Aside from elves on shelves, Rudolph, Santa’s unhealthy diet and other 20 th century customs, Christmas has long had folklore and traditions associated with it that, while not found in the biblical ...

There’s nothing like an invigorating blast of trumpets and glory to start the final countdown to Christmas, and, performing true to form on Friday evening, the early-music ensemble Vox Luminis, under ...

The Gesualdo Six’s Advent calendar this year consists of five dates in Clervaux, Helsinki, London, Cambridge and Stroud; Wednesday evening saw them at Smith Square for the second of these. While many ...

Not only is The Glasshouse International Centre for Music spectacularly set on the banks of the River Tyne, with wide views of the city of Newcastle, but it houses in Sage One a superb concert hall ...

The instruments not only balanced perfectly with the voices, but gave us some delectable textures of sound – edginess from the strings; a sparkly pair of flutes accompanying the soprano duet in ...

Jetske Mijnssen’s new staging of Ariodante arrives with a clear conceptual stamp: Handel reframed as a Chekhovian family drama, the royal household recast as an emotionally shut ...

English National Opera’s revival of HMS Pinafore promises buoyancy but quickly runs aground. Despite strong musical work and a committed cast, Cal McCrystal’s staging leans so heavily on laboured ...

It is 75 years since the Chelsea Opera Group was founded by David Cairns, Colin Davis and Stephen Gray, all students at Oxford at the time. Its longevity is brought into focus by considering that it ...