In Aix, a Flûte minus the magic: www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

In Aix-en-Provence, perfecting the art of the flâneur…

“It’s not just a vocal performance. It’s a show!” This was fun! Chatted with Nadine Sierra for the cover story in the summer issue of Score, @wigmore-hall.org.uk’s magazine. Ahead of her hall debut, we talk roles, repertoire… and gowns! 💃🏻

Weeping willows and a cavatina: the @quatuorebene.bsky.social’s Beethoven reviewed at @wigmore-hall.org.uk They're playing another Beethoven programme this evening, so get booking! bachtrack.com/review-quatu...

Love in the Cotswolds: Tristan und Isolde, reviewed at Longborough Festival Opera bachtrack.com/review-trist...

Sunny Longborough for a spot of Triz’n’Iz… 😎

Bel canto singing to crown a new golden age: my review of Covent Garden's new Puritani 👇 bachtrack.com/review-purit...

Bel canto singing to crown a new golden age: my review of Covent Garden's new Puritani 👇 bachtrack.com/review-purit...

Well, shit. This morning brings news of Alex Ross's decision to relinquish his post as music critic of the New Yorker. I don't yet have the words to fully convey my awe and admiration at the brilliance of his work, or to gauge the magnitude of his coming absence. h/t @lisairontongue.bsky.social

Ruzan Mantashyan is, quite simply, one of the greatest Tatyanas in the world right now. And currently singing it at the Grange Festival (a casting coup!) My opening night review 👇 bachtrack.com/review-eugen...

It sounds as if Anna Netrebko's Royal Opera House recital was pretty much the ‘Night and Day’ programme she gave at the Spanish Riding School during the pandemic. A Met Opera fundraiser. Those were the days... bachtrack.com/review-netre...

Well, this OAE concert last night was a very nice way to bring up my 1000th article published on @bachtrack.com (nearly 800 of those are reviews, plus plenty of interviews and playlists) bachtrack.com/review-emely...

Oh this is fun! The Rotterdam Phil plays a farewell prank on Lahav Shani by the musicians switching instruments! 😂🤪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8mY...

One Ring to rule them all: Grange Park Opera launches its first Ring cycle in style My review for Opera Now 👇 www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

Rheingold curtain call at Grange Park Opera:

Thinking of pitching a tent at Grange Park Opera this weekend: catching up with my favourite opera, Don Carlo, today, and then reviewing Rheingold for Opera Now tomorrow. The heat is on! 🔥🔥🔥 © Marc Brenner

Verdi’s Rigoletto: which are the finest recordings? www.gramophone.co.uk/content/feat...

Natalia Osipova will make her West End debut as Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova in The Standard of Living, a new play by James Graham based on the life of John Maynard Keynes.

Minnie, Get Your Gun! Whisky per tutti! canzonetta.substack.com/p/minnie-get...

Tonight’s entertainment: Nino Rota’s Napoli milionaria! 🇮🇹

The earth moved for me! Immersed in Mahler @sinfoniasmithsq.bsky.social bachtrack.com/review-child...

“I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.” Richard Strauss was born OTD in 1864. Here are ten of my favourites, all first-rate: bachtrack.com/playlist-top...

Some fabulous singing in the Grange Festival's Giulio Cesare, but David Alden's staging has the feel of a cheap McVicar knock-off bachtrack.com/review-giuli...

Lots of clarinet in my Carl Maria von Weber top ten playlist (he died 200 years ago today). Also contains Maria Callas and Jonas Kaufmann (yes, really) bachtrack.com/playlist-top...

Thoroughly absorbed by the UK premiere of Missy Mazzoli's Proving Up @guildhallschool.bsky.social. It's a show that deserves a bigger audience: bachtrack.com/review-mazzo...

So happy to finally catch Bruno Ravella's sumptuous Rosenkavalier staging at @garsingtonopera.bsky.social My review for Opera Now www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

Asmiktastik… @wigmore-hall.org.uk

Elīna Garanča withdraws from Ariadne role debut at this summer's Salzburg Festival...

Did you see us in The Observer at the weekend? 📰 John Gilhooly spoke to Ellen Peirson-Hagger ahead of our 125th Anniversary Festival about the Hall's history and future 💫 https://observer.co.uk/music/classical/article/how-wigmore-hall-became-a-classical-music-outlier

“Fine singing and fun with sausages”: the @thetimes.com' sub getting to the nub of my Glyndebourne Turco in Italia review! www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

A golden evening at Glyndebourne

More gold than corn: María Dueñas’ silky Korngold at the Barbican with the BBCSO bachtrack.com/review-duena...

The San Francisco Symphony is a great appointment for Elim Chan. She's definitely up for the challenge. My interview from last month:

“I do want an orchestra again... I want to have a place,” Elim Chan told us in an interview earlier this year. Well, now she does as she has just been announced as the next Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony! 🥳 📸Cody Pickens

Exploring Frauenliebe – but not Schumann’s – for Gramophone www.gramophone.co.uk/content/feat...

Email understatement of the day: “Please note that the programme for the above concert has changed slightly...” Only two items from the original programme (of ten works) survive. 🤦‍♂️

Onegin interruptus... a curious tale open.substack.com/pub/canzonet...

A tribute to Flottiana Following the sad news of Dame Felicity Lott’s death, you can now read a tribute to the legendary soprano by her long-time collaborator Graham Johnson on our website. www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/news/flottiana

Morning stroll to the Secession to see the Klimt Beethoven Frieze

Alas, poor Bizet... The Pearl Fishers makes its debut at the Wiener Staatsoper: review for Opera Now www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

An Amish update for Verdi’s Stiffelio in Vienna www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

Redemption and a Sunday morning musical caffeine shot: Andris Nelsons conducts the Vienna Phil in Mahler 8 at the Wiener Konzerthaus bachtrack.com/review-mahle...

A gorgeous bit of basset clarinet action… Nicolas Baldeyrou and the Chiaroscuro Quartet @wigmore-hall.org.uk

This guy has the look of someone *threatening* to play the recorder

The Met Opera audience is notorious for bursting in before the music has ended, but they just cut into Gremin’s aria before Alexander Tsymbalyuk had even sung his final phrase!

Well, that was pretty straightforward... www.nytimes.com/badges/games...

Zubin Mehta is 90 today! 🥳 🎉 On disc, much of his best work was done in Los Angeles, but there’s also that fantastic Turandot. Your favourite Mehta recording?

Happy 90th birthday to Zubin Mehta! 🥳 He celebrates by conducting the Maggio Musicale in Beethoven 9. We last reviewed him in March, conducting the Vienna Phil (📸 Julia Wesely).

Ruth Slenczynska obituary: Rachmaninov’s last surviving pupil www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

A period drama from opera director Damiano Michieletto? You’d better believe it… canzonetta.substack.com/p/primavera-...