[136.2] SILENT SPRING

As part of the current Brighton Festival, a multi-arts event which runs throughout May, the Brighton Festival Chorus are giving two concerts. The most imaginative is a live orchestral rendition of the classic film score ‘Alexander Nevsky’, by Sergei Prokofiev, complete with a showing of Eisenstein’s film from 1938. Andrey Boreyko conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra on Sunday 4th May (today) at the Dome, 19:30. This is the Festival opener.

Then on 16 May the City of London Sinfonia and the Brighton Festival Youth Choir join the Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s famous 'War Requiem'. It was planned before the Iraq conflict started, but now seems particularly appropriate. The conductor is Richard Hickox, who seems to have a crowded diary prior to his departure to become director of music for Opera Australia.

Also worth checking out will be the ENO's touring production of Richard Strauss' opera 'Ariadne on Naxos', of which good things have been spoken in recent reviews and previews. The venue is the opulent Theatre Royal on Thursday 8 May.