George R. Poulton News
British musician
- England
- composer, songwriter
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2024-04-26
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2023-10-21 11:15:00
What's not to love? Glamour and heart as Puccini's little swallow returns to Opera North
Puccini: La Rondine - Sébastien Guèze, Galina Averina - Opera North (Photo: Tristram Kenton)Puccini: La Rondine; Galina Averina, Sébastien Guèze, Claire Lees, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Philip Smith, director: James Hurley, conductor: Kerem Hasan; Opera North at Grand Theatre, LeedsReviewed 20 October 2023Glorious melodies sung by a youthful cast, 1930s glamour in a production proud of its green credentials, and a story both touching and engaginThe problem with Puccini's La Rondine, if problem there is, is that no-one dies; it is Puccini's only major opera where a significant death does not occur. La Rondine ends with a love triangle where, very even handedly, no-one really gets what they want. The opera was an experiment, coming at a time when Puccini was trying to move his art in other directions. After Madama Butterfly in 1904 came two operas where Puccini changed tack, La Fanciulla del West in 1910 and La Rondine in […]
2022-03-16 08:28:18
The Levedy Ensemble Like many group the Levedy Ensemble, a voice and harp quintet formed by students and graduates of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, decided to put their experiences during the pandemic to creative use. Unable to work together, rehearse and perform, ensemble thought about other groups and communities for whom isolation is a part of their every day life; such as hospitals, nursing homes and prisons. As a result, they have developed a project that will allow them to express the isolation they had experienced, whilst reaching out to and working with often-isolated communities. Composer Shaye Poulton Richards has created seven songs based on poems written by female poets, from Sappho to Emily Dickinson, but alongside this cycle she has written five soundscapes. The soundscapes, unlike the songs, are improvisatory, and use material written by Poulton Richards to create artistic responses to the songs in […]
2020-05-12 08:28:46
The music of the British composer Ailsa Dixon (1932-2017) is being gradually re-discovered, including the premiere of an anthem in the presence of the composer by London Oriana Choir shortly before Dixon's death. The current crisis has (temporarily) prevented live performances of Dixon's music, but to celebrate Ailsa's husband Brian's 89th birthday, lutenist Linda Sayce has recorded Dixon's Three Fugues on Biblical Subjects, performing them for the first time since their composition. The three fugues are: Four-part fugue: Since by man came death Three-part fugue: And I will write my law in their inward parts Four-part fugue: By the waters of Babylon Ailsa Dixon was herself a lutenist, and one of the fugues was written out in lute tablature with the intention of presenting it to the Lute Society in memory of Dixon's teacher, the Society’s founder, Diana Poulton. Following their rediscovery, […]
2019-02-06 10:00:41
The best recordings of Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ
Rating: 0 L’enfance du Christ (The childhood of Christ) was premiered under his baton at Paris’s Salle Herz on 10 December 1854. It was a major success, with many people unable to buy tickets and the audience giving the composer-conductor a warm-hearted ovation. Among those present were fellow composers Verdi, Gounod and Ambroise Thomas and the poet Alfred de Vigny. Berlioz later wrote of ‘encores, recalls, interruptions in the middle of numbers due to the emotion of the audience, tears – nothing was lacking […] Not in Germany, […]
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