Ashley Riches

From shimmering Romantic era music to Viennese waltzes and polkas, Royal Northern Sinfonia return to Middlesbrough Town Hall for the sparkly new 2023/24 classical season.  Learn more about the season lineup here!

Enjoying success early in his career by composing Italian operas, towards the middle of the 18th century George Frideric Handel instead turned his attention to English oratorios. One of his more well-known works, Solomon, was recently performed as part of the 2022 BBC Proms – Sofi Jeannin conducted specialist orchestra The English Concert, with Iestyn Davies, Anna Dennis, Wallis Giunta, Benjamin Hulett, and Ashley Riches in solo roles. This performance continues the Proms’ sequence of Handel oratorios.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) Label will release Tippett's opera The Midsummer Marriage on Friday 23 September – the first commercially released recording of the work in over 50 years.

When it comes to a topic as over-saturated in theatre as the Second World War, there is something to be said for productions that take a new approach. New musical Mimma puts Italian resistance members who came to London before the war front and centre in its depiction of people caught between allegiances to their family, country, and ideology.

Joining the previously announced Sir David Suchet (Poirot, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, All My Sons), Louise Dearman (Wicked, Evita) and Celinde Schoenmaker (Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera) is John Owen-Jones, the youngest actor to play the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and a record holder for the number of performances as Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. He will take on the role of Lorenzo.

In 1955 Michael Tippett introduced his first opera The Midsummer Marriage to a grey, post-war society desperate for some joy and optimism. It has divided the critics, with detractors pointing to the awkward libretto and fans in raptures with the sumptuous score. It is certainly a huge piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra's new Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner, to conduct as his debut. However, the result was enthralling.

There are a number of parallels between the two operas I saw in Santa Fe (NM) this past weekend: The Benjamin Britten/Peter Pears treatment of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and the world premiere of the John Corigliano/Mark Adamo THE LORD OF CRIES. The first was, for me at least, an all-around, marvelous success, while the other was a disappointment.

Urban dwellers know that a fox swaggering the streets like she owns them is nothing unusual these days. The merging of town and country, and the question of whether the fox is invading human territory (or is it the other way round with humans claiming zones that really belong to foxes?) are particularly relevant themes in Opera Holland Park’s homes site in verdant and semi-feral parkland.

In a live statement now watched over 2,000 times, the Founder of The Self-Isolation Choir, Mark Strachan, has unveiled an innovative future vision for the choir, including a new name and the launch of an inaugural Festival of Choral Music.

The Santa Fe Opera announces the following casting updates for the 2021 Season opening on July 10 and running through August 27: Laurie Feldman will direct The Marriage of Figaro after a concept by French Director Laurent Pelly, who is unable to travel to Santa Fe due to international travel restrictions and has therefore been following rehearsals and the progress of the production from France.

Here are some of the online events for the week of August 15 - 22 under LA Operaa??s banner, LAO At Home. On Tuesday, August 18, at 4 PM PDT, the a?oeGrown-Up Edition of Learn at Homea?? lets music lovers join Jeremy Frank at the piano for a?oeOpera Happy Hoursa?? which feature murder mysteries, verismo stories and dance.

Calixto Bieito's critically praised production of Carmen returns to the London Coliseum this January.

MCO's Berlioz Series 2018 at the Ope ra Royal, Versailles Each summer since 2015, the Orchestre R volutionnaire et Romantique (ORR) and John Eliot Gardiner have featured the music of Hector Berlioz in their annual appearances at London's famed BBC Proms festival. This year marks both the orchestra's 30th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the French composer's death. To honor these twin milestones, Gardiner and the ORR return to the Royal Albert Hall to conclude their five-year commitment to Berlioz's music with a staged account of his first opera, Benvenuto Cellini, on September 2. Anchored by the Monteverdi Choir, with Michael Spyres in the title role, the Proms performance announced just today crowns the ensembles' high-profile European tour of the opera this summer. Also taking in the annual Festival Berlioz in the composer's birthplace, La C te-Saint-Andr (Aug 29), the Berliner Festspiele (Aug 31), and the Palace of Versailles (Sep 8), the tour represents the work's first modern performances on period instruments and provides a fitting sequel to the ensembles' transatlantic Berlioz Series 2018 tour, which after the London Proms performance prompted the Financial Times to marvel: Berlioz has no idea what he missed.

State Opera is presenting the semi-opera, or dramatick opera, King Arthur,

Manon Lescaut, sponsored by Viking Cruises, opens the season with the British lyric soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn in the title role. Named 'Best newcomer in opera' by The Telegraph in 2010 following her operatic debut as Mimi in La boheme at English National Opera, Llewellyn has gone from strength to strength on the international stage. She was last at OHP in 2017, as Magda in La rondine. The Welsh bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones makes his OHP debut as Lescaut. His recent career highlights include his Royal Opera House debut in The Nose and the Scottish premiere of Philip Glass's The Trial with Scottish Opera.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner (photo: Chris Christodolou for the BBC Proms) When the Berlioz Series 2018 - their transatlantic tour in anticipation of the composer's 150th anniversary - took Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique to London's BBC Proms last month, the critical response was euphoric. Their performance scored five-star reviews in The Times of London, the Arts Desk, and the Financial Times, which concluded: 'Berlioz has no idea what he missed.' Now the series sees the orchestra and Gardiner - the winner of more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist - return to the States for concerts in Chapel Hill, NC (Oct 10), Ann Arbor, MI (Oct 12), and at New York's Carnegie Hall (Oct 14 & 15).

This October, Artistic Director and Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR) return to Carnegie Hall with two all-Berlioz concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. On Sunday, October 14 at 3:00 p.m., the program features the overture to Le Corsaire; La mort de Cleopatre and selections from Les Troyens, Part II, Op. 5, with mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot as soloist; and Harold in Italy, Op. 16, with violist Antoine Tamestit as soloist.

This October, Artistic Director and Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR) return to Carnegie Hall with two all-Berlioz concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. On Sunday, October 14 at 3:00 p.m., the program features the overture to Le Corsaire; La mort de Cléopâtre and selections from Les Troyens, Part II, Op. 5, with mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardotas soloist; and Harold in Italy, Op. 16, with violist Antoine Tamestit as soloist.

 Carnegie Hall's 2018-2019 season is fast approaching, and we are looking forward to exciting new projects and outstanding concerts! Highlights below include Carnegie Hall's Opening Night Gala with the San Francisco Symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas as he embarks on his season-long Perspectives series; the launch of pianist Yuja Wang's Perspectives series; concerts curated and performed by Chris Thile, holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair; the debut of Decoda, featuring alumni of Ensemble Connect; concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the New York String Orchestra and the 90th birthday of pianist Leon Fleisher; and, coming in spring 2019: a citywide festival-Migrations: The Making of America.

The University Musical Society (UMS), under the leadership of President Matthew VanBesien, today announces its 140th season in 2018-19 with an initial slate of 40 performances and events. One of the country's most acclaimed performing arts presenters, UMS honors its past by showcasing respected ensembles and performers with whom it has enjoyed rich relationships, and fully embraces the future as initiator, incubator, and accelerator for innovative new works and projects. This potent combination infuses the anniversary season with dynamic and diverse voices and perspectives featuring artists at the top of their game - celebrating the canon, taking risks, moving genres in new directions, disrupting stereotypes, and surprising audiences.