Longborough Festival Opera launches podcast and extraordinary generosity of the audience

The Longborough Festival Opera has launched a podcast series that will feature conversations with many of opera’s biggest stars. For more information about LFO’s podcasts click here

The company has released four episodes to this point, with three of them focused on Wagner’s Ring cycle.

In the first, journalist Richard Bratby, Longborough music director Anthony Negus, and bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones talk about Wotan’s journey through the tetralogy.

In a second episode, Writer and librettist Sophie Rashbrook, soprano Lee Bisset, and historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough analyse the role of women in the cycle.

The third installment features a conversation on The Cunning Little Vixen hosted by Richard Bratby.

Finally, in the fourth installment, Opera director and librettist Sir David Pountney and Longborough’s artistic director Polly Graham delve into the comedic aspects of Wagner’s magnum opus

Longborough artistic director Polly Graham notes: ‘What we hope to achieve from this podcast is a chance to open up some of the amazing works we had programmed for 2020, and to celebrate the thinking of the artists we work with. The lockdown has been hugely challenging for the performing arts, but it has given us the opportunity to think creatively about different experiences we can still offer audiences. We miss our audiences so much and cannot wait to connect with them again through live theatre and music. In the meantime, we hope this podcast will continue to feed their imagination. We are so grateful for their continued support at such a challenging time.’

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Lincoln Center honors Pride with a light installation on its iconic plaza

For the first time in its 60+ year history, Lincoln Center is celebrating Pride by illuminating its plaza with a rainbow design and by flying the Rainbow Flag in front of its campus. For the rest of June, the installation acknowledges the histories, struggles and contributions of LGBTQIA+ communities and celebrates the full spectrum of queer identity.

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BBC to show the ROH’s first post-lockdown performance and their other recent music news

The BBC is to broadcast the Royal Opera House’s first post-lockdown performance across TV and radio later this month.

The concert, which will take place without a live audience, is scheduled for 13 June, hosted by the venue’s director of music Antonio Pappano.

It will feature a dance premiere by Wayne McGregor, resident choreographer of The Royal Ballet, as well as music by Britten, Handel and Butterworth.

Radio 3 will air the show on 15 June, with TV highlights later in the month.

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Educating Rita, says who?

The OED on education refers an inquirer through a Middle English (ME) root of educe meaning to bring out or develop (something latent or potential): very much Willy Russell’s territory in his melodramatic farce of 1980 at the Royal Shakespeare Company;  which in turn became an even more successful (1983) film of the same name. whose stage version also had the same leading actors as the film. But that is only half the story.

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