Conor Mitchell’s new opera for children is not without a dark side

IrelandIreland Conor Mitchell’s The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children: Soloists, The Belfast Ensemble / Tom Brady (Conductor), Livestreamed from Belfast’s Lyric Theatre as part of 2021 Belfast Children’s Festival, 12.3.2021. (RB)

Conor Mitchell’s The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children (c) Neil Harrison

Read more

Social distancing is no bar to an excellent La bohème from Irish National Opera

IrelandIreland Puccini, La bohème: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Irish National Opera / Sergio Alapont (conductor). Livestreamed from the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, 13.3.2021. (RB)

Merūnas Vitulskis (Rodolfo) and Celine Byrne (Mimì) (c) Ros Kavanagh

Read more

Pianist and author Jack Kohl discusses his new book of essays with Robert Beattie

Robert Beattie in conversation with pianist and author Jack Kohl  Jack Kohl is a pianist and writer from the north shore of Long Island, New York. In 2019 he published a series of essays, Bone over Ivory: Essays from a Standing Pianist. In 2021 he follows this up with a new series of essays, From … Read more

Irish National Opera present twenty new compact operas inventively addressing themes of today

IrelandIreland 20 Shots of Opera: Cast of Irish National Opera, RTÉ Concert Orchestra / Fergus Sheil and Elaine Kelly (conductors), filmed in Gaiety Theatre, Dublin and broadcast on Irish National Opera Website 17.12.2020. (RB)

Fergus Sheil

Read more

Pianist Duncan Honeybourne in conversation with Robert Beattie

New piano music emerges from the Covid lockdown

Duncan Honeybourne © Kris Worsley Photography

Duncan Honeybourne gave his first London recital at 15 and his first BBC broadcast recital at 17. He was a prize-winner at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he graduated with First Class Honours and later received the honorary award of HonRBC for professional distinction. His teachers included Rosemarie Wright, Philip Martin, John York and Dame Fanny Waterman, and he completed his studies in London for three years with Mikhail Kazakevich on a Goldenweiser Scholarship awarded by the Sheepdrove Trust.

Read more

Claudia Boyle stars as Wexford Festival Opera 2020 concludes

IrelandIreland Balfe, Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Gounod, Verdi: Claudia Boyle (soprano), Pietro Adaíni  (tenor), Wexford Festival Orchestra / Francesco Cilluffo (conductor). From the National Opera House, Wexford, and broadcast in association with RTÉ Culture and RTÉ Player, 16.10.2020. (RB)

Claudia Boyle (c) Frances Marshall

Read more

Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle opens the 2020 Wexford Festival Opera

IrelandIreland 2020 Wexford Festival Opera – Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle: Claudia Boyle (soprano), Tara Erraught (mezzo-soprano), Pietro Adaini (tenor), John Molloy (bass), The Wexford Factory Ensemble, Finghin Collins and Carmen Santoro (pianos), Andrew Synnott  (harmonium) / Kenneth Montgomery (conductor). National Opera House, Wexford, Broadcast in Association with RTE Culture and RTE Player, 11.10.2020. (RB)

2020 Wexford Festival Opera’s Petite messe solennelle

Read more

PIANIST ELEONOR BINDMAN IN CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT BEATTIE

Pianist Eleonor Bindman talks to Robert Beattie

Eleonor Bindman (c) Masataka Suemitsu

Eleonor Bindman is a New York based pianist and chamber musician who has received extensive praise for her piano transcriptions. The New York Times commented on her ‘lively, clear textured and urbane’ performances and ‘impressive clarity of purpose and a full grasp of the music’s spirit’. Eleonor has appeared at Carnegie Hall, The 92 Street Y, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and on solo concerto engagements with the National Music Week Orchestra, the Staten Island Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the New York Youth Symphony, and The Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, Russia. She is a prize winner of the New Orleans, Busoni and Jose Iturbi international piano competitions and is a recipient of a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts award.

Read more