Victorian Opera Northwest's latest recording is now available.

The orchestra of Victorian Opera Northwest under Richard Bonynge have recorded a number of Victorian English opera overtures and they are now available on SOMM CD 0123 : British Opera Overtures. More detail on the content can be found here.

A festival of exhibitions, talks, and recitals on this composer's bi-centenary culminated in a Gala Concert held on 22 September, 2012 in the city of Ballina where William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865) spent his childhood years. The programme contained some rarities of songs, choral and ensemble pieces, a highlight of which was the inclusion of a charming vocal number from the forgotten opera, Matilda of Hungary.

The DVD is well defined and has good sound. Its running time is 128 mins and the cost (including p&p) is 11.35 euros (Ireland), 12 euros  (UK/USA). For more details or to purchase, please contact Terry Reilly, terryreilly@eircom.net or Pat Diamond, pat.diamond1@gmail.com or write to Pat Diamond, Rathkip, Ballina, Co Mayo, Ireland.

To mark the bi-centenary of the Irish composer William Vincent Wallace a new biography has been published by Dr Andrew Lamb entitled William Vincent Wallace (Fullers Wood Press, 2012). See here for details of availability.

Wallace, the son of a military bandmaster, showed his entrepreneurial flair at a young age and though having a limited formal musical education mastered harmony and compositional skills becoming a lead violinist in Dublin and London theatre orchestras. He emigrated to Australia, travelled the Americas and ended up an American citizen before ending his days in France. The biography reveals fascinating facts about this colourful composer that have been overlooked or distorted by earlier biographers.

Victorian Opera Northwest's recording of Macfarren's Robin Hood has been released on Naxos 8.660306-07. John France in a MusicWeb International review wrote "This is a CD that all opera fans ought to have. Some people will ignore it simply because it was written by an Englishman during Queen Victoria's reign. They would be utterly misguided to do so. This is a great work; possibly the composer's masterpiece and is a light opera (not operetta) that can hold its best up against anything offered by the Italians and the French and the Germans from the same period."   Further details on the recording may be found here.