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The Fairy Queen

A brief comment on Prom 24: Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen'. My son, Hugo Herman-Wilson, was performing, along with other members of Le...

Notes on Holst's 'The Homecoming'.

For these few brief thoughts I am returning to Oliver Soden's comment recorded at the start of my last Blog, 'The Past and I': 'As with...

The Past & I

'As with all the best setting of poetry, the words were liberated by the music.' The above comment in Gramophone Magazine, by Oliver...

Spellbinding

‘The Sorcerer’ (Gilbert and Sullivan) Charles Court Opera: Ulverston Festival at The Victoria Hall, Grange Over Sands. Sunday 2nd June...

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand!

'Hassan' by James Elroy Flecker is a curious piece, born out of Elroy Flecker's interest in the Turkish language. While studying in the...

To a Poet

"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dvw5mke8W2o?si=KwlyVhpclw97CQkO" https://youtu.be/3nfQfeWTNK4?si=nMguy-ZMzEgqdzPK...

A Dogged Pursuit

I have written about cats in song in a previous post, but two weeks in Margate dog-sitting an aristocratic Hungarian Vizsla got me...

Figaro rides again...

A brief up-date on Charles Court Opera's 'The Barber of Seville' at Wilton's Music Hall. A return visit to see the alternative Almaviva...

One to watch

I have had a few musical 'I was there' moments in my life: I saw Thomas Allen's first 'Billy Budd', I watched the Terfel/Hvorostovsky...

King David was a sorrowful man...

Listening to Herbert Howells’ setting of the Walter de la Mare poem ‘King David’ (BBC Radio 3’s  Essential Classics ‘Song of the Day’ –...

Ride 'em Figaro!

This review of Charles Court Opera’s production of ‘The Barber of Seville’ at Wilton’s Music Hall cannot claim to be in any way objective...

A Mixed Bag

The Oriel Music Trust provided a very useful service in providing recordings of opera, choral and vocal music taken from BBC Radio 3 (or...

Such the tenor man told

This month sees the publication of yet another book demonstrating Thomas Hardy's less than sympathetic treatment of his two wives, (Hardy...

It is a curious story...

‘Turning the Screw’, Kevin Kelly’s new play now being performed at the King’s Head Theatre, invites obvious comparisons with Alan...

Robert Herrick and his composers

An erudite young friend of mine is walking out with an equally erudite young lady called Julia. I assumed he knew Robert Herrick’s ‘Julia...

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