News

NOS Alive Festival in Portugal is offering pregnant women a safe viewing space facing the main stage this year. It claims the initiative is the "world's first" at an international festival and a "unique opportunity for new mothers who love music to help make their festival experience the best one".

A woman with a serious back condition has been told she is not assured a seat at Janelle Monae's concert in Manchester on Thursday, despite booking an accessible ticket months in advance. Manchester International Festival has a "first come, first served" policy for its accessible area and only wheelchair users are guaranteed a seat.

Guildford live music pub the Star Inn has sucessfully appealed an abatement notice issued last October following a complaint from the developer of nearby flats. The presiding judge described the planning advice given to the developer, which did not include a noise level report, as "unsatisfactory to say the least".

Co-Opera, a British opera and training company, is ending after 10 years in operation "due to one thing or another", founder Paul Need has announced. The company was established to fill a gap left by the closures of Kent Opera and New D'Oyly Carte and offer opportunities to young singers.

Shakespeare North Playhouse, which is now under construction, is already attracting new businesses and development to Prescot, Knowsley Council Leader Graham Morgan said. A new £4m commitment from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority brings the council's total investment in the theatre to £10.5m.

The 2019/20 season of the London classical concert series Borough New Music has been cancelled. Trustees said the current model needed to be rethought to make the programme sustainable, but since the organisation lacked the capacity to make the necessary changes, they "have been forced to adjourn".

Paul Whittaker will become the first person to sign Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in concert at London's Royal Festival Hall on Friday. The Halifax man said the performance is challenging but that it "brings together my musical knowledge and experience, my deafness, my use of sign language, and enables access for other deaf people".

State theatre companies in Germany are reluctantly fulfilling a request from the right wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to disclose the nationalities of their artists. The party's Deputy Leader Ranier Balzer said the question aimed to create "a realistic inventory of the status quo and an assessment of the quality of their own young artists in international comparison".