It’s not often that contemporary classical music makes the headlines alongside rock, pop and R’n’B, but Thomas Adès’s opera The Tempest is a distinctive and deserving exception. In a glittering, red carpet ceremony in LA, the work took the 56th Grammy Award for best opera recording. The recording in question – a Deutsche Grammophon DVD of Robert Le Page’s extraordinary Tempest production featuring singers Simon Keenlyside, Isabel Leonard, Audrey Luna and Alan Oke, alongside Adès conducting – was recorded live at the Met in October 2012 during a run of performances that were heralded as ‘simply magnificent’, ‘sensual enchantment’ and a ‘reminder of why we go to the opera.’
‘Crikey,’ said Adès as he accepted the award, ‘it’s an honour to be nominated at all.’ He went on to thank the Met and its musicians, along with general manager Peter Gelb for screening the opera in cinemas around the world as part of the company’s Live in HD programme.