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Classical Music

Best concerts and opera in July

By Claudia Pritchard on 15/6/2022

The greatest music festival in the world, the BBC Proms, opens this month, with 72 concerts. Here is our pick of the July Proms, with the best of London events at other venues and on the city's opera stages

Spitalfields Festival

An exciting and imaginative series of live concerts across this vibrant east London area has something for every taste, with new music and much-loved pieces revisited. Artists include violinist Aisha Orazbayeva (pictured), who plays Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Mystery Sonatas (8 July) , a real rarity. Also on the programme Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for solo piano (3 July).

WHEN

Thurs 30 June to Wed 13 July 2022

WHERE

East London venues

Alcina is Handel's opera of magic and mystery. Artwork: Shadric Toop

Alcina, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

A run of gorgeously sung Handel operas at Glyndebourne seems likely to continue with this magical piece. The plot is obscure, the characters confusing, and it doesn't matter a bit. Just listen to those arias! In this new production, the cast includes Canadian coloratura soprano Jane Archibald in the title role and a host of fine British singers. Jonathan Cohen conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

WHEN

2 July 2022 – 24 Aug 2022, 14 performances, times vary. Running time 5hr, including 1hr 30min dinner interval

WHERE

Glyndebourne
Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Roderick Williams: Handel Messiah Workshop

If you love the full-bodied choruses of Handel's great choral work Messiah, here's your chance to give voice and join in. The outstanding baritone interpreter of this repertoire, Roderick Williams (pictured), leads a workshop that looks in the first half at ensemble numbers and in the second at individual arias. A fascinating way to get inside this masterpiece, in great company.

WHEN

Sun 10 July 2022, 3:15PM

WHERE

Kings Place, York Way, London N1 9AG

First night of the BBC Proms 2022

A spectacular launch for the long-awaited fully-fledge BBC Proms, after two more limited years, in the form of Verdi's mighty and operatic Requiem. Soloists include rising star tenor Freddie De Tomasso (pictured) and soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha. Saraki Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

WHEN

Fri 15 July 2022, 7:30PM-c9PM;

WHERE

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP; also broadcast live on BBC TV, and on BBC Radio 3

Prom 2: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London

This brilliant young conductor (pictured) and his dynamic orchestra breathe new life into some of the best loved works in the English repertoire, including Elgar's highly personal Enigma Variations and Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Adam Walker is the soloist in Huw Watkins's Flute Concerto. This is a great Prom for family audiences.

WHEN

Sat 16 July, 6:30PM to c8:50PM; and on BBC Four on Sun 17 July

WHERE

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, South Kensington SW7 2AP and BBC Radio 3

Nadine Benjamin sings Lili Béguin in Margot La Rouge. Photo: Devon Cass

Margot La Rouge & Le Villi, Opera Holland Park

The double bill that closed the Opera Holland Park season 2019 was a resounding highlight of the company's highly successful summer. So a second double bill is something to look forward to. Here, Delius's Margot La Rouge, in which a woman's reputation is at stake, is staged with Puccini's one-act opera Le Villi. Two great casts feature soprano Anne Sophie Duprels in the leading role of both operas, plus Nadine Benjamin (pictured), Peter Auty, Stephen Gadd and many more.

WHEN

21 Jul 2020 – 31 Jul 2020, five performances

WHERE

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

Little Women, Opera Holland Park

Mark Adamo's opera based on Louisa May Alcott's classic American novel, is given its UK premiere. Already considered a masterpiece in the composer's native United States, in Ella Marchment's production sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy are sung by Charlotte Badham, Kitty Whateley, Harriet Eyley and Elizabeth Karani, with Lucy Schaufer (pictured) as Aunt Cecilia. A must-see.

WHEN

Fri 22 July to Fri 5 Aug 2022, five 7:30PM performances; Sun 24 July at 2PM

WHERE

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

CBeebies Prom: A Journey into the Ocean

All aboard for an underwater musical adventure with CBeebies stars and the Southbank Sinfonia conducted by Kwame Ryan (pictured). The two relaxed performances last one hour, and include musical extracts that conjure up marine life, with precious creatures and a unique sound world. Broadcast live on Radio 3 and recorded for later transmission on CBeebies.

WHEN

Sat 23 July 2022, 11AM-12PM and 3PM-4PM

WHERE

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London SW7 2AP and BBC Radio 3

BBC Prom 13: Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers

The swirling opera that opened Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2022 comes to the Proms in a semi-staged performance with, among the original cast, soprano Lauren Fagan (pictured) outstanding as a suspicious girlfriend and Marta Fontanals-Simmons as her loyal friend Jack. The scene is a small Cornish community that wrecks and loots passing ships and which turns on a couple who light beacons to help the hapless sailors. Robin Ticciati conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Festival Chorus.

WHEN

Sun 24 July 2022, 6:30PM to c10:20PM

WHERE

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London SW7 2AP; and on BBC Radio 3

Prom 18: Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony

Blurr is the Colour of My True Love's Eyes is the teasing title of a new concerto for percussion and orchestra by the Canadian composer Nicole Lizée, given its European premiere by the virtuoso Colin Currie (pictured) with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Alpesh Chauhan. Also in the first half of this promising Prom, an arrangement for orchestra of the Adagio from Bruckner's late string quartet. To finish Shostakovich's politically driven and bristling Symphony No 5.

WHEN

Fri 29 July 2022, 7:30PM-c9:30PM

WHERE

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London SW7 2AP; and on BBC Radio 3