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Dear Friends

Welcome to August on Planet Hugill, where festival season was in full swing with visits to West Green, Glyndebourne, Grimeborn, Opera Holland Park and IF Opera, not to forget the ongoing delights of the BBC Proms. Our interviews are taking a Summer break, but we have been examining the curious case of Alan Bush's operas in our feature. Record reviews this month have a distinctly contemporary feel with composers from Italy, Latvia, America, Germany and the UK.

The denizens of Planet Hugill will be taking their own holiday, shortly, but we will be back with further delights.

▪ Riotous comedy & humanity: Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at West Green House Opera
▪ Handel’s Alcina: Tony Cooper's review at Glyndebourne
▪ Colour and movement: Gilbert & Sullivan returns to Opera Holland Park with HMS Pinafore
▪ Operatic wit and style in the West End: Donizetti's Rita at the Charing Cross Theatre
▪ Warmth and humanity: British Youth Opera celebrates its 35th anniversary with Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love
▪ A light touch and some rattling good tunes: Puccini's La rondine from IF Opera at Belcombe Court
Riotous comedy & humanity: Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at West Green House Opera
Handel’s Alcina: Tony Cooper's review at Glyndebourne
Colour and movement: Gilbert & Sullivan returns to Opera Holland Park with HMS Pinafore
Operatic wit and style in the West End: Donizetti's Rita at the Charing Cross Theatre
Warmth and humanity: British Youth Opera celebrates its 35th anniversary with Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love
A light touch and some rattling good tunes: Puccini's La rondine from IF Opera at Belcombe Court

Grimeborn Festival

▪ Black, el Payaso: Pablo Sorozábal's engaging operetta gets its UK premiere in an enterprising production by Cervantes Theatre
▪ Stupendous achievement: Grimeborn's Ring adventure comes to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion at the Hackney Empire
▪ Ethel Smyth in lighter mode: The Boatswain's Mate returns
Black, el Payaso: Pablo Sorozábal's engaging operetta gets its UK premiere in an enterprising production by Cervantes Theatre
Stupendous achievement: Grimeborn's Ring adventure comes to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion at the Hackney Empire
Ethel Smyth in lighter mode: The Boatswain's Mate returns

BBC Proms

▪ Prom 30: Gavin Higgins' Concerto Grosso for brass band and orchestra with the Tredegar Band and BBC NOW
▪ Prom 39: a Turnage premiere, a Vaughan Williams rarity and an Elgar Symphony
▪ Prom 43: Handel's Solomon with Iestyn Davies, BBC Singers, The English Concert, Sofi Jeannin
▪ Spirit and abandon: Ethel Smyth's Mass at the BBC Proms returns the work home, to the hall where it premiered in 1891
Prom 30: Gavin Higgins' Concerto Grosso for brass band and orchestra with the Tredegar Band and BBC NOW
Prom 39: a Turnage premiere, a Vaughan Williams rarity and an Elgar Symphony
Prom 43: Handel's Solomon with Iestyn Davies, BBC Singers, The English Concert, Sofi Jeannin
Spirit and abandon: Ethel Smyth's Mass at the BBC Proms returns the work home, to the hall where it premiered in 1891

Feature

▪ The curious case of Alan Bush's operas
The curious case of Alan Bush's operas

Record Reviews

▪ Two very different approaches to Bach's Goldberg Variations from harpsichordist Nathaniel Mander & violinist Jorge Jimenez
▪ Matters of the heart: a journey through Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben
▪ Embrace: Swiss baritone Äneas Humm draws you into his imaginative look at the edges of the 19th and 20th century lieder tradition
▪ Finely poetic: Ernest Chausson's early Piano Trio alongside works by his contemporary, Eugene Ysaÿe
▪ A Vaughan Williams Anthology: Tony Cooper reviews Naxos' eight-disc box set
▪ The songs of William Busch: revealing the quietly distinctive voice of an underexplored composer
▪ Two moments in time: String Orchestra of Brooklyn with a work written for 2020's Lockdown, and another evoking the opening of Honolulu's contemporary art museum in 1980
▪ Seductive craziness: loosely inspired by Martial and Aristophanes, the opera Xeniae by Latvian composer Juris Ābols is a polystylistic extravaganza
▪ Different ways of doing things: Michael Wolters' Aria Cuntata and the Low Miracles from Birmingham Record Company
▪ Vox in Bestia: Laura Catrani uses solo voice to explore Dante's animals with music from three contemporary Italian composers
▪ Crossing boundaries between contemporary classical, experimental electronic, ambient and electroacoustic: Matthew Whiteside's Remixes
▪ Florian Klaus Rumpf takes us on A Mandolin's Guide to Hamburg
Two very different approaches to Bach's Goldberg Variations from harpsichordist Nathaniel Mander & violinist Jorge Jimenez
Matters of the heart: a journey through Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben
Embrace: Swiss baritone Äneas Humm draws you into his imaginative look at the edges of the 19th and 20th century lieder tradition
Finely poetic: Ernest Chausson's early Piano Trio alongside works by his contemporary, Eugene Ysaÿe
A Vaughan Williams Anthology: Tony Cooper reviews Naxos' eight-disc box set
The songs of William Busch: revealing the quietly distinctive voice of an underexplored composer
Two moments in time: String Orchestra of Brooklyn with a work written for 2020's Lockdown, and another evoking the opening of Honolulu's contemporary art museum in 1980
Seductive craziness: loosely inspired by Martial and Aristophanes, the opera Xeniae by Latvian composer Juris Ābols is a polystylistic extravaganza
Different ways of doing things: Michael Wolters' Aria Cuntata and the Low Miracles from Birmingham Record Company
Vox in Bestia: Laura Catrani uses solo voice to explore Dante's animals with music from three contemporary Italian composers
Crossing boundaries between contemporary classical, experimental electronic, ambient and electroacoustic: Matthew Whiteside's Remixes
Florian Klaus Rumpf takes us on A Mandolin's Guide to Hamburg

Date for your diary

On 2 December 2022, the London Song Festival will premiere We wear the mask, my setting of the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar at a concert with Ronald Samm, Gweneth Ann Rand & Nigel Foster in settings of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, & William Grant Still at Hinde Street Methodist Church.

Credits

Our header image this month is Lee Bisset in Wagner's Götterdämmerung at Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival at Hackney Empire (Photo Alex Brenner).

Click on any of the links to take you through to the relevant story on Planet Hugill.

Regards

Robert

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