London Symphony Orchestra opera and choral highlights

By -

The 2009/10 London Symphony Orchestra season has a rich operatic and choral offering, including 4 concert performances of two operas and a number of major choral works. Highlights include Strauss’ Elektra, Verdi’s Otello, Haydn’s The Seasons, James MacMillan’s LSO commissioned St John Passion, Poulenc’s Gloria and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms with Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev, LSO President Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Xian Zhang. Soloists include Gerald Finley, Matthias Goerne, Eva Johansson, Torsten Kerl, Christopher Maltman, Sally Matthews and Miah Persson.

Sir Colin Davis conducts two concert performances of Verdi’s Otello on Thursday 3 and Sunday 6 December. Davis is joined by Torsten Kerl in the title role, with Gerald Finley as Iago, Allan Clayton as Cassio, Anne Schwanewilms as Desdemona and Eufemia Tufano as Emilia.

On Tuesday 12 and Thursday 14 January Valery Gergiev conducts the Orchestra in a concert performance of Strauss’ Elektra, with Eva Johansson in the title role. The cast includes Matthias Goerne as Orest, Felicity Palmer as Klystemnaestra, Angela Denoke as Chrysothemis and Ian Storey as Aegisth.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner on Sunday 7 February. Soloists soprano Rebecca Evans, mezzo soprano Wilke te Brummelstroete, tenor Steve Davislim and bass-baritone Vuyani Mlinde join Gardiner’s own Monteverdi Choir in this performance which is coupled with the composer’s Symphony No.1.

Originally commissioned by the LSO for Sir Colin Davis’ 80th birthday in 2008, James MacMillan’s St. John Passion is revived on Sunday 28 February as part of an LSO Artist Portrait of the composer to celebrate his 50th birthday. Davis conducts this performance with baritone Christopher Maltman and the London Symphony Chorus.

Stravinsky’s formidable Symphony of Psalms is performed on Wednesday 12 and Wednesday 19 May, conducted by Valery Gergiev. The work is coupled with the composer’s Symphony in C and the world premiere of Macmillan’s Violin Concerto (12 May) and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G (19 May) with soloists Vadim Repin and Hélène Grimaud.

On Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Xian Zhang conducts the LSO in a performance of Poulenc’s Gloria, with soprano Sally Matthews. This idiosyncratic choral work includes an irreverent Laudemus te, inspired, he claimed, by ‘those frescoes of Gozzoli in which the angels are sticking out their tongues and also those serious Benedictine monks whom I spotted one day playing soccer.’

Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons is the final choral work performed in the LSO’s 2009/10 season. Sir Colin Davis leads the Orchestra and Chorus with soprano Miah Persson and baritone Andrew Foster-Williams on Sunday 27 June.

Tickets: £7- £32
Secure online booking at lso.co.uk (£1.50 booking fee)
Box office: 020 7638 8891 open Mon-Sat 9am – 8pm, Sun 11am-8pm (£2.50 booking fee)
In person at the Advance Box Office in the Barbican centre (Mon-Sat 9am – 9pm; Sun 12pm – 9pm)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more