Opus Arte

A welcome revival of Ashton’s choreography opening Friday 20^th April

Frederick Ashton’s sunny story of young love is one of the most delightful and popular works in the Royal Ballet repertory. Full of charm, the story follows the youthful affections of Lise and Colas as they arrange their secret assignations right under the nose of Lise’s protective mother, Widow Simone. 

Lorin Maazel will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra and a stellar cast in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, one of the greatest choral works of the second half of the 20^th century.  Interspersing elements of the traditional Latin mass for the dead with poems by 1^st World War poet Wilfred Owen, this juxtaposition emphasises the loss of life during the two world wars. Britten makes the contrasts all the more apparent through his use of separate instrumental groups...

Wayne McGregor’s dynamic style and ground-breaking collaborative approach across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science has fuelled a string of truly unique works.  FAR, which made its world premiere at Sadler’s Wells in 2011, is no exception.  Danced by an ensemble of ten incredible performers, FAR is set to a haunting score by the critically acclaimed composer Ben Frost and features lighting by Lucy Carter, set by Random International and costumes by Moritz Junge.  A prolific dance maker and the first resident choreographer of The Royal Ballet to come from contemporary dance, in the past year alone McGregor has delivered world premieres for Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Radiohead and Elton John.

English National Opera currently presents the London stage premiere of John Adams’ controversial ‘docu-opera’ about the killing of a Jewish-American tourist during the hijacking of a Mediterranean cruise liner by Palestinian militants. Alice Goodman’s poetic and dispassionately even-handed libretto mixes Biblical and Koranic references with real and imagined accounts of what happened on board. Adams’s expressive score captures the private thoughts and emotions of individuals caught up in the complexities of a political and religious conflict that still defies solution.

English Touring Opera's Spring Season is about to open at the Hackney Empire on March 8^th with a new production of Rossini’s ever youthful Barber of Seville followed by a revival production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘lyric scenes’ Eugene Onegin. The productions, both sung in English, will then tour around the UK until May – click here for further information.

The ever resourceful barber, Figaro (Grant Doyle/Cozmin Sime), lends a hand to an ardent young count (tenor Nicholas Sharratt) in his courtship of an intelligent beauty (Kitty Whately, winner of the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Award) who is being forced to marry her miserly guardian (Andrew Slater). Though the weather – and the plotting – gets very stormy indeed, the youthful and cunning prevail; their victory is celebrated in music of pure joy, with ETO’s acclaimed orchestra conducted by Paul McGrath.

The LPO and their artistic director Vladimir Jurowski will focus on the composer Sergei Prokofiev over the next weeks. Named ‘Prokofiev – Man of the people?’ the festival will explore one of the most misunderstood men in 20^th century music in fourteen events over 20 days, from 13 January until 1 February. The many highlights of the series include the performance of Prokofiev’s 5^th Piano Concerto with Stephen Osborne in a concert also including the 6^th Symphony (on 18 January) and the world premiere of Levon Atovmyan’s oratorio-arrangement of Prokofiev’s film score to Eisenstein’s film Ivan the Terrible (on 28 January): Atovmyan was confidante of both Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and a man who has done more than anyone else to bring the unheard work of both composers to life.

This Sunday, the period instrument performance specialist Paul McCreesh will re-examine Mendelssohn's ever-popular Old Testament oratorio, a culmination of a large-scale project like the one that led up to his revelatory 2009 Proms performance of Haydn's The Creation. Out go certain old-fashioned conventions; in come period instruments, a raft of enthusiastic choirs and a sensational line-up of soloists.

Semyon Bychkov takes the baton leading an expert cast in what promises to be one of the highlights of this year’s PROMS season: Verdi’s Requiem. Criticised but ultimately loved for its operatic theatricality, Verdi’s Mass for the Dead is the ultimate in dramatic intensity.

This is the first of a series of weekly stories highlighting a PROM performance – so please come back for these weekly updates and follow us on Twitter and Facebook where you will also be able to find them.

Antonio Pappano returns to the Royal Albert Hall with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Rome and a stellar cast for a rare revival of Rossini's final opera: William Tell â€“ the magnum opus about the legendary founding fathers of Switzerland and the hero who shoots an apple from his son's head.