The Wagnerian tenor, renowned for his strong, lyrical voice, has passed away aged 81. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

★★★½☆ Slick design and charismatic comedy carries this staging of Rossini’s romantic farce. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Boston Early Music Festival singers and period instrument players, co-directed by lutenists Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, are in cracking form on this studio recording of Handel’s buoyant pastoral. The vocal ensemble are exceptional, especially in their opening number O the Pleasure of the Plains (which always reminds me of For unto us a Child is born from Messiah). Handel wrote Acis and Galatea for the Duke of Chandos to celebrate his marriage and the building of his lavish mansion, the Cannons, in Middlesex. The house had its own orchestra as well as extensive gardens with the latest water features. It didn’t survive for long, however, for within 20 years it was demolished and its features sold off when Chandos’s fortune took a dive in the South Sea Bubble. In Ovid’s tale, the shepherd Acis is metamorphosed into a fountain by his lover Galatea after the jealous cyclops Polyphemus launches a boulder which crushes him. Thus the gardens of Cannons made the perfect setting for this pastoral tale. Handel was briefly the Duke’s resident composer while things were quiet in London (and where he was having trouble managing to stage his Italian operas). Hats off to the excellent soloists, tenor…

Lang Lang may have made the grade, but would a young Sokolov pick up a recording contract today?

How Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang learned to deliver substance as well as style. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The middle-period had its masterpieces, but the late works see the composer move in unexpected directions. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Pitch-perfect revival of The Sound of Music proves it's more than just the hills that are alive.

As Ilja Stephan writes in her informative booklet note to this exquisite new release from French period instrument ensemble L’Arpeggiata, Francesco Cavalli “rode the crest of Venetian opera’s wave”. This full-time church musician composed 40 operas on the side and made a fortune in the process (though a prudent marriage to a rich widow also helped). The programme offers up a selection of arias and instrumental works from six Cavalli’s works – L’Ormindo, Il Giasone, La Rosinda, L’Artemisia, La Didone, L’Eliogabalo and the famous La Calisto – plus instrumental works by contemporaries Kapsperger and Falconieri. As Stephan points out, “the poetic text was a literary work of art in its own right” and Cavalli was lucky to have the talents of such masters as Giovanni Francesco Busenello (who furnished Monteverdi with the libretto for L’Incoronazione di Poppea). In her usual imaginative fashion, Christina Pluhar, directing from harp or theorbo, has filled out the skeletal scores by employing a rich array of instruments including lutes, harps, psalteries, percussion and a harpsichord and chamber organ. And if sopranos Nuria Rial and Hana Blažíková dazzle with their pure, sensuous tones and expressive, lightly virtuosic… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per…

★★★☆☆ Glittering Con students put the magic into Purcell’s semi-opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A crowdfunding campaign is raising money to help the Australian tenor recover from the debilitating condition. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Churchill Trust report author David Barnard is "irresponsible" and "self-interested," says Opera Queensland's Lindy Hume.

For the first time the annual Handa Opera on the Harbour will be a repeat production, of 2013’s staging. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in