Any Glyndebourne Members at the Open Day tomorrow (8 Nov) do consider coming along to my lecture on The Birth of Opera. There will be naughty aristocrats, musicological scandals, bags of Monteverdi, and a little help from my friends Sarah Lenton and Martyn Bennett

How do you present Bach’s cantatas in a way that honours their original Lutheran context without making a contemporary audience sit through an hour-long sermon in a cold church? The OAE's Bach, The Universe & Everything is back: www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/celesti...

Good to be going head to head with @larkingrumple.bsky.social again in Gramophone - this time about a classic recording of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites:

First visit to @westgreenopera_ last night - what a magical garden and place. Bonus points for three-man duck security team shaking down picnickers for crumbs…

My top picks from a fab BBC Proms 2026 season for @thetablet.bsky.social www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/the-pro...

A monumental achievement from British Youth Opera (and can someone please hire Mark Le Brocq to sing Grimes again please?). Reviewed Peter Grimes for @ccmusicuk.bsky.social : criticscircle.org.uk/a-rich-haul-...

Orchestral partnerships are the engine of summer opera companies. Thrilling things happening
@GarsingtonOpera
in large part thanks to @philharmonialondon.bsky.social &
@englishconcert.bsky.social
thetablet.co.uk/authors/alex... reviews of Rodelinda & Elisir d'amore
@The_Tablet

Interviewed the delightful Masaaki Suzuki for The Tablet ahead of his debut with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra later this month:

The Barbican’s Feel The Sound exhibition makes a lot of noise while saying nothing at all: review @thetablet.bsky.social

What a treat to get to talk to novelist William Boyd and composer Colin Matthews about their new collaboration‬⁩ for ⁦‪Opera Magazine:

What a pleasure to chat to assorted Bevans for the current edition of The Tablet: bags of joys (and penitential music):

Struck gold in Chiswick’s Foster Books this morning…

I spoke to I Fagiolini’s Robert Hollingworth this week about the “major discovery” with a starting place on the group’s latest recording, about Monteverdi, milestones and the ‘problem’ with C17th: www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/11/2370...

Ah, those heartwarming memories…