Laurence Cummings News
British musician
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- United Kingdom
- conductor, music teacher
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2024-03-24
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2023-12-30 09:32:00
2023 in concert reviews: Gavin Higgins x2, Allan Clayton's Samson, Reginald Mobley in Bayreuth, the Pink Singers & Brixton Chamber Orchestra both party and Bitches Brew is back
Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto - George Jackson, Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: BBC / Mark Allan)Our list begins and ends with community events. The year began with a fragment of my own musical history, the Pink Singers, an ensemble I directed for five years in the 1980s, celebrated their 40th anniversary. Then in December, our local ensemble, the Brixton Chamber Orchestra certainly put us in party mood.Both Handel and Bach feature, of course. In April Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra explored the original Dublin version of Messiah, whilst in December, Wild Arts presented a more traditional edition in an imaginative, intimate semi-staging. Allan Clayton joined Lawrence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music for Handel's Samson at the Proms. We heard Bach's St Matthew Passion with the choir of Kings College, London and Bach's Easter Oratorio from Florilegium. Vox Luminis brought sheer musicality to […]
2023-11-13 07:42:00
Plenty of food for thought & some terrific singing: Oliver Mears' staging of Handel's Jephtha at the Royal Opera with a towering performance from Allan Clayton in the title role
Handel: Jephtha - Jennifer France - Royal Opera House (Photo: Marc Brenner)Handel: Jephtha; Allan Clayton, Alice Coote, Jennifer France, Cameron Shahbazi, Brindley Sherratt, director: Oliver Mears, conductor: Laurence Cummings; Royal Opera HouseReviewed 10 November 2023An incandescent performance by Allan Clayton in the title role with superb support the other soloists anchors the imaginative if flawed dramatic recreation of Handel's final oratorioIn adapting the story of Jephtha from the Bible for a dramatic work for Handel, the librettist Thomas Morell had to use quite a bit of imagination, to create a three hour drama out of the relatively curt Biblical references. A fine classicist, Morrell introduced elements from Greek drama, creating a work that it is tempting to see as naturally having a place on the stage. Concert performances of Handel's Jephtha are relatively common and I have seen many fine incarnations of the title role including John Mark Ainsley at the London […]
2023-11-09 08:50:00
Celebrating 17th-century Venice as a place of tolerance for gay artists - Infinite Refrain: Music of Love's Refuge
Infinite Refrain: Music of Love's Refuge: Monteverdi, Cavalli, Boretti, Melani, Castrovillari; Randall Scotting, Jorge Navarro Colorado, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Signum ClassicsReviewed 3 November 2023A wonderful album that celebrates Venice as a place of tolerance for gay artists in the 17th century, with music by Monteverdi and Cavalli, alongside modern-day premieres by the little-known composers Boretti, Melani, and Castrovillari During the 17th and 18th centuries, Venice had a reputation, particularly during the Carnival, where people could wander around masked and all sorts of activities could take place. Exciting things that would not be possible elsewhere. Tourists flocked, and entertainment for them stretched from the lucrative trade of prostitutes right through to the opera. It was fun for young heterosexual men, of course, women were far more available, but it was even bigger a draw for gay men.Thanks to disputes between the Venetian authorities and the church, there was greater […]
2023-11-03 12:17:00
Monteverdi's Vorrei baciarti duet from Infinite Refrain with Randall Scotting & Jorge Navarro Colorado
Infinite Refrain: Music of Love's Refuge, the new disc from countertenor Randall Scotting, tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado, the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings is released on Signum Classics today [link tree]. I encourage you to explore the album for a number of reasons. The two singers are both artists whom I admire and their repertoire on the disc, arias and duets from 17th century Venetian opera, is made even more enticing because the disc makes explicit something that is too often simply implicit in classical music. It explores a relationship between two men using music from a 17th century Venice which was one of the few places in Europe where such things could be even mentioned openly. A few years ago, I wrote an article about the depictions of gay relationships on the operatic stage and it became apparent that before the 20th century, you had to go to 17th-century Venice […]
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