PETER GRIMES Will Open English National Opera 2023/24 Season
This September, opening the 2023/24 Season at the London Coliseum, the English National Opera (ENO) presents Benjamin Britten’s searing psychological drama, Peter Grimes. David Alden’s production returns for its second revival. Following its premiere in 2009, this production won a South Bank Sky Arts Award in the Opera category.
BWW Review: THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, London Coliseum
After opening night was postponed due to Storm Eunice, the ENO's new production of Leoš Janáček's opera is a welcome slice of brightness in the current gloom. One thing we have all seen in the last few years is nature's incredible ability to renew and refresh, whatever mankind may throw her way.
The ENO's first new production of The Cunning Little Vixen since 2001 serves as a reminder that life continues and nature always renews. In a good-looking production, using typical Moravian folk songs, along with an exploration of fairy tales, this quirky opera fuses both comedy and tragedy to ask what it means to be alive.
BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR at Home Computer Screens
After Hours: Songs of Protest honors and celebrates a wide range of passionate music that galvanizes activists for social justice. This program of iconic songs, made famous by performers like Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, and Sam Cooke, is specially curated by Host and Artist in Residence Russell Thomas. Soprano Brandie Sutton, baritone Justin Austin.
BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR at Home Computer Screens
Our Magic Opera Flying Carpet Virtual Tour begins in Los Angeles with the Signature Recital by tenor Russell Thomas and pianist Kyung-Mi Kim. A native of Miami, Florida, Thomas debuted as Pollione in LA Opera’s Norma. He sang Cavaradossi in Tosca and Titus in The Clemency of Titus . Next year, he will be Radames in Aida. Currently, he is the company's Artist in Residence.
Aldeburgh Festival to Present Premiere of Struan Leslie's ILLUMINATIONS and More
12 a?" 28 June 2020 would have been the 73rd Aldeburgh Festival and this is the first time in its history that it will not go ahead. During the period that the Festival would have taken place, Britten Pears Arts presents a celebration of the Festival's unique programming over more than 70 years, in collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four.
BWW Review: DON GIOVANNI, London Coliseum, 30 September 2016
English National Opera has been having a hard time with Don Giovanni lately. First there was Calixto Bieito's groggy, pastel-coloured nightmare (who could forget the pistachio leather dentist's chair), which paled into adequacy when compared to Rufus Norris's bafflingly unlovely (and just generally baffling) vision that followed. Richard Jones's new production is in no way a failure - there's far too much intelligence here for that, as well as more than one flash of utter brilliance - but it still feels like a show as yet not fully in focus. At his best Jones can make the most startlingly revisionist concept seem like it has always been staring you in face. Here his reading intrigues, compels, but never feels fully rooted in Mozart's music-drama.
BWW Reviews: WOZZECK Redux - Levine and the Met Orchestra Show Vienna Who's Boss
When the Vienna State Opera visited New York at the end of February, it brought Alban Berg's WOZZECK to Carnegie Hall as part of the “Vienna: City of Dreams” festivities. With the big sound of the Vienna Philharmonic central to the concert performance, it set out to show what a quintessentially Viennese opera sounded like played by the hometown band. Sorry, boys [and it's still mainly a male bastion], but the Met Orchestra, conducted by James Levine, could show you a thing or two.
Daniel Sutin to Perform Title Role in Metropolitan Opera's WOZZECK Tonight
Daniel Sutin will sing the title role in tonight's performance of Berg's Wozzeck, replacing Thomas Hampson, who is recovering from bronchitis. Hampson's illness also forced him to withdraw from the March 6 performance of Wozzeck, which was sung by Matthias Goerne. Hampson expects to be ready in time for the next scheduled performance of Wozzeck on March 13.