Dear Friends
Welcome to June on Planet Hugill, a busy month which saw us returning from our holiday in Berlin as well as catching the Dresden Music Festival's historically informed performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold. Equally revealing, albeit with in a different style, was the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's rediscovery of Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida (premiered just 15 years after Das Rheingold). We are also in full festival swing, and this month we have reports from Opera Holland Park and the Grange Festival, as well caatching Helena Dix with Chelsea Opeera Group and helping the BBC celebrate Dennis the Menace.
Interviews this month are composers Richard Harvey and Debbie Wiseman, plus countertenor Iestyn Morris on recording romantic Russian song.
▪ Ida revealed: John Wilson & the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment take a fresh look at Gilbert & Sullivan's unjustly neglected opera, Princess Ida
▪ Mozart's late masterpiece: La Clemenza di Tito from Chelsea Opera Group with Helena Dix and Kezia Bienek
| ▪ | Ida revealed: John Wilson & the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment take a fresh look at Gilbert & Sullivan's unjustly neglected opera, Princess Ida |
| ▪ | Mozart's late masterpiece: La Clemenza di Tito from Chelsea Opera Group with Helena Dix and Kezia Bienek |
Dresden Music Festival
▪ A little bit of magic: Asya Fateyeva and Lautten Compagney Berlin
▪ Colour, text & character: Dresden launches its historically informed Ring cycle with gripping Das Rheingold
| ▪ | Colour, text & character: Dresden launches its historically informed Ring cycle with gripping Das Rheingold |
Opera Holland Park
▪ Verdi's Rigoletto: 2023 season opener with Elgan Llŷr Thomas as the Duke
▪ We simply forget that there was anything young artist about the evening: Young Artists performance of Hansel & Gretel
| ▪ | Verdi's Rigoletto: 2023 season opener with Elgan Llŷr Thomas as the Duke |
| ▪ | We simply forget that there was anything young artist about the evening: Young Artists performance of Hansel & Gretel |
The Grange Festival
▪ Stylish performances all round in a winning account of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte that engages as well as questions
▪ Visually seductive and strikingly arresting: The Queen of Spades is a real study in obsession
▪ An engaging & ultimately touching evening: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
| ▪ | Stylish performances all round in a winning account of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte that engages as well as questions |
| ▪ | Visually seductive and strikingly arresting: The Queen of Spades is a real study in obsession |
Various Venues
▪ Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra: A more than enjoyable event celebrating The Beano with Colin Currie and the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall
▪ Rückert lieder: Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake in songs by Robert & Clara Schumann, Schubert, Henze and Mahler at Temple Music
▪ I have rarely heard Bach's Mass in B minor performed with such consistency of style, integrity and sheer musicality: Vox Luminis at Wigmore Hall
| ▪ | Rückert lieder: Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake in songs by Robert & Clara Schumann, Schubert, Henze and Mahler at Temple Music |
| ▪ | I have rarely heard Bach's Mass in B minor performed with such consistency of style, integrity and sheer musicality: Vox Luminis at Wigmore Hall |
Interviews
▪ When all is said and done, His passport simply says that he is a musician: I chat to composer & multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey about his new disc of choral music
▪ Simplicity is one of the hardest things to do: composer Debbie Wiseman on the challenges of writing music, and introducing her new disc, Signature
▪ Adding the countertenor voice to the conversation: Iestyn Morris on recording a disc of romantic Russian song
| ▪ | When all is said and done, His passport simply says that he is a musician: I chat to composer & multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey about his new disc of choral music |
| ▪ | Simplicity is one of the hardest things to do: composer Debbie Wiseman on the challenges of writing music, and introducing her new disc, Signature |
| ▪ | Adding the countertenor voice to the conversation: Iestyn Morris on recording a disc of romantic Russian song |
Record Reviews
▪ Music of such engaging variety and imagination: Richard Boothby's Music to hear... exploring Alfonso Ferrabosco's 1609 book of music for solo lyra viol
▪ A refreshing sense of lightness: Chichester Cathedral Choir & the Rose Consort of Viols in sacred music by Chichester Cathedral's 17th-century organist, Thomas Weelkes
▪ Terrific and intensely atmospheric: the String Quartet No. 1 and Piano Quintet by Olli Mustonen from the Engegård Quartet and the composer on LAWO Classics
▪ Because: in a slightly unlikely but completely seductive pairing, countertenor Reginald Mobley is joined by jazz pianist/composer Baptiste Trotignon
| ▪ | Music of such engaging variety and imagination: Richard Boothby's Music to hear... exploring Alfonso Ferrabosco's 1609 book of music for solo lyra viol |
| ▪ | A refreshing sense of lightness: Chichester Cathedral Choir & the Rose Consort of Viols in sacred music by Chichester Cathedral's 17th-century organist, Thomas Weelkes |
Credits
Our header image this month is Josephine Barstow and Eduard Martynyuk in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at the Grange Festival (photograph: Craig Fuller).
Click on any of the links to take you through to the relevant article on Planet Hugill. We wish you a pleasant Summer and look forward to bringing you more opera and concert reviews next month.
Regards
Robert
