Jim Pritchard

Operatic fireworks from Waterperry Opera Festival’s brilliant The Elixir of Love

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom Waterperry Opera Festival 2021 – Donizetti, The Elixir of Love (L’elisir d’amore): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Waterperry Opera Festival / Bertie Baigent (conductor). Waterperry Garden, Oxfordshire, 14.8.2021. (JPr)

Thando Mjandana (Nemorino) and Alison Langer (Adina) (c) Marc Brenner

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Conducting the Vienna Philharmonic at Salzburg, Thielemann’s Bruckner is as special as expected

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AustriaAustria Salzburg Festival 2021 [1] – Mahler and Bruckner: Elína Garanča (mezzo-soprano), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Christian Thielemann (conductor). Performance at the Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, recorded (directed Elisabeth Malzer) August 2021 and streamed on ARTE Concert until 4.11.2021. (JPr)

Elína Garanča (mezzo-soprano) sing the Rückert-Lieder

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At the Proms there is Hope for the future from Jonathon Heyward and the National Youth Orchestra

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom BBC Proms 2021 [5] – Laura Jurd, Prokofiev, Jessie Montgomery, Beethoven: Nicola Benedetti (violin), National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain / Jonathon Heyward (conductor). 7.8.2021 performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and reviewed when shown (directed by Matthew Woodward) on BBC Four. (JPr)

Jonathon Heywood (c) Chris Christodoulou

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Bayerische Staatsoper’s The Turning Point: in Munich is it the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

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GermanyGermany Munich Opera Festival 2021 – The Turning Point: A Final Evening of Endings and Beginnings: Soloists, Nikolaus Bachler (recitation), Bayerisches Staatsorchester / Ivor Bolton, Asher Fisch, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko (conductors). Performance of 30.7.2021 at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper and streamed (directed by Christoph Engel) from 3.8. to 10.8.2021. (JPr)

Ivor Bolton conducts Christian Gerhaher singing ‘Possente spirto’ 

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Aix-en-Provence saw the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s engrossing, thought-provoking commentary on gun violence and much else

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FranceFrance Aix-en-Provence Festival 2021 [2] – Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence: Soloists, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, London Symphony Orchestra / Susanna Mälkki (conductor). 10.7.2021 Performance filmed (directed by Philippe Béziat) at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, and available on ARTE Concert until 1.7.2024. (JPr)

[r] Vilma Jää (Marketa) & Magdalena Kožená (Tereza) (c) Jean-Louis Fernandez

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At Bayreuth, it is Tcherniakov’s Der fliegende Holländer we see while Oksana Lyniv lets us hear Wagner’s

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GermanyGermany Bayreuth Festival 2021 – Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival / Oksana Lyniv (conductor). 25.7.2021 performance and streamed (directed by Andy Sommer) for a limited time on DG Stage. (JPr)

Marina Prudenskaya (Mary), Eric Cutler (Erik) and Asmik Grigorian (Senta) © Enrico Nawrath/Bayreuther Festspiele

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Wallow in the beauty of the human voice, though Munich’s new Idomeneo dwarfs the singers

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GermanyGermany Mozart, Idomeneo: Soloists, Chorus of the Bayerischen Staatsoper, Bayerisches Staatsorchester / Constantinos Carydis (conductor). Filmed (directed by Christoph Engel) on 24.7.2021 at the Prinzregententheater, Munich, and streamed from 26.7.2021 (and available until 26.8.2021). (JPr)

Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Elettra in Munich’s Idomeneo

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