wed 02/04/2025

Opera Features

Christa Ludwig, 1928-2021: a selective tribute

David Nice

I only saw Christa Ludwig twice live in concert, but those appearances epitomise her incredible dramatic and vocal rage as well as her peerless artistry in everything she did. The first event was Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Charles Spencer at the Southbank Centre, at a time when it was less common for women to take on the role of the heavy-hearted wayfarer: the intensity still resonates.

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First Person: Anna Lucia Richter on Monteverdi and a transition from soprano to mezzo

Anna Lucia Richter

It’s actually quite a strange feeling to know that my CD Il delirio della passione is now out. I recorded this amazing, all-embracing Monteverdi project with Luca Pianca and Ensemble Claudiana over a year ago, in January 2020. That was another world, another time.

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Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 4: singers speak out

Nicky Spence

Forget the pandemic, it's Brexit which could ring the death knell for artists who are currently hoarse from begging to be taken seriously as a respected export.

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First Person(s): soprano Susan Bullock and baritone William Dazeley on filming Britten’s Owen Wingrave

Susan Bullock A

Two of the singers in an ambitious project to film Britten’s opera based on a Henry James story – part timeless tale of repressive tradition which chimed with the composer's pacifist beliefs, part ghost story – which was originally “made for television” and premiered on the BBC, give their impressions close to the time of...

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‘Our whole industry is supported by vulnerable freelance creators': Chen Reiss on the artist in a time of Coronavirus

Chen Reiss

I am not the first to say this, and I won’t be the last, but what a strange year 2020 has become!

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First Person: tenor Nicky Spence on working with Blackheath locals on screen Stravinsky

Nicky Spence

As patron for a community organisation, I see clearly how opera is the biggest collaboration going. Between stage, orchestra  pit, school liaisons, chorus leaders, make-up bays and the magicians of the technical team, every cog is of equal importance.

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Eavesdropping on Rattle, the LSO and Bartók’s Bluebeard

David Nice

One source of advance information told us to expect a reduced version of Bartók’s one-act Bluebeard’s Castle, among the 20th century’s most original and profound operatic masterpieces.

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First Person: Antonia Bain on directing a short kitchen opera for film

Antonia Bain

The Narcissistic Fish is a brand new opera specifically created to be filmed.

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Classical music/Opera direct to home 14 - sound and vision at the highest level

David Nice

As more musicians emerge from lockdown to conduct, play and sing in audience-less venues - ongoing kudos to the Wigmore Hall for its weekday lunchtime concerts, a fixure for so many viewers and listeners - here are some more off-piste treasures, a past glory from the...

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Avoiding meltdown from lockdown: Michael Chance on The Grange Festival's strategy for survival

Michael Chance

Where to start? We at The Grange Festival began in mid-March (the 15th) with a letter to our company, all those few hundred who come and work for us during the festival months and who are all, almost without exception, employed on a freelance basis, warning of a likely cancellation but urging a commitment to stage the summer festival over June and July (with preparations stating in mid-April) if at all possible.

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