String Quartet no2 is having a number of performances by the Ligeti string quartet. On Saturday May 5th they play it in York, in the Late Music series: www.latemusic.org

The concert is at 7.30 in the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate.

Also on May 5th, Carola Darwin (soprano) sings the scena 'But Stars Remaining' in a recital at the Crouch End Festival.

NEOS have released John Edward Kelly's superb performance of my Saxophone concerto. It is on NEOS10910 with Glazounov and Meyer concerti; Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, conductor Micha Hamel, soloist John Edward Kelly.

Dream Hunter received beautiful performances at Wilton's Music Hall, and was acclaimed by some very good reviews:

'an impressive new chamber opera by Nicola LeFanu.. Fuller's is a model libretto, inspiring responses and finding its fulfilment in LeFanu's sentient and highly charged music. Tracking the nerve system of each character, her score is both spiky with tension and, particularly in the voice of Catarina (delectably sung by Charmian Bedford) sensually melismatic.. these were quite some words, quite some music.

The subtlety of word and music makes this an irresistible 50 minutes that festival directors should be quick to take up.' The Times 06.02.2012

'LeFanu's little chamber ensemble encapsulates the different elements [of the story] with pin-point skill - the mystery, the danger, the repressed longings.' Financial Times 05.02.2012

'A tautly dramatic hour of intensely coloured, sinuous music. Director Carmen Jakobi produced some wonderfully fresh ideas.. the ensemble Lontano played with needle-sharp precision under the assured direction of Odaline de la Martinez.' The Observer 13.02.2012

'Beauty in all its operatic guises is at the heart of Nicola LeFanu's new opera 'Dream Hunter'..with its heady mixture of florid vocal lines, Mediterranean fervour, incantations to the moon and sexual awakening. Catarina's magnetic appeal is manifest in the beauty of her melismatic vocal part.. LeFanu's beautifully coloured score...is concerned with spinning a glittering web around the action.' TLS 24.02.2012

Dream Hunter is on at the wonderful Wilton's Music Hall, London E1 8JB: Thursday Feb. 2nd, Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th. Book now! 0207 702 2789. Hear a preview on BBC Radio 3, 'In Tune': Monday Jan. 30th at 4.30, and afterwards on iplayer.

Goldberg Ensemble Cd (NMC D174) with 'Amores' Horn Concerto, has been selected as one of his 'top ten' Cds of 2011 by Paul Driver in the Sunday Times.

October 25th: premiere of Dream Hunter in Aberystwyth; then touring to Swansea (Oct 27th) and Cardiff (Oct 29th).

October 31st: David Lumsdaine's 80th birthday

November 1st: free concert at 6pm  at the Royal Academy of Music  in London, to celebrate David's birthday.

Dream Hunter has a great cast:
Catarina: Charmian Bedford
Angela: Caryl Hughes
Sampiero: Brian Smith Walters
Domenico: Jeremy Huw Williams

Dream Hunter – a new chamber opera composed by Nicola LeFanu to a libretto by John Fuller – goes into rehearsal this week, and opens on October 25th 2011 at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Wales. 

Set in Corsica, the opera explores the ambiguity surrounding the mazzere - women gifted with the prescience of death. If they foresee death, do they also cause it? The men may hunt by day, but the women hunt in their dreams. Sampiero is betrothed to Angela, but it is her younger sister Catarina whom he wants. Courtships of desire, courtships of death: where is the borderline between fact and fancy? As the story unfolds, imagination and reality become entwined.

Lontano Ensemble is grateful for the support of the following organisations:

The Arts Council of Wales, the RVW Trust, the Britten Pears Foundation, The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Mercers Foundation, The PRS Foundation and the Mornington Trust.

The opera centres on Catarina and her growing awareness of her powers. It turns on this collision of two worlds: the world of dreams, where our fantasy knows no bounds, and the real world where our actions will be judged. As the story unfolds, imagination and reality become entwined.

John Fuller, is renowned as a poet and storyteller. He divides his time between his house in Wales, and Oxford, where he is a College Fellow.

Dream Hunter is Nicola LeFanu’s seventh opera, following the critically acclaimed Light Passing.

Order tickets online