Empty main auditorium at the Royal Albert Hall.

The best opera and classical music in July 2020—BBC Proms and Bavarian State Opera

Plus Tanglewood Online Festival in Massachusetts—with Joshua Bell and Yo-Yo Ma
June 6, 2020
Tanglewood Online Festival, bso.org

While the Tanglewood festival in Massachusetts is cancelled, the online version offers a mixture of new and archive, audio and filmed performances. The line-up includes pianists Daniil Trifonov and Emanuel Ax, violinists Joshua Bell and Pinchas Zukerman and Yo-Yo Ma. On Wednesday evenings there will be performances by Brooklyn Rider, the Danish String Quartet and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Stick around for Boston Pops concerts hosted by James Taylor.

Bavarian State Opera: Monday Concerts, staatsoper.de

Tickets to Munich’s opulent Bavarian State Opera don’t come cheap, so don’t miss the chance to attend for free this summer. In addition to a small archive of filmed productions, the company is presenting a regular series of Monday concerts, broadcast live from the opera house itself. The July programme has yet to be released, but previous artists have included Jonas Kaufmann and Christian Gerhaher, violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Igor Levit.

The BBC Proms, bbc.co.uk/proms, from 17th July

The BBC Proms offers the first green shoot of hope for late summer. While the first six weeks of the festival will involve broadcasts of archive performances, with a Grand Virtual Orchestra launching the First Night, the last two weeks see the first live performances—putting soloists and ensembles in the Royal Albert Hall for socially distanced performances broadcast to viewers at home.