Harry Bicket To Spend More Time in the Summer Desert

(Photo: Richard Haughton)

"Harry Bicket, the British early music specialist, is to be the next chief conductor of Santa Fe Opera, starting in October. He succeeds conductor Frederic Chaslin, who resigned last August after just two seasons on the job, saying he wanted to focus on composing and his duties as music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Bicket's appointment, announced on Wednesday morning, is to some extent an indication of the inroads Baroque music has made in the traditional operatic establishment. He is currently manning the pit in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Metropolitan Opera. His opera resume also includes Handel performances at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment." [Source]

LOC "Rinaldo" Reviews Are In and Better Than Ever

Read the reviews here, here and here.

LOC Will Feature Hovering Harpsichord in "Rinaldo" This Month

David Daniels in the tile role of Rinaldo
(Photo: Terrence Antonio James/ Chicago Tribune)

"An opera that released a flock of sparrows over the heads of astonished London theatergoers 300 years ago is about to have its first full staging at Lyric Opera of Chicago. There won't be any live birds set loose in the Ardis Krainik Theatre, but there will be songbirds of another sort, amid a roster of mostly newcomers, with David Daniels, today's foremost countertenor, as the eponymous hero of Handel's Rinaldo. The new production that opens Wednesday night at the Civic Opera House marks a Chicago reunion for Daniels, conductor Harry Bicket and stage director Francisco Negrin, all of whom made their Lyric debuts in another Handel opera, Partenope, in 2003. Last season here, Daniels and Bicket collaborated in a successful new production of Handel's Hercules. An Italian opera by a German composer written for an English audience, Rinaldo was the young Handel's first work written specifically for the London stage, and his first operatic triumph, receiving more performances during his lifetime than any of his 42 operas. Much of that success had to do with the high level of singing (the cast included

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "Siegfried"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform Wagner's Siegfried live tonight at 6:00 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guests: Steven Osgood , Harry Bicket and Jay Hunter Morris.

Andreas Scholl Wows Critic in Los Angeles at Tour Launch

(Photo: James McMillan/Decca)

"Scholl sang with the refinement and intensity for which he is known. Phrases were perfectly shaped. His tone was pure... Accents and annunciation were as they should be: Each word could be understood and felt. Music of great character was delivered with great character but without great or unneeded exaggeration...Scholl is a model singer...The “Cold Song” from King Arthur turns shivering into proto-Minimalist astonishment, and Scholl made it seem remarkably of the moment, as if something by Michael Nyman for a Peter Greenaway film. I’ve long thought “Fairest Isle,” also from King Arthur, would make the greatest national anthem any country could ever hope for. Scholl, precise and fervent in his performance, would be my advocate." [Source]

American audiences have two more opportunities to see Andreas Scholl with The English Concert under the direction of Harry Bicket:

Carnegie Hall New York City
Thursday, October 20, 2011 8:00 pm

Jordan Hall Boston
Sunday, October 23, 2011 3:00 pm