Flora Willson

The first of two Proms concerts contrasted the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel with the younger Fantasia Orchestra led by Tom Fetherstonhaugh. The LA Phil gave a highly polished but somewhat over-sheened Beethoven Pastoral Symphony, followed by a vivid and rhythmically charged performance of Thomas Adès’s Inferno. The late-night Fantasia programme, built around the theme of listening and featuring Evelyn Glennie, ranged across show tunes, contemporary works, solo percussion, choral music and arrangements, but felt fragmented. Glennie’s performance of Vincent Ho’s Sandman’s Castle was the standout, while Héloïse Werner’s The Wood Pigeon struggled to make a full impact in the crowded format.

A critic recounts enduring nearly 23 hours of Wagner across six operas at Bayreuth during a heatwave, highlighting the festival’s famously hard seats, oppressive conditions and strict audience etiquette. She praises the theatre’s unique acoustic and the power of the Ring’s score, but criticizes the absence of surtitles and experimental productions—especially the visually cluttered “AI Ring” and Jay Scheib’s gory Parsifal—for making the festival inaccessible to newcomers. The experience also exposes Bayreuth’s persistent tension between musical prestige, insider culture, commercial kitsch and its unresolved historical association with Wagnerism and Hitler.

The National Youth Orchestra concluded its season at London’s Royal Albert Hall with a large-scale programme of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1, the Purgatorio movement from Thomas Adès’s Dante and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. The 160 teenage musicians produced thunderous, vivid orchestral sonorities, including expanded brass, stereo harps and heavy percussion, while responding with notable precision to Adès’s animated conducting. Their soloists and quieter passages were handled with striking assurance, although the formal presentation of individual musicians created an awkward school-concert atmosphere. The performance demonstrated that the orchestra’s high standard of playing needs no additional gimmickry, even if it felt less exuberantly joyful than some of its appearances.

Bayreuth’s AI-generated Ring cycle, commissioned for the festival’s 150th anniversary and curated by Marcus Lobbes, projects constantly changing visuals drawn from the history of Ring productions and Bayreuth’s social and political past. The review finds the result hyperactive, banal and often inscrutable, with disturbing or unexplained images that fail to engage meaningfully with Wagner’s themes or Bayreuth’s history. The staging largely separates visuals from music, keeps the singers physically static and drains the drama from the work. Strong performances from several Wagnerian singers and occasional excellence from Christian Thielemann and the orchestra provide some compensation, but the production’s relentless visual activity ultimately destroys dramatic tension and leaves the reviewer unmoved.

Jay Scheib’s revival of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival uses big-screen closeups, lurid imagery, graphic violence and goth-inflected symbolism to reinterpret Wagner’s Grail quest. The production earned energetic applause but only muted boos, while the musical performance was uneven: Miina-Liisa Värelä and Georg Zeppenfeld were especially praised, alongside strong contributions from the chorus and several principals. Under Pablo Heras-Casado, the orchestra moved between unreliable intonation and ensemble and passages of exceptional symphonic richness. The production continues at Bayreuth until 25 August.

Wagner’s Rienzi makes its first appearance at the Bayreuth Festival in a production that relocates the opera’s 14th-century Roman setting to a dystopian near future shaped by election politics, media spectacle and references to contemporary US events. The staging by Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka is imaginative but overloaded, while Nathalie Stutzmann draws striking tenderness and power from the problematic, incomplete score. Andreas Schager leads a strong cast, with Jennifer Holloway’s Adriano emerging as the standout performance.

Gerald Barry’s operatic adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s comedy is presented in a hyperactive new staging by Jack Furness for Garsington Opera, featuring eccentric visual elements and inventive costume design. Performances by Henry Waddington and the ensemble cast are praised for precision, characterisation and comic timing, while Douglas Boyd leads a subset of the Philharmonia Orchestra in a sharply defined account of the score. Despite the production’s frenetic additions tempering the humour, the opera’s revival demonstrates its lasting vitality beyond its premiere.

A concert performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at London’s Barbican showcased Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra in exceptional form, revealing orchestral details often obscured in staged productions. Clay Hilley delivered a powerful Tristan, while Sara Jakubiak’s role debut as Isolde proved compelling. Strong supporting performances and refined instrumental work elevated the nearly four-hour rendition, with the orchestra emerging as the standout force behind the drama.

A revival of Michael Grandage’s production of Britten’s Billy Budd at Glyndebourne delivers strong performances within a stark, claustrophobic staging. Thomas Mole and Sam Carl provide effective portrayals of Billy and Claggart, while Allan Clayton’s nuanced and emotionally powerful Captain Vere becomes the central force of the production. Supported by atmospheric design, compelling ensemble work and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s dynamic performance under Nicholas Carter, the staging emphasizes tension, vulnerability and the opera’s moral complexities.

A historically informed recreation of Brahms’s final concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall featured works by Brahms, Dvořák and Haydn performed on 1890s instruments. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment delivered an energetic, vivid programme under Maxim Emelyanychev, highlighted by expressive solo playing from Steven Isserlis. While the performances were stylish and dynamic, the Brahms symphony lacked some of the shock and wonder it likely evoked for its original audience.

Tyshawn Sorey’s 80‑minute Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) unfolds slowly, drawing on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel while adding a late emerging connection to African American spirituals. The performance at St Giles’ Cripplegate featured luminous contributions from the BBC Singers, Davóne Tines’s expressive bass‑baritone, Ruth Gibson’s characterful viola and the GBSR Duo’s detailed instrumental work. While parts of the piece felt meandering, individual textures and moments of clarity offered strong impact.

The Aldeburgh festival’s second weekend highlighted several world premieres, including Tansy Davies’s percussion concerto Earth Works, delivered with virtuosic precision by Colin Currie and strongly supported by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Kevin John Edusei. The programme also featured an intense performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10 and the premieres of Alex Ho and Rockey Sun Keting’s Chronicle and Freya Waley-Cohen’s The Dreamer. While some performances faced acoustic and intonation challenges, standout moments included the lyrical expressiveness of Tamsin Waley-Cohen and the polished vocal work of the Sansara Choir, culminating in a vibrant rendition of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.

William Kentridge’s Glyndebourne staging of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo blends an abundance of animated visuals with live performance, creating an intense and symbol-laden atmosphere. The production centers on an artist’s studio aesthetic, with projections that intertwine with the onstage action, particularly through the dual presence of Euridice. Jonathan Cohen leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a dynamic, expressive musical interpretation, complemented by strong performances across the cast, including Krystian Adam, Roseline Wilkens and Francesca Aspromonte. Despite moments of visual overload, the staging’s ambition and the cast’s clarity and charisma make for a compelling interpretation of the opera.

The Danish String Quartet delivered an intimate and technically refined performance at Wigmore Hall, moving seamlessly between the contrasting styles of Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Ravel. Their control, tonal richness and nuanced articulation highlighted the venue’s acoustics, with only brief lapses in ensemble or intonation. Their cohesive communication produced a unified sound that elevated the programme’s emotional and stylistic shifts.

A touring English-language staging of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro succeeds through Danielle de Niese’s energetic direction, minimalist scenery and playful modern movement. A small ensemble led by Orlando Jopling delivers charismatic playing that complements a committed cast, with standout performances from Jack Sandison as Figaro and Ellie Neate as Susanna. The production blends humour, musical precision and intimacy to strong effect while touring nationwide through September.

John Tavener’s opera Krishna received its posthumous world premiere at Grange Park Opera, where committed performances from the singers and orchestra were praised but could not offset criticism of the work’s dated style and Orientalist overtones. The production featured static staging, limited dramatic impact and moments of unintentional humour, including an inflatable serpent. Despite commendation for the company’s willingness to mount a premiere, the piece was seen as lacking dramatic coherence and reflecting outdated cultural perspectives.

Glyndebourne opens its 2026 festival with Ted Huffman’s intense staging of Puccini’s Tosca, marked by vivid mid‑20th‑century design, sharply controlled yet explosive orchestral work from Robin Ticciati and the London Philharmonic, and standout performances from Caitlin Gotimer and Matteo Lippi. The production heightens the opera’s violence and psychological tension, culminating in a visually striking final act that delivers a visceral dramatic impact.

Puccini’s opera Tosca, once derided for its realism and sound effects, has become one of the most widely performed works in the repertoire, though it continues to face critical suspicion due to its melodramatic plot and immense popularity. Glyndebourne’s first production, directed by Ted Huffman, approaches the piece with an intimate, neorealist-inspired aesthetic while acknowledging the opera’s deep ties to Rome, Catholicism and themes of political violence and resistance. Despite occasional radical reinterpretations by other directors, most productions remain rooted in Puccini’s detailed setting, underscoring the work’s enduring impact and resistance to reinvention.

A Britten Sinfonia programme at King’s Place highlighted works by Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland, reflecting their shared summer in 1939. Young Apollo received a taut, witty reading under Zoë Beyers, while Elizabeth Watts delivered an expressive performance of Les Illuminations. Huw Watkins brought nuance to Paul Bowles’s piano preludes, and Oleg Shebeta-Dragan gave a virtuosic yet collaborative interpretation of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. The concert concluded with a compelling chamber performance of Appalachian Spring that balanced clarity, contrast and organic flow.

A revival of Richard Jones’s Samson et Dalila at the Royal Opera House is elevated by SeokJong Baek and Aigul Akhmetshina, whose vocal and dramatic chemistry brings vitality to Saint-Saëns’s uneven score. Akhmetshina’s poised and intense Dalila complements Baek’s expressive Samson, while the supporting cast and production design provide mixed impact. Despite striking visuals and polished orchestral work, the staging cannot fully overcome the opera’s inherent dramatic stasis, making the lead performances the defining strength of the evening.

English National Opera launches its first Manchester‑created production with Angel’s Bone, a Pulitzer‑winning opera exploring human trafficking. Director Kip Williams emphasizes its genre‑bending musical language and moral themes, while composer Du Yun highlights its focus on accountability. The production marks a milestone in ENO’s relocation efforts following Arts Council England’s funding upheaval and forms part of a new partnership with Factory International and the BBC Philharmonic. Leaders from Manchester’s cultural institutions express confidence in the city’s capacity to support ENO’s growth, positioning the opera’s premiere as a symbol of experimentation and renewed regional engagement.

A genre-blending concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall combined orchestral works with rock and heavy‑metal classics, featuring Suzi Quatro, Mr Lordi and Alison Mosshart with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Amplified arrangements of Wagner, Holst, Mahler and Vivaldi were interwoven with Metallica, Dylan and other rock favorites. Conductor Santtu‑Matias Rouvali’s high‑energy approach and shift to the drum kit for the finale drove a lively and cohesive performance that showcased the power of a full orchestra in a rock‑infused setting.

A broad survey of standout events in the 2026 Proms highlights major themes including baroque and early music, large‑scale Berlioz performances, contemporary premieres, milestone celebrations for Steve Reich and György Kurtág, and prominent opera and symphonic programmes. Featured concerts span intimate period ensembles to large orchestral showpieces, spotlighting artists such as Abel Selaocoe, Thomas Adès, Martha Argerich and Vilde Frang. The season blends adventurous programming, noteworthy debuts and major works from past and present, underscoring the continuing range and vitality of the Proms.

A lean staging of Strauss’s Salome by Regents Opera at York Hall emphasizes clarity over orchestral weight, aided by a small 24-piece ensemble and a custom arrangement. Standout performances include Kirsty Taylor-Stokes’s commanding Salome, with strong contributions from Freddie Tong and James Schouten. Mark Ravenhill’s modernized production mixes dynamic early staging with a stark final tableau, culminating in a compelling final monologue.

Martha Argerich and Dong‑Hyek Lim delivered an unpredictable and exhilarating concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall, replacing their planned duet programme with works by Mozart, Ravel and Rachmaninov before concluding with a substantial Schubert encore. Their onstage spontaneity contrasted with sharply defined musical character, with Argerich’s nuanced palette and Lim’s brighter tone blending in moments of near‑perfect synchrony. The performance ranged from limpid elegance to volatile intensity, culminating in a high‑risk, high‑energy rendition of Ravel’s La Valse that showcased their dynamic partnership.

Tan Dun conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK premiere of his Choral Concerto: Nine, a work noted for extensive percussion, choral effects and musical references to Beethoven. Despite the concerto’s appeal and inventive sound world, his subsequent performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony felt fast but lacked direction and impact, with brass overpowering key moments. The vocal soloists and combined choirs delivered strong performances, though they could not entirely elevate an otherwise moderate interpretation.