Page 206 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

Would Mozart’s Requiem survive a mashup between Phoenix Dance
Theatre and Opera North with South Africa’s Jazzart Dance Theatre and
Cape Town Opera? A resounding you bet for this affecting, inspired project.
6. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool; February
Benjamin Grosvenor played Rachmaninov’s familiar Piano Concerto No 2
with the freshness of discovery in a concert that celebrated the RLPO’s
acquisition of massive church bells, which raised the roof in
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

7. Least Like the Other
Linbury theare, Royal Opera House, London; January
A disturbing new opera about the tragic Rosemary Kennedy, sister of US
president John F Kennedy, created from redacted archive material by
composer Brian Irvine and director Netia Jones. Performed by the exciting
Irish National Opera, conducted by its artistic director, Fergus Shiel.

Amy Ní Fhearraigh, centre, as Rosemary Kennedy, with Stephanie Dufresne and
Ronan Leahy in Irish National Opera’s Least Like the Other. Photograph: Kip
Carroll

8. The Art of Being Human
Aldeburgh festival, Suffolk; June
A bold title for an extraordinary work: Laurence Dreyfus and viol ensemble
Phantasm performed 16th- and 17th-century English consort music on
stage with five dancers amid strange sculptural landscape. A hushed
mystery unto itself.

9. The Dream of Gerontius
Symphony Hall, Birmingham; March
Stepping in at short notice to make his debut in Elgar’s epic choral work,
Ryan Wigglesworth conducted as if his life depended on it, with white-hot
results. The CBSO, chorus and soloists soared to the holiest heights.