New Season at the RFH

The Royal Festival Hall opens again in June, duly refurbished, and the South Bank Centre's 2007/08 Classical Music season is set out in a brochure which has just popped through my letter box. There are 5 resident ensembles, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the London Sinfonietta and the Sixteen.

So inevitably, a significant part of the classical programme is made up of performances by these groups, whereas at the Barbican there is more of a feel of buying in 'events'. This means that the Barbican seems to favour the one off, big event and has quite a lot of baroque opera etc., whereas the South Bank can put together very long running series. The new season includes a long sequence of concerts devoted to music by Messiaen and a series called Luigi Nono:Fragments of Venice which explores Nono's music in the context of Venetian music.

The result is that I find less to exclaim about in the Festival Hall programme, admirable though it is. There are just slightly too many tri-partite symphony concerts for my taste even though they are admirably constructed. Just one example, Sir Charles Mackerras is conducting Janacek's Sinfonietta, but to her it we must also listen to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 with Mitsuko Uchida. In the 30 years since leaving university I have gradually learned to appreciate, even love, many areas of music which I then despised (at the time my main interests were late Romanticism and Baroque, with nothing in between). But I am afraid that I am still rather blind to the beauties of Mozart's piano concertos.

A quick dash through the programme though, gives the following personal highlights.

• Catherine Bott singing her programme Convivencia; anything Bott does is wonderful


• Dido and Aeneas from the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment, directed by Tim Carroll, with bits of Marlowe and puppets woven in!!!


• The OAE again, this time doing an all Vivaldi programme with Lucy Crowe and the all women Scuola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi


• The LPO, under David Parry, doing Bellini's La Straniera, in collaboration with Opera Rara


• The LPO, again, doing Korngold's Der Wunder des Heliane, under Vladimir Jurowski


• The OAE doing Schumann's Der Paradies und die Peri


• The Sixteen in a programme which mixes Britten (including the Ceremony of Carols), with Durufle and Poulenc
.

• Zurich Opera doing Der Rosenkavalier with Nina Stemme as the Marschallin.


• Vladimir Jurowski doing Verdi's Requiem with the LPO and soloists including Barbara Frittoli and Ildiko Komlosi


• The Philharmonia, under Richard Hickox, doing Vaughan Williams Symphonies Nos. 1, 7, and 8, as well as Job in a pair of delectable concerts

I'm sure I've missed things, but this gives a flavour of the things that appeal to me. Elsewhere John Eliot Gardiner is doing a pair of Brahms programmes with his Orchestra Revolutionaire et Romantique, including Symphony No. 1 and the Requiem, might be worth a look/

Nice Things

I've been compiling a selection of the nice things which Roderick Dunnett said about us in his review of our March 18th concert. Most of the quotes concern the performances but the last one, which I quote at length, relates to my piece which was premièred that day.

the FifteenB Consort, a versatile and committed small ensemble directed by the composer Robert Hugill,


The sopranos and altos (here, just four voices) sang with just the kind of tender restraint and fine-honed ensemble this masterly example of word-setting calls for.


In [...] Pelham Humfrey's rarely heard Lord, Teach us to Number our Days, it was the choir's impassioned tutti sections and forceful imitations that registered most strongly;


Ward's Come, sable night, [...] was sung lucidly, if perhaps a little too retiringly.

one passage for four voices -- two upper, then two lower, came over with attractive assurance;


Gibbons' Almighty and Everlasting God [...] received a beautifully measured and nuanced delivery by all four voices.


an appealing baritone solo and some incisive singing from the alto line especially. Perhaps one looked for a little more vitality and stronger projection in some of these pieces: at times the singers seemed to hide their talents under a bushel. Yet just the opportunity to hear some of these rarer works in live performances was immensely satisfying. This was a most handsome piece of singing, nicely matched by support from the rest of the choir.

The other [contemporary piece] was a work by the conductor himself, who also furnished the tenor line in this concert: Robert Hugill's appealing anthem My Eyes are ever Turned unto the Lord is indeed a modern contribution to the tradition of the verse anthem; …. The deft alternation of solo and tutti sections revealed real inspiration, the style -- while not untouched by such modern masters as Pärt or Gorecki -- seemed to be neither a hybrid nor a borrowing, but fresh and original, arguably with its own identifiable voice, and Hugill's work in no way paled in comparison with the Tudor pieces surrounding it. Originally composed for a wedding, this 21st century anthem is a beautifully turned, enticing piece of music which skilfully embraced a range of contrasting moods and contrived to say a good deal in a short space. This attractive, well-crafted piece certainly, in my book, deserves to be known more widely.

Corsham Festival

I have just receive the programme for the Corsham Festival. I doubt that we will be able to make any of the events, which is a shame, as they have put together a remarkable group of musical events with an emphasis on contemporary music. Quite an achievement for a small festival.

Highlights include:

The orchestra of the Swan performing Bach (Cello Suite), Britten (Cello Suit) and Paul Patterson (Cello Suite and Allusions)
Errollyn Wallen performing a selection of songs from her new song book.

The CoMA London Ensemble giving a full day workshop followed by a concert at which people are invited to join in and perform with the group. They are performing music by Michael Nyman and Stephen Montague; Montague's piece being inspired by a visit to Auschwitz.

String Fever, 3 brothers and a cousin who play electric stringed instruments

Cellist Fran Bartlett and dancer Ana Eulate collaborating on a programme which includes Petyer Sculthorpe's Requiem for Cello Alone.

Opera Minima doing their piece Rainforest

And last but not least, Sarah Leonard (soprano) and Robin Michael (cello) doing a programme including music by Elena Firsova, Harrison Birtwistle and John Tavener.

This is a wonderfully varied and challenging programme which shows the excitement and innovation are not dead. More power to their elbow

Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus in South Lincolnshire

My Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus will be performed as part of services at St. Mary's Church and St. Martin's Church Stamford on May 27th. The choir, under the direction of Fergus Black, will be singing the mass at the 9.30am Service at St. Martin's Church and at the 11.00am Service at St. Mary's Church, Stamford.

Probably the first time that any of my music as been performed in my home county of Lincolnshire.

Plans (What I'm up to)

As a result of a couple of comments during the recording sessions, I am fiddling around with more music for strings (well, actually strings and bassoon). The comments sort of swirled around in my head and coalesced with the idea I'd been having of taking some of the best bits from my Duino Elegy setting for baritone and orchestra (premiered at St. James's Piccadilly last year). There were parts of the piece which I felt were hampered by the sheer number of words I had to set. Obviously, in the long term, a new version of the full baritone and orchestra version is needed.

But in the mean time, I'm rather pleased at the way my new piece for bassoon and strings is shaping up. I'm able to dip in and out of the vocal line when I like and add extra bits without worrying about words, underlay or sense.

I have also had the first couple of pages of a proposed new opera libretto - yes, I seem to have managed to hitch myself up with a real librettist, which is a boon. I hope to spend some time in the next week fiddling around with trial settings of the text. I only seem to be able to think about words when attempting to set them. Simply reading a proposed text through will not reveal the full repercussions of setting it. I just need to do the thing properly and see how I find the words. I'll report back later.

Finally, I've been thinking about entering this year's English Poetry and Song society competition, which is to set and Ivor Gurney poem. To that end, I have acquired a book of his collected poems and must leaf through until I find something which calls out to me. One problem is that I sometimes rather pull the text around, which is not good when setting an English poet for a competition run by a poetry society! One good thing is that Gurney did not set many of his own poems, so competitors will not face competition from the poet/composer himself.

All Saints Concert

Tonight we are off to a concert at All Saints Church, Margaret Street given by the church choir, conductor Paul Brough. The concert is in aid of the church's restoration fund and includes a lovely mix of music by Durufle (2 movements from the Requiem), Mozart, Brahms, Bach, Durufle, Poulenc, Alain, Howells, Byrd and Tallis plus a celebration of composers associated with All Saints: Rachmaninov/Arnold, Vale, Lloyd Webber, Fleming, Bramma and Caplin.

The keen eyed amongst you will notice that Paul Brough also conducted at the recent recording sessions for my forthcoming CD. Also a number of the eight:fifteen vocal ensemble sing in All Saints Church choir. So we have double the reasons for attending!

Recent CD Reviews

My review of the excellent new Judith Bingham disc from Naxos is here, on MusicWeb International.
Judith Bingham has not always been well represented on disc and it is good to hear such a generous selection of her choral music in these fine performances. ...

And my review of Alan Curtis's reconstruction of Handel's Fernando, Re di Castiglia, (the original version of Sosarme) is here, also on MusicWeb International.
If you are looking for a disc of perfect Handel singing, then look elsewhere, but if you want a highly dramatic presentation of one of Handel's more underrated operas then look no further. ...

Edington Festival

The programme for this year's Edington Festival has been published, it is here. As ever Julian Thomas has organised a tempting array of music ranging from Palestrina's Missa Tu Es Petrus to Arvo Part's Magnificat. The more contemporary side is ranges from Part and MacMillan to Colin Mawby, Matthew Martin, Grayston Ives and Sigurbjornsson. This latter is an Icelandic composer and I have a treasured recording of his Skalholt Mass. Late Romantics get a good look-in with music by Bairstow, Stanford, Villette and Howells.

I'm not sure if we are going this year, logistics, holidays and a performance of St. Matthew Passion at Glyndebourne mean that it is difficult. But you never know, the programme is very tempting.

Review of Tridentine mass

This is a rather belated post. Here is an amusing review of last August's Tridentine Mass at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church where I sing in the Latin Mass Choir. I should point out that the review is under the misapprehension that the mass was organised by the Latin Mass Society when it was actually organised by congregation members of St. Mary.

Recent CD Review

My review of the pasticcio oratorio Tobit, by Handel and Smith is here, on MusicWeb International.
Think of this as a recital disc. Just put it on and enjoy some of Handel’s finest music in attractive performances. ...

Rostropovitch

I sang under Rostropovitch a couple of times in the 1980's, most notably when he conducted Britten's War Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall. I was in the London Philharmonic Choir at the time and it was interesting how different conductors dealt with the amateur chorus. Some virtually ignored us, Rostropovitch told funny stories, especially notable ones were relating incidents in his early tours of the West during the height of the cold war. His choral rehearsals seemed to have a lot of talking in them but he enthused the choir and got a good performance out of them.

He had a very good ear. I remember one passage in the brass which simply sounded like a vague flourish. Rostropovich insisted on taking it apart, player by player and when re-assembled it was no longer vague, but a precise fanfare emerged; quite remarkable. Whether it endeared him to the brass players or not, I don't know.

The soprano at the performance was, of course, Vishnevskaya, then getting towards the end of her career. Before the first rehearsal she was sitting at the piano, amidst all the chaos of chorus and orchestra assembling, playing odd notes and doing vocalises to some remarkable Russian sounding vowels - nothing Italianate there!

For the performance, Rostropovich had a copy of Singer Sargent's Gassed. I'm not sure how many of the audience could really make out the picture, but it was a remarkable attempt to bring visual imagery to the work.

Recent CD Review

My review of the Somm disc of Beecham conducting Wagner, with Kirsten Flagstad, is here on MusicWeb International.
SOMM give us, in the best possible condition, some of Sir Thomas Beecham’s last Wagner performances. ...

Recent CD Review

My review of the new Bach St. Matthew Passion from Naxos is here on MusicWeb International.
A well modulated and mellifluous but dramatically involving Evangelist but a performance overall that takes few risks. ...

Review!

I'm actually on holiday - normal posts resume next week. In the meanwhile, the FifteenB consort concert at All Saints Margaret St. in March, has just been reviewed by Roderick Dunnett, the review is here on Music and Vision.

Ballet Triple Bill

Last night we went to the new triple bill at the Royal Ballet. The opening work was Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins with new choreography by Will Tuckett. The singing role of Anna was performed by Martha Wainwright; she was miked and sang the Auden/Kalman translation. Her diction was pretty good so we could follow things clearly (no surtitles!). The dancing Anna was Zenaida Yanowsky.

Tuckett and his designer Lez Brotherston set the piece in the sixties (beehive hair do's for the women). Tuckett presents the story quite straightforwardly, creating an involving narrative. There were moments when his use of standard ballet language seemed a little at odds with the music. There were some fine, sexy performances from some of the men.

The quartet of singers stood on a walkway above the stage, viewing the proceedings and adding their comments. The singers were Roderick Earle, Paul Goodwin-Groen, Philip O'Brien, Christopher Steele. They sounded good but their diction was a little occluded at times, perhaps because of their placing. Either Goodwin-Groen was chosen partly for his extreme height, or he was on stilts, but Mother was by far the tallest person on stage!

This was followed by Glen Tetley's Pierrot Lunaire, with Linda Hurst performing the solo vocal line. This was the first time I'd seen the ballet and heard the music live. I found Tetley's dance work entertaining and involving and rather poignant, with superb performances from Alexander Zaitsev (Pierrot), Mara Galeazzi (Columbine) and Edward Watson (Brighella). The costumes, by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, included some superb ones for Columbine.

For some strange, but presumably logical reason, Martin Yates conducted the Seven Deadly Sins, and Richard Bernas conducted the remaining works. It cannot be easy doing concert works like the Schoenberg and the Ravel as ballet scores, but Bernas did very well.

Then finally, La Fin du Jour, MacMillan's ballet to Ravel's Piano Concerto in G (with beteran Royal Ballet pianist Philip Gammon giving a superb account of the solo role). MacMillan's quirkly 30's inspired ballet has some difficult choreography and in the first 2 movements the dancers, particularly the soloists, were unable to make light of it. Thus instead of the piece being free, light and jazzy, it had moments which were too careful and studied. Let us hope that this performance heralds its return to the repertoire so that the dancers can bed it in properly. The final, Fred and Ginger type dance seemed to fit the dancers better and had the requisite fun and lightness.

The final

Review of Solomon

The closing concert of this year's London Handel Festival was a performance of Solomon. Written in 1748, Solomon is the first in the final sequence of great oratorios Solomon, Susanna, Theodora, Jephtha.

Solomon and Susanna were written almost simultaneously and probably had the same, unknown, librettist. Rather than any sort of dramatic plot, the oratorio presents a series of episodes from Solomon's reign. The work is quite expansive in the forces used, many of the choruses are for double choir, and the orchestra includes oboes and flutes at times playing simultaneously, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani. This expansiveness is not just a result of some sort of economic ease, Susanna uses smaller forces; thus implying that Handel wanted the work to be expansive.

The festival performs in St. George's Church, Hanover Square which was Handel's parish church. But, of course, the oratorios were not written for church performance, but for Handel's theatre. And the playing space at St. Georges is highly restrictive. The performance used a choir of 18 hard-working singers and an orchestra with a mere 13 strings. The singers and musicians in the London Handel Chorus and Orchestra are both extremely hard-working and very talented. So, some moments of raw, exposed string tone apart, the results were extremely creditable. But there is no doubt that we were hearing a performance with slightly too few forces.

Space also meant that the soloists were rather crammed in. Though the decision to place Nathan Vale (singing the High Priest, Zadok) in the pulpit was an imaginative one.

Solomon was written for a female contralto. Though Handel had written a number of major tenor parts in his oratorios, he seems to have though of Solomon as a young, romantic hero in operatic terms and so wrote for him in the vocal range associated with this type of role in Italian opera.

The role seems to suit the counter-tenor voice, but this is one area where I have usually preferred female contraltos. The planned singer, Iestyn Davies, was ill so we were lucky to have Christopher Ainslie stand in for him. Ainslie sang the title role in Poro which was presented earlier in the festival at the Britten Theatre. He had also just gained second place in the Handel Singing Competition held in the church 3 days earlier.

Ainslie's Solomon was beautifully toned, well supported and nicely phrased. Ainslie is a very musical singer. I would have like more of a sense of drama and more of a feeling of letting go at the crucial moments, but given the last-minute nature of his substitution we must wait for a further opportunity to hear what he can do in this role. But there is no sense of short change, Ainslie's was a highly effective and affecting performance.

In Act 1, his Queen was Mona Julsrud. Julsrud is a stylish Handelian singer, but I did find that there were moments of hardness of tone in her voice. More worryingly, I did not find here contributions to the end of Act 1 either sexy or erotic. Solomon was a theatre piece and the close of the first act is about the joys of married love; the libretto makes it perfectly clear what Solomon and his Queen get up to. Unfortunately Ainslie and Julsrud sounded a little to chaste.

They were well supported by the choir who turned in a beautiful account of the nightingale chorus, complete with antiphonal flute players in the balcony.

In Act 2, Julsrud and soprano Elisabeth Atherton were the 2 Harlots. This seems to be the new orthodoxy with regard to casting this piece, using just 2 sopranos and having the 2nd soprano play the Queen of Sheba and the mezzo-soprano Harlot. Julsrud and Atherton were superb as the Harlots and here we got some real drama. Ainslie's understated performance worked well as Solomon's reserve when in judgement. Atherton was also a lovely Queen of Sheba in Act 3.

Nathan Vale was a fine Zadok, producing some lovely tone and very fine passage work. Zadok's contributions are not strictly dramatic, but they are very fine arias so it was lovely to hear them all.

The part of the Levite is rather less involving; Njal Sparbo did what he could and contributed some very imaginative and elaborate ornaments, but he did have a tendency to bluster.

The choir worked overtime and sang superbly. Inevitably there were moments when one would have liked more singers, but the results were always focussed and clear. The tone rarely felt pressed in the bigger choruses and the smaller numbers brought a fine sense of crisp ensemble.

The orchestra were similarly impressive. Director Lawrence Cummings balanced his forces well and the great orchestral moments came over as expected.

All in all, a highly involving performance that more than made up for the uncomfortable seats and bad sight-lines that St. George's provides.

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine:

There is an interview with Ian Bostridge, centred on his Britten roles because he's doing Aschenbach with ENO. Its curious that interviews rarely mention, or skate round, the fact that Bostridge's distinctive physique (very tall and very thin) combined with his perceived physical fragility (a reputation for cancelling due to illness) mean that there is an otherworldliness about his persona which works well in some roles. I imagine Aschenbach will be one of them, but frankly I can't imagine him as Essex and Bostridge says in the interview that regarding Peter Grimes 'I go on and off that one'.

There's also an interesting interview with Harry Bickett, one of those big-house friendly Baroque conductors who crop up in all sorts of place - though of course there is a lot more to him than that. He evidently got his big break at Munich when Mackerras famously objected to the production, I think it was one of the wackier Richard Jones ones.

I'm going to skip over the review of Norman Lebrecht's obituary to the classical record industry. But don't miss the obituary to Julian Budden, even though it leaves you doing a lot of reading between the lines.

Meanwhile in Italy, they've been doing Candide in Naples, the production looks fabulous but I'm still suffering the aftershock of the Carsen version from Paris. And in Savona, Anna Caterina Antonacci was doing her first Charlotte, at the Teatro Chiabrera. An institution which gives young artists important opportunities and manages to retain them as they get more well known.

Erica Jeal was in Kazan (!) for a new production of Il Trovatore which is shortly going to be touring (the Netherlands). It definitely sounds something worth seeking out and may be a cut above the usual Eastern European touring production.

Barcelona saw the premiere of Peter Konwitschny's Don Carlos in French - now I definitely do wish I'd been there for that. Robert Carsen's Carmelites has made it to Chicago. We saw the production in Amsterdam, with Susan Chilcott; I found it shattering, particularly the ending though D. was less convinced.

Transferring David Fielding's distinctive view of Strauss Egyptian Helen from Garsington to the Met does not seem to have worked very well. Fielding's ironic whimsy does not seem to have transferred to the larger stage. Also in New York, the Basil Hood/Arthur Sullivan Rose of Persia made a very rare outing; Martin Yates was sufficiently impressed as to hope for a UK production some time - he suggested that the ENO's Kismet sets could perhaps do double duty. Now there's an idea.

Back in the UK, Hugh Canning found Francisco Negrin's production of Orlando at Covent Garden an essentially facetious, patronizing response to the magic of Handel's theatre. Amazing how different people can have such varied responses to the same piece of theatre, but than that's the magic of it I suppose. Still, we both agree on the amazing Sir Charles Mackerras.

The London Sinfonietta have been touring Benedict Mason's ChaplinOperas, amazing short theatre pieces which play as accompaniment to Chaplin Films. Annoyingly I managed to miss it. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment have just done Donizetti's Imelda di Lambertazzi, which was recorded for Opera Rara - their first such collaboration. And the review of Opera Rara's latest offering, Donizetti's Dom Sebastian makes me want to dash out and buy it.

Recent CD Review

My review of the new disc of Stephen Goss's music is here, on Music Web International.
Contemporary music which manages to be approachable but does not talk down to its listeners. Supported by a fine group of performers. ...

What I've been listening to

My most recent reviewer's log has been posted on Music Web International, here.

Review of Ravel/Puccini double bill

My review of the Royal Opera's Ravel/Puccini double bill is here, on Music and Vision.

Catch-up

I've spent the last 2 days at All Saints Church, East Finchley, doing recording sessions for a new disc of my music. In 4 sessions over 2 days we managed to record The Testament of Dr. Cranmer, a group of motets plus some works for tenor and string orchestra including by Blake setting What is Man?. So naturally, I've not had time to devote attention to many other things.

On Sunday we went to Sadlers Wells to see Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem's programme. I found much of it disappointing and not a little pretentious. I could have done without the pseudo ad-libs where Guillem and Khan talked to the audience. And some of the early choreography was a little un-inspiring. It was only towards the end, when Khan and Guillem did a series of duets that things took off. I enjoyed the music, but can't comment much on it as there was no actual music list so I have no idea what I was listening to at any one time. The programme lasted 75 minutes and was frankly quite long enough.

Tomorrow we are off to hear Solomon at the London Handel Festival and then on Friday its the new triple bill by the Royal Ballet with Will Tuckett's Seven Deadly Sins, with Martha Wainwright singing - can't wait.

Review of Ravel/Puccini double bill

My review of the Ravel/Puccini double bill at Covent Garden is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Review

My review of Veronika Winter's disc of Handel cantatas is http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Handel_71083.htmon MusicWeb International.
In many ways an interesting disc, well programmed and performed with a soloist possessed of a lovely voice but rather understated and lacking the necessary bravura and drama. ...

Plans

Tonight is the orchestral rehearsal for the Recording Session on Monday, the first time I get to hear my Blake settings - very scary. So, of course, I have a bag weighed down with string parts and other emergency supplies.

Then on Saturday we're off to Covent Garden to see the Ravel/Puccini double bill - the first time I've managed to see L'Heure Espagnole. And on Sunday its the Akhram Khan/Sylvie Guillem programme at Sadlers Wells.

Quite a busy weekend, all in all.

In case you were wondering..

The Houston Chronicle has recently posted a review of the Zandra Rhodes designed Aida, the review is here.

The Opera Critic has pictures, but you have to be a member to see them; worth it though!

Recent CD Review

My review of Lotti's Vesper Psalms is here, on MusicWeb International.

Not quite up to the sophistication of the top-flight early music groups but an attractive programme given with charm, poise and a lively immediacy. ...

ENO New Season

ENO's new season is remarkably accomplished considering the odium and bad press that the company has been garnering lately. The new artistic directors seem to have decided that the way forward, in the current economic climate, is collaboration so that the new season consists of 11 new productions and only 3 revivals. The new productions are all done in association with others, either as equal partners or simply being bought in.

That said, the season does seem to keep faith with some of the ideas in the previous season. British opera is represented by Britten's Turn of the Screw and Birtwistle's Punch and Judy. The season is also strongly cast, featuring some of the best singers from ENO's previous seasons. Amanda Roocroft returns as Hanna Glawari, perhaps a strange follow-up to Jenufa. Clare Rutter takes the title role in the new Aida, with John Hudson as Radames, Ann Murray is Mrs Grose in the new Turn of the Screw, Barry Banks is Edgardo in the new Lucia di Lammermoor, Alice Coote and Julian Gavin take the leads in the new Carmen; Janice Watson, Sarah Connolly, John Tomlinson and Sarah Tynan take the leads in the new Rosenkavalier.

The notable feature of this casting is showing people in the repertoire that they do best. It is good to be able to see Barry Banks in the bel canto repertoire that he excels at, and both Hudson and Gavin are welcome returns in the standard repertoire.

David McVicar seems to be turning into the house producer, his Maryinsky production of Turn of the Screw and his Scottish Opera Rosenkavalier both make an appearance. I am very excited about the Rosenkavalier, especially as Sarah Connolly is doing Octavian as she did in Scotland.

I'm less excited about Sally Potter's Carmen, though can't wait to hear Alice Coote in the title role. But ENO will obviously be hoping that Potter will managed to work the same box-office magic as Antony Minghella. The director of Aida, Jo Davies, is rather overshadowed by her designer, Zandra Rhodes. Whether they can make this difficult opera work in the Coliseum remains to be seen. In an interview Rhodes commented that she had borrowed 4 DVD's of the work. In 3, the costumes were white night dresses and the 4th a riot of colour. She figured that she had not been engaged to design white nightdresses.

ChenShi-Zheng's Monteverdi cycle continues with The Coronation of Poppea with Christine Rice as Nero.

Bel canto is something of a rarity at the Coliseum and the management obviously felt that if they were going to do Lucia di Lamermoor they had to give it some street cred, so the producer is David Alden, with Paul Daniel conducting. The set will be designed by Charles Edwards who designed Jenufa so don't expect a gorgeous 17th century setting! The title role is being sung by Anna Christy, who sang Cunegonde in Robert Carsen's Candide when it was premiered at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris.

The new Merry Widow seems to have no director attached to it yet, rather an ominous sign. And they are definitely doing the Robert Carsen Candide which premiered at the Chatelet Theatre. I saw this on TV and it was frankly a mess. ENO's version is going to be re-worked but I think the main draw will be Toby Spence as Candide, no word on the Cunegonde yet.

The new chief conductor, Edward Gardner, is conducting Aida, Carmen, Der Rosenkavalier and Punch and Judy. It will be interesting to see, and hear, how he shapes up in this challenging mix of repertoire.

The full season PDF is here.

More surtitles

There's an interesting quote from Edward Gardner, the new Chief Conductor at ENO, in an interview in the Guardian about their 2007/08 season. He was asked about surtitles. His reply:

"I am pretty pro surtitles," he says. "I am pro people from non- operatic backgrounds coming to opera - as I did growing up - and knowing what's going on. The interesting thing about the surtitles argument is that it is always conducted by people who sit in row A of the dress circle, where things are basically fine. But I saw my first 30 operas here in row ZZ of the balcony, and, you sometimes just can't hear the words. For people up there, surtitles are great."

I rather agree with that. Like Gardner I started listening to opera in English at the back of the Gods (in Manchester) and found the words inaudible.

I'll be posting more on the ENO new season announcement later today.

Less than a week to go

It is now less than a week to go to my recording, so life has been full of last minute flurries and tasks. I still have to sit down and create a whole set of string parts for Friday's rehearsal - tomorrow evening is allocated to the task of printing and sticking together - a great delight!

Last week there was a flurry over the organ and we are now using a one that is being brought in, so there's the logistics of getting that in (and out) without disturbing the recording sessions. Then we've had a few personnel movements, so I've had to re-arrange some of the vocal pieces. I did this last night and we are now recording my motet Nunc Dimittis with the melody line set at its original Alto pitch which will be rather nice. I always associate the melody with the sound of Rupert Damerell's voice (he premièred the piece when it as just for alto and organ), even though it has spent the last few years as a motet for SATB and organ. In fact we are going to record it in its ATB+organ incarnation.

There have also been the usual flurry of emails trying to ensure that everyone knows where and when we are doing things. Given that these are recording sessions its useful to have choir, conductor, recording engineer and record producer in the same place at the same time. Oh, and perhaps the humble composer as well, to answer questions and make tea, if nothing else.

Church Latin

A fascinating post from Westminster Cathedral about vagaries of church Latin, Italianate Latin and Latin as she is spoke by Academics. Essential reading for those of us choristers whose latin is minimal.

We have not been to see Philip Glass's Satyagraha at the London Coliseum. Not because of lack of interest, but lack of time. Both this and Koanga (at Sadlers Wells) have fallen foul of the fact that we simply have too much going on this month. (Notably, of course, my own recording, but much else besides).

Still, I have been following avidly the critical response to Satyagraha in the press, partly because I have a love/hate relationship to Glass's music; I must confess that the last full length work of his I heard live was Akhnaten at ENO many years ago.

Generally the critical response to the new production has been positive. But Rupert Christiansen writing in the Telegraph,most definitely did not like it: it contains some of the most mind-numbing, brain-rotting and soul-destroying noise that has ever passed for music, and I would sooner sit through 10 uncut performances of an obscure Handel epic than hear a note of it again.

Whereas for John Allison in The Sunday Telegraph, you should do anything (legal) to get a ticket. Take your pick on who to believe.

Mayerling

On Friday we went to seen Kenneth MacMillan's ballet Mayerling at the Royal Opera House. Its a work I've been fond of (if that's the right word, given the subject matter) since seeing it during its first run, with David Wall as Prince Rudolph. Since then I've seen artists as varied as Irek Mukhamedov and Adam Cooper in the role. On Friday it was the turn of Carlos Acosta, with Leanne Benjamin as his mistress with whom he commits suicide in a powerful final pas de deux.

Much was written in the press about how the role did not really suite Acosta's personality. And that neither he nor Benjamin were ideally cast. Perhaps so, but I think that we will not see their final pas de deux danced so supremely well. They way she flung herself at him in those amazing flying leaps was astounding. MacMillan's choreography can often seem overly contrived, if the participants do not have it in their bones (or muscles). Here it seemed perfectly aposite.

Now, I want to see Edward Watson in the role, having read the reviews of his debut last week.

Regarding the music to the ballet, John Lanchberry's assemblage of Liszt pieces is masterly, but there are times when I feel that Liszt just does not create the right decadent atmosphere for the Austro-Hungarian court. An Lanchberry seems to have been very sparing with the sweeping melodies, though perhaps that was what MacMillan wanted.

Boring or what

I've just been doing a new arrangement of a piece of string orchestra, based on one of my solo motets. I'm very happy with it, though I expect there will be a little tinkering over the next few days. The problem is that the viola part is truly boring; I have this weakness for static harmony in the middle with a vocal line on top and a moving (generally descending) bass. That's the way it is with this piece; the result is exactly what I want but leaves the violas with acres of the same note.

I've had this problem before and each time I come to the same conclusion, the music as written is exactly what I want. Sometimes I worry that its sheer laziness, that just sticking the same few chords under the melody is the easiest way out. But no amount of tinkering every really comes up with a replacement, too often the more interesting versions simply sound contrived.

So for the moment, my new string piece is sitting on the piano waiting for tinkering. In a few days I'll return to it and see whether I can tweak the viola part to be more fun. But I suspect that I will stay as it is.

Recording news

Things are gearing up to our recording sessions in just over a week. I have produced a specimen set of string parts for the two pieces which use string orchestra and these are being marked up; we will then have to produce all the string parts ready for next Friday's orchestral rehearsal. This will be the first time that the Blake setting has been performed, always a nerve-wracking time. I am looking forward to hearing how the piece works with voice and strings, its a setting of a chunk of Blake's Jerusalem and is in the form of a sequence of recitatives and arias.

The choral music on the disc is less nerve-making as most of it has been performed before. This also meant that I had far less work to do generating the vocal scores, as these already existed for many of the pieces - thanks goodness.

A minor challenge has been the organ, we've discovered that building work has prevented the tuning of the organ at the recording venue so we are having to bring in an organ. One of those last minute hitches that you can never legislate for!

Recent Book review

My review of the Dorling Kindersly Eyewitness Guide to Opera is here, on Music and Visition.

Too much Handel

A recent article in The Guardian has postulated that we are getting too much Handel at the moment. There have been productions of Handel operas at Covent Garden and ENO besides concert performances at the Barbican. But ENO has only 3 Handel operas and 1 oratorio in its repertoire and rarely gives us more than 1 per year and sometimes less. Covent Garden's production of Orlando is their first viable Handel staging in living memory.

Glyndebourne also have 3 stagings which come out periodically. The thing that all these operas have in common is that they all come from the magical 12 Handel operas that everyone does. It is left to people like the London Handel Festival, who staged Poro, to explore the remaining 24 Handel operas.

The concert performances of Handel operas at the Barbican (of which there are a few this year) also tend to explore the more well known operas. If you glance at the Web-Site for the Theatre du Champs Elysee you will see that they have quite a number of Handel operas in concert, all well known ones. Alan Curtiss and his group Il Complesso Barocco have been exploring lesser known operas (Faramondo and Sosarme/Fernando have both been issued on disc) but when the group came to the Barbican they brought Rodelinda.

So the issue is not that there is too much Handel but that there are too many performances of the same operas. This reluctance to explore means that we don't hear anything of his contemporaries; how nice it would have been to have heard a concert performance of Hasse's Cleofide to compliment Handel's Poro, after all they both use the same libretto.

As regards the French baroque and its complete absence from the opera house in the UK, this can be partly attributed to the lack of desire to explore they by-ways. But might also be attributable to a nervousness about how to treat the extensive dance episodes in the operas. Too often, I've found that UK productions react to significant dance episodes with simple embarassment.

New photos

I've just had some new publicity photos taken by Johnny Bourchier. Here's one.

Family commitments mean that, as usual, I will miss most of the Easter services at church but I sang in the Maundy Thursday service yesterday evening. Lots of plainchant, antiphons for the washing of the feet and the Pange Lingua for the end of the service when the host is translated from the high altar to a side altar. The setting was Lotti's Missa Brevis, but we also included Durufle's Ubi Caritas. As I was the alto, this meant that I got to enjoy the lovely alto line all on my own.

Recent CD Review

My review of the BBC Singers' disc of Tippett's choral music is here, on MusicWeb International.
The BBC Singers go far beyond mere technical competency, creating a series of varied but dazzlingly vibrant performances. If you love good choral music, then buy it. ...

Covent Garden new season

The Royal Opera Covent Garden have announced their new season. The big news is, of course, the Ring cycle; they are doing 3 complete cycles in October. Unusually, this is not the first opera of the season, that is Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride with a delectable cast that includes Susan Graham, Simon Keenlyside and Paul Groves. There must be something in the air, because this is a co-production with Chicago and San Francisco, and the Met is also doing a new production (with Placido Domingo in the baritone role). Quite a delectable start to the season.

Other highlights include a new L'Elisir d'Amore from Laurent Pelly, with Rolando Villazon as Nemorino. This ones not too near the top of my must see list, but anything Pelly does is interesting.

Parsifal is coming back with Haitink conducting. The cast includes John Tomlinson, Willard White and Gwynne Howell - a remarkably confluence of distinguished basses. Christopher Ventris is doing the title role. Also coming back is La Cenerentola with Mrs. Rattle (Magdalene Kozena) in the title role and Toby Spence as Don Ramiro. I'm very tempted if only to see Toby Spence. Regarding the title role, I prefer my voices a little heavier and darker than Kozena's. French baritone Stephane Degout is Dandini. Its his Royal Opera debut, couldn't they have found something French for him to sing?

Anna Netrebko is doing Violetta, at last we can get a chance to see what all the fuss is about, if we're bothered. But Jonas Kauffman, who made quite a stir in the new Carmen is Don Jose.

Olivia Fuchs's A Midsummer Nights Dream is returning to the Linbury with a good young cast (William Towers, Gillian Keith, Katie van Kooten, Matthew Rose). And David McVicar's Magic Flute comes back with a varied double cast.

McVicar is also in charge of the new production of Salome with Nadja Michael in the title role and Thomas Moser as Herod, Michaela Schuster as Herodias. Names that are mostly new to me, people I've read about and not heard. So it should be interesting, and with McVicar in charge its bound to be entertaining.

Another chance to see the late Steven Pimlott's Eugene Onegin, with Gerard Finley and Marin Poplavskaya - definitely worth crossing the road for, even if the production got mixed reviews on its first outing.

Carmen gets another outing, this time with a Spanish mezzo - Nancy Fabiola-Herrera (how about a French one?).

And now for the biggie. The premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur, with John Tomlinson in the title role and a cast that includes Christine Rice, Christopher Ainslie, Tim Mead and Philip Langridge. Stephen Langridge directs.

Ian Judge's production of the 1857 Simon Boccanegra is back but this time using the better known 1881 version. The production travelled to Washington where they added the sets for the 1881 council scene. John Eliot Gardiner is conducting, which makes it rather interesting and the cast includes Lucio Gallo and Nina Stemme.

The big disappointment of the season is the new Don Carlo. Nicholas Hyntner is directing, but using the 5-act Italian version rather than the French one. Rolando Villazon is singing Don Carlo, rather a big step up for him in terms of the vocal heft required though he's already done the 4-act version evidently. Marina Poplavskaya is Elisabetta, Angela Georghiou having dropped out. Veteran bass Ferruccio Furlanetto is Philip II and Simon Keenlyside is Posa. So, of course, we're going to be there even if we regret the passing of the French version.

Thomas Ades's Powder her face gets a full production in the Linbury and Ades crops up again, conducting Stravinsky's The Rakes Progress with Charles Castronovo, Sally Matthews (nice to see her in bigger roles) and John Relyea.

Deborah Voight finally gets to wear the little black dress in Ariadne auf Naxos. The composer is the Latvian mezzo, Elina Garanca and Gillian Keith is Zerbinetta. Le Nozze di Figaro comes back with the ever wonderful Charles Mackerras in charge. Notable performers include Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Barbara Frittoli and Sophie Koch.

Over at the Royal Ballet its pretty much the mixture as before. We get new on-acters from Christopher Weeldon and Kim Brandstrup. New resident choreographer Wayne McGregor only does a shortie for a gala, but his Chroma comes back in a bill with Kenneth MacMillan's late, and rather weird, Distant Drummer - the one about Wozzeck.

The other new piece is a complete staging of Balanchine's Jewels. The Royal Ballet have not always got the Balanchine style, so it will be interesting to see how this goes.

Recent CD Review

My review of a disc of Schumann's secular choral music from Carus is here, on MusicWeb International.
A highly attractive introduction to Schumann’s choral music, including a fine performance of one of Schumann’s greatest choral pieces. ...

From this month's Opera

Gleanings from the April edition of Opera magazine.

More on the European Opera Day’s conference in Paris. One of the centre pieces was Pierre Audi’s new production of Halevy’s La Juive at the Paris Opera Bastille. But its first night was blighted by a technician’s strike. Bizarrely, Audi only found out about the problems via a Dutch language newspaper and no announcement was made on the night; so the audience was left with a rather dim lighting plot and no explanation.

The conference itself sounds a little mixed. Erica Jeal comments that in the session on attracting young adults to opera, ‘half the talking was done by music professionals anxious to talk up their own initiatives’. There was also a young delegates only session which mulled over similar problems. In Europe there is a popular group, Juvenilia, which acts as a young opera goers social network. Oddly, it does not seem to be thriving in the UK.

Potentially, the most interesting session must have been The Future of Opera. It is heartening to read Jeal’s comment that the session "brought a few speakers into play who had done their homework but didn’t seem to be concerned above all with making the right impression".

And in another session Stefan Herheim, actually spoke up for the positive stimuli that an opera house’s inherent limitations brings to the director.

Elsewhere in the magazine, the interview is with veteran singer Robert Tear. In the late 1970’s I saw him in one or two roles with Scottish Opera in repertoire with which he is not always associated. I don’t think I saw his Alfredo but I definitely did see him as Belmonte and I think there were other roles, a Tamino I think. I must did out the programmes. I definitely did see him as Loge in the first Gotz Friedrich Ring at Covent Garden in the 1980’s, a production which made a very big impression.

Tear has always been one of those singers who I’ve admired for their versatility. The interview mentions his recording Handel’s Acis and Galatea whilst singing Matteo (Arabella) at Covent Garden as well as singing the Verdi Requiem for Bernstein at short notice. He’s going to be doing Monsieur Taupe (Capriccio) in Paris; he describes it as a lovely role. I remember hearing the very (very) aged Hugues Cuenod doing it at Glyndebourne (in the old theatre).


Some tit-bits:-

Many papers and mags have picked up on the fact that Gerard Mortier is going to New York City Opera. Despite much speculation about what might happen, all we can really do is say watch this space.

Fragments of recording of the Dream of Gerontius, made in 1936 with Heddle Nash in the title role, have surfaced on a CD which accompanies Alan Blyth’s new book on Nash – can’t wait!

A clutch of obituaries – Gian Carlo Menotti (aged 95) and Steven Pimlott (aged 55). I remember Pimlott’s memorable Boheme for ENO as well as his Sunday in the Park with George for the National Theatre.

Opera around the world:-

Australia’s Pinchgut Opera are a group that I know about from reading reviews and listening to their CD’s. Usually they do something baroque and supremely unusually interesting; this year’s Idomeneo does not seem to have quite hit the mark, judging by Deborah Jones’s review but in December this year they come back with Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans.

Lyons saw a concert performance of La Sonnambula, using a new critical edition; like many back-basics editions of traditional coloratura works, the keys have changed. There are arguments for doing Lucia in higher keys so that the role is more spinto (lowering the pitch enables more high notes from the soprano), but the new Sonnambula is doing the reverse and lowering some of the pitch. At least it makes the tenor’s job easier.

Handel’s Orlando has surfaced in Munich in a production by David Alden. Munich has had a wonderful succession of Handel operas in recent years, but I’ve usually been put off travelling to them by their rather challenging productions. For Orlando, Alden depicts Zoroastro as a mad nuclear scientist with Orlando as his love-lorn sidekick. But seems to leave the more bucolic characters, Dorinda and Medoro, rather out of place. David Daniels sang Orlando, which Hugh Canning thought lay a little low for him. I do wish casting directors would pay attention to the differing castrato and counter-tenor tessituras. Orlando was written for Senesino who had a pretty low register and is definitely not ideal for everyone – Alice Coote found it a bit low for her at Covent Garden. Evidently Daniels had to resort to using his natural baritone register.

Over in Ireland, Opera Ireland have been emulating the work of Pimlico Opera. They did not actually stage their new Boheme in a prison, but the inmates of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin collaborated with Maiano Prison, Spoleto, in designing and building the sets and making the costumes. The result was described by Ian Fox as ‘realistic and dramatically intelligent’.

Geneva’s new Meistersinger set the work in the 1930’s and ended with Pogner and his non-Aryan looking daughter leaving Nuremberg – an interesting take on a problematic ending.

In Los Angeles, tenors seem to be taking over. Kurt Streit played Nerone in Monteverdi’s Poppea – surely they could have found a soprano to do it. And Graham Clark played the witch in Hansel and Gretel.

Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino was revived in Manhatten; when last played there, at the Met in 1932, it formed a double bill with Elektra – very bizarre. It reminds me of Andre Previn’s story about being taken to the theatre as a child and seeing a double bill of Salome and the ballet Coppelia, and for ever afterwards he tended to get the 2 works mixed up!

In the UK, Carl Rosa did a single performance of Patience in an original 1879 theatre. Its in Teddington and used to be part of a sanotorium and comes complete with the original painted backdrops and the original portraits used for Ruddigore. Sounds like a gem, hope their fund-raising campaign goes well. More information here - http://www.langdondowncentre.org.uk/


In Leeds, Martin Dreyer’s review of Christopher Alden’s new Orfeo seems to miss out the essential point that Alden tried to set the work in Warhol's Factory. Mind you, why he should want to I don’t know.

Review of Can-Can

Cole Porter's musical Can-Can was written with a book by Abe Burrows (author of the books for Guys and Dolls and Silk Stockings). The original intention had been to write a piece about La Goulue, the can-can dancer who was one of Toulouse Lautrec's favourite subjects. But somewhere along the way, things changed. The setting remained 19th century France, but involved a young uptight judge, Aristide Forestier, getting involved with the owner of a can-can establishment, La Mome Pistache. On one level the plot is the expected frothy mix of can-can dancers and struggling artists. But the plot also involves the judge's crusade to get a fair trial for the dancers when prosecuted under obscenity laws. This takes on greater resonance when you learn that the piece was written in the USA at the height of McCarthyism.

La Mome Pistache is a financially savvy figure, who is not without hard edges – she is canny but still appealing. She makes an interesting contrast with the uptight, naïve Aristide. The show concludes with the proper trial which Aristide has been looking for, and the finale is Pistache's girls demonstrating the can-can to the judge. Despite the happy ending we are left wondering what the future holds for Aristide and Pistache.

The show was presented by Ian Marshal Fisher's Lost Musicals. The presentation involved the cast in evening dress, singing from scores, no set and a basic, but imaginative staging (directed by Ian Marshall Fisher).

There was just a piano accompaniment, but the singers are unamplified which is a great advantage. The 14 actors were very hard-working with some playing multiple roles and all participating in the chorus and ensemble scenes.

Aristide and Pistache get the majority of the songs. Pistache was played by Valerie Cutko, a tall elegant figure with a stylish dancer's carriage. She has a low-ish, husky singing voice, it did not always quite fill out Cole Porter's vocal lines but she was undoubtedly expressive and characterful. Her delivery of the show's best known number, “C'est magnifique” was masterly and she spun the vocal line out on a thread.

Christopher Dickens was impressive as the naïve young judge. His singing voice is attractive. The role sounded as if it might have not been in his ideal range, I would have like to have heard more of him. He gets just 2 solos, but one of those is “Its Alright with Me”.

The remaining cast were wonderful, creating a gallery of vivid characters. There was certainly no feeling of being short-changed because this was not fully staged. James Vaughan and Stewart Permutt (both Lost Musicals regulars) were hilarious as the Bulgarian artist, Bruno, and the French art critic, Hilaire. Their feud, leading to a hilarious duel, formed the principal sub-plot.

The score has 4 extremely strong, well-known songs in it (“C'est Magnifique”, “Its Alright with me”, “I love Paris” and “Can-can”) but the remaining ones were rather more variable and a couple of times you thought that Cole Porter might have been on auto-pilot. But the over-all effect was most enjoyable and a little thought-provoking, which is perhaps what was intended.

After listening to this superb performance we came out humming the tunes and longing to see a full staging, complete with can-can.

Recent CD Review

My review of the disc of Laurent Petitgirard's orchestral music is here, on MusicWeb International.

Lush music, attractively orchestrated and evoking the sound-worlds of Honegger or Koechlin ...

Lost Musicals

On Sunday we went to see the ever wonderful Lost Musicals people, doing a performance of Cole Porter's Can Can at the Sadlers Wells Theatre. A full review will appear in due course, but this was a fabulous performance. They do them semi-staged, with piano accompaniment and the results are always entertaining and sometimes a revelation. Of course, for me, one of the advantages is that they use the studio theatre and don't have any amplification, so we get a chance to hear the actors voices properly, something that does not happen very often nowadays.

LLGFF

This weekend we finished seeing our clutch of films at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; we managed 6 films this year. All of them memorable in their own way and one The Bubble stayed in my mind for days afterwards.

From a musical point of view the most notable event was a film by Peter de Rome, who made classic, art-influenced Gay porn in the 70's. This was without dialogue but set to a Messiaen score - quite a combination

Thursday saw London Concord Singers giving their Easter concert at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street, Chelsea; Lassus's Missa Bell' Amfitrit' Altera and Rachmaninov's Vespers. A quite long and tiring programme, but ultimately very satisfying. The performances went very well, mind you I've not heard the recording yet but we got very good feedback from the audience.

I have just upgraded my version of Finale on my new PC, so I'm running Finale 2007 under Vista. At first glance there seem to be numerous small problems which almost make me want to return to my old version. I'll have to see what their technical support comes up with.

Recent CD review

My review of Ferrandini's Cantate per la Passione is here, on MusicWeb International.
Music which is gracefully poised and attractively melodic. This attractive programme provides a good way to get to know his music. ...

The art of criticism

In the latest issue of The Gay and Lesbian Review, there is an interview with Gore Vidal. He includes some comments on book reviews and reviewers but I think that they are equally valid for the humble music critic.

One of his complaints is that the people who write such reviews are nobodies, which for him seems to mean that they have no right to publicise their feelings and opinions. Not sure about this one, perhaps I should simply say discuss? Though he does go on to say that the worst newspaper in England has better book reviewers than The New York Times.

But his most useful comment is one that I'd like to quote in full: Now, what do you do if you have to review a book? The most difficult thing on earth, and most people don't know how difficult it is, because most people can't do it: describe what it was that you read. If you do that properly you don't have to throw adjectives around and make cute noises. Just describe it. The words that you use for the description will lead the criticism. Now if you can plow that in to some heads, you will have done great work. (Gore Vidal quoted in The Gay and Lesbian Review, Volume XIV, Number 2.

I'm certainly going to have to bear that in mind when writing my next CD or opera review.

Disappearing casts

The Barbican Centre has generated a niche for itself by bringing over the casts of various French operatic productions to delight their audiences. William Christie is, inevitably, often involved but others also. This procedure, though, is fraught with difficulties; what is actually delivered is sometimes a bit different to what is promised.

There were probably sighs of relief when, a few years ago, Handel's Serse was done in concert with Anne Sofie von Otter, after first night reviews of the production came out. But when Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea came over from Paris there were notable absences in the cast so that the sense of ensemble coming from an established team, was marred. The newcomers were noticeably wedded to their scores.

Now something similar is happening to tonight's Ariodante at the Barbican. Also hailing from Paris, where performances were staged. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Sandrine Piau have dropped out, to be replaced by singers who have actually appeared in the Paris production, so at least the sense of ensemble will not be marred (at least one hopes not). Now, Angelika Kirschlager, in the title role, has dropped out through illness - something that cannot be legislated for.

The problem is that the Barbican's Great Performers season is in danger of getting a reputation for not delivering the casts that are promised.

Review of Poro, Re dell'Indie

My review of the London Handel Festival production of Handel's Poro is here, on Music and Vision.

The Tempest

Last night we were at Thomas Ades's The Tempest at the Royal Opera House. We saw the opera (from the stalls) when it was premièred and it was interesting seeing it again, this time from the Amphitheatre. I understand that Ades has not made any significant changes to the piece since its première. But it was completed at the very last minute and the most obvious difference in last night's performance was the way the the piece seemed to flow better,to be more of a piece.

It is still a powerful work and Tom Cairns production is astonishing, a real counterpart to Ades's complex, multi-layered text. The ROH Orchestra, directed by Ades himself, were in fine form, making light of the complex orchestra textures. Simon Keenlyside repeated his Prospero, his compelling performance more than compensating for the fact that the role lacks poetry and the vocal line seems to resolutely set in recitative mode. But perhaps this is part of the conception, the poetic elements seem to be assigned to other singers, notably Ian Bostridge as Caliban and perhaps Cyndia Sieden as Ariel. Bostridge's Caliban gets the rather poetic close to the whole opera, his character is never the ugly monster of Shakespeare, but more the outsider. Sieden's portrayal of Ariel is astounding, but she seems to have played it in every performance of the opera anywhere. I still wonder how other singers will cope with the stratospheric part and found that after a while the constant high notes sat uneasily on my ear.

Toby Spence repeated the role of Ferdinand and Kate Royal played Miranda, both were very strong. I still feel that the courtiers and others surrounding the King of Naples are given insufficient time to establish character. Philip Langridge was profoundly moving as the King of Naples, but the others had a struggle to make us understand who they are. The 'comic' servants still seem very un-comic and lack a purpose. The other area that still bothers me is the libretto, I just can't take to Meredith Oakes's rhyming verse, especially when the diction is so good, as it was here.

All in all I was impressed on 2nd hearing. The piece is not perfect, but I think that Ades's conception of what he is trying to achieve is rather different from my perception of what I want out of an opera on the subject of the Tempest. So I'll just have to go on trying.

PS. Mirabile Dictu, I am now back on-line with my new PC. The only downside being that I managed to lose 2 weeks worth of emails whilst installing my new software on the PC!

Poro on Tuesday at the Britten Theatre was superb, a review (with pictures) should appear in due course. We sat in the front row of the upper circle. In theory the view was fine, but it was not designed for short people - you had to sit very upright to see the front of the stage.

Tonight we're off to The Tempest at the Royal Opera House. I gather that Thomas Ades has not made much in the way of changes to the opera since it was premiered, which is a shame. I felt that it would have benefited from some re-shaping and pruning. But I may change my mind, I'll keep you posted.

I'm still having computer meltdown - my new PC has Microsoft Vista installed and I'm having the devils own job finding an ADSL modem to suit it.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Cesare Ciardi's music for flute and orchestra is here.

No-one would claim great musical significance for Ciardi’s music, but it is undeniably attractive and here the performances are stunningly virtuosic. Sit back and enjoy and admire. ...

And my review of Naxos's new disc of cantatas by Simon Mayr is here. Both are on Music Web International.

Mayr is one of those figures who is only gradually coming back into view. We are in Naxos’s debt for this disc of two of his attractive occasional works. ...

Review of Beatrice di Tenda

My review of Chelsea Opera Group's performance of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda is here, on Music and Vision.

London Handel Festival

Tonight we are off to the first of 2 visits to this year's London Handel Festival. We're off to see Handel's opera Poro at the Britten Theatre in the Royal College of Music, an ideal sized venue in which to see Handel opera staged. Our second visit to the festival will be to see Handel's Solomon at St. George's Church, Hanover Square.

Sunday afternoon was taken up with our concert at All Saints Church, Margaret Street. This went very well, with no major mishaps. We had a good audience and they were very appreciative. I was particularly pleased with the effect of my piece that we premièred, I'll definitely be scheduling that again.

After the concert we dashed over to Chelsea for Chelsea Opera Group's performance of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda; a full review of this will appear in due course.

MacMillan mass at Westminster

To Westminster Cathedral on Sunday for 10.30am mass. The setting was James MacMillan's Mass. The choir sang the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei, but in addition the celebrant included MacMillan's setting of the Ante-Preface, Preface, Prayer of Consecration etc. I have heard these on Westminster Cathedral choir's recording of the entire mass but had never anticipated hearing the sequence live, after all it requires a celebrant who is confident enough to learn MacMillan's new setting for the words. The result was profoundly moving, especially heard in the Cathedral's astounding acoustic.

The choral contributions were highly evocative.. What they lacked in clarity, due to the acoustic, they made up in atmosphere and the choir were in superb form.

The offertory motet was Mozart's Laudate Dominum, with the solo soprano line taken beautifully by a group of trebles.

Mr. Heidegger's House

Last week's Country Life included a feature on No. 4, Maids of Honour Row in Richmond, which has just been sold. In the 18th century the house belonged to the theatrical impressario Heidegger, with whom Handel collaborated on a number of occasions. In the 1740's Heidegger had the hall painted by one of his theatrical scene painters. A fascinating link to the rather ephemeral art of theatrical scene painting.

Busy-Ness

This is promising to be a busy weekend. On Saturday morning a photographer is coming to do some shots of me, with a new CD being recorded next month we decided that it was about time for me to get some new publicity shots done.

Then in the afternoon we are rehearsing in All Saints Church, Margaret Street for our concert there on Sunday. The first time we'll have sung in the venue. We have a brief run through in the church on Sunday and then our concert is at 3.00pm. All Welcome!

Early that day we are planning to go to 10.30am mass at Westminster Cathedral; being as I'm singing in the concert I'm not singing at church. The Cathedral are doing James MacMillan's Mass, the first time I'll have heard the dedicatees performing it live.

Then in the evening, we're off to the Chelsea Opera Group in the Cadogan Hall where they are performing Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda with Nelly Miriociouiou in the title role. This starts at the early hour of 6.00pm because the Cadogan Hall has strict rules about the time concerts are allowed to finish.

Meltdown, again

The computer I've been using, since my own turned flaky, has hit melt-down and lost its hard drive. My backup habits are a bit intermittent, but I am usually pretty good at printing out music in all the relevant stages of composition. Unfortunately, in the last week I have had a spurt of energy on a tone poem that I'd been writing, based on a Sylvia Townsend-Warner story. I'd not yet got around to printing it out so that the conclusion to the first movement and the entire opening of the second have disappeared into the aether (or wherever the bits and bytes from our hard drives go when they die). Very frustrating. As and when I get my new computer (current e.t.a. 10 days) I'm not sure whether I am going to have the stomach to re-construct the missing bits. We'll have to see.

And of course, until then I have to resort to my old, flaky PC. The one which turns itself off without any notice, thus corrupting whatever you were working on at the time. Ho-Hum.

Recent CD Review

My review of the re-issue of the New London Chamber Choir's recording of the Pierre de la Rue Requiem and Josquin's Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae is here on MusicWeb International.
This is an attractive disc and only occasionally do the choir’s very high standards lapse. Fine musicality ...

Review of Handel's Orlando

My review of Orlando at Covent Garden is here, on Music and Vision.

Handel's Orlando at Covent Garden

To Covent Garden last night to see Handel's Orlando. It was a pleasant change to go to see one of his works performed as it should be, with not messing about with intervals. The Royal Opera simply bit the bullet and performed 3 Acts (1 hour each) with 2 intervals: in at 7.00pm out at 10.45pm. Over the years we've had a variety of attempts to perform his long 3-Act works in a different way. Hercules at the Barbican was one of a number of presentations which merged 2 acts, to give 2 very unequal halves and a first 'half' of positively Wagnerian length. The alternative seems to be to put the interval in the 'wrong' place in the middle of Act 2. Which I don't like either, so bravo to Covent Garden.

Francisco Negrin's production uses dancers as Mars, Venus and Cupid, to help make obvious the work's theme of the struggle between love and glory. Cupid wears little beyond draping round his mid-section and Venus has bare breasts. For some reason the audience around me seemed to find the dancers amusing. Even when Dorinda was singing about the trouble and perils of love, almost wrestling with Cupid, the audience sniggered at his every move. This is an example of how a producer and designer can scupper a production by underestimating the audiences reaction to something on stage. Its a nuisance, but nice middle class English people (especially women) find nudity uncomfortable and will react with laughter, no matter how serious the intent. The was particularly true when Dorinda seems to skewer Cupid in the groin with an arrow.

But Mr. Negrin is a southern European so probably does not really understand our Northern hang-ups about sex.

A full review of the opera (rather than this little rant) will appear in due-course

In this month's Opera magazine

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine.

There is an interview with David Fielding, partly to commemorate the fact that Fielding is doing Strauss's Egyptian Helen at the Met - based on his Garsington production. In the text (by Andrew Clark) both Clark and Fielding give due weight not only to Fielding's work at Garsington but also at Grange Park (where he's doing Prokofiev's The Gambler this summer). But somehow, in the layout of the article, the curse of Opera Magazine happened again (after all they did once describe Grange Park as the most unnecessary of the UK's opera festivals). The pictures include 3 of Fielding's ENO productions, 5 of his Garsington productions but none of his Grange Park one's. Or perhaps I'm being churlish and the Grange Park pictures failed to arrive!

An interesting comment in the Letters, an audience member from the Theatre Royal in Glasgow who sat in the balcony found that the counter tenors in Scottish Opera's Tamerlano were perfectly audible, whilst the critics (sitting in the stalls) found them too quiet. I've always rather liked sitting upstairs and often found the sound quality can be better in some theatres (and I've sat in the Theatre Royal balcony many times).

George Benjamin's new opera, Into the Little Hill was premièred in Paris as part of the Festival d'Automne, along with 2 other Benjamin events. The production is travelling to Amsterdam, New York and Frankfurt, but guess what? There are no solid plans for it to come to London - though it might get to Liverpool. The opera uses just 2 singers and Judith Weir-like, Benjamin conjures a whole cast from them. As one of the singers was the ever wonderful Hilary Summers, I bet the performance was terrific. Though Paul Driver describes her as mannish-sounding.

Another first opera, this time by Bruno Mantovani, premièred in Strasbourg by Opera National du Rhin. (Berlioz Troyens and a première in the same season).

Rodion Shchedrin's new opera Boyarina Morozova uses just chorus, soloists and 3 instrumentalists. The chorus are used instrumentally to accompany the soloists - its very Orthodox Church Music influenced. Sounds fascinating.

It seems that the Berlin Philharmonic has never performed Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel complete. Surprisingly, they got Mark Elder to do it with them and the results sound to have been fabulous. John Allison comments on how Elder reined thing in in the pit (v. necessary in this opera), but its not how I remember him from his Coliseum days when the orchestra frequently were too loud for the singers words to come across. One nice point in the presentation of the opera; the witch (Jane Henschel) sat incognito in the audience through the first scenes and started her performance by cackling from her seat. Startling if you were sitting next to her!

Meanwhile in Turin Luana de Vol sang Turandot at the age of 64 - something of a record. The production was mega-simple. Cost cutting meant that there was no money for sets, but Luca Ronconi seems to have turned up trumps with just people, lighting and the stage machinery. Shows what you can do when pushed. I wish more theatres would consider this.

It was good to see Sally Matthews garnering plaudits for her Amsterdam Cosi (even if the production was not liked).

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia a self-propelling yellow Hoover seems to have been one of the stars of the new production of Cenerentola, updated to the 50's (again). Reviewer David Shengold complains of updating fatigue, having already seen Semele as Marilyn Monroe, Nemorino as James Dean in Giant and Didno as Evita!

But in Seattle, the new Italiana in Algeri also updates, but wittily makes aviatrix Isabella crash land here aeroplane in North Africa.

In London, Rodney Milnes though that Dawn French, as the Duchess of Crackentorp in La Fille du Regiment marginally underplayed her role - really!

Chelsea Festival 2007

Tuesday evening saw the launch party for the 2007 Chelsea Festival. In previous years this has taken place at the historic Royal Hospital (designed by Wren) but this year it was in the ultra-modern top floor restaurant at Peter Jones shop in Sloane Square.

The festival, director Stewart Collins, is an impressively eclectic mix of classical music, jazz, theatre, fashion and all sorts of other things. Notable events, from my point of view, include Sir Andrew Davis conducting the Faure Requiem, with the Joyful Company of Singers; the Southbank Sinfonia doing a programme of English music for voices and Strings with music by Tippett, Berkeley, Leighton, Howells, Finzi and Walton; Mark Padmore and the Schubert Ensemble doing Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge (but you've got to sit through Dvorak's Piano Quintet as well); Purcell's King Arthur, but it has a new book by Kit Hesketh-Harvey; Emma Kirkby and the London Handel Players in a programme of Handel, Telemann, Bach and Vivaldi and, at the closing concert, Mozart's Solemn Vesters and Haydn's lovely Little Organ Mass played in the Royal Hospital Chapel (a lovely venue, despite the uncomfortable seats!).

Technorati tag:classical music

Review of Euryanthe (Dresden Staatsoper)

Weber’s Euryanthe was premiered in Dresden whilst he was working there as Musical Director of the German theatre there. The work is important in the history of the development of German Romantic opera, being a significant precursor of Wagner’s Lohengrin. But the libretto, by Helmina von Chezy, has some significant weaknesses which rather prevent the opera being regularly performed. Von Chezy was the author of the nonsensical play Rosamunde for which Schubert wrote his famous incidental music. Weber seems to have been aware of the libretto (and the librettist’s) shortcomings but let her write it because he felt sorry for her.

The current production at Dresden opera house was new in February 2006 and we saw it on 25th February 2007, this performance was the 7th of this new production. The director was Vera Nemirova, a disciple of Peter Konwitchny, and the designer was Gottfried Pilz.

The setting was abstract modern, in a single flexible set; costumes were contemporary This set consisted of an inner and an outer wall, but various sections of this could be raised and lowered at will so the a variety of settings were created. The most notable was when the two villains, Lysiart and Eglantine were coupling and the entire surrounding set rose as if they were descending into Hell. The colour scheme was black, beige and white with just touches of red for Lysiart and Eglantine.

During the overture we saw the women excitedly preparing for the return of their menfolk from the war. When the menfolk appeared they were less than heroic, being mainly dejected and walking wounded. In a later scene, the King and Lysiart hand out both medals and crutches.

Nemirova seems to have taken a pretty straightforward line with the story, but she has an awkward habit of ignoring things that don’t fit. So that the opening choruses became a simple concert welcoming the men back, the drama only starting later.

Johann Tilli made an impressive King and his height added to his imposing voice. During the first scene Lysiart (Andreas Schmidt) and Adolar (Richard Cox) must raise passions in their argument on fidelity which leads to the fatal wager. Schmidt and Cox did not really do this. Both sang nicely but did not convince that this really, really mattered. Cox was announced as ill and his upper register did suffer somewhat. I generally got the impression that he was husbanding his resources as he improved remarkably in the final dramatic scenes of the opera. Schmidt has a lovely voice and knows what to do with it, his performance was beautifully shaped but never seemed quite intense enough.

Gabriele Fontana made a striking heroine, Euryanthe. She has quite a strong voice and there was a hint of lack of control in her upper register but generally impressed with her way with Weber’s sometimes elaborate vocal lines. Euryanthe is one of those rather drippy heroines of whom Weber seemed to be fond, Agathe is similar. In the opening scenes Fontana made what she could of the heroine’s rather passive role.

As her companion Eglantine Evelyn Herliztius impressed in many ways. She has quite a big voice and sings big dramatic roles but she was able to move her instrument round Weber’s vocal lines in a way which was both impressive but also expressive. Herliztius made the most of Eglantine’s moves between her gentle coaxing of Euryanthe and her displays of her real, evil. Eglantine is a gift of a role and Herliztius made the most of it. She dominated the scenes that she was in without ever making too much of a meal of things.

Where the main inequality lay was in her relationship with Lysiart. Schmidt seemed just a little bit too passive and this made him the weaker one rather than a partnership of equals.

The essentially passive nature of Euryanthe, which Fontana and Nemirova established rather well, was essential for the closing scenes of Act 2 when Euryanthe is falsely accused of infidelity and betraying Adolar’s trust. In a rational world she would have been able to stand up for herself (Eglantine would never have found herself in this situation). So it was important that we believe that she could not, which we did. Just!

In Act 3 things get even worse. Adolar fails to believe in Euryanthe’s innocence and abandons here. Here Cox began to come into his own and these scenes were moving. Nemirova set the opening of this act on a pretty bare stage, resorting to no tricks. When Adolar abandons Euryanthe, she goes mad and enters an insane asylum. (This is Nemirova’s gloss on the plot and is not in von Chezy’s original).

The King visits the insane asylum and discovers Euryanthe, the chorus of Foresters having become the chorus of asylum inmates. The scene ends with Euryanthe beside herself with joy and pretty nigh insane. She dies, mad but happy.

A circus provides the entertainment for Lysiart and Eglantine’s wedding. There were 4 genuine circus performers, who were pretty impressive. Bertha here becomes the ring mistress, Christine Hossfeld sang her aria beautifully.

Herlitzius managed Eglantine’s breakdown beautifully (if that's the right word) and these scenes, where Adolar and Lysiart fight were very impressive dramatically. As I have said, Cox very much came into his own. The scene climaxes with the King announcing that Eglantine is dead.

The curtain then comes down and Adolar has a moving solo scene. Then the wedding celebrations are for Rudolph (Tom Martinsen) and Bertha with Schmidt and Fontana singing their parts from the side of the stage, dressed in evening dress. Again, Nemirova had ignored part of the plot which did not agree with her.

But the overall production did seem to work, mainly because Nemirova seems to have tried to take the plight of the protagonists seriously and to genuinely thing about the role of the 2 women in the opera.

The 2 strongest singers were Fontana and Herlitzius with Herlitzius taking the crown. Hans-E. Zimmer, the Musical Director the Dresden Opera, conducted. Some of the lack of dramatic intensity in the opening scenes could be down to his rather easygoing direction. The orchestra played beautifully and were a joy to listen to.

The production was perhaps not quite as impressive as Glyndebourne’s production, directed by Richard Jones, but Dresden have certainly done their former musical director proud.
Technorati tag:classical music, opera

Ebenezer Prout

If you’ve heard of Ebenezer Prout at all, its because he wrote the additional instrumental accompaniments which were commonly used in performances of the Novello Edition of Handel’s Messiah. But he was much more than this.

Born in 1835, he was entirely self-taught as a musician, having been taught music by his father, a Congregational Minister. Prout started his working life as a school teacher before moving to music in 1859. In 1876 he published Instrumentation, the first of a number of influential treatises. He eventually became professor of music at Trinity College, Dublin. He also edited music magazines and wrote music criticism.

He produced his edition of Handel’s Messiah in 1902. He based his edition on a thorough examination of the autograph and contemporary copies with the aim of eliminating many of the errors that had been common since Handel’s day. Though he produced an accurate edition, he failed to understand the complex history of the work with the many different variants of some movements. He had carried on a long controversy in print over Franz’s edition of Messiah and his 1902 edition of the work could be seen as his triumphant conclusion to this.

His additional accompaniments for the work were based on those of Mozart. Prout was reputedly unhappy about having to add the accompaniments but was pressured by his publisher. Their edition was being aimed at large choral societies and it was commonplace to use a full symphony orchestra as accompaniment.

Prout has one rather unexpectedly appealing trait, he added words to the fugue subjects of Bach’s 48 to help his pupils remember them. The idea being that not only did the words help them memorise the fugue subject but they also helped delineate when the fugue subject started and finished.

BOOK 1

1. He went to town in a hat that made all the people stare.
2. John Sebastian Bach sat upon a tack, but he soon got up again with a howl!
3. [The Mistletoe] O what a very jolly thing it is to kiss a pretty girl!
4. Broad beans and bacon.
[1st countersubject] ...make an excellent good dinner for a man who hasn't anything to eat.
[2nd countersubject] ...with half a pint of stout.
5. [Subject] Gin a body meet a body
Comin' through the rye,
[Answer] Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
6. He trod upon my corns with heavy boots -- I yelled!
7. When I get aboard a Channel steamer I begin to feel sick.
8. [Pear's Soap] You dirty boy! Just look at your face! Ain't you ashamed?
9. Hallo! Why, what the devil is the matter with the thing?
10. Half a dozen dirty little beggar boys are playing with a puppy at the bottom of the street.
11. The Bishop of Exeter was a most energetic man.
12. The slimy worm was writhing on the footpath.
13. Old Abram Brown was plagued with fleas, which caused him great alarm.
14. [The Organist] As I sat at the organ, the wretched blower went and let the wind out.
15. O Isabella Jane! Isabella Jane! Hold your jaw! Don't make such a fuss! Shut up! Here's a pretty row! What's it all about?
16. [The Prodigal Son] He spent his money, like a stupid ass.
17. Put me in my little bed.
18. How sad our state by nature is! What beastly fools we be!
19. There! I have given too much to the cabman!
20. On a bank of mud in the river Nile, upon a summer morning, a little hippopotamus was eating bread and jam.
21. A little three-part fugue, which a gentleman named Bach composed, there's a lot of triple counterpoint about it, and it isn't very difficult to play.
22. Brethren, the time is short!
23. He went and slept under a bathing-machine at Margate.
24. The man was very drunk, as to and fro, from left to right, across the road he staggered.

BOOK 2

1. Sir Augustus Harris tried to mix a pound of treacle with a pint of castor oil.
2. Old Balaam's donkey spoke like an ass.
3. O, here's a lark!
4. Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle! The cow jumped over the moon!
5. To play these fugues through is real jam.
6. [The Cockney] 'Ark to the sound of the 'oofs of the galloping 'orse! I 'ear 'im comin' up Regent Street at night.
[Countersubject] 'Is 'oofs go 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer, on the 'ard 'ighway.
7. Mary, my dear, bring the whiskey and water in -- bring the whiskey and water in.
8. I went to church last night, and slept all the sermon through.
9. I'd like to punch his head.
[Countersubject] ...if he gives me any more of his bally cheek.
10. As I rode in a penny bus, going to the Mansion House, off came the wheel -- down came the bus -- all of the passengers fell in a heap on the floor of the rickety thing.
11. Needles and pins! Needles and pins! When a man's married his trouble begins.
12. I told you you'd have the stomach-ache if you put such a lot of pepper in your tea.
13. Great Scott! What a trouble it is to have to find the words for all these subjects!
14. She cut her throat with a paper-knife that had got no handle.
[Bar 20] The wound was broad and deep.
[Bar 36] The called the village doctor in: he put a bit of blotting-paper on her neck.
15. The pretty little dickybirds are hopping to and fro upon the gravel walk before the house, and picking up the crumbs.
16. Oh, my eye! Oh, my eye! What a precious mess I'm getting into today.
17. I passed the night at a wayside inn, and could scarcely sleep a moment for the fleas.
18. Two little boys were at play, and the one gave the other a cuff on the head, and the other hit back.
[Countersubject] Their mother sent them both to bed without their tea.
19. In the middle of the Hackney Road today I saw a donkey in a fit.
20. He that would thrive must rise at five.
21. The noble Duke of York, he had ten thousand men, he marched them up the hill, and marched them down again.
22. O, dear! What shall I do? It's utterly impossible for me to learn this horrid fugue! I give it up!
[Countersubject] It ain't no use! It ain't a bit of good! Not a bit! No, not a bit!, No, not a bit!
23. See what ample strides he takes.
24. The wretched old street-singer has his clothes all in tatters, and toes showing through his boots.

Recent CD Review

My review of Naxos's boxed set, The Best of Elgar is here on MusicWeb International.

Not for the library shelves, but definitely one to consider as a present for anyone who is interested in finding out more about one of the towering figures of English music, and hearing some fine performances in the process. ...

Music Reviewer's Log

For those of you interested in what goes through my mind when I'm reviewing CD's, my latest Music Reviewer's log is here on MusicWeb International.

MacMillan ahoy

Those of you who were reading my postings from this summer, when we heard parts of James MacMillan's Mass sung at the Edington Festival will know that this is a work of which I am profoundly fond. So I was delighted to discover on the Westminster Cathedral website that they are doing the mass at 10.30am mass on Sunday 18th March. This is the day when my consort have a concert in the afternoon so I'll not be singing at St. Mary's that morning. Instead I'll be listening, at Westminster Cathedral.

PS. We're now back from a weekend in Dresden. My review of the Dresden State Opera's performance of Weber's Euryanthe should be up in due course.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Andrea Gabrieli's Missa Pater Peccavi, in a fascinating 1 to a part performance is here.

An entrancing and convincing foray into Gabrieli’s sound-world … should be on everyone’s library shelves. ...

And my review of a recital disc from the trebles of St. Paul's Cathedral is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.

Some superb singing from one of the finest groups of trebles in the UK ...

Latin Mass Choir

The Latin Mass choir of St. Mary's Church, Cadogan Street, now has its own website here. There's even a music list so you can now see what we get up to on Sunday mornings. And yes, I am in the picture.

Surtitles

Opera Magazine has long been anti-surtitles and the issue still bubbles under the surface, occasionally to rise up in the letters page. The current issue includes a letter from a foreign national pointing out that non-native English speakers find the surtitles at ENO immensely useful.

But even English speakers can find them useful. I can remember, back in the good old days, that comprehensibility was not always paramount. Conductors of the Mark Elder school always seemed (and still seem) inclined to give the orchestra their head, thus occluding the singers.

I first saw Twilight of the Gods on a very, very warm day at the Opera House in Manchester in 1974 (I think), the ENO production with Rita Hunter and Jean Cox, conducted by Reginald Goodall. Sitting in the Gods it was completely incomprehensible and for large chunks of time I had no idea what these people were singing about, though the singing itself was magnificent.

Later on, when I started taking my Mother to the opera, we found that the surtitles at the Royal Opera House were a boon. She was slightly deaf and found hearing the words very difficult, so for any new opera I welcomed the opportunity to take her to Covent Garden.

I have often wondered whether the critical attitude to surtitles might partly stem from the difficulty of seeing them when in the stalls (you have to lift your head). If you have spent your life hearing opera from the cheaper seats, then the surtitles are effortlessly in your view - a good argument for sitting higher up!

Technorati tag:classical music, opera