#bbc-proms

#bbc-proms

The artwork for The Dream of Gerontius Recorded live at the 2022 BBC Proms, this propulsive reading has a great deal going for it. Allan Clayton captures the febrile nature of the dying man whose every sensation is both a terror and a fascination. His heroic tone thrills in the great prayer, Sanctus Fortis, while an expressive use of text illuminates the philosophical question and answer session in Part Two.

In her younger years, Annie Clark, the forty-three-year-old singer-songwriter who performs as St. Vincent, was twice mistaken for a prostitute at the Carlyle hotel. The first instance was an outgrowth of her sketchy sublet arrangement. While she lived in a rent-controlled apartment in the East Village, the man who actually held the lease led an itinerant life of luxury, staying at the Carlyle when he was in town.

bringing with it the weight of tradition: a reminder that opera at the Proms has always been about making the grand feel accessible, and the intimate feel expansive. In the vast space of the Royal Albert Hall, the familiar overture races ahead with its restless wit, and suddenly an opera written for the intimacy of late-18th-century Vienna came alive again for thousands of listeners under a single domed roof and for many, many more live on Radio 3.