2018/19 CBSO at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
09/05/2018
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra announces its 2018-19 Concert Season at
Symphony Hall, Birmingham Read more
2018/19 BBC NOW in Cardiff and Swansea
09/05/2018
BBC National Orchestra of Wales announces its 2018/19 Season in Cardiff and Swansea Read more
Abandoned Liszt Opera Sardanapalo Premieres in Weimar in August
08/05/2018
World Premiere of an Abandoned Liszt Opera in Weimar – 170 Years Later
Under its Principal Conductor Kirill Karabits, the Staatskapelle Weimar will give the world premiere of a rediscovered Italian opera Sardanapalo by Franz Liszt – which was left incomplete and has lain largely forgotten in a German archive for almost 100 years. ‘The name of the composer Franz Liszt has never been associated with Italian opera’, Karabits explains. ‘I’m delighted to be conducting the premiere of Sardanapalo in Weimar. This discovery should open a new page not only in Liszt’s musical heritage but also in the music history of the 19th century.’ Act I of the opera survives complete. This will be presented in a concert version.
The music has been resurrected by David Trippett, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. He discovered the opera manuscript was legible more than ten years ago, a century after it had been catalogued and largely forgotten in the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv in Weimar. ‘The music that survives is breath-taking – a unique blend of Italianate lyricism and adventurous harmonic turns and side-steps’, Trippett explains. ‘There is nothing else quite like it in the operatic world. It is suffused with Liszt’s characteristic style, but contains elements from Bellini and Meyerbeer, alongside glimmers of Wagner.’
On 19 and 20 August 2018, soprano Joyce El-Khoury and tenor Charles Castronovo will lead the cast in the world premiere of this notable work in Weimar, where Liszt composed it and where he served as Kapellmeister of the Hofkapelle, today’s Staatskapelle Weimar.
The libretto, based on Lord Byron’s tragedy Sardanapalus, is topical. It tells the story of Sardanapalo, King of ancient Assyria (modern-day Syria and Northern Iraq). He is a peace-loving monarch, more interested in revelry and women than politics and war. He deplores violence and brutality, and, perhaps naively, he believes in the innate goodness of humankind, but is overthrown by rebels and burns himself alive with his lover, amid scents and spices, in a great inferno. Liszt’s opera focusses on the love between king Sardanapalo and his favourite concubine, Mirra, who seeks to persuade the king to go to war to defend his realm, against his better judgment.
Known only to a handful of Liszt scholars, the manuscript – with much of its music written in shorthand and only one act completed – was assumed to be fragmentary, often illegible and consequently indecipherable. However, after Trippett spent the last three years working critically on the manuscript, including using Liszt’s own instructions for orchestrating the score, the music can be heard for the first time. As the Cambridge academic explained: ‘Fortunately, Liszt left just enough information to retrieve what was evidently the continuous musical conception he had at the time. We will never know why exactly he abandoned his work on the opera. It seems Liszt was not satisfied with the libretto for Acts II and III.’ Trippett adds: ‘I suspect he would have been surprised to learn that Act I is resurfacing in the 21st century. But I like to think he would have smiled on it.’
The world premiere concert performance will be broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and a recording will be released with audite.
A trailer with extracts of ‘Sardanapalo’ can be seen here, a research documentary chronicling the resurrection is here, and a short aria is available here.
A critical edition of the music will be published by Editio Musica Budapest (Universal Music Publishing) in 2019, and the underlying research will appear in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association later this year.
The Twelfth English Music Festival Coming Soon in May 2018
05/05/2018
The Twelfth English Music Festival – 25-28 May 2018
This is the twelfth year in which Founder-Director, Em Marshall-Luck’s English Music Festival has flourished in Oxfordshire – principally at Dorchester-on-Thames (25-28 May 2018). Read more
The London Orchestra Project’s Metamorphosen on 27 May at LSO St Luke’s
03/05/2018
A New Player Development Initiative: The London Orchestra Project
The brainchild of Stephen Bryant, leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and conductor James Ham, London Orchestra Project has a unique take on player development.
The London Orchestra Project
UPDATED! Kenneth MacMillan’s The Sleeping Beauty at the London Coliseum in June
01/05/2018
For the review of the second night click here
English National Ballet
The Sleeping Beauty
London Coliseum
Wednesday 06 June – Saturday 16 June 2018
Box Office: 020 7845 9300 or www.ballet.org.uk/sleeping-
Tickets: from £14 (Booking fees may apply.)
- Maria Alexandrova to guest with English National Ballet for the first time
- Lead Principal Alina Cojocaru debuts in the role of Princess Aurora with English National Ballet
- Further debuts include Lead Principals Jurgita Dronina, Joseph Caley, Isaac Hernández, and Aaron Robison
UPDATED! English National Opera in 2018/19 and the New Free Tickets Scheme
01/05/2018
English National Opera launches free tickets for Under 18’s
English National Opera (ENO) has announced that anyone aged under 18 will get free tickets to ENO productions on Saturdays. The tickets will be for seats in the Balcony and be available for any or all of the 11 Saturday performances in the Spring 2019 season in the London Coliseum. Read more
The 2018/19 Birmingham Classical Season
01/05/2018
Birmingham’s 2018/19 International Concert Season
Each year Birmingham’s two leading concert venues, Town Hall and Symphony Hall showcase leading classical music performers from around the world. The 2018/19 Birmingham Classical season, just announced, follows that tradition. Read more
Latest Classical Music News and Reviews
- NPR
- NY Times
- BBC
- Independent News
The iconic Italian composer, who scored The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and more than 500 other films
How can it be possible that we're only halfway through the year? Here are 25 albums from 2020
Broadcast nationwide in 1934 and praised by listeners and critics alike, a masterful symphony soon f
Two of New York City's biggest cultural institutions said Thursday that they will remain closed
Hear the cellist talk about the purpose of music in the face of racial tension and health crises, pl
“Accelerate Every Voice,” a new album, is a step forward in another facet of this dazzling pianist’s
Listen to how artists have explored what it means — and could mean — to be American.
Our chief classical critic took on the daunting Opus 110 in college, and now relishes risky recordin
Our culture writers offer suggestions for celebrating Independence Day, and what to watch or listen
For weeks, Britain’s star artists have begged the government to rescue the arts sector. Will it list
This joyous set of Beethoven's sonatas takes its place among the very best.In its own way, the Seven Words of Christ is just as sublime as the Stabat Mater.This sensitive, dynamic recording is a joy, and may even constitute a revelation.The pair exhibits a refined style on these illuminating performances.A deeply affecting experience that ought to win the opera many new admirers.'We're dealing with constantly changing regulations,' said conductor Sakari Oramo
This joyous set of Beethoven's sonatas takes its place among the very best.
In its own way, the Seven Words of Christ is just as sublime as the Stabat Mater.
This sensitive, dynamic recording is a joy, and may even constitute a revelation.
The pair exhibits a refined style on these illuminating performances.
A deeply affecting experience that ought to win the opera many new admirers.
'We're dealing with constantly changing regulations,' said conductor Sakari Oramo
