In case you missed it - June on Planet Hugill: Dresden, Garsington, Grange Park, Holland Park

Anne Sophie Duprels and Noah Stewart in Mascagni's Iris
at Opera Holland Park, photo Robert Workman.

Welcome to June on Planet Hugill with the festival season in full swing. This month we have visits to Dresden, Garsington, Grange Park, Holland Park and Spitalfields with more to come next month.

Garsington Opera

In period but not slavishly naturalistic, a highly dramatic Eugene Onegin with Natalya Romaniw and Roderick Williams. Stylish seriousness and intelligent style, Mozart's Idomeneo with Toby Spence.

Opera Holland Park

A richly imaginative performance of Mascagni's Iris opened Opera Holland Park's 21st season, its first as an independent company, and the Christine Collins Young Artists presented a youthful La Boheme.

Grange Park Opera

For the last festival in its present form at the Grange, there was grandeur and intimacy in Verdi's Don Carlo and Claire Rutter headed a strong revival of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West.

English National Opera

The new production of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde directed by Daniel Kramer, ENO's new artistic director, opened at the London Coliseum, whilst David Alden's production of Janacek's Jenufa returned with a largely new cast.

Dresden Music Festival

More postings from the Dresden festival where we heard elegance of sound from Singapore Symphony Orchestra in the Frauenkirche, outlawed & neglected music from the New Jewish Chamber Philharmonic, and Igor Levitt, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra & Vassily Sinaisky in Beethoven & Strauss.

I also caught up with festival director Jan Vogler and we talked gut strings, visionary work and inflammations of democratic society.

Musical Theatre

Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera was a musical experience at the National Theatre with Rory Kinnear & Haydn Gwynne. Vivid and intense: Mozart's Don Giovanni from Classical Opera with Jacques Imbrailo in the title role.

Various Venues

A virtuosic chamber twilight, William Kunhardt and the Arensky Chamber Orchestra at the Hospital Club. Iconic but inconclusive - Mariella Devia at Rosenblatt Recitals. Master story-tellers - Robin Tritschler and Graham Johnson in Schubert at the Wigmore Hall. Forty parts for forty years - Graham Ross & choir of Clare College help Spitalfields Music celebrate.

From our Contributors

Hilary appreciated a quiet time for ruminations: listening for silence with Steven Osborne, and heard something delightful from something old with L'Avventura London and The Old Blind Dogs.

Ruth heard Purcell's King Arthur reimagined by Notes Inegales at Spitalfields, and she found Yaniv d'Or's Latino Ladino short and bitter-sweet.

Interviews

Not just the look, how the sets work is part of the narrative - my encounter with designer Leslie Travers. My encounter with Stuart Stratford, music director of Scottish Opera.

Talks and lectures

I will be returning to Conway Hall in 2016/17 for further pre-concert talks, introducing the Heath Quartet, a programme of piano trios and more. I will also be talking at St John's Smith Square when the German/Japanese pianist Kimiko Ishizaka performs Bach's The Art of Fugue with her own completion.

I also continue giving talks on opera to U3A groups, and this summer will be introducing two new lectures Various Voices: An introduction to the variety of classical singing, and Aria and Recitative: An introduction to the nuts and bolts of opera.

CD reviews

▪ Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame rethought by Graindelavoix
▪ More than just Crucifixus - sacred music of Antonio Lotti
▪ Where'er you walk - Arias for Handel's favourite tenor
▪ Freely poetic - Schumann's cello concerto and piano trio no. 1
▪ Visions of lost worlds - Anne Schwanewilms in Schubert, Schreker & Korngold
▪ Capturing hearts again - Leoncavallo's Zaza on disc
▪ Two visionaries - Stockhausen and Scriabin from Vanessa Benelli Mosell
▪ Three large-scale works to celebrate Colin Matthews' 70th birthday
▪ Notes from the Asylum from Clare McCaldin & Libby Burgess
▪ Inner Landscapes - chamber music by Douglas Finch
▪ I am the Song - Choral music by Bernard Hughes
▪ Brahms and Bruce - music for clarinet and string quartet
▪ Blurred Boundaries - new music from the Apollo Chamber Players