Benjamin Britten News

On Friday, May 20, 2022, the renowned Kronos Quartet releases the world premiere recording of Mỹ Lai, the acclaimed opera composed by Jonathan Berger with libretto by Harriet Scott Chessman, on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

The New Jersey Symphony and Music Director Xian Zhang announce the Symphony's landmark 2022–23 centennial season—and an extension of Zhang's music director contract through the 2027–28 season.

At times exquisitely lovely and, at others, confronting and brutal.

“An Evening at the Theater,” the first single from The Pleasing Recollection – a playful and witty musical adventure that blends opera and cabaret – has been released in all digital and streaming platforms today, Friday, March 4. The Pleasing Recollection will make its New York debut at Feinstein’s/54 Below for two shows only on Tuesday, April 5 at 7:00 PM and Wednesday, April 6 at 9:30 PM. The Pleasing Recollection features music by Martin Hennessy and a libretto by Stephen Kitsakos.

This Sunday, 6 March 2022, 7 pm, the Bayerische Staatsoper will celebrate the premiere of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes in a production by Stefan Herheim. With Edward Gardner conducting the Bayerische Staatsorchester, the performers on stage at the Nationaltheater include Stuart Skelton as Peter Grimes and Rachel Willis-Sørensen in a role debut as Ellen Orford.

This Spring, enjoy two more productions from the Royal Opera House: Mozart's Così fan tutte, and Deborah Warner's new production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. Both titles, showcasing the world-class talent of The Royal Opera, will be available, on-demand, for 30 days.  

Musica Sacra, Kent Tritle, Music Director, performs in three concerts this spring whose variety is emblematic of its identity as New York’s elite professional chorus.

Madison Lyric Stage announced that its 2022 mainstage will include: a double bill of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River in May; the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd in June, Stephen Schwartz’s musical Pippin in July, and Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in September. 

The Metropolitan Opera today announced its 2022–23 season, which features seven new productions, the most in ten seasons. Opening Night is September 27 with the company premiere of Cherubini’s Medea, starring soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role alongside tenor Matthew Polenzani in David McVicar’s new staging, conducted by Carlo Rizzi.

The quartet's performance from Old St. Mary's Cathedral, (660 California Street) will include Florence Price's Five Folksongs in Counterpoint and Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 132.

The Pleasing Recollection – a playful and witty musical adventure that blends opera and cabaret – will make its New York debut at Feinstein’s/54 Below for two shows only on Tuesday, April 5 at 7:00 PM and Wednesday, April 6 at 9:30 PM. 

Edward Gardner, recently hailed by The Times (London) for the 'sheer vivacity' of his music-making, has been appointed Music Director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. He will assume the position of Artistic Advisor from 1 February 2022 before beginning his tenure as Music Director on 1 August 2024.

Birmingham Royal Ballet today announces its programme plans from May 2022 - March 2023. In a big year for the city, the season includes several highlights in Birmingham during the year that it hosts the Commonwealth Games, as well as touring the UK and bringing the new production of Don Quixote to London.

Now in its 38th year, the Schwabacher Recital Series, presented by San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program, returns Tuesday, March 15.  The series of four recitals (March 15, April 6, April 27 and July 28) at San Francisco's Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater and San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall presents emerging artists from around the globe in the intimacy of a recital setting,

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) promises to deliver an all-new, outdoor Princeton Festival June 10-25, 2022 with a cohesive campus plan, community cooperation, and exciting artists.

The Cooperative is a young Sydney-based arts company, founded to stage productions of new, rare, and canonic works, which are impactful, relevant, and necessitate social change.

The Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado, under the leadership of Music Director Peter Oundjian, returns to Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder this summer for 22 concerts between June 30 and August 7. 

As only the third American opera company in history to reach this centennial milestone, the Company’s 2022–23 Season will honor San Francisco Opera’s glorious past while inviting the public into an exciting new era of musical excellence under Kim’s music directorship and a renewed commitment to innovation.

The London Symphony Orchestra will be in residence this March at Santa Barbara's Music Academy of the West to perform three programs under the leadership of its Music Director, Sir Simon Rattle (March 24-27).

In the final weeks of Franz Schubert's tragically short life, he wrote one of the great masterworks in all of chamber music — his Quintet in C Major. In this new five-part course, Jonathan Coopersmith, Chair of Musical Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, explores the work in depth, as well as the creative burst that spawned it.