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Best concerts and opera in February

By Claudia Pritchard on 21/1/2022

World and European premieres, classics revisited, orchestral music for children, and operas from three centuries by Handel, Verdi and Janáček

Theodora, Royal Opera House

Handel's great opera is staged for the first time at the Royal Opera House since the composer's day, when it was premiered at the theatre on the same Covent Garden site – in March 1750! In Katie Mitchell's new production, the thoroughly modern heroine stands her ground in the face of persecution. Mezzo-sopranos Joyce DiDonato (pictured) and Julia Bullock share the title role. Listen out for the arias 'As with rosy steps the morn' and 'Lord to Thee each night and day'.

WHEN

Mon 31 Jan to Wed 16 Feb 2022; seven evening performances, times vary. Running time c4hr including two intervals

WHERE

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

Petrenko conducts The Planets

This promises to be something of an occasion. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under Vasily Petrenko, and joined by the talented Royal College of Music Chorus, performs Holst's atmospheric picture in music of the spheres. To open, a new piece, Ellipsis, by Dani Howard: she was commissioned by the RPO to write this for the orchestra's 75th anniversary. And marvel at the young Japanese pianist Mao Fujita (pictured) in Rachmaninov's virtuosic Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

WHEN

Thurs 3 Feb 2022, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

La Bohème, English National Opera

Puccini's Paris-based opera is set in the 1930s by director Jonathan Miller, and this revival fields some of the best loved and most interesting new artists at English National Opera. Sinéad Campbell-Wallace and Nadine Benjamin share the role of Mimì, who falls in love with poet Rodolfo at the scruffy lodgings they share. Disenchantment and ill-health cast a shadow over the romance, but there are high jinks on the way to a tragic ending. Watch out for top soprano Louise Alder (pictured) as the mischievous Musetta.

WHEN

Mon 31 Jan to Sun 27 Feb 2022; 13 performances, including four matinees. Start times vary. Running time c2hr 10min, including one interval

WHERE

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

The LPO plays Mahler

Austrian composer Gustav Mahler composed on a scale that is best appreciated in the concert hall. Marvel at the solo and ensemble work of the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Hannu Lintu in Mahler's expansive Symphony No 1. Nielson's luminous Helios Overture opens the evening, and the illustrious Lawrence Power (pictured) is the soloist in Brett Dean's Viola Concerto. Dean is a viola-player himself, and when this work was premiered in 2005, he invited audiences to imagine what would happen if the modernist composer Paul Hindemith 'had played in a band with the American singer Tom Waits’.

WHEN

Wed 9 Feb 2022, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Leia Zhu plays Bruch

At 15, British-born Leia Zhu is proving to be an exciting new talent. The violinist made her debut at the age of four, and at six she undertook her first tour. She has already appeared with some of the world's top orchestras and conductors. Hear her play Bruch's much-loved Violin Concerto No 2 at an English Chamber Orchestra concert that also features the world premiere of a new work by Stuart Turnbull. Beethoven's Prometheus Overture opens the concert, Zhu joins the ECO again for Beethoven's Romance for Violin and Orchestra No 2, and the evening ends with Mozart Symphony No 35, the Haffner. That's a big night out for music-lovers of any age.

WHEN

Thurs10 Feb 2022, 7:30PM

WHERE

Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ

Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn sings on Sun 13 Feb. Photo: Frances Marshall

Classical Vauxhall 2022

A four-day, five-concert celebration of the best instrumental and vocal music, with big names including soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn (pictured), an event that attracts new, younger audiences – and has a bit of late-night fun too.

WHEN

10 Feb 2022 – 13 Feb 2022, five events over four days; start times and running lengths vary

WHERE

St Mark's Kennington, Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4PP

Peppa Pig: My First Concert

It's a rhapsody in pink: Peppa Pig is joined by Mummy Pig, Daddy Pig and little brother George on a music adventure. Join them to learn all about the instruments of the orchestra. Suitable for children of two and over. Let’s hope they hear our favourite, the Bing Bong Zoo Song. 'Bing, bong, bingly, bongly boo...'

WHEN

11 Feb 2022 – 13 Feb 2022, eight performances over three days. Running time 1hr.

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX

Gratitude and Remembrance

Music expresses our emotions more powerfully than any other art form, and in this contemplative concert, composer and conductor Howard Goodall (pictured) chooses pieces that reflect our many feelings in the past two years. The matchless BBC Singers give voice to a whole range of human emotions, with music by many great British composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor, Judith Weir's Love Bade Me Welcome, Roxanna Panufnik's Child of Heaven, Errollyn Wallen's Pace, and Goodall's own Unconditional Love: A Cantata of Gratitude and Remembrance, given its European premiere.

WHEN

Sun 13 Feb 2022, 4PM (note early start)

WHERE

Milton Court Concert Hall, 1 Milton St, London EC2Y 9BH

Peter and the Wolf & Gaspard's Foxtrot

Get to know intrepid little Peter, his watchful grandpa, and the creatures of the forest, including a clever cat and a wolf who has his eye on a duck. Each character has its own instrument in Prokofiev's charming retelling in music of Puskin's timeless tale. Also on this delightful double-bill, Gaspard's Foxtrot, narrated by author Zeb Soanes. Gaspard the Fox dreams of hearing an orchestra perform live – but first he needs to catch a No 38 bus... Suitable for children aged five and over. An unmissable half-term treat.

WHEN

Wed 16 Feb 2022, 1PM & 3PM

WHERE

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Budapest Festival Orchestra plays The Rite of Spring

Iván Fischer conducts this thrillingly dynamic visiting orchestra in an all-Stravinsky programme. Hold on tight for the most visceral work of the 20th century, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Before this spectacular piece, the same composer's Concerto in D for Strings; and Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, with soloist Nicolas Namoradze. With so few appearances recently of orchestras from abroad, this promises to be a very special event.

WHEN

Fri 18 Feb 2022, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

The Cunning Little Vixen, English National Opera

Prepare to be enchanted and moved by the resilience of Nature in Leoš Janáček's woodland-set opera. Sharp Ears the vixen is persecuted by a mindless hunter, but she has many tricks to outwit him. Her last winning strategy will have you in tears... Sally Matthews in the title role leads a lively English National Opera cast which includes soprano Alexandra Oomens (pictured). Jamie Manton directs.

WHEN

Fri 18 Feb to Sat 26 Feb 2022; seven performances, start times vary. Running time c 2hr including one interval

WHERE

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

Covent Garden's new Rigoletto has a fine art theme. Photo: Ellie Kurttz

Rigoletto, Royal Opera House

The lavish lifestyle of a self-indulgent man is evident in Oliver Mears's production of Verdi's heartbreaker. Gilda is the innocent, overprotected daughter of the Duke of Mantua's jester, Rigoletto. When she is abducted as a joke, the father is bereft, and Gilda in peril. Packed with marvellous music, this much-loved masterpiece is a perfect first opera too.

WHEN

Fri 18 Feb to Sat 12 March 2022; six performances, start times vary. Running time c 2hr 45min including one interval

WHERE

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra: Escape Velocity

Go on a breathtaking journey through time and space with the LPO under Klaus Mäkelä. American composer John Adams's thrilling Short Ride in a Fast Machine opens a programme that also includes Asteroid 4179 and Toutatis by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, used in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. And take a glimpse into the future with the world premiere of Jimmy Lopéz' Piano Concerto, with Spanish soloist Javier Perianes (pictured). A great programme for young musical astronauts too.

WHEN

Wed 23 Feb 2022, 7:30PM

WHERE

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Best concerts and opera in February

World and European premieres, classics revisited, orchestral music for children, and operas from three centuries by Handel, Verdi and Janáček

Theodora, Royal Opera House

Petrenko conducts The Planets

La Bohème, English National Opera

The LPO plays Mahler

Leia Zhu plays Bruch

Classical Vauxhall 2022

Peppa Pig: My First Concert

Gratitude and Remembrance

Peter and the Wolf & Gaspard's Foxtrot

Budapest Festival Orchestra plays The Rite of Spring

The Cunning Little Vixen, English National Opera

Rigoletto, Royal Opera House

London Philharmonic Orchestra: Escape Velocity

Royal Opera House

English National Opera

London Philharmonic Orchestra

English Chamber Orchestra

Mozart

Verdi

Handel

Stravinsky

Joyce DiDonato

Best Concerts and Opera in January

Classical and Opera 2022: London highlights ahead

Nicky Spence interview: 'Anyone can sing!'

Freddie De Tommaso interview: 'Pressure seeks me out!'

The Marriage of Figaro, Royal Opera House ★★★★★

Voices Unwrapped, Kings Place