Insula orchestra’s phantasmagorical Der Freischütz released on CD & DVD on Warner Classics, 200 years after the work’s premiere
200 years after the work’s premiere, Insula orchestra and Laurence Equilbey release a new recording of Carl Maria von Weber’s bewitching Der Freischütz, championing the work’s vivid instrumental colours on period instruments with highlights of the orchestra’s 2019 production on CD & DVD. The Freischütz Project will be released on Warner Classics on 26 February 2021, with a cast led by Stanislas de Barbeyrac as the young forester Max and Johanni van Oostrum as his beloved Agathe, with Vladimir Baykov as the devil’s assistant, Kaspar.
Read moreOperaStreaming presents Verdi’s Don Carlo in concert from the Teatro Comunale di Modena
Live from the Teatro Comunale di Modena on 6 February 2021, OperaStreaming presents a concert performance of Verdi’s Don Carlo in its four-act 1884 version. Jordi Bernàcer directs the Orchestra dell’Emilia-Romagna Arturo Toscanini in Verdi’s dramatic tale of love and politics, joined by an internationally-acclaimed Italian cast including tenor Andrea Carè in the title role, bass Michele Pertusi as the King of Spain, baritone Luca Salsi as Rodrigo, soprano Anna Pirozzi as Elisabeth de Valois, and mezzo- soprano Judit Kutasi as the Princess Eboli.
Read moreOperaStreaming presents Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in new digital production marking the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death
In homage to the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante (1321-2021), on Friday 22 January, OperaStreaming presents a new live digital production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi from the Teatro Municipale di Piacenza, opening with readings from the famous work that inspired it, Dante’s Inferno. Puccini’s last completed opera, Gianni Schicchi was composed during the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1917-18, in which the composer lost his sister. The one-act comic opera is based on a well-known incident from Dante’s Inferno, where the 13th- century Florentine knight Gianni Schicchi de’ Cavalcanti is seen condemned to Hell for impersonating Buoso Donati and changing his will so it is favourable to Schicchi. Puccini’s setting includes the famous aria ‘O mio babbino caro’, sung by Lauretta as she begs her father Schicchi to let her marry Rinuccio.
Read moreIntroductory videos by Classics Explained reach 230,000 young viewers as the YouTube channel presents new episode on Also Sprach Zarathustra
The hit YouTube channel Classics Explained continues its introductions to classical music with Strauss’s famed Also Sprach Zarathustra, from Nietzsche to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Reinventing classical music for a digital generation, Classics Explained (ClassEx) is releasing a series of new videos made during lockdown, having reached 230,000 views on its YouTube channel. With an audience of almost entirely Gen Z viewers, the channel is consistently reaching an audience that the classical music industry has struggled to access.
Read moreRameau to Radiohead in new album Timelapse, released by Orchestra of the Swan this January
On Friday 22 January 2021, Orchestra of the Swan releases a new mixtape album on Signum; Timelapse sets canonical composers alongside contemporaries, with Rameau meeting Reich and Radiohead, and Schubert against Satie and The Smiths. Timelapse will be released on film on 19 April 2021. Championed in orchestral arrangements by Artistic Director David Le Page, Timelapse brings together diverse musicians past and present, from the Baroque finesse of Rameau and Couperin and the Romantic writing of Grieg and Schubert to contemporary composers Thomas Adès and Errollyn Wallen, and popular stars including Radiohead, The Smiths and David Bowie.
Read moreDaring aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry takes flight once more in Wind, Sand and Stars, a new digital concert from Orchestra of the Swan
In the second of their straight-to-streaming Night Owl digital concerts, Orchestra of the Swan with Artistic Director David Le Page, capture the daring days of early aviation when to be a pilot was a thing of wonder, in an intrepid voyage with the daring French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of Le Petit Prince. Extracts from the autobiography of the great aviator, Wind, Sand and Stars, narrated by Graham Padden, interweave with a soundscape from twentieth-century France, from the velvet minimalist chords of Satie, to the brightly polished and exquisite whirring world of Ravel, from the exotic flavours of Debussy to the grit and pathos of Montmartre Chanson, with Charles Trenet’s iconic La Mer in an arrangement by David Le Page.
Read moreOxford Philharmonic Orchestra announces online concert series featuring Sheku Kanneh-Mason and world premieres by Mats Lidström and Libby Croad
Following their concert in tribute to the Oxford Vaccine Teams, which included the world premiere of John Rutter’s Joseph’s Carol, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is kicking off 2021 with an online series of four concerts, streamed free to its audiences worldwide. Highlights include Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, as well as two world premieres: Libby Croad’s ‘Suite for Strings’ and Mats Lidström’s Sappho in Manchester.
Read moreOperaStreaming broadcasts two sparkling Rossini comedies live from Piacenza and Modena this Christmas
Streaming two sparkling Rossini comedies from the historic opera houses of Italy’s Emilia- Romagna region this Christmas, OperaStreaming broadcasts Il barbiere di Siviglia from the Teatro Municipale, Piacenza on Sunday 20 December and La Cenerentola from the Teatro Comunale, Modena on Wednesday 30 December, live on YouTube. At the Teatro Municipale di Piacenza, Renato Bonajuto revives the elegant 2005 production of Il barbiere di Siviglia by Beppe de Tomasi, with the Orchestra dell'Emilia- Romagna Arturo Toscanini conducted by Nikolas Nägele, Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin.
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