Discovered in 2004, amongst a collection of drafts and rejected sketches, the prologue to Shostakovich’s incomplete and forgotten opera Orango received its world premiere in Los Angeles in December 2012. The work was intended to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Soviet revolution but became a satire on the bourgeois Russian press. The world premiere was directed…
The English National Opera has announced its 2013-14 season which sees the UK premieres of 10 new opera and the return of 4 recent hits. Ex-Monty Pythoner and film-maker Terry Gilliam has been appointed director of the company which is trying to reverse its budget deficit. Gilliam will return to the music of Hector Berlioz to direct a…
Conductor, musicologist and author Dr Paul Kildea has written a major book on the life of Benjamin Britten, to be published by Allen Lane on 7 February, 2013. In it, he claims that Britten suffered from syphilis which ultimately led to the cardiac failure from which he died. The composer apparently contracted the disease form…