Benjamin Britten News

GLYNDEBOURNE'S 45th annual tour will make a triumphant return to Canterbury in one month's time. Glyndebourne Tour, which visited The Marlowe Theatre for the first time last year, offers three operas crafted to the highest possible production standards and showcases some of the most exciting new operatic talent in the UK. It is a culmination of 550 hours' rehearsal time and features a cast of 23 soloists, 37 choristers, 119 musicians and 20 children.

To honor Verdi's 200th birthday, LA Opera will present a new production of the crowning glory of the composer's magnificent career, his comic masterpiece Falstaff. LA Opera Music Director James Conlon, praised internationally for his mastery of Verdi, conducts this unabashed celebration of Merrie Olde England's lusty days and bawdy nights, starring Italian baritone Roberto Frontali. When Shakespeare's portly knight of Windsor hatches a plot to improve his love life by courting two different married women, he launches a flood of comic chaos and romantic misadventure.

Violinist Baiba Skride and Danish conductor Thomas Sonderga?rd will join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for the first time November 21, 2013, at 8:00 p.m. and November 23, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. in Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center.

Spellbinding premieres by Jiri Kylian and Crystal Pite join Kylian's sensual Petite Mort and raucous Sechs Tänze (Six Dances) in KYLIAN + PITE, Pacific Northwest Ballet's fascinating foursome of contemporary works.

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation will be presenting Soyeon Kate Lee, 2010 Piano Award winner, on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Lee will be performing the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank's Sonata Andina No. 2, a Naumburg commission.

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys will have its North American premiere at the Met October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher.

The Hartt School presents a variety of music, dance, and theatre performances this November, and all are open to the public. All events take place on the University of Hartford's main campus, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT, unless otherwise noted. Please call the University Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 800.274.8587 or visit www.hartford.edu/hartt for tickets and information.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Marin Alsop leads the BSO and the University of Maryland Concert Choir in the centerpiece of the BSO's 2013-2014 season, Britten's War Requiem on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 8 p.m. and Friday, November 15, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore. The program also features soprano Tamara Wilson, tenor Nicolas Phan, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny and the Peabody Children's Chorus. These performances celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth on November 22, 1913. Please see below for complete program details.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts opens its 2013-14 season of Composer Portraits with the work of Austrian composer and newly appointed Columbia University faculty member GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS on October 10, 2013.

During the month of October Sarasota Opera, known as 'Verdi's American Home', will join in the worldwide celebration honoring the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of the famed Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. In partnership with Selby Public Library, Sarasota Opera has planned an innovative program of public talks and free concerts including abig birthday celebration tonight, October 10, the day of the composer's birth. These events will take place at both the Selby Public Library and the Sarasota Opera House.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers, and Britten's Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Philharmonic subscription debut), tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concerts, which include a performance on the composer's 100th birthday, November 22, will take place Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m.

During the month of October Sarasota Opera, known as 'Verdi's American Home', will join in the worldwide celebration honoring thebicentennial anniversary of the birth of the famed Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.

Wagner's bi-centenary is remembered in the moving and evocative Prelude to Tristan and Isolde. Of which Wagner wrote: "henceforth no end to the yearning, longing, rapture, and misery of love: world, power, fame, honor, chivalry, loyalty, and friendship, scattered like an insubstantial dream; one thing alone left living: longing, longing unquenchable, desire forever renewing itself, craving and languishing; one sole redemption: death, surcease of being, the sleep that knows no waking!"

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's 2013.14 Chamber Series opens on November 1-2, 2013 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Led by Associate Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong, the riveting chamber program features Arvo Pa?rt's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, Bach's Chaconne from Partita No. 2, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 6. All tickets are $5 and are general admission.

During the month of October Sarasota Opera, known as “Verdi's American Home”, will join in the worldwide celebration honoring the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of the famed Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. In partnership with Selby Public Library, Sarasota Opera has planned an innovative program of public talks and free concerts including a big birthday celebration Thursday, October 10, the day of the composer's birth. These events will take place at both the Selby Public Library and the Sarasota Opera House.

TENET, one of New York's preeminent vocal ensembles combines forces with the highly acclaimed chamber ensembleThe Sebastians in a performance of ODES: A Celebration of St. Cecilia. Works to be performed include odes by Henry Purcell and a tribute to Benjamin Britten on his birthday during this anniversary year. TENET will perform his poignant and beloved Hymn to St. Ceciliafor unaccompanied choir in an intimate, one-voice-per-part scoring. The performance is part of TENET's fifth anniversary festivities and takes place at 7PM on November 22, St. Cecilia's Day at St. Luke in the Fields (487 Hudson Street, New York).

Cleveland Orchestra has announced its concerts and events for October 2013. Details below!

The New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), opens its 2013-2014 season this weekend, October 5 and 6 with the world premiere of a video work by artist and filmmaker Tal Rosner. The video, which accompanies the Four Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes, is co-commissioned by NWS, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. The New World Symphony performances, which will include a WALLCAST concert on October 5, are conducted by NWS Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas and feature Gershwin's Cuban Overture and Piano Concerto in F performed by renowned pianist Yuja Wang, as well as Stravinsky'sPulcinella Suite.

The Kansas City Chorale has announced their 32nd season of concerts for 2013-2014, conducted by Charles Bruffy. For more information, visit: http://www.kcchorale.org/

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) celebrates the 200th anniversary of composer Richard Wagner's birth (May 22, 1813) with an unprecedented series of events this month. Beginning on Friday, Oct. 11, and running through Thursday, Oct. 24, CCM explores Wagner's iconic work and enduring legacy with a series of guest lectures, film screenings and a concert performance by the CCM Philharmonia. Aside from the Oct. 12 Philharmonia performance, these events are free and open to the general public.