Joyce DiDonato speaks out against homophobic bullying in schools after American teenager commits suicide. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The artform has been much maligned over the years for farfetched stories, but beneath the nonsensical plots lurks buried treasure.

  It’s celebrations all round as Riccardo Chailly acknowledges Verdi’s bicentenary and his own 60th birthday with a disc of overtures, preludes and ballet music from some of the composer’s best-loved operas (and more than a few of his rarer specimens). Chailly’s crack band is the Filarmonica della Scala – the opera house with which Verdi himself was most closely associated and where Chailly launched his own career. Add to that the fact that Milan is the city where Verdi died and Chailly was born, and it would seem that all the stars are aligned. The conductor’s genius is to find that special something in the familiar – in this case the preludes from La Traviata and Aida, where he draws such a luminous sound from his string section that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was Wagner. There are some rollicking tub-thumpers too: the prelude to Nabucco and the perky Sinfonia from the seldom-staged Alzira. Drama takes centre stage with the brooding introduction to Gerusalemme (Verdi’s reworking of I Lombardi) and a passionately vibrant Forza del Destino overture. Chailly gauges everything to perfection and his classy orchestra brings out the detail of Verdi’s orchestration. If I found myself wanting…

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A new adaptation of Philip Glass's opera Akhnaten will diffuse perfume throughout the audience.

Xavier Sabata delves into the darker side of Handel with this tribute to the composer’s scoundrels, miscreants and rebels – the so-called “Bad Guys” often neglected in favour of the heroes and their chivalrous effusions. The Spanish countertenor’s glossy voice isn’t an obvious embodiment of pure evil, but then neither are these complex characters, and Sabata brings out their ambiguities nicely. Vengeful arias like Egeo’s Voglio stragi (from the seldom heard Teseo) are forcefully sung, but it’s in reflective, melodious mode, as in the same character’s striking Serenatevi, o luce belle, that Sabata is at his most expressive and interesting. His mellifluous sound is underpinned by a wheedling, insistent quality, perfect for a master manipulator, and while the voice is full of sweetness, he’s prepared to employ a few dark and sinister colours – the snarling conclusion to Polinesso’s Se l’inganno sortisce felice (from Ariodante) is especially menacing. Though at times crisper diction and more emphatic delivery might be welcome, Sabata’s tone is firm and focused, and his timbre is attractive if not staggeringly distinctive. He’s a persuasive advocate for these arias, many of which are rarely performed in isolation. Tolomeo’s… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per…