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Classical music & opera

  • Images under embargo until 8pm Saturday 18th February 2023.<br>Frederick Ballentine (Loge) and Leigh Melrose (Alberich) in The Rhinegold by Richard Wagner @ London Coliseum. An English National Opera production. Directed by Richard Jones. conducted by Martin Brabbins. (Opening-18-02-23) ©Tristram Kenton 02-23 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

    ‘This could be really interesting’: Manchester and English National Opera may yet suit each other

    Charlotte Higgins, chief culture writer
  • Hologram of late opera singer Maria Callas performs in concert in Mexico<br>epa07497909 A hologram of late opera singer Maria Callas performs during a concert at the National Auditorium of Mexico City in Mexico City, Mexico, 10 April 2019. Attendees were able to enjoy the art of Maria Callas (1923-1977) with a live orchestra through the use of state-of-the-art technology that shows the artist, who in life appeared in Mexico for the first time in 1950, through the use of a hologram that sings, moves and interacts. EPA/JOSE MENDEZ

    Enduring greatness
    Five essential Maria Callas recordings on her centenary

    Born 100 years ago this week, the great soprano left an extensive recording legacy. From Puccini’s doomed Tosca to Wagner’s demonic Kundry, we pick the five roles that saw her hailed as the greatest voice of the age
  • Maria Callas, Milan, April 1958.

    La dolce vita?
    Maria Callas, the life of a diva, in pictures

    To celebrate the centenary of the soprano’s birth an exhibition of rarely seen photographs from the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto archive showing her life on stage, and off, is at Gallerie d’Italia Milan until 28 February 2024.
  • Chineke! Orchestra: Joan Armatrading &amp; Tchaikovsky, Fri 24 November 2023, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

    Review
    Joan Armatrading world premiere review – how did a brilliant pop melodist produce such a baffling mess?

  • Charlotte Higgins

    Culture is not trivial, it’s about who we are. That’s why Labour needs a plan to save the arts

    Charlotte Higgins
  • David Pickard

    News
    BBC Proms director David Pickard to step down after nine years

  • Yuri Temirkanov PR image from http://imgartists.com/artist/yuri_temirkanov

    Obituary
    Yuri Temirkanov

Live reviews

  • The Turn of the Screw production photos taken on 30th of November 2023 in Bath 1st run

    The Turn of the Screw review – haunting, claustrophobic staging keeps the tension high

  • Natalie Dessay and Philippe Cassard at Milton Court.

    Natalie Dessay/Philippe Cassard review – expressive soprano still hits the heights

  • Husband and wife team … Sonya Yoncheva and Domingo Hindoyan take a bow in the Philharmonic Hall on Thursday.

    RLPO/Hindoyan review – vivid and eloquent, plus the warmth of Dvořák’s sunshine

  • Masaaki Suzuki conducts the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

    OAE/Suzuki review – Bach’s Christmas Oratorio breathtakingly performed with tangible elation

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Album reviews

  • Apollo's Cabinet

    Apollo’s Cabinet: Musical Wanderlust album review – a freewheeling musical story

  • François-Xavier Roth conducts Gürzenich-Orchester Köln

    Bruckner: Symphony No 3 album review – mountaintop moments of human intimacy

  • Portrait of Frederick Delius (1862-1934). Artist: Anonymous<br>Portrait of Frederick Delius (1862-1934). (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

    Classical home listening: Delius’s A Mass of Life; Thomas Weelkes: Gentleman Extraordinary

  • Unsuk Chin

    Unsuk Chin: Edition album review – a perfect introduction to her magical soundworld

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People

  • Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn

    ‘Music for you must only be an ornament’
    How Fanny Mendelssohn’s voice was stifled, then saved

  • Martyn Brabbins rehearsing with English National Opera Orchestra at the Henry Wood Hall in London.

    News
    ENO’s music director resigns over proposed cuts to musical staff positions

  • Joana Mallwitz

    Conducting
    Joana Mallwitz is the first woman to lead a Berlin orchestra. And, no, she hasn’t seen Tár

  • Christian Thielemann

    News
    Christian Thielemann picks up baton as director of Berlin State Opera from old rival

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You may have missed

  • Daniel Barenboim

    In our orchestra, Israelis and Palestinians found common ground. Our hearts are broken by this conflict

    Daniel Barenboim
  • Vikingur Olafsson

    ‘An encyclopedia of how to think and dream on the piano’
    Víkingur Ólafsson on Bach’s Goldberg Variations

  • The Sage Gateshead will become the Glasshouse International Centre for Music

    News
    Sage Gateshead music hall to be renamed the Glasshouse

  • ‘We shared a love of football and cake’ … Elvis Costello, second from right, with the Brodsky Quartet in 1993.

    Elvis Costello on writing The Juliet Letters: ‘It initially caused panic’

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Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

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