David Atkinson News
Canadian opera singer and musical theatre actor (1921-2012)
- baritone
- Canada
- opera singer, actor
Last update
2024-04-25
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2024-04-22 08:37:00
Mozart: Don Giovanni - Hurn Court Opera (Photo: Patrick Frost, BlackStar Pictures)Mozart: Don Giovanni: Sam Young, Samuel Lom, Lizzie Rydeer, Daniel Gray Bell, Hanna O'Brien, Harrison Chéné-Gration, Tilly Goodwin, William Stevens, dir: Joy Robinson, cond: Lynton Atkinson; Hurn Court Opera at Theatre Royal, WinchesterReviewed by James McConnachie, 11 April 2024A dedicated group of vastly talented singers – young singers – riding on the delight of an audience that was evidently as full of newbies as buffsEven lifelong opera-lovers can sometimes feel dispirited. Opera survives on the support and generosity and love of a generation born within 20 years of the war – but anyone looking around them in the stalls, or the grand tier, or the balcony or, frankly, even the amphitheatre of the Royal Opera House might be forgiven for wondering where the next generation is going to come from. Is it economics that is keeping out the […]
2024-01-19 10:14:00
An evening of bold & adventurous programming: wind & brass from Southbank Sinfonia & Britten Sinfonia combine under Nicholas Daniel at St John's Smith Square
[…] chorals, lilting rhythms and lullabies, right to the last pulsing chord. The deeper toned instrumentation of this work, which followed the example of Mozart's Gran Partita, without flutes, but with a pair of basset horns (larger, extended clarinets) and a double bass, lent an air of gravity and nobility to the ensemble, and featured some exquisitely poignant and expressive oboe playing.The concert finished with a classic mainstay of the wind band repertoire, here in Chris Atkinson's saxophone-free version for the Aldeburgh Festival - the set of six short and colourful folk-song arrangements that form Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, although perhaps arrangement isn't quite the right term for this raucous, whimsical music, which contains just as much of Grainger's maverick humour as it does English traditional song. Nicholas Daniel clearly enjoyed himself immensely at the helm of this wonderfully responsive crew of wind and percussion, allowing them to relish every twist […]
2023-11-20 07:34:00
Singing in the rain: London Song Festival celebrates the bi-centenary of the Mackintosh
A gentleman's Mackintoshfrom an 1893 catalogueRain in City and Country: Clara Schumann, Samuel Barber, Margaret Bonds, Gerald Finzi, Debussy, Brahms, Schubert, John Ireland, Elizabeth Maconchy, Schumann, Chausson, Albert Roussel, Herbert Hughes, Michael Head, Roger Quilter, Noah Max, David Ward; Ella Taylor, James Atkinson, David Mildon, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist ChurchA delightful and engaging programme exploring highways and byways of rain in the lied and song repertoire, featuring two works specially written for the eveningThis year is the bicentenary of the invention of the Mackintosh; in June 1823, Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh was granted a patent for a new waterproof fabric that sandwiched an impermeable layer of rubber between two layers of cloth. In celebration of this, Nigel Foster's London Song Festival presented a celebration of the Mackintosh with Rain in City and Country on Friday 17 November 2023 at Hinde Street Methodist Church. Foster was joined by soprano […]
2023-11-16 04:30:00
Anna Lapwood: Luna (CD Review)
[…] version should give you an added appreciation for its simple elegance and energy. The two tracks that include the voices of the Pembroke College Chapel Choir are also both quite captivating and worthy of special mention. Stars, by the Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977) sets a poem by the late American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1993). (Speaking of Ešenvalds, there is an absolutely gorgeous album of his choral music that was engineered by none other than John Atkinson of Stereophile magazine fame. Both musically and sonically it is simply superb; you can read our review here). The ethereal sounds of tuned wine glasses mixed with the sound or the organ and the choir give a celestial glow to the sound of this track, which is rife with otherworldly overtones. The other piece featuring the chorus, On the Nature of Daylight by the German-born British composer Max Richter (b. 1966), has no text, but combines their voices with […]
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