Kahchun Wong’s musical alchemy: Beethoven and Mahler in perfect harmony

Zach Carstensen profiles conductor Kahchun Wong

Kahchun Wong © Ayane Sato

Anticipation crackles in the air, thick like summer lightning before the storm breaks. A hush descends, settling over an expectant audience. Every cough or rustling program feels like a desecration. At the podium, conductor Kahchun Wong stands at the edge of creation – shoulders squared, back straight, baton held aloft.  A moment’s pause, pregnant with possibility, his hand dips, slow and deliberate, tracing the first stroke of a masterpiece: Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.

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François-Xavier Roth discusses the music of Bernd Alois Zimmermann with Antoine Lévy-Leboyer

François-Xavier Roth, Musical Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, will conduct Die Soldaten the legendary opera by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, in Cologne, Hamburg, and Paris. He discusses this extraordinary yet still too little-known composer.

François-Xavier Roth (left) with Antoine Lévy-Leboyer

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English Touring Opera in Spring 2024

English Touring Opera presents new productions of Manon Lescaut and The Rake’s Progress for Spring 2024 tour (24 February – 28 May 2024)

  • New English translation of Manon Lescaut by director Jude Christian
  • New productions and opera for children, The Great Stink, to reach thousands of people in more than 20 towns and cities across the country

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Seen in cinemas: Dutch National Ballet’s Giselle with Olga Smirnova is conceived on a grand scale

NetherlandsNetherlands Dutch National Ballet’s Giselle: Dancers of Dutch National Ballet, Dutch Ballet Orchestra / Ermanno Florio (conductor). Filmed (directed by Isabelle Julien) at the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. Amsterdam, on 26 and 29.10.2023 and released worldwide in cinemas only from 21.1.2024. (JPr)

Olga Smirnova (Giselle) and Jacopo Tissi (Albrecht) © Alex Gouliaev

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Regents Opera present Siegfried in London’s Freemasons’ Hall on 4, 7 and 10 February 2024

Regents Opera forge forward with the third instalment of their ambitious Ring cycle –
Siegfried

Peter Furlong stars as Siegfried alongside Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde and Holden Madagame as Mime.

Ralf Lukas takes up the role of the Wanderer following the untimely passing of Keel Watson.

The story of the Ring continues in The Grand Temple, Freemasons’ Hall, Covent Garden, February 2024 – Sunday 4th, Wednesday 7th, Saturday 10th.

This innovative production is performed in the round and specially arranged for a 23-piece orchestra, conducted by Ben Woodward.

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Saffron Opera Group’s Le nozze di Figaro at Saffron Hall on 25 February 2024

SAFFRON OPERA GROUP IN THEIR TENTH ANNIVERSARY SEASON PRESENT MOZART’S SPARKLING COMEDY LE NOZZE DI FIGARO with a cast of internationally renowned stars and rising talents on Sunday 25 February 2024, at 2.30pm

After a dazzling and highly lauded performance of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier earlier in 2023, Saffron Opera Group (SOG) now turns its attention to the comedy which provided a major source of inspiration for Strauss: Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Having already had huge success with Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni, SOG thus now completes the cycle of the of the three ‘Da Ponte Operas’ (so named after their librettist Lorenzo da Ponte) and is delighted to announce the return of many audience-favourite singers – and some shining new talents – to their cast.

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Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concludes its 2023-24 season

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra continues its 2023/24 season, which is supported by Season Sponsor Investec and filled with symphonic performances across the South West and beyond.

Kirill Karabits © Mark Allan

Highlights include performances under the baton of Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits in his final season, which concludes in a three-week celebration of music that both reflects on his tenure to date and the BSO’s ongoing commitment to repertoire from Karabits’s native Ukraine and its surrounding regions.

Kirill Karabits celebrates his 15-year tenure as Chief Conductor following a sensational relationship lasting a decade and a half. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s final season with Kirill Karabits as Chief Conductor began last autumn and sees the BSO celebrate a broad range of repertoire with Karabits, from the symphonies of Brahms, Bruckner and Borodin to rarities including a concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta (8 May).

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Is Here We Are Stephen Sondheim’s Falstaff?

Stephen Sondheim’s self-reverential Here We Are

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim notoriously resisted the idea that his musicals were operas. He would recoil at any comparison between his score for Here We Are, the show he was still tweaking at his death two years ago, and Verdi’s for Falstaff, but it keeps nagging at me.

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