Tenor Roberto Alagna pulls out of Lohengrin.by Paul J. PelkonenThe next swan will not be arriving for Roberto Alagna, who is out of the new Bayreuth Lohengrin.In a breaking story from the Bayreuth Festival, tenor Roberto Alagna will not be singing the title role in the company's production of Lohengrin. His excuse: insufficient rehearsal. According to... Continue Reading →
Mozart: Idomeneo - rehearsals for Buxton Festival - the festival chorus (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)With his production of Mozart's Idomeneo for the 2018 Buxton Festival (Idomeneo opens on 8 July 2018), director Stephen Medcalf is coming full circle in a number of ways. Whilst he has never directed the opera before he worked on it... Continue Reading →
U2 return to Madison Square Garden by Paul J. PelkonenJust a small band from Dublin: Adam Clayton (right) Bono (center) and The Edge (right) rock Madison Square GardenPhoto by Susan Weinstein, who also got us the tickets.Most giant rock tours don't get a sequel. An exception is the epic stage production by the Irish band... Continue Reading →
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Eugene OneginScottish Opera, 2018Stuart Stratford, Oliver Mears, Samuel Dale Johnson, Natalya Romaniw, Peter Auty, Sioned Gwen Davies, Alison Kettlewell, Anne-Marie Owens, Graeme Broadbent, Christopher Gillett, Alexey Gusev, James Platt, Matthew KimbleGrand Opera House, Belfast - 28 June 2018Pushkin's Eugene Onegin has been praised as "an encyclopaedia of Russian life" but it's... Continue Reading →
The composer Alissa Firsova has a lively diary over the coming months. In August, VIVAT will release a new CD of Firsova's music Fantasy - Music of Alissa Firsova, featuring the Tippett Quartet, clarinettist Mark van der Wiel, pianist Simon Mulligan, bass-baritone Nicholas Crawley, soprano Ellie Laugharne and herself on the piano. The programme includes... Continue Reading →
The Reckoning is a new show which has been created for The Art of Change, a new company which wants to bring life to the art song. The Reckoning mixes new drama (from writer Lila Palmer) with art songs from Beethoven to Bolcom and new songs by Ella Jarman-Pinto and Eve Harrison.The show debuts tonight,... Continue Reading →
Handel arias from Siroe, Esther, Athalia, Belshazzar, Tolomeo, Joshua, Rinaldo; Christopher Purves, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Hyperion Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 20 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★) Christopher Purves and Arcangelo in a vivid follow-up to their disc of Handel arias The baritone Christopher Purves has returned to Handel's music for a second disc... Continue Reading →
Some reflections on Beethoven, the Eroica and my summer vacation.by Paul J. PelkonenDetail from The Knight in Shining Armor: Pity and Ambitionby Gustav Klimt as appears on the cover of the Beethoven Symphony No. 3 recording reviewed herein.Art and rendering © 1987 DG/UMGHi all. I'm back after a relaxing, grounding and enervating week in the woods... Continue Reading →
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera - Claire Rutter, Vincenzo Costanzo - Grange Park Opera (Photo Robert Workman) Verdi Un ballo in maschera; Claire Rutter, Vincenzo Costanzo, Roland Wood, Elisabetta Fiorillo, Tereza Gevorgyan, dir: Stephen Medcalf, orchestra of English National Opera, cond: Gianluca Marciano; Grange Park Opera Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 27 June 2018 Star... Continue Reading →
Charles Gounod - La Nonne sanglanteL'Opéra Comique, Paris - 2018Laurence Equilbey, David Bobée, Michael Spyres, Vannina Santoni, Marion Lebègue, Jérôme Boutillier, Jodie Devos, Jean Teitgen, Luc Bertin-Hugault, Enguerrand De Hys, Olivia Doray, Pierre-Antoine Chaumien, Julien Neyer, Vincent EvenoCulturebox - 12th June 2018In some respects, La Nonne sanglante (The Bloody Nun) is very much opera by... Continue Reading →
Lope Hernan Chacon 