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Best Concerts and Opera in November

By Claudia Pritchard on 13/10/2021

A new work by Isobel Waller-Bridge, London's newest orchestra plays Mozart, comedy with Cal McCrystal, and masterpieces for the stage by Verdi, Wagner

La Traviata, Royal Opera House

It's party time when the curtain rises on Verdi's opera about a society hostess who finds true love and a simple life with Alfredo. But tragedy awaits Violetta, who sacrifices her own happiness to secure another woman's future. Richard Eyre's timeless production returns to Covent Garden with a succession of sopranos as Violetta, among them Lisette Oropesa.

WHEN

Wed 27 Oct to Sun 31 Oct; Tues 2 Nov to Wed 17 Nov; Sat 2 April to Mon 18 April 2022

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

HMS Pinafore, English National Opera

Gilbert and Sullivan poke fun at privilege and at the under-talented and over-promoted in their timeless comic opera set at sea. Captain Corcoran commands the Pinafore, where a deckhand falls in love with his daughter. He is not worthy of her, by birth. Or is he...? Cal McCrystal returns to his mission to make ENO audiences laugh themselves silly, with help from the hilarious John Savournin (pictured) as Corcoran.

WHEN

Fri 29 Oct to Sat 11 Dec, times vary

WHERE

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

Half Six Fix, London Symphony Orchestra

Shorter concerts with no interval have become popular with audiences, and the LSO's early evening series continues to delight and illuminate. This time, Francis-Xavier Roth unwraps Beethoven's surging and mould-breaking Symphony No 3, the Eroica. A great introduction for youngsters to live classical music or welcome change of key after the working day.

WHEN

Wed 10 Nov, 6:30PM to 7:30PM

WHERE

Barbican Hall, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

Landscapes and Love Songs, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Under its new principal conductor, Edward Gardner (pictured), the LPO opens with Grieg's charming Lyric Suite arranged for orchestra and is joined by soloist Jan Lisiecki in Schumann's lilting, romantic and occasionally theatrical Piano Concerto. After an interval, Sibelius's mighty Symphony No 2 in D, inspired by a stay in Italy.

WHEN

Wed 10 Nov, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX

Macbeth, Royal Opera House

Baritone Simon Keenlyside (pictured) reprises the title role in Verdi's powerful opera based on Shakespeare's tragedy. Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi sings the manipulative Lady Macbeth, in Phyllida Lloyd's sinister production.

WHEN

Tues 16 Nov to Tues 30 Nov

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

András Schiff: A Feast of Mozart

Compare two Mozart piano concertos, written at the beginning and the end of the composer's 20s, when soloist András Schiff (pictured) plays No 9 and No 20 in a concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra, which he also directs from the keyboard. The evening opens with the dramatic overture to Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, and ends with the Symphony No 36, named the Linz, after the Austrian city for which it was composed at virtuosic speed.

WHEN

Thurs 18 Nov, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX

Mozart's Gran Partita, Figure

London's newest orchestra, Figure (pictured), gives its second performance at its adopted home, the church of St Bartholomew the Great, near Smithfield. The outstanding oboist Leo Duarte is among the 13 wind players drawn from Figure in Mozart's astonishingly inventive Serenade No 10 for Winds, known as the Gran Partita, for a historically informed performance true to the piece's roots.

WHEN

Fri 19 Nov, 7:30PM to 8:30PM

WHERE

St Bartholomew-the-Great, Cloth Fair, Barbican EC1A 7JQ

The Valkyrie, English National Opera

'If you like epic sagas such as The Avengers, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.... you’ll love The Valkyrie.' So says English National Opera, which embarks on a five-year collaboration with the Met in New York to stage the whole of Wagner's Ring cycle, starting with this colossal clash of wills. Listen out for the brassy Ride of the Valkyrie, among the best loved and most dramatic music in the repertoire.

WHEN

19 Nov to 4 Dec, eight performances. Running time 5 hrs; start times vary

WHERE

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

Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall

In the salon atmosphere of Wigmore Hall, pianist Angela Hewitt plays music by three contrasting composers. Contrast two of Mozart's sparkling sonatas with the passion of Chopin's Nocturnes and a breakneck scherzo, and atmospheric pictures in music of Messiaen.

WHEN

Tues 23 Nov, 7:30PM

WHERE

Wigmore Hall
36 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2BP

Four Seasons and Four Seascapes, Philharmonia

Catch the world premiere of a new work, Temperatures, by Isobel Waller-Bridge, who composed the music for her sister Phoebe's Fleabag. The concert continues with Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes, stirring instrumentals from his opera Peter Grimes, and Vivaldi's unmatchable canter through the times of year, his Four Seasons. An evening of aural colour and improvisation inspired by the natural world, from the Philharmonia under violinist Pekka Kuusisto (pictured).

WHEN

Sun 28 Nov, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX

Best Concerts and Opera in November

A new work by Isobel Waller-Bridge, London's newest orchestra plays Mozart, comedy with Cal McCrystal, and masterpieces for the stage by Verdi, Wagner

La Traviata, Royal Opera House

HMS Pinafore, English National Opera

Half Six Fix, London Symphony Orchestra

Landscapes and Love Songs, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Macbeth, Royal Opera House

András Schiff: A Feast of Mozart

Mozart's Gran Partita, Figure

The Valkyrie, English National Opera

Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall

Four Seasons and Four Seascapes, Philharmonia

Isobel Waller-Bridge

Royal Opera House

English National Opera

Figure

Mozart

Verdi

Wagner

Cal McCrystal

Gilbert and Sullivan

Philharmonia

Immersive Beethoven 7, Aurora Orchestra

English National Opera 2021/22: from Mozart to Margaret Atwood

Opera at Covent Garden 2021-22

Joyce DiDonato in concert, Barbican

Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, Royal Opera House review ★★★★★

Best Concerts and Opera in October