Vocal and Choral

There are six major opera performances in 2012. London’s two main opera companies, ENO and the Royal Opera, both perform complete operas for the first time in the same season, while Glyndebourne Festival Opera makes its annual appearance.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in a performance of Debussy’s iconic Pelléas et Mélisande (15 July).

The Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, present one of the Royal Opera’s signature works, Berlioz’s The Trojans, in a concert performance starring a dazzling international cast, led by tenor Jonas Kaufmann in the role of Aeneas (22 July).

Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta The Yeomen of the Guard receives its first complete Proms performance, which is given by the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Jane Glover (19 August).

Edward Gardner, Music Director of ENO, brings a concert performance of the company’s South Bank Show Awardwinning 2009 production of Britten’s Peter Grimes to the Proms. Stuart Skelton sings the title-role, alongside Amanda Roocroft as Ellen Orford (24 August).

Glyndebourne Festival Opera gives a semi-staging of its new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Michael Grandage. Robin Ticciati, GFO’s Music Director Designate, conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with a cast including former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Sally Matthews as the Countess (28 August).

John Adams conducts his groundbreaking opera Nixon in China with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and soloists including Robert Orth, James Rutherford, Alan Oke and Gerald Finley (5 September).

Major Choral Works

Elgar’s Coronation Ode closes the First Night of the Proms.Conducted by Edward Gardner and performed by the BBCSymphony Orchestra & Chorus with soloists Susan Gritton, Sarah Connolly, Robert Murray and Gerald Finley, the large-scale work is a fitting part of the celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Other large-scale choral works include: J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor performed by the Choir of The English Concert and The English Concert, conducted by Harry Bicket, with soloists Joélle Harvey, Malin Christensson, Iestyn Davies, Ed Lyon and Matthew Rose (2 August); Bernstein’s Mass performed by mainly Welsh forces, including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the National Youth Orchestra and Choir of Wales, Aelwyd y Waun Ddyfal and students from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, conducted by Kristjan Järvi (6 August); and the Proms premiere of Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, with soloists Miah Persson and Andrew Kennedy (29 August).

Further choral highlights include Berlioz’s Requiem (11 August) and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, which returns to the Proms for the first time in 10 years (12 August).

Oratorio

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Choir of Enlightenment, conducted by Laurence Cummings, present Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, with John Mark Ainsley in the title-role (19 July).

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and specially formed BBC Proms Youth Choir, conducted by David Robertson, perform Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, with soloists Measha Brueggergosman, Sarah Connolly, Paul Groves and Jubilant Sykes (1 August).

Elgar’s The Apostles is performed by the Hallé, Hallé Choir & Youth Choir and London Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, with a star-studded cast including Alice Coote and Rebecca Evans (10 August).

Musical Theatre

John Wilson returns to the Proms with two Broadway spectaculars in 2012: the classic musical My Fair Lady (14 July) and The Broadway Sound, a gala celebration featuring show-stoppers from popular musical theatre from the 1920s to the 1970s (27 August).

Elsewhere in the season, the Proms celebrates the music of Ivor Novello, one of the most successful composers of British musical theatre. Advocates of his work include conductor Sir Mark Elder and narrator Simon Callow, who, alongside the Hallé, lead the tribute to the composer in a Late Night Prom dedicated to his music (9 August).