Heavenly joy & earthly travails: Philippe Sly is compelling as St Francis in Romeo Castellucci's mesmerising & frustrating vision Messiaen's opera in Salzburg

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise - Philippe Sly - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise; Philippe Sly, Lauranne Oliva, Sean Panikkar, Russell Braun, director: Romeo Castellucci, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Maxime Pascal; Salzburg Festival at the Felsenreitschule
Reviewed 9 August 2026

An evening like no other: a selfless & compelling performance from Philippe Sly illuminates a production of Messaien's mammoth opera that was by turns mesmerising & frustrating as director/designer Romeo Castellucci sought a physical counterpart to the music's transcendence.

Mounting Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d’Assise remains a bold undertaking. Premiered at the Paris Opera in 1983, it had to wait until 1992 for a further production at the Salzburg Festival, with the festival reviving it in 1998. The sheer length and complexity of the work, allied to the numbers of performers required allied to the striking subject matter (how does one stage a long scene where St Francis receives the stigmata?) and the challenge of the huge title role (Jose van Dam sang it both in 1983 and 1992) all mitigate against the piece. Yet if a company dares, then the rewards are remarkable.

For 2026, the Salzburg Festival has returned to Messiaen's Saint François d’Assise with a new production directed, designed and lit by Romeo Castellucci at the Felsenreitschule. Dramaturgy was by Christian Longchamp, and choreography by Yasmine Hugonnet. Maxime Pascal conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with the chorus of the Vienna State Opera off-stage throughout.

Philippe Sly was St Francis, with Lauranne Oliva as the Angel, Sean Panikkar as the voice of the Leper, Russell Braun as Brother Leo, Leo Vermont-Desroches as Brother Masseo, Aaron-Casey Gould as Brother Elie, Willard White as Brother Bernard, Marius Aron as Brother Sylvestre, and Ivan Lyvch as Brother Rufin. Additionally, there were twelve dancers (six angels, six Franciscan brothers), plus twenty actors along with sheep, a dog and a pea-hen.

Darkness visible: remarkable performances from Jonathan Tetelman & Asmik Grigorian in Bizet's Carmen directed by choreographer Gabriela Carrizo in Salzburg

Bizet: Carmen - Asmik Grigorian - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

Bizet: Carmen; Asmik Grigorian, Jonathan Tetelman, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Davide Luciano, director: Gabriela Carrizo, Utopia Orchestra, conductor: Teodor Currentzis; Salzburg Festival at the Grosses Festspielhaus
Reviewed 8 August 2026

Shorn of dialogue & with an added dance element, this experimental production created a remarkably dark-toned Carmen with fierce undertones leading to an astonishing final scene.

With Carmen, Bizet left us with something of a conundrum. Not that the opera is incomplete, but first off what does Bizet's final version of the opera consist of? A new edition by Paul Prevost for Bärenreiter publishes all surviving versions of material thus allowing companies to choose. Though it has to be pointed out that Bizet published his own final vocal score of the piece.

Then there is the spoken dialogue. Before his death, Bizet had signed a contract with the Court Opera in Vienna, so he obviously intended to provide sung recitatives. Ernest Guiraud's recitatives are a workman-like solution to the problem and definitely in character, but what would Bizet have done? The question tantalises. The Opera Comique version of Carmen has a remarkably sympathetic way of modulating between dialogue, melodrama and fully sung, so you can't help feel Bizet would have had a similarly imaginative solution to creating grand opera Carmen.

Modern day opera companies tend to prioritise Bizet's own version of the opera with dialogue yet stretches of spoken French remain a challenge.

Bizet: Carmen (Act Two) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Virginia Rota)

At the Salzburg Festival, a new production of Carmen was entrusted to director and choreographer Gabriela Carrizo, founder of Peeping Tom dance company, and conductor Teodor Currentzis and his Utopia Orchestra. The performance included Currentzis's Utopia Choir and Bachchor Salzburg with eight members of Carrizo's Peeping Tom company. Design was by Christof Hetzer, lighting by Tom Visser and sound design by Raphaelle Latini.

Asmik Grigorian was Carmen with Jonathan Tetelman as Don Jose, Kristina Mkhitaryan as Micaela, Davide Luciano as Escamillo, Iveta Simonyan as Frasquita, Anita Monserrat as Mercedes, Matthias Winckhler as Zuniga, Liviu Holender as Morales, Michael Arivony as Le Dancaire, Mingjie Lei as Le Remendado and Amparo Cortés as Lillas Pastia.

With Brussels-based Peeping Tom, Gabriela Carrizo's artistic practice involves dance and theatre, using hyperrealism and surrealism to reveal characters' hidden desires and impulses. Carmen seems to have been her first opera and for all the brilliant moments in the staging, you felt she struggled somewhat with the rather fixed nature of the operatic form - this is the score, perform it!

The most controversial decision was to remove the spoken dialogue (something Sally Potter did in her ill-fated Carmen for ENO in 2007), though with such an international cast (Lithuanian, Chilean/American, Armenian, Italian, Russian, British, German, Austrian...) this is understandable in a way. Replacing the dialogue with dance/drama passages using Latini's sound designs - disturbing tonally - was not altogether successful in filling in the gaps. In the first two acts, you rather had to know the story. Quite what a first time attender made of it, I don't know. The first time we hear Don Jose, he is singing to Micaela and we never hear Carmen laugh, nor does she taunt Don Jose.

Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag's futuristic vision of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Salzburg Festival

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Michael Porter (Scaramuccio), Lukas Enoch Lemcke (Truffaldin), Ziyi Dai (Zerbinetta), Leon Košavić (Harlekin), Theodore Browne (Brighella) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos; Kate Lindsey, Christina Nilson, Eric Cutler, Ziyi Dai, Johannes Silberschneider, Christoph Pohl, director: Ersan Mondtag, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Manfred Honeck; Salzburg Festival at the Haus für Mozart
Reviewed 7 August 2026

Interdisciplinary artist Ersan Mondtag's over-elaborate and confusing futuristic vision of Ariadne auf Naxos fails to convince as stage drama but redeemed by fine musical performances

Though Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Ariadne auf Naxos (in its various iterations) was firmly based in the 17th century of Moliere, did it occur to the good burgers of Stuttgart (where the first version premiered), Berlin or Vienna that it was they who were being satirised? The work might be about the complex process of making art but it also has things to say about those paying for it.

To be really daring, the new production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Salzburg Festival should have been set in and around the Haus für Mozart in the present day. Instead, Ersan Mondtag's production was set in a fantasy future in an enclave on Mars.

We caught the second performance of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at Salzburg Festival's Haus für Mozart on 7 August 2026. Ersan Mondtag directed and designed, Manfred Honeck conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Choreography was by Ashley Alexandra Wright with video by Alexander Pannier. The dramaturg was Till Briegleb, a role perhaps more important than usual in this production as the plot of the opera had undergone significant changes.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Christina Nilsson (Ariadne) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Kate Lindsey was the composer, Christina Nilsson was Ariadne, Eric Cutler was Bacchus, Ziyi Dai was Zerbinetta, Johannes Silberschneider was the majordomo, Christoph Pohl was the music master, Jonas Hacker was the dancing master with Leon Kosavic, Michael Porter, Lukas Enoch Lemcke and Theodore Browne as Zerbinetta's troupe, Jasmin Delfs as a Naiad, Anja Mittermüller as a Dryad and Marlene Metzger as Echo.

Ersan Mondtag is a multi-disciplinary artist whose credits include the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale as well as directing opera for Opera Vlaanderen, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, and Opera national de Lyon. His most recent operatic credit was Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles for Vienna State Opera set in the world of high fashion.

At the Salzburg Festival, director Christof Loy & a strong cast demonstrate that less is more in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Lea Desandre, Victoria Karkacheva, Elsa Dreisig, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Andrè Schuen, Bogdan Volkov - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte; Elsa Dreisig, Victoria Karkacheva, Bogdan Volkov, Andrè Schuen, Lea Desdandre, Johannes Martin Kränzle, dir: Christof Loy, Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, cond: Joana Mallwitz; Salzburg Festival at the Grosses Festspielhaus
Reviewed 6 August 2026

I have sometimes found Christof Loy's work to be too cerebral, but here his stripped down production worked superbly, releasing the combined talents of a strong cast to create something rather special

After the hyper-busy staging of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims the previous night [see my review], Thursday 6 August saw a production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival in the Grosses Festspielhaus that was in complete contrast. Christof Loy's new production was a restudied version of his 2020 COVID-era Cost fan tutte (in a version trimmed to well under three hours). The new production saw the 2020 cuts reversed and the staging reconsidered.

Joana Mallwitz conducted the Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener Philharmoniker alongside members of the Wiener Philharmoniker. Elsa Dreisig was Fiordiligi, Victoria Karkacheva was Dorabella, Bogdan Volkov was Ferrando, Andrè Schuen was Guglielmo, Lea Desdandre was Despina, and Johannes Martin Kränzle was Don Alfonso. Sets were by Johannes Leiacker, costumes by Barbara Drosihn and lighting by Olaf Winter.

Christof Loy conceived the production for the Grosses Festspielhaus, 'a performance on this gigantic stage that nevertheless manages to be very intimate' as Loy described it in the programme book. 'It dispenses with all external aids: there are only two doors, the characters, the music ... The performers are far closer to the audience.'

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Bogdan Volkov, Andrè Schuen - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

The playing area was relatively narrow with steps leading down into the orchestra pit. Costumes were plain black and modern in style, and whilst Fiordiligi and Dorabella's shoes were relatively ordinary black court shoes, I am assured that Despina's shoes were something rather special. When the men were in disguise they were in colour, no silly wigs or costumes here.

Virtuoso tour de force of triviality: Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims at the Salzburg Festival

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Tara Erraught, Cecilia Bartoli - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims; Cecilia Bartoli, Marina Viotti, Mélissa Petit, Tara Erraught, Edgardo Rocha, Dmitry Korchak, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Florian Sempey, Misha Kiria, Peter Kellner, Giovanni Romeo, dir: Barrie Kosky, Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, cond: Gianluca Capuano; Salzburg Festival
Reviewed 5 August 2026

Rossini's occasional comedy reinvented by Barrie Kosky as hyperactive farce in an over the top performance with strong musical contributions

Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims was written for an occasion, the coronation of Charles X of France, and never performed again, though Rossini's music is of the highest quality. He would, in fact, re-use material in Le comte Orgy and but it was not until the 1980s that the original work was performed again. It is more than an occasional piece, the music ensures that, though companies music field a wide range of Rossini stylists.

Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggo a Reims debuted at the Salzburg Easter Festival and returned to Salzburg's Haus für Mozart for the summer Salzburg Festival, opening on 5 August 2026. Gianluca Capuano conducted Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, a period instrument ensemble whose founding was the inspiration of Cecilia Bartoli. She was something of a presiding genius over this production, not only singing Corinna but appearing out of a cake as herself at the climax of celebrations at the end of the opera.

The rest of the cast included Marina Viotti as Marchesa Melibea, Mélissa Petit as Contessa di Folleville, Tara Erraught as Madama Cortese, Edgardo Rocha as Cavalier Belfiore, Dmitry Korchak as Conte di Libenskof, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Lord Sidney, Florian Sempey as Don Profundo, Misha Kiria as Barone di Trombonok, Peter Kellner as Don Alvaro, and Giovanni Romeo as Don Prudenzio, with the Choeur de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Peter Kellner, Florian Sempey - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

In the programme book, Barrie Kosky described the work as 'an exquisite confection' commenting that 'the characters are not developed', they have to be 'fleshed out by the performers'. In Rossini's day this probably relied on his distinguished singers (who included Giuditta Pasta and Laure Cinti-Damoreau) bringing out the original Romantic context for each of the set pieces. Kosky's solution was to play the piece as hyperactive farce. His production had many of the elements of farce, not just its pacing and mad-cap activities. There were plenty of entrances and doors - five in the first scene including three revolving doors, 13 in the second scene. There was much bedroom hopping in that second scene, along with many characters stripped down to their underwear. All prime ingredients of farce.

Three Choirs Festival 2027 announced: Gavin Higgins premiere, Grace-Evangeline Mason as new Associate Composer, Elgar's Piano Concerto revisited

Three Choirs Festival, Worcester with Samuel Hudson (Photo: Dale Hodgetts)

The Three Choirs Festival has announced the preliminary programme for next year's festival which takes place from 24 to 31 July 2027 in Worcester under artistic director Samuel Hudson. The festival opens with Britten's War Requiem with soloists soprano Elizabeth Watts, tenor Peter Hoare, and baritone David Stout, and the final concert features Elgar's The Light of Life, written for the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester in 1896. 

Gavin Higgins (Photo: Joseph Wong)

Other key performances include Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, marking the bicentenary of his death, with soloists Katie Trethewey, Helen Charlston, Nick Pritchard, and James Atkinson. Another anniversary being marked is the 300th anniversary of Handel's Coronation Anthems performed by the three Cathedral Choirs. The Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir will perform Haydn’s Nelson Mass alongside a new work by Cecilia McDowall, Songs of Exile.

2027 will be Gavin Higgins's second year as Three Choirs Festival Associate Composer. For 2026, the Festival premiered his Gloucester Service at the Festival Evensong which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and available on BBC Sounds (for 30 days).

Higgins's new work His Salt Skin will be performed at the 2027 Festival by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Duncan Ward, mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons, and countertenor Cameron Shahbazi, alongside RVW's A Sea Symphony.  The world premiere of a Festival commission by Dobrinka Tabakova will be the centrepiece of a concert featuring Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, and the first public performance of a new realisation of Elgar’s Piano Concerto by David Owen Norris. 

Worcester-based Ian Venables's Portrait of a Mind will be performed by tenor Gwilym Bowen, and other contemporary pieces in the Festival include Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles and a new commission by Eric Whitacre for Tenebrae to be performed alongside Howells's Requiem. 

The Festival has also announced Grace-Evangeline Mason as the new Associate Composer from 2027 to 2029. Mason’s orchestral work The Imagined Forest (2021) opened the 2024 Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, conducted by Samuel Hudson.

Full details from the Three Choirs Festival website. 

Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's new production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in its 1920s London setting

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Alison Langer, Harry Wilson - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus; Thomas Atkins, Alison Langer, Rebecca Bottone, Clare Presland, Julien Van Mellaerts, Xavier Hetherington, director: Liam Steel, City of London Sinfonia, conductor George Jackson; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 29 July 2026

London 1929 is the setting for Liam Steel's engaging production full of Bright Young Things, helped by strong musical values under George Jackson though perhaps dialogue does not fizz quite enough

Johann Strauss's operettas were highly popular in his lifetime, particularly in Vienna, but apart from Die Fledermaus they have struggled to find a place in the repertoire - when did you last come across a performance of Eine Nacht in Venedig or Der Zigeunerbaron? The fault laid against them is often that the librettos were poor, partly this is because many were based on boulevard comedies. Mistaken identities, disguise and farcical situations are often key and a lesser known work like Blindekuh (Blind man's buff, see my review of the 2002 recording) seems to have too much plot for its own good.

Cannily, Die Fledermaus solves this problem partly by having a key element of the plot happen well before the opera starts, a trick with which Verdi (Il trovatore) and Wagner (Parsifal) were both familiar. The other canny element is the Act Two party, where stray bits of plot can happen in quick succession alongside a bubbly score. And that is the point, Strauss operettas work because of their scores, because of his infectious melodies.

Whilst Die Fledermaus is the best known of Strauss's operettas, it hardly gets over-performed in the UK. The Grange Festival performed it last year [see my review], and fringe opera company St Paul's Opera did it in 2024 [see our article]. But before then we came across Opera Integra in 2017 [see our review] and Opera Holland Park in 2016 [see my review], with ENO presenting a single run of Christopher Alden's production in 2013 [see our review], whilst the Royal Opera last performed it in 1990!

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Julien Van Mellaerts, Clare Presland, Alison Langer, Thomas Atkins - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Ten years on from their last production, Opera Holland Park returned to Strauss's Die Fledermaus on 29 July 2026 in a new production directed by Liam Steel (who also provided the choreography) and conducted by George Jackson with City of London Sinfonia in the pit. Sets were by Neil Irish and costumes by Laura Jane Stanfield. Eisenstein was Thomas Atkins, Rosalinde was Alison Langer, Rebecca Bottone was Adele, Clare Presland was Orlofsky, and Julien Van Mellaerts was Falke.

Up Close and Musical: Shiry Rashkovsky's concert series to be first classical offering at The Amadeus, Maida Vale

Abel Selaocoe at Up Close and Musical (Photo: Dimitri Djuric)

Violist Shiry Rashkovsky’s Up Close and Musical is back in November, expanded from a three-day festival to a season-long series at a new home, The Amadeus, Maida Vale, making Up Close and Musical the venue's first live concert series. An eclectic programme of music juxtaposing well-known favourites with an infectious experimental vibe runs monthly on Fridays from 13 November 2026 to 21 May 2027, with solo and chamber concerts with internationally renowned artists, a dedicated New Music Night, and a Rising Star showcase as part of a new collaboration with the Countess of Munster Trust.

The trio of Fanny Clamagirand, violin, Shiry Rashkovsky, viola and Margarita Balanas, cello in their first chamber collaboration open things on 13 November with a programme moving from duos by Mozart, Ravel, Bacewicz and Caroline Shaw to Dohnányi's Serenade for String Trio. A month laster, the concert on 11 December sees the return of bass player, composer and arranger Misha Mullov-Abbado with his sextet in a programme mixing new works by Mullov-Abbado with music from the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group's albums.

Further ahead, guitarist Alexandra Whittingham presents a recital of Spanish, French and British repertoire showcasing the music of American composer and band-leader Ralph Towner (1940-2026). A Rising Star Showcase features a varied and intriguing programme from violinist Leo Appel, accordionist Sofia Ros, saxophonist Rob Burton and countertenor Will Prior with pianists Alfred Fardell and Tomos Boyles.

Shiry Rashkovsky celebrates the release of her album April / everything on Delphian Records, in a programme championing the viola in its many guises. She is joined by pianist Richard Uttley for works by Schumann and Hindemith, principal players from LSO/Aurora for Errollyn Wallen’s viola quintet LENCTEN, which Errollyn will introduce and share insight into in a candid interview segment, and will premiere Ben Nobuto’s April/nothing for viola and electronics. And the series concludes with Up Close and Musical’s inaugural New Music Night. Spotlighting three composer/performers Ben Nobuto (piano/electronics), RPS Awards), Zara Hudson-Kozdoj (cello/electronics) and Otto Hashmi (recorder/electronics).

"The Amadeus has been used as a rehearsal venue for many wonderful orchestras and ensembles ... who have enjoyed the exceptional acoustic of this converted Welsh Chapel. I am delighted to have Shiry and Up Close and Musical partnering with us as we open up our space to the public and share the unique and beautiful ambience that the Amadeus provides." David Somner, The Amadeus

Full details from Up Close and Musical website. 

A meaty, not to say tough programme: Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius at the BBC Proms

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite - Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite, Britten: Cello Symphony, Sibelius: Symphony No. 2; Guy Johnston, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 28 July 2026

Britten's gnarly Cello Symphony gets a rare Proms outing with a poetic solo from Guy Johnston alongside Turnage's engaging (if self indulgent) suite from his recent opera, and Oramo in fine form in Sibelius

For the second of his five BBC Proms this year on Tuesday 28 July 2026 at the Royal Albert Hall, Sakari Oramo conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Festen Suite (a BBC co-commission), Britten's Cello Symphony (with soloist Guy Johnston) and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2. It was a meaty, not to say tough programme with each work being, in its way, substantial and challenging. And in true Proms tradition, the links between the works seemed tenuous, perhaps the thread was simply Oramo himself.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's 2024 opera Festen (with a libretto by Lee Hall) premiered at Covent Garden (winning a 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Award) and was also seen at Finnish National Opera. Turnage's suite from the opera premiered in Copenhagen earlier this year with Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alondra de la Parra. Turnage has constructed an eight movement suite from the second and third acts of the opera, with some movements transferring arias onto the orchestra (solo lines played variously by saxophone and cello). The work is scored for a huge orchestra, triple woodwind, saxophones, brass and considerable percussion.

As with any suite taken from a dramatic work, the question remains do I need to know the original piece. Works like the suites from Bizet's Carmen or Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker work because the composers created such terrific tunes. Turnage's opera doesn't quite have that, but there are underlying popular elements to his music that make it engaging and the suite's movements demonstrate a satisfying variety. His writing demonstrates a fondness for dense, opaque harmonies but also a vivid variety of colour and timbre.

Britten: Cello Symphony - Guy Johnston, Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Concerto Copenhagen, Mass in B Minor, music for Charles II: London Festival of Baroque Music returns with Iestyn Davies again as artistic director

The London Festival of Baroque Music at Smith Square Hall, 2025

The London Festival of Baroque Music returns to Smith Square Hall from 24 to 31 October 2026, again with countertenor Iestyn Davies as artistic director. 

The Festival opens with a rare opportunity to hear Concerto Copenhagen in London. Directed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen they present Bach's Orchestral Suites Nos.1-4, and then the following evening give a chamber concert featuring music by Purcell, Bertali, Biber and Frohberger. 

The Festival closes with La Nuova Musica, conductor David Bates, in Bach's Mass in B Minor with soloists Lauren Lodge-Campbell, Ana Beard Fernandez, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Laurence Kilsby and Dingle Yandell, and there is also a chance to hear Laurence Kilsby in recital when he joins lutenist Yun Bayeul. And there is further lute action when violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte joins lutenist Thomas Dunford for music for Charles II's court, whilst soprano Nardus Williams and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny explore the musical expression of melancholy across 16th and 17th century Europe

Other visitors to the festival include Stile Antico, The Curious Bards, Ensemble Théodora and Trio Mediæval, and resident ensemble Sinfonia Smith Square will be presenting a new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Robin O’Neill who also conducts.

Each event will be presented one of three concert settings, including the intimate in-the-round format that captivated audiences last year. 

Further details from Sinfonia Smith Square's website. 

The next generation of composers: ORA Singers' Young Composers' Showcase at Kings Place

Suzi Digby & ORA Singers at Kings Place

ORA Singers' Young Composers’ Programme was set up in 2019 to tackle the decline in music provision in state schools. Now in its seventh iteration, each year the scheme welcomes 50 students from non-fee-paying schools across the country, who receive free, first-class mentoring in composition with professional composers.

40 applicants are selected to become Apprentices, who are enrolled onto a free course of online, in-depth workshops, with a further ten selected as Young Composers. These receive one-to-one mentoring with a professional composer who develops their skills and areas of need whilst guiding them through the process of writing a new choral piece. Halfway through the scheme, Young Composers join ORA Singers for a workshop, where they have their ideas and sketches tested out by our professional singers alongside a guest composer. Then, finally, there is a Showcase to feature the ten completed pieces.

As of 2025, the Young Composers' programme has benefitted over 250 students, with 190 schools involved. 

This year's ORA Singers Young Composers' Showcase takes place at Kings Place on Friday 31 July at 3pm. Suzi Digby will conduct eight singers from ORA Singers in a programme that combines Robert Parsons' Ave Maria and Phillipe De Monte's Super flumina Babyloni with the 10 Young Composers’ completed pieces, performed and recorded live by ORA Singers in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts.

There is the chance for the audience to vote for the recipient of the Audience Prize and at the end, after adjudication there is a prize-giving for the winning composers.

Full details from Kings Place website. 

 

Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera; Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari, Rosalind Plowright, dir: Rodula Gaitanou, City of London Sinfonia, cond: Michael Papadopoulos; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 25 July 2026

Superbly sung with a real sense of the underlying melodrama of the piece. Gaitanou's 1940s Hollywood setting really comes together for a highly taut and disturbing final act 

Verdi's Un ballo in maschera has a famously complex history. Planned for the 1858 Carnival season at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, controversy over the subject matter and the heavy hand of the Neapolitan censors meant that the opera debuted in revised form in 1859 in Rome. The source for the libretto was Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué. 

Verdi was familiar with French grand opera, he had had two not entirely successful attempts at writing in the genre - Jérusalem (a major rewrite of I Lombardi) in 1847 and Les vêpres siciliennes (with a libretto by Scribe) in 1855. He had also produced a grand opera version of Il trovatore as Le trouvère in 1856 [see my review of Le trouvère at Wexford Festival]. His fascination with the genre was partly economic and reputational - the Paris Opera paid well and success there was a significant event. But it would only be in 1867 with Don Carlos that he 'cracked' the genre, however his experience of French grand opera would cast a long shadow on his later Italian operas, so that Aida for instance has clear links to the genre.

Un ballo in maschera is a fascinating example of the way Verdi and his librettists took elements of the French grand opera genre but projected them onto a tauter dramatic structure. There is still a ball as the climax of the opera, but it has an important dramatic function. Similarly, the scene at Madame Arvidson's is stripped of frivolity and wrapped into the dramatic structure. And the opera has none of the length problems that beset Don Carlos when presented in Italian opera houses.

Opera Holland Park had a notable success with its 2019 production of Un ballo in maschera [see my review], which was also that year's Young Artists production [see my review]. Now the production has been revived for the first time with a largely new cast. We caught the opening night on Saturday 25 July 2026. Rodula Gaitanou again directed (with Harriet Taylor as assistant director), and Michael Papadopoulos conducted the City of London Sinfonia. Designs were by takis. Gustavo was sung by Matteo Desole, Amelia by Elin Pritchard, Anckarstrom by Dario Solari, Oscar by Rhian Lois and Madame Arvidson by Rosalind Plowright (who sang in the original production). The conspirators were Jihoon Kim and Duncan Stenhouse.

Virtuosity & discipline: John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto

Walton: Cello Concerto - Jonathan Aasgaard, John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Verdi: Overture to La forza del destino, Walton: Cello Concerto, Respighi: Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome; Jonathan Aasgaard, Sinfonia of London, John Wilson; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 24 July 2026

Italian warmth and vivid orchestral detail in a concert that gloried in technical virtuosity allied with real control and style, giving us a sense of magic, plus a more intimate view of Walton's concerto

Having seen John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London recently at the Cheltenham Music Festival in an all-English programme [see my review], it was a pleasure to catch their first BBC Prom (they return in September) at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 24 July 2026 for a programme redolent of Italy. They began with Verdi's overture to La forza del destino and ended with Respighi, all three of his Roman tone poems - Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. In the middle was Walton's Cello Concerto with soloist Jonathan Aasgaard (principal cellist of Sinfonia of London), a work that Walton wrote whilst living at La Mortella in Ischia.

This was a big band concert, the Walton apart. The stage was full for the Verdi and by the time we came to 'The Pines of the Via Appia' from Pines of Rome things were full to bursting with around 120 orchestral players and sixteen extra brass.

Respighi: Pines of Rome - John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Verdi's overture opened with vivid brass and tight, urgent string sound. What was notable was the clarity of detail that Wilson brought to the music along with a sense of control with singing lines allied to a disturbing undertow, leading to urgent, incisive drama. An insouciant clarinet melody was overwhelmed by urgent brass and strings, the music driven to climax, then crisp excitement to the end. I know that this overture is very much complete in itself, but Wilson's account made you wonder what he'd be like conducting the whole opera.

It was Francesca Caccini's score, & Vache Baroque's performance, that surprised & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina; Camilla Seale, Jon Stainsby, Phoebe Rayner, Vache Baroque, director: Eloise Lally, music director: Jonathan Darbourne; Buxton International Festival at Pavilion Arts Centre

Dazzling instrumental playing with music that seduced in a trifle over-serious staging but with some fine individual performances make this a notable revival of Francesca Caccini's rarely staged gem

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina by Francesca Caccini has the reputation as the first opera by a woman composer. Certainly, it is Caccini's only surviving opera, written for the Medici court in Florence in 1625. It remains, however, on the fringe of the repertoire though Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) staged it in 2015 [see my review]

Vache Baroque have been presenting their production of Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival in the Pavilion Arts Centre (seen 21 July 2026), directed by Eloise Lally (who directed Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore for St Paul's Opera last year, see my review) with Jonathan Darbourne as music director. Designs were by Zahra Mansouri and lighting by Katie Kelly. Camilla Seale was Alcina, Jon Stainsby was Ruggiero, Phoebe Rayner was Melissa and Filippo Turkheimer was Nettuno with Betty Makharinsky, Harriet Burns, Alina Miyagi Magnell and Tom Kelly. Jonathan Darbourne directed from the harpsichord with an instrumental ensemble of three violins, viola da gamba, violone, three recorders, three sackbuts, theorbo and organ. The staging encompassed the whole stage with the instrumental ensemble spread around the auditorium. Caccini's full scoring does not survive; no credit was given in the programme so I presume that it is to Darbourne we have to thank for the particular orchestration here.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Phoebe Rayner - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The plot, based on Ariosto, is similar to the one from Handel only here Ruggiero is rescued by another sorceress, Melissa, and Alcina turns people into plants rather than animals. Eloise Lally's concept of the plot took her some way from Caccini's court entertainment which was written for a visiting prince (and originally ended with a horse ballet). Here magic was played down. Lally explained her concept in the programme book:

'Set within a world on the brink of collapse, this work explores the tension between preservation and reinvention. Through the opposing forces of Alcina and Melissa, it questions who has the right to shape the future: those who uphold existing systems of power, or those who seek to dismantle and rebuild them entirely.'

Katie Kelly's lighting was certainly atmospheric but it did rather obscure some of the details of the staging, making the plot a little opaque. The production worked best when it forgot about explaining the mechanics of the plot and concentrated on personal interactions and the sheer seductive power of Caccini's music.

Musically, an evening of complete enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs's playful 'Love Island' setting for Handel's Amadigi in Buxton

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - Tim Morgan, Hilary Cronin, Rowan Pierce - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula; Tim Morgan, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, James Hall, director: Olivia Fuchs, the English Concert, conductor: Erin Helyard; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed 20 July 2026

By turns playful and distracting, Olivia Fuchs's production allowed a fine young cast to develop strong performances combining enjoyment and engagement with technical bravura

Handel's opera Amadigi di Gaula (1715) belongs to a small group of operas he wrote when he first came to London and the exact form of his style of opera seria was not yet fixed. Like its predecessor Teseo (1713), Amadigi is based on a French source and there are tantalising hints that the original plans for the opera included French elements such as dancing. [see my article on Handel's experimental early London period.] As it is, Amadigi has a freedom of form that makes it attractive to modern directors.

Olivia Fuchs has directed Handel's Amadigi di Gaula for the Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House. We caught the final performance on 20 July 2026. Erin Helyard (artistic director of Pinchgut Opera) conducted the English Concert with Tim Morgan (replacing Jake Ingbar) as Amadigi, Rowan Pierce as Oriana, Hilary Cronin as Melissa and James Hall as Dardano. Designs were by Eleanor Bull with lighting by Ben Pickersgill.

Both Cronin and Morgan have form with this opera. Tim Morgan sang the title role with English Touring Opera in 2021 (directed by James Conway, conducted by Jonathan Peter Kenny, see my review), whilst Hilary Cronin sang Oriana in concert with the English Concert (conducted by Kristian Bezuidenhout, see my review).

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - James Hall - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The opera has one of those 'black box' plots beloved of opera seria: the characters all confined to a single place. Here, four people in a love tangle: Melissa loves Amadigi who loves Oriana as does Dardano, all complicated by Melissa's power as a sorceress. What elevates the opera is the extraordinary power of the music for Melissa and Dardano, both of whom are disappointed in love.

More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at the Buxton Festival brings out the work's real drama

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito; Maria Stella Maurizi, Indyana Schneider, Xavier Mas, Frances Gregory, director: Corina Würsch, conductor: Adrian Kelly, Buxton International Festival; Buxton Opera House
Reviewed: 19 July 2026

A mainly young cast brings out the dramatic strengths in a semi-staging of Mozart's late opera with compelling performances from Maria Stella Maurizi and Indyana Schneider

Like the Grange Festival [see my review] last month, Buxton International Festival (BIF) has opted to explore Mozart's late masterpiece, La clemenza di Tito via a pair of concert performances (seen 19 July 2026). Adrian Kelly, artistic director of the Festival, conducted the BIF Orchestra (which mixes seasoned professionals with early career players) and the concert staging was directed by Corina Würsch who as assistant director/movement director on the Festival's recent production of Verdi's La traviata. Würsch was also movement director for Blackheath Halls Opera's 2025 production of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris [see my review].

Adrian Kelly is also head of the International Opera Studio (IOS) at Zurich Opera and the casting leveraged this connection. Italian soprano Maria Stella Maurizi (Vitellia) and Australian mezzo-soprano Indyana Schneider (Sesto) are current members of the IOS Zurich whilst New Zealand-born baritone Samson Setu (Publio) is a former member. Tito was played by French tenor Xavier Mas with Frances Gregory (whom we recently saw as Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo with Chelsea Opera Group, see my review) as Annio and Jessica Lawley as Servilia.

The orchestra was on stage which helped put them centre stage for once, though the sound was perhaps a little recessed. Adrian Kelly played the forte piano recitatives and the instrument a little too discreet for the space.

The acting space was a wide strip in front of the orchestra with Würsch's production concentrating on basics. The result was some admirably character-led drama. Costumes were simply variants of modern concert dress, though it was perhaps a trifle confusing to have Maria Stella Maurizi's Vitellia wearing trousers (albeit very elegantly) when two other women in the cast played en travestie. The chorus was off-stage for the conclusion of Act One but for the other appearances the singers efficiently filed on and off stage left.

Against a backdrop of fear, surveillance and political violence, the play explores the absurdity of tyranny, the courage of resistance and the enduring power of art to speak truth when words cannot.

A new play which premieres at Park Theatre on 27 August and runs until 10 October, is set to explore the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich. Holy Fool by Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers explores the tightrope he walked to stay in favour with Stalin, whilst resisting his tyrannical regime through music.

The play spans roughly 1936 to 1973, beginning with Stalin's attendance at Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Bolshoi and the subsequent denunciation that transformed Shostakovich's life. It then follows him through the years of censorship, war, political pressure and artistic compromise, right through to the later years of his life. 

Rather than a conventional biographical drama, the play is about the moral choices artists face under authoritarian rule, and asks whether survival itself can become a form of resistance. 

Shostakovich's music plays a central role in the drama, not just Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk but Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9. The long-suppressed Fourth Symphony becomes an important dramatic thread running through the play, representing both his artistic integrity and the personal cost of creating under Stalin's regime.

The play came about partly as a result of Rosalind Adler working on a play with Simon Russell Beale in mind. A meeting with him in his dressing room led her to ask him, "What subject would interest you more than any other?" His reply was instant: "Shostakovich."

Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers had already worked together on other projects and found they enjoyed collaborating. Whilst neither knew more than a bare minimum about Shostakovich, Sellers' degree was in Russian Studies and she also has a musical family. But the work also included mountains of research.

Rosalind Adler comments that "We enjoyed the picture that emerged of a generous, anxious, shy, brave man. We also fell in love with his music, both as an expression of his deepest self and as a response to the times he lived in. Our play is full of music...The more we felt deeply involved in Shostakovich's life and relationships, the more we relished working on the play. While being faithful to the facts, so many of which are dramatic in themselves, we also chose to test the character by pitting him against challenges and characters we invented."

Dramaturg Ali Bodin-Saphir also worked on tightening the script, and Kate Fahy directs.

Full details from the Park Theatre website.