Plans

Tomorrow we're off to Canterbury to see the opera King at Canterbury Cathedral. Written by Stephen Barlow (who is also conducting), the opera deals with the relationship of Beckett and Henry II. The libretto is by the performance poet, Philip Wells who is also performing in the piece, along with Philip Joll as Beckett. Performers include the cathedral choir and a sitar player. It sounds fascinating.

This Month's Opera Magazine

Opera magazine has just come winging its way through may letter box. There's an interesting article about Peter Gelb's new regime at the New York Met; it makes it sound very promising and hardly the bugbear that people threatened.

One the newsdesk page there is a report about a proposed critical discography of Heddle Nash; it seems the compilers are looking for information about recordings. I hardly imagine they'd be interested in hearing about my Mother's reminiscences of hearing the aged singer appearing very late in his career as Faust in a amateur/semi-pro. production in Cleethorpes. Mum was very scathing about his ability to play the young hero and preferred his records.

There is a rather short obituary for soprano Anna Moffo; we really only came across her late on in her career whilst we were students in Manchester in the early 1970's. Her recording of Massenet's Thais was a bitter disappointment.

Andrew Clements's review of Sir John in Love was a little disappointing, though its obvious he was trying very hard to be fair. It would have been interesting to have had 2 different views in parallel. I'm interested to read Rodney Milnes's bad reaction to Hercules at the Barbican; I had to miss it but David went and was not very thrilled.

Sarah Connolly's appearance as Octavian in the Scottish Opera Rosenkavalier in October is almost worth making the trip up there for. But I don't think I'll be pining to hear Placido Domingo sing Tamerlano at the 2008 Salzburg Festival - I presume he's singing the role of Bajazet, which would be no draw. I wonder if this entry could be right. Rosalind Plowright is singing Mother in a Chandos recording of Hansel and Gretel, presumably this will be in English.

We've just had an order for a set of copies for my Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus, a work which was originally written for 2-part choir and organ (though there is now a 4-part version as well), based on the Veni Sancte Spiritus plainchant. Its funny re-visiting old pieces; the Agnus Dei from the mass remains one of my favourite movements, despite its simplicity. There's a PDF of is here. Further details about the mass from the Spherical Editions website here

Another correspondent has posted Comments about Luc Arbogast, it is remarkable how much interest this fine performer has generated on the web. Lets hope that that translates into people buying his record (more details here).

A couple of friends braved the early morning start last week and attended the University of Oxford's service which uses the 1670 Book of Common Prayer in Latin. During the Elizabethan period Oxford, Cambridge, Eton and Winchester were licensed to use a Latin version of the prayerbook on the basis that their inhabitants would know enough Latin to follow the service. Oxford continues this tradition with one service per term. My friends, one Anglican and one Catholic, found the service fascinating. Though another acquaintaince did comment that he found the idea of the service a little disturbing as Cranmer had fought against the use of Latin. I suppose the issue comes down to one of comprehensibility.

At the BCP service (in English) which we attended at Hampton Court (in March) I was struck by the wonderfully musicality of the administering of communion, the 3 priests recited the rather long rubric in a sort of rhythmical canon that was entrancing and hypnotic. I'd love to be able to reproduce the effect in a piece of music, but feel it would be difficult to get the exact combination of spontaneity and formal construction that seems to have happened naturally with all the priests falling into reciting the text in the same rhythm but at different times.

Recent CD Review

My review of Stokowski conducting excerpts from Saint-Saens's opera, Samson et Dalila is here on Music and Vision; the review includes sound-bites from the recording.

Review of Orfeo

My review of Saturday's performance of Orfeo is here at Music and Vision; its complete with photographs of the production.

Review of La Belle Helene

Laurent Pelly’s production of Offenbach’s La Belle Helene has already been seen in Paris (at the Chatelet Theatre) and in Santa Fe, it has also made it to CD and to DVD. Now the production has come to the London Coliseum under the auspices of English National Opera. The problem with much travelled productions is that a degree of coarseness can creep in with each revival. But Laurent Pelly is a fine director who, together with his regular associate director Agathe Melinand, oversees not only the production but the actual edition of the spoken text. For the original Chatelet production of La Belle Helene Agathe Melinand produced her own edition of the dialogue, as she did for her and Pelly’s subsequent collaborations on La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein (again Chatelet Theatre) and Le Roi Malgre Lui (Lyons Opera). So obviously Melinand and Pelly take careful note of the tone of the spoken word.

Inevitably, whilst listening to Kit Hesketh Harvey’s English translation at ENO last night, this lead to me wonder how good Melinand and Pelly’s English was and how much control they had over the intensely jokey tone of Harvey’s translation. Full of puns and modern references, it rather tipped the production a little too far in the direction of Gilbert and Sullivan, which is not what you want when trying to produce Offenbach in the UK.

But Pelly (and Harvey’s) problem with this operetta is that when originally produced it satirised the moeurs of the court of Napoleon III in terms of classical mythology. It was written for an audience who could be presumed to know classical mythology well. If you take away the Napoleon III satire and have to apply an extremely broad brush to the classical mythology then what you are left with is a romp.

Most of the critics complained that this incarnation of Pelly’s production was too end of the pier, to English romp. But it IS a romp and you can hardly expect ENO to acquire the sort of French chic style which was presumably in evidence at the original production (We did not see La Belle Helene in France but we did see La Grande Duchesse).

It does not help that Pelly seems to be applying three different treatments to the opera rather than one consistent attitude. The overture starts in the Spartan Royal Bedroom and all of Act1 remains there, with Helene and Menelaus in bed for much of the time. Costumes are an endearing mixture of Greek and nightwear. The bed makes an appearance in each act. For Act 2 we still have the bed, after all it is Helene’s boudoir. But we have a selection of ruins which are being conserved by modern archaeologists, cue a ballet for the archaeologists at the opening of the act. The chorus are modern day tourists, complete with tour guide. When Helene addresses her parents she looks at the conserved remains of a mosaic of Leda and the Swan. For the final act everything takes place at the modern Greek seaside and Paris appears from the flies, using the bed as a boat!

Pelly treats each number to its own routine and though there is an overall coherence of tone, there was a sense of a sequence of fascinating production numbers. The dancing sheep during Paris and Helene’s duet were notable, but I also liked the swimming ballet which opened Act 3.

As Helene, Dame Felicity Lott looked fabulous and had a secure feel for the requisite style and delivered her dialogue to the manner born. Unfortunately the role is slightly low for her so she sounded underpowered to the vast cave of the Coliseum. Still, she incarnated the most beautiful woman in the world with consummate ease. As Paris, Toby Spence proved to have a nice line in comedy, treating the role with due seriousness (as is appropriate) and never having to resort to sending himself up. He was generous with giving us views of his well developed, shirtless torso and at one point stripped down to his underpants, to no very good reason but I shan’t complain! His voice was noticeable more powerful than Lott’s but they made a handsome couple and did convince as a pair of lovers.

As Helene’s put upon husband Menelaus, Bonaventura Bottone impressed; it was funny to see him as a middle aged man (complete with his own naturally grey hair and bald patch) rather than a young lover. But he made Menelaus a sympathetic butt for the jokes. Steven Page impressed as Calchas, though he was lumbered with an awful hairy wig.

The 4 Kings similarly suffered so it was tricky to tell them apart. I feel that Pelly the director and Pelly the costume designer could have done more to characterise the 4 of them differently. As it was you felt that singers as talented as David Kempster (Agamemmnon), Leigh Melrose (Achilles) and John Graham-Hall (Ajax I) were a little wasted. Leah Martin Jones made a fine, laddish Orestes constantly with a pair of courtesans on his arms.

The orchestra was relatively small in size and, under Emmanuel Joel’s direction, delivered up a sparkling account of the score. All in all this was an enjoyable evening, and if we did not always appreciate Kit Hesketh Harvey’s jokes, the audience around us did.

Recent CD Review

My review of settings of Elizabethan poetry sung by the Clerks of Christchurch is here on MusicWeb International.

Deserves to be heard for Pantcheff's settings of Elizabethan lyrics; the
accompanying items are attractively done even if you might question
their necessity in the programme. ...

My new PC (just over a year old) is still in at the menders, though they have told me that they have not found anything. Rather worrying, looks as if I'll have to live with a PC which keeps switching itself off at random intervals. I can't face paying yet another person to look at it.

So, currently I'm using my old PC (a venerable Windows 98 machine). This means, of course, that the new pieces I'm doing existing in fragmented form split between the old and the new pc's. So, as and when I manage to get the new one back I will have the delightful task of re-integrating the music.

I've finished the first major draft of the new piece for London Concord Singers 40th anniversary concert in November, 3 lighthearted movements setting secular Latin. I'm rather please with it and can't wait to have it all in one place to try out properly. I've even managed to come up with a half decent tonal scheme for the 3 movements; yes, I've actually managed to write a piece that stays in recognisable keys rather than wandering about and there's no polytonality.

The other piece is a new orchestral piece, something to try just to see if I can. Its a tone poem based on a Sylvia Townsend Warner short story about Welsh fairies, so the piece is currently loosely titled either Fairies and Faith or Of Fairies, Faith and Mountains. I've got the Welsh bit started, using David of the White Rock and have some Tippett-y Midsummer Marriage like bits for the Fairies. I'm just finishing drafting this section and am about to move onto the Faith bit, where St. Patrick gives them a sermon about Faith moving Mountains. I've sketched out a section using the Hymn tune, St. Patrick's Breastplate, though I've yet to work out if I can make sense of my sketches as they are all in manuscript. I've not yet got far enough to see if the thing makes sense, I'll report back.

My new PC (just over a year old) is still in at the menders, though they have told me that they have not found anything. Rather worrying, looks as if I'll have to live with a PC which keeps switching itself off at random intervals. I can't face paying yet another person to look at it.

So, currently I'm using my old PC (a venerable Windows 98 machine). This means, of course, that the new pieces I'm doing existing in fragmented form split between the old and the new pc's. So, as and when I manage to get the new one back I will have the delightful task of re-integrating the music.

I've finished the first major draft of the new piece for London Concord Singers 40th anniversary concert in November, 3 lighthearted movements setting secular Latin. I'm rather please with it and can't wait to have it all in one place to try out properly. I've even managed to come up with a half decent tonal scheme for the 3 movements; yes, I've actually managed to write a piece that stays in recognisable keys rather than wandering about and there's no polytonality.

The other piece is a new orchestral piece, something to try just to see if I can. Its a tone poem based on a Sylvia Townsend Warner short story about Welsh fairies, so the piece is currently loosely titled either Fairies and Faith or Of Fairies, Faith and Mountains. I've got the Welsh bit started, using David of the White Rock and have some Tippett-y Midsummer Marriage like bits for the Fairies. I'm just finishing drafting this section and am about to move onto the Faith bit, where St. Patrick gives them a sermon about Faith moving Mountains. I've sketched out a section using the Hymn tune, St. Patrick's Breastplate, though I've yet to work out if I can make sense of my sketches as they are all in manuscript. I've not yet got far enough to see if the thing makes sense, I'll report back.

My new PC (just over a year old) is still in at the menders, though they have told me that they have not found anything. Rather worrying, looks as if I'll have to live with a PC which keeps switching itself off at random intervals. I can't face paying yet another person to look at it.

So, currently I'm using my old PC (a venerable Windows 98 machine). This means, of course, that the new pieces I'm doing existing in fragmented form split between the old and the new pc's. So, as and when I manage to get the new one back I will have the delightful task of re-integrating the music.

I've finished the first major draft of the new piece for London Concord Singers 40th anniversary concert in November, 3 lighthearted movements setting secular Latin. I'm rather please with it and can't wait to have it all in one place to try out properly. I've even managed to come up with a half decent tonal scheme for the 3 movements; yes, I've actually managed to write a piece that stays in recognisable keys rather than wandering about and there's no polytonality.

The other piece is a new orchestral piece, something to try just to see if I can. Its a tone poem based on a Sylvia Townsend Warner short story about Welsh fairies, so the piece is currently loosely titled either Fairies and Faith or Of Fairies, Faith and Mountains. I've got the Welsh bit started, using David of the White Rock and have some Tippett-y Midsummer Marriage like bits for the Fairies. I'm just finishing drafting this section and am about to move onto the Faith bit, where St. Patrick gives them a sermon about Faith moving Mountains. I've sketched out a section using the Hymn tune, St. Patrick's Breastplate, though I've yet to work out if I can make sense of my sketches as they are all in manuscript. I've not yet got far enough to see if the thing makes sense, I'll report back.

Recent CD review

My review of the recent disc devoted to the choral music of Carl Orff and his contemporaries is here on MusicWeb International.

A fascinating recital that enables us to explore Carl Orff’s world. ...

Solomon again

I have been taken to task, in an anonymous comment added to my posting about my review of Solomon, here. The commentator seems to misunderstand why I brought in comparisons between David Daniels, Andreas Scholl and David Hansen (who sang the title role in the concert). I don't think it is adequate, in a review, to simply write counter-tenor against someone's voice type and leave the reader to work things out further. The counter-tenor voice is so varied that you need to be able to characterise the singer further, just as I would say if someone was a lyric, dramatic soprano etc. So my mentioning of Daniels and Scholl was not intended to be a stick with which to beat Hansen, a singer of fine artistry whose performance stood up for itself; I was merely trying to describe Hansen's voice.

And the reason that I harp on about voice types with the role of Solomon (rather than the entire cast) is that Handel did not write the role for a counter-tenor or a castrato, but for a woman. (And I have actually heard Scholl sing the role live, quite, quite beautifully).

Don Carlos (again)

My discs of Don Carlos have come! This morning, we listened to the first disc of the Opera Rara re-issue of the BBC recording. The sound quality is not superb, because the acoustic of the original recording does leave something to be desired. But the singers all give the piece a wonderful French feel, it certainly does not sound like standard mainstream European Italian Verdi, which is a good thing. More anon. when I've listened to the whole set properly.

My computer is in dock again, despite last week's work it still keeps switching itself off. I get nervous about losing work and have been furiously copying new music to a flash drive. It's rather annoying that I don't have access to Finale as I've been motoring through a new piece for London Concord Singer's 40th anniversary concert in November. I've done settings of 3 light-hearted Latin lyrics and have tried to deliver something which is faster and more up-beat than my usual style; after all it is a celebration! The pieces came out rather quickly and I have got them written out in a mixture of Finale printouts and manuscript. I'm now desperate to finalise the pieces, but I'm going to have to wait aren't I!

Tonight I'm singing at the Maundy Thursday Service at St. Mary's Cadogan Street. Its a fascinating service which starts with the celebrant washing the feet of a dozen men and women; then ending with translation of the consecrated host from the altar to a side altar so that the high altar is empty for Good Friday.

Review of Solomon

My review of Handels' Solomon at the Barbican with Rene Jacobs conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is here on Music and Vision.

Critical Choice

You go to a concert, which you enjoy greatly and then the next day read the reviews and find that the critics seem to have been at a different concert. Or even worse, you have tickets for the opera and the reviews come out; do you believe the critics and abandon your trip, or risk it.

Quite often, I find myself at odds with one critic or another. It is truly amazing that people can have such a varied response to the same event. It happens, of course, because we all have different bug-bears and this comes out in the reviews. What to one person is a slight annoyance or even a positive virtue, is something horrible to another. My own bug-bear is the question of authenticity and editions, so going to something like Verdi's Don Carlo I can get rather hung up on exactly what we are hearing, and get positively livid if the programme book does not tell you in great detail. Similarly with Handelian Opera Seria the edition used and the attitude to da capo arias is very important. I realise that productions of baroque opera which appeal to me quite often seem unreservedly boring to others. And vice versa, David McVicar's production of Guilio Cesare, which received a degree of critical acclaim, seemed to David and I to be full of awful crowd-pleasing moments which destroyed Handel's drama. So you can't please everyone.

A fascinating example of this was the recent performance of Henry and Daniel Purcell's music for The Indian Queen which Philip Pickett and the New London Consort gave at the South Bank the other day. Richard Morrison's review in the Times caught my eye because his turn of phrase was so memorable; so when I spotted Tim Ashley in the Guardian having exactly the opposite view, then I was transfixed.

Tim Ashley in The Guardian said: The playing was fabulous, the singing faultless, and the whole thing revealed The Indian Queen to be, if not quite a masterpiece, then a work of great brilliance, wit and emotional power..

Richard Morrison in The Times said: I would run barefoot through nettles to hear Purcell’s music, but even I was bored rigid by this interminably dreary presentation of his final theatre score.

The problem seems to be that Pickett chose to link the music with his own adaptation of Dryden's verse, so how you reacted to the project depended on how you liked yards and yards of 17th century verse, not all of good quality.

I'm going to keep my eyes open for further reviews!

Recent CD Review

My review of the new record from Corpus Christ College (Cambridge) Choir is here, on MusicWeb International.

A live snapshot ... the young singers bring freshness and vitality ...

Nymph Errant

On Sunday afternoon we went to see Lost Musicals doing Cole Porter's Nymph Errant at Sadlers Wells Theatre. They do concert/semi-staged performances of unusual musicals, usually with piano accompaniment. Nymph Errant was commissioned by C.B. Cochrane as a vehicle for Gertrude Lawrence, it was premiered in London and tailored to English Taste, as such it never had a Broadway premiere and was not revived after the original run. A recent revival in Chichester substantially re-wrote the book which has as a strong element of non-PC xenophobia.

Lost Musicals produced it in its original version with a cast of 15 playing some 29 named roles. The show concerns the adventures of Evangeline, the Nymph Errant of the title who, after leaving finishing school, tries to sleep her way around Europe but completely fails and returns home after a year still a virgin and promptly falls in love with her aunts gardner. During the course of her travels she bumps into various school friends who have ended up hooking up with a variety of dubious men.

Issy van Randwyck was wonderfully charismatic as Evangeline. She gets the lions share of the songs and Randwyck put them over beautifully. She was perhaps not quite as over the top in The Physician as Gertie Lawrence herself was, but van Randwyck was a pleasure to listen to.

Gay Soper played a number of roles and got 2 songs. One a lovely little number for an ageing cocotte, being put out of business by the modern, racy young women. And as the Chemstry Mistress at the Finishing School she sang Experiment to very great effect. This is one of the show's best known numbers and Soper put it over well.

The original show starred Elisabeth Welch (as a member of the Emir's harem) who sang Solomon during the original run. Even in her 70's Welch retained this number in her repertoire. At Sadlers Wells, Thelma Ruby showed that age (she's over 80 I believe) and experience counted for a lot in putting over a song, even with limited vocal equipment; her account of Solomon quite rightly brought the house down.

The remained of the cast, playing multiple roles and singing the choruses, worked hard and many displayed a wonderful variety of accents (French, German, Italian, American, Greek, Turkish, English etc.). The musical was succinctly and effectively staged, with much amusingly suitable business to go with Cole Porter's underscoring.

Cole Porter and his librettist, Rodney Brent, retained one joke until the last parft of the 2nd Act. They signalled a big romantic number from far off, Evangeline and Ben (a plumber who'd rescued her from the Emir's Harem) alone together in the romantic desert. Cue one of Porter's big tunes and Ben sings a romance to plumbing.

One of the advantages of Lost Musicals presentations is that they are done unamplified, so you are given the chance to hear actors and singers performing directly without the benefit/hindrance of amplification. They are doing Flower Drum Song next, but its probably booked up already!

Sunday was Palm Sunday so it was a busy day at church where the usual sung Latin mass (Byrd's 4-part mass and Vittoria's Pueri Hebraeorum) was prefixed by a procession and blessing of palms. I managed to pull a muscle whilst rushing to get to the opening of proceedings, so had to hobble my way round in a truly undignified manner.

Thursday night was the London Concord Singers concert at St. Michael's Church, Chester Square, London. The programme was interesting, including Lobo's Requiem and music by Gabriel Jackson, Vagn Holmboe and Mary Jane Leach. But, unfortunately, it clashed with the launch party for the Chelsea Festival and FifteenB are performing a programme at the festival, so as their Artistic Director I went along to the Festival Launch. There was quite a bit of interest in our concert which was good news and there was lots of champagne to drink, so a good time was had by all. The remainder of the festival looks interesting, very much something for everyone. We've booked for a concert by the Orlando Consort at Chelsea Old Church, but I'm not sure we'll be able to fit anything else in, because of rehearsals for our concert. Which is annoying.

At the moment we're in the middle of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, so have been busy seeing films. But last night we managed to fit in Handel's Solomon given by the Orchestral of the Age of Enlightenment at the Barbican. A review will follow in due course. Then tomorrow we're off to see the Lost Musicals doing Nymph Errant which should be fun.

Recent CD Review

My review of Siegfried Wagner's opera Sonnenflamen is here on MusicWeb International.

A committed performance ... anyone interested in Siegfried Wagner’s
music can be certain of hearing a performance which makes as strong a
case as possible for the work. ...

Recent CD Review

My review of Weigl's singspiel, Die Schweizer Familie is here on MusicWeb International.

Opera Magazine - April issue

Opera Magazine's April issue had one or two interesting items.

The on-going controversy surrounding outgoing Chairman Martin Smith, is somewhat reminiscent of the parting of the ways between Vivian Duffield and the Royal Opera House. Both Smith and Duffield were highly involved in the restoration of their chosen venue, giving much of their own money and raising much more. Their efforts were highly successful but neither Smith nor Duffield seems to have been able to develop a working relationship with their company once the restoration was over. It just shows that we have a lot to learn about projects involving lots of private money, the Americans seem to do this sort of thing in rather a more satisfactory way.

There is a rather worrying interview with John Berry, ENO's new artistic director. Nothing in his plans for 2006/07 is worrying per se, but there is nothing about any committment to English opera following on from their performances of Vaughan Williams's Sir John in Love. Let us hope that the many other deserving English operas do not get swept aside again. After all 2008 will be the 50th anniversary of RVW's death.

It is heartening to read that the Conservative Party chairman, Lord Laidlaw, is giving ENO 2 million pounds, for specific productios. These were not specified, but Laidlaw has already sponsored the new Madama Butterfly and La Belle Helene.

On a more worrying note, a school teacher in Colorado has been chided (chidden?) for playing extracts from Faust to primary school children as the subject matter was considered Satanic.

Back to England, I note that Grange Park Opera has appointed a chorus master (Nicholas Jenkins). The chorus standards have sometimes seemed in need of polishing (talent and enthusiasm have never been lacking), so I look forward to hearing the results of Jenkins's efforts in Thais and L'Elisir d'Amore.

Another link with the past has gone, Eric Shilling died in February aged 85. I remember seeing him in such things as Orpheus in the Underworld and Iolanthe. It was intersting to read in the obituary that he was a conscientious objector during the War, was a Quaker and a keen supporter of War on Want and Amnesty.

Crash bang wallop,again

I came home from our weekend away to find my PC making strange noises and after letting me back things up (luckily!), it promptly switched itself off. The PC engineer came today muttering about corrupted hard drives and the PC failed to boot properly. So I'm now without a PC for a few days and must resort to pencil and paper to write with. I've started on my new orchestral piece and so have been busy working out the details of the Tippett-like welsh fairies. It's probably good for me to do things manually once in a while. I now need to bring St. Patrick into the picture, to give the fairies a sermon on Faith moving Mountains; I think I need to dig of the hymn tune St. Patrick's Breast Plate.

Hampton Court

We spent the weekend staying in Hampton Court Palace thanks to the wonderful Landmark Trust who make available an appartment in the building, just off Fish Court in the Kitchens complex. So we availed ourselves of the facilities and attended 2 services in the chapel on Sunday morning. The choir of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court is directed by Carl Jackson, who played organ solos for me at a Chelsea Festival concert in 2000 (we interspersed my Requiem Mass with early English organ music).

For both the Sunday morning choral Eucharist and the afternoon Evensong we were lucky enough to be able to sit in the choir stalls, thus getting a good view of the service. The morning service was boys voices only, the mass setting was by Arthur Wills and was not a piece that I had come across before but proved rather effective in its use of the combination of boys and organ. It was accessible but with some rather interesting moments.

In the evening the men of the choir were joined by 4 women and sang Byrd's canticles, from his second service, plus the Tomkins responses. Wonderful music making in a venue which could have heard the music when it was new. The anthem was the stunning Blow Salvator Mundi, so contemporary in its dissonances and angular vocal line.

Recent CD Review

My review of the new recording of Handel's Fireworks and Water Musics is Here, on MusicWeb International.