Contents

FRONT OF HOUSE

EDITORIAL Celebrating vibrant leadership YOUNG ARTIST OF THE MONTH Meeting rising star, baritone Dafydd Jones - NEWS & NOTES Celebrating opera at the Royal Philharmonic Society awards; Gustavo Dudamel brings his Deaf West Fidelio to the Barbican; the Edinburgh International Festival announces its operatic offerings and Jane Irwin is named Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

REVIEWS - LIVE REVIEWS Amsterdam Ellen Reid The Shell Trial (38) UK London Fringe roundup (40) EUROPE Verdi Festival Il trovatore; I Lombardi (44) Sweden Roundup Malmö Opera; Gothenburg Opera (46) Opera de Lyon Spring Festivali (50) USA Seattle Opera x: The Life and Tmes of Malcolm X (49) - RECORDINGS New releases on CD, Digital & AV including: Show Me The Way – a new recording from baritone Will Liverman; and a recording of Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma. Productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Samson et Dalila and Die Walküre captured on film Opera Now Choice: Sony Classics’ recording of Wagner’s Parsifal with Jonas Kaufmann receives five stars

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COVER

- SPOTLIGHT Worldwide Opera Guide and answers to this issue’s Quiz (p63)

‘There’s a misconception that we’ve changed things more than we have … That’s because we started in a place that was so bad.’ 17

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Cover feature Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya shares her experience emerging into the operatic scene as a woman, as well as her work commissioning new opera for Chicago Opera Theater Royal Opera’s Carmen Previewing Damiano Michieletto’s new production of Bizet’s Carmen. We speak to the director and mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina about this new reading Goodbye Pappano Looking back on 22 years at the helm of the Royal Opera House

as its music director Antonio Pappano hands over the baton

Under the Greenwood Tree Hardy’s romantic novel is set to music for a world premiere at the Dorset Opera Festival Behind the Scenes In this month’s Behind the Scenes feature we speak to Welsh National Opera producer April Heade Quiz How well do you know Berlioz’s Les Troyens? Test your knowledge in our monthly quiz

M A T T

J O N E S

Robin Norton-Hale The General Director of English Touring Opera shares her insight into taking on ETO, directing Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert and the company’s future

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