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Hallé resumes Winter Season with five new online concerts – 18 March to 29 April 2021

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Hallé’s Winter Season – 18 March to 29 April 2021

The Hallé is delighted to announce the new dates of its critically acclaimed online Winter Season, with five new concerts streamed from the Hallé’s Manchester homes, The Bridgewater Hall and Hallé St Peter’s in Ancoats.

Sir Mark Elder (conductor) and Hallé (c) Russell Hart

The orchestra’s Music Director, Sir Mark Elder, will conduct three concerts, while Assistant Conductor and winner of the 2020 Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition Delyana Lazarova will make her concert debut with the orchestra (1 April). Special guest artists will include Isata Kanneh-Mason, performing with the orchestra for the first time (18 March), as well as Paul Lewis (25 March) and Stephen Hough (15 April).

The final concert in the series will see Sir Mark Elder conduct Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale in a new staging directed by Olivier Award winner Annabel Arden which will be filmed in various locations around Manchester and feature three actors, a dancer and seven instrumentalists (29 April).

Each concert will remain available to watch on demand for three months after the initial broadcast.

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100 live and 53 recorded concerts in the pandemic at Ealing’s St Mary’s Perivale

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St Mary’s Perivale in the pandemic

A brief resume of the past eventful 12 months by Hugh Mather

Our next concert, on 16 March 2021 (click here), will be our 100th LIVE pandemic concert – probably more than any other UK venue. Huge credit to our technical team, led by Simon Shute (right) and George Auckland (left), who have made it all possible. Here is the story of the past extraordinary 12 months.

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The Royal Opera House’s livestreaming of Brecht and Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel on 13 April and future plans

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Royal Opera House to open its doors on 17 May

Booking is now open for the Royal Opera House’s first live broadcast of 2021 – Bertolt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel. Produced by the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, the double bill will be streamed live from the Main Stage in Covent Garden on 9 April at 7.30pm GMT.

FOR OUR RECENT REVIEW OF THIS BRECHT/WEILL DOUBLE BILL CLICK HERE

British Director and Jette Parker Young Artist Isabelle Kettle reimagines Weill and Brecht’s darkly satirical operas, following her directorial debut at ROH with Susanna which premiered in The Linbury Theatre in March 2020 (review click here).

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Scottish Chamber Orchestra announces six new concerts for Spring 2021, broadcast for free

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Scottish Chamber Orchestra Spring 2021 online season

Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) today announces six new online concerts for Spring 2021, broadcast for free. During March and April, concerts include the World Premiere of SCO Associate Composer Anna Clyne’s Overflow, guest artists such as baritone Marcus Farnsworth and oboist Nicholas Daniel, works by Vítězslava Kaprálová and Dani Howard, and a version of Prokofiev’s Sonata for Solo Violin in D major played by 8 violinists. Filmed at The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh and Perth Concert Hall, the concerts will be broadcast via SCO’s YouTube and Facebook channels and available for catch up for 30 days.

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Recorded for exclusive broadcast, Messiah from ENO is on BBC Two on 3 April 2021

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English National Opera and BBC Two announce the broadcast on Saturday 3 April at 6pm of Handel’s Messiah, captured exclusively for television this Easter

FOR A REVIEW FOLLOWING THE BROADCAST CLICK HERE

Laurence Cummings conducts the ENO Orchestra (c) Tristam Kenton

The hour-long performance of Handel’s much-loved masterpiece will be imaginatively staged at the London Coliseum, and filmed specifically for a television audience. With no live audience present, the performance will be brought to life by the creative teams of the English National Opera, and performed by guest soloists and the ENO Chorus and Orchestra, making imaginative use of the stunning auditorium at the London Coliseum. It will be presented by saxophonist and broadcaster YolanDa Brown and broadcaster Petroc Trelawny.

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Myaskovsky. Dialogues (9-13 March 2021) celebrates the composer’s 140th anniversary

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Myaskovsky. Dialogues – 9 to 13 March 2021

For the first time in its history, the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic hosts a festival entirely dedicated to the personality and work of Nikolay Myaskovsky (1881-1950). [For an essay on ‘Nikolay Myaskovsky – the Conscience of Russian Music’ by Seen and Heard International‘s Gregor Tassie click here.] Despite his great creative heritage, the composer, cared for and shunned by the Soviet regime, is one of the least known, understood and recognized figures of Russian music of the 20th century. The Festival has a form of dialogues – with the epoch, fate, counterparts – shedding light on the humble personality of Nikolay Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, whom his contemporaries called ‘the artistic conscience of music.’

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The Belfast Ensemble’s The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children streaming 12-14 March 2021

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The Belfast Ensemble, in association with Young at Art, Belfast Children’s Festival present
The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children
FOR OUR RECENT REVIEW CLICK HERE
Streaming: Friday 12 March – Sunday 14 March, 7pm

Conor Mitchell’s darkly comic children’s opera retells a familiar story: ‘who was the Pied Piper? and ‘Why did the rats all dance to his tune?’ This world premiere from the award-winning Belfast Ensemble (click here) brings opera home to Northern Ireland. Musically extraordinary, this cautionary tale explores themes of nature, nurture and just desserts!

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Waterperry Opera Festival returns in summer 2021 (12 – 21 August)

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WATERPERRY OPERA FESTIVAL – 12 – 21 August 2021
Waterperry House & Gardens, Waterperry, Oxfordshire, OX33 1JZ

Following the sell-out success of the 2020 Mini-Festival, Waterperry Opera Festival will return with an ambitious ten-day open-air Covid-safe festival in August 2021. This year’s programme will include seven productions, as well as a variety of workshops, masterclasses, talks, and pop-up performances. With the advantage of Waterperry’s extensive historic grounds, the festival will continue to adapt and innovate in this changeable climate to create an engaging festival for all.

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