IF your thoughts go north of the border at the mention of “the Fringe” you clearly haven’t discovered the Shaftesbury Fringe, a weekend of entertainment, comedy, music, dance, theatre, cabaret, poetry, eccentricity and all-round original creativity. This year’s Shaftesbury Fringe, running over four days, from Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th July, features a massive line-up…
STORIES don’t come much more melodramatic or gory than Sweeney Todd, a popular penny dreadful-style tale of Victorian times, made famous for a new generation by Stephen Sondheim with his brilliant musical re-creation of the story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Now comic opera specialists Opera Della Luna come to Bath Theatre Royal…
OPERA in beautiful rural settings is now almost as much part of the English summer (whatever the weather) as the village fete and strawberries and cream. The tiny village of Oborne near Sherborne has quietly but steadily been developing its own mini opera festival, and this year, from Friday 26th July to Sunday 4th August…
CERNE Abbas Music Festival, established in 1991 as a relaxed but high quality celebration of the chamber music repertoire, takes a new direction this year, with a new venue and an inaugural autumn series. Most concerts for this year’s festival, from Friday 12th to Sunday 14th July, will be in the usual venue, the village’s…
LUMAS Winds, an award-winning quintet of young woodwind players, comes to Dorset and Somerset from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st July for a Concerts in the West series. The programme ranges from an Afro-Cuban concerto by Valerie Coleman, to Six Bagatelles by Gyorgy Ligeti. Lumas Winds will be at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 19th…
DORSET Opera celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, with performances of one of the world’s best-loved operas and the premiere of an opera adapted from a favourite Thomas Hardy, with its roots firmly in Dorset. There will be seven performances of the two works at Bryanston School’s Coade Hall, Blandford Forum, from 22nd to 27th…
THE 2010 BBC Young Musician of the Year, pianist Lara Melda, comes to Dorset and Somerset for the June Concerts in the West series, with recitals at Bridport Arts Centre at 11.30am and Ilminster Arts Centre at 7.30pm on Friday 21st June and the Dance House, Crewkerne, on Saturday 22nd at 7,30. The talented young…
THE May series of Concerts in the West brings Pocket Sinfonia, a multi-quartet playing period and modern instruments, to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 17th May at 11.30am, Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm and the Dance House at Crewkerne on Saturday 18th at 7.30pm. Emil Duncumb, piano, Eleanor Corr, violin, Rosie Bowker, flute,…
THE Bath Festivals start on Friday 17th May, with the Party in the City – Bath’s biggest free event, so no need to book – followed by nine days of music and literary events, from peerless Renaissance choral music to Irish folk, from best-selling novelists to top broadcasters, historic walks and many other fascinating events….
SALISBURY Cathedral has a week-long festival in May to mark the centenary of one of the major figures of late 19th and early 20th century English music, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. The festival, from Monday 6th to Sunday 12th May, will include concerts and music by Stanford within the cathedral services. Nowadays, Stanford is largely…