Opera Holland Park in Summer 2022

Five new productions to celebrate the return of summer

Opera Holland Park’s 2022 new productions of the classic nineteenth-century tragedies Eugene Onegin and Carmen take us from the palaces of St Petersburg to the streets of Seville. The UK premiere of Mark Adamo’s 1998 opera Little Women leads to progressive New England, where Jo March recalls her first love in the shadow of the American Civil War. A double bill of Delius’s Parisian melodrama Margot la Rouge and Puccini’s Gothic fantasy Le Villi contrasts a crime of passion with supernatural punishment, while a co-production of HMS Pinafore with Charles Court Opera proves that no one can mock English mores more successfully than the English themselves. The City of London Sinfonia returns as resident orchestra for all five productions.

For more information about Opera Holland Park CLICK HERE

Read more

Lucerne Summer Festival 2022 – 9 August to 11 September 

‘Diversity’ is the theme of the Lucerne Summer Festival 2022

Lucerne Festival Orchestra to perform with Music Director Riccardo Chailly as well as Jakub Hrůša
The Chineke! Youth Orchestra and the Chineke! Orchestra, respectively, will appear at the beginning and end of the Festival
The Lucerne Festival Academy and the LFCO will focus on the work of composer-in-residence Thomas Adès and collaborate with ‘artiste étoile’ Tyshawn Sorey.
Both the composer and multifaceted instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey and the soprano Angel Blue will be ‘artistes étoiles.’
22 orchestras will make guest appearances in Lucerne over a single month; in addition to the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and the Royal Concertgebouworkest, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra are scheduled to appear.

Read more

Víkingur Ólafsson is Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s Artist in Residence in 2021-22

Multi-award-winning Icelandic artist Víkingur Ólafsson (Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s Artist in Residence) performs piano concertos conducted by their composers, Thomas Adès, Daníel Bjarnason and John Adams

Anyone seeking good news about classical music should look to Iceland. The Nordic island nation’s commitment to music education continues to produce composers and performers with international reach and an enthusiastic audience for their work. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra is set to celebrate the artistry and creative enterprise of one of Iceland’s best-known musicians, Víkingur Ólafsson, at Harpa in their home city of Reykjavík. The critically acclaimed pianist’s run as Artist in Residence, part of the orchestra’s compelling 2021-22 season, reflects his vision of classical music as a vibrant, living artform.

Read more

Mariinsky Theatre announces its opera and ballet for 2021-22

Opening of the 239th season of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg

Last season most performing companies including the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Companies staged season-long series of both opera and ballet across their performance stages. Today the Mariinsky boasts no less than four stages, two for opera and ballet and two concert halls. Last season, the performances were well attended and there is no reason not to expect full audiences in the forthcoming 239th season.

The Maid of Orleans © Alexander Neff

Read more

Glyndebourne announces their operas and casts for 2022

Glyndebourne Festival 2022

Glyndebourne was determined to proceed with its 2021 Festival and chose to invest in a significantly loss-making event in order to provide vital work for staff and freelancers and to stay connected to audiences. This necessitated changes to its original programme and normal working practices in order to accommodate social distancing measures. Among the adaptations were reduced orchestrations and choruses, performing company bubbles and regular testing of performers and staff.

Despite the challenges, the company successfully presented five operas, including three new socially distanced productions from international creative teams – Káťa Kabanová, Il turco in Italia and Luisa Miller – a semin-staging of Tristan und Isolde and a concert series featuring the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (read reviews on Seen and Heard).

Read more