What's On

This festival of English song written during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries features works by Britten, Finzi, Vaughan Williams, Delius, Gurney and more, together with new works specially commissioned by Brian Elias and Julian Philips. This is the fifth of the triennial Ludlow English Song weekends, all under Artistic Director Iain Burnside.

The King's Singers are including a seldom performed work, Britten's Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, and there will be a special sequence about Ivor Gurney with actor reading Gurney's poetry between songs by the Gloucestershire poet. A rare opportunity is performance of Gurney's Western Playland by the Carducci Quartet with Delius's Late Swallows.

There are nine concerts spread over the four days, together with talks by Finzi and Elgar biographer Diana McVeagh, broadcaster Roderick Swanston, Andrew Walton engineer producer at Naxos and John Bridcut, whose film Britten's Children will also be shown. Sir John Tomlinson will be giving a Masterclass for students from London colleges

The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Before the paling of the stars

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

The splendour falls on castle walls

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Once did I breathe another's breath

Brian Elias (1948-)

Pessoa settings

Julian Philips (1969-)

The Western Playland, for baritone, piano and string quartet

Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)

Late Swallows

Frederick Delius (1862-1934)

The most perfect ensemble opera ever written, Cosi fan tutte is a comedy that hurts and blesses. The two pairs of innocent young lovers it describes may be foolish, bt they are also very attractive, especially when Mozart endows them with such beautiful songs.

In a day fiancés are parted, and new fiancés found: can it be believed? Anyone who has found that they are not quite the person they thought - anyone who recognises that strange, exciting, embarassing feeling - knows very well that it can.

ETO's new production, in period costume on an elegant, pastoral set, and sung in English, promises to deliver a tingle, a laugh and a tear, and a memory of youth.

Cosi fan tutte

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Rarely performed, this exceptional bel canto classic is a stirring account of the sacrifice of the burghers of Calais, citizens under siege who offered their own lives in exchange for peace.

From the first scene in the besiegers' camp, Donizetti ratchets up the tension. Inside the ravaged, starving city, the heroic mayor fights to suppress spies and cowards. Finally, despite the pleas of friends and loved ones, a small group offer themselves up to save their city in one of the most moving ensembles in all opera, O sacra polve, o suol natio.

Vocally brilliant, dramatically assured, this new production, sung in Italian with English surtitles. is inspired by the heroic defence of Stalingrad, the definitive contemporary experience of siege.

In leading roles are Eddie Wade as the mayor, Helen Sherman as his son Aurelio and Paula Sides as Aurelio's wife Eleonora.

L'assedio di Calais

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

The most perfect ensemble opera ever written, Cosi fan tutte is a comedy that hurts and blesses. The two pairs of innocent young lovers it describes may be foolish, bt they are also very attractive, especially when Mozart endows them with such beautiful songs.

In a day fiancés are parted, and new fiancés found: can it be believed? Anyone who has found that they are not quite the person they thought - anyone who recognises that strange, exciting, embarassing feeling - knows very well that it can.

ETO's new production, in period costume on an elegant, pastoral set, and sung in English, promises to deliver a tingle, a laugh and a tear, and a memory of youth.

Cosi fan tutte

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)