Geoffrey Álvarez: St Paul’s Shipwreck British-Nicaraguan composer Geoffrey Álvarez (b. 1961) studied at the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of York, studying with David Blake and Richard Orton. He writes

The mythology of classical music is full of so-called geniuses, but these geniuses often committed horrible acts. From stalking to abusing to committing murder, these composers caused real harm in the lives of the people around them. Today, we’re looking

Explore Francesco Cavalli’s Legacy 350 Years After His Death When Francesco Cavalli died in Venice on 14 January 1676, opera had already become something recognisably modern. It was dramatic, flexible, emotionally direct, and unmistakably human. More than any composer of

In today’s world, a viral hit spreads in hours. In the late seventeenth century, it could take years or even decades for music to travel. And yet some works achieved a level of popularity that crossed borders, languages, and social

In pop and folk music, songwriters collaborating is standard practice. However, in classical music, credit for a single work usually goes to a single composer. And although it’s true that a lot of classical music has been written by just

In a previous article, we looked at how Debussy, Satie and Ravel changed the direction of music, one would say, forever. If they were all contemporaries of each other, and interacting with each other would have directly influenced the development

Francis Poulenc, the enfant terrible of French music, never did anything halfway. When he composed Les mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias) in 1947, he didn’t merely write an opera. Instead he wrote a cheeky, whirlwind rebellion against societal norms, gender

For many years, Franz Liszt was a bohemian. Unsurprisingly, given his playboy reputation, he never married. However, he did have two long-term relationships that were very much like marriages: one with Countess Marie d’Agoult from the ages of 22 to