Nicky Spence News

Directed from the piano by Lada Valešová, tenor Nicky Spence and the Navarra Quartet perform Pavel Haas's song cycle Fata Morgana Op. 6 to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, streamed on Opera Holland Park's YouTube and Facebook channels from 6pm on Wednesday 27 January.

Following English National Opera's (ENO) acclaimed Satyagraha and the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, this season brings a new staging of Philip Glass's Orphée to the London Coliseum.

Tchaikovsky's perfect tragedy of first love, Eugene Onegin, opens the season, with Anush Hovhannisyan as Tatyana. Critically acclaimed for her role as Violetta in La traviata for Scottish Opera in 2017, and nominated in the 2018 International Opera Awards, she makes her OHP debut. Also appearing at OHP for the first time is the Australian baritone Samuel Dale Johnson as Onegin. British lyric soprano Amanda Roocroft makes her role debut as Madame Larina, having performed the role of Tatyana to great acclaim internationally. Fresh from success at Opera North and the Royal Opera, Nicky Spence returns to OHP as Lensky. Emma Stannard sings the role of Tatyana's sister Olga, with Kathleen Wilkinson as their nurse, Filippyevna.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan will run at La Monnaie June 11-22.

The world premiere of Iain Bell's Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, following his critically-acclaimed In Parenthesis is playing at the London Coliseum through April 12, 2019.

A beloved holiday tradition, Handel's celebrated oratorio-with its blazing trumpets, thundering timpani and spectacular "Hallelujah!" chorus-provides a moment during the busy season to experience reflection, renewal and joy. Awe-inspiring sounds of praise ring out as Pacific Symphony is joined by Pacific Chorale for the triumphant annual holiday celebration, "Handel's Glorious Messiah," celebrating the birth of Christ. A holiday tradition across the world, "Messiah" has been performed for more than 275 years, but with each new conductor, orchestra and soloists, it becomes a fresh and newly invigorating experience. This year Christopher Warren-Green mans the podium to lead the Symphony along with the Chorale and a host of globally distinguished soloists, including the soprano Klara Ek, counter-tenor David Trudgen, tenor Nicky Spence and bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch. Full of brilliant choral writing, "Messiah" energizes its audience and leaves them singing, "Hallelujah!"

After Kat'a Kabanova (2010), Jen?fa (2014) and recently Foxie! The Cunning Little Vixen, there is still more Leoš Jana?ek to come at La Monnaie. In November 2018 the opera house is presenting Z mrtveho domu (From the House of the Dead), the Czech composer's last and perhaps most powerful opera. It is based on Dostoyevsky's semi-autobiographical novel Memoirs from the House of the Dead (1862), an account of the Russian writer's own experiences as a political prisoner in a Siberian gulag. It is a mosaic of loosely-knit episodes about the inhumane conditions in a labour camp, punctuated with the stories and life histories of his fellow prisoners.

Tonight, the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert 2018 drew to a stunning close as the sky filled with huge white glitter and gold croisette fireworks bursting 225 metres above Edinburgh Castle to the closing bars of Holst's The Planets.  

Investec Opera Holland Park (OHP) marked one year since the tragic Grenfell fire with the Hope for Grenfell Memorial Gala on Wednesday, 13 June. The concert was given in memory of Debbie Lamprell, a much-loved member of OHP's staff who was lost in the disaster, and all the fire's victims. All proceeds will be donated to the Rugby Portobello Trust (RPT) and the final total is still being calculated, but it is hoped to exceed £100k.

Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis has withdrawn from making his Royal Opera debut conducting Krzysztof Warlikowski's new production of From the House of the Dead at the Royal Opera House.

With the launch of its 2017-18 season this fall, the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), led by Co-Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), celebrates 30 years as the nation's most innovative training ground for the next generation of classical musicians, preparing its resident Fellows for professional careers through an experiential curriculum of hands-on training, live performance, and audience interaction.

Next up at McCaw Hall is a piece that Seattle Opera General Director Aidan Lang calls the perfect first-time opera experience. Katya Kabanova, the story of a young woman longing to be free from an oppressive small town and her monstrous mother-in-law, is told through music that's as lush and gorgeous as it is highly emotional. 

Next up at McCaw Hall is a piece that Seattle Opera General Director Aidan Lang calls the perfect first-time opera experience. Katya Kabanova, the story of a young woman longing to be free from an oppressive small town and her monstrous mother-in-law, is told through music that's as lush and gorgeous as it is highly emotional. 

Beautiful, unknowable Lulu - all things to all men, who has 'never pretended to be anything by what men see in me' - is the chameleon-heroine revealed in Berg's musical mirror. But just as she reinvents herself with each new gaze, so the opera itself morphs and shifts with passing time, reflecting back the concerns of each age. A smudgy parable about German economic growth becomes by turns a sharply-drawn feminist critique or a Freudian exploration of pleasure. This week, in a post-truth world crowned by a Trump presidency, Lulu looks like a timely tale of illusion and reality and the danger when you can no longer tell the difference between the two.

David Alden's double Olivier Award-winning production of Jana?ek's first opera Jen?fa returns to the London Coliseum. This 'formidable production' (The Guardian), was first seen in 2006.

The English National Opera has announced its 2016/17 season, showcasing an extraordinary range of work -- from the return of beloved classics to exciting new productions and a world premiere.

Thrilling theater and unforgettable music -- that's what audiences can expect from Seattle Opera's 2016/17 Season. The company today announced the operas next up at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. They include: The Wicked Adventures of Count Ory, Hansel & Gretel, La traviata, Katya Kabanova and The Magic Flute.

On Wednesday 14 January 2015, at HUSH in Mayfair, the finalists of the International Opera Awards 2015 were announced. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.

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 two-act opera, which features a libretto by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas, is loosely based on true events and follows a lonely detective whose investigation of a seemingly simple crime draws her into a complex web of online intrigue. Alice Coote sings the role of Detective Inspector Anne Strawson and Paul Appleby sings Brian, the 16-year-old boy at the center of her investigations. Sher's staging, a co-production with English National Opera, premiered in London in 2011. Check out a sneak peek below!

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys has its North American premiere at the Met tiday, October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher. The two-act opera, which features a libretto by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas, is loosely based on true events and follows a lonely detective whose investigation of a seemingly simple crime draws her into a complex web of online intrigue. Alice Coote sings the role of Detective Inspector Anne Strawson and Paul Appleby sings Brian, the 16-year-old boy at the center of her investigations. Sher's staging, a co-production with English National Opera, premiered in London in 2011.