CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

Is it possible to upstage Jonas Kaufmann? Kaufmann was brilliant in this Verdi Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House, London, but the rest ...

The new Mariinsky Theatre, or Mariinsky II, St Petersburg, looks fantastic. It sounds fantastic too. The design concept is so innovativ...

"How many child-prodigy artists or entertainers fulfil their youthful promise, pull out of the public eye entirely by their late twent...

The Powerhouse fights back! ENO's 2013/14 season suggests we're back to the days when the ENO was London's edgiest opera hou...

  “Aim for excellence”, says Douglas Boyd, new Artistic Director of Garsington Opera at Wormsley, “and the audience will follow you”. ...

"Arirang, Arirang, arariyo", Arirang, the 1,000 year old folk melody of Korea. It's  a simple tune that  lends itself to thou...

Why is such a fuss made of awards ceremonies? What are they really for and who do they serve? And why do they grab headlines?  Perhaps no-o...

HERE is a clip from a disc recording made on 11/11/1903 of Schubert's Du bist die Ruh. The singer is Johanna Gadski.  She extends not...

George Jones the Country singer is dead aged 81. The shock is that he lived that long. Why is it that Country stars, raised in God-fearing ...

John Eliot Gardiner marked his 70th birthday at the Barbican, London, with long-term associates the LSO and the Monteverdi Choir. Histo...

Wigmore Hall's secret other identity? The following exchange is real and came off a TV quiz (imagine that anywhere else but the BBC) ...

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra gave a wonderful concert last night at the Royal Festival Hall . Glorious playing. Fischer...

Not Shakespeare, not Mendelssohn but Hollywood's Midsummer Night's Dream . Great play, great music and the hottest stars of the d...

Brindley Sherratt interviewed in Opera Today here.  Read about the man beneath the costumes and makeup.

Jim Sohre reviews Jonas Kaufmann's new CD of extracts from Wagner, in Opera Today. Read the full review here, it's pithily written ...