UK
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden, London, 11-29 September
A special Gala next May bids Antonio Pappano farewell as he steps down as music director after 23 years at the helm. For his final season he teams up with director Barrie Kosky to inaugurate a new Wagner Ring cycle with Das Rheingold in September. Other standouts include new stagings of Handel’s Jephtha, Strauss’s Elektra and, in the Linbury Theatre, the UK premiere of George Benjamin’s latest opera Picture a Day Like This.
Manchester Collective
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 14 September
With five UK-wide tours between September and May there’s a certain piquancy to the Collective’s first programme, which culminates in Steve Reich’s Different Trains. December turns apocalyptic with Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time while 2024 wraps four world premieres around Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel.
Jeremy Denk
Wigmore Hall, London, 15 September
In mid-September the American pianist is joined by the Danish Quartet for a recital combining Ligeti, Britten and Schumann. Brett Dean is composer-in-residence and other ‘residents’ include period instrument ensemble Solomon’s Knot, soprano Louise Alder and Trio Gaspard.
