Three Choirs Festival News
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2024-03-19
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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
[…] or three prominent roles there are no minor ones, so it suits the needs of the performance. The opera is called A Star Next to the Moon because the Juan Rulfo Foundation did not want Pedro Páramo as the title.Stephen's earlier opera, also with a libretto by Aoife Mannix, Beyond the Garden [see my article], which premiered in Slovenia in 2019, received its UK premiere in 2022 with performances at the Lichfield Festival and the Three Choirs Festival, but he is still hoping for a London premiere. His other operas have also included Vivienne, about T.S. Eliot's first wife [see my review, and also on CD] and Banished, based on Steven Gooch's play about the first women transported to Australia, Female Transport [see my review].Stephen McNeff’s latest opera, A Star Next to the Moon, receives its world premiere at The Guildhall School on 26 February 2024, at the Silk Street […]
2024-02-07 10:46:00
A lovely documentary from Scottish Opera that follows emerging artists Ross Cumming (baritone), Inna Husieva (soprano), Monwabisi Lindi (tenor), costume trainee Lovisa Litsgard, associate artist Lea Shaw (mezzo-soprano) and emerging artist repetiteur José Javier Ucendo, in their journey to create a performance of Rossini's The Barber of Seville in October 2023. [We caught both Inna Husieva and Monwabisi Lindi in opera scenes during their time at the National Opera Studio in January 2022, see my review, whilst Ross Cumming was Pilgrim in British Youth Opera's production of Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress at the Three Choirs Festival in 2023, see my review]Ross Cumming, Inna Husieva and Lea Shaw will be performing around Scotland in Scottish Opera's Spring 2024 Opera Highlights tour. See the website for details.The documentary was filmed at Scottish Opera's Production Studios, Edington Street and Elmbank Crescent, and Theatre Royal Glasgow during October 2023. Filmed and edited by Antonia Bain. See the video on YouTube. […]
2024-01-24 07:29:00
Norfolk-based arts writer, Tony Cooper, enjoys a musical heritage tour to Leipzig, a relaxing and inviting city to visit awash with so much musical history.
[…] performance started the Bach ball rolling - and, thankfully, it hasn’t stopped. The music salon in the Mendelssohn Haus in Leipzig (Photo: Dirk Brzoska)Mendelssohn was special, though. He flourished in Leipzig like no other becoming conductor of the famous Leipzig Gewandhausorchester in his mid-20s and founded the Leipzig Conservatoire a decade later. A frequent visitor to England, the Birmingham Triennial Festival -who rotated their festival with Leeds and Norwich much in the same way as the Three Choirs Festival continues to do so today with the cathedral cities of Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester - commissioned Mendelssohn and he delivered them that momentous and inspiring oratorio, Elijah, composed in the spirit of his baroque predecessors, Bach and Handel. The work (his final composition) received its première in Birmingham Town Hall on 26th August 1846, conducted by the composer. It proved to be one of the high points of Mendelssohn’s illustrious career. Sadly, he […]
2023-12-30 09:32:00
2023 in concert reviews: Gavin Higgins x2, Allan Clayton's Samson, Reginald Mobley in Bayreuth, the Pink Singers & Brixton Chamber Orchestra both party and Bitches Brew is back
[…] Mendelssohn with the texts that inspired them. Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake enchanted in songs by Robert & Clara Schumann, Schubert, Henze and Mahler all setting texts by Rückert. Nigel Foster's London Song Festival presented the world premiere of Granville Bantock's remarkable Oscar Wilde setting, The Sphinx.Colin Currie and the BBC Concert Orchestra celebrated The Beano including the premiere of a new concerto by Gavin Higgins, and we caught up with Higgins' The Faerie Bride at the Three Choirs Festival.Our correspondent, Florence, helped the Kronos Quartet celebrate its 50th anniversary, and enjoyed a modern recreation of Miles Davies' iconic Bitches Brew.Handel: Samson - Allan Clayton - Philharmonia Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Sisi Burn)Explore our full selection below:Party! London's LGBT+ community choir, the Pink Singers, celebrates 40 years at the Cadogan HallThis is my body: Figure's imaginative rethinking of Buxtehude's intense sung devotion, Membra Jesu […]