This post refers to the 2011 Proms

PROMS SPECIAL

15th July – 10th September

photo from BBC proms web site

Yes, the Beeb has announced the programme for this year’s season of Promenade concerts and there is a really excellent site to explore  here. There’s something for everyone from choral heaven to comedy, family fun to family learning, popular potboilers to premieres.

There is definite White Shirt interest too, starting on Wednesday 24th August

with mezzo  Susan Graham

Listen live on BBC Radio 3 and in HD Sound on the website.   Listen online for 7 days after broadcast.

Susan Graham with Libby

photo from Graham web site

But the two main events have to be :-

Thursday  25  August at 7.00pm

  at the    Royal Albert Hall

Handel.  Rinaldo   (semi-staged; sung in Italian)

Wonderful, white shirt wearing  

Sonia Prina contralto (Rinaldo)

Varduhi Abrahamyan mezzo-soprano (Goffredo)
Tim Mead counter-tenor (Eustazio)
Sandrine Piau soprano (Almirena)
Brenda Rae soprano (Armida)
Luca Pisaroni bass-baritone (Argante)
William Towers counter-tenor (A Christian Magician)
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Ottavio Dantone conductor

Glyndebourne Festival Opera makes its annual Proms visit with Robert Carsen’s new production of Rinaldo, playing at Glyndebourne between 2nd July and 22nd August this year. This is the latest in the company’s distinguished line of Handel stagings, not least the sensational Julius Caesar also seen at the Proms in 2005.  Rinaldo is the work with which Handel made his London debut [exactly 300 years ago], an Italian opera set during the First Crusade. Out to impress, the composer assembled a score of great vitality and colour.  Period-music specialist Ottavio Dantone conducts a strong cast led by  Sonia Prina in the title-role of the heroic crusader with Sandrine Piau as his beloved Almirena.                              photo from Wikimedia Commons

Listen live on BBC Radio 3 and in HD Sound on the website. Listen online for 7 days after broadcast.

Sunday 28 August at 7.00pm

Royal Albert Hall         Choral music and singing events

Mendelssohn    Elijah     (sung in English)

Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano

 photo from Connolly’s facebook page

Rosemary Joshua soprano

Robert Murray tenor
Simon Keenlyside baritone
Taplow Youth Choir
Ulster Youth Chamber Choir
Chetham’s Chamber Choir
North East Youth Choir
Wrocław Philharmonic Choir
Gabrieli Consort & Players
Paul McCreesh

Listen live on BBC Radio 3 and in HD Sound on the website.

Listen online for 7 days after broadcast.

    

I’m certain the wonderful Sarah Connolly will be stunning in Elijah but, for those of you who may have missed it, here is one of her most memorable appearances at the Last Night of The Proms in 2009!

This is worth listening to just for the fabulous ornamentation she puts in ! and, if you are a fan of

 sword-bearing mezzos,  keep watch to the end for some interesting sword-wielding action!

video courtesy of RupertJones


I’m sure you will agree that these White Shirt concerts would be well worth a visit. BUT. I’m equally sure that many of you, like myself, will not be gracing the Albert Hall with your presence. Luckily there will be extensive coverage on radio and television with the usual availability [ or not, if you are in The Exclusion Zone !! ] on iPlayer.

With this fact in mind I am going off into the realms of fantasy and imagining which Proms I would most like to attend if it were possible. First of all it would be Prom 25……

….  Kathryn Tickell has often battered at the boundaries between the traditional and contemporary and I would love to see what she and her band do here.

Prom 55 , the Handel,  is an obvious choice too as I have  never seen or heard Ms. Prina live, but for sheer scale and big-event drama together with an all-star cast I would go for Prom 13 the Verdi Requiem with Marina Poplavskaya, Sonia Ganassi,  Joseph Calleja and Ferruccio Furlanetto.

Anybody else found a Proms concert they really, really wish they could get to?

*****

Whether your are planning a concert trip or not

HAVE A WONDERFUL WHITE SHIRT WEEKEND