Recently in Commentary

ETO Autumn 2020 Season Announcement: Lyric Solitude

English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.

Eight Songs from Isolation: first opera written for a socially distanced world

Conductor Oliver Zeffman has commissioned the very first opera for a socially distanced world, which is now available to watch exclusively on Apple Music. Eight Songs From Isolation has been written by eight leading composers, specifically for streaming - rather than live performance - and is the first opera written for a time when the performers were unable to meet in person.

Let Music Live

Leading freelance musicians unite in Parliament Square to call for targeted support for colleagues in the arts and entertainment sector.

Murphy & Attridge celebrate performers' humanity with a creative response to lockdown

Duo Lewis Murphy (composer) and Laura Attridge (writer) have launched a charitable song project entitled Notes From Isolation. The resulting songs, featuring some of the UK's top singing talent, are being released online between August and October 2020 and can be enjoyed free of charge.

The Royal Opera House unveils programme of new work alongside much-loved classics for live audiences this Autumn

The Royal Opera House is thrilled to announce an exciting, wide-ranging new line-up for its autumn programme. For the first time, extraordinary performances will be accessible online for a global audience through livestreams and for socially distanced live audiences at our home in Covent Garden. In a global first, we present a new opera in hyper-reality, alongside repertory favourites from both artistic companies.

Wexford Festival Opera Gala Concert - Remote Voices: as part of Waiting for Shakespeare …The Festival in the air

Some of the most famous and outstanding stars from the opera world are to take part in a very special evening from Wexford Festival Opera, including Aigul Akhmetshina, Joseph Calleja, Daniela Barcellona, Juan Diego Flórez, Igor Golovatenko, Ermonela Jaho, Sergey Romanovsky, and many more.

OperaStreaming announces second season of nine new productions from the opera houses of Emilia-Romagna, free to view on YouTube

Following its successful launch in 2019, OperaStreaming streams nine operas on YouTube from the historic opera houses of Emilia-Romagna during the 2020-21 season, with fully-staged productions of Verdi's La traviata in October from Modena and Verdi'sOtello from Bologna in...

Connections Across Time: Sholto Kynoch on the 2020 Oxford Lieder Festival

‘A brief history of song’ is the subtitle of the 2020 Oxford Lieder Festival (10th-17th October), which will present an ambitious, diverse and imaginative programme of 40 performances and events.

Bampton Classical Opera 2020: Gluck's The Crown at St John's Smith Square

Bampton Classical Opera returns to the Baroque splendour of London’s St John’s Smith Square on November 6 with a concert performance of Gluck’s one-act opera The Crown, the first in the UK since 1987. The performance will also be filmed and available to watch on demand on the Bampton website from 9 November.

A new opera written during lockdown with three different endings to choose from to premiere this October as part of Wexford Festival Opera

While many of us spent lockdown at home taking it a little easier, composer Andrew Synnott wrote an opera.

Grange Park Opera presents Britten’s Owen Wingrave, filmed on location in haunted houses in Surrey and London

Owen Wingrave is part of the new Interim Season of 19 brand new events, all free to view online between September and December 2020.

Music and Theatre For All launches three major new projects supported by The Arts Council

The Arts Council has awarded innovative UK charity Music and Theatre For All (MTFA) a major new grant to develop three ambitious new projects in the wake of Covid 19.

English National Opera to reopen the London Coliseum with performances of Mozart’s Requiem

English National Opera (ENO) will reopen the London Coliseum to socially distanced audiences on 6 and 7 November for special performances of Mozart’s Requiem. These will provide audiences with an opportunity to reflect upon and to commemorate the difficulties the nation has faced during the pandemic.

The Royal Opera House launches autumn digital programme with a new series of Friday Premieres and screenings on Sky Arts

The Royal Opera House is proud to continue its curated #OurHouseToYourHouse programme into the autumn, bringing audiences the best of the ROH through a new series of Friday Premieres and cultural highlights.

Take a Bow: Royal Opera House opens its doors for the first time in six months as part of Open House London

After six months of closure, the Royal Opera House is thrilled to be opening its doors to the public as part of Open House London weekend, giving visitors a taste of one of the world’s most famous theatres for free.

Academy of St Martin in the Fields presents re:connect - a series of autumn concerts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is thrilled to announce re:connect - an eight concert series with live socially distanced audiences at its namesake church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The autumn concerts will take place at 5pm & 7:30pm on two Saturdays per month with guest artists including baritone Roderick Williams, soprano Carolyn Sampson and composer-conductor-pianist Ryan Wigglesworth performing a wide range of repertoire.

Connections Across Time: The Oxford Lieder Festival, 10-17 October 2020

Music and poetry unite and collide across centuries, from the Medieval to the Enlightenment to the present day. This year, the Oxford Lieder Festival will present a thrilling and innovative programme comprising more than forty events streamed over eight days.

The English Concert Autumn 2020 series: Handel and Purcell, Britain’s Orpheus

The English Concert with artistic director Harry Bicket is delighted to announce a series of concerts from 1-15 October 2020. The concerts take place in historic London venues with star soloists and will be performed and streamed live to a paying audience at 7pm GMT on each performance date. The programmes include first-class vocal and instrumental works from the two pillars of the English Baroque, covering different aspects of the repertoire.

Glyndebourne announces first indoor performances since lockdown, and unveils 2021 Festival repertoire

Glyndebourne has announced plans for a ‘staycation’ series of socially-distanced indoor performances, starting on 10 October 2020.

Royal Opera House announces autumn opera and ballet concerts

The Royal Opera House is delighted to announce two packed evenings of opera and ballet, live from our stage in Covent Garden and available to view wherever you are in the world online.

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Commentary

01 Sep 2020

The English Concert Autumn 2020 series: Handel and Purcell, Britain’s Orpheus

The English Concert with artistic director Harry Bicket is delighted to announce a series of concerts from 1-15 October 2020. The concerts take place in historic London venues with star soloists and will be performed and streamed live to a paying audience at 7pm GMT on each performance date. The programmes include first-class vocal and instrumental works from the two pillars of the English Baroque, covering different aspects of the repertoire.

A newly discovered work by Purcell for two tenors, bass and continuo, will be given its first modern-day performance by Anthony Gregory and Hugo Hymas. This programme will be presented in association with Purcell scholar Rebecca Herissone and the University of Manchester.

Other soloists include Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies, Lucy Crowe, Carolyn Sampson, Mark Padmore, Soraya Mafi, James Way, and Dame Sarah Connolly, and principal guest director Kristian Bezuidenhout and founder Trevor Pinnock.

“The musicians of The English Concert are delighted to resume live music-making after such a long time, and it’s a particular pleasure to do so with such an exceptional line-up of soloists - both long-term collaborators and wonderful new talent. We are looking forward to performing a rich selection of Baroque music, including masterpieces by both Handel and Purcell, and it’s deeply exciting to present a Purcell premiere.” Harry Bicket, artistic director of The English Concert

The series opens with a partial recreation of Handel’s first concert for the Foundling Hospital. Following a series of benefit performances from 1749 onward, Handel became connected with the Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury, a home for sick, orphaned and abandoned children. Including excerpts from the oratorio Solomon (1748), this programme features music drawn from Handel’s first concert for the Foundling Hospital. This concert will be free to watch, and the audience will be encouraged to donate.

Soprano Lucy Crowe performs a selection of Handel’s Italian works including the cantata Armida abbandonata in an intimate recital at Somerset House. The programme will also feature music by Johann Ernst Galliard, Chapel master at Somerset House and Handel’s principal oboist.

Iestyn Davies performs a concert of Purcell’s solo songs in the Great Hall at Eltham Palace including the extensive masterpiece ‘O Solitude’, set to three verses of a poem by Katherine Philips. Trevor Pinnock directs a performance of works by Purcell and Handel written for the domestic market.

The final programme examines Handel’s interest in Milton. Handel seems to have first become captivated by Milton’s poetry following an evening in November 1739 spent with Lord Shaftesbury, when the host’s brother-in-law read aloud the entirety of John Milton’s epic tragic drama Samson Agonistes. The interest this experience sparked in Handel for Milton’s poetry resulted in some of his most ambitious vocal music — first inL’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740) and ultimately in Samson (1743), set to a libretto adapted by Newburgh Hamilton. With Carolyn Sampson and Mark Padmore, two of the most accomplished Handel singers active today, in this final programme from St Giles Cripplegate Church (which also hosts a statue of Milton) we trace how Milton’s poetry inspired Handel to use music as a means of advancing and extending poetic meaning.

https://englishconcert.co.uk/diary/ for details and tickets
The English Concert:
hello@englishconcert.co.uk
+44 (0)20 3962 2322

Handel the Philanthropist | Great Hall at Bart’s Hospital | 1 October 2020
Partial recreation of Handel’s first concert for the Foundling Hospital. This concert will be free to view. Viewers will be encouraged to donate. In association with Bart’s Heritage.
Soloists: Sophie Bevan, Soraya Mafi, James Way, Dame Sarah Connolly, Director: Harry Bicket Programme: GF Handel Selections from Solomon (1748)

Purcell - O Solitude | Great Hall at Eltham Palace | 4 October 2020
In association with English Heritage
Soloist: Iestyn Davies, Director: Harry Bicket
Henry Purcell: Golden Sonata, Chacony in G minor, ‘O solitude’, Violin Sonata in G minor, Sonata in 4 parts in E flat, ‘Evening Hymn’

Purcell - Odes for a Queen | St John’s Smith Square | 6 October 2020
Including a newly discovered devotional song by Purcell for two tenors, bass and continuo.
Also, the uncorrupted version of ‘Come Ye Sons of Art’.
In association with the University of Manchester
Soloists: Hugo Hymas, Anthony Gregory, Director: Kristian Bezuidenhout
Programme: Henry Purcell, Ode - ‘Love’s Goddess sure was Blind’, ‘Oh that my grief’ (newly discovered piece) ‘Since God so tender a regard’, Ode - ‘Come Ye Sons of Art’

Handel the Italian | Somerset House | 9 October 2020
In association with Somerset House Intimate recital featuring Italian works.
Soloist: Lucy Crowe, Director: Harry Bicket
Handel: Overture to Rodrigo, Alpestre Monte, Trio Sonata in D, Lascia la spina, Armida abbandonata J.E. Galliard: Bassoon Sonata No.2 in G

Purcell & Handel - Music, Home & Heritage | Weston Park (Shropshire) | 13 October 2020
By the end of the 17th century, numerous pieces of music were published for the domestic market. Director: Trevor Pinnock
Purcell, Suite of theatre music (Gordian knot untied, Old bachelor, Married beau…), Sonata in 4 parts in C; Croft, Ground for harpsichord in C minor (formerly attr. Purcell); Purcell, Sonata in 4 parts in C minor; Handel, Sonata in G minor or B flat from Op.2/14; Handel, Sonata in G opus 5/4 ( Athalia, Il parnasso in Festa etc.)

Handel & Milton | St Giles-without-Cripplegate | 15 October 2020
Taking place from St Giles Cripplegate which hosts a statue of Milton. Music from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and Samson.
Soloists: Carolyn Sampson and Mark Padmore, Director: Harry Bicket
Handel: Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.5 in D Major (with winds), selection from Samson, selection from L’Allegro; Thomas Arne, 3 dances from the Masque of Comus

Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):