Sona Hovhannisyan News
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2023-08-31 06:22:00
Exploring Rachmaninoff's songs alongside those of his contemporaries: Iain Burnside and friends at Wigmore Hall
Sergey RachmaninoffRachmaninoff wrote songs from his years at the Moscow Conservatory right through to 1916. There are over 80 songs (románsy in Russian) setting Russian romantic writers and poets. Intimately connected to the literature of the Russia that he left behind in 1917, the song genre was one to which Rachmaninoff never returned during his exile.Running from September 2023 until June next year is a Rachmaninoff Song Series at Wigmore Hall, four concerts curated by pianist Iain Burnside in partnership with Philip Bullock, professor of Russian literature and music at Oxford. The first concert, on 28 September 2023, features soprano Anush Hovhannisyan and bass Jasurbek Khaydarov with Iain Burnside in a programme of songs by Rachmaninoff alongside those of his contemporaries, Nikolay Myaskosvksy (1881-1950), Anatoly Alexandrov (1888-1982), Mikhail Gnesin (1883-1957), Yuliya Veysberg (1880-1942) and Maximilian Steinberg (1883-1946).The idea behind the series is to intertwine Rachmaninoff romances with those of his contemporaries, many now forgotten, ‘cancelled’ after the […]
2022-06-19 14:40:00
Tatiana – Anush HovhannisyanOnegin – Samuel Dale JohnsonLensky – Jack Roberts Olga – Emma StannardMme Larina – Amanda RoocroftFilipievna – Kathleen Wilkinson Prince Gremin – Matthew Stiff M. Triquet – Joseph Buckmaster Zaretsky/Captain – Konrad Jaromin Solo tenor – Phillip CostovskiJulia Burbach (director) takis (designs) Robert Price (lighting) Jo Meredith (movement) Opera Holland Park Chorus (chorus director: Richard Harker) City of London Sinfonia Lada Valešová (conductor) Eugene Onegin (Samuel Dale Johnson). Images: Ali Wright Sharing a single set by takis with Carmen—typically resourceful, sustainable practice for Opera Holland Park—Julia Burbach’s Eugene Onegin proved a puzzling affair. The idea, I think, was to move between monochrome and colour, perhaps playing with memory and/or dreaming, but too much remained obscure or arbitrary (at least for me). Burbach seemed unsure whether to opt for realism, something more symbolic, or even a coherent melange of the two. Presumably, the uniform light colours of the first […]
2022-06-01 17:55:26
Emotional atmospheres: a wonderfully lucid production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin opens Opera Holland Park's 2022 season
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Samuel Dale Johnson - Opera Holland Park, 2022 (Photo Ali Wright) Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin; Samuel Dale Johnson, Anush Hovhannisyan, Thomas Atkins, Emma Stannard, director: Julia Burbach, conductor: Lada Valešová, City of London Sinfonia; Opera Holland Park An engaging young cast in a wonderfully lucid account of Tchaikovky's lyric scenes that used the stage to its utmost and illuminated both characters' thoughts and actions The 2022 Opera Holland Park season opened with a production of Eugene Onegin originally scheduled for 2020. Then, the Young Artist performance was due to be conducted by Lada Valešová, but since that cancellation she showed her conducting chops at the 2021 Young Artist performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro [see my review] as well as conducting Eugene Onegin in West Green House Opera's 2021 season [see my interview with Lada]. Julia Burbach, who directed Eugene Onegin, was in charge of last year's production of Mascagni's L'amico […]
2022-01-28 13:02:30
[…] helm for two performances of Carmen, whilst associate conductor (and chorus master) conducts two performances of Little Women Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin is conducted by Lada Valešová [who conducted last year's Young Artists performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, see my review], directed by Julia Burbach [who directed last year's L'Amico Fritz, see my review, and I chatted to Julia last year in advance of her production of Wagner's The Valkyrie at Grimeborn, see my interview], with Anush Hovhannisyan, Samuel Dale Johnson, Thomas Atkins plus Amanda Roocroft making her role debut as Larina. Bizet's Carmen will be directed by Cecilia Stinton with Kezia Bienek [who was delightful as Beppe in Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz, last year] in the title role plus Oliver Johnston, Alison Langer [who has been singing the role of Micaela with Opera North] and Thomas Mole. The team is also joined by Spanish choreographer Isabel Baquero so the production promises to an […]
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