Château de Versailles Spectacles celebrates the Opéra Royal de Versailles’ 250th Anniversary
Château de Versailles Spectacles announces a new season celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Opéra Royal, inaugurated during the 1770 wedding feasts of Louis XVI to Marie-Antoinette, and the 350th anniversary of the Parisian Académie Royale de Musique, founded by Louis XIV in 1669. Highlights of the 2019-2020 season include a new production of Grétry’s Richard Cœur de Lion and the first contemporary opera to be mounted on the Opéra Royal’s stage: John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles.
Read moreLaurence Equilbey takes Insula orchestra on tour worldwide in 2019 and 2020
Over their 2019-2020 season, Laurence Equilbey and her Insula orchestra venture beyond their Parisian home, La Seine Musicale, taking their daring multimedia productions to Germany and China. A major new production of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony no. 6 tours to Shanghai in May 2020 with ecological video projections by Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus, before returning to Dortmund in June. Over 2019, Insula orchestra take Der Freischütz to Ludwigsburg, Luxembourg and London and a Scottish-themed programme to its German roots in Köln in September.
Read moreA gravity-defying staging of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem with Yoann Bourgeois and Insula orchestra
Insula orchestra and conductor Laurence Equilbey let silence speak this June as they present a unique gravity-defying staging of Mozart’s seminal Requiem in Lyon and Paris. This new production sees the unfinished composition performed in its fragmented form with a staging directed by the acrobat and dancer Yoann Bourgeois. Insula orchestra perform with accentus choir and soloists Hélène Carpentier & Natalie Perez, Giuseppina Bridelli & Eva Zaïcik, Jonathan Abernethy, and Christian Immler.
Read moreChristophe Rousset & Les Talens Lyriques release Salieri’s blood-thirsty Tarare, the final recording from the composer’s trilogy of French operas
Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques complete Salieri’s trilogy of blood-thirsty French operas with the release of Tarare on Aparté on 7 June, recorded live following performances in Versailles, Paris, and Vienna. The release of Tarare follows high praise for the ensemble’s recordings of Salieri’s Les Danaïdes and Les Horaces, and features a starry cast including Cyrille Dubois in the titular role and Karine Deshayes as Astaire alongside Jean-Sébastien Bou, Judith van Wanroij, and Tassis Christoyannis. All three operas were composed in the looming shadow of the French Revolution, and their gory political intrigues hint at the growing dissidence prior to the Terror.
Read moreChristophe Rousset & Les Talens Lyriques indulge in Handel’s operatic masterworks
Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques embark on a ravishing season of Handel operas as they trace the composer from his first great success, Ariodante, to the dramatic oratorio Saul composed at the other end of the composer’s life. Their journey takes them from Dortmund and Halle with mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg in June to Bucharest’s Enescu Festival in September for back-to-back concert performances of Giulio Cesare and Agrippina with Christopher Lowrey and Karina Gauvin. Giulio Cesare is repeated at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées on 24 September.
Read moreThe New Generation Festival at Palazzo Corsini al Prato in Florence, Italy announces 2019 programme and partnership in Andermatt, Switzerland alongside plans for new opera studio
The New Generation Festival returns from 28 to 31 August 2019 with performances of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro held in the ravishing ornamental gardens of Florence’s Palazzo Corsini al Prato with a budding young cast of tomorrow’s stars. The festival was established to create an international platform for the finest young operatic talents, and now announces long-term initiatives including a cross-border New Generation Concert Series with the new Andermatt Concert Hall in Switzerland (opening June 2019). The Festival will establish the Mascarade Opera Studio from September 2020 to provide young emerging singers with a 9-month residency tailor-made to their needs.
Read moreGuy Johnston’s recording of Howells’ haunting Cello Concerto released on the King’s College Cambridge Label on 7 June
Following the posthumous premiere in 2016, cellist Guy Johnston has recorded Herbert Howells’ haunting Cello Concerto for the King’s College label for release on 7 June. The work was recorded in the resonant King’s College Chapel alongside the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Christopher Seaman.
Read morePianist Nicolas Hodges performs Messiaen’s intrepid Des canyons aux étoiles at the BBC Proms
Nicolas Hodges returns to the Proms to perform Messiaen’s intrepid Des canyons aux étoiles at the BBC Proms on 28 July 2019 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. Mark Swed (LA Times) recently described Hodges as “one of the leading performers of advanced European music ... He makes seemingly unintelligible music speak for itself ... and is a pianist with a flabbergasting technique and instantly engaging musicality.”
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