SOMM Recordings is to release a double CD set of Stanford’s last opera, The Travelling Companion on September 27th, 2019. This is the first commercial recording of any of Stanford’s nine completed operas.
The recording was made by SOMM during a live performance of the opera by the New Sussex Opera (NSO) conducted by Toby Purser, at the Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden on December 2nd, 2018. Both the NSO production and recording of The Travelling Companion were supported by the Stanford Society.
See the Stanford Society website for press reviews of the NSO production of The Travelling Companion.
The NSO production was also nominated in the Best Rediscovered Opera of 2018 category by the International Opera Awards. It was a great honour for The Travelling Companion to be nominated for one of these prestigious awards. It lost out at the Awards Ceremony on April 29th, 2019 to Hasse’s opera Artaserse in a production by the Australian opera company, Pinchgut. We hope that the SOMM recording of The Travelling Companion will be nominated in the Best Opera Recording category in 2020.
