La Fenice Theatre, Venezia, 13 January 2019 Have you ever been to Venice? Well you must…. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world and if it is not listed as such it certainly should be. The Frecciarossa,

When the British explorer extraordinaire Richard Francis Burton published his translation of the traditional Middle Eastern stories in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night in 1885, he brought the extraordinary wealth of Arabic storytelling to the West.

When Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (The Marksman) was first produced at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin in June 1821, the musical world was stunned. Setting his career as a pianist and critic aside, Weber had created a work that

For Johannes Brahms, the composition and performance of the German Requiem was a highly personal undertaking. Brahms had been highly distressed by the breakup of his parents. Tension over money, exacerbated by the great difference in age—his mother was 17

When the original two-act version of Madama Butterfly premiered in Milan on 17 February 1904, the audience was not impressed. Puccini had struggled to complete the score, and there simply wasn’t enough time for proper rehearsals. Despite notable singers Rosina

I keep meeting people who tell me they “just don’t get” classical music. Or that they “don’t understand” classical music and therefore cannot appreciate or enjoy it (an attitude which I think is inculcated early on in school and does

Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) intricate late piano works, from Op. 116 to Op. 119, were composed from 1892 to 1893 and have been known for their reflective nature, amalgamated with lyricism, desolation and heart-warming moments. The probable dedicatee of these works,

When I was a young student I sought out the best teachers, practiced many hours, and performed a great deal of repertoire with the ambition to land a position in a major orchestra. I thought playing well would be enough