Features

ITV news presenter Katie Derham with her beloved violin

Katie Derham: 'I feel I have got a part of myself back'

A career in television led to Katie Derham neglecting her childhood passion for the violin. Rediscovering it changed her life and even saw her playing to a live audience

Inside Features

Puccini - The maestro and a succ�s de scandale

Friday, 13 August 2010

Puccini's Wild West opera, La fanciulla del West, has a rare outing in Edinburgh. It is almost certainly based on his secret love affair that was mired in tragedy. Jessica Duchen went to his house in Tuscany to find out more

Elgar's other, dotty, enigma

Friday, 6 August 2010

The British composer's Violin Concerto has a strange dedication, ending in five dots. A century after this romantic masterpiece's premiere, Jessica Duchen investigates the object of the epigraph

No false modesty about Richard Strauss's 'Ein Heldenleben'

Friday, 6 August 2010

I've been swotting up on Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben in advance of Friday night's Prom by the Hallé and conductor Sir Mark Elder, for which I'm a guest TV commentator. The title means "a hero's life". There was no false modesty about Strauss when, aged 34, he set about writing this, the last of his great tone poems. The hero was the composer himself, engaging in a Nietzsche-inspired quest for fulfilment, battling against and vanquishing his critics, plus finding true love.

The Proms turn populist (without offending purists)

Saturday, 31 July 2010

This year, everyone is welcome at the Royal Albert Hall. David Lister reports.

A family that plays together stays together

Friday, 30 July 2010

Dmitri Jurowski, who is set to make his Royal Opera House debut next month, is another member of the world's premier conducting clan, says Jessica Duchen

Sally's story: from singing actress to Chekhovian opera director

Friday, 30 July 2010

The transition from opera singer to director has been an emotional rollercoaster – often thrilling and frightening at the same time. A reputation as a singing actress and natural stage animal has stood me in good stead, but nothing can really prepare you to be a director of opera better than actually doing it.

Classical music venues: Not for the faint-hearted

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

After passing out during the summer's hottest Prom, Jessica Duchen wonders why Britain is so short of venues for classical music that are comfortable

Festivals begin to feel the pinch

Friday, 23 July 2010

When the opera star Bryn Terfel appealed to his Faenol Festival audience to dig deep in order to keep the event afloat, it was a sure sign of a wider struggle. Simon Tait and Elisa Bray report

Tête à Tête's short and sweet opera treats

Friday, 23 July 2010

There's no stopping pint-sized Tête à Tête, now launching the fourth version of its ever-expanding opera festival in Hammersmith. This was the company which pioneered the 15-minute opera form, but now all the big national companies are doing it. "My aim," says director Bill Bankes-Jones, "has always been to show that you can deliver art of the highest quality on a very small scale – and get it reviewed in the national papers." He does, and it is. In the first year, he says, "there were a lot of things where people came along with a guitar and did what they do at home. But now we have 30 real stage works, pretty much all of which I would uninhibitedly call operas."

Michael Church: In praise of Verbier Festival – classical music's Davos

Thursday, 22 July 2010

‘First it rained, then it poured,’ says Martin Engstroem, of the time when the festival he’d created ran into such daunting financial problems that its future suddenly looked in doubt.

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