Johannes Silberschneider, Christoph Pohl, director: Ersan Mondtag, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Manfred Honeck; Salzburg Festival at the Haus für Mozart
Reviewed 7 August 2026

Interdisciplinary artist Ersan Mondtag's over-elaborate and confusing futuristic vision of Ariadne auf Naxos fails to convince as stage drama but redeemed by fine musical performances

Though Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Ariadne auf Naxos (in its various iterations) was firmly based in the 17th century of Moliere, did it occur to the good burgers of Stuttgart (where the first version premiered), Berlin or Vienna that it was they who were being satirised? The work might be about the complex process of making art but it also has things to say about those paying for it.

To be really daring, the new production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Salzburg Festival should have been set in and around the Haus für Mozart in the present day. Instead, Ersan Mondtag's production was set in a fantasy future in an enclave on Mars.

We caught the second performance of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at Salzburg Festival's Haus für Mozart on 7 August 2026. Ersan Mondtag directed and designed, Manfred Honeck conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Choreography was by Ashley Alexandra Wright with video by Alexander Pannier. The dramaturg was Till Briegleb, a role perhaps more important than usual in this production as the plot of the opera had undergone significant changes.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Christina Nilsson (Ariadne) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Kate Lindsey was the composer, Christina Nilsson was Ariadne, Eric Cutler was Bacchus, Ziyi Dai was Zerbinetta, Johannes Silberschneider was the majordomo, Christoph Pohl was the music master, Jonas Hacker was the dancing master with Leon Kosavic, Michael Porter, Lukas Enoch Lemcke and Theodore Browne as Zerbinetta's troupe, Jasmin Delfs as a Naiad, Anja Mittermüller as a Dryad and Marlene Metzger as Echo.

Ersan Mondtag is a multi-disciplinary artist whose credits include the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale as well as directing opera for Opera Vlaanderen, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, and Opera national de Lyon. His most recent operatic credit was Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles for Vienna State Opera set in the world of high fashion.

During a vivid account of the overture we saw a video that zoomed in on the colony on Mars. It was of a style and quality such that I half expected a voice to shout 'Thunderbirds are go!' or the theme tune from Captain Scarlet to appear.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Christoph Pohl (Music Master), Kate Lindsey (Composer), Jonas Hacker (Dancing Master) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

The basic set (used for the prologue and the opera) was striking and rather effective with multiple levels and entrances. In style there was something rather 1930s about it. Through a portal at the rear we had a constant video of the planet's surface and sundry over-imagined spacecraft, distracting in the prologue but creating some vividly striking effects during the opera.

The cast included, in addition to the 17 named roles, four dancers (including choreographer Ashley Alexandra Wright), and five actors dressed as guards wearing such skin-tight costumes as to suggest that the richest man in Vienna had an eye for masculine pulchritude!

The problem with an imagined setting was that we had no conventional iconography to help identify who was whom in all the busy-ness of back stage.. Yes, the man in black dressed like a priest was the music master (an impressive performance from Christoph Pohl). The man in the long white wig, like a refugee from The Game of Thrones, was the wig maker (Blaz Stajnko). The dancing master (an engaging performance from Jonas Hacker) was lumbered with a remarkable bright orange brush as a wig. Johannes Silberschneider as the majordomo spoke with striking elan though he did not say 'gleichzeitig' (simultaneously) with as much relish as some.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Ziyi Dai (Zerbinetta) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Kate Lindsey's composer was presented as a somewhat androgynous but very stylish woman. I have seen Lindsey in the role before (at Glyndebourne in 2013, see my review). Here, she was full of nervous energy from the word go in a remarkably intense and full on performance. There was a soprano-like brightness to her voice and in the big moments she did not develop tonal richness but this was allied to remarkable perspicacity with the music. In a highly active performance, this Composer involved herself with the stage performance with remarkable energy. Lindsey's performance shone with passion and commitment.

Ziyi Dai's Zerbinetta was at first somewhat reticent, hardly distinguished from her troupe but Dai developed real personality and the scenes with Lindsey's composer were remarkably touching. There were also fine cameos from Christina Nilsson as the Primadonna, and Eric Cutler as the Tenor. And the whole very much captured the essence of backstage chaos, though I am not sure that Strauss and Hofmannsthal's wider message about the creation of art really came over.

For the opera proper we were in the same space, enlivened by representations of dead animals. Whilst the Naiad and Dryad (Anja Mittermüller and Jasmin Delfs) were costumed quite literally, Marlene Metzger as Echo seemed more like a woolly Smurf and she had the misfortune to be suspended from the flies. Their opening scene, finely sung, was distractingly staged as the dancers drew attention from the singers.

This was a problem throughout the opera. Ashley Alexandra Wright's choreography was vigorous, angular and sometimes contorted, it seemed often at odds with the music and drew attention to itself in a way that was unmusical.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Anja Mittermuller (Dryad), Marlene Metzger (Echo) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Christine Nilsson's Ariadne was clear voiced and dignified. She did not impose but her voice had a calm intensity to it. 'Es gibt ein Reich' had a quiet intensity to it with Nilsson seeming able to pull focus into herself. When Ariadne sang of Theseus, one of the dancers embodied him, which was a nice touch, but too often the dancers distracted and pulled focus.

When Dai's Zerbinetta began 'Großmächtige Prinzessin' she addressed it not to Ariadne but to Kate Lindsey's Composer who had remained involved in the 'performance'. From this point Lindsey's Composer became increasingly involved in Zerbinetta and her troupe's activities, with art and life mixing in an odd way. At the climax to 'Großmächtige Prinzessin', during Dai's roulades, we were treated to an orgy as Harlekin and the troupe had (bad) sex with the dancers. It says something for Dai's technically assured performance that she never let this pull focus and I would love to see her in the role in a less distracting prodcution. Byt the end of this scene there was a general orgiastic free-for-all including the guards as well. And there was so much smoking on stage that I felt a cigarette manufacturer should have got credit in the programme.

I must confess that I found the costumes for Zerbinetta's troupe to be somewhat ugly, and certainly they were not used as a commedia dell'arte group. Leon Kosavic gave a strong performance as Harlekin but there were few, if any, opportunities for the four to function as a song and dance group.

During the ravishing trio from Naiad, Dryad and Echo heralding the arrival of Bacchus, Ersan Mondtagthrew everything on stage and the three singers were upstaged by the assembled mass of household staff. And each time the trio occurred, a similar stage distraction happened.

Throughout the opera, I was repeatedly struck by how little Mondtag's staging seemed to be sympathetic or responsive to Strauss's music: moments which required stillness and simplicity were overwhelmed with stage action. D. commented that, not knowing the opera well, he found it difficult to work out who was singing at times.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - the arrival of Bacchus - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

When Bacchus (Eric Cutler) finally appeared he was, of course, in a space suite complete with helmet (with wings). The suit seemed badly fitting and made Cutler look ungainly. His Bacchus was a posturing nonentity. Cutler sang with heroic energy and rather insistent tone, though the role is thankless. There was something of a contrast between his strenuousness and Nilsson's focused intensity. But she brought out the complexities of Ariadne's hesitation.

The staging only simplified at a late (too late) stage and for a moment it seemed that magic might happen. The video produced magical images, but then it was clear that the steps up to the portal (through which Cutler's Bacchus had entered) had not be designed for sopranos with long dresses. And then Nilsson's Ariadne put on Bacchus's ludicrous helmet and we finished with a risible video of the two of them in space suits.

It was left to Ziyi Dai's Zerbinetta to finish things in a wry manner.

Manfred Honeck and the orchestra were, of course, on form, giving us much to enjoy. And frankly, this was a production for the ears not the eyes.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Ariadne auf Naxos

is a complex and tricky piece. It works if you trust it. Here Ersan Mondtag seemed to have attempted to solve the work's apparent problems whilst simply increasing them. But ultimately, I was left wondering , did Mondtag even understand or like Strauss's music.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Salzburg Festival

Mozart's Cosi fan tutte: director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more - opera review
Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims - opera review

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

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At the Salzburg Festival, director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte

2026-08-07T14:18:45.377+01:00

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Lea Desandre, Victoria Karkacheva, Elsa Dreisig, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Andrè Schuen, Bogdan Volkov - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte; Elsa Dreisig, Victoria Karkacheva, Bogdan Volkov, Andrè Schuen, Lea Desdandre, Johannes Martin Kränzle, dir: Christof Loy, Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, cond: Joana Mallwitz; Salzburg Festival at the Grosses Festspielhaus
Reviewed 6 August 2026

I have sometimes found Christof Loy's work to be too cerebral, but here his stripped down production worked superbly, releasing the combined talents of a strong cast to create something rather special

After the hyper-busy staging of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims the previous night [see my review], Thursday 6 August saw a production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival in the Grosses Festspielhaus that was in complete contrast. Christof Loy's new production was a restudied version of his 2020 COVID-era Cost fan tutte (in a version trimmed to well under three hours). The new production saw the 2020 cuts reversed and the staging reconsidered.

Joana Mallwitz conducted the Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener Philharmoniker alongside members of the Wiener Philharmoniker. Elsa Dreisig was Fiordiligi, Victoria Karkacheva was Dorabella, Bogdan Volkov was Ferrando, Andrè Schuen was Guglielmo, Lea Desdandre was Despina, and Johannes Martin Kränzle was Don Alfonso. Sets were by Johannes Leiacker, costumes by Barbara Drosihn and lighting by Olaf Winter.

Christof Loy conceived the production for the Grosses Festspielhaus, 'a performance on this gigantic stage that nevertheless manages to be very intimate' as Loy described it in the programme book. 'It dispenses with all external aids: there are only two doors, the characters, the music ... The performers are far closer to the audience.'

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Bogdan Volkov, Andrè Schuen - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

The playing area was relatively narrow with steps leading down into the orchestra pit. Costumes were plain black and modern in style, and whilst Fiordiligi and Dorabella's shoes were relatively ordinary black court shoes, I am assured that Despina's shoes were something rather special. When the men were in disguise they were in colour, no silly wigs or costumes here.

Loy takes Cosi fan tutte seriously, there was no supposedly clever setting, no local colour and notably there was no attempt to 'fix' the opera's dramaturgy. He paid Mozart and da Ponte the compliment of taking the work seriously. Any comedy came from character and situation. And Loy does not see the work as fundamentally misogynistic, for him it is more a critique of male self image. And by the end of the piece it was clear that rather than choosing one man or the other, though the sisters ended with the 'correct' man, there was something in the attraction to the 'other'.

The staging was very much conceived of as a journey, starting all lightness and then, from the beginning of Act Two, crossing a boundary in the wonderful dialogue between the sisters as they dared to consider dalliance with the visitors. By the conclusion, having come through real darkness, the end was definitely not in the beginning.

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Elsa Dreisig, Victoria Karkacheva - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Elsa Dreisig and Victoria Karkacheva were convincing as sisters, differentiated yet similar, their responses an extension of the other. There was no false playing up of differences here, Dreisig's Fiordiligi could be as playful as Karkacheva's Dorabella and both were serious. That said, Dreisig's two arias were the core of the drama. Her voice was lithe with a fine sense of line yet remarkable intensity. 'Come scoglio' was classical in structure and serious in intensity, whilst her aria in Act To was one of the lynch pins of the drama. Here, one of Loy's staging 'tricks' came to the fore, his way of keeping characters on stage. So as Dreisig's Fiordiligi worked through her feelings in the intense aria, she was watched by Volkov's Ferrando, and Karkacheva's Dorabella stared at him intently before turning to Schuen's Guglielmo. It sounds contrived, but in this theatre with these performers it worked.

Karkacheva as Dorabella was the perfect foil. Her first aria lighter and then in Act Two her aria about Cupid started light but developed real fierceness. This was no bubbly airhead, but a woman intrigued by possibilities and aware.

The two men were deliberately contrasting, the singers falling naturally into the categories of one fair, one dark. Whilst Volkov and Schuen played this up, the also acted in concert, creating the sort of ridiculous laddish behaviour that felt right.

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Elsa Dreisig, Lea Desandre, Victoria Karkacheva - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Volkov's account of 'Un aura amorosa' was beautifully sung. His lyric tenor has surprising depth to it, yet the aria felt a moment out of time. In his Act Two aria he worked through all the heartache and anger, the result was powerful and by the end leaving him and us shell-shocked. For Loy, this aria represents the complex of emotions that Ferrando has to deal with as he realises that the though he is jealous because his fiancee is with another man, he is indeed in love with another woman.

Schuen's Guglielmo had a suavity to him that came out in moments like his Act Two duet with Karkacheva's Dorabella when the sheer beauty of Schuen's tone would have seduced anyone. There was complexity and anger too, both his arias allowed Schuen to show his remarkable range. Then as Act Two developed, a real feeling of viciousness appeared too,

It says something for the skill and intensity of the performers that the ending had us in the edge of our seats, not knowing what the ultimate resolution might be. And even though we had the 'correct' line up at the end, Loy ensured that we were left with a slight question. And you wondered, had these mean actually learned anything at all.

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Bogdan Volkov, Andrè Schuen, Johannes Martin Kränzle - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Johannes Martin Kränzle as Don Alfonso and Lea Desandre as Despina brought the real element of comedy to the work, yet in all seriousness. Desandre made a youthful, rather pert Despina, one fond of 'answering back' yet with some real wisdom in life-lessons. Desandre is clearly a gifted comedian and both her medico and notary were comic tour-de-force which ensured the mood of the opera was varied. Kränzle's Don Alfonso began as an engaging know-all, the who thing being merely a game, one that the two men happily participate in, with the end never in doubt. The intensity of feeling in Act Two upset this and Kränzle made Don Alfonso seem rather cast adrift. A suggestion of by-play between Don Alfonso and Despina was most definitely more in his mind than hers.

"I want to release the characters from any concrete context so that one can perceive them as human beings, not historical figures from 18th century Naples", Christof Loy in the programme book.

Having recently seen productions of Cosi fan tutte that set the opera in the context of 20th century package tours to Naples (Opera Holland Park) or 18th century Naples with a view to redressing the balance between women and men (the Grange Festival), or even ENO's circus-themed production, it was a relief to find Loy having no axe to grind in this respect. The focus simply on character paid dividends here, and the opera was rendered with far greater intimacy and intensity than I have experienced in far smaller theatres.

There was no stage role for the chorus (the Concert Choir of the Vienna State Opera Chorus), they remained unseen throughout.

Pedro Beriso provided decorative forte-piano recitatives, including a few vamp-till-ready moments. Yet the instrument felt underpowered for the space and there were moments when you wished for a stronger underpinning of the voices. I notice he played in some accompanied recitatives, but whilst I could see his fingers moving, there was little to be heard alongside the orchestra.

From the first notes of the overture, sharp, strong chords and vivid incisive scurrying, it was clear that Joana Mallwitz's approach took no prisoners. She drew a fine performance indeed from the orchestra yet it never felt performative and the speeds and shaping of the music were organic.

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Lea Desandre, Victoria Karkacheva, Bogdan Volkov, Elsa Dreisig, Andrè Schuen, Johannes Martin Kränzle - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

I have sometimes found Christof Loy's work to be too cerebral but here his thought experiment with Cos fan tutte worked superbly, releasing the combined talents of a strong cast to create something rather special.

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

Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims at the Salzburg Festival - opera review
Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
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Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims at the Salzburg Festival

2026-08-06T09:26:52.378+01:00

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Tara Erraught, Cecilia Bartoli - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims; Cecilia Bartoli, Marina Viotti, Mélissa Petit, Tara Erraught, Edgardo Rocha, Dmitry Korchak, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Florian Sempey, Misha Kiria, Peter Kellner, Giovanni Romeo, dir: Barrie Kosky, Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, cond: Gianluca Capuano; Salzburg Festival
Reviewed 5 August 2026

Rossini's occasional comedy reinvented by Barrie Kosky as hyperactive farce in an over the top performance with strong musical contributions

Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims was written for an occasion, the coronation of Charles X of France, and never performed again, though Rossini's music is of the highest quality. He would, in fact, re-use material in Le comte Orgy and but it was not until the 1980s that the original work was performed again. It is more than an occasional piece, the music ensures that, though companies music field a wide range of Rossini stylists.

Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggo a Reims debuted at the Salzburg Easter Festival and returned to Salzburg's Haus für Mozart for the summer Salzburg Festival, opening on 5 August 2026. Gianluca Capuano conducted Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, a period instrument ensemble whose founding was the inspiration of Cecilia Bartoli. She was something of a presiding genius over this production, not only singing Corinna but appearing out of a cake as herself at the climax of celebrations at the end of the opera.

The rest of the cast included Marina Viotti as Marchesa Melibea, Mélissa Petit as Contessa di Folleville, Tara Erraught as Madama Cortese, Edgardo Rocha as Cavalier Belfiore, Dmitry Korchak as Conte di Libenskof, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Lord Sidney, Florian Sempey as Don Profundo, Misha Kiria as Barone di Trombonok, Peter Kellner as Don Alvaro, and Giovanni Romeo as Don Prudenzio, with the Choeur de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Peter Kellner, Florian Sempey - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

In the programme book, Barrie Kosky described the work as 'an exquisite confection' commenting that 'the characters are not developed', they have to be 'fleshed out by the performers'. In Rossini's day this probably relied on his distinguished singers (who included Giuditta Pasta and Laure Cinti-Damoreau) bringing out the original Romantic context for each of the set pieces. Kosky's solution was to play the piece as hyperactive farce. His production had many of the elements of farce, not just its pacing and mad-cap activities. There were plenty of entrances and doors - five in the first scene including three revolving doors, 13 in the second scene. There was much bedroom hopping in that second scene, along with many characters stripped down to their underwear. All prime ingredients of farce.

Visually, Rufus Didwiszus's black and white graphic sets and Victoria Behr's costumes were inspired by the 1820s but the colour palate and over-emphasises shapes for the costumes was riotous.

The performance was hyperactive from the start - eight dancers as bellhops seemed to suggest Kosky had been watching Jonathan Miller's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado at ENO. For both the soloists and the chorus all movement was stylised, all performance mannered, and the singers were encouraged to overdo the dramatics. Every ensemble seemed to be performed as if it was a finale and the whole, hyperactive and over-dramatic, felt a bit too full on. Somewhere along the line the subtlety, the light and shade of Rossini's music got lost.

Gone was any element of the Romantic archetype. Rossini had a clear idea of the role of his music as large-scale 'serious' arias are used to poke fun at Romantic pretensions. The original audience would have found it funny because of the dissonance between musical style and dramatic subject, as personified by the Contessa di Folleville's dramatic, coloratura scena about the loss of her hats! (the original Folleville, Laure Cinti-Damoreau had already sung Rossini's Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra in Paris).

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Dmitry Korchak, Marina Viotti - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

And within all the stage activity, character rather got lost. Kosky gave us very little help at identifying the individual characters; any sense of national characteristics was vestigial except for Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's Lord Sidney.

Tara Erraught made a delightful if over-active Madame Cortese whilst Giovanni Romeo's doctor, Don Prudenzio seemed to be not only inebriated but had a bad leg too. Misha Kiria effortlessly stood out as Trombonk both in terms of sheer stage presence and voice. Here there seemed a suggestion of attraction between him and Erraught's Cortese.

Mélissa Petit's Contessa di Follweville made her elaborate aria a musical treat but lacking alas the correct context with, instead, much physical comedy on stage. Marina Viotti's rich voiced Marchesa Melibea drew the eye and ear whenever she was on-stage. But the fight over her character between Dmitry Korchak's Conte di Libenskof and Peter Kellner's Don Alvaro descended into farce as multiple guns were introduced into the action (complete with sound-effects). At the beginning of Part Two, Viotti and Korchak's touching duet of reconciliation was almost steered off-course by the introduction of a whip! But both singers' stylish performances ensured our attention.

Throughout the opera there were spoken interpolations, dramatic vocalisations and extra music which often served to impede the flow of the original and disturb the drama for simple comic effect.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Edgardo Rocha, Misha Kiria, Cecilia Bartoli, Rouven Pabst - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Cecilia Bartoli's Corinna was winsome and lively, rather different to the dramatic poetess usually portrayed. Her harp was a significant presence in the proceedings and she even had a cross-dressing harpist (Rouven Pabst). Vocally she was elegant if somewhat mannered and fragile, the fioriture rather sketched in lightly but with character in spades.

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's Lord Sidney suffered in that his fine aria to Corinna was turned into physical comedy. This happened to Edgardo Rocha's Cavalier Belfiori in his duet with Bartoli, though Rocha ensured that he was wonderfully vocally suave even if the character was louche. Florian Sempey's Don Profundo had his own moment with the aria characterising the guests' possessions. Here, Sempey's command of patter was dazzling even though Kosky provided copious visual distractions.

Rudolphe Briand's courier Zeferino had been encouraged to overac with a vengeance whilst Helena Rasher and Rafal Pawnuk provided vigorous support as Maddalena and Antonio, with Frederica Spatola as Modestina, Galia Bakalov as Delia and Salvatore Taiello as Don Luigino. The dancers, Fanny Di Ponti, Marco Arzenton, Matt Emig, Joaquin Fernandez, Roland Geczy, Hugo Olagnon, Rouven Pabst, Julen Pazos, deserve credit for the vividness and energy with which they implemented Barrie Kosky's vision (no choreographer was credited). The chorus too was hard working in roles that were both physically and vocally demanding.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Marina Viotti - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

In the pit, Gianluca Capuano drew fine sounds from Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco and it was only a shame that the antics on stage threatened to overshadow the vibrant range of timbre and colour provided by period instruments.

Valentina Ceschi's staging of Il viaggio a Reims for English Touring Opera in 2023 [see my review] demonstrated that, in the right hands, the opera can work as drama on its own terms. In Salzburg, Kosky seemed frantic to ensure that no note of Rossini's music went without its appropriate (or inappropriate) stage action(s). The result seemed guaranteed to entertain audiences not comfortable with Rossini's large-scale, quasi-serious arias.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Helena Rasker, Mélissa Petit, Tara Erraught - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

The first night audience did indeed enjoy the production immensely as did, I think, the cast. But given the quality of the performances and what they did achieve, it could have been so much more.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in 1920s London setting - review
BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
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Three Choirs Festival 2027 announced: Gavin Higgins premiere, Grace-Evangeline Mason as new Associate Composer, Elgar's Piano Concerto revisited

2026-07-31T10:58:51.224+01:00

Three Choirs Festival, Worcester with Samuel Hudson (Photo: Dale Hodgetts)

The Three Choirs Festival has announced the preliminary programme for next year's festival which takes place from 24 to 31 July 2027 in Worcester under artistic director Samuel Hudson. The festival opens with Britten's War Requiem with soloists soprano Elizabeth Watts, tenor Peter Hoare, and baritone David Stout, and the final concert features Elgar's The Light of Life, written for the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester in 1896.

Gavin Higgins (Photo: Joseph Wong)

Other key performances include Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, marking the bicentenary of his death, with soloists Katie Trethewey, Helen Charlston, Nick Pritchard, and James Atkinson. Another anniversary being marked is the 300th anniversary of Handel's Coronation Anthems performed by the three Cathedral Choirs. The Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir will perform Haydn’s Nelson Mass alongside a new work by Cecilia McDowall, Songs of Exile.

2027 will be Gavin Higgins's second year as Three Choirs Festival Associate Composer. For 2026, the Festival premiered his Gloucester Service at the Festival Evensong which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and available on BBC Sounds (for 30 days).

Higgins's new work His Salt Skin will be performed at the 2027 Festival by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Duncan Ward, mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons, and countertenor Cameron Shahbazi, alongside RVW's A Sea Symphony. The world premiere of a Festival commission by Dobrinka Tabakova will be the centrepiece of a concert featuring Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, and the first public performance of a new realisation of Elgar’s Piano Concerto by David Owen Norris.

Worcester-based Ian Venables's Portrait of a Mind will be performed by tenor Gwilym Bowen, and other contemporary pieces in the Festival include Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles and a new commission by Eric Whitacre for Tenebrae to be performed alongside Howells's Requiem.

The Festival has also announced Grace-Evangeline Mason as the new Associate Composer from 2027 to 2029. Mason’s orchestral work The Imagined Forest (2021) opened the 2024 Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, conducted by Samuel Hudson.

Full details from the Three Choirs Festival website.

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's new production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in its 1920s London setting

2026-07-31T08:22:27.635+01:00

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Alison Langer, Harry Wilson - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus; Thomas Atkins, Alison Langer, Rebecca Bottone, Clare Presland, Julien Van Mellaerts, Xavier Hetherington, director: Liam Steel, City of London Sinfonia, conductor George Jackson; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 29 July 2026

London 1929 is the setting for Liam Steel's engaging production full of Bright Young Things, helped by strong musical values under George Jackson though perhaps dialogue does not fizz quite enough

Johann Strauss's operettas were highly popular in his lifetime, particularly in Vienna, but apart from Die Fledermaus they have struggled to find a place in the repertoire - when did you last come across a performance of Eine Nacht in Venedig or Der Zigeunerbaron? The fault laid against them is often that the librettos were poor, partly this is because many were based on boulevard comedies. Mistaken identities, disguise and farcical situations are often key and a lesser known work like Blindekuh (Blind man's buff, see my review of the 2002 recording) seems to have too much plot for its own good.

Cannily, Die Fledermaus solves this problem partly by having a key element of the plot happen well before the opera starts, a trick with which Verdi (Il trovatore) and Wagner (Parsifal) were both familiar. The other canny element is the Act Two party, where stray bits of plot can happen in quick succession alongside a bubbly score. And that is the point, Strauss operettas work because of their scores, because of his infectious melodies.

Whilst Die Fledermaus is the best known of Strauss's operettas, it hardly gets over-performed in the UK. The Grange Festival performed it last year [see my review], and fringe opera company St Paul's Opera did it in 2024 [see our article]. But before then we came across Opera Integra in 2017 [see our review] and Opera Holland Park in 2016 [see my review], with ENO presenting a single run of Christopher Alden's production in 2013 [see our review], whilst the Royal Opera last performed it in 1990!

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Julien Van Mellaerts, Clare Presland, Alison Langer, Thomas Atkins - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Ten years on from their last production, Opera Holland Park returned to Strauss's Die Fledermaus on 29 July 2026 in a new production directed by Liam Steel (who also provided the choreography) and conducted by George Jackson with City of London Sinfonia in the pit. Sets were by Neil Irish and costumes by Laura Jane Stanfield. Eisenstein was Thomas Atkins, Rosalinde was Alison Langer, Rebecca Bottone was Adele, Clare Presland was Orlofsky, and Julien Van Mellaerts was Falke.

The work was performed in an English version created in 2013 for the Metropolitan Opera with lyrics by Jeremy Sams and dialogue by the American playwright Douglas Carter Beane. I don't know what was presented at the Met, but what we heard was Die Fledermaus transposed to New Year's Eve in London in 1929. Sams's lyrics seemed to be determined to fit in as many local and literary references as possible and rather came over as a little too arch and to determined to be clever. Dialogue is a notorious problem in opera, and in operetta there is a need to keep it on a level with the music. Here under Jackson's admirable direction the music did froth, but the dialogue did not. It was all delivered with admirable clarity, yet never quite took flight. At its best, the world of Die Fledermaus can be as crazy as Gilbert's topsy-turvey-dom, but here Act One felt more prosaic, a little too close to a drawing room comedy. What we wanted was far more zip and craziness, to match the fact that in the trio in Act One, Rosalinde, Eisenstein and Adele can each hardly stop themselves from dancing.

Director (and choreographer) Liam Steel has form with operetta he directed Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers for English Touring Opera last year [see my review], having directed Patience for them in 2017 [see my review]. Here, Liam Steel the choreographer displayed admirable restraint. Yes, there was a lot of movement, but it was more physical theatre, he did not fall into the trap of choreographing every dance melody that Strauss used! Also, Steel had a separate dancer (Harry Wilson) who in Act One (and during the overture) was dressed as a bat and seemed to be an alter-ego for Falke (Julien Van Mellaerts), then was more eye-candy in Act Two.

Someone, either Steel, Sams or Carter Beane had ensured that the plot in this rather bewildering operetta was made clear. For the first time in a long time, this was a performance of Die Fledermaus where both the reasons for the elaborate ruse and the mechanics of the ruse itself were admirably clear. Too often, this work can seem like a simple progression of events without any logic.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Alison Langer, Xavier Hetherington, Thomas Atkins - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

The interval was placed at the point when New Year strikes in Act Two, with Strauss waltzes (sorry, I can't identify them, I am not much of a Strauss aficionado) to end Part One and being Part Two, along with a further waltz for the scene change into Act Three. These hardly felt like padding as Jackson and the orchestra made them really vibrant. Jackson might be better known for other repertoire, but he certainly made Strauss go with an engaging swing and plenty of fizz.

Unlike Offenbach and Gilbert & Sullivan, Viennese operetta does not believe in satire, it's about fun, largely through mistaken identity and masks. In Die Fledermaus we have a group of people all behaving badly with none of them really anything admirable. Falke has been nursing a grudge against Eisenstein because of the 'bat' incident years ago, whilst Rosalinde, Alfred, Eisenstein, Adele, and Frank are all venial enough to fall for the idea that they get a mysterious invitation to Orlofsky's ball. Perhaps Orlofsky (Clare Presland) is the only semi-admirable person, or may Frosch (Robert Burt).

Alison Langer's Rosalinde was more admirable and far less air-headed than in some versions and Langer managed to simmer with discreet rage admirably throughout most of Act Two. Her Csardas was rightly a show-stopper, though making her do it on the main stage, behind the orchestra was unfair and balance was not ideal. But throughout she sang with style and was constantly engaging. By contrast, Rebecca Bottone was clearly out to have fun. Playing Adele as a Cockney maid to perfection, she also delighted in Adele's more coloratura moments. Clare Presland played Orlofsky (no Prince in this version) as gender-fluid, but lumbered with a terrible Russian accent (whoever thought that was a good idea). Still, Presland had great fun in Orlofsky's solo in Act Two, making the swoops a thing of great folk-inspired style, and she made Orlofsky a stronger musical presence through the work.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Rebecca Bottone, Matthew Siveter - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Thomas Atkins' Eisenstein was suave charm itself, allied to an elegant voice, all in all a character you would not trust as far as you could throw him. Atkins made the most of Eisenstein's dalliances with the would-be showgirls in Act Two as well as having great fun flirting with his disguised wife. Atkins managed to suggest the dimness that underlay the charm, but overlaid with a manner and musical style that was very much on point. Julien Van Mellaerts' Falke was wonderfully over dressed and dapper, not to say camp and Van Mellaerts created as lovely sense of character, someone who clearly took great satisfaction in maliciously manipulating others. In other words, an evil old queen. Yet, by the end we felt a bit sorry for him too when, towards the end of Act Three, he lamented that all his planning had been for naught, and we had a happy end after all.

Xavier Hetherington was in gloriously over-the-top divo tenor mode as Alfred. Something of a one note aria really, but great fun, and made more indulgent for us because of Hetherington's luxuriant tenor voice. Monwabisi Lindi was a delightfully befuddled Blind, with he and Atkins's Eisenstein having great fun with the Act Three costume swap as Blind tried to impress on Eisenstein the problem the difference in their skin colour would have, without actually saying so. Matthew Siveter made Frank into a bluff Yorkshire-man and clearly had fun with it whilst making Frank a stronger character over all. But I have to admit that Steel and his cast did not quite manage to get over the sheer annoyance of all those Act Two scenes where people were pretending to be a different nationality, all those silly accents and cod-French!

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Matthew Siveter, Julien Van Mellaerts - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

The smaller roles were well taken too. Olivia Carrell made a fun Ida with Robert Burt on form as Frosch and his solo moment at the opening of Act Three was blessedly short and to the point. Alistair Sutherland played Orlofsky's highly-coloured bodyguard, Ivan (I still have happy memories of Scottish Opera's 1979 production of Die Fledermaus where Cynthia Buchan's Orlofsky made his/her entrance sitting on one shoulder of a huge bodyguard!)

The chorus were in great form. This was definitely and all-singing, all-dancing show as there was no dedicated dance group, everyone danced. And for the ensemble numbers, Steel had his chorus doing all sorts. Costumes for the ball had the requisite amount of cross-dressing, and the chorus did manage to convey the idea that the characters were simply out for a good time.

The setting made admirable use of the fore-stage. This was the Eisenstein's living room in Act One (looking more like a 1930s hotel than a real home) with a London streetscape as the backdrop on the main stage. The problem with this was that the forestage's lack of backdrop led to a drop in the glamour quotient in Act One, but repaid in immediacy. For Act Two, most of the action (too much) happened on the main stage with Rosalinde and Eisenstein's encounter on the forestage. For Act Three, the prison office was on the forestage with the cells on the mainstage.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Clare Presland, Julien Van Mellaerts - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

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Elsewhere on this blog

BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari - opera review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
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Up Close and Musical: Shiry Rashkovsky's concert series to be first classical offering at The Amadeus, Maida Vale

2026-07-29T12:26:25.857+01:00

Abel Selaocoe at Up Close and Musical (Photo: Dimitri Djuric)

Violist Shiry Rashkovsky’s Up Close and Musical is back in November, expanded from a three-day festival to a season-long series at a new home, The Amadeus, Maida Vale, making Up Close and Musical the venue's first live concert series. An eclectic programme of music juxtaposing well-known favourites with an infectious experimental vibe runs monthly on Fridays from 13 November 2026 to 21 May 2027, with solo and chamber concerts with internationally renowned artists, a dedicated New Music Night, and a Rising Star showcase as part of a new collaboration with the Countess of Munster Trust.

The trio of Fanny Clamagirand, violin, Shiry Rashkovsky, viola and Margarita Balanas, cello in their first chamber collaboration open things on 13 November with a programme moving from duos by Mozart, Ravel, Bacewicz and Caroline Shaw to Dohnányi's Serenade for String Trio. A month laster, the concert on 11 December sees the return of bass player, composer and arranger Misha Mullov-Abbado with his sextet in a programme mixing new works by Mullov-Abbado with music from the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group's albums.

Further ahead, guitarist Alexandra Whittingham presents a recital of Spanish, French and British repertoire showcasing the music of American composer and band-leader Ralph Towner (1940-2026). A Rising Star Showcase features a varied and intriguing programme from violinist Leo Appel, accordionist Sofia Ros, saxophonist Rob Burton and countertenor Will Prior with pianists Alfred Fardell and Tomos Boyles.

Shiry Rashkovsky celebrates the release of her album April / everything on Delphian Records, in a programme championing the viola in its many guises. She is joined by pianist Richard Uttley for works by Schumann and Hindemith, principal players from LSO/Aurora for Errollyn Wallen’s viola quintet LENCTEN, which Errollyn will introduce and share insight into in a candid interview segment, and will premiere Ben Nobuto’s April/nothing for viola and electronics. And the series concludes with Up Close and Musical’s inaugural New Music Night. Spotlighting three composer/performers Ben Nobuto (piano/electronics), RPS Awards), Zara Hudson-Kozdoj (cello/electronics) and Otto Hashmi (recorder/electronics).

"The Amadeus has been used as a rehearsal venue for many wonderful orchestras and ensembles ... who have enjoyed the exceptional acoustic of this converted Welsh Chapel. I am delighted to have Shiry and Up Close and Musical partnering with us as we open up our space to the public and share the unique and beautiful ambience that the Amadeus provides." David Somner, The Amadeus

Full details from Up Close and Musical website.

A meaty, not to say tough programme: Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius at the BBC Proms

2026-07-29T10:59:51.171+01:00

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite - Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite, Britten: Cello Symphony, Sibelius: Symphony No. 2; Guy Johnston, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 28 July 2026

Britten's gnarly Cello Symphony gets a rare Proms outing with a poetic solo from Guy Johnston alongside Turnage's engaging (if self indulgent) suite from his recent opera, and Oramo in fine form in Sibelius

For the second of his five BBC Proms this year on Tuesday 28 July 2026 at the Royal Albert Hall, Sakari Oramo conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Festen Suite (a BBC co-commission), Britten's Cello Symphony (with soloist Guy Johnston) and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2. It was a meaty, not to say tough programme with each work being, in its way, substantial and challenging. And in true Proms tradition, the links between the works seemed tenuous, perhaps the thread was simply Oramo himself.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's 2024 opera Festen (with a libretto by Lee Hall) premiered at Covent Garden (winning a 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Award) and was also seen at Finnish National Opera. Turnage's suite from the opera premiered in Copenhagen earlier this year with Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alondra de la Parra. Turnage has constructed an eight movement suite from the second and third acts of the opera, with some movements transferring arias onto the orchestra (solo lines played variously by saxophone and cello). The work is scored for a huge orchestra, triple woodwind, saxophones, brass and considerable percussion.

As with any suite taken from a dramatic work, the question remains do I need to know the original piece. Works like the suites from Bizet's Carmen or Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker work because the composers created such terrific tunes. Turnage's opera doesn't quite have that, but there are underlying popular elements to his music that make it engaging and the suite's movements demonstrate a satisfying variety. His writing demonstrates a fondness for dense, opaque harmonies but also a vivid variety of colour and timbre.

Britten: Cello Symphony - Guy Johnston, Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

'Prelude' was all insistent rhythms and dramatic gestures, with hints of jazz-inspired melodies. Then 'Blue or Green' provided something lyrical and relaxed, almost Copland-esque but a sense of underlying drama led to a highly tense conclusion. 'Conga' evoked memories of Bernstein's conga from Wonderful Town. Here the music was rhythmically busy with a sinuous melody over the top of complex multi-layered textures. 'Grandma's Song' featured a touching, intimate solo cello but with the wind and brass providing more disturbing elements. The final four movements played continuously. 'Interlude 1' was a jazzy, big-band number that became increasingly hysterical leading into 'The Fight', which was all jagged edges and fragments with ominous drum beats at the end. By contrast 'Linda's aria' was more intimate and lyrical, yet the music became more massive, textures denser and more intense, then 'Interlude 2' rumbled from the deep with fragments rippling over. The final coda was almost perfunctory, 'that's all folks!'.

I managed to miss Festen, the opera, when it premiered, so my experience of the suite was not coloured by memories of the stage work. The suite formed an engaging twenty minutes, certainly not quite as intense as the subject matter of the original film might have suggested. Turnage certainly uses all of the instruments in the large orchestra, but the sheer profusion of players felt like something of a self-indulgence, and you wished that Turnage had created something a bit more portable.

Britten: Cello Symphony - Guy Johnston, Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Britten's Cello Symphony was written in 1963, one of a group of works created for Mstislav Rostropovich. Written just after the War Requiem, it is a dark, rather gnarly piece that perhaps needs a cellist of Rostropovich's bravura and sense of large personality to bring off. Certainly it is not a popular work, and it has had only three previous appearances at the BBC Proms (1983, 1988 and 1991) with the present one coming after a gap of 35 years. I am not sure that the work is ideal for the Royal Albert Hall. Britten does not use a vast orchestra yet here Oramo was conducting a huge body of BBC Symphony Orchestra strings. The results sometimes meant that Johnston's performance, often thoughtful and poetic, felt a bit reticent and the solo line did not always shine out over the orchestra, creating more of an effect of a lone voice against the multitude.

From the dark opening material and uncompromising cello chords, the first movement had a sense of melancholy and determination, often the solo line weaving in and out of complex orchestral textures. One of the characteristics of this hybrid piece is that the orchestra is not just there to support the soloist, it has arguments in its own right. There were moments of tender beauty from Johnston, but also that feeling of a lone voice alongside anger in the orchestra. The conclusion of the movement seemed to partake of one of Britten's favourite devices, the ground bass, as the music wound down. The second movement was an eerie, skittish skittering, as if Mendelssohn's fairies had developed sharp teeth and a disturbing edge. The slow movement mixed rich harmonies with a sense of slow ceremonial marked by changes of instrumental texture and colour. There was a sense of slow build to the cadenza (with timpani) that again showcased the cello's uncompromising nature. The finale was a passacaglia yet began with a surprisingly perky trumpet over strenuous cello chords. This was a movement where the orchestra was definitely showcased, though Johnston gave us some magnificently direct double stopping, along with more poetic moments including lovely tremolando over orchestral fragments. There were hints and echoes of other Britten in the orchestra, and though the solo line turned contemplative, the orchestra gathered forces and we ended with the sense of Johnston as that lone voice against the multitude.

As an encore, Johnston gave us the final movement from Britten's Cello Suite No. 3, a final memory of Britten and Rostropovich.

Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 - Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

After the interval, Oramo returned to home territory with Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 from 1901-1903, a work which has been seen regularly (and frequently) at the BBC Proms, albeit with a 15-year slump in the late 60s and 70s. Oramo clearly relished the episodic nature of Sibelius's writing, the stop-start nature of the structure and there were plenty of significant pauses. But he drew these pieces together into a satisfying whole, building structures out of wider motifs, rather than ensuring a beautiful glossy surface. The music was familiar, of course, but Oramo did not make it comforting and there was no sense of donning a familiar old jumper.

Things opened with warm, relaxed textures yet highly evocative, the movement moving between urgency and ease, yet always with an underlying intensity and edge. The second movement, beginning with those mysterious bass pizzicati and haunted bassoon, was hardly comforting and there was an underlying impetus throughout, fast incisive drama finding a release in lyricism, the movement ending with a combination of grandeur, bleakness and intimacy that seemed to define Sibelius. The third movement varied between fast furious and urgent, with contrasts of volume and timbre, alongside the more relaxed trio with the melody unfolding as if there was all the time. The big tune in the finale was glorious, sweeping all before it, but there were disturbing undertones and moments when things unwound, but the ending was triumphant and inexorable.

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Elsewhere on this blog

BBC Proms: A meaty, not to say tough programme, Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius - concert review
BBC Proms: Virtuosity & discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto - concert review
Buxton Festival

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

Compelling music drama: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus - opera review
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons - feature
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella - concert review
Gutsy & vivid: Verdi's La traviata at St Paul's Opera imaginatively reinvents the work as parable of punk London - opera review
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Concerto Copenhagen, Mass in B Minor, music for Charles II: London Festival of Baroque Music returns with Iestyn Davies again as artistic director

2026-07-27T10:55:55.752+01:00

The London Festival of Baroque Music at Smith Square Hall, 2025

The London Festival of Baroque Music returns to Smith Square Hall from 24 to 31 October 2026, again with countertenor Iestyn Davies as artistic director.

The Festival opens with a rare opportunity to hear Concerto Copenhagen in London. Directed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen they present Bach's Orchestral Suites Nos.1-4, and then the following evening give a chamber concert featuring music by Purcell, Bertali, Biber and Frohberger.

The Festival closes with La Nuova Musica, conductor David Bates, in Bach's Mass in B Minor with soloists Lauren Lodge-Campbell, Ana Beard Fernandez, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Laurence Kilsby and Dingle Yandell, and there is also a chance to hear Laurence Kilsby in recital when he joins lutenist Yun Bayeul. And there is further lute action when violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte joins lutenist Thomas Dunford for music for Charles II's court, whilst soprano Nardus Williams and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny explore the musical expression of melancholy across 16th and 17th century Europe

Other visitors to the festival include Stile Antico, The Curious Bards, Ensemble Théodora and Trio Mediæval, and resident ensemble Sinfonia Smith Square will be presenting a new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Robin O’Neill who also conducts.

Each event will be presented one of three concert settings, including the intimate in-the-round format that captivated audiences last year.

Further details from Sinfonia Smith Square's website.

The next generation of composers: ORA Singers' Young Composers' Showcase at Kings Place

2026-07-27T10:09:43.139+01:00

Suzi Digby & ORA Singers at Kings Place

ORA Singers' Young Composers’ Programme was set up in 2019 to tackle the decline in music provision in state schools. Now in its seventh iteration, each year the scheme welcomes 50 students from non-fee-paying schools across the country, who receive free, first-class mentoring in composition with professional composers.

40 applicants are selected to become Apprentices, who are enrolled onto a free course of online, in-depth workshops, with a further ten selected as Young Composers. These receive one-to-one mentoring with a professional composer who develops their skills and areas of need whilst guiding them through the process of writing a new choral piece. Halfway through the scheme, Young Composers join ORA Singers for a workshop, where they have their ideas and sketches tested out by our professional singers alongside a guest composer. Then, finally, there is a Showcase to feature the ten completed pieces.

As of 2025, the Young Composers' programme has benefitted over 250 students, with 190 schools involved.

This year's ORA Singers Young Composers' Showcase takes place at Kings Place on Friday 31 July at 3pm. Suzi Digby will conduct eight singers from ORA Singers in a programme that combines Robert Parsons' Ave Maria and Phillipe De Monte's Super flumina Babyloni with the 10 Young Composers’ completed pieces, performed and recorded live by ORA Singers in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts.

There is the chance for the audience to vote for the recipient of the Audience Prize and at the end, after adjudication there is a prize-giving for the winning composers.

Full details from Kings Place website.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Elsewhere on this blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full details from the Park Theatre website.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vasily Petrenko (Photo: Ben Wright)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Elsewhere on this blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full details from the London Irish Centre's website.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full details from Blackheath Halls' website.