Benjamin Britten News

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomes back revered conductor, and former CSO Creative Director, Rafael Fru?hbeck de Burgos for his second engagement of the 2013- 14 season. On February 28 and March 1 at historic Music Hall, Maestro Fru?hbeck de Burgos will conduct one of the most epic works in orchestral and choral repertoire-Verdi's Requiem. The piece pulls together massive forces of orchestra, chorus and soloists for an impassioned and dramatic blockbuster of human emotion. Perhaps best known for the famous 'Dies irae' movement, prevalent in pop culture in movies, advertisements and television, Verdi's masterpiece depicts a journey from terror and darkness to joy and light.

THE CHOIR of Canterbury Cathedral join Richard Alston Dance Company for a world premiere at The Marlowe Theatre next month.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, concludes his three-year commemoration of the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and brings the Britten 100/LA celebration to a close in Los Angeles with LA Opera's production of Billy Budd, which opens on February 22 and continues through March 16, 2014. For more information about this production, please visit www.LAOpera.org.

The centenary of British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) has been observed around the world by musicians and institutions of every kind. Music Director James Conlon, whose lifelong fascination with Britten is reflected in his personal three-year performance cycle of the composer's works in America and Europe, is the inspiration for LA Opera's Britten 100/LA: A Celebration, an extensive collaboration featuring performances, conferences and exhibitions presented by a host of organizations throughout the Southland.

On Wednesday, January 15, 2014, Michele Wiles presented the second evening of performances of her new company, Ballet Next, at NYLA.

Part child and part saint, endowed with physical as well as spiritual beauty, a young sailor unwittingly undermines the chain of command on the high seas in British composer Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd, returning to LA Opera's stage for six performances, February 22 through March 16.

Never before have classical and rock converged in so organic, compelling and sensual a way as they do in the three short orchestral works by New York composer and guitarist Bryce Dessner on his new release St. Carolyn by the Sea

Emerging operatic powerhouse Paul Appleby, one of this generation's most incredible new tenors, will take the stage at the Michael Schimmel Center For the Arts on Sunday, January 26th as part of Pace's concert series VOCE AT PACE: RISING OPERA STARS. Rising Opera Stars in Recital is supported by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation in honor of Dr. Agnes Varis. It is curated by Matthew Epstein.

The School of Music presents faculty artist C. Andrew Blosser, tenor, in concert Monday, February 3, at 8 pm in Weigel Hall Auditorium, 1866 College Rd. Alumnus Jiung Yoon, (DMA), and I-Chen Yeh, piano faculty, Bowling Green State University and Oakland University, Michigan, will perform a concert Wednesday, February 5, at 6 pm in Weigel Hall Auditorium, 1866 College Rd.

The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir will conclude its 77th season with a one-night performance of Benjamin Britten's choral-orchestral composition War Requiem at 8 p.m. on May 3, 2014 at The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Ind. Among the most challenging musical selections of classical repertoire, the piece rarely is performed due to its musical demands on the performers as well as the expense and resources associated with producing a concert work of this scale.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced LA Opera's 2014/15 season, created in collaboration with Music Director James Conlon and President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The upcoming season will include six mainstage productions, with 41 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Additional performances will take place in other venues through an expansion of the Company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open on September 13, 2014, and will run through June 14, 2015.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced LA Opera's 2014/15 season, created in collaboration with Music Director James Conlon and President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The upcoming season will include six mainstage productions, with 41 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Additional performances will take place in other venues through an expansion of the Company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open on September 13, 2014, and will run through June 14, 2015.

An Actors Touring Company, Young Vic Theatre, Brageteatret & Schauspielhaus Wien Co-Production, THE EVENTS by David Greig, is set for a UK and US tour and Young Vic return in 2014, directed by Ramin Gray and featuring music composed by John Browne.

Critics have called her 'the ideal Carmen of our time' and 'one of the leading singer-actresses of her generation.' The New York Times called her 'naturally seductive and vocally alluring.' But this down-to-earth southern girl prefers the moniker: The Dixie Diva!

The Grammy Award-winning chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, led by renowned violinist and Artistic Director Gidon Kremer, returns to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on Friday, February 7, 2014 at 7:30PM, performing works by Benjamin Britten, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, and Dmitri Shostakovich, including Shostakovich's provocative and seldom-heard comic opera Antiformalist Rayok, featuring Moscow State Chamber Musical Theatre principal soloist and acclaimed bass vocalist Alexei Mochalov.

Houston Grand Opera is proudly presenting the US Premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Alexander Medvedv's 1968 opera THE PASSENGER. After the Second World War, a German couple, Lisa and Walter, are sailing to Brazil. Lisa, unbeknownst to her husband, was a camp guard at Auschwitz and feels she recognizes a former Polish inmate, Marta. In anticipation of opening night, Melody Moore, who plays Marta, spoke with me about Houston Grand Opera's production of THE PASSENGER and her career.

For DIRECTOR'S CHOICE, the fourth program of Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2013-2014 season, Artistic Director Peter Boal selects from his roster of acquisitions and increases them by one: The captivating mixed-bill program will feature a much-anticipated world premiere by Alejandro Cerrudo, resident choreographer of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. The program also reprises audience favorites TAKE FIVE…More or Less, Broadway-darling Susan Stroman's sunny slice of jazz-infused Dave Brubeck fun; and Susan Marshall's distinctive aerial duet, Kiss. Rounding out the lineup is Molissa Fenley's State of Darkness, a tour-de-force solo performance set to Stravinsky's riot-inducing The Rite of Spring. DIRECTOR'S CHOICE runs for seven performances only, March 14-23, 2014 at Seattle Center's Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at just $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at206.441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office, 301 Mercer Street.

Perhaps the greatest disservice ever done to English music was its dismissal by the modernist composer Elizabeth Lutyens as "cowpat music". That statement was a hangover of a common perception from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that, despite the country's power and reputation, it wasn't actually very good at producing interesting music. But World War One marked the beginning of a new explosion of creative energy, one that saw exciting modern composers pour into England's concert halls, reaching across the sea to America, even to Hollywood. "This England" from Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra brings this England to Carnegie Hall.

American Symphony Orchestra bring an English "creative explosion" (and a musical volcano) to Carnegie Hall. Leon Botstein leads "This England" - four works that helped to change the game for English music, and for the rest of us, on January 31 at 8pm.

Das National Theatre London feiert derzeit seinen 50. Geburtstag und zeigt zum Beginn des neuen Jahres einige Produktionen von National Theatre Live als Encore noch einmal