On Thursday 7 
March the exciting young Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva will make her London solo concert debut at St James's Church, Piccadilly in a special charity event with proceeds going towards Pushkin House, the London Russian cultural centre. Though only 23 years old, Ms Lezhneva has been building a very promising career since her professional debut five years ago which includes operatic appearances at Salzburg and La Monnaie as well as several recordings. Her first solo album Alleluia will be released at the end of this week by Decca, featuring songs by Rossini, Bellini and Schubert together with motets by Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora. Ms Lezhneva will be accompanied by Michael Antonenko on the piano and organ and tickets can be obtained here. A full review of the concert will be published on Opera Britannia
March the exciting young Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva will make her London solo concert debut at St James's Church, Piccadilly in a special charity event with proceeds going towards Pushkin House, the London Russian cultural centre. Though only 23 years old, Ms Lezhneva has been building a very promising career since her professional debut five years ago which includes operatic appearances at Salzburg and La Monnaie as well as several recordings. Her first solo album Alleluia will be released at the end of this week by Decca, featuring songs by Rossini, Bellini and Schubert together with motets by Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora. Ms Lezhneva will be accompanied by Michael Antonenko on the piano and organ and tickets can be obtained here. A full review of the concert will be published on Opera BritanniaPhotograph © Decca/ Uli Weber
Tags: Julia Lezhneva Pushkin House
commissioned to design the booklet cover for this disc of Verdi arias and duets featuring Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, it would feature an image of a Brazil nut, emblazoned with the face of dear old Giuseppe, quivering beneath a sledgehammer. This would give the prospective purchaser an idea as to what to expect from the tenor’s approach and it would, indeed, be as unexpected as it is disappointing. I rate Beczala extremely highly and he would be in my top four tenors performing this sort of repertoire today (Jonas Kaufmann, Joseph Calleja and the underrated Marcelo Álvarez being the others), but this recital disc will do his reputation few favours.
based at the Wigmore Hall, offer a rather unique opportunity to hear some of the world’s most impressive singers to best effect, performing their own chosen repertoire in an intimate concert setting. There is a welcome purity in hearing an artist sing a concentrated programme of music tailored to their voice and taste, and to hear it unembellished by full-scale orchestra, granted only the elegant simplicity of an accompanying piano.
As if to remind us that summer festivals are just around the corner, despite the prevailing frozen conditions over much of Britain, Opus Arte has issued its new production of Janacek’s evergreen opera The Cunning Little Vixen, which opened Glyndebourne’s 2012 season. Although Melly Still’s production didn’t meet with universal acclaim and is clumsily directed at times, the performances here have much to recommend them, not least the feisty Vixen of Lucy Crowe and the weathered Forester of Sergei Leiferkus.
