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The biggest shock in today's round of ACE funding cuts was the news that ENO is no longer to be part of the National Portfolio. 

The review is published. How was the staging? How well did X's role debut go? And more importantly... what was the star rating?!

David gives a roundup of classical music's reaction to the Ukraine invasion and some opinions.

It's an age-old debate: Prima la musica, prima le parole. For David, it should be prima la storia. Great opera should be about great storytelling.

As a theater critic, I’m prioritizing coverage of events that require Covid vaccination for all.

The terror that keeps the performing arts awake at night is that audiences won’t return because they are not confident of attending an event without risking Covid-19 infection.

New seasons are starting and classical music venues are throwing their doors open to the public. But are they also throwing caution to the wind?

When the threat of Covid-19 to music touring subsides, the bureaucratic nightmare that is Brexit will remain. The government must act to cut the red tape it has created.

2021 isn't starting on a high note. Just over a year after the appearance of Covid-19, the French cultural sector is still suffering from vagaries and absurdities at the highest level.

Many arts leaders have shared their thoughts with us over this pandemic year. Here are some reflections on what's happened and what's coming up.

As a streaming platform, how do you stand out in such a competitive market? What do you offer audiences beyond pointing cameras and microphones at musicians in an empty room? 

Lockdown, anti-infection measures, curfew, second lockdown. One trial follows another for a live performance world which, in spite of it all, holds its head high and produces repeated miracles.

A personal reflection on the world of streaming through lockdown... and how the attitude to free content needs to change. 

As our government endeavours to help the arts recover from COVID-19, what should our priorities be? We argue for a rebalancing of the objectives aimed at spreading the arts more widely.

Audiences are telling us now is not the time to be dark. We should listen to them.

Stripped of its ability to earn revenue, large swathes of the performing arts industries could be wiped out within six months. The silence from the UK government is deafening.

The loss of revenue from ticket sales and touring has put most British orchestras into a parlous financial situation. The Director of the ABO discusses what has been done and what is needed.

Jason Cady, artistic director of Experiments in Opera and opera composer writes about all the exciting paths opera is taking nowadays.

Mitchell says he has an irrational fear of opera. We'd love to help him out of it...

The words come first: Mark Wigglesworth, former Music Director of English National Opera, puts the case for singing opera in English.

In the fantasy world of the people drafting the GDPR, businesses would change their ways to impose self-restraint in the use of personal data and draft clear, straightforward notices. Here's what actually happened.

They’re being beastly on Twitter! David Karlin offers some thoughts on why and whether we should be worried and how to react.

Google “virtuoso pianist” and the image search results will throw up pictures of Richter, Brendel, Rubenstein, Horowitz, Argerich, Arrau, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Trifonov, Pollini, Cziffra, Gould, Kissin, Uchida, Hough, Pires, Ogdon, Schiff, Cliburn, Hamelin, Schnabel, Cortot, Horowitz, Hess, von Bulow, Andsnes...

David argues that typical UK concert times are almost guaranteed to put off the under 55 age group, especially those with kids.

Many composers enjoyed a drop of the hard stuff. But why do classical music venues allow audiences to indulge during concerts?

I knew Martha Argerich’s Prom with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra would be long sold out, but the intrepid ticket ninja in me hoped that a return may have sprung up on the website. It was then I stumbled upon this year’s wheeze.

Culture and Europe are intertwined and far the richer for it. The personal desires of UK politicians must not separate us from the mainland and the rich cultural exchange we currently enjoy.

14% of our users have ad blockers installed, but everyone still wants to use the site free. The money has to come from somewhere, so how should we respond?

Travel broadens the mind. It also opens the ears. For years, I was very happy to hear concerts in London… until I heard halls elsewhere.

When is opera not opera? When companies wheel out a musical...

An outraged audience noisily disrupted a concert in Cologne last weekend, raising the question if we have closed our ears and minds to the unfamiliar.

Yesterday, Benjamin Millepied stepped down as director of Paris Opéra Ballet, prompting the question: can the director of a large international company juggle a management role with the desire to create?

On Monday’s Today programme on BBC Radio 4, presenter John Humphrys boldly – deliberately even – stepped into an operatic minefield. It blew up in his face.

A flutter of the fingers, a whirl of the toothpick and he was gone... So does Valery Gergiev really deserve the criticism of his LSO tenure that's come his way?

Alors que la généralisation du pass sanitaire vient perturber l'été des organisateurs de concerts, l'obligation vaccinale pourrait bientôt s'inviter à la fête, elle aussi...

Le triomphe de Jonathan Fournel au Concours Reine Élisabeth suit le sacre d'Alexandre Kantorow au Tchaïkovski et le premier prix de Théo Fouchenneret à Genève. Heure de gloire pour le piano français ?

Avec la reprise imminente de la vie culturelle publique, les nominations s’enchaînent : retour sur les arrivées de Gustavo Dudamel et Olivier Mantei respectivement à l'Opéra et la Philharmonie de Paris.

La pandémie agit sans doute comme une sorte de catalyseur, qui fait éclater au grand jour l’appétit des musiciens classiques pour les projets de proximité.

Voilà bientôt un an que la propagation du Covid-19 a entraîné la fermeture des salles de concert en France et en Europe, et les artistes n’en peuvent plus.

Depuis le 1er janvier 2021, le Brexit s'est transformé en inévitable réalité et ce n'est pas sans conséquences pour les relations musicales franco-anglaises, ce qui attristerait sans doute Berlioz.

Alors que l'institution s'apprête à célébrer le trentième anniversaire de son installation à La Villette, Tristan Labouret revient sur son rôle phare, les secrets qu'elle renferme et les défis qui l'attendent.

Klaus Mäkelä, Cristian Măcelaru, Lars Vogt, Ben Glassberg, Debora Waldman, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider sont autant de nouveaux visages en 2020 dans le paysage des directeurs musicaux en France. Pour un changement d'ère ?

Selon un sondage récent, 64% des musiciens britanniques envisageraient un changement de profession. En France, l'absence de considération portée aux artistes de demain peut laisser craindre une semblable crise des vocations.

Se ha marchado una de las grandes divas de la danza clásica, Alicia Alonso, dejando tras de sí un inmenso legado. Dedicamos estas líneas a su figura.

L'apport de Pierre Boulez au monde musical est immense. Prenons la mesure du bénéfice de son existence.