Deborah Warner News

HighTide will return to Aldeburgh for their 13th festival with a world premiere and new work from homegrown talent. This fantastic programme will be Steven Atkinson's final Festival as Artistic Director; it illustrates HighTide's commitment to championing new writing as the space for political, contemporary and provocative work, created by new and diverse artists.

In a minimalist setting, Benjamin Britten's 20th-century reflections on Herman Melville's novel are deftly captured musically and visually.

The Victoria and Albert Museum will host an exhibition of portraits by Francis Hamel celebrating the visiting professors of the Cameron Mackintosh Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford.

This season's new Broadway production of William Shakespeare's King Lear, starring two-time Academy Award winner, two-time Emmy Award winner, and 2018 Tony Award winner Glenda Jackson and directed by Tony Award winner Sam Gold, opens tonight at the Cort Theatre. The production will play a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, July 7, 2019.

King Lear is making its triumphant return to Broadway, starring Glenda Jackson in a gender-swapped version of the title role. As we gear up for this revival, let's take a look back on some notable Lears past...

The Royal Opera presents a new production of Britten's Billy Budd, nearly 70 years after its Covent Garden premiere in 1951, and almost two decades since the Company's last performances of the work. Acclaimed British director Deborah Warner returns to The Royal Opera for the first time since directing Britten's The Turn of the Screw in 2002. She brings this production to The Royal Opera following its successful stagings by co-producers Teatro Real, Madrid, and Rome Opera.

The International Opera Awards today announces the finalists for its 2019 Awards.

Previews begin tonight for the world premiere production of The Convent, a new play by critically acclaimed playwright Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project, Charles Ives Take Me Home), directed by Daniel Talbott.

The Royal Opera House presents a host of world premieres and debuts across ballet and opera in 2019, alongside a diverse range of free and ticketed Front of House events for all ages. 2019 also sees the first performances by The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera in the newly refurbished Linbury Theatre, the West End's newest and most intimate theatre.

Conductor Jeremie Rhorer returns to Theatre des Champs-Elysees today, November 28, through December 9, 2018, conducting a new production of Verdi's La traviata, directed by Deborah Warner, and using Verdi's original tuning. Rhorer will conduct Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, the period-instrument ensemble dedicated to music of the 18th and 19th centuries, which he founded in 2005.

Heresy Records has announced the release of Testamenta new album by theater composer Mel Mercier, the son of Peadar Mercier, (one of the founders of The Chieftans) who was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design.Testament is an album of eleven music compositions by Mel Mercier (born. 23. December, 1959), and holds the titles of Composer/Percussionist/Professor, and Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick.

Conductor Jeremie Rhorer, founder of Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, makes his debut London Philharmonic Orchestra debut at Royal Festival Hall on Saturday, October 13, 2018. Rhorer will conduct two monumental choral works: Carl Orff's canonic Carmina Burana and Francis Poulenc's rarely-heard Stabat Mater. Rhorer will lead the London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Philharmonic Choir as well as a trio of accomplished vocalists: soprano Louise Adler, tenor Toby Spencer, and baritone Simon Keenlyside.

The Barbican's Framed Film Festival returns for another weekend of screenings and free workshops and events that celebrates the best cinema from around the world for younger film lovers.

On Friday 25th January 2019 Heresy Records will release Testament, an album of eleven compositions by Mel Mercier (b. 23. December, 1959), Composer/Percussionist/Professor and Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Mel was first introduced to music by his father, Peadar Mercier, a member of the Chieftains, who taught him to play the Irish traditional percussion instruments, the bodhrán and bones. As one of the world's leading Irish percussionists He has performed and recorded with many of the leading artists in this genre including, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Donal Lunny, Pallé Mikkleborg, Martin Hayes, Liam Ó Maonlaoi, Alan Stivell, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Caitríona O'Leary and Bill Whelan.

Somewhere in Europe the kingdom is disintegrating. It's the last day of King Berenger's life. Queen Marguerite is preparing for the end and Queen Marie is in denial. The King is 400 years old and dying, but he's clinging on for dear life...

The co-producers behind The Kilbanes' Weightless, a hit rock opera-retelling of Ovid's Metamorphoses, as well as New York's Obie Award-winning The Tricky Part and Lucille Lortel Award-winning All the Rage, return to San Francisco with a new production of A Lesson From Aloes, to be presented at Z Below. Written by internationally-acclaimed playwright Athol Fugard and directed by Obie Award winner Timothy Near, this inventive revival will feature a star-studded cast of regional theatre's finest actors. A Lesson From Aloes will be presented June 3 - 29, 2018 (press opening: Thursday, June 7, 2018) with performances 7:30pm Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2pm Sundays at Z Below, 470 Florida Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($25-$50) and information can be found at www.alessonfromaloes.com or by phone at 415-626-0453.

The sixth International Opera Awards took place tonight at the London Coliseum. The 2018 winners were announced at the black-tie ceremony, hosted for the third year running by BBC Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny.

The co-producers behind The Kilbanes' Weightless, a hit rock opera-retelling of Ovid's Metamorphoses, as well as New York's Obie Award-winning The Tricky Part and Lucille Lortel Award-winning All the Rage, return to San Francisco with a new production of A Lesson From Aloes, to be presented at Z Below.

With British Summer Time (BST) starting this weekend, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre have today announced casting for Peter Pan (17 May - 15 June), which launches the 2018 summer season in the final year of the First World War Centenary Commemorations. Fiston Barek takes the title role of Peter Pan and Dennis Herdman plays the role of Captain Hook.