Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

SCO / Emelyanychev & RSNO / Sondergard

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · 2d

Orchestras are go! Season-openers from @scomusic.bsky.social and @rsno.bsky.social reviewed voxcarnyx.com/2025/10/06/s...

Usher Hall, Edinburgh / Glasgow Royal Concert Hall The Scottish Chamber Orchestra entitled the opening of its new season From Darkness to Light and that idea was just as audible in the concerts tha…

Cumnock Tryst: Roderick Williams/Carducci Quartet

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · 2d

Schubert recast by baritone Roderick Williams for himself and the Carducci Quartet at The Cumnock Tryst voxcarnyx.com/2025/10/06/c...

Trinity Church, Cumnock In Crail Church during the East Neuk Festival earlier this year, young baritone James Newby gave a remarkable performance of Schubert’s first major song cycle Die schone Mul…

Lammermuir: Scottish Opera Double Bill

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Sep 6

Ravel, Walton, Clocks and Bears - Oh My! @scottishopera.bsky.social at the Lammermuir Festival voxcarnyx.com/2025/09/06/l...

St Mary’s, Haddington Perfect though the use of Haddington’s Corn Exchange proved for Britten’s Albert Herring at last year’s Lammermuir Festival, Scottish Opera’s return to St Mary’s for its 2025 …

Director Jacopo Spirei tells KEN WALTON why his new Double Bill production for Scottish Opera, opening at Lammermuir Festival, has all the quirky trappings of a Netflix series. Ready for a do…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Sep 3

Double-bill of contrast and parallels from @scottishopera.bsky.social has Haddington premiere at the LammermuirFest tomorrow. Director Jacopo Spirei explains his plan and inspiration. voxcarnyx.com/2025/09/03/o...

Opposites Attract

EIF: Orpheus and Eurydice / Book of Mountains and Seas

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Aug 18

Thoughts on the staged opera at the Edinburgh International Festival voxcarnyx.com/2025/08/18/e...

Edinburgh Playhouse / The Lyceum At the March launch of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival programme, the Festival’s Head of Music, Nik Zekulin, conceded that the opera content was slighter …

Usher Hall, Edinburgh Although he made a very brief one of opposition to the war in Ukraine at the beginning of March 2022, no-one looks to the SCO’s Russian Principal Conductor for political state…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Aug 12

“Mozart readings are now easily escaping the long shadow cast by the SCO’s partnership with Sir Charles Mackerras.” Maxim Emelyanychev’s operas in concert with @scomusic.bsky.social @edintfest.bsky.social voxcarnyx.com/2025/08/12/e...

EIF: La clemenza di Tito

La Clemenza di Tito review – Emelyanychev and SCO spark magic with enthralling Mozart

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Aug 11

“An utterly involving evening that captured the urgency of La Clemenza di Tito’s speedy composition” @scomusic.bsky.social @edintfest.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

With a luxury cast bringing anguish, believability and vocal perfection to Mozart’s opera of love and divided loyalty, this concert performance was flawless

Getting Physical with Gluck

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Aug 10

Britpop’s loss is @edintfest.bsky.social gain: voxcarnyx.com/2025/08/10/g...

Once pipped for pop stardom, Iestyn Davies opted instead for success as a classical “yodeller”. The award-winning countertenor stars with Australian circus ensemble Circa in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eur…

The Veil of the Temple – powerful expressive talents on display in eight-hour choral epic

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Aug 3

The epic eight-hour choral start to the 78th @edintfest.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/a...

The opening concert of this year’s Edinburgh international festival saw conductor Sofi Jeannin put in a remarkable shift marshalling combined choirs

At the Opening Concert of this year’s East Neuk Festival, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Principal Guest conductor paused between the first and second movements of Lars-Erik Larsson’s Pastoral Su…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Jul 1

A trawl through the rewarding trails to follow at the 20th East Neuk Festival voxcarnyx.com/2025/07/01/e...

East Neuk at 20

The 49th St Magnus Festival takes a moment to remember co-founder Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, but will his piano measure up to the memory? Pianist Mihal Ritivoiu talks to KEN WALTON There are many re…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Jun 18

Orkney’s St Magnus Festival begins on Friday voxcarnyx.com/2025/06/17/r...

Remembering Max

Scottish Ensemble & Heloise Werner

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Jun 16

Music for a Summer’s Evening from the Scottish Ensemble and @heloisewerner.bsky.social voxcarnyx.com/2025/06/16/s... V&A Dundee tonight

Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow Not for the first time, the idea of a chamber music concert in Glasgow’s grand galleries turned out to be better than the reality because of the challenges of the v…

Soprano Heloise Werner talks to Keith Bruce about her collaboration with the Scottish Ensemble – and other plans. There is nothing Scottish about French-British soprano, cellist and composer Helois…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Jun 5

Soprano Heloise Werner joins the Scottish Ensemble on Concerts for a Summer Night voxcarnyx.com/2025/06/05/w...

Werner’s originals

Perth Festival: Ora Singers

2 3

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · May 23

“Choir director Suzi Digby’s vigorous conducting style and crystal-clear beat speaks of her long experience” voxcarnyx.com/2025/05/23/p...

St John’s Kirk, Perth The most unchanged and regularly used venue in the half century of the Perth Festival of the Arts is also roughly contemporaneous with some of the music often heard there, the…

City Halls, Glasgow The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s former principal cellist David Watkin was not just a hugely respected musician but also a man much loved by his colleagues and then by students …

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · May 19

Season finale dedicated to former @scomusic.bsky.social first cello David Watkin voxcarnyx.com/2025/05/19/s...

SCO / Emelyanychev

Trial by Jury/A Matter of Misconduct! review – gags and Spads in Scottish Opera’s sparkling double bill

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · May 16

A sparkling double-bill from @scottishopera.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...

Gilbert and Sullivan’s 150-year-old comic opera gets a lively update, while there is plenty of fun to be had at the expense of politicians in Toby Hessian’s pacy new operetta

City Halls, Glasgow Visits to Scotland by pianist Yeol Eum Son – who has appeared with the BBC SSO, as an EIF Queen’s Hall recitalist, as a guest soloist in the Usher Hall’s Sunday concert series, …

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · May 13

A visitor to be treasured: Yeol Eum Son on best form in the company of @scomusic.bsky.social and its peerless chorus voxcarnyx.com/2025/05/13/s...

SCO / Emelyanychev

Posts about NEWS written by VoxCarnyx

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · May 1

A Barber, a Figaro, a Tristan and The Great Wave 🌊 Main stage highlights of the coming season @scottishopera.bsky.social voxcarnyx.com/2025/04/30/s...

NEWS – VoxCarnyx

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Mozart’s Magic Flute, in its story and subject matter and in the libretto of Emanuel Schikander, is very much a piece of its time, which contemporary stage directors…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Mar 19

Shoulder-pads and chicken nuggets in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote @rcsofficial.bsky.social
voxcarnyx.com/2025/03/19/d...

Die Zauberflote

Funding austerity has shaped this year’s International Festival, writes Keith Bruce Politically-astute EIF director Nicola Benedetti prefaced the media briefing revealing her third Festival program…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Mar 13

Musical highlights of a gap year at the Edinburgh International Festival voxcarnyx.com/2025/03/13/e...

Edinburgh’s gap year

Matthew McKinney & Marianna Abrahamyan

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Mar 6

Rising tenor star Matthew McKinney with pianist Marianna Abrahamyan at Westbourne Music voxcarnyx.com/2025/03/05/m...

Glasgow Art Club Scots tenor Matthew McKinney already has an impressive CV, roles at English Touring Opera followed by first prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall last year and a sti…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Feb 23

“Compelling and fascinating” Mahler 9 from Thomas Sondergard and the RSNO voxcarnyx.com/2025/02/23/r...

City Halls, Glasgow As it was revealed in the programme, it seems most unlikely that Sir James MacMillan was the only soul in the City Hall unaware that the Scottish premiere of his new Concerto fo…

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Feb 22

Composers showcased by The Cumnock Tryst preface BBCSSO’s Scottish premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Concerto for Orchestra “Ghosts” voxcarnyx.com/2025/02/22/b...

BBC SSO / MacMillan

The Makropulos Affair review – immaculately paced and gripping opera storytelling

The Ancient Bruce @theancientbruce.bsky.social · Feb 21

Scottish Opera’s edition of Olivia Fuchs’ Janacek staging www.theguardian.com/music/2025/f...

Olivia Fuchs’ production of Janáček’s opera is a remarkable achievement, with Orla Boylan’s riveting performance at its heart. In the pit, Martyn Brabbins is superb