Latest news with #Britten
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Classical music is not dead: Why it's a myth that young people don't like it
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... For years, headlines have mourned the 'death' of classical music, often painting it as a fading relic clung to by older generations. But step inside the Edinburgh International Festival and you'll quickly see a very different reality: young people enjoying classical music in greater numbers than ever. This year, the International Festival's flagship 'Art of Listening' workshops celebrated their 25th anniversary by reaching a record-breaking 3,000 schoolchildren – the largest number to date. These aren't passive observers; children aged ten to 12 are guided by professional opera singers and pianists in sessions where they actively engage, sing, imagine, and creatively respond to the sounds of Beethoven, Britten, and even modern icons like Billie Eilish. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad During the workshop, it is energising to see the children recognise that they unknowingly connect with classical music daily, in ways they may not have realised. It's in their television shows, films and even computer games. More under 35s are listening to classical music than over 55s, according to a recent survey (Picture: Hiroyuki Ito) | Getty Images Kids not forced to listen Just look at the numbers: a recent Royal Philharmonic Orchestra study found 65 per cent of people under 35 were listening to classical music regularly, compared to only 57 per cent of their parents, or those over 55. The International Festival has already given away a record number of free tickets this year through the Young Musician's Pass, with over 2,000 distributed to anyone in Scotland aged eight to 18 who plays an instrument or sings. Classical music isn't being forced onto kids, they're opting in. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Over the last quarter-century, more than 23,000 pupils across Edinburgh have experienced the Festival's Art of Listening, a programme offered free of charge – including transportation. And now, for the first time, the International Festival is opening up the workshops to families with children as young as seven, further proving the appeal across all ages. I like to see our Art of Listening workshops as a gift. You can give someone a gift and they can say thanks, pop it on a shelf and never use it again. Or they could carry it with them every day, use it and maybe even share with someone else. Stimulates creativity, improves memory For me the most important part is that the seed is planted, and a lifelong appreciation of the arts now has the chance to grow. This can be transformational; classical music is often praised for its positive effects on mental health, particularly in reducing anxiety and stress. It stimulates creativity, improves focus and even improves your memory. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We're also investing in the young people of Edinburgh, which has celebrated culture and creativity so much it's become known as the Festival City. These young people aren't just going to be our audiences of tomorrow – they're here now. The myth that young people are disconnected from classical music simply doesn't hold up. The real issue may be that many young people haven't had the opportunity to experience it on their terms – something we're continuously working on to change. By making classical music accessible, inclusive, and interactive, our work at the International Festival proves that when given the chance, young audiences don't just appreciate classical music – they love it. Let's stop asking whether classical music is dying, and instead, start listening to how it's evolving – through the voices, ideas, and imaginations of a new generation already singing its tune.
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
A Midsummer Night's Dream at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival 2025: Vocally sure singing, but has a revamp muted Britten's orchestral magic?
A Midsummer Night's Dream Blackwater Valley Opera Festival ★★★☆☆ How things change. Back in 2010 the first Lismore Music Festival, today's Blackwater Valley Opera Festival , presented sure-fire repertoire – Bizet's Carmen, with Fiona Murphy heading the cast of 10 in the title role – in a marquee in the stable yard of Lismore Castle, with an ensemble of violin, accordion, guitar, double bass and percussion standing in for the colourful orchestral score. Move on 15 years and the festival is offering Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with a cast of 19 and the Irish Chamber Orchestra conducted by David Brophy, with nearly five times as many musicians in the pit. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Piccolo Lasso, Ami Hewitt and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall The stage area is transformed this year. A raised platform now covers the entire performance area, not only allowing for greater freedom of movement but also creating a pit for the orchestra at floor level. (The tiny Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh, where Britten's opera was first performed, in June 1960, also had to be enlarged and improved to accommodate the work.) The festival has made cosmetic improvements, too, with better-looking seating – which, strangely, is less comfortable because of the way it tilts forward – and black ceiling drapes, which give a softer interior appearance; sadly, they seem to do little or nothing to damp the percussive onslaught of rain on opening night on Wednesday. READ MORE So far so good. What about the production itself, directed by Patrick Mason and designed by Paul Keogan (set and lighting) and Catherine Fay (costumes)? It's a handsome, brightly lit show, the central, white-curtained bed about as close as it gets to any suggestion of night, and with different social levels distinguished through costumes of different periods. The actor Barry McGovern's black-clad Puck, wielding a white feather/wand/baton, falls somewhere between master of ceremonies, wizard and wannabe conductor. The soprano Ami Hewitt's beautifully bewigged Tytania sweeps and soars in style and manages a suppleness of vocal line that is otherwise in short supply. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Barry McGovern. Photograph: Frances Marshall A Midsummer Night's Dream: David Brophy and Irish Chamber Orchestra. Photograph: Frances Marshall The voice of the countertenor Iestyn Morris is too ethereal for his Oberon to make a real impression, sounding mostly insubstantial rather than atmospheric. The various couples – Christopher Cull and Gemma Ní Bhriain as Theseus and Hippolyta, Peter O'Reilly and Sarah Richmond as Lysander and Hermia, and Gregory Feldmann and Amy Ní Fhearraigh as Demetrius and Helena – are more engaging, vocally sure and with real tension in the conflicts they experience as a result of the love-inducing magic juice that mismatches them. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Amy Ní Fhearraigh, Gregory Feldmann, Peter O'Reilly, Sarah Richmond and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall A Midsummer Night's Dream: Ami Hewitt and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall The mechanicals are a damp squib when going through the preparations for their play within a play but altogether livelier in their performance of that comedy. The Bottom of the bass-baritone Dominic Veilleux revels in the comic opportunities afforded him as the ass Tytania is made to fall in love with. But, musically, there is something pallid about the performance. I'm not sure that this is entirely the fault of either singers or conductor. The voices don't carry well, and the orchestra is often so soft and muted that much of Britten's orchestral magic fails to register. My seat near the back may have played a part, but my primary suspicion is that the drapes just absorb too much sound in a space that's already severely acoustically challenged. A Midsummer Night's Dream is at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival , Lismore, Co Waterford, on Friday, May 30th, Saturday, May 31st, and Sunday, June 1st; the festival runs until Monday, June 2nd
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The forgotten story of British opera
British opera was born with Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and then vanished for two-and-a-half centuries, apparently. Between the first performance of Dido in 1689 and the première of Britten's Peter Grimes in 1945, serious British operas effectively didn't exist – or so we're told in textbooks and biographies. But what if there was a different story; a forgotten story of a lively, eclectic British operatic tradition that thrived in those missing centuries, and was buried only through a combination of accidents, economics and our enduring national snobbery about theatre that's sung rather than spoken? And what if there was an organisation devoted to excavating these forgotten works and giving them a chance to live again? For more than a decade, the non-profit record label Retrospect Opera has been doing just that: researching, resurrecting and then recording British operas from the age of Garrick through to the 1920s. Its newest release, Granville Bantock and Marjory Kennedy-Fraser's 1924 'Celtic folk opera' The Seal-Woman, comes out in June after years of research. It's a rare and lovely thing: a Hebridean tragedy of a Selkie bride that weaves traditional Scottish melodies into a glowing, autumnal chamber orchestra setting. For Retrospect Opera's founder, Valerie Langfield, it's a near-perfect demonstration of what they're trying to achieve. 'It's hard work to persuade a country that its own composers are worth championing,' she says. 'But before Britten, there was, at the very least, Ethel Smyth, who is the big name at the moment. And throughout the 19th century there were dozens of English-language operas, all really popular.
Yomiuri Shimbun
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Britten's Opera for Children Delights Audience at New National Theatre, Tokyo on Children's Day; 1st Return of Kids' Opera at Venue Since 2011
© Akihito Abe/New National Theatre, Tokyo The opening scene of Britten's 'Let's Make an Opera!' at the New National Theatre, Tokyo on May 5. An opera for children by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) delighted audiences at the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT), for two days last week. Britten loved writing music for children. 'Let's Make an Opera! The Little Sweep' (1949) is a fine example of the British composer's ability to create a musical piece that mixes artistic simplicity and complexity. The partly interactive opera was staged at The Pit, the most intimate venue of the NNTT complex in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on May 5 (Children's Day) and May 6. It was a fitting choice for the return of the kids' opera program at the NNTT for the first time since 2011. Kyohei Tomihira conducted the new production, and Yasuko Sawada directed it. Two sets of the cast sang four performances altogether. I watched the 3 p.m. performance on May 5. The show was split into three parts. The first part was the play 'Let's Make an Opera!' in which the cast discussed creating a homemade opera together and chose 'The Little Sweep.' The second part was joined by members of the audience, quite a few of them children, learning to sing a song. The third part was the opera, 'The Little Sweep,' a play-within-a-play in three scenes. The plot centered around Sam, an 8-year-old novice chimney sweep bullied by Black Bob and Clem, the sweep master and his assistant, and how the boy is saved by children and their governess in a family home. They give him a bath, food and clothes and help him escape to his parents. The story is based on 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience,' a collection of poems published in the late 18th century, by William Blake and was made into an opera libretto by Eric Crozier, who worked with Britten multiple times as a director or a librettist. The text was translated into Japanese by Tadashi Kato this time. © Akihito Abe/New National Theatre, Tokyo Conductor Kyohei Tomihira teaches the audience 'Audience Song I' from Britten's 'The Little Sweep' at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, on May 5. Of the three audience songs Britten wrote for the opera, the Tokyo production featured 'Audience Song I' at the beginning of 'The Little Sweep.' Conductor Tomihira did a great job as the audience's teacher, animatedly giving them instructions. The audience enjoyed learning the upbeat song in an unfamiliar 5/4 time. Director Sawada made the entire setting a traveling fair with colorful tent sets designed by Yoshiko Nagata. The 11-member cast consisted of seven adults, all opera singers, and four children, who were accompanied by an ensemble of a string quartet, a percussionist and two pianists. Miss Baggott, the authoritarian housekeeper, was efficiently sung with clear diction by alto Rei Matsuura. Baritone Masafumi Tanaka and tenor Takuma Takahashi made a great villain team as Bob and Clem. Their singing and acting livelily entertained the audience. Gaku Kato's vibrant boy soprano was perfect as Sam. There were a few moments when it was hard to understand the words sung by some singers. It might have been a good idea to use surtitles like regular opera productions at the NNTT. The story was simple yet had enough thrills to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, such as in one scene where Sam is hiding in a large trunk and no one knows whether Miss Baggott, Bob or Clem will find him first. The suspense was enhanced by Britten's inspiring music, which evoked his other works at times. The governess Rowan's aria, beautifully sung by soprano Mari Iwamoto, reminded me of the women's quartet in 'Peter Grimes,' and the nighttime music in the second scene had the same feeling as the song cycle 'Nocturne.' All in all, it was a nicely done, fun production. For sure it proved a charming addition to the theater's operatic repertoire, not only for an educational purpose but also as a work of art.
Spectator
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Why Londoners still love Ally Pally
It was conceived as a 'people's palace' – and, as it turns 150 this week, Alexandra Palace continues to fulfil this brief admirably. There is something for everyone, and it's not too sniffy about who 'everyone' describes. Hence the annual mayhem around the winter darts tournament, when everywhere between Muswell Hill and Wood Green is crawling with groups of very drunk men dressed as Smurfs, monks or the cast of Scooby Doo. The Royal Opera House this isn't. But that doesn't mean there aren't more lofty, less populist offerings. I recall when Alexandra Palace's theatre reopened in 2018 after an £18 million restoration, it debuted with an ENO production of the lesser-known Britten opera Paul Bunyan – hardly an obvious money-spinner. And between Luke Littler and Benjamin Britten lies everything else: craft shows, dog shows, antique fairs, wellness festivals, evangelical prayer meetings. I'm told a recent knitting and stitching event was mobbed. There's an ice rink, a pitch and putt golf course, and a boating pond where you can hire a pedal boat shaped like a dragon. There's the famous 5 November firework display. One summer recently, they set up a giant waterslide. There is also, reputedly, a lively dogging scene in one of the car parks – though this may be apocryphal. I've yet to go. As well as the darts, they do a lively trade hosting other second-tier sports – most famously, snooker. An unimpressed Ronnie O'Sullivan denounced it last year as 'dirty and disgusting'. I think he meant the place to play in rather than the rumoured nocturnal dogging. A look at the events listed this month gives a flavour of just how eclectic Ally Pally routinely is: 'make your own toy car', the London Gay Men's Chorus, ice hockey matches, a street food festival, a tribute show to Paris in the jazz age, Iggy Pop. The latter, which I'm contemplating attending, is more in the vein of what has tended to draw me over the years. I've seen, among others, the White Stripes, the Pixies, the Chemical Brothers, Michael Kiwanuka, Fontaines D.C. I recall seeing the National there a decade or so ago, when it seemed the entire audience was bearded men in checked shirts. Then there was, during lockdown, the odd spectacle of Nick Cave playing to an empty auditorium for paid subscribers streaming at home. Music purists knock the building's acoustics. But give me standing at Ally Pally any day over sitting at the O2 – a venue I have been avoiding for 15 years and counting, so much do I hate its airport atmosphere. The strangest gig I went to there was one of the most recent: Four Tet decided to do away with the tired notion of a visible performer on a stage by getting rid of the stage completely. In practice, this made the gig like being in a very, very large nightclub with all 10,000 people present wondering what was going on. This was merely mild eccentricity, though, compared to some of the strangeness of the past. There was the '14 Hour Technicolour Dream' – a shambolic extravaganza from Pink Floyd in 1967, when the whole place was seemingly on LSD. Or the apparently serious suggestion by the GLC in the late 1970s that Ally Pally should become the base of a super-stadium where both Arsenal and Spurs would be based. Great idea, lads. It has craft shows, dog shows, antique fairs, wellness festivals, evangelical prayer meetings – and reputedly, a lively dogging scene in one of the car parks Decades before that, it was used as an internment camp for German prisoners in the first world war and as an anti-Luftwaffe signal-jamming station in the second. It was also hit by a doodlebug. Admittedly, Alexandra Palace is not the easiest place to get to if you're not local. The walk to Wood Green tube station is a long one, so the much closer overground station struggles to cope on gig nights. And the nearest pubs – the Victoria Stakes in Crouch End and the Starting Gate towards Wood Green (both named for the horse races that took place here until 1970) – can go from being completely dead to absolutely heaving in a couple of minutes flat. But as I am local, this isn't an issue for me. I usually go by bike. It's a hell of a ride to get up to the top of what my cyclist friends call Le Col d'Ally Pally, but it's worth it when you come out of a show and can freewheel practically all the way home. It's also a fine-looking thing, a magnificent bit of high Victoriana, with that dramatic hilltop setting, 400 feet above sea level, which makes it a striking sight from any viewing point – its trademark giant TV aerial London's equivalent of the Eiffel Tower. While the views from Ally Pally are as fine as you get anywhere in the city. And it never fails to amaze just how vast it is. It makes Battersea Power Station look diminutive. I just wish we still had its counterpoint to the south, Crystal Palace, but that burned to the ground in 1936 – the same year Ally Pally broadcast the UK's first television signal. And it nearly went the same way, twice. Ally Pally's planned 1873 opening was delayed by two years because of fire, and it had it even worse in 1980, when a fire that began in an organ led to half the site being damaged, resulting in its closure for the best part of a decade. Reputedly, the affectionate nickname was coined by Gracie Fields, whose impresario husband ran it for a spell. It certainly stuck – the formal name, Alexandra Palace, is rarely spoken aloud. I have lived beneath Ally Pally for 25 years now – and it has loomed over my life in that time, both physically as a perpetually visible monument from the lower-lying suburbs that surround it and as a cultural hotbed. There can be few surviving Victorian enterprises which have lived up to their foundational mandate so well, even if the things that draw 'the people' may have evolved significantly since 1875. In those days it was pantomime and music hall. Now it's drinking large quantities of lager while wearing fancy dress – or knitting. In an era of civic decline, when the most ambitious enterprise to improve London has been the rebranding of a handful of train lines with more right-on names, Alexandra Palace stands as a monument to quite how much could once be achieved. And it's still giving people what they want a century and a half on.
