Alfred Cellier News
British composer and conductor
Commemorations 2024 (Birth: Alfred Cellier)
- opera
- Sweden, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- composer, conductor
Last update
2024-03-19
Refresh
2022-07-16 11:21:46
Rediscovered rarities, new opera and young artists: I chat to Rosetta Cucchi, artistic director of Wexford Festival Opera
National Opera House in Wexford (Photo Ger Lawlor.)Founded in 1951 in Wexford in Ireland (population around 20,000), Wexford Festival Opera has become known for its resurrection of undeservedly neglected and rare operas. The festival is based at the National Opera House which was developed in 2008 on the site of the historic Theatre Royal. This year's Wexford Festival Opera takes as its theme Music and Magic, with three main operas by Fromenthal Halévy, Félicien David and Dvorak along with a selection of pocket operas that range from an Alfred Cellier operetta to a contemporary work inspired by the life of Henry James. 2022 is the second season that artistic director Rosetta Cucchi has planned. She took over for the 2020 season, but the programme of Shakespearean works was postponed to 2021. Rosetta Cucchi (Photo Wexford Festival Opera)Rosetta is, however, not a new face in Wexford, she first started working at the festival […]
2020-11-28 09:09:27
From Handel's contemporaries to a forgotten Malcolm Arnold opera: I chat to conductor John Andrews about reviving neglected music
[…] extensive. John was already familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Opera (The Yeomen of the Guard was the first opera he conducted), but the Macbeth incidental music led to John's on-going series of recordings of neglected works by Sullivan, notably the non-operatic ones [the oratorio The Light of the World, see my review] and the operas written without Gilbert [Haddon Hall, see my review], and of the operas by Sullivan's younger contemporaries such as Alfred Cellier [The Mountebanks with its libretto by Gilbert, see my review]. He points out that whilst the two areas, bel canto and late 19th century English music, might seem disparate, in fact, everything which is important in bel canto opera is important in the later English music. So the two areas of John's musical life effectively come together. His interest in composers and works that have undeservedly dropped out of the repertoire extends further, so […]
2020-07-08 14:01:50
Schubert's Four Seasons: an imaginative exploration of Schubert song from Sharon Carty and Jonathan Ware
Schubert's Four Seasons - Viola, Klage der Ceres and other songs; Sharon Carty, Jonathan Ware; GENUIN Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 July 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★) An exploration of the seasons through Schubert's song, with two of his larger scale pieces, from the young Irish mezzo-sopranoThe Irish mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty is someone who has come into the orbit of Planet Hugill a number of times, she was in Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh's opera The Second Violinist which Ruth reviewed in 2018, and more recently Carty was in the first recording of Gilbert and Cellier's The Mountebanks conducted by John Andrews on Dutton [see my review].Now we have the chance to hear Sharon Carty in proper focus with the release of her recital Schubert's Four Seasons on the Genuin label. Accompanied by pianist Jonathan Ware, Carty sings a selection of Schubert's songs themed around the seasons, with […]
2020-03-31 07:36:43
Sullivan at his peak, but without Gilbert: Haddon Hall gets its first professional recording
Sullivan Haddon Hall, Ford Mr Jericho, Cellier Captain Billy; Ed Lyon, Henry Waddington, Adrian Thompson, Ben McAteer, Donald Maxwell, Sarah Tynan, Fiona Kimm, Angela Simkin, BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra, John Andrews; Dutton Epoch Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 29 March 2020 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½) Sullivan's first major operetta without Gilbert receives its first professional recording in a terrific performance which shows the work has a lot to enjoyAfter the production of The Gondoliers in 1889, the relationship between Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir W. S. Gilbert fractured, apparently irrevocably. There had been rocky patches before, and the remarkably success of Alfred Cellier's Dorothy in 1888 and 1889 caused problems, as did Sullivan's preference for moving towards more serious subjects. Gilbert would give Sullivan The Yeomen of the Guard, the pair's most serious operetta, but would not go as far as out and out serious opera. Outside of […]
or
- timeline: Composers (Europe). Conductors (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): C...