Dance, Theatre, Opera, Passion: Britten Sinfonia's Spring season including Nico Muhly, Britten, Bach, Donizetti and Thomas Mann

There is a significant strand of theatre in the Britten Sinfonia's Spring season. In March the ensemble is at Sadlers Wells playing Nico Muhly's music for a triple bill of new dance works, choreographed by Julie Cunningham, Michael Keegan-Dolan and Justin Peck, using three of Muhly's pieces, The Only Tune, Drones and a new work. (19-21 March 2020)

Still in March, Ian Bostridge returns to the role of the Mad Woman in Britten's Curlew River (which he sang with Britten Sinfonia in staged performances in 2013) for a pair of concert performances of the opera, with Ashley Riches, Neal Davies and Britten Sinfonia Voices, conducted by Martin Fitzpatrick. (26/3 - Milton Court, 27/3 - St Andrew's Hall, Norwich, 28/3 - Saffron Hall).

For Easter there is a pair of performances of Bach's St Matthew Passion, with Nicholas Mulroy as the Evangelist and Roderick Williams as Christus. (9/4 - Theatre Royal, Norwich, 10/4 - Barbican Hall, 12/4 - Snape Maltings).

In April, Death in Venice is coming to the Barbican, not Britten's opera but a stage piece based on Thomas Mann's novella. Directed by Ivo van Hove, the novella is adapted by former Dutch poet laureate, Ramsey Nasr, who plays Aschenbach and the adaptation weaves Thomas Mann's own life with the plot of the novella, and uses music by Nico Muhly, Richard Strauss and Schoenberg, conducted by Ben Glassberg. (16-19 April)

During June, the ensemble returns to Britten with The Turn of the Screw which is being performed at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre, conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear, directed by Natalie Abrahami and designed by Michael Levine. (3-13 June)

Then in June it is time for a real rarity, Donizetti's Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo [which was given its UK stage premiere by English Touring Opera in 2015, see Hilary's review]. Loosely based on one of the stories from Cervantes' Don Quixote, Donizetti's 1833 opera (which came just after L'Elisir d'Amore), will be performed in concert at the Barbican and recorded by Opera Rara, with Carlo Rizzi conducting a cast including soprano Albina Shagimuratova. (22 June)

In concert, the ensemble will be joined by violinist Thomas Gould for a programme of Bach, Shostakovich and Part (18/1 - Leeds Town Hall, 19/1 - The Apex, Bury St Edmunds), and by trumpeter Alison Balsom for music inspired by Purcell from Berio to Britten, plus Birtwistle, and John Woolrich's new trumpet concerto inspired by Purcell (14 & 16 May, Milton Court).

And the ensemble's At Lunch series continues, with the premiere of a new piece by Freya Waley-Cohen, and a programme of music by Tim Watts performed by counter-tenor Iestyn Davies.

Full details from the Britten Sinfonia website.