TUESDAY 1ST JUNE 2010 BIZET “THE PEARL FISHERS” English National Opera For all its singable tunes, lusty choruses, and that duet, Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers belongs on the cheese counter of operatic drama. To be frank, there’s…

SATURDAY 29TH MAY 2010 NIGEL KENNEDY/ ORCHESTRA OF LIFE Royal Festival Hall We’d had the first two movements of Bach’s Violin Concerto in E, Nigel Kennedy and his newly formed Orchestra of Life bathed in a haze…

THURSDAY 20TH MAY 2010 BRITTEN “BILLY BUDD” Glyndebourne Festival Opera Britten’s gripping masterpiece begins in fateful indecision oscillating in the violins between major and minor key centres as the old and broken Captain Vere looks into his…

TUESDAY 18TH MAY 2010 PUCCINI “TOSCA” English National Opera It comes as no surprise at all that Catherine Malfitano, a once notable Tosca herself, has fashioned a staging of the opera which frees the singers in ways…

MONDAY 17TH MAY 2010 DONIZETTI “LA FILLE DU REGIMENT” Royal Opera House Opera is rarely laugh-out-loud funny; nor is it as consistently witty, as stylish, as quirkily captivating as Laurent Pelly’s staging of Donizetti’s Tyrolean romp, first…

WEDNESDAY 12TH MAY 2010 LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/ GERGIEV Barbican Hall One wonders if it was by design or accident that James MacMillan’s new Violin Concerto was programmed here alongside Stravinsky’s Symphony in C? MacMillan seemed to take…

TUESDAY 11TH MAY 2010 ANDSNES/ CHRISTIAN AND TANJA TETZLAFF Wigmore Hall The series is called “Leif Ove Andsnes and Friends” and for the gifted Norwegian pianist that would seem to be as good a basis as any…

THURSDAY 6TH MAY 2010 LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/ DAVIS Barbican Hall Familiarity can and does breed contempt – but never where Haydn and Mozart are concerned. It’s one of music’s enduring miracles that the surprises they spring and…

MONDAY 3RD MAY 2010 ROLANDO VILLAZON/ GABRIELI PLAYERS Royal Festival Hall He’s come through throat surgery and survived From Pop Star to Opera Star (though the jury is still out as to which posed the greater threat)…

WEDNESDAY 28TH APRIL 2010 LONDON PHILHARMONIC/ JUROWSKI Royal Festival Hall Prokofiev and Myaskovsky – firm friends, musical polar opposites. Once again Vladimir Jurowski demonstrates the essence of creative programming bringing us two highly contrasted but musically well-complemented…