6 saturday review Saturday January 1 2022 | the times
Ultra Mono, they turned the anger inwards
on 2021’s Crawler, with far more interesting
results. One of the best live bands in the
UK. Touring Jan 16-Feb 5 (idlesband.com)Wet Leg
In June Chaise Longue became a phenome-
non. It’s a song about coming back from col-
lege and lounging about without much to
do, delivered in deadpan tones and a mini-here we go again
Abba live. Left: Peter
Grimes, coming to the
Royal Opera House.
Right: Billie Eilishmusicians. Each performance starts in the
cathedral, then moves to the bombed
ruins outside. Coventry Cathedral (coven-
try2021.co.uk), Jan 27-29Academy 200
London’s oldest conservatoire, the
Royal Academy of Music, celebrates its
bicentenary in 2022 with a host of per-
formances, including a two-year Bach
cantata series, Semyon Bychkov conduct-
ing Mahler’s Third Symphony, a perform-
ance of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen using the
autograph score in the academy’s collec-
tions, and a specially commissioned new
opera, WITCH, by Freya Waley-Cohen.
Royal Academy of Music, London NW1
(ram.ac.uk), Jan-JulComplete Nielsen
In his final season as the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor
Thomas Dausgaard returns to his Danish
roots with a complete cycle of Carl Niel-
sen’s symphonies. The opening concert
also contains a world premiere by 85-
year-old Erika Fox, who came to Britain
from Vienna as a child refugee. City Halls,
Glasgow (bbc.co.uk/bbcsso) Jan 13, May 12,
15, 19Pop
Idles
Punk has made a surprise comeback over
the past few years and one of the biggest
breakout successes has been this Bristol
five-piece. After going for all the obvious
targets (Brexiters etc) on their 2020 albumhighlights of 2022
Jump to it! From
Carlos Acosta’s
Don Quixote
to Abba’s Voyage
Opera
Peter Grimes
This is a “best of British” ensemble as Ben-
jamin Britten’s depiction of the Borough
returns to Covent Garden in a new pro-
duction by Deborah Warner, conducted
by Mark Elder, that has already been
acclaimed in Madrid. Allan Clayton tack-
les the immense title role, with support
from, among others, John Tomlinson as
Swallow and Bryn Terfel as Balstrode —
25 years after the Welshman last sang the
part in London. Royal Opera House,
London WC2 (roh.org.uk), Mar 17-31
The Wreckers
Ethel Smyth’s opera about illicit love
among a community of murderous Cor-
nish villagers was performed at Covent
Garden in 1910, but in the past 100 years
has dwindled to near obscurity on the
stage. Now Glyndebourne gives The
Wreckers its first professional British
staging for decades — albeit questionably
performed in its original French libretto.
Robin Ticciati conducts Melly
Still’s production. Glynde-
bourne Festival, Lewes
(glyndebourne.com),
May 21-Jun 24
Parsifal
Opera North
follows its stu-
pendous Ring
Cycle with its
first stab at
Wagner’s mys-
tical final
drama, again
conducted by
Richard Farnes
and again delivered
in a concert staging —
some Wagnerians prefer
this format to over-elaborate
productions, and they may well be
right. The cast features Toby Spence in the
title role and Brindley Sherratt as Gurne-
manz. Leeds Grand Theatre (operan-
orth.co.uk), Jun 1-10, then touring to Man-
chester, Nottingham, Gateshead and
London
Otello
It’s not all that many years since David
Alden directed Verdi’s late masterpiece
for English National Opera, but Grange
Park Opera promises that this Alden effort
is entirely new. It’s exciting to see the
soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn tackle the
role of Desdemona, playing against
Gwyn Hughes Jones’s jealous Moor. The
company is crowing most over Simon
Keenlyside, however — intriguing casting
as “honest” Iago. Theatre in the Woods,
West Horsley (grangeparkopera.co.uk),
Jun 19-Jul 9Migrations
Migrated from last summer comes Welsh
National Opera’s portmanteau opera by
Will Todd, telling six stories about the
UK’s history, stretching from the journey
of the Mayflower to the experiences of
Indian doctors working in the National
Health Service. Bollywood dancers and
a gospel choir will be joining WNO’s
chorus. Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
(wno.org.uk), Jun-Jul, exact dates TBC;
touring in the autumnClassical
Towards the Unknown Region
Manchester’s two symphony orchestras,
the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic,
jointly present a 150th-birthday celebra-
tion of Ralph Vaughan Williams. All nine
symphonies will be performed, and several
other masterpieces. The distin-
guished array of English
conductors comprises
Mark Wigglesworth,
Mark Elder, And-
rew Davis and
John Wilson.
Bridgewater
Hall, Manch-
ester (halle.
co.uk), Feb 26-
May 12LSO Futures
An action-
packed pro-
gramme from the
London Symphony
Orchestra features
no fewer than three pre-
mieres and two unmissable
soloists: Helen Grime’s Trumpet
Concerto (with Hakan Hardenberger),
Francisco Coll’s Violin Concerto (with Pa-
tricia Kopatchinskaja) and Joel Jarven-
tausta’s new, “solar-powered” Sunfall. And
just to round out the concert, two meaty
Richard Strauss tone poems. François-
Xavier Roth conducts. Barbican, London
EC2 (lso.co.uk), Apr 3Ghosts in the Ruins
The opening of Coventry Cathedral in
1962 was marked with the premiere of
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. To cele-
brate the 60th anniversary, and Coventry’s
year as City of Culture, Nitin Sawhney’s
Ghosts in the Ruins has been commis-
sioned for professional and communityguished array
conductors
MarkW
Mark
rew
Joh
Br
H
e
c
MLS
An
pac
gram
Londo
OOrchestr
no fewer th
mieres and two
soloists: Helen Grim
Concerto(with Hakan Han. Glynde-
Lewes
m),y
es
ered
ing —
ns prefer
er-elaborate
d they may well be
atures Toby Spencein the