David Cloke

@Stephen74977713 Or Düsseldorf: operamrhein.de/en/schedule/a-…

Thinking of a May trip to Duisburg to hear this.

@pronouncedsham Oh, it’s so good!

Back at the Bastille - Angel Blue, Freddie de Tommaso and Alexey Markov star in ‘Tosca’.

@jepaco It’s also the fault of front of house staff for letting people in. I find it odd that these things don’t seem to be discussed with the performers beforehand! Especially hard on Meli as Amor ti vieta is so short.

After the Masnadieri overture the House let in latecomers, and there was a HORDE of them finding seats through the entirety of Amor ti vieta. I felt so sorry for Meli. Maestro Muti turned around and scolded the audience for a couple of minutes.

@AdamPollock And, of course, many places with ‘ham’ or ‘ton’ at the end are named after people!

So many people in the replies saying, “We’re English, we don’t name towns and cities after people”. How do you think the city of St Albans gets its name? Or Bury St Edmunds? English history is Christian history. This is why we need a town called Aethelstan.

Thank you @guardian for this review. Madeline Dring’s songs are something special and it’s so good to have made this disc for @ChandosRecords with the wonderful @kittywhately theguardian.com/music/2026/mar…

Supper, but let’s just enjoy the decor

Tonight: Thomas Hampson and Renée Fleming star as the Nixons in ‘Nixon in China’, by John Adams. John Matthew Myers is Mao tse-Tung, Caroline Wettergreen sings ‘Madam Mao’. Kent Nagano conducts.

Notre-Dame D’Espérance, Rue de La Roquette, Paris

Deborah Warner's staging of Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream will eventually come to @rbo_org. Here's our review from @Teatro_Real Madrid bachtrack.com/critica-madrid…

@SimoninSuffolk @YalePevsner The church builders of Edinburgh seem to have had a thing for murals! More examples from Mansfield Place by Phoebe Anna Traquair

St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, Edinburgh, the mural of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin by Louis Beyart, 1932. The understated facade, all that remains of James Gillespie Graham's Catholic chapel of 1813, gives 'no hint of the extraordinary interior' enthused @YalePevsner. 1/3

@RomaPete @jepaco @hugh_canning It was done @semperoper Dresden not so long ago with Evelyn Herlitzius. Unfortunately, I remember the rather striking costumes more than anything else! Not sure if they’ve ever revived it.

@jepaco @hugh_canning As usual an excellent review by Hugh. I saw it a few days later, the last performance of the run. Mr Canning is a powerful advocate for this unjustly neglected work. I don’t imagine the Met would do it, but seems right in Leon Botstein’s wheelhouse. One can hope anyhow!

I've never heard of Hindemith's "Cardillac"! But I listened over and over for a time to his "Mathis der Maler," so I was pleased to read the review by @hugh_canning of a new Cardillac production at Zurich. It sounds fascinating! Read the review: open.substack.com/pub/operalogue…

A Korngold operetta in New York: nytimes.com/2026/03/16/art…

@PlusTovell @EastMidRailway National Rail website suggests getting 13.06 to Nottingham arriving 13.58 and changing there for 14.12 to Loughborough arriving 14.31

@EastMidRailway my 13.00 train Sheffield to Loughborough has been cancelled. Any suggestions for alternative routing? I arrive at Sheffield at 12.10 from Manchester. Thanks

@BBCRadio3 Further to the Prelude to Edgar the aria that Leontyne Price sings from the opera is even better and uses much of the same material: youtu.be/OA9AXjrZTsU?si… And Price is in fantastic voice!

Satisfying programme of songs from Siphokazi Molteno @wigmore_hall this afternoon. Molteno has a warm, vibrant voice which is especially lovely in the middle and lower parts of the voice: striking chest voice in the Falla encore. She sings sensitively with a great sense of line.

It takes two! Countertenor Agustín Pennino & mezzo-soprano Ella Orehek-Coddington on sharing the role of Rinaldo in Royal Academy Opera's forthcoming production of Handel's opera. My interview: planethugill.com/2026/03/it-tak…

Pipe organs are a quintessential church furnishing, providing the music for some of life’s most significant moments. However, sadly, Britain’s pipe organs are under threat. 1/8 📷 St Giles’s, Tadlow, Cambridgeshire

A "cathedral among pubs" according to Historic England. The magnificent interior of The Philharmonic Dining Rooms in Liverpool was a collaborative masterpiece. While the building itself was designed by the architect Walter W. Thomas, the mosaic floor and bar counter sides were made by the staff and students from University College (which is now the University of Liverpool).

To mark #MothersDay, 'The Lesson' - a 1959 bronze by Franta Belsky on the Turin Estate, Bethnal Green, part of the London County Council's Patronage of the Arts scheme to bring art to estates and schools.