United Kingdom Handel: Xerxes (Serse): Longborough Festival Opera Young Artists and Orchestra / Jeremy Silver (conductor), Longborough, 25.7.2015. (RJ)
Passion, Jealousy and Deceit in Handel’s Xerxes at Longborough
Roger Jones
Superior to Mozart? Salieri Opera at Bampton Ticks All the Right Boxes
United Kingdom Antonio Salieri, Trofonio’s Cave (La Grotta di Trofonio): Bampton Classical Opera / Paul Wingfield (conductor), Deanery Gardens, Bampton, Oxfordshire, 17.7.2015. (RJ)
French Connections in Gloucestershire: Satie, Messiaen, Joan of Arc
United Kingdom Meurig Bowen, Erik Satie – Memoirs of a Pear Shaped Life; David Bamber (actor), Anne Lovett (piano), Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, 2.7.2015 (RJ)
Messiaen, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (selection) : Cordelia Williams (piano), Michael Symmons Roberts (reciter), Tewkesbury Abbey, Tewkesbury , 8.7.2015. (RJ)
Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc: The Orlando Consort [Matthew Venner, Mark Dobell, Angus Smith, Donald Greig, Robert MacDonald], Tewkesbury Abbey, Tewkesbury, 8.7.2015. (RJ)
Keeping Up with a New Generation of Musicians in Cheltenham
Schubert, Mulsant, Dvořák: Armida Quartet [Martin Funda and Johanna Staemmler (violins), Teresea Schwamm (viola), Peter-Philipp Staemmler (cello)], Lise Berthaud (viola), Cheltenham Music Festival, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, 8.7.2014.(RJ)
Ruth Ellis and Stephen Ward Live Again in the World of Opera
United Kingdom Charlotte Bray, Thomas Hyde, Chamber Opera Double Bill: Soloists, Nova Music Ensemble /George Vass (conductor), Richard Williams (director), Cheltenham Music Festival, Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham. 6.7.2015. (RJ)
The Sorrows of War Recalled by Kokoro and Canticum
United Kingdom Wiegold, Davies, Rarity, Poulenc: Canticum Chamber Choir, Kokoro [Luke Russell (flute), Elisabeth Drew (clarient) Kate Turnbull (violin), Lionel Handy (cello), Nicki Dixon (double bass), Sacha Johnson (percussion)] / Mark Forkgen (conductor), Cheltenham Music Festival, Cheltenham College Chapel, Cheltenham, 5.7.2015.
Imaginative Staging of Don Pasquale at Longborough
United Kingdom Donizetti, Don Pasquale: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Longborough Festival Opera / Thomas Blunt (conductor), Longborough, 3.7.2015. (RJ)
“Don Pasquale”
Photo (c) Patrick Baldwin
A Momentous Performance of Mahler’s Monumental Third Symphony
United Kingdom Mahler: Sarah Connolly, Ladies of Cheltenham Bach Choir, Cheltenham Youth Choir, Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra / Stephen Threlfall (conductor, Cheltenham Music Festival, Town Hall, Cheltenham, 4.7.2015. (RJ)