Wynford Evans News
Welsh opera singer (1946-2009)
- tenor
- opera
- United Kingdom, Wales
- opera singer
Last update
2024-03-28
Refresh
2024-03-04 09:07:00
Encouraging experimentation and innovation: Aberystwyth University's new hub for emerging composers, CERDDWN
CERDDWN composers Top row (left to right): David John Roche, Jefferson Lobo (photo copyright Matthew Thistlewood), Mared Emlyn, Nathan James Dearden (photo copyright Catrin Arwel) Bottom row (left to right): Gerard Cousins, Heledd Evans, Michelle Maddock, Kian RavaeiA new project, CERDDWN, led by Aberystwyth University is offering a new take on supporting young composers. The project aims to create a hub for musical experimentation and innovation in mid-Wales by connecting up-and-coming composers with orchestral musicians, allowing them to test out experimental concepts, and hone their music-making skills.Following an open call for applications, four emerging composers have now been selected and presented with a bursary. Over the coming months Gerard Cousins, Heledd Evans, Michelle Maddock, and Kian Ravaei will be given the chance to work closely and experiment with with Aberystwyth community orchestra Philomusica, and professional chamber orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru.The four emerging composers will receive mentorship from an established composer, who themselves […]
2024-02-27 09:57:00
Intense and disturbing, a story without any redemption: Stephen McNeff's new opera A Star Next to the Moon based on Juan Rulfo's novel Pedro Páramo
Stephen McNeff: A Star Next to the Moon - Jacob Harrison (Pedro Páramo) - Guildhall School of Music & Drama (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge)Stephen McNeff: A Star Next to the Moon; director: Martin Lloyd-Evans, conductor: Dominic Wheeler; Guildhall School of Music & DramaReviewed 26 February 2024Stephen McNeff's powerful new opera tells a disturbing story with a performance that pulls no punches and outstanding contributions from the young castStephen McNeff's opera, A Star Next to the Moon debuted at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama's Silk Street Theatre on Monday 26 February 2024. With a libretto by Aoife Mannix based Juan Rulfo's novel Pedro Páramo, the opera has had a long journey to fruition as Stephen McNeff discussed in my recent interview with him, but creating a large-scale new opera in two acts with a cast of eleven, chorus and orchestra is no small achievement indeed. Martin Lloyd-Evans directed and Dominic Wheeler conducted […]
2024-02-10 09:27:00
A Star Next to the Moon: Stephen McNeff on his new opera, based on Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo, a seminal novel of magic realism
On 26 February 2024, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama gives the premiere of Stephen McNeff's new opera, A Star Next to the Moon, in a production directed by Martin Lloyd Evans and conducted by Dominic Wheeler. The opera is based on the iconic novel, Pedro Páramo by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, with a libretto by Aoife Mannix.Whilst the A Star Next to the Moon is new, it has a long and somewhat complex journey to fruition. Around 15 years ago, Stephen wrote some pieces for a festival in Mexico. The festival invited him there and he met the pianist Ana Cervantes who introduced him to pieces that she had commissioned and recorded based on the work of Juan Rulfo. Stephen became fascinated by Rulfo's work, particularly his only novel, Pedro Páramo. Pedro Páramo is an iconic novel in the Spanish-speaking world where people know of it from school, but […]
2024-02-05 05:46:00
(Semi) Recent Releases No. 71 (CD Reviews)
[…] nice things about her album. On the other hand, as a top-flight pianist himself, he knows what he is talking about. His discussion of the music itself is quite fascinating. His full posting from January 20, 2024, can be found here. I’d like to quote one brief passage just to give a quick sense of the relation between Debussy and jazz: “Several Debussy pieces foreshadow late ‘50s jazz harmony. I’d bet my bottom dollar that Bill Evans played through the phrases of Feuilles mortes. One can almost hear ‘Kind of Blue’ at certain moments. Even the title relates to a famous jazz standard that Bill Evans played on countless gigs: ‘Autumn Leaves’ is based on Les Feuilles mortes by the French composer Joseph Kosma. (Apart from the title, the two pieces are not related musically, although Evans would play plenty of stuff on ‘Autumn Leaves’ that he seemed to have learned from Debussy.)” The […]
or
- timeline: Lyrical singers (Europe). Performers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): E...