Articles & Interviews

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Bampton Classical Opera 2022

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BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA 2022 – F J Haydn ‘Fool Moon’ (Il mondo della luna)

Performances:
The Deanery Garden, Bampton, Oxfordshire: Friday 22, Saturday 23 July
Westonbirt School, Glos: Monday 29 August
St John’s Smith Square, London: Friday 16 September

Libretto: Carlo Goldoni
English Translation: Gilly French
Director/Designer: Jeremy Gray
Conductor: Thomas Blunt
Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera (Bampton, Westonbirt)
CHROMA (St John’s Smith Square)

Bampton Classical Opera’s summer 2022 production will be Haydn’s Il mondo della luna. This three act dramma giocosa from 1777 is the best-known of several operatic settings during the second half of the century of a delightfully crazy libretto by Carlo Goldoni.  As Mozart was to do later with Così fan tutte, Haydn was inspired by a bizarre plot of disguise and deception to create a score of ravishing beauty and wit.  How better to persuade an over-protective but gullible father to allow the marriages of his daughters than to persuade him that he has been transported to the moon?

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Metropolitan Opera announces a benefit concert for Ukraine on 14 March 2022

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The Met has announced A Concert for Ukraine to take place on Monday, 14 March at 6:00pm ET Performance to offer solidarity for Ukrainian citizens under attack, with all ticket sales and other proceeds supporting relief efforts in Ukraine. Yannick Nézet-Séguin will lead the Met Orchestra and Chorus and star soloists in a 70-minute program … Read more

Choir of Merton College Oxford’s Passiontide at Merton festival returns from 8 to 10 April 2022

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Once More, With Passion

Award-winning Choir of Merton College Oxford marks return of Passiontide at Merton festival (8-10 April 2022) with compelling programme of music ancient and modern

Highlights include Mozart’s Mass in C minor, world premieres of works by Francis Grier, recent compositions by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Judith Bingham and James MacMillan, and sublime sacred polyphony by Gesualdo, Tallis, Byrd and Lassus

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The Metropolitan Opera in 2022-23

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The Metropolitan Opera announces the most new productions in ten seasons, featuring the world-premiere staging of The Hours, the company premieres of Champion and Medea, and four more: Fedora, Lohengrin, Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflöte.

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct The Hours, Lohengrin, Champion, and La bohème

The roster of artists includes Roberto Alagna, Piotr Beczała, Angel Blue, Javier Camarena, Lise Davidsen, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Ryan Speedo Green, Kelli O’Hara, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Sonya Yoncheva, and more

Debuting conductors include Manfred Honeck, Nathalie Stutzmann, and Jaap van Zweden

Ten operas will be transmitted live to cinemas across the globe as part of The Met: Live in HD series

FOR MORE ABOUT THE 2022-23 SEASON CLICK HERE

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Classical Vauxhall: Classical Done Differently at St Mark’s Kennington

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Classical Vauxhall – 10 to 13 February 2022  The third Classical Vauxhall Festival had already given their first concert (of five) at St Mark’s Kennington when I received information about their imaginative and appetising programmes. After the end of the festival they were able to let me have a recording of the concert of 10 … Read more

Peter Oundjian, new Principal Conductor of the Colorado Symphony, in conversation with Laurence Vittes

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On 15 February, the Colorado Symphony Association announced the appointment of Peter Oundjian as Principal Conductor. In addition to conducting six Classics performances each season, Oundjian, who served as the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor from 2003 to 2006, will take a leading role in ‘reimagining’ the traditional symphonic model and positioning the Colorado Symphony as … Read more

R.I.P. BERNARD JACOBSON (1936-2022)

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Bernard Jacobsen (right) with Andrzej Panufnik

London-born Bernard Jacobsen was a long-time contributor to MusicWeb International (where a 2006 biography can be found by clicking here), as well as Seen and Heard International and we are deeply saddened by news of his passing. We send our condolesences to his wife Laura and their family in the hope they will remember all the happier times with Bernard during these sad days. 

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