Limelight’s brains trust of early music practitioners share their secret pleasures from the bygone period. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
How choristers radically transformed from medieval monks into globetrotting superstars. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
★★★★☆ Two legends of the art song shine in a rare Australian appearance.
Singer Jonna Jinton shows off her bovine bel canto, with a technique like nothing you’ve ever ‘herd’.
Joseph Haydn was always a lively listen but 200 years after the composer’s death, Haydn's fresh and innovatory spirit matters more than ever.
The Czech mezzo-soprano talks about her new album and describes her life-long love affair with Monteverdi. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
After earlier Vivaldi and Handel recitals with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and Andrea Marcon, it’s back to the Baroque for Czech mezzo Magdalena Kožená, who again teams up with Marcon for a programme devoted to the music of one of Kožená’s teenage crushes: Claudio Monteverdi. Apparently Kožená was just 16 years old when she co-founded her own early music ensemble to perform the Mantuan master’s music. So this recording is a homecoming of sorts, and if Kožená is nowadays more associated with Romantic repertoire you need only look to the complex, extravagant and emotionally charged music and lyrics of these madrigals and opera excerpts to see how there’s not really that much of a leap between Monteverdi and Mahler. Of course, there’s also a lot more scope for improvisation in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, and therefore more legitimate opportunities for the performer to stamp their own personality on the score. This heightens rather than diminishes the music’s emotional impact. There is also more room to ‘orchestrate’ in the sense of which instrumental colours to include; here, La Cetra comprises strings, a cornett, lutes, guitar, psaltery, harpsichord, organ and percussion. Thus the opening Zefiro torna, e di soave accenti from the…
Why the master of comedy, John Cleese, is planning to debut Fawlty Towers Down Under.
‘Flott’ reflects on her career, a lifetime partnership with Graham Johnson and how she felt winning the Legion d’Honneur. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The British maestro explains his passion for MGM and why he believes his home team needs support. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Is it the sex or the politics that has fascinated us about Weimar cabaret for nearly a century? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The soprano explains why she wants us to consider a powerfully nurturing and creative force. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The vocal music festival, due to feature Jessye Norman, has been postponed due to organiser Jarrod Carland’s ill health.
