Autumn at Snape and at the Red House

Britten Pears Arts' has just announced its Autumn season. The Britten Weekend, 14-15 October 2023 will feature tenor Allan Clayton, horn player Martin Owen and the Britten Sinfonia in a programme that includes Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, plus music by Holst, Bridge and Elgar, and there is also a study morning on Britten's Serenade. Also in the weekend, Julius Drake leads a masterclass on English song with the Britten Pears Young Artists, which is the culmination of a week of masterclasses that the Young Artists will be taking part in, and there is an end of course recital on 15 October.

Ben Vonberg-Clark will be conducting two Scratch Choir days, inviting everyone to participate in explorations of music by Emma Lou Diemer and RVW, plus Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. Baritone Peter Brathwaite and pianist Allyson Devenish will be spending a BPA Residency exploring music that complements visual art, inspired by Peter's Rediscovering Black Portraiture project, and there will be an open session on 20 September.

At the Red House, mezzo soprano Anna Huntley and pianist Lucy Colquhoun will perform an intimate song recital in the Library, celebrating the songs of Britten, Schubert and his influence on the composer and Britten’s contemporaries, whilst  mezzo soprano Lottie Betts-Dean and accordionist Ryan Corbett, a BBC New Generation Artist, present a programme of music spanning centuries from Monteverdi to Kurt Weill and Purcell to Joni Mitchell.

Other events include English Touring Opera bringing their new productions of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea and Rossini's La cenerentola, and family concerts feature Elena Urioste, Tom Poster and London Rhymes.

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

Byrd and Biscuits: Tallulah Horton on being a member of Genesis Sixteen

Genesis Sixteen at St James's Piccadilly, 15 July 2023 (Photo: Douglas Jones/Twitter)

In May 2022, I received a very happy phone-call from The Sixteen’s wonderful Genesis Sixteen Manager offering me a place on their Genesis Sixteen Scheme, much to my surprise. This fully-funded, year long opportunity to work with Harry Christophers, Eamonn Dougan, and a handful of other long-standing Sixteen legends is a very special opportunity, and one which took approximately 0.4 seconds to prompt the exclamation “yes please!” with both shock and delight. Having been a chorister for most of my school years, imagining thirteen-year-old me having the chance to rehearse and perform with my choral heroes was, in short, absolute madness.

Tallulah Horton

The Genesis Sixteen Young Artists Programme is comprised of two weeklong courses at the start and end of the year, and two short weekend courses in November and February. The majority I spoke to on arrival in Oxford for our first course were visibly buzzing, but understandably a little nervous. Amongst the obvious challenges of starting a yearlong course not knowing anyone, I wasn’t sure what to expect of Harry and Eamonn’s rehearsal style, and how they would deal with 23 raucous young singers. Indeed, most musicians have had their fair share of abrasive experiences when working with highly demanding musical directors, conductors, and colleagues - but I soon realised I had nothing to worry about. When asked about my experience with Genesis Sixteen, the first thing that always springs to mind is how lovely, genuine, and approachable both conductors are. It soon becomes apparent that everyone at The Sixteen is genuinely interested in you and your singing and, despite all that knowledge and expertise, they want to learn from the group and chat to everyone as colleagues. Their highly talented regular singers are grounded and down to earth, and make you feel like you are absolutely meant to be there. Insecurities are left at the door, so singers can develop and flourish from the start of the very first rehearsal. Don’t get me wrong, the bar is set very high, but the atmosphere is such that the conductors’ performance goals feel achievable both as an individual singer and as an ensemble.

My singing has undoubtedly developed over the last year through the continued guidance and training offered by the scheme. As well as detailed ensemble rehearsals, each singer also has individual lessons with the legendary Julie Cooper and Charlotte Mobbs, giving everyone the opportunity to work on aspects of their solo singing. Everyone on the course is, rather unusually, recognised as an individual voice with the ability to form a cohesive choir, instead of being forced to “blend into the background”. This idea comes into its own, though, when working with consort leaders Sally Dunkley, Simon Berridge, Kim Porter, and Mark Dobell. Their expertise in guiding small groups of through complex polyphony has helped each singer enhance their individual line, whilst ensuring a cohesive performance overall by working intensely on our phrasing, intonation, blend, and balance as a consort.
 
Having learned so much from this array of tailored training, the idea of performing Spem in Alium one-to-a-part (something I once thought to be too terrifying for words!) is now hugely exciting. Singing Tallis’ infamous piece alongside David Bednall’s recent forty-part motet Lux orta est iusto presents the opportunity to use the skills gained through Genesis Sixteen to perform this complex, multi-choir close harmony with style…if no one forgets to count, though. (Here’s hoping a GCSE in maths will finally prove useful!)

Last but not least, one of the most crucial aspects I’ve learned from this wonderful group is how important chocolate hobnobs are to a happy choir (other brands are available) - any rehearsal without biscuits should be cancelled immediately, never to be mentioned again. That’s what has really kept us all coming back for more, I think: Byrd and Biscuits. 

Tallulah Horton

Genesis Sixteen performed in The Sixteen's Sounds Sublime Choral Festival on 15 July at St. James’s Piccadilly. On 16 July, Genesis Sixteen celebrated their 250-strong alumni with a performance of two forty-part motets: Tallis’ Spem in Alium and Bednall’s Lux orta est iutso with members of the current cohort and alumni of the programme at Kings Place.  

Tallulah Horton became a chorister aged nine, moving to Downside School at thirteen as a major music scholar to study with Rachel Bevan. Having completed her undergraduate degree in music at Durham University, she will soon be graduating with a masters in Musicology from St Hugh’s College, Oxford.

 

Carmen in in the Quarry: Arnaud Bernard transforms Bizet's opera into film set in 1930s-era Spain on Oper im Steinbruch's spectacular stage

Bizet: Carmen - Oper im Steinbruch 2023 (Photo: Esterhazy / Katharina Schiffl) 

Bizet: Carmen; Francesca di Sauro, Migran Agadzhanyan, Vanessa Vasquez, Vittoria Prato, director Arnaud Bernard, conductor Valerio Galli: Oper im Steinbruch, Austria
Reviewed 14 July 2023

Carmen on a stage seven times larger than that of the Vienna State Opera in a production that reinvents it as the film production of a story set in 1930s Civil War era Spain

Oper im Steinbruch (Opera in the Quarry) presents an annual spectacular outdoor opera production in the historic St. Margarethen quarry near Eisenstadt in Austria. In 2019, the opera was Mozart's Die Zauberflöte [see my review] and after a two-year gap, Oper im Steinbruch returned with Bizet's Carmen, directed by Arnaud Bernard with sets designed by Alessandro Camera and costumes by Carla Ricotti. I caught the third performance of the production on 14 July 2023, conducted by Valerio Galli, when Francesca di Sauro was Carmen and Migran Agadzhanyan was Don Jose (both roles are triple cast) , with Vanessa Vasquez as Micaela, Vittorio Prato as Escamillo, Aleksandra Szmyd as Frasquita and Sofia Vinnik as Mercedes. The opera was presented in Ernest Guiraud edition with sung recitatives and the work was performed in French.

Carmen premiered, with spoken dialogue, in the relatively intimate confines of the Opera Comique in Paris, but before his death Bizet had signed a contract with the Hofoper in Vienna (now Vienna State Opera). So, he always knew that the work would need changing and expanding to fit the larger Vienna stage and to suit a cast of non-French speakers. The same process happened to Gounod's Faust and Thomas' Mignon; an opera premiered with dialogue in a smaller French theatre is expanded including sung recitatives for larger, grander theatres.

Bizet: Carmen - Francesca di Sauro - Oper im Steinbruch 2023 (Photo: Esterhazy / Jerzy Bin)

 We can never know what Bizet might have done, but Guiraud's recitatives are creditable and the slowing of the dramatic pace is on a par with the larger scale and loss of dramatic intimacy. Moving the opera onto the huge stage at St. Margarethen (seven times the area of the Vienna State Opera!) means that the work needed expanding again.

I am a child of my era, I first saw Carmen at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1980s with Teresa Berganza and Placido Domingo. That used spoken dialogue, and since then every production I have seen has used spoken dialogue (or no dialogue at all). Whilst familiar with the Guiraud version from disc (notably the Beecham/Victoria de Los Angeles and the Pretre/Callas versions), I had never actually heard it on stage.

There are things to discover still: Benjamin Appl on exploring themes of temptation and seduction in his latest album, Forbidden Fruit

James Baillieu and Benjamin Appl at Ingolstadt Festsaal in 2020 (Photo: Foto Schaffer)

Benjamin Appl's latest recital disc on Alpha Classics is a bit of a change. Benjamin and pianist James Bailieu previous disc with Alpha was Schubert's Winterreise, but the new disc is an eclectic mix of styles, composers and languages under the title Forbidden Fruit. Linked by Benjamin reading fragments of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, the metaphor of forbidden fruit gives Benjamin and James a wide range of possible interpretations.

When I comment to Benjamin about the variety of song on the disc, he points out that there is still a lot of German song in the recital - Hugo Wolf, Kurt Weill, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Robert Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Lothar Brühne, Franz Schubert, Hanns Eisler, Gustav Mahler alongside songs by Gabriel Faure, Ivor Gurney, Francis Poulenc, Reynaldo Hahn, Roger Quilter, Leonello Casucci, Edvard Grieg, and Jake Heggie. As regards the story of the Temptation, Benjamin grew up in Catholic Bavaria so he is very familiar with the Biblical tale. Yet though it sits deeply in the psyche, there are a lot of contradictions in it. He loves the metaphor that the story of Adam and Eve contains, yet some elements do not make sense. Why was God dealing with conditional love; if Adam and Eve did not know about evil why should they mistrust the serpent?  

Benjamin Appl  (Photo: Manuel Outumuro)

Thinking about the story, he started getting ideas for songs, and it was an interesting concept, the themes of temptation and seduction, yet bringing the ideas into our own times, looking at what was inside us. He looked at songs which examined themes of stepping over boundaries, for instance, Eisler's Die Ballade vom Paragraphen 218 is about abortion, Schumann's Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß is ultimately about incest (the text is spoken by the Harper in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister). But to create a coherent programme, Benjamin needed to put the songs in order and this is brought him back to the original story. This is why they included the spoken quotations from the Bible, the songs are an interpretation of the text, like a sermon on the gospel.

Back for the 16th festival, Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival also celebrates the company's 25th anniversary with a lively new season

Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival is back at the Cockpit Theatre for the 2023 festival from 29 August to 12 September as well as celebrating 25 years since the company first launched! A remarkable achievement for all, including artistic director and founder  Bill Bankes-Jones. 

As ever the repertoire is many and varied from classics reimagined, such as Judith, a reimagining of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, to Helen Epega revisiting her 2015 work, the first-ever Pidgin English opera, Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera Reimagined, to a one-woman micro-opera based on a women's support group.

LGBT representation is strong from Fierce Love, a story of love and AIDS activism in 1990s London, to Bermondsey, 1983, a documentary opera detailing the Bermondsey by-election and homophobic smear campaign against Labour candidate Peter Tatchell. Homo Promos returns with 1944: Home Fires, a follow-up to last year’s 1936: Fishing with a narrative following Ivor Novello’s imprisonment, and performance artist and self-confessed gender-outsider Alice d'Lumiere is also back to reveal if she's now able to hold a note in The Trans Lady Sings! Songs of Descent is a gothic queer re-telling of the Persephone myth.

And myth is also highly prominent. Belgian composer Hans Vercauteren’s Arthur draws on Laurence Binyon's Arthur, a Tragedy and the old-Flemish version of the tale, Freguut, as well as Ricardo Dourado's Medusa, Alice Beckwith's The Golden Thread, an Angela Carter-inspired piece involving a woman's encounter with the Green Man and his more sinister counterpart, the Erlking. Whilst Susannah Self's Fragments of a Lost Land merges tales of Atlantis with Doggerland.

One particular highlight is Cupboard Love, a staging of Madeline Dring's only opera. I saw the work when it was giving in a semi-staging in the crypt at St John's Smith Square in the 1980s and look forward to a chance to see it again for Dring's centenary.

Full details from the festival website.

Up Close and Musical

Up Close & Musical - Lucy Schaufer

Violist Shiry Rashkovsky’s festival Up Close and Musical returns to Fidelio Café for three Wednesday evenings in October, with each night pairing an early evening recital with a more relaxed late evening event, along with interviews with the artists.

The festival is opened by mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer, pianist Ben Dawson and Trio Klein for a programme inspired by the power and majesty of storms including music by Deborah Pritchard, Jocelyn Pook, Georgia Stitt and Amanda McBroom, as well as the world premiere of Stephen Barber’s A Ride in a Helium Balloon, commissioned Schaufer’s Wild Plum Arts which supports livings artists in the creation of new work.

The other early evening concerts are Chi-chi Nwanoku, double bass and Chineke! soloists in music by Florence Price alongside Schubert's Trout Quintet, and Esther Abrami, violin and Alexandra Whittingham, guitar in Piazzolla's L'histoire du Tango plus music by Falla, Paganini and Sarasate.

Late evening events encompass a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film Chevalier with violinist Ronald Long, followed by a performance of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ Symphonie Concertante for Two Violins and a screening of the film, vocalist Alice Zawadzki, Misha Mullov-Abbado, bass and Fred Thomas, piano/drums in an eclectic programme spanning folk, indie and world music, and a celebration of October House Records with Héloïse Werner, vocals/cello, Shri Sriram, bass guitar/Indian flute and Max Baillie, violin/viola in music by Love Ssega, Jasmin Kent Rodgman and Max Baillie.

Full details from the Fidelio Cafe website.

An engaging and eclectic selection: Soar from Alastair Penman and Jonathan Pease

Soar: Pedro Ituralde, Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Planel, Andy Scott, Alastair Penman, Paul Mitchell-Davidson, Amy Quate, Debussy, Demersseman; Alastair Penman, Jonathan Pease; Meadowbank Music

For his first disc on his new label, saxophonist Alastair Penman joins pianist Jonathan Pease for an engaging selection of 20th century and more recent favourites from the duo's recitals

Saxophonist Alastair Penman's third album is his first on his new label, Meadowbank Music. The album, Soar, with pianist Jonathan Pease features a selection of the duo's favourite repertoire. Whilst the disc's name might come from Penman's Soar which is on the disc, the epithet also refers to all the music on the disc where a selections of works by 20th century composers Pedro Ituralde, Richard Rodney Bennett, and Robert Planel, along with new pieces by contemporary composers, Andy Scott, Alastair Penman, Paul Mitchell-Davidson, and Amy Quate, a recent arrangement of Debussy and a 19th-century fantasy on Carnival of Venice, all feature music where the saxophone soars over the piano.

Tandava: Simon Thacker and Piah Dance Company at Edinburgh Fringe

Tandava: Simon Thacker and Piah Dance Company

Scottish classical guitarist Simon Thacker has been on our radar ever since I reviewed his disc, Rakasha in 2013. Thacker's interests lie in the edge between Western classical music and Indian classical music, and for a new project he will be joining forces with India's Piah Dance Company. 

Tandava, which is at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 18-26 August 2023 at theSpace @ Niddry St, Edinburgh, combines dazzling dance with guitar wizardry. The Sanskrit word Tandava represents a cosmic dance which is the source of the cycle of creation, preservation and dissolution, unifying seemingly irreconcilable opposites.

Full details from the Edinburgh Fringe website.

BREMF is back: Autumn festival returns with over 20 events

After three years of disruption, experimentation, and adapting to circumstances, Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) returns this Autumn in full pre-pandemic style with more than 20 events during September and October 2023. The main festival runs from 13 to 28 October 2023 and highlights include The Gesualdo Six and Fretwork in their music drama Secret Byrd and The Whispering Dome, a large scale multi-media event featuring a varied range of traditional and early music from Europe, Morocco and West Africa tracing routes followed by migrating swallows.

Other events include Musica Secreta in Mother, Sister, Daughter, music and intriguing stories of women across the ages, including newly discovered music, and a new commission by Joanna Marsh, Fieri Consort in The Excellence of Women, newly discovered madrigals of Maddalena Casulana alongside works by another of Italy’s greatest composers, Barbara Strozzi, La Fonte Music in works by 14th century composer Antonio Zacara da Teramo. Visiting groups include Ensemble Hesperi, Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano & Toby Carr, theorbo, and the festival ends with BREMF Players, Baroque Collective Singers and soloists in Bach and Buxtehude.

Before the main festival, a series of pre-events run from 16 September offering opportunities to take part in choral and instrumental workshops, OAE TOTS family concerts, and a ceilidh celebrating the music of John Playford’s The English Dancing Master. BREMF will be popping up around the city too, with free performances of music by William Byrd and a baroque-ground-bass-meets-jazz fusion event.

Full details from the BREMF website.

Any performance of Verdi's Don Carlo is an event: Verdi's large-scale drama returns to Covent Garden with Lise Davidsen and Brian Jagde

Verdi: Don Carlo - Brian Jagde, Lise Davidsen - Royal Opera (Photo Bill Cooper/ROH)

Verdi: Don Carlo; Brian Jagse, Lise Davidsen, John Relyea, Luca Micheletti, Yulia Matochkina, director: Nicholas Hytner/Daniel Dooner, conductor: Bertrand de Billy; Royal Opera
Reviewed 9 July 2023

Strong revival of Verdi's complex drama with a nuance performance by Lise Davidsen as Elizabeth complemented by finely balanced cast.

My memories of Nicholas Hytner's 2008 production of Verdi's Don Carlo (currently being revived at the Royal Opera House) rather focus on the unsatisfactory Auto da Fe scene in Act Three, but revisiting the production on Sunday 9 July 2023, I realised that Bob Crowley's designs are in fact largely stylish and efficient, each scene flows easily on from the previous without awkward pauses. And this is the production's fifth outing, (revival director Daniel Dooner) and it still looks handsome. 

On Sunday, Bertrand de Billy conducted with Brian Jagde as Don Carlo, Lise Davidsen as Elizabeth, John Relyea as Philip, Luca Micheletti as Posa, Yulia Matochkina as Eboli and Taras Shtonda as the Grand Inquisitor.

The production solves the work's complex editorial issues by opting for the final, 1886 version though there is an argument that his original 1883 revision in four acts is more coherent and reflects his final intentions. Also, the performance uses the Italian translation and I suspect that this is principally because the Royal Opera House's track record in performing the opera in French is not completely glorious.

An engaging diversity & fierce intelligence: the piano music of Bernard Hughes played by Matthew Mills

Bernard Hughes: Piano Music; Matthew Mills; Divine Art
Reviewed 8 July 2023

Featuring pieces from right across his composing career, Bernard Hughes' piano music is engagingly diverse with music ranging from the insanely difficult to that written for amateurs. Always intelligent and characterful, this is a disc of wonderful short pieces.

There is an enormous range and diversity on this disc of Bernard Hughes' piano music. Under the title Bagatelles, on the Divine Art label, pianist Matthew Mills has recorded a programme of 38 short movements. Mills is a friend of Hughes' and the composer wrote his Partita Contrafacta for Mills to premiere on the disc. Whilst some of the pieces are, to quote the  composer, 'insanely difficult', others were written specifically for amateurs to play, and the pieces range in date from that most recent Partita Contrafacta to works from the 1990s.

There is also an engaging diversity of style which gives the recital a sense of variety. It is clear that Hughes engages with music in different ways and that he has no single conception of what a piano piece might be. 

Imagination and seduction: Huw Wiggin in Rhapsody, music Debussy, Joseph Phibbs, Iain Farrington, Coates, Jennifer Watson, and Liszt

Rhapsody: Debussy, Joseph Phibbs, Iain Farrington, Coates, Jennifer Watson, Liszt; Huw Wiggin, Norik Ogawa; Orchid Classics

Pairing two major 20th-century works for the instrument with a trio of recent commissions, Huw Wiggin has created a wonderfully imaginative and seductive programme

Saxophonist Huw Wiggin's latest disc, Rhapsody on Orchid Classics, with pianist Noriko Ogawa features six works for saxophone and piano that all loosely come into the category of rhapsody. 

Wiggin has cast his net widely, the disc includes two major 20th-century works for saxophone, Debussy's only work for solo saxophone alongside Eric Coates' Saxo-Rhapsody, plus three contemporary pieces by Joseph Phibbs, Iain Farrington and Jennifer Watson, and an arrangement of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

Young musicians to the fore: Bampton's singing competition and Liverpool's emerging musician fellowships

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Emerging Musicians Fellowship
Danny Cleave, Meggie Murphy, Ewan Miller, Méline Le Calvez

Bampton Classical Opera has announced that entries are now open for its 2023 Young Singers' Competition, whilst Liverpool Philharmonic has announced the appointment of four musicians selected for the second annual Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Emerging Musicians Fellowship. 

Applications are now open for Bampton Classical Opera’s sixth biennial Young Singers' Competition, launched in 2013 to celebrate the company’s 20th birthday.  Open to young professional singers aged 21-32 and their accompanists,  previous winners are mezzo-soprano Anna Starushkevych (2013), soprano Galina Averina (2015), mezzo-soprano Emma Stannard (2017), soprano Lucy Anderson (2019), and soprano Cassandra Wright (2021).  In 2017 an Accompanists' Prize was introduced, and the first winner was Keval Shah. 

After a closed first round, the public final take places in the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium, Wolfson College, Linton Road, Oxford OX2 6UD, on 25 November 2023. Judges for the competition include two internationally renowned British singers: tenor Bonaventura Bottone and mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby.

Applications entry deadline is Thursday 31st August 2023, full details from Bampton Classical Opera's website.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's Emerging Musicians Fellowship offers early-career musicians a paid, immersive professional orchestral experience, both on and off the stage over the course of a year.  The Fellowship has no upper age limit and in 2023/24 over 270 musicians applied for the scheme. The four musicians selected are:

• Danny Cleave (double bass) - a native of Devon who has just finished his Masters degree at the Royal College of Music
• Meggie Murphy (trombone) - who studied at the Royal College of Music and was in the National Youth Orchestra 
• Ewan Millar (oboe) - from Yorkshire, currently enrolled in a Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Music and who won the woodwind final of BBC Young Musician
• Méline Le Calvez (clarinet) - born in Burgundy, France will finish her studies at the Royal Academy of Music this Summer

Sameeta Gahir, Principal Piccolo, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Lead Musician for the Emerging Musicians Fellowship, said, "In light of the successful launch of the Emerging Musicians Fellowship last year, this year we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of exceptional applications we received from talented musicians nationwide. The level of skill and dedication displayed by all the applicants was truly remarkable, and we extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of them for their commitment and effort in presenting themselves. It is with great excitement that we announce the newest Fellowship Musicians. Their exceptional musical abilities and unique talents have stood out among the many outstanding candidates, and we are delighted to have them on board for this upcoming season."

Full details from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's website.

A trio of rarities: If Opera's resident ensemble is back with Giordano's Fedora, Will Todd's Alice and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta

If Opera at Belcombe Court in 2022

If Opera is back with another season at two venues in Bradford on Avon using the repertory ensemble model that they developed last year. This year the company is presenting three operas and hosting a visit from Charles Court Opera.

Umberto Giordano's Fedora is the first opera up, directed by John Wilkie and conducted by Oliver Gooch, If Opera's artistic director. Premiered in 1898, the opera has remained on the fringes of the repertory, often providing a star vehicle for sopranos (and tenors) - I saw it at Covent Garden with Mirella Freni. It will be interesting to see how John Wilkie approaches a work with a cast of young singers, including Skye Ingram as Fedora and Charne Rocheford as Loris.

Next up is Will Todd's wonderful family opera, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which was originally commissioned by Opera Holland Park. At If Opera the work is being directed by directed by Lysanne van Overbeek and conducted by Mark Austin. 

Both these operas are being performed at Belcombe Court, where opera takes place in a handsome temporary structure and you can picnic in the picturesque grounds. Also visiting Belcombe Court are Charles Court Opera who bring their production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.

As if one unusual opera wasn't enough, If Opera ends their Summer season with Tchaikovsky's final opera, Iolanta. This was premiered in 1892, just six years before Fedora, which makes you think, and when premiere Iolanta was given in a double bill with The Nutcracker ballet! If Opera's production of Iolanta is directed by Lysanne Van Overbeek and conducted Sorcha Corcoran. This production is being given in doors at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford upon Avon.

For all operas, the resident ensemble is the Bristol Ensemble. And the company features 13 singers who are all appearing in multiple roles.

Full details from the If Opera website.

Spanish season: the Horton pays tribute to the Spanish dancer confined in Epsom Asylum in 1919

Felix Garcia sketched by Picasso with Vera Nemtchinova
during rehearsals of the Ballets Russes in 1919

The Horton in Epsom is an arts centre based in the former chapel of Horton Hospital (Horton Asylum), a huge cluster of psychiatric hospitals, the largest complex of its kind in Europe when it opened in 1901. The hospital closed in 1997 and the site was redeveloped as flats. The chapel survived, just, and opened in 2021 as a cultural and heritage venue.

One of the lesser known people who was confined to Horton Asylum was the Spanish dancer Felix Garcia. Employed by Diaghilev to work on Spanish dance with the company for Massine's ballet, The Three Cornered Hat based on Falla's music, Felix Garcia was confined to Horton Asylum in 1919 and died there in the 1940s. The story of how he came to be there is full of uncertainties, whether he was genuinely disturbed or whether Diaghilev simply wanted to get rid of him (see the Horton Cemetery website).

Now the Horton is having a Spanish season, 18-19 July 2023, paying tribute to Felix Garcia. There is Boccherini in Love, a celebration of the music of Luigi Boccherini with instrumental music and arias, a Flamenco and Spanish dance masterclass, a recital by pianist Jose Vicente Riquelme playing music by Chopin, Liszt, Balakirev, Albeniz, Gimenez and Lecuona, and Spanish Soul with Spanish and Spain-inspired music by Albeniz, Schumann, Rossini, Berlioz, Falla, Turina, Sarasate, and more.

Full details from the Horton website.

Heard in her own right: an important new disc explores Fanny Hensel's songs, focusing on the unknown and unrecorded

Fanny Hensel Lieder: Tim Parker-Langston, Jennifer Parker, Stephanie Wake-Edwards, Genevieve Ellis, Jâms Coleman, Ewan Gilford; First Hand Records
Reviewed 4 July 2023

A disc which focuses entirely on Fanny Hensel's songs, enabling us to hear many unpublished and unrecorded ones in enjoyably subtle performances from six young artists

Whilst the name of Fanny Hensel (Felix Mendelssohn's elder sister) is not unknown as a composer, her music is still relatively rare on concert platform and on disc, and when we do hear her works it tends to be in the context of her brother's output. She very rarely gets a chance to be heard in her own right, and it is only relatively recently that thanks to the internet (notably HenselPushers.org and Henselsongsonline.org) that the full extent of her songs have been easily available to singers. Over 100 of her songs have remained unpublished and unrecorded, and the majority of her 450 compositions remain unheard and unseen.

Tenor Tim Parker-Langston began a PhD studying Hensel's lieder at Goldsmith's University of London in 2021, and it is Parker-Langston who created Henselsongsonline.org and now all 239 of her songs are available. An extension of this, is the new disc from First Hand Records on which Tim Parker-Langston is joined by mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Parker and Stephanie Wake-Edwards and pianists Genevieve Ellis, Jâms Coleman and Ewan Gilford for a recital of 34 of Hensel's song including 17 first recordings. The disc was recorded in the Gartenhaus of the Mendelssohn-Haus Museum in Leipzig, a room that Fanny Hensel would have known.

Somewhere for the weekend: rare Medieval walls, the development of the Eisteddfod and its own festival, Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan

South Gate, Cowbridge (Photo: Mick Lobb, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Cowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, some 12 miles West of Cardiff, and it has the distinction of being very few medieval walled towns in Wales, and substantial portions of the walls, together with the south gate, are still standing. The 18th century antiquary, Iolo Morganwg, who developed the rituals of the present day Eisteddfod, had a bookshop in the town.

Since 2010 the Cowbridge Music Festival has provided the town with a mix of classical music, jazz and folk as well as community events, and since 2021 the festival has been directed by husband and wife duo, violist Rosalind Ventris and conductor Joseph Fort. There is plenty of chance to hear the artistic directors in action as Rosalind Ventris is joined by pianist Llyr Williams for Brahms' Viola Sonatas, whilst Trio Anima (Flute – Matthew Featherstone, Viola – Rosalind Ventris, Harp – Anneke Hodnett) will be playing music from their recent debut disc, Between Earth and Sea, and Joseph Fort conducting the Choir of St Paul’s Knightsbridge in Bach's motets.

Visitors to the festival include baritone Roderick Williams with pianist Iain Burnside, the young Welsh pianist Tomos Boyles, and Trio Gaspard, as well as performers from other traditions with the Ukrainian bandura duo, Dvi Doli, (the bandura is a folk instrument combining elements of the zither and the lute), flamenco guitarist Daniel Martinez, the ensemble Khamira which comprises three musicians from Wales and three from India in fusion of Hindustani classical music, jazz, Welsh folk, and rock, and a Welsh jazz big band, The Power of Gower. 

In addition, the festival is presenting performances in care homes, as well as a wide range of outreach workshops for local school children, plus a family performance from Children's Musical Adventures.

The Cowbridge Music Festival runs from 15 to 24 September 2023, full details from the festival website.

Zermatt Music Festival premières a new octet by David Philip Hefti

Scharoun Ensemble Berlin

This year’s Zermatt Festival (running from Friday 8 to Sunday 17 September) will première a new octet entitled Des Zaubers Spuren (Traces of Magic) written by Swiss-born composer/conductor, David Philip Hefti, who is also the festival's composer-in-residence. The work will be performed by Scharoun Ensemble Berlin comprising members of the Berliner Philhamoniker; the ensemble founded the festival, based in the Swiss mountain resort of Zermatt, in 2005. 

Born in St Gallen, Hefti enjoyed good company as a student studying composition, conducting, clarinet and chamber music with the likes of Wolfgang Rihm, Cristóbal Halffter and Wolfgang Meyer in Zürich and Karlsruhe while he's a winner all the way it seems. For instance, he took top honours at such prestigious composition competitions as Gustav Mahler, Vienna, Pablo Casals, Prades and George Enescu, Bucharest. He was also awarded the Hindemith Prize, the Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize and the Composer Award of the International Classical Music Awards. 

In respect of his new work for Zermatt this is what he had to say: "I have frequently performed Schubert's Octet as a clarinettist over the course of my music studies therefore I'm delighted that my new octet Des Zaubers Spuren written for the Scharoun Ensemble will punctuate the year when they're celebrating their 40th anniversary. 

"It has been a great privilege writing my new Octet, a companion piece to Schubert's Octet, for the Scharoun Ensemble and, therefore, I'm looking tremendously forward in working on and premièring the piece with such a gifted and gallant bunch of musicians especially in the peaceful, tranquil and spiritual setting that surrounds the famous Matterhorn". 

As composer-in-residence, Hefti will be featured in a variety of concert formats with a couple dedicated and performed by the young bloods from the Zermatt Music Academy. They'll play Hefti's Gallicinium: Musik zur vierten Nachtwache für Bläserquintett (Gallicinium: Music for the Fourth Night Watch for wind quintet) dating from 2021 and an earlier work entitled Monumentum for string sextet from 2014. 

Incidentally, the German première of Des Zaubers Spuren will take place at the Berlin Philharmonie on Wednesday 27 September thus marking the auspicious occasion of the Scharoun Ensemble's 40th anniversary. Cake all round! 

Full details from the Zermatt Festival website.

David Philip Hefti's concerts programmed for this year's Zermatt Festival 

Tuesday, 12th September, English Church
Zermatt Music Academy Ensemble
David Philip Hefti: Gallicinium: Musik zur vierten Nachtwache für Bläserquintett 

Wednesday, 13th September, St Mauritius-Pfarrkirche
Zermatt Music Academy Ensemble
David Philip Hefti: Monumentum für Streichsextett 

Friday, 15th September, St Mauritius-Pfarrkirche
Scharoun Ensemble 
Zermatt Festival Orchestra
David Philip Hefti (conductor)
Christiane Karg (soprano), Wolfram Brandl (violin/concert master), Jonathan Kelly (oboe)
Bach: Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060.
David Philip Hefti: Des Zaubers Spuren, world première, commissioned by the Zermatt Festival for the Scharoun Ensemble
Alban Berg: Seven Early Songs (Sieben frühe Lieder) (c.1905-08), (arr. Reinbert de Leeuw). Early compositions of Alban Berg written while he was under the tutelage of Arnold Schoenberg.
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D 417 (the Tragic) 

Saturday, 16th September, St Mauritius-Pfarrkirche
David Philip Hefti (conductor)
Zermatt Festival Orchestra
Christiane Karg (soprano)
Mozart: Così fan tutte (arranged for wind octet by Andreas N. Tarkmann)
Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights), Op. 7
Strauss: Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings 

Sunday, 17th September, Kapelle Riffelalp
Scharoun Ensemble 
Christiane Karg (soprano)
Zermatt Music Academy Ensemble
Beethoven: Wind Octet in E flat major, Op. 103
David Philip Hefti: Five Scenes for Gustav - String Quartet No.6  
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder for high voice and string quartet (arr. David Philip Hefti) 

info@zermattfestival.com 

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The Elixir of Love: Wild Arts brings Guido Martin-Brandis' enjoyably characterful production of Donizetti's opera to the Thaxted Festival

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - Alex Jones - Wild Arts (Photo: Bonnie Britain)

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love: Galina Averina, Thomas Elwin, James Atkinson, Alex Jones, director: Guido Martin-Brandis, conductor: Orlando Jopling; Wild Arts at the Thaxted Festival
Reviewed 2 July 2023

Stylish performances and an emphasis on character make this small-scale yet inventive production wonderfully engaging.

As well as presenting opera at its own festival at Layer Marney Tower, Wild Arts, artistic director Orlando Jopling, takes its annual Summer opera production on tour. This year, as well as four performances at Layer Marney, Guido Martin-Brandis' production of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love was being performed at the Thaxted Festival, Childerley Hall, Cambridgeshire, and Hever Castle, Kent. We caught the production in Thaxted at the Parish Church on Sunday 2 July 2023. Orlando Jopling conducted, with Galina Averina as Adina, Thomas Elwin as Nemorino, James Atkinson as Belcore and Alex Jones as Dulcamara, plus Sofia Kirwan-Baez, Rebecca Milford, Harry Jacques and Robert Garland in smaller roles. Designs were by Sophie Lincoln, and the work was sung in a new translation by Joseph Morris. The accompaniment was an instrumental ensemble of string quartet, double bass, accordion, clarinets and trumpet in a new orchestration by Hamish Brown.

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - Galina Averina, Thomas Elwin - Wild Arts (Photo: Lucy J Toms)

This was a remarkably compact production, Sophie Lincoln's designs consisted simply of a blue-sky backdrop, a pair of deck chairs and some bunting, but there were evocative 1950s-period costumes and plenty of amusing 1950s-style props for Dulcamara's sales routine. This was one of those lovely productions that had no axe to grind, Martin-Brandis and Lincoln were not interested in showing how clever they were by fitting Donizetti and Felice Romani's opera into a new setting. Romani's libretto is perhaps one of the best that Donizetti ever set, and the opera stands on its own without help.

Norfolk Into Opera Festival returns to Little Plumstead with Carmen, new opera by and for children, Lynne Plowman's Captain Blood's Revenge and much more

Norfolk Into Opera Festival at the Octagon Barn, Little Plumstead

Norfolk Into Opera Festival returns for its second year, transforming the beautiful Octagon Barn in Little Plumstead into what they describe as 'their own mini- Glyndebourne' and presenting an array of events from 6 to 16 July 2023 including a production of Bizet's Carmen.

Carmen will be performed in English (in David Parry's translation), directed by Genevieve Raghu and conducted by Olivia Clarke with Georgia Mae Bishop as Carmen, Alexander Robin Baker as Don Jose, Kieran Rayner as Escamillo and Katherine Crompton as Micaela.

Into Opera is a Norfolk-based charity whose aim is to get more people into opera, founded by artistic director Genevieve Raghu. As well as Bizet's popular, the festival is presenting three fun, new operas written especially with and for children. Three local primary schools have collaborated on the project: The Bawburgh School, Sprowston Junior School and St Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary School. The schools have spent five months developing these operas, There’s a Dinosaur in the Playground!, The School for Explorers and The Books that Disappeared with composer Michael Betteridge and librettist Genevieve Raghu. Still on the theme of young people, to launch the the festival on Thursday 6 July, primary schools are invited to a Finding Your Voice: Big Sing on the field of the Octagon Park. 

And for family audiences there is also a mischievous pirate opera called Captain Blood’s Revenge by the composer Lynne Plowman. This opera, originally commissioned by Glyndebourne, is a brilliant introduction to opera in a staging which will playfully immerse the audience in the story. Other family events include Party in the Park, an opportunity to get involved in dance workshops, craft making activities, and to sit in the grounds and enjoy live music over a picnic.

The closing gala concert Opera Unwrapped features conductor John Andrews, the National Symphony Orchestra, mezzo soprano Katie Bray and baritone Grant Doyle in a wide range of music from classic operas, plus a preview of music by Norfolk-based composer Patrick Hawes from his new family opera, Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat, commissioned by Into Opera and based on the story by Ursula Moray Williams. 

Full details from the Into Opera website.