The best opera and classical music to enjoy at home this autumn
As the nights draw in, an evening at home with the world's finest singers and players is more appealing than ever. For our favourites, click on 'read more'
ENO La Bohème, drive-in live
Last chance to catch English National Opera's innovative and highly praised short-form La Bohème, performed live in September. Puccini's tragic opera took its vehicular look from the car-bound audience, lovers Rodolfo and Mimì falling and failing in love from their trailers. Cast includes soprano Natalya Romaniw, pictured. Streamed on NOW TV, which is full of such goodies, and offers a free seven-day trial.
Read more ...Shh! We Have A Plan, English Touring Opera
Children's opera based on the Chris Haughton's popular book, and composed by Noah Mosely. Free to view, the 16-minute opera features puppetry as four cartoon hunters endeavour to catch a beautiful, colourful bird. Ideal for three- to five-year-olds.
Read more ...OAE Player: live concerts online
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment launches its own streaming site, with concerts, masterclasses and backstage insights. Performances include, from Monday 9 November, Roderick Williams (pictured) directing the OAE and as baritone soloist in works by Telemann, Bach and Handel, for whose fleet-of-foot chamber opera Apollo and Daphne he is joined by soprano Rowan Pierce. Also, music and science meet in Bach, the Universe and Everything. Support the OAE with an annual subscription, and access the best early music on demand.
Guildhall Music live
It takes more than a pandemic to stop the brilliant younger singers, players and technical crew at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Look out for concerts by the Chamber Orchestra (Friday 23 October, 7:30pm), conducted by Joshua Weilerstein (pictured) and Symphony Orchestra (Saturday 7 November, 7:30pm), using low latency technology – the different sections of the orchestras contribute from different rooms. And catch this operatic triple bill: Mascagni's Zanetto; Wolf-Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna (Susanna’s Secret) and Donizetti's Rita (Two Men and a Woman) (four performances, from Monday 2 to Monday 9 November, 7pm).
Read more ...Eight Songs From Isolation
Conductor Oliver Zeffman commissioned, curated and conducted the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in this portfolio of new music, composed in response to our changed lives. Contemplations sung by an all-star line-up include Nico Muhly's New-Made Tongue setting words by Thomas Traherne, sung by counter-tenor Iestyn Davies, Helen Grime's setting of Prayer by Carol Ann Duffy, sung by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and Huw Watkins's How, to words by Philip Larkin, sung by tenor Toby Spence. Soprano Sophie Bevan sings Julian Anderson's Le 3 mai, a letter he received during lockdown from composer Ahmed Essyad, sung in French by Sophie Bevan. Enthralling.
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The Sixteen & Simon Russell Beale, A Choral Odyssey
Words and music from the top choir, under Harry Christophers, and National Theatre actor Simon Russell Beale, created in five scenic locations and streamed at intervals from Wednesday 18 November. Highlights from London venues include evenings at Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory (Wednesday 25 November), the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe (Wednesday 2 December) and Hatfield House (9 December), concluding with Christmas music (Wednesday 16 and Wednesday 23 December).
Read more ...Live opera from ROH Covent Garden
The Royal Opera House continues its live performances from Covent Garden with increasingly ambitious programmes of ballet, instrumental music and song. Catch new and favourite operas and concert pieces with 4/4 for 30 days from Saturday 17 October and New Dark Age from Saturday 24 October.
Read more ...LSO St Luke's live concerts
An ambitious season of live concerts given to a small, live audience at LSO St Luke's. If you can't attend in person, watch and listen from home. Highlights include a rush-hour concert at 6pm on Friday 6 November by violinist Christian Tetzlaff (pictured) and friends.
Read more ...Garsington Opera online
Several of the finest productions at Garsington Opera are available online, including Mozart's effervescent comedy The Marriage of Figaro (pictured) one of the big hits of the 2017 season. Don't miss the mysterious The Skating Rink or Benjamin Britten's ghostly The Turn of the Screw.
Read more ...Aurora Play: orchestral concerts online
Aurora Orchestra is one of London's most dynamic orchestras. Under conductor Nicholas Collon, it constantly rethinks masterworks in the classical repertoire and explores the best new music. Here the musicians launch a new digital concert season, featuring Beethoven, Mozart and Beethoven, alongside modernists Nico Muhly, Anna Meredith and Brett Dean. Don't miss Beethoven's Eroica Symphony No 3 played from memory.
Read more ...Opera and Concerts on Arte
Opera houses and concert halls Europe-wide are within reach though EU-funded Arte, an ever-changing treasure trove of performances and documentaries in English or another European language of your choice. Register free, and build your own library, or dip in to new programmes. Currently on offer, a witty, modern-dress Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte from Salzburg.
Read more ...OperaVision
Sign up free to this Belgium-based international opera library, and you can help yourself to productions from all over the world, with new ones added almost daily. Coming soon, Garsington Opera's Fidelio, recorded live this autumn, with Katherine Broderick and Toby Spence (pictured).
Read more ...Concert Roulette: your classical jukebox
Solo artists and ensembles all over the world have come together as if on a single platform, playing concert favourites, overlooked music and contemporary sounds. 'Spin the wheel' and discover something new or spend time with an old friend.
Read more ...BBC Radio 3
Round the clock, BBC Radio 3 features live and recorded performances, music-based interviews, features and documentaries. Our favourite: Composer of the Week, weekdays, 12pm-1pm, revealing a life and its work, and In Tune, weekdays, 5pm-7pm, with studio performances from exciting young artists such as Thomas Gould (pictured).
Read more ...BBC Culture in Quarantine: music, drama and art
A hugely increased appetite for classical music during lockdown is fed by the BBC's addition to its Culture in Quarantine programme on television, on radio and online. Orchestral, chamber music and solo recitals are featured, as well as documentaries and landmark archive performances. We love the Royal Festival Hall concert, recorded by Chineke! orchestra (pictured) in September.
Read more ...Royal Opera House
Many of the finest productions at Covent Garden are available on DVD, on the Opus Arte label. Recent favourites include Ermonela Jaho in a five-star Verdi's La Traviata (pictured), but the list runs into hundreds. You can even compare and contrast different productions.
Read more ...Marquee TV for opera and dance
A fantastic music library of opera and concerts features both British orchestras and companies such a Glyndebourne Festival Opera (pictured) and leading international productions and ensembles. New titles are added all the time, and you enjoy a free 30-day trial before committing to a subscription at around £9 a month,
Read more ...takt1: live streamed and archive classics
For 30 days a free trial with streaming service takt1 will open the doors of the world's concert halls and opera houses, both for live performances and for memorable evenings from concerts past. We love Martha Argerich (pictured) and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Zubin Mehta in Ravel's Piano Concerto, and a dynamic Stravinsky Rite of Spring.
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