Tosca; Patience
English Touring Opera’s spring season is shared between two very different popular operas. Blanche McIntyre stages Puccini’s Tosca, while Gilbert & Sullivan’s satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1880s is directed by Liam Steel.
Hackney Empire, E8, to 10 March
St Luke Passion
The Southbank Centre’s Belief And Beyond Belief festival provides the opportunity for a rare performance of one of the most celebrated choral works of the 1960s. Krzysztof Penderecki’s St Luke Passion epitomised the Polish avant-garde scene of the time. Here Vladimir Jurowski (pictured) conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Royal Festival Hall, SE1, 4 March
International Women’s Day
Xian Zhang, principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, takes charge of the orchestra’s celebration of International Women’s Day. There’s the world premiere of Kate Whitley’s Speak Out – a choral setting of Malala Yousafzai’s UN speech – alongside Mendelssohn’s Concerto For Piano, Violin And Strings and Zemlinsky’s tone poem The Little Mermaid.
BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, 8 March
Elgar festival
The Hallé celebrates the 70th birthday of its music director Mark Elder with concerts devoted to the composer he has championed more assiduously than any other. It includes the First Symphony, The Dream Of Gerontius and a multimedia exploration of the Enigma Variations.
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 9 to 12 Mar
Senza Sangue
Simone Young’s all-Hungarian programme with the BBC Symphony Orchestra pairs Bartók’s familiar Concerto For Orchestra with the UK premiere of Péter Eötvös’s 2015 one-act opera.
