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La ville morte Gothenburg Opera, Sweden Susanna Linbury Theatre, in rep until 14 March Who was the most influential figure in 20th-century classical music? Stravinsky? Pierre Boulez? What about Bernstein [...]

Falstaff Scottish Opera Production Studios, Glasgow, until 17 July, then Edinburgh International Festival, 8-14 August La boheme Royal Opera House Comedy's a funny thing. No, seriously, the business of making [...]

Amadigi Garsington Opera, in rep until 24 July When you think of Handel's Amadigi (in so far as anyone thinks about the composer's rarely staged, also-ran London score at all) [...]

'Crudo Amor' Corbetta Passachaglia JCF Fischer Passacaglia Kapsberger Toccata terza Steffani Begl'occhi, oh Dio, non piu piangete. Crudo Amor, morir me sento. Dimmi, dimmi, Cupido. Occhi, perche piangete?. Placidissime catene. [...]

Josquin: Mille Regretz watch.englishtouringopera.org.uk Stepping into the Sistine Chapel, the choir loft is probably the last thing you'd notice. 'Loft' is, frankly, a stretch for what amounts to a small [...]

I'm reminded of an old Irish joke. A tourist approaches a local for directions to Dublin. The local, after much teeth-sucking and head-scratching, eventually replies: 'Well, I wouldn't start from [...]

Death in Venice Royal Opera House, in rep until 6 December Attacca Quartet and Caroline Shaw Kings Place Premiered within two years of each other, Luchino Visconti's film and Benjamin [...]

'The Last Rose of Summer' 'Folksongs from the British Isles' The Queen's Six Signum (F) SIGCD598 (73' * DDD * T) The King's Singers cast a long shadow, and it [...]

Myslivecek Adamo ed Eva Roberta Mameli, Alice Rossi sops Luciana Mancini mez Valerio Contaldo ten Il Gardellino / Peter Van Heyghen Passacaille (F) (2) PAS1053 029' * DDD * T/t) [...]

Carmen Wales Millennium Centre, in rep until 10 October, then touring Don Giovanni Royal Opera House, in rep until 10 October How do you take your Carmen? Sundrenched exotic fantasy [...]

Finzi * Bednall Bednali Nunc dimittis Finzi All this night, Op 33. Three Anthems, Op 27. Lo, the full, final sacrifice, Op 26. Magnificat, Op 36. Seven Poems of Robert [...]

Breaking The Waves King's Theatre, Edinburgh Opera's line of corpses--bloodied, battered, dumped in a bag--is a long one. Now it can add one more to the list: the broken, abused [...]

West Side Story Usher Hall Steven Osborne Queen's Hall It was as though Damien Hirst had confessed a secret passion for Victorian watercolours, or Lars von Trier had admitted his [...]

The Turn of the Screw Garsington Opera, in rep until 19 July Noye's Fludde Theatre Royal Stratford East, until 13 July Think of the children in opera. Not knowing sopranos [...]

'Locus iste' (G) Britten Hymn to the Virgin. Jubilate in C Bruckner Locus iste Dove Seek him that maketh the seven stars Finzi God is gone up Harris Faire is [...]

'Il giardino dei sospiri' Gasparini Atalia--Ombre, cure sospetti Handel Agrippina--Sinfonia. Qual ti riveggio, oh Dio, HWV150 Leo Angelica e Medoro--Or ch'e dal sol difesa B Marcello Arianna abbandonata Vinci Maria [...]

Belshazzar The Grange Festival, until 6 July Un ballo in maschera Opera Holland Park, until 29 June We've cried wolf with Handel. Ever since the modern trend began for staging [...]

Leonardo da Vinci: Shaping the Invisible--I Faglioni Milton Court Concert Hall Semele Alexandra Palace We've all read the article. It does the rounds with the dispiriting regularity of an unwanted [...]

Cavalli [DVD] II Giasone Valer Sabad us counterten Giasone Kristina Hammarstrom mez Medea Kristina Mkhitaryan sop Isifile/Sole Raul Gimenez ten Egeo Migran Agadzhanyan ten Demo/Volano Willard White bar Orestes/Giove Alexander [...]

Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel Coliseum, in rep until 12 April Berenice Linbury Theatre, in rep until 7 April Is it possible to write a feminist opera about [...]

Cavalli 'Ombra mai fu' Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne--Ohime, che miro? ... Misero Apollo Calisto--Erme, e solinghe cime ... Lucidissima face; Intreprete mal buona ... L'uomo e una dolce [...]

'Perpetual Twilight' Antognini Aimhirgin Burns My love is like a red, red rose (arr Esenvalds) Desmond Oxen of the Sun Earley Body of the Moon Mawby Bright Cap and Streamers [...]

Purcell 'The Cares of Lovers' Bonduca, Z574--O lead me to some peaceful gloom. The fatal hour comes on apace, Z421. From silent shades (Bess of Bedlam), Z370. Ground, ZD222. A [...]

G Jackson [G] The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ Emma Tring sop Guy Cutting ten Choir of Merton College, Oxford; Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia / Benjamin Nicholas Delphian (F) DCD34222 [...]

The Magic Flute Wales Millennium Centre, and touring until 11 May Idomeneo Hackney Empire, and touring until 1 June Operas are like buses. Both are filled with pensioners and take [...]

'Portraying Passion' Ives Five Songs (orch J Adams) (a). The Unanswered Question (b) Paus Hate Songs (a) Weill Die sieben Todsunden (b) Tora Augestad mez Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / (a) [...]

'A Baroque Hero' Bianchi La morte di Cesare--Rasserena i mesti rai; Sapro d'ogn'alma audace Giacomelli Cesare in Egitto--Bella tel dica amore; II cor che sdegnato Handel Ariodante--Scherza infida. Giulio Cesare [...]

Alexander/Whitaker Straight Street Arcadelt II bianco e dolce signo M Bates Stelle, vostra merce Byrd Ave verum corpus Gershwin Summertime Hawley lo son la primavera Lassus Surrexit pastor bonus McGlynn [...]

Monteverdi II ritorno d'Ulisse in patria Furio Zanasi bar Ulisse Lucile Richardot mez Penelope Krystian Adam ten Telemaco Hana Blazikova sop Minerva/Fortuna Gianluca Buratto bass Tempo/Nettuno/Antinoo Michal Czerniawski counterten Pisandro [...]

'Tyrannic Love' [G] Blow Poor Celadon, he sighs in vain. Venus and Adonis--Saraband for the Graces J Clarke Song on the Assumption Ecdes The Comical History of Don Quixote: Part [...]

'In Paradisum' Albinoni/Giazotto The Beatitudes Allegri Miserere Bruckner Christus factus est Caccini/ Vavilov Ave Maria Danna Life of Pi--Tsimtsum Dove Seek him that maketh the seven stars Elgar Requiem aeternam [...]

Ayres 'Sacred Ayres' The angel Gabriel. Be thou my vision. Crimond (The Lord's my shepherd). Deep river. Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel?. God be in my head. Go down Moses. [...]

I Saw Eternity the Other Night: King's College, Cambridge, and an English Singing Style by Timothy Day Allen Lane, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 391 Earlier this year The Spectator published [...]

La bohemeColiseum, in rep until 22 February 2019CarmenRoyal Opera House, in rep until 20 July 2019It's December, and while musical theatre is busy celebrating 'warm woollen mittens', opera, as usual, [...]

Dowland First Booke of Songes or Ayres Grace Davidson sop David Miller lute Signum (F) SIGCD553 (73' * DDD) 'Semper Dowland, semper dolens', John Dowland famously punned, but the composer's [...]

Graupner 'Duo Cantatas for Soprano & Alto' Demuthiget euch nun, GWV1144/12. Waffne dich, mein Geist, zu kampfen, GWV1148/20. Weg, verdammtes Stindenleben, GWV1147/20. Wenn wir in hochsten Nothen seyn, GWV1143/12. Canon, [...]

'A Ceremony of Carols' Blackwell Lo, how a rose e'er blooming Britten A Ceremony of Carols Dove The Three Kings Hildegard of Bingen O virga ac diadema McDowall Now may [...]

'Christmas in Puebla' Cererols Marizapalos a lo Divino 'Serafin que, con dulce harmonia' Fernandes Tleycantimo choquiliya Garcia de Zespedes Convidando esta la noche Lopez Capillas Cui luna, sol et omnia [...]

The Virtual Opera Project presents L'Enfant et les Sortileges YouTube, until 16 December Il Segreto di Susanna; Zanetto; Rita Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and online at gsmd.ac.uk, until [...]

The timing couldn't be better. Just as the gates clang shut on another national lockdown, trapping us all indefinitely with our nearest and dearest, the London Symphony Orchestra serves up [...]

'Journeys to the New World' 'Hispanic Sacred Music from the 16th and 17th Centuries' Dallo y Lana Laudate Dominum Franco Christus factus est. Salve regina a 5 Guerrero Beatus Achacius. [...]

'Sleeper's Prayer' Betinis Cedit, hyems Glass Satyagraha--Finale D Lang Again, if I sing, sleeper's prayer Larsen I will sing and raise a psalm Muhly A Hymn on the Nativity. Rev'd [...]

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge Viking, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 288 Ludwig von Beethoven belongs among those men whom not only Vienna and Germany, but Europe and [...]