Exclusive preview of a new video of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice from Slovenia

Amor's aria 'Gli sguardi trattieni' from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, an exclusive preview of a new live recording from Slovenia of the Vienna version of the opera. Amor is sung by Slovenian soprano Nika Gorič, Orfeo is sung by the Slovenian mezzo-soprano Barbara Kozelj and Eurydice by Belgian soprano Liesbeth Devos, with Orchestra matutina, conductor Matej Šarc. There are further previews on YouTube, of the overture [YouTube]  and Orfeo and Eurydice's duet 'Vieni, appaga il tuo consorte!' [YouTube]

The performance is based on a live concert given in Ljubljana in September in the Slovenian Philharmonic hall. The orchestra is Slovenian and it specialises in music from the Baroque and Classical eras. Its name is inspired by Bach's cantata Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern  as rehearsals and performances tend to be in the morning.

Barbara Kozelj's performances have included Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with the Academy of Ancient Music and Richard Egarr at the Festival Enescu Bucharest and in London’s Barbican Hall [see my review], and her debut as Brangäne in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Oper Leipzig.

Liesbeth Devos’ recent engagements have included Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) for a recording with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Galatea (Acis and Galatea), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)

Nika Gorič studied in Maribor, Graz and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. We caught her as on of the Italian singers in Richard Strauss' Capriccio at Garsington [see my review]

O Lux Beata Trinitas

The Slovenian Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Sebastjan Vrhovnik in a setting of the early Christian hymn of St. Ambrosius, O Lux Beata Trinitas, by Slovenian composer Andrej Makor (born 1987). The choir was founded as a professional choir in 1991; initially known as the Slovenian Chamber Choir, it has been operating within the framework of the Slovenian Philharmonic since 1998. 

Andrej Makor studied in his native Slovenia and at the conservatory in Padua, Italy. In Ausut 2015 his work Paisaje was performed by the BBC Singers, and in  2018 his composition Silence won second prize at the London Ear Festival, and his piece Kyrie was commissioned by the BBC for the BBC Singers.

The recording was made in August 2020 at the Church of St. Francis (Cerkev sv. Frančiška), Ljubljana, Slovenia. The church was built by Jože Plečnikbetween 1925 and 1927 and is similar to Plečnik's designs for the church of the Sacred Heart in Prague, built-in 1922.

Premiere of Stephen McNeff and Aoife Mannix's new opera, Beyond the Garden, in Slovenia

Amazingly, a new British opera will receive its stage premiere this September, an event to be celebrated at the best of times and particularly so in the current crisis. 

The staging will take place in Lubljana, Slovenia where Beyond the Garden by Stephen McNeff and Aoife Mannix was commissioned by Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre (SKGG). The premiere, delayed from July 2020, takes place at the Cankarjev dom, the main arts complex in Ljubljana, on 4 September 2020, with Susan Bickley and Katja Konvalinka, conducted by Simon Dvoršak and in a production directed by Rocc (Rok Rappl), former artistic director of the Slovenian National Opera.

Lasting around 70 minutes and written for two singers and five-piece chamber ensemble, the work explores the relationship between Alma Mahler and her daughter Manon, who died at the age of 18. McNeff describes the piece as a ghost story, and the Mannix's libretto explores the outer reaches of memory, what we want to forget and how we try - and usually fail - to control the narrative of our lives.

The artists gave a presentation about the opera, performing excerpts, in July 2019 (see my article) and it is highly commendable that the project has managed to come to fruition despite the current crisis.

Further details from the Cankarjev dom website.