Monday 19 January 2015

Barbican Centre 2015- 2016 season announced


The Barbican Centre has announced its 2015-2016 season. Highlights (more details to come)

Debussy : Pelléas et Mélisande - Simon Rattle conducts the BBCSO in a semi staging by Peter Sellars.  Magdalena Kožená (Mélisande), Christian Gerhaher (Pelléas), Gerald Finley (Goulaud), Bernarda Fink (Geneviève), Franz-Josef Selig (Arkel) and the London Symphony Chorus under chorus director Simon Halsey (9/10 January 2016). 

Opera Rara Leoncavallo’s Zazà and Bellini’s Adelson e Salvini 

The UK premiere of Louis Andriessen's large scale opera La commedia  (part of the Louis Andriessen Composer focus. This will be part of a Total immersion in Andriessen's music, a range of concerts including: a performance of De Staat given by the Guildhall New Music Ensemble; Britten Sinfonia performing Dances and Tapdance; and UK premiere performances of Andriessen’s Mysterien and Rosa’s Horses with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Lots on Andriessen on this site, he's one of my faves.

Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan begin their first major UK residency. Suzuki comes regularly to the UK (usually Aldeburgh) but in April 2016, he3 and his amazing choir will be joined by sopranos Hana Blazikova and Joanne Lunn, countertenor Robin Blaze, tenor Colin Balzer and bass-baritone Dominik Wörner, for two of Bach’s greatest choral achievements: a performance of Mass in B minor, one of their great specialities,  (8 April) and Magnificat paired with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No 3 in D minor, Concerto for two violins in D minor and Cantata Bekennen will ich seinen Namen BWV 200 (9 April).
 

Hans Zender's Winterreise with Ian Bostridge in a new semi staging by Netia Jones (read more about the piece HERE) This new incarnation  promises to be more, as it's now titled "The Dark Mirror"

The Academy of Ancient Music Monteverdi Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria with Ian Bostridge

Handel Tamerlano with the orchestra Il pomo d'oro

Handel Orlando with The English Concert

Bach St Matthew Passion, John Eliot Gardiner,  Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra

Composer focus on George Benjamin, in March 2015,  including a semi-staged performance of Written on Skin featuring the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Benjamin himself. ‘This opera was designed for the MCO’, says Benjamin; ‘While composing, I remembered the sound of the orchestra and its special qualities.’  Experienced cast !  Barbara Hannigan, Christopher Purves and Tim Mead. Laurence Equilbey's new ensemble, the Insula Orchestra,  makes its London debut joined by Choeur Accentus and soprano Judit Van Wanroij, alto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, tenor Reinoud van Mechelen and bass Andreas Wolff presenting an unusual programme of Zelenka (Miserere in C minor), Mozart (Solemn Vespers K339) and CPE Bach (Magnificat). Highly recommended ! 

Rolf Hind's opera Lost in Thought "the world's first mindfulness opera" which might sound odd but Hind is a very gpod composer and the production is by Frrederic Wake-Walker, also very good   Lore Lixenberg sings, also good news. indeed.  It's "based on the classic structure of an extended meditation, with the music and concept by Rolf Hind. Exploring the points of contact between sound and silence in music and meditation,  Lost in Thought will be an immersive musical performance in which the boundaries evaporate between performer and audience, between time and experience". 
Composer focuses on John Adams, Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, George Benjamin, Henri Dutilleux, Henryk Górecki and Oliver Knussen 

Renée Fleming in February 2016 with Jiří Bělohlávek in the UK premiere of Swedish composer Anders Hillborg’s The Strand Settings. Especially written for and dedicated to Renée Fleming, the work is a 24-minute song cycle about love and desire, based on texts by Canadian poet Mark Strand. She returns in April with Hartmut Höll in a Lieder recital.

Cecilia Bartoli and Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón star in in a Christmas gala  featuring arias, duettos and opera scenes by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Acclaimed soprano Natalie Dessay performs in a solo recital accompanied by pianist Philippe Cassard in a programme featuring works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Duparc, Fauré, Liszt and Bizet 

Plus the usual glorious and fulfilling mix of concerts from the Barbican's resident orchestras, the BBC SO and LSO plus regular visitors like the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

No comments: