Review of Barber of Seville

My review of Pimlico Opera's Barber of Seville performed last Saturday at Grange Park is here on Music and Vision.

La Juive - Part 1 (the moans and groans)

We went to see the Royal Opera House's concert performance of Fromental Halevy's La Juive at the Barbican last night. A full review will appear in a subsquent post, but the performance, welcome though it was, revealed rather a number of niggles about the way it was mounted.

First on, it was at the Barbican rather than the Royal Opera House which meant that the stage was full to bursting with the huge chorus, orchestra and soloists. In fact the stage had beene extended forward, thus taking out 2 rows of seats and meaning that our seats, usually perfectly decent if not wonderful, gave us a side view of the soloists (someone commented that we got a good view of their shoes). The performance was so involving that this didn't matter.

The opera is notoriously long, all the French grands operas are long. In fact, on the first night it ran from 7pm to 12.30am, but was subsequently cut. The Paris Opera employed an interesting form of democracy when it came to cuts, the first night of operas was pretty uncut, then after that the least popular bits were cut!

The Royal Opera's production was advertised as starting at 6.30pm; so we assumed we were in for a long evening. Getting to the Barbican for 6.30pm can be tricky and D. did not manage it, which meant that at the end of Act 1, when he could reasonably be expected to be let in to his seat, he and the other late comers were coralled into the balcony instead. Annoying but not disastrous.

The performance was advertised as being in 2 halves, Acts 1 and 2 (running time 90 minutes), 25 minute interval, Acts 3, 4 and 5 (running time 85 minutes). In fact it went on a little longer but was finished by 10pm. So why on earth did they start the show at 6.30pm, 7.00pm would have been far better.

Someone in the management was obviously worried about what time the show finished. The show was cut; I could see the orchestral parts and there was barely a page without some pasting over. But they even dropped numbers which were mentionned in the programme (Princess Eudoxie and Rachel's Act 3 duet, the opening chorus and funeral march of Act 5). The programme also mentionned that there would have been a 2nd interval after Act 4.

By my calculations, they could quite easily have run the show exactly as it was performed but starting at 7.00pm and finishing at 10.30pm, surely kinder to the punters. Or, even better, start at 6.30pm , finish at 10.30pm, have 2 intervals (20 minute and 15 minutes) and open a few of the cuts.

The programme book was excellent but nowhere did we learn the rationale behind the version that we were hearing.

Oh and one more thing, for such a long opera, why not a Saturday performance.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of the Elora Festival Singers' disc of my by Healey Willan is here.

Willan’s music is not well represented in the catalogue and the Elora
Festival Singers enable us to listen to this music in clean, shapely,
musical performances. ...

And my review of Palestrina's Canticum Canticorum is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.

The definitive recording of has yet to be made. Whilst this one has
attractive qualities, it is not really a recording that I would want to live with.
...

Recent Book review

My review of a new book about Monteverdi's dramatic works is here, on Music and Vision.

We've been making some changes to the Spherical Editions Web Site with the intention of making it easier to use. The site holds my complete catalogue with facility to buy all my music on line. There are numerous PDF and audio samples. The Music Page lists all the PDF samples available and the Audio Page lists all the audio samples, many of which are available on AudioBlog. I have just uploaded some new choral recordings from past Chelsea Festivals, so please do check out the page.

Book review

My review of Andrew Ashbee's The Harmonious Musick of John Jenkins is here on MusicWeb International.

Clear and lucid but not a light book. Fascinating biographical chapters.
If you have any interest in viol consorts then this is profoundly illuminating.
...

Recent CD Review

My review of Guerrero's Missa Surge Propera is here on MusicWeb International

Opera Review - Eugene Onegin

British Youth Opera is celebrating 20 years in the business of providing young opera singers with a training ground, between College and the opera house. Their summer season this year, at the Peacock Theatre with the Southbank Sinfonia in the pit, comprised performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. We saw the final performance of Eugene Onegin on 15th September.

Of course, young in opera terms is relative; most of the singers had complete post-graduate training and some had even had professional experience. But in an opera like Eugene Onegin, where many of the protagonists are young, it is of some advantage to have young singers cast in the roles.

For many sopranos playing Tatiana, the first 2 acts are tricky. They have to play young and it is only in the final act that they can relax into the role. For Katrina Broderick the opposite was rather true. In the first 2 acts she was wonderfully convincing as the shy, rather plump, dreamy Tatiana; profoundly embarrassed at having to entertain Onegin. In the Act 2 party, she was the shy wall flower, profoundly disliking the attention.

Broderick has a lovely, bright focussed voice with a clear sense of line. You can understand why she was asked to sing Tatiana, but I suspect that she will not be doing so in 10 years time – more dramatic roles surely beckon. Her letter scene was expressive and musical and in indicator of what she might do in the future.

As her Onegin, George von Bergen was nearly ideal. He had just that right combination of sneer and sexy swagger. You could understand why Tatiana fell for him even though you did not really like him. His voice was apt to go a little dry at the top but he sang the role with a good sense of line. I’m sure he will be singing this role in 10 years time and, as baritones tend to mature slowly, I look forward to hearing him sing it then. If he sings the role so well now, what will 10 years of experience do.

Neither Clara Mouritz nor Shaun Dixon were ideal for the roles of Olga or Lensky, their voices surely point in other directions. But Mouritz made a fine, perky Olga and in the Act 2 party scene mixed flirtiness, puzzlement and tragedy. Both Mouritz and Dixon were wonderfully convincing in their portrayal of the young lovers. All the scenes with the 4 young people in Acts 1 and 2 were infectiously engaging, you did not have to make any allowances at all.

When it came to tragedy, Dixon was dramatically very moving but his voice simply lacked the sense of line that I would like in the role. Dixon is fine, dramatic singer. In other roles he will shine, as Lensky he was never less than creditable.

The supporting roles were all very well taken. Catherine Hopper and Sigridur Osk Kristjansdottir were excellent as Madame Larina and Filipyevna, treading the fine line between convincingly playing old and caricature. In fact, neither resorted to caricature and this was the least hackneyed performance of Filipyevna that I have ever seen.

William Kerley’s production was generally traditional, which surely helped the singers to portray their characters. Tom Rogers’s set consisted simply of a series of flexible wooden screens with window and doors. Only in Prince Gremin’s palace did you regret the lack of a bigger production budget.

Madame Larina’s party was a triumph of stage work for director, singers and hard working chorus. On the Peacock’s small-ish stage, it really felt like a dance in a provincial house. I was less convinced by his staging of the duel; set in a barn the actual dual took place outside, beyond our field of vision, which was rather strange.

Another oddity, albeit a more understandable one, was that the opening polonaise of Act 3 was played as an entracte; we saw no dancing at Prince Gremin's which made his party an altogether sub-fusc affair.

When we get to Act 3, things get trickier for young singers. Time has passed, the characters are older and wiser. Director and Designer helped Broderick by replacing her rather unflattering earlier costumes with a fine, soignée dress which made you realise that the singer did actually have an attractively generous figure. Broderick combined this with a nobleness of bearing which caught Tatiana’s change of circumstance just right. Von Bergen, as Onegin, seemed to have matured less than Tatiana which is perfectly as it should be. Their final scene together was dramatically moving and very impressive, even if they did not quite wring every ounce of tragedy from the score.

As Prince Gremin, Vuyani Mlinde confirmed the good impression that he made at Grange Park Opera this year. He sang his solo with moving dignity and with a fine sense of line.

Conductor Peter Robinson kept everything moving in an admirable manner. The Southbank Sinfonia played well and successfully disguised the fact that they were probably rather too small in number to be ideal.

The opera was sung in David Lloyd-Jones’s English translation. Diction from all the singers (both native and non-native English speakers) was excellent which help to make the evening one of compelling drama as well as fine musicality.


The theatre seemed to be full of supporters of both the opera company and the singers. Unfortunately the audience was distinctly restless at times. That the management allowed people into the auditorium late meant that the opening of each act was accompanied by a sussuration of noise, and people round me tended to talk during the entractes. All very annoying, it was a good job the performance itself was so absorbing.

Recent CD Review

My review of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Jörg Waschinski singing the soprano line is here on MusicWeb International.

I wish I could recommend this disc more. An interesting concept, but
frankly not a disc that I could listen to regularly. ...

Speed Dating

Last night I went speed-dating, musical speed-dating; well operatic really. The event was organised by Bill Bankes-Jones and the enterprising Tete-a-tete opera company, who regularly produce new and exciting operas. The event was by way of an experiment as the company would like to launch a new space for people to come together to experiment with and create new opera. So, last night some 60 odd composers, librettists, designers, directors and musicians came together to meet each other. The speed-dating, rather complex to put together, enabled people to meet like minded souls for a brief chat. So I was able to spend time with a succession of librettists and directors, all very useful as I am hoping to find a new operatic project.

In the spare bits of time (!) various composers and librettists got together to create 2 scratch operas based on brief scenarios. Everyone writing 1 short scene. The results were sung at the end of the evening, the musicians and singers managing to brilliantly incarnate their roles based on minimal rehearsal and using sketchy photocopies of scrawled manuscript. It made an exciting and fun end to a profitable (and entertaining evening).

Cut down to size

Trevor Nunn is producing a new version of Gerswhin's Porgy and Bess with spoken dialogue and trimmed to a running time of two and a half hours (rather than the full 4 hours for the opera). Reactions seem to have been mixed, but it is an interesting concept. I have only seen Porgy and Bess once, when Trevor Nunn's Glyndebourne production was transferred to Covent Garden. As a production it could hardly be bettered, except that I kept feeling that there was just too much; that the music did not move fast enough for the plot. People talk about the opera as a work of genious, but for me it has always seemed like a group of superb songs and ensembles, in need of trimming. I await the reviews of Trevor Nunn's efforts with interest.

Sorry I missed you

I caught a brief article in the Gramophone about the soprano Linda Esther Gray. She was one of those singers who, for a period, seemed to be woven into the fabric of my opera going life. I saw her as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro performed in Manchester by Glyndebourne Touring Opera whilst I was a student; the first professional opera production that I had seen. She then cropped up in various guises, notably as Eva in the Scottish Opera production of Die Meistersinger. I was due to see her in the Goodall Tristan with WNO at the Astra Theatre, Coventry (whilst their usual theatre in Birmingham was being re-built), but she was ill that night. The performance was stunning, despite this and certainly made you forget the glittery purple walls of the theatre foyer (it spent most of its life as a cinema). I also have vivid memories of a later Tosca with ENO (How much delivered in a devastating Scots accent). But there was also the Turandot with Scottish Opera which never happened (well the production did, but with Milla Andrew) and then the ENO Valyrie in the Pountney production with the Busby Berkeley spectacular for the opening scene of Act 3. I saw it with Gray's cover in the role of Brunnhilde, but I understand she did some performances.

It comes as some sort of relief to discover that these problems were not caused by stage fright or some such thing (as was rumoured), but physical illness; severe enough for her to have to stop talking at one point. Though she rebuilt her voice, things were never the same again but she has put her knowledge to good use and is a teacher.

Plans

This week is the last one of holiday freedom before the new season starts in earnest. On Monday my choir, London Concord Singers starts rehearsing for their 40th Anniversary concert on Nov. 18th. The programme includes a new work of mine, specially written for the occasion Ursi Carmina (Bear Songs). I've tried to circumvent the usual first night nerves which the first rehearsal of a piece engenders, by having a run through at my house in the summer; let's see if it works!

On Friday week we're off to British Youth Opera who are doing a short season of operas at the Peacock Theatre. We're seeing Eugene Onegin. Then on Saturday 16th September we're dashing down to Hampshire to see Pimlico Opera at Grange Park. Its the start of Pimlico's annual autumn tour when they take one of the Grange Park Opera productions on a tour of small scale venues. This time its The Barber of Seville; Ptolomy Christie's production debuted at Grange Park's offshoot at Nevill Holt in the Summer. It will be strange to be at Northington Grange out of season, but we are looking forward to the production immensely.

Then further into September comes the Royal Opera's concert performances of Halevy's La Juive at the Barbican (can't wait!). Plus Canon Vincent Berry's final service at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street, Chelsea, where I sing at the Latin Mass, when we will be singing my motet Exaudi which I wrote for the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Canon Berry's ordination.

Carmen premiere

My article about the alarums and excursions in the run up to the premiere of Bizet's Carmen is here on Music and Vision.

Incidentally, if you want to hear the closest we'll ever get to the definitive score of Carmen then try the Chandos Opera in English recording. This uses a new edition by Richard Langham-Smith which is based on the vocal score which he had published after the world premiere. This is the only published score which Bizet himself edited and it was produced under his impetus rather than in association with the Opera Comique, so there is not reason to believe it does not represent the score as he intended.

Edington Diary - Friday

Friday was our last day at the Edington festival. The day started slightly later than usual as there was no 9.00am Matins service (the Schola got the morning off). Instead Choral Matins was celebrated at 11.30am.

The consort sang the lovely Venite from Orlando Gibbons's Short Service. The Te Deum and Jubilate were more contemporary; Britten's Festival Te Deum and Walton's Jubilate. The Britten was interesting, it eschewed the usual bombast that I associate with festal settings of this text; there were some good solos from the Nave choir. The Walton was given a brilliant, rhythmically exciting performance by the Nave choir. The consort sang Gibbons's I am the resurrection and the life, a beautiful setting of the Gospel reading for the day.

For me, the highlight of the week was the music at the Friday evening Solemn Eucharist. Throughout the week, by getting to the church early (to get good seats) we had overheard Robert Quinney rehearsing the Nave choir, so we had a good working knowledge of Friday's music by the time the service came along. The mass setting was the James MacMillan mass, written for Westminster Cathedral. The Nave choir sang the Kyrie, Alleluia and Agnus Dei. Both the piece and the performance were stunning; its a very tricky work and I can't wait to hear it in Westminster Cathedral. The Consort kept the contemporary theme by singing Tippett's Plebs Angelica, another stunning performance. The Organ prelude was MacMillan's Gaudeamus in loci paci and the Voluntary was Durufle's Fugue sur le nom d'Alain, one of my favourite organ pieces. All in all a profoundly moving service.

From this Month's Opera

In his editorial, John Allison comments on the rumours that ENO may be reducing their season at the Coliseum and taking on a smaller London theatre for Baroque and contemporary music. This would certainly be an improvement. Many years ago, when the David Freeman production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo was new, it was premiered in a smaller theatre, in Nottingham I believe. At the time this was planned as a new way forward for this type of work, but of course nothing further came of it. Lets hope that ENO manage to do something like this convincingly this time.

In the interview with Christine Brewer, I note that her BBC Tristan is due imminently on the Warner Classics label. I can’t wait. We missed the concerts, alas, where the 3 acts of Tristan were spread over 3 different evenings (well spaced apart). Another memorable Brewer evening was when I heard the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment doing Verdi’s Requiem with Brewer as a fantastic soprano soloist. I’ve been hoping that this might have presaged a recording, but no such luck.

Reading about the opera house on the Caribbean island of Martinique, in Saint-Pierre, it was interesting to read that it had been destroyed by the volcanic eruption in 1902, which devastated the town – the worst volcanic eruption of the 20th century. I wonder if this was what inspired Patrick Leigh-Fermor’s novel ‘The Violins of St. Jacques’, which in turn inspired Malcolm Williamson’s opera. Interestingly the plot has a number of elements in common with Ronald Firbank’s novel ‘Valmouth’ which in turn inspired Sandy Wilson’s musical Valmouth.

Eduardo Arnosi in his review of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea from Buenos Aires comments that he prefers a male Nerone (granted this was said in the context of great approbation for the convincingness of the female singer in the role, Evelyn Ramirez). He did not specify which octave the male singer would be singing at and left the impression that he’d be quite happy doing violence to Monteverdi’s score by using a tenor; I hope not.!

A new production of Dido and Aeneas in Vienna, directed by Deborah Warner; Christopher Norton-Welsh describes it as half-serious, half-guying. Sorry, but I’ve seen plenty of productions where the witches were serious and scary rather than funny and don’t see the need to introduce any more humour into the work.

Simon Rattle’s new Rheingold at the Aix en Provence festival is noted as running for 15 minutes under 3 hours. John Allison points out that Wagner noted that the opera lasted exactly 2 and a half hours; I wish more attention was paid to Wagner’s timings. He was often a careful noter of times; Roger Norrington used Wagner’s timings in his performances of the overtures to revelatory effect, notably Tristan and Die Meistersinger.

Jochen Kowalski cropped up as the Astrologer in Rimsky Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel in Berlin. Kowalski is a singer whose name seems to have dropped from the lime-light recently. But a long essay could be written about the voice type necessary for this role. I’ve heard both tenors and counter-tenors doing it (at Scottish Opera and with the Royal Opera) and it works far better with a tenor who is prepared to give us a head voice/falsetto extension. Most counter tenors seem to lack the incisiveness necessary for the lower register.

The cover photo was of the new Moses and Aaron in Munich. Produced by David Pountney, it was Peter Jonas’s swan song. What it swan song it seems to have been. John Allison liked the production and with John Daszak and John Tomlinson as the brothers, it had a strong cast. It is good to see Daszak finding international form in good roles.

A lovely comment from Rodney Milnes about an Athenian production of Don Carlos: He appeared to have brought his own flattering costumes and played the role mainly from the thighs


Minnesota seems to have been the place to be in America this year. Minnesota Opera offered Mercadante’s Orazi e Curiazi, enterprisingly moved to the American Civil War, as well as the first American performances of Laurent Petigirard’s Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man. I reviewed a recording of this fascinating score and was not sure how well it would work on stage; I’d love to have seen the Minnesota performances.

Elsewhere in America, Francesca Zamballo is doing a Ring in Washington, mining American mythology for the iconography. Rhinemaidens in the underwear of disreputable salon ladies, Alberich panning for gold, gods dress as for a Scott Fitzgerald novel, Nibelheim full of slaves. It sounds fascinating and remarkably convincing. I’ll be interested to read about subsequent instalments in the cycle.

Ian Fox describes the Castleward Opera’s performances of Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl as probably the worst show ever presented here. They seem to have cut over an hour’s worth of music; this is a shame and makes nonsense of the piece, even though it is a long score. I thing a decent performance of the opera is long over due.

Patrick O’Connor’s review of the concert performance of Don Giovanni from the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Barbican includes the fascinating nugget of information that in the 19th century it was Zerlina that was considered to be the main role in the opera!

Iford Festival Opera produced Lucia di Lammermoor this year. Their venue is the Italianate cloister at Iford Manor, whose garden was laid out by the Edwardian garden designer Harold Peto. It sounds just the venue for the opera, even in a chamber version, especially as they managed to include a glass harmonica in the instrumental ensemble.

La Juive

Having investigated a later French rarity at Dorset Opera (Massenet's Herodiade), I'm looking forward to the forthcoming concert performance of Halevy's La Juive, a far earlier work. As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I keep hoping that someone will create the French equivalent of Opera Rara so that we can hear decent recordings of all the Grand Opera created for the Paris Opera in the 1820's, 1830's and 1840's. Still, this concert gives us the chance to hear Dennis O'Neil in the fabulous tenor role of Eleazar. Rachel is being played by one of the ROH's young artists, Marina Poplavskaya; I will be interested to hear her as Rachel is a Falcon role; Marie Cornelie Falcon created the role and her voice has given rise to a whole genre of dark soprano roles, betwixt and between mezzo and soprano. There is a good introduction to the opera here, in the Guardian

Leopold Simoneau

French-Canadian tenor Leopold Simoneau died recently, there is an obituary of him here, in the Guardian. Simoneau was posessed of a remarkably high, lyric tenor voice. It is a testament to his gifts that his recording of the French version of Gluck's Orfeo (Orphée et Euridice) has hardly been beaten by recent recordings, despite its age.

Edington Diary - Thursday

At Sung Eucharist on Thursday, the organ prelude and closing voluntary were 2 attractive pieces embarrassingly unknown to me, the Introit and Sortie from Malcolm Williamson’s Mass of a Medieval Saint. The mass setting was plainsong Mass I and the Nave choir performed For he shall give his angels from Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Quite apt for the theme of the service (I am the good shepherd) and the choir sang beautifully, but as ever I was not quite convinced by the organ replacing the originally orchestral accompaniment. The Nave choir also sang a lovely The Lord is my Shepherd by Sir Lennox Berkeley. The Consort sang a fabulous O Sacrum Convivium by Guerrero. They also did an amazing piece by Edward Naylor (1867 – 1934); he was evidently organist at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music. His motet Vox dicentis: Clama was evidently written in 1911. (This information gleaned mainly from Wikipedia, apologies if its inaccurate). The motet is a setting of Isaiah chapter 40, it is a fascinating and it received a superb performance from the Consort, though I suspect it was written for a bigger choir. I can’t wait to get a recording!

Evening service was a sequence of music and readings given by the Schola and the Consort, the Nave choir had the evening off. Highlights included Sir John Tavener’s The Lamb and the Agnus Dei from Poulenc’s Mass. The plainchant hymn Congregati sunt was lovely, though the plainchant Ave Verum Corpus was taken so slowly, it was almost romantic (perhaps it is). After Compline the Festival said goodbye to Andrew Carwood, who had to dash off to another Festival and his place at the head of the Schola was taken by Matthew Martin who had been playing the Nave organ all week.

This was the last day at which we went to the 9.00am matins sung by the Schola as there was no service on Friday. This service took place in the chancel, the remainder of the services taking place in the Nave. We managed to have the same seats each time, in front of the screen next to the choir organ. This meant we had a good sight/sound of everything and even got to hear the clickety/clack of the organ mechanism – very authentic and atmospheric.

More displacement therapy

I took with me on holiday two books of poems (bought because I thought they might make interesting songs). One book is a group of translations of Japanese lyrics and the other is Tagore's Gitanjali newly translated into English poetry. I looked at neither.

I did manage to start re-re-reading Diarmaid Macculloch's biography of Cranmer with a view to creating a libretto for a full length oratorio, but quailed at the size of the task. Though I have made a list of around 50 quotes from Cranmer's own writings (and I'm not half way through yet).

I did though, make some sketches towards a Magnificat. No, I had no plans to write one, but hearing a sequence of such magnificent settings at Edington, gave me ideas.

So now I'm at home. Not writing songs, not putting the finishing touches to my setting of Isaiah 6 and not continuing with my new orchestral tone poem (which is rather languishing). I've started writing a Magnificat.

Ho hum, I'm sure there's a reason for all this skipping about that my unconscious does.