Twenty years ago, Blackheath Halls launched an ambitious annual community opera project with a production of Bizet’s Carmen. This September, the project returns to the opera that started it all, celebrating two decades of creativity, […]
Dr Aaron McGregor (Photo: Campbell Parker) Advertisements for Handel’s performances in Dublin in 1741 and 1742 (when he premiered Messiah) give the name of his organist as “Mr M’Lean” or “Mr Maclaine” and that is all […]
The 2026 Windsor Festival International String Competition (WFISC) is the 10th anniversary competition and for this WFISC is upping its game and introducing a concerto final. The competition runs from 27 September to 2 October 2026 […]
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester is celebrating its 30th birthday! The opening concert was on 11 September 1996 and the hall has just announced a celebratory 2026/27 season. Manchester’s historic concert […]
Back in the late 1990s one of the origins for ideas for new musical works was the moment during mass when I tuned the homily out and my mind went into a sort of free […]
Verdi: La traviata – Christian Joel, Isobel Hughes, Ted Day – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) Verdi: La traviata; Lizzie Ryder, Christian Joel, Owain Gwynfryn, director: Edwina Strobl, music director: Adrian Salinero, St Paul’s […]
Irish-French composer Augusta Holmès’s Au bois dormant from Paysages d’Amour is an uplifting song, full of joys the love-drunk lovers, and was recorded by tenor Thomas Elwin and pianist Lana Bode on the 2025 album […]
Bizet’s perennially popular opera Carmen, a work capable of multiple reinventions, is popping up in two UK regional productions. Northern Ireland Opera has announced cast and creatives for its first-ever production of Carmen which debuts at Belfast’s Grand […]
CBSO at New Street Station as part of CBSO in the City, 2024 (Photo: Hannah Fathers) As part of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)’s 2026 CBSO in the City festival (27 to 31 […]
Handel: Giulio Cesare – Zheng Jiang, Owen Willetts, Jess Dandy – The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto; Tim Mead, Sarah Brady, Jess Dandy, Zheng Jiang, James Atkinson, director: David […]
