Evan Hughes News
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2024-03-29
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2024-03-15 13:57:17
SCO/Kuusisto review – Grime and Clyne premieres plus Dolphin Boy and folk fiddle make for an inspiring evening
Queen’s Hall, EdinburghPekka Kuusisto’s residency with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra ended with an eclectic and joyful concert that included new works by Anna Clyne and Helen Grime and an interval DJ setA month-long residency with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra by dynamic Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto is ending in a programme featuring two UK premieres – a violin concerto written for him by Anna Clyne and a song cycle composed by Helen Grime for the other featured soloist, soprano Ruby Hughes. Add in fiddler Aidan O’Rourke duetting with Kuusisto on some of the folk tunes used by Clyne in her five-movement work, Time and Tides, and an interval set on the decks by Andy Levy, AKA DJ Dolphin Boy, and it looked like a long and rather eclectic evening. Instead it flowed with an easy sense of purpose.Grime sets three poems about happiness, Larkin’s joy in springtime,
2024-02-24 09:51:00
The Lady of Satis House: composer Jacques Cohen talks about finally bringing his 2012 Charles Dickens-inspired monodrama to disc
[…] sense to write it quickly, to keep the dramatic conviction. Jacques adds that composers often either aim for perfection or conviction, with The Lady of Satis House, Jacques was definitely the latter and he points out that even a composer like George Benjamin, who famously takes great pains with his scores, writes his operas at a far faster pace.Jacques Cohen: The Lady of Satis House - recording session with Marie Vassiliou, Tippett Quartet (Photo: Richard Hughes)But why set Miss Havisham to music at all, does she need it? As far as Jacques is concerned, Great Expectations is a great book, whilst Miss Havisham is a dramatic character. But she is also insane, it makes a sort of sense that she sings. Just think about the logistics and hygiene of her shutting herself away for all those years, still wearing her wedding dress. It is not plausible in reality, and in […]
2024-02-02 11:48:00
From forgotten arias in a pasticcio based on Balzac's Sarrasine to a forgotten instrument: Göttingen International Handel Festival announces the 2024 programme under George Petrou
[…] conducts the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Handel's early oratorio Deborah. Then the festival proper opens with Handel's Italian oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Petrou conducting the festival orchestra and counter-tenor Xavier Sabata as Disinganno, whilst later comes Israel in Egypt.Modern reflections include Handel on the saxophone with Lutz Koppetsch, Michel Godara playing that rare instrument, the serpent, jazz singer Efrat Afony, alongside performances from more well-known names including Andrew Foster-Williams, Emoke Barath, Ruby Hughes and Juan Sancho. And of course, there is the festival's Handel competition too.Full details from the festival website.
2024-01-22 09:15:00
UK-based arts writer, Tony Cooper, offers a preview of Northern Opera Group’s 8th Annual Leeds Opera Festival which includes a brand-new opera on Sherlock Holmes.
[…] reaching out to communities in Leeds and Bradford, Northern Opera Group is committed in enabling people of all ages and abilities to take part in opera with an annual community opera engaging participants and family audiences in both these important and culturally fired-up northern towns. Recent productions have included César Cui’s Little Red Riding Hood (2022) and David Parry’s Pied Piper of Hamelin (2024). Piazzolla: Maria de Buenos Aires - Leeds Opera Festival 2023 (Photo: Rhian Hughes)And a major new commission this year sees the world’s first-ever opera adaptation surrounding the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. Entitled Sherlock Holmes and The Sign of Four, the opera’s directed by David Ward, written by award-winning composer Lliam Paterson (also responsible for the libretto) and conducted by Ellie Slorach with stage design by Caitlin Mawhinney and lighting by Charly Dunford. Audiences can, therefore, well expect a musical journey through the iconic tale bringing a fresh […]
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