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The master list of news, features and interviews
Readers of the London Review of Books have recently been reminded of the incomparable importance of Brigid Brophy (1929-1995), born of Irish parents in Ealing, West London, sometimes called Lady Levey, since her happy husband, Sir Michael Levey, who was Director of the National Gallery, gave up his posting to look after her in her final illness of multiple sclerosis, following her many lesbian affairs, with among others, Iris Murdock.
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA APPOINTS SIR ANTONIO PAPPANO AS ITS CHIEF CONDUCTOR
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) has announced the appointment of Sir Antonio Pappano as its Chief Conductor from September 2024, becoming Chief Conductor Designate in September 2023. He steps down from his post as Music Director of the Royal Opera House at the end July 2024. Sir Antonio will conduct the Orchestra in its annual London Barbican Season, where it is Resident Orchestra, and on national and international tours. For more information about LSO click here.
LET’S DANCE INTERNATIONAL FRONTIERS 2021
SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART: CAN DANCE CHANGE THE WORLD?
29 APRIL TO 8 MAY – FEATURING 11 DAYS OF OUTDOOR AND ONLINE EVENTS
Annual festival features online performances, discussions, workshops and a conference exploring dance as a medium for positive change.
Online Colonisation in Reverse: Jean-Léon Destiné Exhibition featuring archival materials, some of which have never been presented in public before.
Performances from BOP Jazz Theatre Company and Dani Walter-Harris, Paris Crossley and Fubunation streamed from Curve Leicester.
Online conference Creating Socially Engaged Art: Can Dance Change the World? highlighting the impact that Black communities have made to the international dance ecology.
LDIF+ masterclasses will take place in person in June.
For online tickets and information CLICK HERE.
What is planned for the Royal Opera House in 2021/22
11 new productions, including 5 world premieres, and 20 revivals
An exciting roster of UK and international talent with many debuts
Full Season details to be announced on roh.org.uk on 1 June.
The Royal Opera House is excited to share early plans for its 2021/22 Season, the first full Royal Opera House Season since 2019. It includes five world premieres from The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera as well as a wealth of British and international talent taking to our stages in the first full ROH Season for eighteen months.
Gothenburg Opera’s new Siegfried
FOR OUR RECENT SIEGFRIED REVIEW CLICK HERE
The Gothenburg Opera has announced that the eagerly anticipated third instalment in their current Ring cycle will be shown exclusively online starting on Friday 26 March (click here).
Pianist Lisa Maria Schachtschneider in conversation with Gregor Tassie ‘The female in music is my contribution on the way to equality’ is the heading for the young German pianist Lisa Maria Schachtschneider’s debut recording. Through neglect and ignorance, the question of women in music is a perennial problem to overcome and is exacerbated by recent … Read more
News about Longborough Opera in 2021
Longborough Festival Opera to stage three productions in Circus Big Top this season
Longborough Festival Opera has introduced a new venue for 2021: the Big Top. Three of the festival’s 2021 productions will take place in this new venue: Così fan tutte, The Return of Ulysses and The Cunning Little Vixen.
The indoor/outdoor space offers different and exciting theatrical possibilities for the creative teams, as well as excellent seating flexibility, allowing for a larger socially distanced audience than the Longborough theatre can offer. The space can also be turned into an outdoor venue as required, with the possibility of performing with the sides removed.
Longborough Artistic Director Polly Graham comments: ‘We are determined to bring our audience a wonderful and unforgettable season, and the safety of everyone involved is our priority. I am delighted that we can offer this exciting new venue for 2021 and keep live opera happening through such a challenging time. Opera in the round opens up so many different ways of expressing a story. Audiences will feel drawn in and almost part of the action. It’s opera undressed, as the focus shifts to the music, text and performance, rather than big sets and costumes, and the space itself also becomes a part of the storytelling.’The Big Top is a purpose-built auditorium with a socially distanced seating plan. The stage and amphitheatre will be clad in timber, to assist with the even spread of sound. As with the productions in the theatre, surtitles will be present for every production and visible from every seat.
2021 Performance Dates
Die Walküre: 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14 June 2021
Così fan tutte: 23, 26, 27, 29 June, 1, 3, 4 July 2021
The Return of Ulysses: 13, 15, 17, 18 July 2021
The Cunning Little Vixen: 29, 31 July, 1, 3 August 2021
Fundraising Campaign: The news of the new venue follows the success of Longborough’s 2020 fundraising campaign, which generated over £300,000 for freelance artists involved in the postponed festival and the generation of future work.
Longborough Festival Opera announces schedule for Der Ring des Nibelungen: Longborough Festival Opera will continue its Ring cycle this June, with a performance of Die Walküre in the beloved Longborough theatre. The festival will then stage Siegfried (2022) Götterdämmerung (2023) building to the full cycle of Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2024.
Hallé’s Winter Season – 18 March to 29 April 2021
The Hallé is delighted to announce the new dates of its critically acclaimed online Winter Season, with five new concerts streamed from the Hallé’s Manchester homes, The Bridgewater Hall and Hallé St Peter’s in Ancoats.
The orchestra’s Music Director, Sir Mark Elder, will conduct three concerts, while Assistant Conductor and winner of the 2020 Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition Delyana Lazarova will make her concert debut with the orchestra (1 April). Special guest artists will include Isata Kanneh-Mason, performing with the orchestra for the first time (18 March), as well as Paul Lewis (25 March) and Stephen Hough (15 April).
The final concert in the series will see Sir Mark Elder conduct Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale in a new staging directed by Olivier Award winner Annabel Arden which will be filmed in various locations around Manchester and feature three actors, a dancer and seven instrumentalists (29 April).
Each concert will remain available to watch on demand for three months after the initial broadcast.