Season Previews

Season Previews from around the world

Musikfest Berlin 2020

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Beethoven and the Music of our times

The Musikfest Berlin takes place from 25 August to 23 September and is organized by the Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation. The new festival programme can be viewed online if you click here.

‘Musikfest Berlin digital‘ is a joint initiative of Berliner Festspiele’s Musikfest Berlin and the Berliner Philharmoniker‘s Digital Concert Hall. To mark the occasion of the 2020 festival edition, 18 guest performances out of a total of 33 events scheduled to take place from August 25 to September 23 as part of the Musikfest Berlin in the the Philharmonie’s large concert hall will be streamed live in the Digital Concert Hall or broadcast with a time delay. They will then be available on the Berliner Festspiele’s streaming platform at ‘Musikfest Berlin on Demand‘ for a further 72 hours.

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September to December will see concerts live-streamed from Wigmore Hall and some will have a small audience

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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JOHN GILHOOLY CONFIRMS 100 CONCERTS FOR NEWLY REVISED WIGMORE PROGRAMME FROM 13 SEPTEMBER – 21 DECEMBER

  • Over 200 artists confirmed, of which over two-thirds are UK born or UK based, underlining Wigmore Hall’s efforts to get artists earning again.
  • Reaffirming Wigmore Hall’s ongoing commitment to diversity of repertoire and artists, performances include Apartment House, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Tai Murray (violin), Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano), Fatma Said (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Arditti Quartet, Elena Urioste (violin), Kit Armstrong (piano), Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord), Claron McFadden (soprano) and Matthew Wadsworth (lute) and a digital fundraising concert for Chineke!.
  • Special focuses on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in song and chamber music, Polish-Jewish-Russian composer Mieczysław Weinberg, and the pioneering 20th century minimalist Julius Eastman who expressed his black and gay identity through music.
  • Special documentary on internationally acclaimed double bassist Leon Bosch and his early anti-apartheid activism which saw him jailed as a teenager in South Africa, and Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger on Anti-Semitism. To celebrate the release of their respective new books, Graham Johnson will give a talk on Poulenc, and Natasha Loges and Katy Hamilton will present a discussion on Brahms.
  • Concerts will go ahead with or without an audience. All concerts will be live streamed in high definition on Wigmore Hall’s website and will be free to view worldwide.
  • 28 lunchtime concerts to be broadcast in association with BBC Radio 3 as well as a New Generation Artists weekend.

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Opera Philadelphia’s 2020-21 season

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Opera Philadelphia reinvents the 2020-2021 season

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing opera companies away from gathering large audiences in theaters, Opera Philadelphia is taking the next step into the art form’s future with the launch of the Opera Philadelphia Channel. This global broadcast platform will bring a revised 2020-2021 season into opera lovers’ homes via their television screens and streaming devices.

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Pittsburgh Opera’s 2020-21 season

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Pittsburgh Opera announces its 2020-21 season

Live opera performances will take place in Pittsburgh this coming season. However, in response to on-going COVID-19 uncertainty and concerns, Pittsburgh Opera is modifying the 2020-21 season, the company’s 82nd. Rather than six operas at four different venues, the season will now consist of four operas performed at the George R. White Opera Studio at Pittsburgh Opera’s headquarters in the city’s Strip District.

Each of the four operas are currently scheduled for six performances:

Così fan tutte – 17, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29 October 2020
Soldier Songs – 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17 December 2020
Semele – 20, 23, 26, 28 February & 2, 4 March 2021
Charlie Parker’s Yardbird – 10, 13, 16, 18, 20, 22 April 2021

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Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy’s Pop-up Festival 2020 will be held throughout August

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World-class music returns to the heights of the Swiss Alps and beyond Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy’s Pop-up Festival 2020: A winning mix of classical music stars and gems from Beethoven’s beloved repertoire • Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy’s Pop-up Festival 2020 will be broadcast live from various venues in Switzerland’s idyllic Saanenland throughout August … Read more

Holst’s one-act Sāvitri will be performed live in London by HGO from 13-22 August

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HGO brings back live opera performances to London
For Mark Berry’s review click here 

HGO (formerly Hampstead Garden Opera) is dedicated to supporting singers at the start of their careers – they will lead the return of live opera to London. HGO’s staged open-air production with orchestra of Gustav Holst’s one-act Sāvitri will play at Lauderdale House, Highgate, on 13-22 August.

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Outdoor promenading in August with The Grange Festival’s Precipice

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The Grange Festival presents Precipice, an outdoor promenade performance (21-23 August 2020)  ‘The Grange Festival, under the genial direction of the former countertenor Michael Chance, has come of age, a signal achievement in only three years.’ The Sunday Times, June 2019 On 21, 22 and 23 August 2020, The Grange Festival will present Precipice, an outdoor immersive promenade … Read more