The BBC Proms, the world’s greatest classical music festival, announced its 2012 lineup today. The Proms presents musicians of the highest calibre in a staggering array of concerts from July 13 to Sept. 8. Most performances take place at Royal Albert Hall in London, and a number of Canadians will be featured this year.
Baritone Phillip Addis will sing the role of Pelléas in a concert version of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande on July 15. The opera, which celebrates its 100th anniversary later this month, will be conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.
On July 30, soprano Gillian Keith will be the featured soloist in a performance of Oliver Knussen’s Symphony No. 2 at Royal Albert Hall. Gianandrea Noseda will lead the BBC Philharmonic in this 1971 work by Knussen, described by the Proms as a “landscape of iridescent colour with a vocal line that soars to stratospheric heights.”
Measha Brueggergosman, who’s suddenly everywhere these days, is listed among the soloists in Michael Tippett’s oratorio A Child of our Time scheduled for Aug. 1. David Robertson will lead the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Youth will be a major focus of the BBC Proms this year. Conductor Bramwell Tovey has been invited to lead an Aug. 12 performance by two youth ensembles: the National Youth Wind Orchestra and the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. They’ll play works by Vaughan Williams, Holst and Walton, as well as world premieres by Gavin Higgins and Gavin Bryars.
Finally, on Sept. 5, bass-baritone Gerald Finley sings the role of Chou En-lai in a semi-staged performance of John Adams’s opera Nixon in China. The cast also includes Canadian mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Marshall and Susan Platts. The composer conducts.
Related links:
Measha Brueggergosman interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on Q
Wagner's Siegfried, live from the Met
Jean-Philippe Tremblay records Symphonie fantastique by Berlioz