by Amanda Holloway | Oct 1, 2019 | Music
A popular venue for a long weekend, Iceland offers outdoor activities centred around glaciers, ice caves and volcanos. Home of Björk and Sigur Rós, the country is known for its cool pop, rock and electronic music scene. But it also supports an internationally known...
by Amanda Holloway | May 1, 2019 | Awards, Music
At the end of a thrilling performance of her new song cycle, Kate Whitley received the 2018 Critics’ Circle Award for Emerging Talent: Composer. Her Six Charlotte Mew Settings were sung by two outstanding British artists, bass Matthew Rose and soprano Katherine...
by Amanda Holloway | Jul 20, 2018 | Music, Uncategorized
Recording angel Donizetti would have been tickled pink to hear Sir Mark Elder and the orchestra of the Royal Opera giving the world premiere of his opera semiseria. Elder has spent years championing little-known bel canto works, recording nine of them for Opera Rara,...
by Amanda Holloway | Feb 7, 2018 | Music
If the Royal Opera had been looking for the polar opposite to its last production of Carmen, it hit the jackpot with Barrie Kosky’s staging. Whereas Francesca Zambello created a conventional Spanish fantasy set around a Seville plaza, teeming with urchins, chickens...
by Amanda Holloway | Dec 19, 2017 | Music
Monteverdi’s curtain call Amanda Holloway At the top of my Christmas highlights is John Eliot Gardiner’s trio of Monteverdi operas, compressed into an evening of music at the V&A to coincide with the Opera: Passion, Power & Politics exhibition....
