Thursday 9 January 2014

VOTE NOW South Bank Breakthrough Award

VOTE NOW - voting ends tomorrow - for the South Bank Breakthrough Awards. Results will be unveiled later this month on Sky HD. These awards cover everything  - pop. TV, comedy, drama, visual arts and theatre.  Most interesting, though, is the South Bank Breakthrough Artists Award nominations because the choices don't favour the very rich and very famous. For opera and classical, the nominations are : Alessandro Talevi and Anna Clyne. HERE is a link to the voting form. 

Alessandro Talevi is the nominee for opera. Last October, he directed the Welsh National Opera's Roberto Devereux. "With this thrilling performance of Roberto Devereux ......The Welsh National Opera vindicates its decision to stage Donizetti's Tudor trilogy" said the Guardian.  For Opera North, he created Don Giovanni in 2012 and The Turn of the Screw in 2010. His productions have also been seen in Puglia, Central City Colorado (the hippest secret in the US opera world), Sweden and of course many, many times in London. His productions spring from an intuitive feel for the way music itself creates drama. A true original.

Anna Clyne is the nominee for classical music. Her Masquerade featured at the BBC Last Night of the Proms, when they were making a big splash to promote women artists. Here is an analysis by new music specialist 5:4.

Harrison Birtwistle and Thomas Adès are composers but they have to compete against a blogger – Alex Ross – for the main a award for classical music. That award is sponsored by the South Bank. Say no more. So I've chosen to vote for music instead, Thomas Adès's Totentanz  - real music - which I wrote about HERE.

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