Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande is famously and beautifully a sparse opera, adapting the Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck whose drama is structured not so much as a continuous narrative as by its succession of episodes […]
Previously, we covered three string quartets by Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831) in this post. While he was certainly tremendously popular in his day, Pleyel’s music has dipped into obscurity s0 for a long time he was […]
Daniel Kidane: Aloud – Nathan Amaral, Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits – Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts) Thea Musgrave: Rorate coeli, Britten: A.M.D.G., Palestrina: Rorate coeli, Daniel Kidane: The Song Thrush […]
.jpg?w=510&resize=510,510&ssl=1 "A vivid theatricality that a more conventional treatment might have missed: Bintou Dembélé & Leonardo García-Alarcón collaborate on a remarkable reinvention of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes")
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes – Andreas Wolf, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, Leonardo García-Alarcón – The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) Rameau: Les Indes Galantes; Laurène Paternò, Ana Quintans, Alasdair […]
We began our coverage of Opera Rara’s Donizetti Songs #4 because of the inclusion of a setting of some of the libretto for La Straniera, and we covered Bellini’s opera of that name recently. now […]
I’ve collected the 3 of these to appear so far in the series – although after listening to the first one, I haven’t been motivated to listen to the next two. Francesca and Tempest were […]
Despite containing what is probably Rameau’s best known single piece of music (the keyboard piece Les Sauvages, arranged as the vocal ensemble ‘Forêts paisibles’) this is claimed to be the first fully staged performance in […]
Two contemporary singers are joining forces to present a recital of experimental vocal music. Eleanor Westbrook and Oskar McCarthy, along with pianist Ben Smith are presenting Contemporary Vocal Sünds at The Uplands, St Leonards-on-Sea (20 […]
Stephan Loges at a SongEasel recital on 22 June 2025 (Photo: Kate Kantur) Robert & Clara: songs by Clara Schumann & Robert Schumann including Liederkreis, Op. 39; Stephan Loges, Jocelyn Freeman; SongEasel at St Matthew’s […]
For Handel’s Semele (1744) Oliver Mears and designer Annemarie Woods draw inspiration from the films of Luis Buñuel for their surreal horror. Cross that with The Marriage of Figaro and you get the interpretation they […]
