Best concerts and opera in April and for Easter
Bach tells the Easter story, two new operas and a brand-new choir features top voices
Bach tells the Easter story, two new operas and a brand-new choir features top voices
Paul is haunted by visions of his deceased wife, Marie, but then meets her double, Marietta. Composer Eric Korngold is best known for his film music, so expect drama and suspense as Paul picks his way through this mystery. Swiss tenor Rolf Romai plays Paul, with soprano Allison Oakes (pictured) singing as Marie/Marietta, and Sarah Connolly as the housekeeper in this promising new production by ENO artistic director Annilese Miskimmon, conducted by Kirill Karabits.
Highlights of this annual celebration of Easter include Dvorak's Mass in D major, sung at lunchtime on Tuesday 4 April; later the Purcell Singers sing Evensong. The Hanover Band and soloists perform JS Bach's monumental St Matthew Passion. (Wednesday 5 April). Tenebrae sing music by Bach and MacMillan (Thursday 6 April). On Good Friday (7 April) the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform Bach's St John Passion with Nick Pritchard (pictured) as Evangelist.
Read more ...The great retelling in music of the Easter story marks the start of Holy Week. David Hill conducts the Bach Choir and orchestra Florilegium with tenor Ed Lyon as the Evangelist, and soloists Simon Shibambu, Julia Doyle, Iestyn Davies, Nicky Spence (pictured) and Gareth Brynmor.
Read more ...
Music and visual art combine perfectly, and search restlessly for a conclusion in Reich Richter / Moving Picture (946-3). This collaboration between composer Steve Reich, artist Gerhard Richter and video artist Corinna Belz fragments and develops a Richter abstract like a perpetual kaleidoscope. Permiered at The Shed in New York in 2019, this is an unmissable event, with the London Sinfonietta, who also play new music by Anna Clyne and others. This is 'classical' musical at its coolest!
Read more ...A really dynamic account of the Easter story in Bach's sublime music told by the Britten Sinfonia and the choir of Merton College, Oxford, directed by violinist and leader Jacqueline Shave director/violin. Soloists from the exciting new generation of singers include soprano Rachel Redmond (pictured), mezzo-soprano Anita Monserrat, and tenor Anthony Gregory, with tenor Gwilym Bowen as the Evangelist and James Atkinson as Christus. Enthralling and very beautiful.
Read more ...With its dramatic and recurring Dies Irae chorus, Verdi's operatic Requiem is a great favourite with audiences. For this Eastertide performance, the London Mozart Players under Dan Ludford-Thomas are joined by Philippa Boyle (soprano) Martha McLorinan (mezzo-soprano), Oliver Johnston (tenor), Thomas Humphreys (bass) and leading London choirs, Lewisham Choral Society and the Hackney Singers.
Read more ...Exaudi, Polyphony, the King’s Consort, Ex Cathedra, I Fagiolini and The Sixteen are among the finest vocal ensembles in the country. Members from each combine their skills in a brand-new outfit, Vox Urbane. Its mission is to champion new music and new singers, and its inaugural concert will include two UK premiere plus works by Philip Glass, Poulenc, Meredith Monk and others. Protegés Vox Next Gen will also perform. But the music doesn't stop when the concert ends: an education outreach project, Vox Roots, will get even more young people into music. Sounds like a chance to be in at the start of something life-changing when music in schools is at risk.
Read more ...Simon Stone wrote and directed the National Theatre's Phaedra, and was the director of huge TV hit The Dig, starring Ralph Fiennes as the amateur archaeologist who unearths Sutton Hoo. Now Stone turns his talent for suspense to the staging of a very different drama, the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's opera Innocence. In modern-day Finland, an oddly subdued wedding is under way. When a waitress is taken ill, memories of a tragedy 10 years earlier are reawakened. Singers include Sandrine Piau (soprano), and Christopher Purves (bass), with Susanna Mällki (pictured), chief conductor of the Helskini Philharmonic Orchestra, making her ROH conducting debut.
Read more ...We love these early evening concerts that pack so much into an hour before dinner. Sir Simon Rattle (pictured) makes one of his last appearances in London as music director of the LSO, conducting John Adams's Harmonilehre. In this mighty work the American composer conjures up an electrifying San Francisco skyline, blending classical and pop musical styles. A rare and colossal work that will thrill younger music-lovers too.
Read more ...Duty and conviction come face to face when a policeman father clashes with his activist son, in an opera receiving its UK premiere. Zwakele Tshabalala (pictured) plays the campaigning son, with Kenneth Kellogg as his father and Nadine Benjamin as his mother in what promises to be a really powerful production, conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren
Read more ...A new staging of one of the best-known and most-loved pieces of modern music, Henryk Górecki's Symphony No 3, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Setting Polish texts, the moving work for orchestra and voice, first heard in 1992, meditates on the awful separation of mother and child. American soprano Nicole Chevalier (pictured) is the soprano soloist, and Russian-American conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya makes her ENO conducting debut.
Read more ...You have reached the limit of free articles.
To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper
Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.
If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use