Genteel Strauss and epic, beautiful and overwhelmingly emotional Wagner from Rattle and his LSO

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Richard Strauss, Wagner: London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (conductor). Filmed (directed by Andy Quick) at LSO St Luke’s, London, on 6.5.2021 and streamed on Marquee TV from 27.5.2021. (JPr)

Sir Simon Rattle

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Death by Life – White Snake Projects’ masterful and powerful digital operatic exploration of systemic injustice and mass incarceration

United StatesUnited States Various, Death by Life: Naomi Wilson (soloist), Tiana Sorenson (soprano), Lucia Bradford (mezzo-soprano), Aaron Blake (tenor), Nicholas Davis (baritone), The Victory Players / Tian Hui Ng (Music Director). White Snake Projects, Cyberspace. (Viewed on 22 & 25.5.2021) (RP)

Prologue digital environment © Curvin Huber

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2021 English Music Festival – 28 to 31 May

The English Music Festival future plans – imminent and heading into 2022

The English Music Festival (EMF) runs concerts, issues recordings and publishes books. The concert side has, along with other live events, inevitably taken the necessary restrictions on the chin. There has been the usual smattering of cancellations, streamed concerts, venue changes and social distancing but the Festival has done well in the circumstances.

When the history of EMF comes to be written the way that the Festival management has adapted, and more than survived, will make a chapter all of its own. The move to St Mary’s Church Horsham and to the historic 1920s Drill Hall, a short distance from the Church. resulted in a socially distanced festival during the depths of lockdown in December 2020.

The main 2021 Festival is scheduled for the Spring Bank Holiday weekend (28 to 31 May). It will be going ahead in a series of ‘live’ events in St Mary’s Church, Horsham and in the Drill Hall. The events will include ten concerts, talks about Percy Sherwood, Holst, Making the Way in a Media music career, and the official launch of the most recent release on the EM Records label, ‘Those Blue Remembered Hills’ (review).

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20th Oxford Lieder Festival – 8 to 23 October 2021

The 20th Oxford Lieder Festival: Nature’s Songbook

The Oxford Lieder Festival (8 – 23 October 2021) will celebrate its 20th anniversary this autumn. Celebrating the magical art of song, an astonishing array of artists will appear in more than 80 events, encompassing the great song cycles of Schubert and Schumann, the riches of fin-de-siècle Paris, the epic landscapes of Scandinavia and the vibrant sphere of American song.

For more about Oxford Lieder click here

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First ever Cumbria Festival of Opera – 4 to 11 September 2021

The 2021 Cumbria Festival of Opera is the first of its kind: a week of music, theatre, and education in one of the most beautiful areas in the world

The Cumbria Opera Group has existed since 2016, with the aim of bringing high-quality opera, classical music, and music education to Cumbria. Our productions of Dido and AeneasVenus and Adonis, and Acis and Galatea have demonstrated people’s passion for opera in this fantastic county, and we are thrilled to present Cumbria’s first ever Festival of Opera.

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