Articles by Flora Willson

Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival review – ghostly echoes, fearless voices and the rattle of milk frothers

World and UK premieres launched the opening concerts of this compelling gala of new sounds, mixing precise ensemble play with electronic tracks and unlikely percussion sound effects

1 hours ago

World

Smyth’s Der Wald and Respighi’s Lucrezia review – Wagner’s spirit presides over double bill

The UK premiere of Respighi’s 1937 work was paired with Ethel Smyth’s dark and dramatic Der Wald, both imaginatively staged by Stephen Barlow

Nov 4, 2025

World

‘I’m good at doing pain’: soprano Ausrine Stundyte on trauma, adrenaline and playing a 300-year-old woman

As she prepares to star in Janáček’s The Makropulos Case for the Royal Opera, the great singer explains that she does not play ‘the happy, jumping, sexy lady’

Nov 3, 2025

Oum – A Son’s Quest for His Mother review – hybrid forces bring Bushra El-Turk’s haunting score to vivid life

A tour-de-force by actor Nadia Amin centres this tale of the inherited trauma of exile while a trio of singers virtuosically blend Middle Eastern and European operatic idioms

Oct 3, 2025