News
Vache Baroque Festival launches video series celebrating women composers
The Vache Baroque Festival is launching a new video series which celebrates the work of women composers of the baroque era. Entitled VB Showcase, the project aims to shine a light on lesser known songs, with new videos due for release every fortnight from Sunday 22 May to Sunday 31 July 2022. Artists signed up…
Martin Graham steps down as Chairman of Longborough Festival Opera
Having recently celebrated his 80th birthday, Martin Graham, founder of Longborough Festival Opera, is stepping down from the Board which he has chaired for over 20 years. Martin will retain his close interest in the season’s performances and Lizzie Graham will become interim Chair of the Board. Working alongside Executive Director Jennifer Smith, Polly Graham…
Rachel Nicholls Longborough role debut
Following the withdrawal of soprano Noa Danon due to illness, Longborough Festival Opera announces that soprano Rachel Nicholls will make her role debut as Marie / Marietta in the festival’s forthcoming production of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (21-27 June 2022). Nicholls stunned audiences in the role of Brünnhilde in Longborough’s 2013 Ring cycle and then…
The Grange Festival 2022 season details
Booking is open for The Grange Festival’s 2022 season. The Hampshire festival opens with Verdi’s Macbeth, on Thursday 9 June and followed a day later by Handel’s Tamerlano, These works are followed by Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard in late June. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra accompanies these three new productions as part…
Royal Opera announces 11 new productions in 2022-23 season
The Royal Opera 2021-22 season features 11 new productions including Verdi, Berg, Dvořák and Handel. These include Kaija Saariaho’s new opera Innocence – based on Sofi Oksanen’s novel and staged by theatre director Simon Stone. For a new production of Rusalka, Asmik Grigorian returns to perform the title role, joining British artists Sarah Connolly, David…
New commission from Opera Holland Park
Opera Holland Park has announced a new commission and world premiere for 2023: Itch. described as an operatic thriller with a most unusual hero. Based on Simon Mayo’s bestselling novels Itch and Itch Rocks, composer Jonathan Dove, above, and librettist Alasdair Middleton have been commissioned to create a new opera for Opera Holland Park. Its hero is Itchingham…
ENGLISH TOURING OPERA NEW GENERAL DIRECTOR
English Touring Opera has appointed Robin Norton-Hale as General Director. Norton-Hale, who is a multi award-winning writer and director for theatre, opera and film, will take up the position from July 2022. She joins ETO from OperaUpClose, where she is Artistic Director & Chief Executive, having co-founded the company in 2009.The company’s Board of Directors…
Nevill Holt La Boheme and Barber for 2022
Nevill Holt Opera’s Artistic Director Nicholas Chalmers will conduct Puccini’s La bohéme this June. The director is Mathilda du Tillieul McNicol who was the Assistant Director of NHO’s La traviata in 2021, and the designer will be Linbury Prize winner Basia Bińkowska. Manchester Camerata will bring the score to life. The role of Mimì will…
Opera North new season dates
Questions of power and identity, love and loss, will be coming to theatres across the North of England in the new year as Opera North opens its winter season with two new productions, while also offering another chance to see its new production of Carmen which premiered in September. Wagner’s Parsifal follows in June, with…
Opera North Alcina to be available worldwide
Opera North’s first ever staging of Handel’s opera Alcina, which opens on Saturday 5 February 2022 at Leeds Grand Theatre, will be available for viewers around the globe to watch online in partnership with the European streaming platform OperaVision. The performance on Thursday 17 February at 7pm will be streamed live at operavision.eu, and will…