Podcast appearances and mentions of alexandra coghlan

Helen Charlston has recorded her first entirely solo album for Delphian, for which she was joined by the theorbo player Toby Carr. 'Battle Cry: She Speaks' combines music of the 17th century with a new work written for her by Owain Park, 'Battle Cry', which gives the album its title. James Jolly caught up with her to talk about the album and find out about what's coming up from this much sought-after young singer. A BBC New Generation artist, Helen won First Prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 2017-19. Her first album for Delphian, mainly of duets with her soon-to-be-husband Michael Craddock, was 'The Isolation Songbook', warmly welcomed by Gramophone's Alexandra Coghlan who wrote that 'the results are varied, from comic miniatures to distilled dramas and contemplative outpourings, but together add up to a recital that's hard to resist, at once fresh and profoundly familiar'.

Announced by Theresa May in 2018 and quickly dubbed the “Festival of Brexit”, submissions are now being made for the UK government funded £120 million festival that will celebrate British creativity in 2022. Creative director Martin Green tells us what kind of projects and ideas he’s looking for. Succession creator Jesse Armstrong on winning the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series at last night's awards. English National Opera are staging Europe’s first drive-in opera, Puccini’s La Bohème, at London’s Alexandra Palace, where the audience watch the singers from their cars. Will this be an exciting new way to experience opera? Alexandra Coghlan reviews. Writer Gwyneth Hughes discusses her new ITV drama, Honour, starring Keeley Hawes. It’s the story of the real-life detective who brought five killers to justice after the so-called honour killing of Banaz Mahmod, a 20 year old Iraqi Kurdish woman from Mitcham, south London, who was murdered for falling in love with the wrong man. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins Studio Manager: Donald McDonald Main image: Soraya Mafi in ENO La bohème (c) Lloyd Winters, Courtesy ENO

The Venice Film Festival is currently underway, featuring films we’ll be seeing on our screens over the coming months. Jason Solomons is just back from the city and discusses the films to look out for and which to avoid! In light of some of the critical reaction to Christopher Nolan's new film Tenet, which found the film to be confusing and difficult to follow, we ask how much do you have to understand a work of art, be it a film, a complex poem, a piece of atonal music to enjoy enjoy it? Novelist Louise Doughty, music scholar and critic Alexandra Coghlan and film critic Jason Solomons discuss. When Benjamin Grosvenor first played at The Proms in 2011, he was just 19 and the youngest musician to give a solo recital. On Wednesday he’ll be back at London’s Royal Albert Hall performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto #1 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra but under Covid 19 restrictions – a socially distanced orchestra and without an audience. Benjamin talks to Front Row about taking a break from the piano under lockdown, setting up his own music festival in Bromley, South London, Shostakovich and the thrill of playing live. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

This month, we explore the drama, cathartic beauty and—sometimes—silliness that comes with the art form that is opera. Classical music journalist Alexandra Coghlan offers beginner tips on which works to start with, how to watch them, what to look out for at the performance and even what to wear (spoiler alert: even flip flops are acceptable!).  From the giddy joys of Mozart to the soul-crushing emotional overdrive of Tchaikovsky, via the intricate complexities of Britten, there's something for everyone in opera, as Alexandra explains. All you need is an open mind and the willingness to be swept away into a stirring world of drama, passion and adventure. 

Lewis Carter and Alexandra Coghlan of EcoGames discuss an innovative new social enterprise they’ve created to engage, educate and inspire people, while funding important conservation of world heritage sites such as The Great Barrier Reef.

Alexandra Coghlan recommends recordings of music by Orlando Gibbons

The Artist's Way is a creative self-help book that has sold over 4 million copies and garnered dedicated fans around the world. As part of Front Row's Inspire season we speak to its author Julia Cameron who explains the philosophy behind her 12 week programme and answers listener's questions. Stephen Mangan stars as an online therapist in new Channel 4 comedy Hang Ups, loosely based on US series Web Therapy starring Lisa Kudrow. Mangan, co-wrote and produced the series, which also features Katherine Parkinson, David Tennant, Charles Dance and Celia Imrie. Critic Emma Bullimore reviews. As part of the 2018 BBC Proms, yesterday saw Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos - each with their own different and distinctive orchestration - performed alongside six newly commissioned companion works. Music journalist and critic Alexandra Coghlan has the Front Row verdict. To mark Jamaican Independence Day, award-winning poet Kei Miller chooses his favourite piece by poets from his home country.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Jack Soper.

‘It’s romantic opera, reinvented for the twenty-first century.’ In this episode of the Glyndebourne podcast we explore Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Vanessa, a story of longing, loss and manipulation set to a sumptuous score. Contributions come from critic David Benedict, opera director Keith Warner and Alexandra Coghlan, Glyndebourne’s Opera Content Specialist. Presenter: Katie Derham Produced by Katherine Godfrey for Whistledown Productions for Glyndebourne Festival 2018 The music in this podcast is from the Chandos and BBC Co-production of Vanessa. Music courtesy of G. Schirmer Inc (Chester Music Ltd). Leonard Slatkin conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the role of Vanessa is performed by Christine Brewer with Susan Graham as Erika, Catherine Wyn-Rogers as The Old Baroness and William Burden as Anatol. Image: Shadric Toop painted collage Images: Wikimedia Commons

When the Empire Windrush docked, the first contribution of the arrivals from the Caribbean was cultural - Lord Kitchener singing his calypso "London is the Place for Me". Stig Abell talks to publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove and calypsonian Alexander D Great about the artistic contribution of the Windrush Generation, and their offspring. Alexander sings 'After the Windrush', a new calypso written especially for Front Row.Comedian David Walliams pays tribute to his friend the television presenter Dale Winton who has died. Known for his warmth and unpretentious style he presented many programmes including Supermarket Sweep, Pet Win Prizes and In It To Win It. As the BBC Proms 2018 season is announced, music critic Alexandra Coghlan assesses this year's offerings.Imtiaz Dharker is an interesting mixture, she grew up as a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household - in Glasgow. So she has plenty to draw on as a poet. She talks about and reads from her new collection 'Luck is the Hook'. Her poems range widely and intriguingly, and include one about an elephant walking on the Thames.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Edwina Pitman.

Alexandra Coghlan recommends recordings of Thomas Tallis' The Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Playwright David Hare talks to Samira about his latest television drama Collateral, a series that begins like a police procedural but drifts into a state-of-the-nation thriller. Carey Mulligan stars as a police detective whose investigation into the shooting of a pizza delivery man has spiraling repercussions. Carmen is opera's greatest femme fatale, the sexually liberated cigarette factory worker killed by her spurned lover. Opera critic Alexandra Coghlan and opera historian Flora Willson discuss how we view Carmen in the 21st Century, as two new productions - at the Royal Opera House and in Florence - re-interpret this mythic heroine. John Burningham, author and illustrator of Mr Gumpy's Outing, and Helen Oxenbury, the illustrator of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, have been announced as the joint winners of the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award. Their books are family friends to many children - and adults. They talk about how they work, their distinctive styles and the secrets of their long marriage.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Edwina Pitman

The actor and one-time theology student James Norton discusses his role as Alex Godman in new TV thriller McMafia. His character begins the series as a public advocate of clean capitalism with his own hedge fund investing only in ethical business, but Alex can't escape his Russian family connections and slowly gets drawn into the dangerous world of international organised crime and corruption. Penny Martin, editor of The Gentlewoman, and Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, deputy editor of gal-dem magazine, discuss the agendas of their respective publications and the independent magazine landscape, which is vibrant and culturally significant.You love opera and would love to nurture such love in a loved one: music critics Norman Lebrecht and Alexandra Coghlan are at hand to help, offering their choices of a recording of an opera to entice the reluctant and a cracker available on a DVD. The Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton is staging The Jungle Book. It's impossible, but try to put 'I'm the King of the Swingers' out of your mind. This is a new musical with songs and a score by Joe Stilgoe (yes, son of...), which looks beyond Walt Disney to Rudyard Kipling and his stories about Mowgli, the boy brought up by wolves, and finds in them themes for our times: the complexities of cultural identity in a diverse world, what the Law of the Jungle means and where the Jungle might be. And Joe performs the song he has written for Baloo the Bear, live in the Front Row studio.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May.

Yesterday saw the announcement of the death Rodney Bewes, the actor most fondly remembered playing the aspirational Bob in the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads. His co-star from the series James Bolam talks about working with Bewes in one of sitcom's most famous double-acts and the supposed feud between the two.As Gilbert & George celebrate 50 years of living and working together, Kirsty visits them at their Spitalfields home and studio to discuss their career, a new exhibition called The Beard Pictures and a new book, What is Gilbert & George?Marnie, the book by Winston Graham that inspired Hitchcock's thriller of the same name, has now inspired composer and opera wunderkind Nico Muhly to create his third opera, also called Marnie. Music critic Alexandra Coghlan attended its world premiere at English National Opera and reviews. Plus we ask music critic Norman Lebrecht to discuss whether opera has become a derivative art form, and we pay tribute to Russian opera bass-baritone, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who has died at the age of 55.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Julian May.

Alexandra Coghlan recommends the best recording of Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem

Alexandra Coghlan (writer and critic) hosts a panel discussion with Gergely Madaras, Rachel Brown and Masumi Nagasawa introducing The Grand Tour: Vienna and Paris.Recorded live at Milton Court Concert Hall, London.