John Amis online

It was probably Donizetti's librettist who made Lord Henry Ashton the villain who wrongs Lucia di Lammermoor, instead of Walter Scott...

WHY do we call afternoon shows matinees ? Probably too late to change it now; but wouldn't apres-midiens be more accurate? Anyway I went...

Political correctness forced Robertsons to remove from their jams the charming gollywog logo. But The Mikado , the most successful of all th...

Sandor Vegh in Cornwall: the Hungarian Virtuoso Violinist and the founding of the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove. By Hilary Tu...

An evening with this title was given on January 22. It was a curate's egg affair. Good were the filmed tributes from Zubin Menta the con...

When Britten announced that he was going to write an all-male opera we thought he was barking mad (just as we did when he said he was writin...

I saw the last performance in the present Covent Garden run of Wagner's Parsifal and it was probably the last time that Sir John Tomlin...

So, farewell, Menanem Pressler, farewell Beaux Arts Trio, you gave the musical world supreme enjoyment with. your performances of a thorough...

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is twenty-one and celebrated on June 30 with a mammoth concert in the Royal Festival Hall. It bega...

There were several threads weaving through the life of Benjamin Britten: on, more like a hawser than a thread perhaps, was the defence of hi...

Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande is a sport. True, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov is an influence with its naturalistic setting of langua...

"Where's your favourite opera venue?' an acquaintaince asked last Monday. Looking out over rolling Hampshire fields and country...

There are stars in our musical firmament, usually preeminent in one sphere, but occasionally, perhaps once a century, along comes a megastar...

Not long ago there was an Indian girl called Wasfi Kani. She was a conductor who ran a chamber opera company called Pimlico . A compassiona...

This is a good time to visit the Royal Ballet and to be proud of its achievements. And, look you, the top price for the seats is roughly a t...

Blind Delius, craggy craniumed Sibelius,, bewildered-looking Bruckner, retired Colonel Elgar, bewigged Bach and that blind old pro Händel -...

With what one might call a great rattle of publicity, Daniel Harding made an auspicious debut in his new job as principal guest conductor of...

How often do ballet critics mention the music? Sometimes they even omit the names of the composers. And when they do they don’t seem to sens...

The Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam under its conductor Mariss Jansons spent the weekend giving a Saturday evening of symphonies -Schub...

The squadron-leader replied: "I am going to spend my week-end leave with God and the late Beethoven string quartets." Music is the...