February 2023

Elizabeth Llewellyn talks to Erica Jeal about her rapidly increasing repertory as she prepares to sing the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera North.

The composer Sheila Silver and director Roya Sadat talk to Jessica Duchen about the new opera based on Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns before its February premiere in Seattle.

Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel has been a firm favourite with audiences since its Weimar premiere in 1892 and was an unexpected publishing sensation for the firm of Schott, as Nigel Simeone describes.

Our Disc of the Month is: Les Abencérages by Cherubini, with Anaïs Constans, Edgaras Montvidas and Thomas Dolié and the Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir conducted by György Vashegyi (Bru Zane).

For the record: Antony Hermus embarked on his opera conducting career with Puccini, and chooses the 1953 Callas recording of Tosca as a personal favourite.

Reviews this month include: It’s a Wonderful Life and Gloriana at English National Opera, The Terrible Revenge in Lviv, Alcina in Cape Town, Dialogues des Carmélites in Rome, Orfeo in Madrid, Boris Godunov in Tokyo, Die Meistersinger in Frankfurt, Don Carlo in New York, Turandot in Amsterdam, Orfeo ed Euridice in San Francisco, Ernani in Florence, Manon in Santiago, Armide in Paris, Der Rosenkavalier in Prague, Maria Stuarda in Hong Kong and La traviata in Jordan at the Amman Opera Festival.