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Aldeburgh Festival – 12-28 June 2026
The 77th Aldeburgh Festival offered a wide variety of repertoire, including several new and recent works of great interest. My experience of this year’s events featured memorable performances given in the Britten Studio and in the Concert Hall at Snape Maltings.
Gloucester Cathedral gets its voice back
In 2025 I reviewed for MusicWeb International a recording of organ music by Jehan Alain and Maurice Duruflé which the British organist, Matthew Martin had recorded on the organ of Buckfast Abbey. I read in the booklet a phrase that resonated with me: Martin referred to the organ as ‘the voice of the building’. Shortly afterwards, by coincidence, I heard the Very Rev. Andrew Zihni, the Dean of Gloucester, voice similar sentiments when he spoke at the carol concert in the cathedral on Boxing Day 2025 when he said of the organ: ‘When it sings, the Cathedral breathes’.
Exhibition On Screen’s acclaimed film about the global icon is showing at UK cinemas to celebrate her birthday on 6th July
Long live the legend! Award-winning Exhibition on Screen’s film, FRIDA KAHLO, is returning to UK cinemas on 6th July to celebrate the artist’s birthday.
FRIDA KAHLO – An EXTENDED ENCORE with exclusive new material
This hugely revealing film explores the life and art of a global icon
To find a screening click here.
Frida Kahlo is a phenomenon. She is arguably the world’s favourite female artist – beloved by young and old. Award-winning Exhibition on Screen’s film, FRIDA KAHLO – first released during covid to a restricted audience – is back by popular demand with exciting new footage from the blockbuster transatlantic exhibition from Tate Modern and MFA Houston ‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’.
Buxton’s International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival
Another summer season of Music Festivals if not already begun are drawing nearer and the two Buxton Festivals will be in full flight. The Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, now in its 32nd year had interesting content last summer and Buxton’s lovely Matcham theatre was filled nearly to capacity for most of the major events.
Cornfields, summer heat and Tosca: Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2026 summer season
Central Iowa in July is not a place most people associate with opera. The corn and soybean fields south of Des Moines run flat and full beneath a wide sky, the heat presses down and the towns along Highway 69 move at the pace of a long summer. The town of Indianola has a grain elevator and a small liberal arts college (empty of students until the fall) and, every summer since 1973, hosts one of the more adventurous opera festivals in the United States.
Medea by Luigi Cherubini on June 20th, 2026: a new revival of the historic 1961 GNO production at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus
Greek National Opera is proud to announce its upcoming staging of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea on Saturday June 20th, 2026, at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus, conducted by Jacques Lacombe and directed by Panagiotis Pagoulatos, with Anna Pirozzi in the title role (more information here). This is a revival of the famous 1961 Medea marked by Maria Callas’s celebrated performance and directed by Alexis Minotis, with sets and costumes by famous artist Yannis Tsarouchis and choreography by Maria Hors.
Colorado Music Festival’s 50th Anniversary Season (July-August 2026)
There are few places where you can glimpse the yellow belly of a meadow lark and marvel at the incredible form of a natural stone arch while hiking a trail towards a National Historic Landmark that offers high caliber summer concerts. This is Boulder, Colorado – the setting of the Colorado Music Festival. Against the iconic gray rocky peaks of the Flatirons sits Chautauqua Park with its flower-covered meadows and beautiful 19th-century barn where the Festival presents internationally acclaimed artists, Pulitzer Prize winning composers, classical favorites and world premieres to dedicated audiences and newcomers, year after year.
Dorset Opera Festival 21–25 July 2026 This July (21–25), Dorset Opera Festival presents new productions of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila and Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Bryanston, Blandford Forum. Singers of interest- Making his UK stage debut, Korean tenor Won Whi Choi, fresh from the Met, sings the title role of Samson, whilst in … Read more