Handel's Rinaldo recast as pacey drama by Royal Academy of Music with some star quality in the solo roles

Handel: Rinaldo - Ellie Donald, Agustin Pennino - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Handel: Rinaldo: Agustin Pennino, Caroline Blair, Ellie Donald, Joel Robson, director: Julia Burbach, conductor: David Bates, Royal Academy Opera; Susie Sainsbury Theatre at Royal Academy of Music
Reviewed 18 March 2026

Handel's first Italian opera for London, reshaped as a vivid and pacey two hours with real Handelian star quality from some of the cast and a vibrantly urgent account of the score.

Having set some strong librettos during his four-year stay in Italy, from 1706 to 1710, in works like Agrippina and Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Handel's first opera for London, Rinaldo, which premiered in 1711 at the Queen's Theatre featured a far less impressive libretto. Using a scenario created by impresario Aaron Hill, the work aimed for visual spectacle to help show off the theatre's machinery. Handel's approach to the music was similar and his re-use of existing material from his Italian period has led some to comment that the work is closer to a pasticcio, a 'best of' assemblage. But whatever we think the work's dramatic logic (or lack thereof), it is undoubtedly full of good things.

This seems to have been the approach of director Julia Burbach and musical director David Bates for the new production of Handel's Rinaldo from Royal Academy Opera. Double cast, on Wednesday 18 March 2026 we caught Agustin Pennino as Rinaldo, Caroline Blair as Almirena, Ellie Donald as Armida, Joel Robson as Argante, Yihui Wang as Goffredo and Pavel Basov as Eustazio. Designs were by Bettina John, lighting by Robert Price and choreography by Cameron McMillan. The Royal Academy Sinfonia was in the pit.

Handel: Rinaldo - Agustin Pennino, Caroline Blair - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Burbach's intention in the production seems to have been to create a viable dramatic framework for the great numbers from the opera, giving the cast opportunities beyond a simple recital. There were significant cuts: the opening scene of Act Two, with the mermaids/sirens, was cut, the recitative was pared down to the bone and many arias shorn of the B sections. The resulting work, as presented, was a pacey and vivid two hours in the theatre (including interval). Burbach's scenario played up the 'boys own' nature of the original (something Robert Carsen's rather Harry Potter-ish school production at Glyndebourne brought out).

All-IN-4Art with Bettina Bermbach of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (DSM, the German Foundation for Musical Life)

Welcome to our new series, All-IN-4Art where our Florida correspondent, Robert J Carreras interviews musical figures from across the globe. 

Bettina Bermbach, 2026 (Photo: David Ausserhofer)

Bettina Bermbach arrived at Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (DSM, the German Foundation for Musical Life) from Hamburg State Opera in 2022. With the entrance of Bermbach, DSM entered into a reinventing and restructuring of its managerial operations. 

DSM triangulates its support of young musicians: by awarding scholarships and prizes, by providing instruments, and through performance opportunities. DSM provides long-term and tailor-made support for about 300 young musicians, ranging from 12 to 30 years of age. 

The foundation's secondary wing is the Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfonds (DMIF, the German Musical Instrument Fund). The instrument fund holds in its collection over 280 instruments of historical significance that are gifted, on loan, to select DSM award recipients. "Every year, we award the valuable instruments at a competition in Lübeck. This year, 49 highly talented musicians auditioned and 34 instruments were re-awarded."

Among the priceless artifacts awarded to DSM musicians in 2026 were a Guadagnini violin and a Grancino cello, both from 18th century Milan.

1.) Ms. Bettina Bermbach, thank you grandly for joining Planet Hugill for All-IN-4-Art.
Please choose a word for the kind of day you want today to be.

Joyful

Please tell Planet Hugill where you are, what time of day it is, about the weather, and what you're doing.

It's Monday, the sun is shining from a cloudless morning sky in Hamburg, and I'm sitting at my desk in the foundation's office writing a letter to a potential sponsor for the extension of an important project with young musicians.

2.) Ms. Bermbach, is there a level of musical talent that can only be understood as a gift?

Behind every great musician lie many years of hard work and discipline. Talent is part of the overall skill set, but without discipline it cannot flourish. However, there are always musicians with incredible natural talent who play with great ease and touch the audience. I truly see this talent as a gift.

3.) How can music effect positive change in the world?

Concerts, opera performances, art performances, choir concerts —live music is always a unifying experience for everyone involved. For the musicians and singers who have worked together and then present the results of their efforts, but also for the audience who experience the music together. This shared experience is something incredibly positive and can have a big impact. I don't have the general hope that music can change the world for the better, but for individual musicians and listeners, it can change everything. It doesn't necessarily have to be classical music; this also applies to all other types of music and across all cultures.

4.) Planet Hugill knows you already do a lot for others – young musicians and audiences – through DSM. Now, you've been granted a wish to do anything life-changing you want for others through your managerial skills, as long as you involve whomever you choose. You can make your wish come true musically, of course.

I would love to find the one foolproof method that introduces people to music and gets them completely hooked. Especially in the field of classical music—many people worry that they don't understand classical music or that this music isn't for them. I would love to break down this barrier. But I'm afraid that to do so, I need a magic wand rather than a management tool. But you asked me for a wish that would come true...

5.) Ms. Bermbach, do you believe there is a greater purpose to musical talent?

No, I don't think so. At least not a higher purpose that gives rise to an obligation. People have so many different talents—musical, scientific, literary, communicative...

6.) In one word, please describe a classical music performance that eclipses all others.

Divine.

How does that happen?

When everything comes together during a concert or an opera performance: the musicians play perfectly in sync, the singers are in top form, and their voices complement each other. That's something you can't plan or force, but when it happens, it's divine.

Take us to one experience of this in your life, only on one.

During a performance of “Tristan and Isolde” in Dresden with Christian Thielemann, there were those magical moments when everything just fell into place.

7.) Pick three classical music luminaries from the past to spend the day with.

A conversation with the young George Frideric Handel in Hamburg about his first opera would certainly be interesting - We would have a coffee at Gänsemarkt, where the first Hamburg Opera House used to stand.

Then I would like to spend a day with Antonio Stradivari in his workshop in Cremona and have him explain how he built his unique instruments and what his secret was.

And of course I would like to meet Maria Callas and ask her for a little private concert.

Finally, Ms. Bermbach, tell the Planet Hugill audience anything you'd like about music.

Music is one of the most important things in my life. Experiencing a concert, accompanying our young scholarship holders, immersing myself in an opera— all these things make me grateful. It is a gift that I have been able to work in the music industry for over 25 years, even though I myself have no artistic talent whatsoever, play the piano very poorly, and cannot sing a single note correctly. But I am a grateful audience member, and so I have not only been able to get to know an enormous repertoire, but also many incredibly talented artists. And I am very happy that I can now support young musicians on their way to the concert stage. I go to the office happy every day!

French fireworks & German heroes: David Butt Philip & Friends gala at St Paul's Opera, Clapham

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala - Susanna Stranders, Liam James Karai, Ellie Laugharne - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala; Ellie Laugharne, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, David Butt Philip, Liam James Karai, Susanna Stranders, Eric Melear; St Paul's Opera at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden
Reviewed 13 March 2026

A chance to get up close and personal with some first class voices in a series of stunning performances encompassing Mozart, Wagner, French opera, Handel, musicals and more. A delightful way to support this amazing company

A few days after performing Siegmund in David McVicar's production Wagner's Die Walküre at La Scala, Milan (his role and house debut) as part of the company Ring cycles commemorating the work's 150th anniversary, tenor David Butt Philip was back on home territory in a rather more intimate environment.

On Friday 13 March 2026, he presented the David Butt Philip & Friends Gala at St Paul's Church, Clapham in aid of St Paul's Opera's summer production of Verdi's La traviata. This year, for the fifth such gala, David Butt Philip was joined by soprano Ellie Laugharne, mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons and bass-baritone Liam James Karai with pianists Susanna Stranders and Eric Melear. The evening encompassed music from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Puccini's Tosca and La Boheme, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Wagner's Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, Massenet's Werther, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, and Handel's Hercules. There were songs by Madeleine Dring, Britten and Stanford, with music theatre pieces by Bernstein, Loewe, Weill and Lehar.

We began with Urbain's opening aria, 'Nobles Seigneurs' from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots with Marta Fontanals-Simmons clearly enjoying the florid moments and displaying a nice wit. David Butt Philip followed this with a thrilling and wonderfully committed rendition of 'Recondita l'armonia' from Puccini's Tosca. The two pieces demonstrating the fun to be had at this sort of gala, that of hearing favourite artists in material you might not hear them singing in the theatre.

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala - Marta Fontanals-Simmons - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Ellie Laugharne and Liam James Karai then gave us a potted selection from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, with Susanna and Figaro's duet from Act One, plus their arias from Act Four. We recently heard Liam James Karai in the role at Opera North and it was delightful to hear him and Ellie Laugharne up close and personal in this music, in performances that balanced seriousness and charm.

Memories of a County Kerry childhood & a travelling Scot: Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman & RVW's Songs of Travel at Wigmore Hall for St Patrick's Day

Stephen McNeff: Ballads of a Bogman - The Sigerson Clifford Song Cycle, Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel; Gavan Ring, Fiachra Garvey; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 17 March 2027

Stephen McNeff's masterly settings of poetry inspired by County Kerry with performers who seemed to identify with the material so that tenor Gavan Ring did not so much perform the songs as embody them

Sigerson Clifford (1913-1985) was an Irish playwright and poet whose most successful work was his 1955 poetry collection, Ballads of a Bogman. Though Clifford worked in Dublin, in the Civil Service, his poetry focuses on the town of Cahersiveen on the Iveragh peninsula of County Kerry on Ireland's southwest coast. The town where Clifford had been born and brought up.

Tenor Gavan Ring was also raised in Cahersiveen,. When in 2021 Ireland's Contemporary Music Centre brought him, pianist Louise Thomas and composer Stephen McNeff together as part of a programme to encourage creative collaboration between musical colleagues, Ring suggested Clifford's poems to McNeff as a source for a song cycle.

The result was Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman - The Sigerson Clifford Song Cycle from 2022. The cycle was the centrepiece of Gavan Ring and pianist Fiachra Garvey's St Patrick's Day recital at Wigmore Hall on 17 March 2026. The recital's theme was Evocations of Home and Exile, and their programme also included Ralph Vaughan Williams's Song of Travel setting Robert Louis Stevenson.

The plaque, designed by Alan Ryan Hall, commemorating Sigerson Clifford in Cahersiveen, Co. Kerry.

Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman is a substantial piece, consisting of ten songs in all. Many of Clifford's poems are in the strophic ballad form, and you can clearly hear Irish folk-music and poetry in them. Clifford's focus is on Cahersiveen, but it is not an entirely soft-focus view. In The Ballad of the Tinker's Son the poet contrasts the tinker's life with his own, marooned in an office in Dublin, yet as the ballad progresses the Troubles rear their head, and we learn the poet shot the tinker's son. That is another thing about these poems, they often have a sting in the tail, a twist in the last line. So at the end of The County Mayo with its lyrical evocation of youth, the poet makes clear he is old and looking back, whilst in The Fiddler the poet is another figure who is old and looking back.

Anna Clyne announced as composer-in-residence with the CBSO for 2026/27 with new viola concerto with Lawrence Power, new recording with Jess Gillam and more

Anna Clyne (Photo: Victoria Stevens)

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) has announced that USA-based British composer Anna Clyne has been appointed composer-in-residence for the 2026/27 season. Her work with the CBSO will include major symphonic performances, a world premiere commission and a significant new recording project.

Concert highlights include Restless Oceans in a programme conducted by the CBSO's music director Kazuki Yamada in September 2026, as well as her saxophone concerto, Glasslands, performed by CBSO collaborative artist Jess Gillam under the baton of Alpesh Chauhan, with a Decca recording of the work forming part of the project.     

In March 2027, the CBSO will give the world premiere of Clyne’s new Viola Concerto – Resonant Forms – co-commissioned by the orchestra for Lawrence Power. Her piece Night Ferry will also be performed as part of the CBSO’s Halloween themed Family Concert in October 2026.    

Clyne’s residency will extend beyond the concert platform, with collaborations including a project with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, educational visits to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Shireland CBSO Academy, and involvement in the CBSO’s Orchestral Residency Scheme with young musicians in July 2027, featuring her work PALETTE – a concerto for Augmented Orchestra. 

Clyne's cello concerto DANCE was performed by National Youth Orchestra as part of Shimmer, its January 2026 programme, and she was awarded her first Ivor Novello Award for Orbits, a piece commissioned and performed by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers setting the poem I Live My Life In Growing Orbits by Rilke in a translation by American poet Robert Bly [see my review]. Her piece, The Years, was performed at the BBC Proms in August 2025 by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Fabio Luisi as part of the orchestra's centenary celebrations [see my review].

Clyne's announcement at composer-in-residence comes after recent announcements of Ilan Volkov as principal guest conductor from 2026 to 2029; pianist Alice Sara Ott and saxophonist Jess Gillam as collaborative artists for 2026–28; composer and producer Rushil Ranjan as collaborative artist for 2025-27; along with the confirmation that Kazuki Yamada will remain music director until at least the end of the 2028-29 Season

Full details from the CBSO's website. 

 

'Music in Motion' and 'Cosmic': National Children's Orchestras present two showcase concerts at Bristol Beacon with Anna Lapwood

National Children's Orchestras (Photo: Paul Blakemore )

Next month, a pair of concerts at Bristol Beacon will showcase the talents of the National Children's Orchestra (NCO). Music in Motion on Sunday 5 April, sees the 12-13 year olds of NCO’s Under 13 Orchestra present the highlights of their first residential of the year with music from Bernstein's West Side Story, Khachaturian's Gayeneh Suite, Borodin's Polovtsian Dances and works by Arturo Marquez and Perez Prado.

On Sunday 12 April, the 13-14 year olds of NCO’s Under 14 Orchestra will conclude their residential week with a performance of their Cosmic programme where they will be joined by organist (and NCO alumna) Anna Lapwood for music by Richard Strauss, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Holst, Kristina Arakelyan and John Powell's music from How to train your dragon!

Founded in 1978, NCO brings together nearly 2,000 young musicians annually through residential activities, regional projects, and non-auditioned workshops to foster musical, social, and personal development and provide young budding musicians with the environment and opportunities to flourish and perform to their full potential.

Earlier this year NCO announced an ambitious programme of orchestral weeks, weekends and further public concerts in additional locations across Liverpool, Wiltshire and London. With these public concerts, expanded regional activity, new partnerships and a renewed focus on audience development, 2026 marks a significant moment in NCO’s mission to ensure that more children, regardless of background, can experience the transformative impact of music.

Full information from NCO's website.

Pauline Viardot, Francesca Caccini, an early Handel magic opera, late Mozart and more: Buxton International Festival's 2026 season

Lehár: The Merry Widow - Paula Sides in John Savournin's production at Scottish Opera 2025 (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)

Buxton International Festival is going from strength to strength and the 2026 festival, which runs from 9 to 26 July, features 160 events across 17 days including six opera production (four of them new productions), alongside a concert programme, jazz, book events and more. In recent years it has staged musicals alongside lesser-known opera. This year it is presenting two well-known main-stage operas, Lehar's The Merry Widow and Verdi's La traviata, alongside more rarified repertoire including Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, Viardot's Le dernier sorcier and Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero, along with Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.

John Savournin's to Italian-American Mafia-inspired production of Lehar's The Merry Widow (a co-production with Scottish Opera, Opera Holland Park and D’Oyly Carte Opera which we saw last summer, see my review) makes its Festival debut with Iwan Davies conducting the Buxton International Festival Orchestra. Paula Sides is Hanna Glawari and Dominic Sedgwick is Danilo.

A new production of Verdi's La traviata is a co-production with Norwich Theatre, directed by James Hurley and with Adrian Kelly, the Festival's artistic director, conducting the Buxton International Festival Orchestra. Polish-American soprano Alexandra Nowakowski is Violetta with Omer Kobijlak as Alfredo and Andre Heyboer as Germont.

Another Festival production is Handel's Amadigi di Gaula. Olivia Fuchs directs with Erin Helyard conducting the English Concert. American countertenor Jake Ingbar (whom we saw as Nireno in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Salzburg last year, see my review) is Amadigi with Rowan Pierce as Oriana, Hilary Cronin as Melissa and James Hall as Dardano. The Festival is also presenting a lesser known opera of a different vintage, Pauline Viardot's Le dernier sorcier. A chamber opera in two acts which has a libretto by the novelist Ivan Turgenev, with whom Viardot had a long relationship. Erika Gundesen conducts and Lysanne van Overbeek directs with a cast including Phil Wilcox, Eleri Gwilym, David Karapetian and Rebecca Anderson.

Vache Baroque bring their production of Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero, the first known opera by a woman and complete with a horse ballet! Eloise Lally directs with Jonathan Darbourne conducting an ensemble of period instruments. Camilla Seale is Alcina, Jon Stainsby is Ruggiero, and Phoebe Rayner is Melissa.

There are two performances of a semi-staging of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. Adrian Kelly conducts the Buxton International Festival Orchestra and a chorus from the Royal Northern College of Music with a cast including Xavier Mas, Maria Stella Maurizi, Indyana Schneider, and Frances Gregory.

Visitors to the festival include the Sacconi Quartet, celebrating its 25th anniversary; harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in a programme of Handel and Scarlatti; soprano Louise Alder, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, tenor Nicky Spence, baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Joseph Middleton in four linked song recitals each inspired by points of the compass; the Sitkovetsky Trio in Beethoven's Ghost Trio; cellist Stephen Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih in Sterndale Bennett, Britten and Messager; the Gould Piano Trio in James MacMillan; Will Duerden, Daniil Margulis and Svitlana Kosenko in music for two double basses and piano; the Brodsky Quartet in an American-inspired programme; pianist Peter Donohoe in Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Schumann; actor Alexander Armstrong, soprano Claire Booth and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen explore the roaring Twenties; oboist Ewan Miller and pianist Tomos Boyle in music by Bach, Barber, Musgrave and Brahms; pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason in Beethoven, Ravel, and Dobrinka Tabakova; bass Alistair Miles and pianist Marie-Noelle Kendall in Brahms, Ibert, Finzi and Strauss' Four Last Songs.

Vache Baroque present a programme of Dowland, Iwan Davies (conductor of The Merry Widow) directs Twentieth Century Din in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with Allison Cook, and Erwin Stein's chamber version of Mahler's Symphony No. 4. Euan Shields conducts the Halle Orchestra in Weber, Richard Strauss and Brahms. There are concerts in Poole's Cavern featuring music from opera and musicals,

Full information from the festival website.

Easter Music Course for 8 to 13s, new Movement for Musicians & Creative Writing: Guildhall School's programme of Easter Short Courses

Easter Music Course

The Guildhall School offers a wide range courses above and beyond full-time study. There are Summer Evening Courses, Easter Short Courses and Summer Schools, with many courses offered on-line. 

The Easter Short Course programme features 15 short courses, 6 of which are brand new. These include 4 drama courses, 2 new writing courses, 8 music courses and 1 new skills for the creative industry course. The deadline to book for all Easter short courses is 5pm, Thursday 2 April 2026, or when the course reaches full capacity.

The Easter Music Course is for young instrumentalists aged 8 to 13 playing any bowed string, wind, brass or percussion instrument (Grade 1 or above: equivalent to one year's experience), who are looking to gain some ensemble experience in different performance settings including orchestra, small ensembles, and choir. The course culminates in an informal concert for friends and family to showcase the work they have developed during the course, including a piece of original music, which will be created as a group. This course is taught by tutors from Junior Guildhall, led by Spencer Down – Brass Coordinator at Junior Guildhall and Creative Director of Guildhall Young Artists.  

New courses include two in-person three-day Acting Intensive courses, for ages 11 to 14, and 15 to 17, delving into modern industry practice, building upon traditional Stanislavsky-based methods. Another new, in-person course is Movement for Musicians, designed to inspire fresh enthusiasm and awareness for the importance of bodywork and movement in artistic practice.

There is a new Creative Writing for Ages 14-17 led by London writer Annie Hayter, and Writing a Solo Show (for 18+ ) designed to help you create a one-person performance from scratch. Focusing on Skills for Creative Industries, there is a new one-day masterclass, Creative Evaluation Methods.

Whilst all the acting courses are in-person, three of the music courses are on-line. Full details from the Guildhall School's website.

 

 

 

Hugill in New York: Laetare Jerusalem at St Patrick's Cathedral

St Patrick's Cathedral, New York (Photo from the Live Stream)

A Facebook contact very kindly alerted me to the fact that the 10:15am Solemn Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Sunday 15 March (Laetare Sunday) was going to feature my motet Laetare Jerusalem. Luckily the service is Live Streamed so we were able to eavesdrop on the performance. Bravo and many thanks to the choir and their music director.

The service is available on YouTube, on the cathedral's YouTube Channel.

Laetare Jerusalem is a setting of the Introit for the Fourth Sunday in Lent and comes from Tempus per Annum my sequence of motets for the church's year, setting the Latin introits for Sundays and major feasts. All are available from CPDL.

    Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her:
    rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow:
    that you exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.
    I rejoiced at the things that were said to me:
    we shall go into the house of the Lord.
 

Vital & engaging: Handel's early English masque, Acis and Galatea, alongside his setting of Dryden's A Song for St Cecilia, harking back to concerts from 1739

Auguste Ottin
Polyphemus Surprising Acis and Galatea
1852-63, Luxembourg Gardens

Handel: Acis and Galatea (1718), Ode for St Cecilia; Carolyn Sampson, Laurence Kilsby, William Thomas, Jonathan Hanley, Archie Inns, Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh; London Handel Festival at Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 14 March 2026

Harking back to one of Handel's concerts from 1739, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli presented vital performances of two contrasting works with engaging solos and fine instrumental playing. 

Handel's Acis and Galatea and his Ode for St Cecilia is not a particularly obvious pairing. Yet in 1739, when Handel presented his first London season without any Italian opera because the continental wars made recruiting Italian singers difficult, that is exactly what he did. The season included Alexander's Feast and initially Handel paired the Ode for St Cecilia with Alexander's Feast, but after the first performance he changed plans, perhaps wanting greater contrast. Instead, the Ode for St Cecilia was paired with Acis and Galatea, reverting to an adaptation of the work's original 1718 masque version rather than the grander serenata version Handel created in 1732.

On Saturday 14 March 2026, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli evoked his concert at Smith Square Hall with the original 1718 version of Acis and Galatea alongside the Ode for St Cecilia. The cast for Acis and Galatea featured Laurence Kilsby and Carolyn Sampson in the title roles, plus William Thomas as Polyphemus, Jonathan Hanley as Damon and Archie Inns as Coridon. Then Kilsby and Sampson took the solo parts in the Ode for St Cecilia.

The inclusion of Acis and Galatea in the concert seemed somewhat a luxury for the festival given that it staged the 1718 version at Stone Nest in 2022, also with William Thomas as Polyphemus [see my review]. That said, experimenting with Handel's own somewhat unwieldy, by modern standards, concert programmes is exactly what this type of festival should be doing.

Elegance, exuberance and one remarkable woman: the Academy of Ancient Music travels to Georgian London to discover the lost world of musical innovator, Elisabetta da Gambarini

Elisabetta da Gamberini

Handel, Elisabetta de Gambarini, Geminiani, Carlo Tessarini; Mhairi Lawson, Academy of Ancient Music led by Bojan Čičić; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 12 March 2026

The Academy of Ancient Music plunges deep into the colourful world of Elisabetta da Gambarini - composer, virtuoso and entrepreneur as well as the first woman ever to publish music in England

The Academy of Ancient Music’s tribute to Elisabetta da Gambarini and her contemporaries proved an enjoyable and unforgettable show with an excellent programme exploring the vibrant musical landscape of Georgian London showcasing the influence of immigrant musicians and the pioneering role of women engaged in 18th-century music-making.  

Relating mostly to the late baroque and classical music period, Gambarini (who lived for only 33 years from 1731 to 1765) achieved distinction by being an all-round musician performing on and composing for a variety of instruments as well as voice. Her compositions were known to reflect that of vocal work instead of instrumental patterns.  

Born on 7th September 1731 in Holles Street, Marylebone, Elisabetta Gambarini’s father, Charles Gambarini, acted as Counsellor to the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel. He died in 1754 while his wife Joanna (Giovanna Paula) Stradiotti died in 1774. A nobleman from Lucca, Italy, her father published A Description of the Earl of Pembroke’s Pictures 1731 while her mother, of similar status from Dalmatia, is thought to have been a tutor to the nobility. 

The third of four children, Elisabetta (who on 20th March 1764 married Etienne Chazal at St Martin-in-the-Fields) was the only sibling surviving to maturity. She died at her home in Castle Court, Strand, in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, on 9th February 1765 and was interred at St James’ Church, Piccadilly, five days later - 14th February. 

Although there’s no specific information regarding her formal musical education there is speculation that Gambarini may have studied with Francesco Geminiani, composer of The Enchanted Forest, a baroque orchestral work inspired by Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata often performed with dance thereby depicting a mystical perilous forest. 

It takes two! Countertenor Agustín Pennino & mezzo-soprano Ella Orehek-Coddington on sharing the role of Rinaldo in Royal Academy Opera's forthcoming production of Handel's opera

Handel: Rinaldo - Agustín Pennino in rehearsal - Royal Academy Opera

Handel's Rinaldo was the first opera he wrote for London, in 1711. It was astoundingly popular; the first full Italian opera seria written for London, it went on to have over 50 performances during Handel's lifetime in the period from 1711 to 1731. During this period, the opera went through a remarkable number of revisions. The title role was written for the castrato Nicolini, whose performances in London in the period 1707 to 1717 went a long way towards establishing Italian opera in the city. [Countertenor Randall Scotting's recent disc, Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage, explores the castrato's musical world, see my review].

Whilst the title role in the 1731 revival of Rinaldo was also given to another castrato, Senesino, in the intervening period revivals saw the title role sung by both castratos and female altos. During the modern period, revivals have similarly given the role to men and to women; at Glyndebourne Opera, Robert Carsen's 2011 production saw Sonia Prina as Rinaldo [see my review of the BBC Proms performance], but later revivals of the production would see the role given to countertenors Christophe Dumaux, Iestyn Davies [see my review], and Jake Arditti.

On 17 March 2025, Royal Academy Opera is presenting Handel's Rinaldo in a production directed by Julia Burbach and conducted by David Bates. Performances run until 20 March with the title role shared between Uruguayan countertenor Agustín Pennino and Australian-Maltese mezzo-soprano Ella Orehek-Coddington. I recently caught up with Ella and Agustin to find out how sharing a role in a production worked with two different voice types.

Handel: Rinaldo - Ella Orehek-Coddington in rehearsal - Royal Academy Opera

A new Eugene Onegin, Orpheus returns, a second chance for Dead Man Walking: Opera North announces an imaginative new season for 2026/27

Verdi: Rigoletto - Sir Willard White, Callum Thorpe, Eric Greene, Roman Arndt, Themba Mvula - Opera North 2022 (Photo Clive Barda)

Opera North has announced its 2026/2027 season which is a canny mix of the new and the old. Autumn sees a new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin alongside a revival of the 2022 production of Verdi's Rigoletto. Christmas at the Howard Assembly Room features a new production of Will Todd's A Christmas Carol.

Spring sees a revival of Don Giovanni alongside the company's first performances of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in the production first seen last year at ENO. There is also a new concert staging of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde alongside the exciting prospect of a revival of Jasdeep Singh Degun’s reimagining of Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

The new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Opera North's first in over 20 years, is a co-production with Irish National Opera and Opera Queensland. It will be directed by Patrick Nolan, artistic director of Opera Queensland, with designs by Leslie Travers and Elizabeth Gadsby, and conducted by Garry Walker, music director of Opera North. American baritone John Brancy takes the title role with Verity Wingate at Tatyana, Caspar Singh and Jingwen Cai as Lensky and Joshua Bloom as Gremin.

Director Femi Elufowoju Jr returns to Opera North to revive his production of Rigoletto which debuted in 2022 [see my review], conducted Patrick Lange. . Blake Denson makes his Opera North and role debut as Rigoletto, while Jasmine Habersham returns as Gilda, with Leonardo Sánchez as the Duke. Sir Willard White returns as Count Monterone, and other cast members include Callum Thorpe, Themba Mvula and Thomas Elwin.

Building on the success of the company's ‘Pay what you can’ performance of La bohème which saw 89 percent of tickets booked by people who had never been to an opera before, tickets for an additional Rigoletto performance will be offered on a ‘Pay what you can’ basis with support from the Laidlaw Opera Trust. A relaxed matinée for anyone who prefers a more informal theatre environment is also planned in Leeds.

Playwright David Simpatico, takes Dickens’ original words from A Christmas Carol and added some extra festive sparkle by including variations on traditional Victorian carols, all set to music by Will Todd. Garry Walker conducts and PJ Harris directs with members of the Chorus of Opera North accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble.

I missed Alessandro Talevi's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni when it was new, so look forward to making its acquaintance. The conductor is Chloe Rooke, with Mark Stone in the title role, with Sara Cortolezzis as Donna Anna, Alexandra Lowe as Donna Elvira, David Ireland as Leporello, Anthony Gregory as Don Ottavio, and Claire Lees as Zerlina.

The production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking is a co-production with English National Opera and Finnish National Opera. Directed by Annilese Miskimmon and conducted by Ben Glassberg, the cast features Christine Rice reprising her role (and making her Opera North debut) as Sister Helen with Johannes Moore (who made such an impression in Britten's Peter Grimes recently, see my review) as Joseph De Rocher and Kate Royal as Mrs Patrick De Rocher.

Monteverdi & Jasdeep Singh Degun: Orpheus - Jasdeep Singh Degun - Opera North 2022 (Photo: Tom Arber)

Orpheus, which features music by Monteverdi alongside that of Jasdeep Singh Degun, places the South Asian and western baroque singers and musicians centre stage, focusing on the incredible musicality of the piece, winning awards when the production was new in 2022. For this revival, Jasdeep Singh Degun and Ashok Gupta are music directors and the production is presented in collaboration with SAA-uk.

The new staging of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde will be conducted by the company's principal guest conductor, Anthony Hermus, and directed by Peter Mumford (who directed the company's Ring Cycle). The cast includes John Matthew Myers and Wendy Bryn Harmer (in their Opera North debuts) in the title roles. The production debuts at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and travels to the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham and Symphony Hall, Birmingham before ending at the newly refurbished Leeds Town Hall.

Summer 2026, sees the company back at Nevill Holt Festival for the second year of their five-year collaboration. James Hurley directs Donizetti's Don Pasquale, conducted by Michael Papadopoulos. An opera that the company has not performed for 35 years. Grant Doyle sings the title role, with Harriet Eyley as Norina, Aaron Godfrey-Mayes as Ernesto and Henry Neill as Malatesta. Plans for the 2027 collaboration with Nevill Holt will be announced later this year.

Highlights of the Orchestra of Opera North's 2026-2027 Kirklees Concert Season include Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and Mahler’s Ninth conducted by Garry Walker. Antony Hermus will conduct Debussy, Ravel and Richard Strauss, while guest conductors include Ryan Wigglesworth and Erina Yashima. Distilled, the company’s popular series of intimate lunchtime chamber concerts, continues at Dewsbury Town Hall and the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, featuring repertoire chosen and played by members of the Orchestra.

The company's widely admired In Harmony programme reaches over 3,200 pupils each week in 13 schools, while structured vocal and instrumental learning pathways are offered through the Company’s Talent Development Programme. The coming year brings Opera North’s first matinées for primary schoolchildren featuring the popular operatic whodunnit The Big Opera Mystery, and a Creative Industries Insight Day for secondary schools, which will include workshops and a performance of Don Giovanni adapted for schools at Leeds Grand Theatre.

Building on the success of the monthly Melodic Memories sessions for people with dementia and their carers, Opera North will be launching a new monthly Dementia Café to be held in the company’s HAR bar on New Briggate in Leeds. The adult online singing workshops From Couch to Chorus return with an opportunity to sing with the Chorus of Opera North either remotely or in person.

Full details from Opera North's website.

Letter from Florida: Lisette Oropesa delivers fireworks at Palm Beach Opera's 2026 Gala

Lisette Oropesa & members of Palm Beach Opera - Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala

Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala; Lisette Oropesa, Micheal Borowitz; Mediterranean Ballroom, The Breakers (1896, Palm Beach Inn), Palm Beach, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras (2 March 2026)

What do fireworks, opera and Cuba have in common? 

Behind and over our shoulders, the first notes of Jules Massenet’s Gavotte served as a sound and voice check for one Lisette Oropesa. All relaxed systems go. Bird of passage concert galas like these bubble over when there is something of a laid back tone. 

As Manon, Ms. Oropesa’s way invites something like insouciance. Her direct communications to the audience between numbers take another direction, inviting something of the formal. The soprano has a way of making a comfortable fit out of the fun and frolic and the glitz and glamour for Palm Beach Opera’s (PBO) 2026 Gala presentation.

Throughout Europe and the Americas in 2026, opera’s most historic spaces will play host to its most luminescent performers in concerts like this one. To have this event in Palm Beach is a bit of an exceptional coup, with one exceptional headliner after another dating back to when Renee Fleming came to town in 2013. Others that have topped PBO Gala marquees over the years – Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Sondra Radvanovsky, Christian Van Horn, Nadine Sierra, Matthew Polenzani, Piotr Beczala, and Anna Netrebko.

Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala at The Breakers, Palm Beach

A coterie of the company’s male resident artists, Lisette Oropesa’s escorts, framed the stage and the fireworks around the piano for that first number. The evening’s expectations may have been high, but the explosions came from the lower part of the stave as much as above it. Oropesa’s Manon, while still in warm-up mode, is the personification of the adage “youth is wasted on the young.” 

Divine Impresario - Nicolini on Stage: countertenor Randall Scotting explores the musical world of the first major castrato to sing in London

Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage: Broschi, Gasparini, Handel, Porpora, Mancini, Ariosto, Giaj; Randall Scotting, Mary Bevan, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Signum Classics
Reviewed 3 March 2026

The first major castrato to sing in London who wowed audiences with his performances, Nicolini is an intriguing figure and on this disc Randall Scotting weaves a fascinating selection of arias written for Nicolini into an engaging recital

If you refer to an 18th century castrato then the likelihood is the first name to come time mind will be Farinelli who caused a sensation during his lifetime and whose reputation remains. But there were others, and the first to cause a stir in London, singing in the first complete Italian opera there, was Nicolò Grimaldi known as Nicolini. In London, Nicolini is associated with his roles for Handel: the title roles in Rinaldo (in 1711) and Amadigi di Gaula (in 1715). But he was more than simply a singer, being involved in the operas themselves.

It is these aspects of Nicolini's career that countertenor Randall Scotting's new disc on Signum Classics, Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage seeks to illuminate. Joined by soprano Mary Bevan, the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings, Scotting performs music from Broschi's Idaspe (Venice, 1730), Gasparini's Ambleto (London, 1712), Handel's Rinaldo (London, 1711), Porpora's Siface (Venice, 1726), Handel's Amadigi (London, 1715), Gasparini's Antioco (London, 1711), Mancini's Idaspe Fedele (London 1710), Ariosto's Tito Manlio (London, 1717), Gasparini's Tomiri (London, 1709), and Giaj's Mitridate (Venice, 1729).

Nicolini made his debut in London with Scarlatti's Pirro e Demetrio which had nearly 60 performances between 1708 and 1717. Another early success was Mancini's Idaspe fedele, where Nicolini wowed audiences with a scene where, wearing a flesh-coloured bodysuit, he wrestled with a lion. A scene so popular it had to be encored. Nicolini had brought the score of Idaspe with him to London, but it was adapted for London according to his wishes with the music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch (of Threepenny Opera fame). 

Nicolini had created the role of Idaspe in Mancini's Idaspe fedele in 1705, so when he came to London the opera was clearly a favourite he wanted to revive. And still, in 1730 in Venice he would return to the role of Idaspe for the fourth time, this time in Ricardo Broschi's Idaspe (originally written for Broschi's brother, Farinelli).

Painting of a rehearsal for Scarlatti’s Pirro e Demetrio by the Venetian master Marco Ricci from around 1709; Nicolini stands poised at the center of the scene.

Opera historian Angus Heriot claims that with his arrival in London, Nicolini was "perhaps more than any other single person responsible for the popularity of Italian opera in England". Nicolini was based in London from 1708 to 1712, then for the next four years he iterated between Italy and London, returning for Handel's Amadigi and Ariosti's Tito manlio. By the 1720s he is a somewhat mature, more elder-statesman performing in Europe but seems to have had something of a golden season in Venice in 1729 and 1730. The disc reflects these two, the London operas and the late Venetian ones.

From Wynton Marsalis to Scriabin, from Mozart to Missy Mazzoli: Edinburgh International Festival launches the 2026 season on theme of All Rise

Nicola Benedetti (Image: Andrew Perry)

Under the title All Rise, this year's Edinburgh International Festival is presenting 24 days of performances from 7 to 30 August 2026. Nicola Benedetti's fourth programme as Festival Director features 147 performances in total with five world premieres and eight works commissioned by the festival. Over 2000 artists will be taking part, of which over 700 are Scots. And the Festival feels that nowhere else in the UK does a festival have the ability to take such creative risks

Whilst this year's title, All Rise, rather makes me think of 'The Ladies who Lunch' from Sondheim's Company, the phrase is in fact the name of a work by Wynton Marsalis that will open the festival, performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (with Marsalis in his final year as artistic director), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival Chorus and Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, some 200 performers in all, conducted by James Gaffigan.

This opening work points to the Festival's theme, as it sheds a spotlight on the USA during the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Independence (though whether, by August, we will feel like celebrating the USA is a moot point.) The Festival is presenting the largest number of American artists in its history and aims to focus themes arising from a focus on the USA - freedom, ingenuity, hypocrisy, prejudice. The Festival was founded in 1947 in the belief that culture could help rebuild understanding between nations. Benedetti explained that in 2026 what they wanted to do was avoid the myth and effectively remythologise through art to create a truer but messier story of the USA.

The Festival will feature the premiere of Missy Mazzoli's opera The Galloping Cure, with libretto by Royce Vavrek. The work will be staged by Tom Morris, thus reuniting Mazzoli, Vavrek and Morris after the 2019 staging of Breaking the Waves. The new opera is an allegory about the opioid crisis, a darkly funny tale that is a devastating critique of contemporary society. It features a cast including Daniela Mack, Justin Austin and Susan Bullock, conducted by Stuart Stratford.

Still on the American theme. Zurich Opera will be bringing their production of Verdi's A Masked Ball, directed by Adele Thomas and conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The production uses the original, Boston version of the libretto but resets the piece in the American Gilded Age. There are two casts, Stephen Costello, Dalibero Jenis and Elena Stikhina, and Piero Pretti, George Petean and Erika Grimaldi.

There are two operas in concert. Mozart's Don Giovanni features Maxim Emelyanychev conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Konstantin Krimmel, Michael Sumuel, Louse Alder, Janai Brugger and Hera Hyesang Park. Strauss's Elektra features Karina Canellakis conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Irene Theorin, Vida Mikneviciute and Nina Stemme.

Verdi: A Masked Ball - Zurich Opera (Photo: Herwig Prammer)

The return of the King's Theatre after refurbishment means that the venue becomes the focus for some of the theatre programme. International Theater Amsterdam is bringing Ivo van Hove's production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America with the two plays compressed into a single five-hour evening.

A collaboration between the Festival, Festival d'Avignon and Holland Festival, all three of which were established in 1947, will feature A Trial, conceived and directed by Christiane Jatahy with actor Wagner Moura. A sequel to Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, the work will put Thomas Stockmann on trial, and it will be up to the audience to judge. Belgian company Olympique Dramatique brings together a cast of Deaf and hearing actors to reimagine Chekov's The Seagull performed largely in sign language. Khashabi Theatre with writer/director Bashar Murkus and dramaturg Khulood Basel will be presenting a retelling of the legendary 14th century poem The Epic of Bani Hilal combining physical theatre, music, puppetry and dance, mixing Palestinian folklore with Arab performance styles.

The Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra is finally making its Festival debut and besides the opening concert there is also Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige and the premiere of a collaboration with pianist Yuja Wang. A jazz-adjacent concert will feature the National Youth Orchestra of the USA conducted by Karina Canellakis in Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F with Kirill Gerstein and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

There is a residency for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, when Gustavo Dudamel conducts concerts including the UK premiere of Gabriela Ortiz's Revolucion diamantina, a work focusing on female violence and Mexican feminism, and Thomas Ades's Inferno, alongside Beethoven symphonies. The Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and conductor Rafael Payare will be performing Coleridge Taylor's complete 1899 cantata trilogy, The Song of Hiawatha, the first time it has been performed at the festival. There is also a concert featuring music by Canadian Indigenous composers. The Berlin Philharmonic returns to the Festival after a gap of 20 years with a two-concert residency conducted by Kirill Petrenko including by Elgar's Enigma Variations, music by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, and Scriabin's Symphony No. 3 'Le divine poeme'.

Bach to Bach will feature a marathon day of Bach's music with a come-and-sing Bach chorales event, the complete cello suites from Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Vikingur Olafsson in recital.

The Epic of Bani Hilal - (Photo: Khulood Basel)

Concerts at the Queen's Hall feature the Dunedin Consort in the Scottish premiere of Tansy Davies's Passion of Mary Magdalene based on non-canonical gospels and ancient texts, guitarist Sean Shibe's Festival debut, a new commission from composer Stuart Macrae and performances from the Festival's Rising Stars.

Alabama's The Legacy Museum, in its first international exhibition, is presenting The Legacy of Slavery at the Playfair Library charting not only the history of racial injustice in America but also Scotland's links to slavery. A series of post-show talks with the creative teams will complement seven productions in the opera and theatre programme.

Over 50,000 tickets will be available for £30 or less including £10 'give it a go' tickets for all events. And there are free tickets for 8-18-year olds, NHS staff, charity workers and low-income benefit recipients.

Full details from the Festival website.

A life of quiet industry: songs by Ina Boyle alongside her teachers & friends from Ailish Tynan, Paula Murrihy, Robin Tritschler, Iain Burnside at Wigmore Hall

Ina Boyle

Ina Boyle: a Rediscovery, songs by Ina Boyle, Charles Wood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Elizabeth Maconchy; Ailish Tynan, Paula Murrihy, Robin Tritschler, Iain Burnside; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 10 March 2026

An exploration of Irish composer Ina Boyle's song legacy in performances that were never less than engaging and sometimes profoundly moving, leaving one puzzled as to why we don't know this repertoire better 

Ina Boyle is an intriguing figure: she might be said to have lived a life of quiet industry, with music and family being important to her. She was relatively prolific even though she hardly travelled after World War Two, yet few songs were published in her lifetime.

Born and brought up in County Wicklow, family was important, and she lived in Wicklow all her life. Though she had some success during her lifetime, she remained somewhat on the fringes. Lessons with Ralph Vaughan Williams during the 1920s and 1930s and friendship with some of his other female pupils has led her to be associated with composers such as Elizabeth Maconchy (with whom she had a 50-year friendship), Elizabeth Lutyens and Grace Williams, but it is worth bearing in mind that she was around 20 years older than them.

Her music is in the process of being rediscovered yet though there have been discs of her songs (on Delphian) and her orchestral music (on Dutton Epoch), it has not yet reached common currency.

On 10 March 2025 at Wigmore Hall, Ina Boyle: a Rediscovery presented Ailish Tynan (soprano), Paula Murrihy (mezzo-soprano), Robin Tritschler (tenor) and Iain Burnside (piano) in a programme of Ina Boyle's songs performed alongside those of her teachers, Charles Wood and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and her friend Elizabeth Maconchy. Rather impressively for a programme of somewhat less-known music, all of Boyle's songs were performed from memory.

Meaning & drama: Bach's St John Passion from Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists with Peter Whelan, Nick Pritchard, Konstantin Krimmel

Bach: St John Passion - Nick Pritchard, Peter Whelan, Konstantin Krimmel, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists - St Martin in the Fields (Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell)

Bach: St John Passion; Nick Pritchard, Konstantin Krimmel, Julia Doyle, Rebecca Leggett, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Peter Whelan; St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 10 March 2026

Nick Pritchard's Evangelist on compelling form and complemented by a performance of satisfyingly dramatic urgency from Peter Whelan, choir and orchestra in an account of the St John Passion that filled the space

Peter Whelan, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are in the middle of a short tour of Bach's St John Passion. Last week they were in Barcelona and early next month they are in Budapest, with a performance in London on 10 March 2026 at St Martin in the Fields [and yes, the day after Peter Whelan conducted his Irish Baroque Orchestra at Wigmore Hall, see my review].

Nick Pritchard was the Evangelist and sang the tenor arias, Konstantin Krimmel was Jesus and sang the bass arias, with Julia Doyle singing the soprano arias, and Rebecca Leggett (from the choir) singing the alto arias. The other solo roles were taken by choir members with Malachy Frame as Pilate, Cressida Sharp as the maid, Will Wright as the officer and servant and Tristan Hambleton as Peter.

Bach: St John Passion - Nick Pritchard, Peter Whelan, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists - St Martin in the Fields (Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell)

Whelan conducted the standard version of Bach's St John Passion, with a choir of 23 (including a mix of male and female altos) and orchestra of 23. Whelan directed from the harpsichord (an instrument that in sound terms was a bit underpowered) with continuo also provided by organ and lute. In sonic terms it was a very powerful, up-front performance with the choral and orchestral sound enveloping the audience. Balance was good and in the big choral numbers you never felt that the focus was too much on the choir.

The first Thai composer to be commissioned to write for a major European opera house: Prach Boondiskulchok's new operas in Amsterdam and Brussels

Prach Boondiskulchok

Composer Prach Boondiskulchok is perhaps as well known as a pianist, as part of the Linos Piano Trio [see my review of their 2023 disc, Maurice Ravel: In search of lost dance] but that may be about to change.

His opera short Lesson will be premiered in the Opera Forward showcase at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam on 12 March by Dutch National Opera as part of a programme of seven new operas under the banner of Harvest. Harvest is the result of mezzo-soprano and director Cora Burggraaf’s invitation to a group of contemporary composers to each write a short monodrama in close collaboration with several well-experienced singers. Each composer and musician collaboration provokes a fresh approach to straddling the tension of opera: contextualising itself within historical repertoire whilst innovating forwards, with new conceptualisations of colour and texture. 

But his full-length opera Burmese Days, based on George Orwell’s 1936 debut novel Burmese Days, has been commissioned by La Monnaie / De Munt in Brussels and will be premiered in summer 2027. The work is an exploration of the colonial mores at an exclusive members club in the dying days of the British Empire.  Controversy and tensions arise when the club admits their first non-European member.   Political ambitions and romantic entanglements spill over against the backdrop of colonial machinery and Buddhist cosmology.  The opera is scored for classical ensemble Het Muziek and virtuoso musicians from Myanmar and Thailand (Hsaign Waing and Piphat music) – this will be a modern synthesis of Western and Southeast Asian music traditions.

In 2025, Boondiskulchok was a resident composer with Het Muziek (formerly Asko|Schönberg Ensemble) conducting research and development for his new opera, Burmese Days.  He is the first Thai composer to be commissioned to write for a major European opera house. 

Further information from his website.