Covent Garden worries its bells might harm
An advisory about interval bells has been issued in the website’s disability section: ‘The bell is loud and can be startling. It is rung ten minutes before the show starts and at each interval.’ So […]
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Vienna has blank-sheet ballet chief
The Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri starts work today as director of the Vienna State Ballet, taking responsibility for ballet to both the Staatsoper and Volksoper, and at the Ballet Academy. Ferri, 62, has starred as […]
Just in: Barenboim jumps in for unwell Mehta
News from the Grafenegg Festival: Zubin Mehta has had to cancel his appearance at the Grafenegg Festival on September 7. Daniel Barenboim will conduct the concert with Rudolf Buchbinder and the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower […]
They/them win Banff quartet prize
The 15th Banff International String Quartet Competition was decided overnight in Canada. The winners come from Cinicinnati and are known as the Poiesis Quartet. A peculiar press rerlease goes on to designate their preferred modes […]
Death of Belle in Beauty and the Beast
The Mexican soprano Lourdes Ambriz, the voice of Belle in Disney’s 1990 Spanish-language version of Beauty and the Beast, has died at 67. After a diverse international opera career, Lourdes served from 2015 to 2017 […]
Lament for top lute
Message received: The Dutch lutenist and theorbo player Fred Jacobs died last Thursday. As fine a player of those instruments as there could be, whether as a soloist or as a continuo player, he […]
Just in: Salzburg scores 98.4%
Good result from a fairly uneventful summer fest: The Salzburg Festival Directorate – Kristina Hammer, Markus Hinterhäuser and Lukas Crepaz – is pleased to announce a 98.4% percentage of occupied seats. 256.600 guests from 88 […]
Vache Baroque Festival 2025 – Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise
André Campra was an important figure in the development of French opera between the death of Lully (1687) and Rameau’s first example, Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) not least by pioneering the form of the opéra-ballet in L’Europe galante. Such works […]
BBC Proms: Rarely has large-scale Handel felt so vital & involving. Peter Whelan & the Irish Baroque Orchestra in the Dublin version of Alexander’s Feast
Handel: Alexander’s Feast – Hilary Cronin, Stuart Jackson, Peter Whelan, Irish Baroque Orchestra & Chorus – BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC) Handel: Alexander’s Feast (1742 version, modern premiere), Concerti a due cori; Hilary Cronin, […]
Top German bassoon, RIP
The death has been communicated of Klaus Thunemann, principal bassoon in Hamburg in the 1960s and 70s, an international soloist and a lasting influence on the next two generations of performers. Klaus was 88. The […]
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