classical

Oper Frankfurt has asked Sesto Quatrini to take charge of both Otellos in the coming weeks – Rossini’s on May 17, 19, 26, 31 and June 8, 15 ; and Verdi’s on June 22, 30 […]

The Peru-born conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, former chief of Fort Worth Symphony (2002-2020) and Norwegian Radio (2013-2020),is to be Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at Shepherd School, Rice University. The post has been vacant […]

Polish National Opera will include Penderecki’s The Black Mask as one of four new productions next season. The director is the British opera chief Sir David Pountney, whose championing of Weinberg’s The Passenger has earned […]

The veteran conductor Vladimir Fedoseev, 91, told a Victory Day concert audience in Moscow of his personal recollections of the Great Patriotic War: ‘I still have it all before my eyes… It’s hard to say […]

Last night’s late-breaking news that Katharina Wagner had been renewed for five more years as artistic director of  the Bayreuth allowed millions of Germans to sleep soundly in their beds. Katharina, 45, is the great-grandchild […]

The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, having decided to shut its junior department, has agreed to a ‘consultation’. But without changing its strategy. We recognise the concerns that these proposals will cause the […]

There were tears in the aisles as the Frenchman Louis Langrée conducted his last performance on Sunday after 11 years as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. At the close Langrée, 63, was awarded […]

The Cherry Orchard – Donmar Warehouse If you are prepared to forego Chekhov, the new Cherry Orchard at the Donmar is tremendous. Benedict Andrews has adapted and directed this production, jettisoning Chekhov’s language but mining his meaning. […]

At the 19th Israeli-Palestinian memorial day ceremony the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, drawn from both sides, sang in Arabic, English and Hebrew an appeal for peace. Starts at 22:00 Grab some hope. Do not miss. The […]

The magnificent saxophonist David Sanborn has died of prostate cancer, which he had endured for six years. He took up the instrument on doctors’ orders as a child to strengthen his chest muscles and improve […]