At the core of what we do - new opera at Covent Garden

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has announced plans for the next seven years aimed at increasing the company's involvement with contemporary opera. Sensibly, many of the plans involve the Linbury Studio Theatre, a space which is far more suitable to trying out new work than the main house. The company will be developing collaborations, both continuing existing relationships and creating new ones with companies for co-commissions and collaborations; sometimes the only way that a large-scale new commission can be made affordable. They are also investing in nurturing talent, developing a relationship with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as having composers in residence. The Royal Opera's track record on contemporary opera over the last decade or so has been rather patchy, but putting on new opera is rather like falling off a horse, the important thing is to get on again and continue.

A Scream and an Outrage

New York composer Nico Muhly is curating a weekend of events, new music explorations, at the Barbican with six sessions spread over three days (10 - 12 May 2013), plus extra events on the Barbican Free Stage. The concerts include the premieres (world and UK) of a number of Muhly's pieces, plus David Lang, Paola Prestini, Steve Reich and a myriad of other works including the first complete performance of Philip Glass's Etudes for Piano.

ETO Spring Tour visits 19 towns and cities

For their spring tour, English Touring Opera will be visiting 19 towns and cities in the UK with some of the largest operas ETO has ever staged. They are taking Donizetti's L'Assiedo di Calais, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte on tour from 2 March 2013 to 30 May 2013 visiting London (Hackney Empire), Leicester, Bromley, Exeter, Norwich, Crawley, Poole, Sheffield, York, Wolverhampton, Snape, Durham, Buxton, Chelltenham, Coventry, Perth, Cambridge, Guildford and Truro. So you are never far from an ETO performance! 

A blast from the past - Orchestre de la Suisse Romande visits UK

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under their conductor and founder Ernest Ansermet is a name from my youth and student days, when their recordings were ubiquitous and highly influential. Now the orchestra is coming to the UK for the three date tour under their new chief conductor Neeme Järvi. The orchestra will be performing at Birmingham's Symphony Hall (21 Mary 2013), Manchester's Bridgewater Hall (22 May) and the Royal Festival Hall in London (24 May).

Juan: Film review

I have to confess that I have generally been rather dismissive of filmed opera (as opposed to filming of live opera events), finding the results often a little stagey and the playback rather unsuccessful. But I was immensely curious about Kasper Holten's new film Juan, which is based on Mozart's Don Giovanni. First of all it was clearly billed as an adaptation rather than simple transcription, and secondly it featured Christopher Maltman in a nude shower scene, so there was really no question. We went along to the first UK public screening on Wednesday 9 January at the Royal College of Music. The event was followed by an informative Q & A with Kasper Holten.

Sheet music copying in schools

At the moment each local authority handles its own agreement with the Copyright Licensing Authority covering the licensing of copying in schools. With the proliferation of Academies, which handle their own budgets, this is threatening to become onerous. Now sense has prevailed and from April 2013 the Department for Education will manage a licence for all state schools, thus saving an estimated £6million in administration costs. The new agreement will also include a new Schools Printed Music Licence from the Music Publishers Association to cover copying of printed sheet music. This new licence will authorise the making of copies or practical arrangements of printed sheet music for use in schools. This means that schools will no longer need to seek copyright clearance each time they make copies, provided that the school already owns an original print copy. Further information from the CLA website.

CD Review - Handel's finest arias for Base voice

Perhaps we sometimes lose sight of the fact that Handel wrote for some of the greatest singers and singing actors of his age. In our era of  stylistic specialism it is all to easy for baroque opera to be relegated to the area of the specialist performer; but just listen to a great voice like Joan Sutherland or Renee Fleming, to understand. And in the oratorios, whilst great bravura is rarely used (Handel was writing for a group of singers that he had trained himself), expressivity was what was called for, the qualities of a great singing actor. For this new disc of Handel's bass arias, Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen have teamed up with Christopher Purves.

Purves is perhaps a surprising choice, his stage repertoire has generally veered towards the 19th century and later. But he has never been anything other than versatile (he joined Harvey and the Wallbangers after leaving University) and has developed into one of our great singing actors, with a feel for text, line, music and drama. It is these qualities which he brings to this disc Handel arias.

The buzz goes on - New Music Biennial

Building on the success of last year's 20x12 the PRS for Music Foundation has decided to make it a regular thing and announced plans for a New Music Biennial, the first one taking place in 2014. It will be the first ever UK-wide New Music Biennial - supporting and promoting up to twenty brand new commissions to be performed across the country and at two special weekend events at London's South Bank Centre (4-6 July 2014) and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music to coincide with the Commonwealth Games (2-3 August 2014). 

Backstage pass - Royal Opera Live

Yesterday (Monday 7 January) saw the Royal Opera House, London, opening up to cameras for the whole day providing backstage coverage from 10.30am to 7.30pm. It wasn't quite fly on the wall stuff, and we perhaps did see a little too much of presenter Kirsty Wark, but then backstage in a theatre needs quite a lot of interpreting for the average listener. Covent Garden had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to present a decent selection of events, varied in type and content, to give the real feel of how an opera house functions. So we had an early rehearsal for the new Eugene Onegin, a chorus rehearsal, the presentation of the set design for the new La Donna del Lago, the stage rehearsal with piano for The Minotaur, stizprobe, music rehearsals and much else besides. Finally we saw Sir Mark Elder preparing for the La Boheme that night.

WNO Orchestra residency tomorrow

From tomorrow (8 January), the WNO Orchestra begins a four day residency at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, with concerts for string orchestra and wind orchestra, with the WNO orchestra joined by RWCMD players from the WNO placement scheme. There is a gala with artists from the National Opera Studio and a masterclass with vocal coach John Fisher. The wind concert will feature the Elegy for Miles Davis from Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra by the late Richard Rodney Bennett. Further information from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's website.

Rosenblatt recitals continue at Wigmore Hall

On  Monday 14 January, Italian tenor Fabio Armiliato makes his London recital debut at Wigmore Hall as part of Rosenblatt Recitals. This season is Rosenblatt Recitals first one in their new home at Wigmore Hall. Armiliat will be accompanied by Marco Boemi in a programme which combines songs by Sir Paolo Tosti, arias by Puccini, Cilea and Verdi, with songs by Donaudy and Beethoven. The season continues with recitals by Alex Esposito, Damiano Salerno, Ivan Magri and Pretty Yende.

Fretwork at Kings Place

The viol consort Fretwork is having a short residency at Kings Place with three concerts on 17, 18 and 19 January, with composers ranging from Robert White and Thomas Tallis, to John Dowland and Thea Musgrave. The centre piece of the concerts is Musick's Monument, a reconstruction of a programme described by Thomas Mace in his 1676 book of that name - 'they have been to myself as divine raptures, powerfully captivating all our unruly faculties and affections, and disposing us to solidity gravity and a good temper, making us capable of heavenly and divine influences.'  The programme was the unrealised dream of viol-player Richard Campbell, the founder member of Fretwork who died in 2011. The other programmes, Dowland's Lachrimae Pavans and the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Robert White and Thomas Tallis, recall his art.

Last month on Planet Hugill

Just in case you missed it! December started with us re-visiting Jonathan Miller's 'classic' production of The Mikado to find out if our opinion of it had changed (see our review to find out!). And Covent Garden's much anticipated Robert le Diable was musically strong but dramatically a damp squib.

The complete Peer Gynt at the Barbican was much more than a concert.

Graham Johnson, Lucy Crowe and Christopher Maltman at Wigmore Hall

In the shadow of the Opéra

Lucy Crowe, Graham Johnson and Christopher Maltman

Describing the rationale behind ‘In the shadow of the Opéra’ Graham Johnson explained, “Every French composer of the nineteenth century dreamed of success at the Opéra”, but that “songs were not taken that seriously, however beautiful”.  Last night’s performance (4 January 2013) at the Wigmore Hall including songs by thirty French composers, and one Englishman, aimed to lay waste to that complaint. 

The concert was split into four sections: ‘On Wings of Song – Love in flight’; ‘Melodies or Arias?’; ‘Vers le Sud – Exoticisms’; and ‘Seascapes and Landscapes’. Each had its own feel, and brought to light unfamiliar songs by well loved composers and poets. 

The singers Lucy Crowe and Christopher Maltman were supportively accompanied by Graham Johnson, a staunch devotee of these songs.

Free Winter concert season in the City

From Wednesday 16 January to Wednesday 27 March there are 11 free lunch-time concerts being presented in venues across the City of London in a collaboration between the City of London Festival, the City Music Society and the City of London Sinfonia. There are three concerts from the City of London Sinfonia,  plus chamber music and lighter items. All starting at 1.05pm and completely free, with an interesting mix of repertoire.

Pink Singers at 30

Is it really 30 years ago? The Pink Singers were the brainchild of gay activist Brian Kennedy in the wake of a visit to London by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. Founded in 1983, cabaret singer Mark Bunyan directed them for the first few months and then I took over! Over a five year period we developed from an ad-hoc group into a thriving gay choir. We celebrated our fifth birthday by performing Hanns Eisler's cantata Die Mutter and becoming the first gay members of the National Federation of Music Societies (now Making Music). Amazingly, the Pink Singers are now the longest running LGBT choir in Europe. The group are celebrating their 30th anniversary on 19 January with a concert at London's Cadogan Hall, featuring some of their best songs from 30 years of music making. Expect a lively, varied and entertaining programme, see you there!

ROH Live trailer (updated)

Covent Garden's live day, 7 January, is almost upon us. I blogged about it last month, but there is now a new preview video of Die Walkure, act 3 of which will be broadcast tonight.

Temple Song's attractive Spring/Summer season

Middle Temple Hall

Temple Song 2013: Julius Drake and Friends launches on 21 February with a recital Birgid Steinberger, Robert Höll accompanied by Julius Drake. Temple Song2013's Spring/Summer season consists of four diverse and delectable recitals in total, all in Middle Temple Hall with Birgid Steinberger, Robert Höll, James Gilchrist, Veronique Gens and Joseph Calleja, all accompanied by pianist Julius Drake, the series's artistic director. With recitals by Sarah Connolly and Roderick Williams to look forward to in the autumn.

English Journey Songs

The English Poetry and Song Society has issued a new disc of songs, recorded by the society's two retiring presidents Jane Manning and Stephen Roberts with Terence Allbright at the piano. The repertoire includes songs by 10 composers from the society, Chris Brown, Sulyen Caradon, Brian Daubney, Graham Garton, Frank Harvey, John Jordan, Geoffrrey Lawrence, J Hubert Smith, Mike Watts, and yours truly Robert Hugill.

Opera Coast - an operatic holiday with a difference

OperaCoast is a weekend operatic workshop, based in Eastbourne and they provide the opportunity to have an operatic holiday with a difference. During a weekend workshop, singers work on scenes from an opera with professional music and theatre directors, performing the work at the end of a weekend. Last year's workshop was on Verdi's La Traviata  and this year they will be doing scenes from Stravinsky's The Rakes Progress on 19-21 July, at Eastbourne's Birley centre.