Following their sold-out 2022 recital, “The Composer in Hollywood”, soprano Anush Hovhannisyan and singer-pianist Sam Jewison return to the Royal Opera House on Monday 29th January with the next in their series of concerts exploring the golden age of American music.

“The Composer on Broadway” celebrates the master innovators of musical theatre, who drew together the traditions of opera and operetta, as well as popular song and jazz, to create a truly captivating, all-American art form. These now-legendary composers were inspired by and wrote for a broad range of singers, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s casting of renowned Italian operatic baritone Ezio Pinza in “South Pacific”, to Cole Porter’s writing for famed vocal powerhouse Ethel Merman, and everything in-between. This irresistible vocal cross-section is represented by Hovhannisyan and Jewison, as they tour the crème-de-la-crème of classic musical theatre, including selections from “Carousel”, “West Side Story”, “Porgy and Bess”, “My Fair Lady”, and many more.

The stirring overtures and evocative ballet sequences of the great Broadway composers have made their way into the core repertoire of orchestras worldwide, beloved by audiences and musicians alike. A handful of notables even reached beyond the confines of the theatre, writing music specifically for the concert hall. Perhaps the two most famous names are Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin, with highlights from the latter’s 1924 work “Rhapsody in Blue” being performed this afternoon one-hundred years after its premiere at Aeolian Hall in New York.

Monday 29th January 2024, 1pm
Royal Opera House, London
Tickets available at: https://bit.ly/3RSMCOl