Autumn Classical and Opera Highlights

By CW Contributor on 6/9/2016

Soundtrack your autumn with a variety of opera and classical music; the traditionalist can indulge in the Royal Opera House's new production of the ever entertaining Cosi Fan Tutte, while the more adventurous might head to the Temple Church for a new commission based on the Great Fire of London. Here's our guide to the operas and classical concerts to book now — before they sell out.

Two women swap partners by mistake in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. Photograph: © ROH/AKA

Cosi Fan Tutte, Royal Opera House

A promising new production of Mozart’s comedy of crossed relationships, staged by the exciting young German director Jan Philipp Gloger and starring a cast young enough to be believable as lovers whose eyes wander.

WHEN

22 Sep 2016 – 19 Oct 2016, 6:45 PM – 10:15 PM

WHERE

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

Handel's opera Oreste depicts the harsh treatment of new arrivals to a foreign land

Oreste, Wilton's Music Hall

Handel’s opera is made of offcuts - a pasticcio - but this production, outside the Royal Opera House’s usual Covent Garden home, will be more than a curio: it promises to put a relevant new spin on the classical story of a person landless and dispossessed.

WHEN

08 Nov 2016 – 19 Nov 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Wilton's Music Hall
1 Graces Alley, London, E1 8JB

Bellini's Norma gets a new Royal Opera House production

Norma, Royal Opera House

The first new production of Bellini’s great drama for 30 years features Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva in the title role, and the action is moved from ancient Rome to a contemporary civil war.

WHEN

12 Sep 2016 – 08 Oct 2016, 7:15 PM – 10:15 PM

WHERE

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

Soprano Mary Bevan sings Zerlina, one of the Don's conquests. Photograph: Victoria Cadisch

Don Giovanni, English National Opera

The curtain-raiser for English National Opera’s new season is a production by Richard Jones of Mozart’s masterpiece. A strong cast led by Christopher Purves as the serial seducer of the title role sets about some of the finest music in the opera repertoire. Worth it for the overture alone.

WHEN

30 Sep 2016 – 26 Oct 2016, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

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

ENO's 'Tosca' sees into the past – and the future. Photograph: Robert Workman

Tosca, English National Opera

Welcome revival of an eyecatching production of Puccini’s tragedy set in a dangerous Rome, where an artist and his friends are under the scrutiny of a vicious tyrant, whose pursuit of the singer Tosca becomes a deadly affair.

WHEN

03 Oct 2016 – 26 Nov 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:15 PM

WHERE

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

Mezzo-soprano Julia Riley sings the title role in Handel's Xerxes

English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire

Opera on an intimate scale at Hackney Empire suits works sometimes neglected by the big houses. The hardworking ETO bring to vivid life operas by Handel, Cavalli and Monteverdi

WHEN

08 Oct 2016 – 15 Oct 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Hackney Empire
291 Mare Street, London, E8 1EJ

Joyce DiDonato Recital, Barbican Centre

The American mezzo-soprano combines the showbiz knowhow of Streisand with the technique of the finest opera singers. Recently admired at the Royal Opera House in Massent’s Werther, here she lets rip on her own in a programme of classical and lighter music.

WHEN

On 22 Nov 2016, 7:30 PM – 9:45 PM

WHERE

Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS

Celebrating the birth of Prokofiev: Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra

Complete Prokofiev Symphonies, Cadogan Hall

Valery Gergiev conducts the five symphonies by his countryman Sergei Prokofiev over three nights, interspersed with the same composer’s violin concertos in the repertoire. Collect the set or pick your favourite: many people love the Symphony No 1, nicknamed the Classical, for its pure lines and instant appeal.

WHEN

26 Sep 2016 – 28 Sep 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM

WHERE

Cadogan Hall
5 Sloane Terrace, London , SW1X 9DQ

Pianist Katya Apekisheva dreamed up the London Piano Festival with Charles Owen. Photograph: Sim Canetty-Clarke

London Piano Festival, Kings Place

Budding pianists, those of us who just wish we could play, and the capital’s many brilliant keyboard players will all find something to love and to learn from at this weekend devoted to the piano. Among the highlights, a recital by Alfred Brendel on 7 Oct.

WHEN

07 Oct 2016 – 09 Oct 2016, 11:30 AM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Kings Place
90 York Way, London, N1 9AG

Temple Church is the atmospheric venue for a new opera about the Great Fire of London. Photograph: Miranda Parry

And London Burned, Temple Church

Part of the commemorations for the 350th anniversary of the great fire of London, a specially composed opera is stage in the atmospheric Temple Church, not far from the seat of the fire and itself a survivor of the catastrophic fire that reshaped London.

WHEN

27 Oct 2016 – 29 Oct 2016, Times vary

WHERE

Temple Church
Temple, EC4Y 7BB

The composer James MacMillan has new ideas for a traditional text. Photograph: Philip Gatward

James MacMillan's Stabat Mater, Barbican

Harry Christophers conducts The Sixteen singing James MacMillan's Stabat Mater, a beautiful new composition from an exciting contemporary composer, reflecting not only the sorrow of Mary at the Crucifixion, but plight of all women who are confronted with the suffering of a child.

WHEN

On 15 Oct 2016, 7:30 PM – 9:45 PM

WHERE

Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS