London opera and classical music: April highlights

By CW Contributor on 28/3/2017

Baroque household names and contemporary classics, timeless favourites and shocking new productions: here's your guide to the must-see London classical music and opera this month

Cio-Cio-San and her maid Suzuki wait for years for the return of Pinkerton. Photograph: ROH/Mike Hoban

Madama Butterfly, Royal Opera House

Puccini’s tragic opera Madama Butterfly is a jewel in the crown of the Royal Opera House. This production, first staged in 2003, continues to offer one of the most ravishing spectacles at Covent Garden.

WHEN

23 Mar 2017 – 25 Apr 2017, 11 performances; times vary

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

The choir Tenebrae are at the heart of the first Holy Week Festival. Photograph: Chris O'Donovan

Holy Week Festival, St John's Smith Square

St John's Smith Square has become the place to go for atmospheric Christmas music, and now, for the first time, there is to be a festival of music suitable for Holy Week and Easter.

WHEN

09 Apr 2017 – 15 Apr 2017, times vary, 20 events

WHERE

St John's Smith Square
30 Smith Square, London , SW1P 3HF

German-born Handel lived in London for 36 years

London Handel Festival 2017

Every year the festival of all things George Frideric Handel celebrates not only the composer's vast and engaging output, but also his practice of encouraging new young performers.

WHEN

18 Mar 2017 – 24 Apr 2017, Times vary, 41 events

WHERE

St George's, Hanover Square
The Vestry, 2A Mill Street, Mayfair, London , W1S 1FX

The Little Baroque Company perform Bach's jokey songs in praise of caffeine

Bach's Coffee Cantata, Charterhouse

Blue hair, peacock mask, double-dealing .... it's not the usual image of JS Bach, but his Coffee Cantata is a little light relief from his more familiar sacred music. And three performances in the London Handel Festival will also admit Culture Whisper readers to the ancient Charterhouse.

WHEN

On 11 Apr 2017, Times vary: performances at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm

WHERE

The Charterhouse
Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6AN

An elegant after-show party turns sinister in The Exterminating Angel. Photograph: ROH

The Exterminating Angel, Royal Opera House

Thomas Adès is one of the most innovative and exciting contemporary composers, and all eyes will be on the British premiere of his new opera, The Exterminating Angel. A cultivated, glamorous in-crowd gathers in an elegant setting, but the evening takes a terrible turn.

WHEN

24 Apr 2017 – 08 May 2017, six performances; 7pm start 6 May

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Flora McIntosh as a desperate Romeo in I Capuleti e I Montecchi. Photograph: Richard Lakos

Pop-Up Opera, I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Many composers rose to the challenge of setting Shakespeare's great dramas to music, but few were as successful as Bellini, whose operatic Romeo and Juliet, I Montecchi e i Capuletti, is being staged by Pop-Up Opera.

WHEN

07 Mar 2017 – 05 Apr 2017, Times vary, six performances, various venues

The composer John Adams has helped shape American music. Photograph: Vern Evans

John Adams's Doctor Atomic, Barbican Hall

What went through the minds of the team that created the first atomic bomb? That's the question that this sage composer addresses in his important work from 2005, in a concert performance at the Barbican.

WHEN

On 25 Apr 2017, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS