Best Opera and Classical Music 2021

By Claudia Pritchard on 4/1/2021

Symphony concerts that open up new horizons, operas that take audiences to another realm .... trust music to transport us out of daily life and make a world of difference

Valkyrie opens Wagner's Ring cycle at the Coliseum. Artwork: English National Opera

The Ring, English National Opera

Formidable women have been enlisted by English National Opera in its fightback again the adversities of Covid and Brexit. The ferocious Valkyrie, embodied in music by the composer Richard Wagner, will tear on to the stage of the Coliseum this autumn, as the curtain goes up on the Ring Cycle, dates to be announced.

WHERE

English National Opera
London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES

Tenor Nicky Spence sings at the closing concert of Classical Vauxhall

Classical Vauxhall, live concerts online

The charismatic saxophonist Jess Gillam and supertenor Nicky Spence head a starry line-up over a weekend of classical music streamed from 18 to 21 March. Programmes include much-loved classics and the best show tunes.

WHEN

18 Mar 2021 – 21 Mar 2021, Four nightly concerts, streamed live

WHERE

Online

London Unwrapped, Kings Place

A year-long celebration of the capital's musical talents – its performers and composers, and its enriching incomers. Top artists include Aurora orchestra and Chineke! Chamber Ensemble, singers Allan Clayton (tenor) and Iestyn Davies (counter-tenor), vocal ensemble The Sixteen and the mould-breaking Hermes Experiment (pictured). Composers in the spotlight include London's own Anna Meredith and two Germans who adopted this as their home – Handel and JC Bach.

WHEN

Thurs 21 Jan – Fri 31 Dec, restrictions permitting

WHERE

Kings Place
90 York Way, London, N1 9AG

Live concerts, Barbican

With its many doors and wide open spaces, the Barbican concert hall is better suited than many to staging live concerts. Umissable, the first concert of an adjusted season features Mitsuko Uchida (pictured) in Schumann's ravishing Piano Concerto, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the LSO in Schumann's Symphony No 9 too (two performances, Thurs 14 Jan). Coming later, lots more from the LSO, baritone Roderick Williams's recital (27 April), a Los Angeles Phil residency (22 & 23 May), and continuing 50th birthday celebrations for composer Thomas Adès.

WHEN

Thurs 14 Jan – Sat 17 July 2021

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

The long dinner interval is all part of the Glyndebourne tradition. Photo:Leigh Simpson

Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2021

Summer isn’t complete without at least one trip to Glyndebourne, and what could be more heartening than news of this year’s full season? World-class musicianship and cheerful picnicking meet for six productions. Top of our list, Janáček's searing Kát'a Kabanová, Verdi's dramatic Luisa Miller and Rossini's comedy Il Turco in Italia. Also on offer, two Mozart revivals, Die Zauberflöte and Così Fan Tutte, plus Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

WHEN

Thurs 20 May 2021 – Sun 29 Aug 2021

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

London Handel Festival 2021

George Frideric Handel adopted London as his home, and blessed the capital with an abundance of enduring works. The annual London Handel Festival is a rich source of music and of rising musical talent. But its activities are year-round. Amateur singers can prepare now for an online Messiah, rehearsing at home before an edited, streamed performance on 5 April. Then stand aside as the professionals let rip with concerts and operas galore.

WHEN

Spring/summer 2021: dates to be announced, restrictions permitting

WHERE

St George's, Hanover Square, Mayfair W1S 1FX

La Traviata is revived at Opera Holland Park. Photo:Robert Workman

Opera Holland Park 2021

London's own country house opera goes from strength to strength every season, and after the last, fallow, summer OHP will be aiming high. Curtain up on Tues 1 June heralds two months of music-making, with new productions of Mozart’s clever comedy Le Nozze di Figaro, Janáček’s family-minded The Cunning Little Vixen and Mascagni’s moving L’Amico Fritz, plus a revival of the outstanding 2018 staging of Verdi’s La Traviata.

WHEN

Tues 1 Jun 2021 – Sat 31 Jul 2021

WHERE

Opera Holland Park
Stable Yard, Holland Park, London , W8 6LU

An excellent production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin returns in 2021. Photo: Mark Douet

Garsington Opera 2021

With three new productions and a welcome revival, Garsington Opera in its magical garden setting makes up for a lost year in style, and fields four marvellous casts. Strauss's romantic Der Rosenkavalier opens the season (Wed 2 June), followed by the five-star production from 2016 of Tchaikovsky's powerful Eugene Onegin (pictured). Also on the bill, Handel's rarely heard Amadigi and Rossini's rip-roaring Comte Ory.

WHEN

Wed 2 June – Sun 25 July

WHERE

Garsington Opera
Wormsley Estate , Stokenchurch, HP14 3YG

Puccini's La Bohème is staged by Grange Park Opera in 2021

Grange Park Opera 2021

No company worked harder than Grange Park to keep the music turning in challenging 2020, and you can still stream some of the work here. In June and July, in its sylvan Theatre in the Woods, Grange Park is back on familiar turf with four productions: Verdi's Falstaff, Puccini's La Bohème, Rimsky-Korsakov's rarely staged Ivan the Terrible, and a new opera by Anthony Bolton, The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko.

WHEN

Thurs 10 Jun 2021 – Sun 18 Jul 2021

WHERE

Grange Park Opera
West Horsley Place, West Horsley,, Leatherhead, KT24 6AW

BBC Proms 2021

Hamstrung in 2020, the BBC Proms can be expected to be more exuberant than ever, all summer long. Britain's many world-class orchestras may be joined by fewer visiting ensembles, but big names aplenty will be on the bill. Composers likely to be celebrated are Beethoven, the 250th anniversary of whose birth was marked by fewer live performances than planned last year, and Stravinsky, who died 50 years ago. In the meantime, watch some 2020 highlights here.

WHEN

Fri 17 July – Sat 11 Sept, events daily

WHERE

Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AP

Best Opera and Classical Music 2021

Symphony concerts that open up new horizons, operas that take audiences to another realm .... trust music to transport us out of daily life and make a world of difference

The Ring, English National Opera

Classical Vauxhall, live concerts online

London Unwrapped, Kings Place

Live concerts, Barbican

Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2021

London Handel Festival 2021

Opera Holland Park 2021

Garsington Opera 2021

Grange Park Opera 2021

BBC Proms 2021

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Grange Park Opera

Garsington Opera

Opera Holland Park

BBC Proms

Barbican: Kings Place

Roderick Williams

Why British music will always be European

Howard Goodall interview: how Brexit turns the music down

Christmas at Glyndebourne, on screen and online