Sex matters

Glyndebourne's new Hansel and Gretel has debuted, with Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as the Witch, sung at tenor pitch. Now I have no problems with the witch being sung by a man, a counter-tenor friend of mine has performed it at soprano pitch albeit with just piano accompaniment; he created a rather scary, slightly androgynous figure, miles away from the pantomime dame. But I have severe problems with the issue of transposing it down an octave. The effect on the vocal line is to render something rather scary as an out and out caricature. You can observe similar effects when castrato roles are translated down in baroque opera, the results become cruder, more highly coloured owing to the way the lower voices cope with the faster notes.

But somehow it seems to be acceptable in some operas, notably lighter ones, to move roles about. If you think I'm being a bit prissy about this, then it helps to consider what people's reactions would be if instead of Humperdinck we considered Richard Strauss. What would the critical reaction be if we were to be presented with Octavian sung by a tenor or the Composer (in Arabella). Critics would be up in arms of course because the transposition would ruin the balance between voices (think of the presentation of the Rose scene or the final trio with Octavian an octave lower). That such considerations do no fly from critical pens when the Witch is done by a tenor is perhaps an indication that, despite some superbly thoughtful productions in this country (David Pountney, Richard Jones), we don't quite take Humperdinck's opera as seriously as Richard Strauss's.

Surely the issue is that if an opera is worth doing, then its worth doing properly according to the composer's intentions.

The same arguments apply to the other Strauss's Die Fledermaus, where Orlofsky can be sung by a tenor. This makes the role into something rather different, more roue than excitable youngster. It also makes nonsense of the vocal line for Orlofsky's couplets where many commentators argue that the distinctive vocal leap is meant to represent Orlofsky's voice breaking as he is a teenager.

But of course certain types of lighter opera and operetta have always been prone to directors knowing better and presenting them with substantial re-writes. Granted Humperdinck's opera is not really a light opera, but it is based on a fairy tale and involves children; though he uses Wagnerian techniques, Humperdinck does so in an open an accessible way.

Strangely, its not always light opera that comes in for these alterations, lesser known ones can as well. Witness Massenet's Cendrillon where the only studio recording is still one which uses a tenor for the Prince rather than a mezzo-soprano/Falcon soprano as Massenet specifies. Whereas the change in sex of the Witch is to add extra comedy to the work, the Massenet and Johan Strauss changes are done for different reasons notably the rather modern obsession with having young men sung by men on the operatic stage, particularly when they are in love.

The ultimate change in this style can be found at the very opposite end of the operatic canon, in Monteverdi where Nerone is not infrequently sung by a tenor.

So what should we do about this? Complain! I know that it goes against the grain. But if you've paid a small fortune for tickets you are, I think, entitled to a degree of come back.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Donizetti's Requiem performed by Czech forces is here.

A largely creditable performance played confidently and with not a little style ....

And my review of Jake Heggie's For a Look or a Touch is here.
Both reviews on MusicWeb International.

Fine performances, much of interest but not the composers’ best work...

The Proms

So we are about to embark on that peculiar phase in London life when the Proms begin. Concert and opera going life in London never closes, it merely metamorphoses and the Proms is perhaps the strangest metamorphosis of all. A festival which lasts some 2 months with a concert (at least) per night, rather then relaxing in the summer Londoners would seem to prefer to be exhausted. This was particularly true in past seasons, before the recent rebuilding of the Albert Hall, when the Hall could get overly hot during concerts.

Even now, frankly, the Albert Hall is hardly the ideal place to hear music; the best places are in the promenade area. It is the promenaders who give the festival its special buzz. Forget the Last Night, for the remaining evenings they provide a keenly interested, generally intelligent audience and all for a ridiculous amount of money per night (ridiculously small that is). Of course, to manage a day job and going each night to a Prom (or 2) means you need the constitution of a horse.

The festival is made viable by the sheer size of the Albert Hall, if a concert sells out the BBC can sell a remarkable number of tickets. Add to this their use of the BBC orchestras and their leveraging of the broadcasts from the Proms and you begin to understand how the economics might work.

It is also remarkable what Proms are popular. I remember a late night Prom last year when the Tallis Scholars gave the performance of Strigio’s mass which in places is in 60 parts. The hall seemed full and just about every singer I knew was in the audience.

This is another thing about the Proms, people make an effort to go to see them in a way that they might not during the ordinary Winter and Spring concert seasons. Generally the programmes are diverse enough and the Festival long enough so that there is usually something of interest to everyone. I must confess that this year, Roger Wright’s emphasis understandable emphasis on RVW has attracted me. But I prefer his ominium-gatherum approach which means that the Prom season is varied and diverse, rather than his predecessors’ emphasis on themes. Themed seasons work well if you enjoy the them, but if you don’t then you find large chunks of the season lacking.

In the 1980’s I sang at quite a few Proms as a member of the London Philharmonic Choir who augmented the BBC Symphony Chorus on a number of occasions when big choirs were needed. One memorable such occasion was Mark Elder conducting Verdi’s Requiem with a huge chorus in an attempt to emulate the work’s UK première when there had been a chorus of 1200 in the Albert Hall. For that performance we also had an Italian coach to ensure our Latin pronunciation was correct.

On another occasion, also under Mark Elder, we performed Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust. This was one of the few times when I have heard the final apotheosis done with the correct number of harps, the effect was magical. Similarly, we did another Prom which included Berlioz’s Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale, which was originally written for military band and includes an incredible number of clarinets. We reckoned virtually every professional clarinettist in London was there. And the effect? Well it sounded like a huge fairground organ.

But the single occasion which stands out was doing Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Zubin Mehta, sitting at the back of the choir seemingly miles from Mehta and looking over a huge choir and orchestra. I had a promming season ticket that year so my mother was able to take my place, braving arthritis to stand throughout the symphony and loving it. This was one of those occasions, though, when you suspected that the Radio audience got rather a better deal than some of the listeners in the Albert Hall. The soloists were stationed behind the orchestra, just in front of the organ and I rather gather that balance left something to be desired in some parts of the hall, though it sounded good on the Radio.

Nowadays, if we go to the Proms we tend to sit downstairs. But concert going can still be something of a trial, with intervals spent circumnavigating the outer corridor in search of refreshments and toilets (the Albert Hall must be the only concert hall I’ve been to where there are queues for the Gents!).

Still I appreciate the re-Victorianising which has happened in recent years and look forward immensely to this year’s Prom’s season.

Was it 25 years ago

On Saturday we went to the Pink Singers 25th Anniversary concert. The choir was founded in April 1983 and I ran it from July 1983 until 1988, during which time it grew from a simple idea to a self-governing choir and a member of the NFMS. We celebrated our 5th anniversary with a concert which mixed Eisler's cantata Die Mutter with other more popular music from 1936 (the year the cantata was premièred).

At Saturday's concert the 60 strong choir (far bigger than in my day) was conducted by their musical director, Mladen Stankovic. Surprisingly the group has 2 members who date back to my time in the 1980's. Their celebratory programme was suitably eclectic, mixing Bruckner, Karl Jenkins with popular numbers by Richard Rodgers, Elton John, Annie Lennox, Bernstein and concluding with an uplifting Mo-town medley.

Here's to the next 25 years!

Review of The Rake's Progress

To the Royal Opera House on Saturday for a performance of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Robert Lepage's new production (well, new to Covent Garden, it has already appeared at La Monnaie and in San Francisco). Like Robert Carsen's much travelled production of Bernstein's Candide, Lepage's Rake moves the action to mid 20th Century America and makes it an odyssey through American culture. In Lepage's case the main focus is on American films, so that the opening scenes of the opera are inspired by the open plains of Giant and the Rake's progress becomes a procession through significant American films. The scene in Mother Goose's brothel becomes a film with Nick Shadow as director, which surely loses some of the scenes significance as surely Shadow is meant to be inciting Tom Rakewell to sexual misdemeanours; having him film Rakewell simulating sex is hardly the same thing. Auden and Kalman's libretto is carefully structured so that Nick Shadow takes Tom through a series of increasingly serious misdemeanours, carefully structured; Lepage's resetting seemed to rub the edge off Auden and Kalman's point.

The problem with the opening scene is that Giant, with its background of oil-wells and oil money, is surely not the image of Eden which the countryside in Auden/Kalman's libretto is meant to represent. Throughout the libretto we have the sense that the move to the city is a move towards corruption and that Tom's life in the countryside is a lost Eden. We lack this sense in the Lapage production where the opening scene is not really idyllic and the subsequent ones lack a real sense of place.

Each scene is truly spectacular, as Lepage and his team make extensive use of projection onto a rear screen. There were some problematic apercus, such as Tom's location caravan being inflatable and blowing up before our eyes (why?). Nick's suggestion that Tom marry Baba seems to be more related to the film they are working on than any feeling of Nick further corrupting Tom.

The first half ends part of way through Act 2, with the scene with Tom, Baba and the crowd, represented as the first night of Tom and Baba's film. As Anne has arrived by car (a real one), D. was convinced that the interval was so placed so that they could get the car off. M., though, felt that it was more related to the pool which appears in Act 2, scene 3 (which opened part 2). The pool remains for the opening of Act 3 (the auction scene), mainly you suspect because they couldn't work out how to get rid of it!

As you can see from these comments, the scenery and the set were almost protagonists in their own right. Charles Castelnovo and Sally Matthews could hardly compete. They sang well, but you lacked any sense of character development. Frankly, Lepage just did not make us care who these people were.

The primary fault was probably in the character of Nick Shadow, he just did not seem to be corrupting Tom; Shadow was more like a more disreputable room mate. And John Relyea's performance was simply not sinister. Setting the card scene in a gambling hall seemed to remove another sinister element from the plot.

Conductor Thomas Ades obviously loves the score, but he seems to love it a little too much. His performance fatally lacked pace and punch, particularly in the last act. Too often in the final scenes Ades seemed to dwell lovingly on the details, when what we wanted was something spikier and pacier.

Recent CD Review

My review of Gluck's Alceste on Covent Garden's own label, with Janet Baker in the title role, is here.

Essential; no home should be without one ...

Review of London Concord Singers concert

Thursday's concert from the London Concord Singers was reviewed for the Seen and Heard web site. My motet, Deus in Adjutorium came in for the following comments from review Bob Briggs:-

'Robert Hugill’s Deus in adjutorium , one in a projected series of 70 motets - 35 of which have been completed so far - of settings of all the Introit texts for all the Sundays and major church festivals, used both the declamatory and the polyphonic. A solo tenor, well sung by Margaret Jackson-Roberts, one of two female tenors in the group, acting as a kind of narrator, leading the choir into a prayer to “Let my enemies be confounded…” with music that seems to be of the utmost simplicity, but is in fact well thought out and carefully designed to illuminate the words. How wonderful to hear a contemporary work where the composer actually cares about the text he is setting and writes music that is so grateful to sing. Hugill is himself a singer, and a member of this choir, so he knows how to write for the group's voices and this showed in every bar. This was my first hearing of Hugill’s music and it made me want to hear more.'


Full review here.

Recent CD Review

My review of James Gilchrist and David Hill's latest Finzi disc on Naxos is here, on Music Web.

Beautifully expressive and fluid … entirely admirable ...

Deus in adjutorium

My motet Deus in adjutorium will be performed tomorrow (Thursday 10th July) by London Concord Singers, conductor Malcolm Cottle, at their concert at St. Michael's Church, Chester Square, SW1W 1HH. The programme also includes music by Eric Whitacre, Charles Ives, Hubert Parry, Brahms, Alberto Ginastera, Sheppard and Parsons (further details here).

The motet will be also performed at the choir's concert on Saturday 2nd August at 9.00pm in the church at Bardolino, Italy (on Lake Garda near Verona). The choir will sing the motet as the Introit at Mass at St. Thomas's Church, Verona and Sunday 3rd August (when the text of the motet will be the text for the Introit of the day).

Agree to differ

My recent review Handel's Hercules on Naxos wasn't the only review of the set on the Music Web site. Mark Sealy also reviewed the set here, and his view of the set couldn't be more different! Music Web often posts multiple reviews of CD's and its amazing how two people can have markedly differing views of the same performance.

Review of The Marriage of Figaro.

It is some considerable time since I have seen a production of Le Nozze di Figaro. It was the conducting of Sir Charles Mackerras, more than anything else, which attracted me to the current run of performances at Covent Garden. Add to this the generally positive reviews for David McVicar's production and a cast which included 3 native Italian speakers, which is always a blessing in Mozart's Italian operas.

Tanya McCallin's designs are realistic, setting the opera firmly in the early 19th century. The production shows the advantage of originating productions at the Royal Opera House, the set takes advantage of the theatre's facilities and the huge, realistic walls of Count Almaviva's palace move around to re-configure themselves for each scene.

The show starts as soon as the overture begins, as we see a large hall with scurrying servants busy preparing for the day. McVicar uses a group of actors to play servants who are ubiquitous; the production is realistic in the way the Count and Countess are rarely alone, surrounded as they are by a flurry of servants.

In the orchestra things are equally dramatic. Unlike some other elder statesman conductors, Mackerras does not seem to have relaxed into slower tempos and lusher textures. In the orchestra, the brass and french horns had replaced their usual instruments with narrow bore, valve-less instruments - something which Mackerras has done with other modern instruments orchestras. Woodwind and string tone was correspondingly lithe and Mackerras's speeds were pleasantly brisk without feeling rushed.

Figaro (Ildebrando D'Arcengelo) and Susanna's (Aleksandra Kurzak) room is a rather distressed back-room in the palace and McCallin's inventive set also displays the adjacent corridor, which enables the servants to eavesdrop and gossip, and Marcellina (Ann Murray) and Bartolo (Robert Lloyd) to have their meeting in the corridor outside the room. McVicar's direction is constantly thoughtful, displaying his usual deftness with logistics so that the complex comings and goings work in a natural and logical manner.

The scene change from Act 1 to Act 2 took place seamlessly with no break in the music, which was a big bonus. The Countess's (Barbara Frittoli) room is in direct contrast to that of the previous scene, which indicates the relative difference between servant and master - something which is important in this opera and which some productions rather blur. Throughout the opera McVicar makes you constantly aware of this difference; no matter how friendly Figaro and Susanna may be with the Count and Countess they are most definitely still servants.

Act 3 opens on a large room leading to an outdoor terrace. The Count (Peter Mattei) is very much a modern man and is experimenting with the latest scientific equipment. The presence of the terrace gives scope for all sorts of eavesdropping.

But when Act 3 gives way to Act 4, all this realism starts to evaporate. The rear backdrop becomes the outside of the house, with trees in front. But the cast, in slow motion, re-arrange the furniture so that it is all topsy turvy and in this strange surreal world the garden scene takes place. Once you are used to it, this works after a fashion, but I am not really sure what McVicar is trying to tell us. Perhaps that the confusions are of the mind and not real, or perhaps he simply ran out of money.

As for the performances which articulated this staging, they probably can hardly be bettered. Peter Mattei's Count was distinguished, finely sung, mixing charm with anger and a fine sense of line. The only thing he lacked was the ability to be angry and sexy at the same time, showing the appeal beneath the hard exterior - something that Dieskau could do just with his voice. Barbara Frittoli's Countess was young and charming. For her two big arias, Dove Sono and Porgi D'Amor Frittoli displayed rather more vibrato than I would have liked, but she combined this with a good sense of line so that you never lost sight of the shape of Mozart's music. Both Frittoli and Mattei had the great virtue that they sounded aristocratic whilst retaining their humanity.

As their servants, D'Arcangelo and Kurzak made an equally fine, sparky pair. Neither was as manic as in some performances, both were thoughtful with elements of sparkiness. Perhaps Kurzak lacked a little of the mercurial fire which some singers have brought to the part, but her Susanna was well crafted and had the necessary fire and strength when needed. The two singers played off each other so that they created a realistic relationship.

I have rarely seen a more convincing Cherubino than that of Anna Bonitatibus. She sang beautifully, but many mezzos have done that; she also looked and behaved like the teenage boy that Cherubino is. For large stretches of time you lost sight of the fact that Bonitatibus was a woman, too often in this role you are permanently conscious of the singer's sex. Bonitatibus is small of stature so she made a lively, sparky, impulsive Cherubino, one completely dominated by his topsy-turvy hormones.

The remaining characters were equally well drawn and performed. Ann Murray made Marcellina less the caricatured harridan and was casting of such quality that you regretted the omission of her aria. Equally Robert Lloyd was luxury casting as Bartolo. Robin Leggate made a fine, effect Don Basilio and his aria was regretted also. And Donald Maxwell had a great time as the drunken Antonio. Jette Parker Young Artist Kishani Jayasinghe made a sweet Barbarina, giving a lovely account of her aria.

Mackerras opted to have the continuo performed by harpsichord and cello, with the latter often playing the larger role. The recitative bowled along at a good rate, always comprehensible and flexible, it never felt rushed but seemed a realistic conversational pace. Similarly his fast-ish speeds in the arias made sense in the context of the whole production and this far into the run the singers seem to have become comfortable with Mackerras's speeds.

The production has choreographer Leah Hausman credited, presumably for the complex movement patterns of the servants, and it was Hausman who acted as revival director.

Recent CD Review

My review of Handel's Hercules on Naxos is here.

Better to save up and try and get one of the others ...

Review of Don Carlo

My review of Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House is here on Music and Vision.

Don Carlo(s)

To Covent Garden last night for the final performance of their new production of Verdi's Don Carlos in the 5-Act Modena Version done in Italian translation. A review follows, but here I'll let off steam a little again about the Opera House's obfuscation about language.

In their magazine, About the House some months ago there was an article about the forthcoming production of Don Carlos with interviews with Hyntner and Pappano. They said that they had chosen to perform the Italian version because it was more dramatic. What they actually meant was that they preferred to perform the Modena version because it was more dramatic. There is in fact no Italian version of Don Carlos, simply a translation of the French version. Whenever he made revisions to the opera Verdi worked in French. When he made the compact 4-act version for Milan he went to some trouble to get revisions (in French) to the French libretto and worked similarly when adding the original Act 1 (in compressed format) to this version for Modena. Also when working on the version for Milan he ensured that the Italian translation was updated.

In the programme notes, Christopher Wintle states that Verdi worked on the French version for Milan in 1884, but does not make it clear that the 1886 Modena version is an Italian translation of the French version.

In fact, in an interview in last month's opera Feruccio Furlanetto (who sings King Philip in the production), comments that whilst most singers prefer singing the opera in Italian, the academics and some critics prefer it in French.

Here is the nub, of course. Covent Garden are doing the 1886 version because it is the most dramatic version, Verdi's last thoughts. They are doing it in Italian not because this is correct, but because it is easier to cast; dramatic Verdi operas are difficult to cast at the best of times and to ensure a good, balanced cast you probably have to compromise on language. Another point is the parlous state of singing in French at the moment; last night's performance included 2 Italians, an American, 2 Englishmen, a Mexican and a Russian - what are the chances of getting good French out of such a polyglot cast whereas their Italian seemed most credible.

Opera managements seem to want to divide Don Carlo(s) into the 1867 French version and the 1884/6 Italian versions. This might be convenient, but its not true.

Evidently the 2009/10 revival will include Jonas Kauffman as Don Carlo, what chances of this being in French?

From this month's Opera

Gleanings from this month's Opera Magazine.

An interesting interview with conductor Kazushi Oni. Oni seems an interesting throwback, he coaches singers from the piano and in 2005 he saved the French premiere of Henze's Die Bassariden after industrial action by re-scoring it (in 3 days and nights) for 3 pianos, 7 percussionists and other instruments. Henze was impressed.

A clutch of distinguished obituaries. Edmund Barham, the tenor whom many of us remember as being a stalwart of ENO, aged only 58. Leyla Gencer the Turkish bel-canto soprano. And John Noble, the first Pilgrim in RVW's opera and Wat Tyler in Alan Bush's opera of the same name. (Now when is someone going to revive that opera we ask ourselves?)

In his review of Siegfried from the new Ring at the Staatsoper in Vienna, Christopher Norton-Welsh comments that despite some good personenregie director Sven-Eric Bechtholf has come in for some criticism because he has not subtext. How refreshing!

Still with the Ring, Strasbourg has reached Die Walküe, in David McVicar's new production. Rodney Milnes seems impressed and it tempts me to go over there for next season's Siegfried. McVicar's production involves extras playing Rams (specified in Wagner's libretto, they pull Fricka's chariot!) and horses. The horses are folk in sculpted metal costumes, but this means that the actual libretto for the Ride of the Valkyrie could be followed. Grane also accompanies his mistress to the Todesverkundigung, as specified by Wagner, and accompanies her to sleep at the end. Which of course raises the important point that McVicar will include Grane during the closing scenes of the final opera. It sounds a fascinating and lovely so can't we see it in the UK please.

Another non-schocking Ring. This time Rhinegold in Hamburg directed by Claus Guth, conducted by Simone Young.

Unusual operas. Wolf Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna seems to have been a hit on Montreal and over in Prague they have been exploring Leoncavallo's La Boheme. Hartmann's Simplicius Simplicissimus in Hanover, now when are we going to hear the opera in the UK. In Rome, performances of Saul, no not Handel's oratorio but an opera by Flavio Testi setting Gide's drama of the same name - the reviewer describes the opera as involving and stimulating. So how about doing it in tandem with the Handel version.

Still in Rome, Zefferelli has just committed a new Tosca, consolation for the retirement of his productions in New York perhaps. Luigi Bellingardi described the spectacle grand and luxurious, just on the brink of kitsch.

Over in Ireland, Ariadne auf Naxos with the composer as a woman, having a Lesbian affair with Zerbinetta, sniffing coke etc. Hmmm.

At the gala for the opening of the new opera house in Oslo, Solveig Kringelborn sang a song from Waldemar Thrane's Mountain Adventure (of 1824, a Jenny Lind favourite) accompanied by a Norwegian species of Alpenhorn. Then there was a performance of Va pensiero sung by a choir of amateurs, 1 each from Norway's 430 muncipalities; what a wonderful idea.

A couple of whatever happened to her sort of appearances at Carnegie Hall; Kathleen Battle returned for a recital and Aprille Millo sang at a gala. Millo in particular is one of those names who seems to have dropped from the circuit.

A fit of campery (or more) seems to have come over Acis and Galatea at Wilton's Music Hall with Damon, Corydon and Cleon as sailors attempting to deduce Acis during Stay, shepherd stay. In his review of a DVD of Ariodante George Loomis comments that whilst no-one observes the entrance and exit rules for opera seria it would be interesting to see a director try.

That Icon of early 19th century opera, Pauline Viardot (younger sister to Malibran) survived rather longer than Malibran; Viardot died in Paris in 1904. She had a strong relationship with Turgenev and he spent much time living either with or nextdoor to Viardot and her husband. She wrote operettas with Turgenev as librettist. Michael Steen's new biography sounds interesting reading.

We hear that...; Christine Brewer is doing Gluck's Alceste at Santa Fe next year - sounds a good reason for going. Paul Groves also stars. Susan Bullock gets to sing Brunnhilde at Covent Garden in the 2012-13 Ring cycles (sounds worth waiting for). Catherine Malfitano is having a go at another new Tosca at ENO in 2010 (Keith Warner's production can't be that old can it?). Angela Gheorghiu will do Luisa Miller at Covent Garden in 2009-10 (perhaps???). Hope they get a new production, the previous new one was less than acute. Still at the Garden, Francesca Zamballo is doing Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki with Sergei Leiferkus, and John Tomlinson will be the Grand Inquisitor in the 2009 revival of Don Carlo.

Country House Opera

In this month's Opera magazine, the editor addresses the issue of country house opera, particularly in relation to the planned move of Garsington Opera from its current home. In his editorial he says, 'Its Elgar Howarth-David Fielding Strauss cycle apart, Garsington has generally resembled English Touring Opera with better champagne facilities'.

Though critics generally regard country house opera with disdain, it is unusual for them to be so very direct in print. In fact critical reaction to Garsington Opera over the years has tended to disguise both the limitations of the company and the venue. In some reviews you felt reviewers were charmed by the champagne, the lovely house and garden, and liked the pleasant journey out of London and so were prepared to be a little forgiving if standards slipped a little or if the weather was not kind.

By contrast Grange Park Opera has come in for quite a bit of critical flak, some reviewers giving the impression that they resented schlepping out to Hampshire and felt out of place amidst the well-to-do locals enjoying their champagne on the portico of the ruined mansion. In fact in one of their Festival supplements Opera Magazine referred to Grange Park Opera as the UK's most unnecessary opera festival! Grange Park Opera is something of an offshoot of Garsington in that Wasfi Kani, who co-founded Grange Park, was previous the assistant to Leonard Ingrams who founded Garsington Opera.

Garsington Opera was founded in 1989 and Grange Park Opera in 1997. It is only in recent years that Grange Park Opera has had the money to ensure that standards of performance are raised to a consistent standard, particularly by having a named orchestra in the pit rather than a pick-up band. It would be interesting to go over the early reviews for Garsington to see whether or not they had the same start-up problems. What the 2 companies have in common is a reliance on funding from local sponsors, no dependence on public subsidy and an artistic policy which mixes the well known with the more outre, both in terms of repertoire and production style. Leonard Ingrams at Garsington seems to have played neatly to critical prejudices by specialising in Strauss leavened with some unusual Rossini; generally critics liked his choice of unusual repertoire. At Garsington Wasfi Kani was more varied, she has consistently championed rare Slavic operas, giving us Tchaikovsky's The Enchantress, Prokofiev's The Gambler, along with French rarities like Massenet's Thais, Chabrier's Le Roi Malgre Lui and Messager's Fortunio. These have sparked rather less critical appreciation, in some reviews you could feel the critical hackles rise as the review has trekked out to Hampshire to see a rather undercooked production of Le Roi Malgre Lui, an opera which requires everything going for it for it to work properly.

What both these opera companies have in common is that they sell tickets and people come back for more. The Editor of Opera implies, in his article, that the audiences for these opera companies lack critical faculties and kid themselves that they are getting a Glyndebourne experience. But, as he points out, Glyndebourne is no-longer country house opera, it is an opera house in the countryside. Pre-rebuild you could just about convince yourself that you were seeing opera in a country house setting, but this has gone with the increase in size of the new house. I don't think that people attending Garsington, Grange Park or any of the other country house opera companies are lacking in critical faculties. They are out to combine pleasures, lovely surroundings, good food, good company (many people use these occasions for entertaining) and good music, all on your own doorstep. This latter point is important, many of the audience at Grange Park, for instance, have not schlepped down to Hampshire, they live there and Grange Park is local to them.

Review of La Fanciulla del West

My review of La Fanciulla del West at Grange Park, is here on Music and Vision.

Review of Rusalka

My review of Grange Park Opera's Rusalka is here, on Music and Vision.

The Pilgrim's Progress

I first made the acquaintance of RVW's opera The Pilgrim's Progress in the 1970's as a student, eagerly devouring Meredith Davies's wonderfully cast boxed set; even today I can hear Ian Partridge's lovely tones as the Interpreter.

I was lucky enough to see the opera when it was staged by the Royal Northern College of Music and also went to see Richard Hickox's semi-staged performance at the Barbican, mounted after proposed performances at the Royal Opera House fell through. Both these performances had much to recommended them and the staging at the Royal Northern College of Music was particularly moving.

But both performances seemed to suffer when it came to some of the voice types used. RVW wrote his opera for a generation of English singers who still combined singing Handel with singing larger scale works, for whom focus and line were the watchwords rather than vibrato and spread of tone. This meant that in the more recent revivals of this opera, there was sometimes a noticeable lack of blend between the voices. With this new production Hickox has used not just young voices, but lyric singers who are often happy alternating between 19th century music and baroque period performance. The result was a performance which combined commitment with the beauty of tone and blend which RVW requires.

Having just conducted the opera in Australia, Hickox is back in London conducting The Pilgrim's Progress as the centrepiece of the Philharmonia Orchestra's year long celebration of the composer. The opera was performed at Sadlers Wells Theatre in a staging by David Edwards. It was billed as a semi-staging; true the chorus remained seated and sang from scores, but the large cast of costumed soloists all sang off the book and were given a substantial acting area in front of the orchestra.

Not unnaturally the Philharmonia Orchestra took centre stage, with the pit covered, and the singers made their entrances and exits through the orchestra.

Matthew Rose's Evangelist and Robert Hayward's Herald both wore dark suits, like some sort of functionary, but the Shining Ones (Susan Gilmour Bailey, Sarah Tynana and Pamela Helen Stephenson), the Interpreter (James Gilchrist), the Heavenly Beings (Sarah Tynan and Pamela Helen Stephenson) and the Celestial Messenger (Andrew Kennedy), all wore white Indian style garb.
Edwards also provided the cast with a repertoire of hierartic gestures which enabled them to convey the unworldly nature of the Pilgrim's journey in a consistent and satisfying manner.

As can be seen from this list, the roster of names involved in the production was an impressive one. Not mentionned so far, Timothy Robinson (Timorous, Usher), Richard Cozon (Pliable, Mr By-Ends), Gidon Saks (Apollyon, Lord Hategood) and Neal Davies as Bunyan. All the cast were impressive, singing without scores and without prompt, throwing themselves into Edwards's concept so as to give us an involving and believable theatrical experience.
In the Vanity Fair scene, which was done in modern dress, all involved conspired to give us a convincing account of what can be a problematic scene and RVW was depicting not the corruption of real evil but the corruption of everyday lax folk. Andrew Kennedy was particularly impressive as the good-time playboy Lord Lechery.

But it is in the title role that this opera can stand or fall. The Pilgrim is on stage for most of the evening, Roderick Williams sang Pilgrims music in firm, mellifluous tones and conveyed Pilgrim's dilemma and spiritual journey with a convincing intensity. There were moments during the lovely prison scene when he seemed to be tiring, but he recovered to give us a radiant and brilliant end.

The other hero of the evening was the orchestra, RVW includes a great many orchestra interludes so the orchestra was often at the fore. Individual players contributed some fine solos and the whole group played as if they too were on Pilgrim's journey.

Hickox, of course, loves this music but also has the measure of it so that it works well in the concert hall and theatre.

There was a libretto and house lights were high enough for this to be followed. But frankly, I didn't need to; the cast's diction was so uniformly excellent so that you could follow the words at all times.

This was an inspiring and entrancing evening, convincing one again that RVW's morality is a stageable and stageworthy work. The only down side was that there were only 2 performances, would that it could have been caught on DVD.

Tonight we are off to the Philharmonia Orchestra's performance of RVW's The Pilgrim's Progress at Sadlers Wells Theatre. Everyone seems to be celebrating RVW this year in a relatively small, Riders to the Sea is cropping up quite a lot. So it is heartening to see that not only are Hickox and the Philharmonia doing all the symphonies but they are doing these semi-staged performances of RVW's longest opera, one that I have long enjoyed. I am luck enough to have seen the staging at the Royal Northern College of Music, but also Hickox did semi staged performances at the Barbican as well.

Then tomorrow we are off to Grange Park Opera for our 2nd visit, this time taking in La Fanciulla del West and Russalka.

Reviews of these will, of course, appear in due course

Muerte, Danza y Ensalada

To the Chelsea Festival for I Fagiolini's programme 'Muerte, Danza y Ensalada - Death, Dance and Salad', which performed Spanish music from the 15th century, culminating in a pair of Ensaladas, the Salads of the title.

Just 4 singers, a harpist and a guy doubling on lute and vihuela but the results were magical. Each half ended in one of the long Ensaladas. La viuda and El Fuego. This latter was dramatised and included an exorcism, with 2 brave members of the audience.

I Fagiolini are a wonderfully communicative group and even though doing the concert in the sober surroundings of St. Luke's Church n Chelsea, managed to conjure the right atmosphere.

Robert Hollingworth provided enlightening and witty introductions to each group of songs. The group's diction was such that it was easy to follow the Spanish/English texts provided for the audience. Towards the end of the evening the house lights were brought up, at Hollingworth's suggestion, to allow the audience to be able to read their texts.

The only blot was that the concert was nearly 20 minutes late starting. Perhaps it was because the audience seemed unable to arrive; at the advertised starting time the church was nearly empty and people were still arriving at 7.50pm. But it might also be because the Festival ran out of copies of the texts of the songs, rather an oversight; so they had to send someone to copy more.

Comments

A comment on one of my previous posts responds to my comments about singers like Danielle De Niese and David Daniels. My references to technique were mostly about the way that they sing fast notes, passage-work. My preference is for fast, light even passagework in Baroque opera. De Niese and Daniels both seem to use uneven stresses on notes, De Niese's passage work is heavier and more emphatic than I feel is necessary in Handel. Daniels seems to shape his semiquavers in groups which seem to be entirely 19th century in manner. To a certain extent they are responding to the likings of people like my anonymous commenter.

I must confess that I also find too much vibrato rather uncomfortable when used in passagework, it gets in the way of the runs. Also my correspondent refers to singers singing legato and letting their voices vibrate naturally. Unfortunately for me, there is a fine dividing line between a natural vibrato and a wobble which obscures the fundamental pitch of the note, thus obviating any feeling for legato.

Review of Andreas Scholl recital

My review of Andreas Scholl's recital with the OAE is here, on Music and Vision.

Original and best?

We were lucky enough to visit Grange Park Opera for 2 years running before they rebuilt the theatre. Whilst the new theatre is a wonderful achievement and a perfect space for staging small to medium scale opera, I am still glad we experienced the smaller, more difficult (no wings, no backstage), more intimate theatre.

Similarly with Garsington. I imagine that the existing out-door theatre has a multiplicity of disadvantages, so that when they move they will hopefully transfer to an improved location. So experiencing the existing theatre in Ottoline Morrell's garden in starting to come high on the list of things TO DO. Next year they are staging Fidelio, La Cenerentola and Mirandolina (Martinu). The Martinu will be the opera's UK premiere.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi's operas seem to be in the air at the moment. Garsington have premièred his comedy, L'Incoronazione de Dario, to rather mixed reviews. Fiona Maddocks in the Evening Standard (always a critic whose opinion I respect), made an interesting comment about the work. She enjoyed the music but seemed in two minds about the opera, though she added that we still did not quite understand how to stage these operas. That we are in the position with Vivaldi which we were in with Handel 30 years ago. So expect more experimental Vivaldi productions and more articles about whether his operas are theatrically viable.

That they are is confirmed by a sparkling new DVD of Ercole s'ul Termodonte from the Spoleto Festival, directed by John Pascoe and conducted by Alan Curtis (with his Complesso Barocco in the pit). It is an intelligent and imaginative re-thinking of a traditional staging of a baroque comedy which takes the work serious and does not resort to broad comedy or slapstick. The fact that Zachary Stains, in the title role, spends virtually the entire opera naked is entirely a bonus!

What is it about this time of year? Our diaries for the next few weeks are full of exciting events: we've just seen Andreas Scholl (review to follow), the Chelsea Festival is happening (we're off to see I Fagiolini next week), on the horizon are RVW's The Pilgrim's Progress at Sadlers Wells, La Fanciulla del West and Rusalka at Grange Park Opera and Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House.

But despite this, there are numerous events that we wont be going to through lack of time. Its still uncertain whether we will manage to catch the exciting new production of Weill's Street Scene at the Young Vic. For yet another year we won't be going to Garsington, despite their brave revival of Vivaldi's L'Incoronazione di Dario - note to self, we must find time to go before they move.

We won't be getting to the Buxton Festival, again. This year we are missing the triple bill which includes RVW's Riders to the Sea and Handel's Samson. We will, however, be going to the Verona Arena for the first time. My choir, London Concord Singers, are doing a couple of concerts in the Verona and Lake Garda area so this means that we can see Tosca at the Arena as well.

And for the first time in a long time we are going to a slew of Proms, its the first time in a few years that I've felt inspired by the programming. The presence of so much RVW is a draw, not only the symphonies but the Piano Concerto (always high on my list and a work I've never yet heard live). Plus some other interesting bits and pieces such as a Stanford Piano Concerto. Unfortunately we'll miss Ethel Smyth's concerto for horn and violin, but thanks to the BBC's listen again facility we will manage to catch it.

So all in all, a plethora of lovely events - only why are they all compressed into a couple of months!

From this Month's opera

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine.

In an interview with Stephen Langridge and his father Philip, Stephen makes the interesting comment that when young and going to concerts sung by his father he was exposed to either 'really wacky modernism or Schütz, Scheidt and Schein.'. Later, when SL was doing work experience at Opera Factory he was living in a squat and used to phone singers to tell them when their call was for the next day from a payphone with the help of a bag of 10p pieces given him by the stage manager.

In another interview, Ferrucio Furlanetto comments that in 1977 when he got his first big break, as Don Giovanni, it was almost unheard of for a 27 year old to be cast in this opera. Whereas nowadays it is getting increasingly difficult to hear older singers in these roles. That said, he comments that he is no longer doing Figaro on stage, having seen a 55 year old colleague on stage looking like a 55 year old Figaro.

Evidently Furlanetto with be singing in Verdi's Don Carlo when the new Hyntner production is revived in 2010. He also sang in the French version in the previous Luc Bondy production, though as native Italian speaker he prefers singing the work in the Italian translation rather than the original French. The article goes on to comment that scholars (and some listeners!) prefer the French whereas singers prefer the Italian translation.

One of the few roles that Furlanetto has yet to do which he'd like to is Baron Ochs, now that's an interesting idea.

Still on the subject of age, 85 year old Franco Zefirelli is evidently miffed that the Met. plan to replace some of his productions. Having seen his over-cooked, over decorated La Traviata I'm surprised they've lasted so long.

The controversy surrounding the completion of Turandot continues. One letters correspondent comments that there is still a need for an authentically Puccinian solution which refers to the Puccini sketches which Alfano did not use. Oh well, we can but hope. I have only just recently heard the full Alfano completion live, thanks to Midsummer Opera, and this confirms me in my belief that full Alfano is preferable to the truncated Toscanini/Alfano currently in use.

There is now also a new conclusion by Han Weiya, but Julian Budden does not sound as if he was too impressed when he heard it in Beijing. And Shang Hai opera are going to be the first Chinese company to tour an original language Western opera to the west (to Dalhalla and Savolinna). At the performance in Shang Hai the company omitted the organ, which gave an interesting slant on Verdi's orchestration in the storm scene.

La Forza del Destino in Vienna, with Preziosilla as a Las Vegas cow girl! Still in Vienna, the first performance of Marin Marais's Alcione since 1771 - amazing what treasures are still remaining to be found. Gluck's Orfeo made it to Stockholm in 1773, only 11 years after its first performance. The opera has just returned, in Berlioz's 1859 version (with a cadenza by Saint-Saens written for Pauline Viardot) with Orfeo portrayed as an elderly, paunchy figure (production by the choreographer Mats Eck).

And in Berlin, an American Aida which had the 2nd Act danced by cheer leaders and the triumphal scene as an apple-pie eating competition.

And in Antwerp, a new opera by Luc Van Hove based on Fellini's La Strada, why try to improve on something like Fellini's film.

CNN opera has found its way to Chile, where a new piece by Sebastian Errazuriz bases itself on a 2005 tragedy where 45 soldiers died in a mountain storm.

Mixed reviews of the new production of Herold's Zampa from the restored Opera Comique in Paris. I have happy memories of playing the overture in the school orchestra and would have great curiosity to see the complete opera.

More curiosities. Leoncavallo's Edipo Re performed with Cav. in Thessaloniki - its not a hidden masterpiece evidently. And Gounod's La Nonne Sanglante performed in Osnabrück - evidently an opera worth investigating, based on an episode from Lewis's Gothic novel, The Monk.

And in Chicago a revival of Il Barbiere included the rarely performed final aria for Almaviva, something I'd love to hear live.

In New York, Martin Bernheimer seems less than enamoured of Satyagraha, his comments echoing my thoughts on the opera.

Christopher Morley in his review of L'Incoronazione di Poppea from Birmingham Conservatoire admits something which no-one seems to want to say; that the opera has stretches of tedium within the score.

In We hear that.. I see that Jonas Kaufmann is doing his first Lohengrin next year. And that Colin Lee will be singing Argirio in Tancredi at the Theater an der Wien.

Review of Der Rosenkavalier

My review of Der Rosenkavalier in David McVicar's new production at the London Coliseum is here, on Music and Vision.

Review of Bluebeard

My review of Grange Park Opera's new production of Offenbach's Bluebeard is here, on Music and Vision

Grange Park Opera 2009

We were at Grange Park last night for the first night of Bluebeard in Stephen Langridge's Bond themed production, a review will appear shortly. We'll also be returning later this month for Rusalka and La Fanciulla del West.

Next season's plans for the Festival sound exciting. Clare Rutter is singing Norma; the other two staged operas will be The Cunning Little Vixen and Cavalli's Eliagabalo, with male soprano Michael Maniaci in the title role. Plus a concert performance of The Flying Dutchman with the Welsh National Opera orchestra.

Opera North 2008/09 season

Having premiered Jonathan Dove's Pinnochio this season, Opera North are continuing their roll and presenting a further premiere next season. This new seasons completes their Shakespeare season and continues to extend the company's repertoire. In the see-saw world that is UK opera, Opera North seem to be on a winning streak as compared to Scottish Opera's brave work clawing their way back to success. November 2008 will also see the completion of work on the Grand Theatre, Leeds, with the restoration of the front of house features and the re-instatement of the Assembly Rooms as a small scale venue. This is definitely an exciting time for Opera North.

David Sawyer, whose first opera From Morning to Midnight was presented by ENO in 2001, is writing an operetta to a text by Armando Iannuci. It is a comedy set in a cosmetic surgery and is described as a darkly-comic satire. The new work, Skin Deep will be directed by Richard Jones and stars Geoffrey Dolton and Janis Kelly.

Sawyer's first work was promising, but seemed to have spent a little too long in the ENO workshops with a dramaturg. Hopefully this new piece will have a streak of unpredictability thanks to Iannuci's comic genius.

In October 2008 they are concluding their Shakespeare season with a new production, by Orpha Phelan, of Bellini's Capuleti e Montecchi with Sarah Connolly and Sara Tynan. Definitely a production to look out for, it tours to Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Salford in the Autumn.

The other two new productions are a pairing of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing with Let em Eat Cake. Of Thee I Sing is premiered in the Autumn to co-incide with the American Presidential elections (the subject of the operetta), then both pieces will be performed together in the Spring. Both productions will be directed by Caroline Gawn and will start William Dazely as Wintergreen, a part he sang in Opera North's semi-staged production in 1998. The pairing tours to Sadlers Wells Theatre in February.

The final new production of the season is The Abduction from the Seraglio, sung in English in a production designed and directed by Tim Hopkins.

Also in the new season, a revival of David Pountney's production of Shostakovich's Paradise Moscow, revival of Christopher Alden's production of Tosca with Takesha Meshe Kizart in the title role and Tim Albery's production of Don Carlos making its first appearance since 1998. The Don Carlos is being recorded for the Chandos/Peter Moores Foundation Opera in English series. Julian Gavin sings the title role, Janice Watson and Susannah Glanville share Elisabeth, Alistair Miles repeats his Philip II and Richard Farnes conducts. This is definitely a performance to catch and tours to Leeds, Salford, Nottingham and Newcastle in June 2009. I caught the production in the 1990's and have always been very taken with Albery's claustrophobic take on the piece, with Hildegard Bechtler's strikingly stylish designs.

The company is also giving concert performances of Elektra with Susan Bullock in the title role with Richard Farnes conducting. Rebecca de Pont Davies takes the role of Klytemnestra.

Including these concert performances, the orchestra of Opera North will be giving an impressive 24 concerts during the season in a variety of venues around the company's core areas.

RVW Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 31st May saw the second concert of the Philharmonia's Ralph Vaughan Williams festival at the South Bank, an event which lasts from now until November and encompasses all the symphonies, staged performances of The Pilgrim's Progress at Sadler's Wells and a number of smaller scale events and talks. In addition to the complete programme being presented in London, large portions of it are being given in various other locations around the country. All of the concerts are being conducted by Richard Hickox.

The Festival opened with the Sea Symphony and the Sinfonia Antarctica, Saturday's concert presented the 2nd and 8th Symphonies, plus The Lark Ascending with Andrew Marwood as the solo violin.

I have always found RVW 8 and 9 rather puzzling and one of the benefits of this series was that I will get to hear both of them live, something that I have never been able to do before. The Philharmonia performance of RVW 8, with all its tuned percussion and Bartokian type division of the middle 2 movements into one for the wind and one for strings, was coherent and convincing, it certainly didn't feel like a work rarely played. Hickox relished the score's unusual colours and brought out its strain of mysticism.

Marwood's performance of The Lark Ascending was ravishing.

After the interval came the 2nd Symphony, the London Symphony, in the original version. Hickox brought out the multifarious continental influences in the score, so that this was well and truly a symphony to sit beside continental models such as Mahler.

The original version, which is some 20 minutes longer than RVW's preferred revised version, has some stunningly lovely passages though it does ramble a little. At around an hour the symphony is long, but Hickox and the Philharmonia never made you feel they lingered unnecessarily and Hickox had a good feel for the overall structure. His performance always seemed to be going somewhere. There were one or two moments when the symphony took me by surprise as a familiar passage led to enchanting but unfamiliar details.

The Royal Festival Hall wasn't full but there was a very large and very enthusiastic audience including rather more young people than I would have expected. The next instalment in the festival is The Pilgrims Progress in June.

Review of Cendrillon

My review of Chelsea Opera Group's performance of Massenet's Cendrillon is here, on Music and Vision.

So it isn't just me

On Saturday morning, Berta Joncus discussed recent Handel recordings on the CD Review programme on BBC Radio 3. Here selection of recordings included Handel's Alcina from the Bavarian State Opera under Ivor Bolton and Danielle de Niese's recent recital record with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Joncus played de Niese's account of Tornami a vagheggiar and compared it with the same aria from the Bavarian State Opera recording. She complained that de Niese's version was slower and heaver than the Bavarian account, suggesting that de Niese sang this music with an essentially 19th century type technique, adding that on stage de Niese's personality was dazzling so that you forgave her these musical issues, but that on disc the problems were more noticeable.

It was interesting to hear somebody articulate what I had felt about de Niese's singing. As soon as Joncus made her comments I realised that it made a great deal of sense to me. There are number of singers on the circuit, David Daniels is another, who often seem to attach the baroque repertoire in the same way that they would sing Rossini. It seems that for much of the time this goes uncommented.

Scottish Opera new season

Scottish Opera's 2008/09 season does not contain anything quite as exciting as their evening of short contemporary operas, but it is still a creditable and interesting season. There are 5 operas, 2 are relatively small scale - Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage and Smetana's Two Widows. The Cimarosa opera has a strong cast which includes Rebecca Bottone as Caroline; the opera will be sung in English which makes a great deal of sense in this character driven comedy. Smetana's comedy will star Kate Valentine and Jane Irwin as the two widows and will be conducted by Scottish Opera's new musical director, Francesco Corti; it is being designed by Tobias Hoheisel and directed by Hoheisel in tandem with Imogen Kogge so should be striking and stylish.

David McVicar is doing a new production of La Traviata, he is very much becoming a house flavour both here and at the London Coliseum, but it is good to see that he is continuing to support the Scottish company, even though they can hardly be paying him the sort of top level fees that he could surely command elsewhere. McVicar and his designer Tanya McCallin promise an authentic take on the opera, with a 19th century setting. Carmen Giannattasio and Federico Lepre sing the lovers.

McVicar re-appears in Cosi van tutte as his Opera National du Rhin production is revived in Scotland for the first time. Marie McLaughlin gives us her sparkling Despina and Peter Rose is Don Alfonso, Caitlin Hulcup sings Dorabella.

The other big new production is Massenet's Manon. This is being directed by choreographer Renaud Doucet and conducted by Francesco Corti (Corti is in charge of 2 of the 5 operas in the season). Doucet is a choreographer and we are promised a very full version with choreographed ballet scenes. Anne Sophie Duprels sings Manon and Paul Charles Clarke sings Des Grieux so this should certainly be a production worth catching. Scottish Opera are performing it in Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

South Bank Centre new season

Is it only me, or do other people find the London SouthBank Centre's publicity system rather annoying. First of all, their leaflets are now published on horrible, thick paper (I know, I'm being petty). Secondly, we no longer seem to get the Monthly digests giving ALL the concerts which are one, now its just a monthly newsletter. Instead there is a hugely thick book, detailing all the Classical Music for 2008/09. Like the Barbican, they seem to have gone for multiple series and each series opens booking in advance so that we are considering booking for concerts next year.

That said, there are some tempting morsels hidden amongst the rather standard classical orchestral repertoire (no I don't plan to do any Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven or Rachmaninov).

The Sixteen are bringing their programme of music dedicated to the Virgin Mary (from Palestrina to Elgar by way of Grieg, Liszt and Cornysh), but I can't help thinking that hearing them do it in a Cathedral would be more fun. Then next year the Sixteen reappear with a program which mixes music by Purcell and James MacMillan, including his O Bone Jesu, which was written for the Sixteen (as a companion to Robert Carver's motet).

There seems to be something of a Tchaikovsky event. The Moscow Conservatory Chamber choir are bringing Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The London Philharmonic are doing Iolanta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are giving his orchestral pieces an authentic look, performing both the first and last versions of Romeo and Juliet.

RVW comes in for quite a lot of platform time. The Philharmonia under Richard Hickox doing two concerts covering symphonies 3,4,5 and 9. The Bach Choir under David Hill are doing Sancta Civitas, definitely a concert to note as this lovely work is rarely done (it needs too many choirs), they are being joined by Westminster Cathedral Choristers and Winchester College Quiristers. The concert also includes Howells' Sir Patric Spens and Howells's Te Deum.
The Bach Choir crop up again next Easter with the annual St. Matthew Passion, Evangelist being James Gilchrist. I must confess to being old enough to remember these performances with Robert Tear and Dame Janet Baker, under Sir David Willcocks.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are also doing a Matthew Passion with Mark Padmore as the Evangelist. They have spent quite some time doing the John Passion together, so expect some interesting insights. Listing simply gives 8 singers, no choir so I am unclear whether this is going to be a solo ensemble performance or one with a larger ripieno group of singers.

Other unusual choral repertoire includes the LPO doing Dvorak's Requiem with Neeme Jarvi and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment doing Haydn's The Return of Tobias with Sir Roger Norrington.

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Robin Ticciati are doing an early Romantic programme, with Schumann's enticing Konzertstuck for 4 horns (one of my favourite pieces), Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony and a rare, rare, rare outing for Sterndale Bennett's overture The Naiads.

Opera Rara are sponsoring 2 concerts with the LPO, Donizetti's Parisina with Patrizia Ciofi and Jose Bros and Rossini's Ermione with Carmen Giannatasio, Patricia Bardon and Colin Lee. I look forward to both recordings!
Zurich Opera are bringing Handel's Agrippina with a good cast including Vesselina Kassarova, Marijana Mijanovic and Malin Hartelius; I only wish they were giving us a more unusual opera, or one of the more serious, bigger boned mid-period London ones, there seems to have been quite a glut of Handel's slightly comic operas.

Philippe Jaroussky is doing a song recital of music by Faure, Massenet, Debussy, Saint-Saens and Chausson - quite an interesting mix for a counter-tenor.

Finally, in June next year Mark Padmore is doing Winterreise directed by Katie Mitchell in a programme which will include Samuel Beckett's poetry. Padmore will be singing the Schubert in a new translation by Michael Symmons Roberts.

Wigmore Hall new season (2)

Continuing our brief survey of the Wigmore Hall's new season.

They open the new year with a complete delight, tenor Jonas Kauffmann in a programme of Schubert, Britten (Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo and Strauss. Then the Classical Opera Company, under Stephen Page, are giving us a survey of Handel's London Operas - a single concert seems far too short for so many riches!

Still in early mode, Anna Caterina Antonacci with the English Consort are doing a programme which includes Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. And in February, the Gabrieli Consort give us Acis and Galatea. Further ahead in April, Carolyn Sampson and the Kings's Consort are mixing Handel cantatas and trio sonatas, unfortunately the selection of cantatas restricts itself to the well known ones.

Andrew Carwood and the Cardinall's music are mixing RVW's Mass in G minor with music by Taverner, Tallis and Gregorian Chant.

In a concert entitled Nash Inventions, the Nash Ensemble perform music by James Macmillan, Huw Watkins, Michael Berkley, George Benjamin and Mark-Anthony Turnage, some pieces are world premieres. Definitely a concert to note in the diary.

Towards Easter, the Chilingirian Quartet are pairing up with the Hilliard Ensemble to do Haydn's Seven Last Words and Les Talens Lyriques are doing Charpentier's Lecons de tenebres

Inevitably so far ahead, a number of programmes are not yet fixed but names include Solveig Kringelborn with Malcolm Martineau, Toby Spence, both Christopher Maltman and Mark Padmore in Brahms with Graham Johnson, Felicity Lott, Bernada Fink (in Schubert), Alice Coote,

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Mayr's opera L'Amor conjugal is here.
Not a masterpiece but strong and interesting ...

And my review of a disc of choral music by Christian Heinrich Rinck is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
Fascinating, confident, stylish performances of Lutheran music from the early 19th century ...

Recent CD Review

My review of Handel's Ode for St. Cecila's Day, from the Handel FestSpiel Halle in 1982 is here, on MusicWeb International.
An attractive enough performance but you’ll be missing out on the extra special touch that other singers bring to this music ...

City of London Festival

The City of London Festival kicks off on 20th June. This year's festival has a number of themes running through it.

First off, of course, is RVW. His Mass in G minor is given by the choir of St. Pauls, under Andrew Carwood, at the Festival's opening service. Ronan Collett includes his Songs of Travel in a recital which also includes Holst's Vedic Hymns and a group of lieder setting words by Goethe.

Goethe is another thread running through the Festival. There are a pair of concerts entitled Goethe and the Lied, Goethe's poetry crops up in songs features in a number of recitals, and Richard Stokes gives a lecture. Extending this theme, Samuel West and David Owen Norris give a Byron themed programme which mixes Byron's poems, music by Liszt, Mendelssohns (both), Schumann and Judith Bingham with a new melodrama featuring Byron's words and Aidan Andrew Dun's music and Alberto Venzago's photography.

Another thread is West-East, a thread which links neatly into Holst's Vedic Hymns. His choral versions of these crop up in a BBC Singers concert which includes Messiaen's amazing Cinq Rechants and music by Param Vir and Jonathan Harvey. Param Vir (again a West-East feeling here) is one of the composers featured in a recital by Patricia Rozario, Rohan de Saram and Julius Drake entitled a West-Eastern Divan, which mixes exotica by Schubert and Mendelssohn with Param Vir, John Tavener and Heinz Holliger. It is here that multiple threads link as one of the pieces features Goethe's östlichen Divan.

The Swiss influence continues with a new melodrama by Edward Rushton based on the writings of Sir Arnold Lunn, the reciter is Eleanor Bron.

Emily Beynon and Cedric Tiberghien perform George Benjamin's FLight amid a programme of Ravel, Messiaen and Couperin. Messiaen and Carl Rütti appear in an organ recital by Greg Morris; Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr and Pavel Haas feature in a recital by the Pavel Haas Quartet and percussionist Colin Currie. John Tavener and Peter Maxwell Davies crop up in a programme from St. Paul's Cathedral Choir which also includes Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and a new piece to words by Andrew Motion celebrating the 300th anniversary of St. Pauls.

And for those of you that yearn for something bigger, Valery Gergiev is doing Mahler's 8th Symphony with the LSO, with both the London Symphony Chorus and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Apart from Ailish Tynan, the soloists have a distinctly Slav cast to them which should give an interesting slant to the performance. This takes place, of course, at St. Paul's Cathedral.

ETO Autumn Tour

Yet more information about plans for the Autumn. English Touring Opera's Autumn tour commences at the Hackney Empire on 9th Oct. Their tour programme is, perhaps, a tad less exciting than others; they are doing a pairing of Dvorak's Rusalka with the Peter Brook/Bizet La Tragedie de Carmen. Rusalka will be sung by Donna Bateman who took the title role in Susannah in their Spring tour; the new production will be directed by James Conway. Carmen will be sung by Leah Marian Jones and the production will be directed by Andrew Steggall.

I have always been in two minds about Peter Brooks's reworking of Bizet, though I must admit to have never heard it live, only on TV. I suppose that if you are planning a small scale production of the opera, Brooks's version is a logical choice. Another thought - could we consider that Brooks's re-working of the opera is truer to its real heart than Sally Potter's recent re-working at ENO?

Corsham Festival

This year's Corsham Festival (21st June - 28th June) again impresses with the way this small festival manages to fit in some challenging and interesting musical programmes. This year the festival includes a concert from a new Mandolin quartet.

A very enterprising programme by Radius features Birtwistle's Lied, Ian Vine's Gesso (world premiere), George Crumb's rarely performed Eleven Echoes of Autumn, Tim Benjamin's 1 act music drama The Rosenhan Experiment (world premiere) and Thomas Ades's Catch.

The Norwegian ensemble, asamisimasa, give a programme which features music by Emil Bernhardt, Michael Finissy, Trond Deinholdtsen, Chris Dench, Mattew Shlomowitz, Sven Lyder Kahrs, Joanna Baillie and James Saunders. They promise a mixture of slapstick humour, melancholic alienation, disoriented signs and funky riffs! Sounds fascinating.

Irish Pianist Mary Dullea performs in tandem with videos by Julia Bardley; she will be performing music by Stphen Montague, Rolf Hind, Pavel Szymanski, Andrew Poppy, Joe Cutler, Benedict Mason and George Crumb.

Twin cellists Pei-Jee and Pei-Sian Ng will be performing a programme of music for 2 cellos which mixes music by Jean Barriere and David Popper with contemporary pieces by Daniel Kidane and Elen Kats-Chernin. Finally the London Sinfonietta perform music by Takemitsu, Emily Hall, Britten, Birtwistle, Messiaen and Debussy - though don't be fooled this is no ordinary orchestral concert but features music for a variety of solo instruments in different combinations.

There is also a strong Jazz vein to the Festival and numerous lively events. Definitely worth making a detour for.

John La Bouchardiere's film The Full Monteverdi featuring I Fagiolini's ground breaking Monteverdi performances will also be performed.

Wigmore Hall new Season (I)

The Wigmore Hall's new season brochure has just hit my letterbox, and as usual it is so full of goodies as to be almost intimidating; most years I intend to book a series of concerts and never do as the simple act of organising all the information and actually deciding is far too complex!

The season opens with Joyce di Donato and Julius Drake doing a concert of Vivaldi opera arias, plus songs by Chausson, Turina, Copland and Arlen - so they are definitely not taking the easy route. Joan Rodgers and Christopher Maltman give a concert of songs by RVW, Finzi and Howells - the first in a year long series celebrating RVW and English song. Still in September, Angelika Kirschlager returns with a Schubert, Korngold, Weill recital.

In October the Academy of Ancient Music are doing Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in tandem with a group of works by 17th century composer Christopher Gibbons, all taken from recently discovered manuscripts. Another visitor, the wonderful Veronique Gens, is doing Berlioz, Debussy and Offenbach for a BBC lunchtime recital. Then a group of performers are celebrating Michael Berkeley's 60th birthday.

On a slightly more off-beat note, Colin Currie is doing a percussion and piano recital with music by Birtwistle and John McLeod. Later in the season, Thomas Ades crops up as pianist, with Stephen Isserlis in a wide ranging programme which includes some of Ades's own music.

Come November, we have Diana Damrau to look forward to, again with the ubiquitous Julius Drake. They are doing a programme of Berg, Barber, Strauss and Ian Bell's Daughters of Britannia. The King's Consort celebrate St. Cecilia's day 8 days early with a group of Cecilia inspired Purcell pieces plus a couple of his Welcome Odes, a brilliant opportunity to hear some of his lesser performed pieces in the genre.

Graham Johnson is doing a series entitled Brahms, His Friends, Rivals and Contemporaries; I must confess that this is a series I will be giving a miss.

The Britten Sinfonia crop up at another Lunchtime Concert in December, with a programme which includes music by Charlotte Bray and Colin Matthews. Then another ensemble, The Nash this time, do a Czech programme which includes Smetana's Der Fischer for reciter and ensemble with Eleanor Bron.

The Early Opera Company celebrate Christmas with Messiah, a lovely chance to hear it performed with just 12 singers and 14 players. Carolyn Sampson is taking a break from Bach and Handel and doing a programme of lute songs by Dowland and his contemporaries, with lutenist Matthew Wadsworth.

2008 finishes with a New Year's Eve concert from the King's Consort, this time an All Bach concert featuring an early version of Suite No. 4, 2 cantatas, the Motet Lobet den Herrn and the Harpsichord Concerto in A

Edington Festival

This year's Edington Festival runs from Sunday 17th August to Sunday 24th August, as usual there is a packed programme of music and services. The Messiaen anniversary is commemorated with a performance of his popular motet O Sacrum Convivium. Other more contemporary pieces include 2 from Matthew Martin, a festival commission from the young American composer Nico Muhly, and John Tavener's A Hymn to the Mother of God.

Masses include Lassus's Bell'amfitrit altera, Sheppard's Missa Cantate, Kenneth Leighton's Mass for Double Choir and Byrd's 5-part mass.

Composers include a wide range of eras and styles, though there is something of an emphasis on late 19th/20th century figures such as Stanford, Rachmaninov, William Harris, RVW, Poulenc, Walton, Britten, Leighton, Howells, Bainton, S.S. Wesley and Philip Radcliffe.

There are a total of 14 services with polyphonic music plus daily matins and compline sung to plainchant. Plainchant, of course, is a fine feature of the whole week with Mass X(Alme Pater), Mass III (Deus dempiterne) and the Kyrie from Mass IV (Cunctipotens genitor Deus) all featuring.

Full information from the leaflet (pdf) here.

Review of Matthew Schellhorn's recital

My review of Matthew Schellhorn's Wigmore Hall recital was posted here, on Music and Vision whilst I was away.

Recent CD Reviews

Recent CD reviews posted on MusicWeb International whilst I was away.

Simon McEnery's Resurrection is here.
A fascinating and accessible work, one to which I will return in the future. ...

Elgar Songs (vol. 1) here
Essential listening for anyone interested in English song and Elgar ...

Dufay's Mass for St. James the Greater from the Binchois Consort is here.
One of those discs to be played to people who remain unconvinced about music from this period ...

Rosengart's sacred music here.
Charming pieces in winning performances ...

Matins from Lincoln Cathedral here.
You really do feel as if you are eavesdropping on a service at the Cathedral ...

Reviewer's Log

MusicWeb International have just posted another of my reviewer's logs, so if you ever wondered what I think about when reviewing discs, click here.

Tonight

If you fancy a concert in London tonight then I can't think you'll do better than Matthew Schellhorn's debut recital at the Wigmore Hall. This talented young pianist is performing a fascinating bird themed programme, with works by Messiaen (something of a speciality of his), Rameau, Daquin and Dutilleux, plus the premiere of a piece Schellhorn has commissioned from Ian Wilson. The programme concludes with a well chosen group of Chopin pieces.

The Wilson premiere is book 4 of his Stations, a 14 movement work inspired by the stations of the Cross. The work is divided into 4 books and Schellhorn has already premièred books 1 to 3

Further details here.

DIY

EMI are running a competition, all you have to do is write a review of one of their CD's, further details here. So if you think you can do better than the reviews you read, now is your chance to try.

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine

This month's interview is with Danielle de Niese, who is singing Poppea at Glyndebourne this summer. I will be missing her Poppea and have always been rather prejudiced because I first saw her as Cleopatra in the amazing dancing Glyndebourn Julius Caesar, which I hated. It looks as if I'm going to have to wait until her Covent Garden debut as Galatea to make a more reasoned assessment.

On the letters page, one correspondant takes Caballe to task for mixing rock and pop when she sang with Freddy Mercury. It should be pointed out that the collaboration was Mercury's idea and that he wrote songs for her, she wasn't singing operatic versions of existing pop/rock but specially written material.

Richard Osborne's profile of Karajan (its his centenary year, which makes me feel old), throws up some interesting trivia. In Ulm, where Karajan spent 5 years in the 30's, the theatre commissar worked for the electricity board. And contrary to popular opinion, the Great Herbert wasn't a Nazi party member, in fact he didn't even register with the Reichsmusikkammer.

Osborne refers to a scamipish side to Karajan, a word Strauss evidently used when he found him conducting Elektra from memory! On an even more irreverent note, Walter Legge referred to the Salzburg Easter Festival as Heilige Herbert's wonderful Easter egg. In 1940, having heard the wife of the leader of the orchestra at Aachen opera house sing after supper, he invited her at the last minute to fill in as a flower maiden. She agreed, for the hell of it. Some months later he asked her to sing Alice Ford and Octavian, despite having said nothing about the Flower maiden performance. The soprano's name was Elisabeth Grummer!

So Rolando Villazon is back on the operatic scene, returning to the Vienna Staatsoper in Manon. Surprisingly he has little between his Vienna Manons and the Covent Garden Don Carlo. Despite this care, you do wonder whether Don Carlo is rather too heavy a role for him, even in the 5-Act Italian version.

Over in Prague, they are unearthing French rarities, the latest being Saint-Saens's Helene, which was written for Melba. Still on the rare French opera Front, the Chatelet in Paris have just done Roussel's Padmavati, where the star of the show seems to have been the live elephant. Roussel actually spent time in India so his Eastern exoticism is far more genuine than many. Over in the Garnier, Toby Spence was Tom Rakewell, it sounds as if we are going to have to wait for him to do it in London but I look forward to the event immensely. The divine Hilary Summers was Mother Goose in the same production, clad as a dominatrix! Another tenor I admire, Coline Lee was singing the title role in Le Comte Ory in Athens, not much chance of popping over to see that.

In Barcelona, Eva Marton was doing her first Klytemnestra, quite a daring move for a soprano even an ageing dramatic soprano. But Edita Gruberova shows no sign of going down, 40 years after her stage debut she was still wowing the Liceu with her Lucrezia Borgia

Handel's Teseo came in for a bit of over-working at the Komische Oper in Berlin. I can't say that I yearned to see the production, but having a baritone sing Egeo at counter-tenor pitch sounds pretty daring. Still it's not just Handel that producers feel the need to gee up. In Houston Die Entfuhring seems to have come with a deal of comic business, puzzling really.

Still Martin Bernheimer described the new Met production of Peter Grimes as an enlightened fusion of music and drama, so all is not bad on planet opera. A propo of nothing - surprisingly the Met has not done La Sonnambula since 1972.

Back in London, Andrew Porter's review of Vivaldi's Tito Manlio made me wonder whether we'd been at the same opera, surprising how the same performance can take different people so differently. Though Margaret Davies's review of The Bohemian Girl in Haslemere made me pleased that we'd not made the effort to go and see it. So that's still an opera on the to be seen list (along with Ivanhoe and Le Roi Arthus and most of Meyerbeer's French oeuvre)

The review of the reconstruction of Gilbert and Sullivan's Thespis or the God's Grown Old did make me wonder whether Bliss and Priestly knew of the plot when they planned The Olympians (another one on the to be seen list).

In his review of La vie parisienne at the Guildhall, Andrew Porter mentions with approbation a performance at the Coliseum in 1977 with Lois McDonall and Eric Shilling - I was there, I remember it!

Review of The Minotaur

In their new opera, The Minotaur (seen at Covent Garden on 3rd May 2008) Sir Harrison Birtwistle and David Harsent's take on the minotaur myth concentrates on just 3 main characters Ariadne (Christine Rice), Theseus (Johann Reuter) and the Minotaur (Sir John Tomlinson). The opera opens with Ariadne wandering along the sea short, seeing the black sail of the ship from Athens bearing the Innocents who will be sacrificed to the Minotaur.

Throughout the opera Ariadne is our guide and narrator, she appears in all but 1 scene, even appearing to the Minotaur in his dreams. As a result, Ariadne is a huge part, a challenge to which Rice rose magnificently. As the opera opens Birtwistle under scores Ariadne's vocal line with a rich dark palette of orchestral sound, challenging the singer by the sheer volume of the orchestra. Though at times Rice got a surprising amount of the text over, I was glad that we had surtitles. Ariadne's vocal line, whilst never melodic, was always expressive and sympathetic to the voice.

The volume and the amplitude of the orchestral sound was almost like a beast itself, under control and often quiescent and quiet, but constantly threatening to overwhelm the singers. Birtwistle's orchestral palette was large, with lots of percussion, giving vivid and rich orchestral images.

The Innocents when they arrived were all high voiced, sopranos and altos including two counter-tenors, the vocal writing for them rendering them as a group, rather than individuals.

Reuter's Theseus was blunt and direct. He had no time for Ariadne's evasions and even less desire to take her back to Athens with him. Reuter's diction was rather compromised by his accent.

The opera is built around cycles of 3. Ariadne asks Theseus 3 times to take her to Athens and only succeeds the 3rd time. 3 Times Theseus insists he go into the labyrinth, but only succeeds the third time. There are 3 scenes in which the Minotaur attacks people in the labyrinth (first 1 Innocent, then the remaining Innocents, then Theseus himself). After each attack the Minotaur gains the power of speech. The first 2 times in dreams than then as he lays dying. Birtwistle and Harsent have created out of this a strong narrative sense which propels the opera along. This was helped by Alison Chitty's strong and flexible designs, flooding the stage with Mediterranean sun in contrast to the dark of the labyrinth.

John Tomlinson's Minotaur wore a horned bulls head, so that depending on the lighting we see just a bull's head or glimpse the man's head within. When in the labyrinth the Minotaur was inarticulate, communicating only in roars. This Bull was a real farmyard bull rather than one of the elegant ones seen in statues. The disadvantage of the mask was that we never saw Tomlinson's face properly.

From his body language he seemed to be an old bull, tired and irritable as well as fearsome. The scenes in the labyrinth where he slaughtered the Innocents were inevitably violent and gory (in a stylised way), but Stephen Langridge staged them brilliantly. Stylised movement and some gore complementing the violence of Birtwistle's score. Each time the slaughter concluded with the descent of the screaming Keres, evil creatures who evisicerate and eat the corpses. So the final, shocking, image of the opera is not the reunited Ariadne and Theseus, but a single Ker triumphantly crowing over the body of the Minotaur.

And after each slaughter the Minotaur dreams, in dreams he has language and holds a dialogue with his reflection, pondering what it means to be half man, half beast.

Ariadne starts the 3rd cycle off by visiting the oracle (Andrew Watts). Here with the help of the priest (Philip Langridge) she comes up with the idea of the twine to show Theseus the way out of the Labyrinth.

Though the final cycle concludes with Theseus killing the Minotaur, Harsent and Birtwistle make it clear that though Theseus will leave Crete with Ariadne, thus fulfilling the letter of his promise, she will not reach Athens. There is no romantic conclusion.

Birtwistle's score is dramatic and violent but with many beautiful passages. It is difficult to do it justice on just one hearing. The Royal Opera Orchestra played magnificently under Antonio Pappano, conjuring up Birtwistle's remarkable sound world.

We were at the last performance, which was full with a queue for returns. The audience was remarkably enthusiastic about the work and gave Birtwistle and Harsent an ovation when they appeared on stage at the end. The opera is being recorded for DVD but I do hope that it reoccurs on the Royal Opera House stage.

London Concord Singers summer concert

London Concord Singers, conductor Malcolm Cottle, will be performing my motet Deus in adjutorium at a concert on Thursday 10th July at St. Michael's Church, Chester Square, London SW1W 9HH. The full programme for the concert is as follows:-
Alberto Ginastera - Lamentations of Jeremiah
Robert Hugill - Deus in adjutorium
Randall Thompson - Alleluia
Eric Whitacre - When David Heard; Lux Aurumque; Hope, Faith, Love
Brahms - Zwei Motetten Op. 74
Palestrina - Exsultate Deo; Precaus est Moyses
John Sheppard - Verbum Caro
Robert Parsons - Credo quod redemptor meus vivis
William Byrd - Beati mundo corde

The choir will also be singing the programme in Verona in August. There will be a concert on Saturday 2nd August, then the choir will sing at Mass at the church of San Giorgio en Baida where the music will include my Deus in adjutorium as the introit motet (the motet sets the Latin text of the Introit for that day).

Review of The Merry Widow

My review of The Merry Widow at London Coliseum is here, on Music and Vision.

New Opera

Scottish Opera seem to have had some success with their Five:15 project, pairing up 5 composers with 5 librettists and challenging them to come up with a 15 minute opera. Andrew Clark in this month's Opera magazine is most positive about the project, especially when compared to the contemporary opera programmes of our other opera companies.

What the Scottish project seems to have had is freshness, communication and craftsmanship, none of the 5 projects seems to have tried to re-think what an opera ought to be. Recent offerings at ENO, WNO and the Royal Opera House's Opera Genesis programmes have left me a little depressed by contemporary opera. Composers often seem to try to re-define what opera means, making the mistake of trying to rewrite the rules before actually knowing them. When they don't, the works seem to have been in danger of being workshopped to death. Workshopping seems to be the contemporary opera company's panacea which allows them to feel in control of the creation process. The advantage is that the composer and librettist can try things out and get the feel of a piece. The disadvantage, from a consumer's point of view, is that the dramaturg's get their hands on things and the results can often lack danger, be without the essential spark which makes a work come alive.

One opera company that does seem to get things sort of right is Tete-a-Tete, run by Bill Bankes-Jones. They have regularly put together evenings of tiny operas, which allow composers to try things out. Not everything succeeds, but they present their vignettes with vivid communication and freshness. Each summer they run an opera festival at Riverside studios, this enables composers and librettists to present fully fledged works or simply works in progress. We went to 2 evenings last year and saw a total of 6 works, being alternately challenged and fascinated by the pieces.

Having successfully produced works on this model, let us hope Scottish Opera can continue the momentum. I understand that they hope to build on the more successful works in the evening, but I do hope that in a year or two's time they re-peat the experiment, allowing another group of composers to try things out.

Salomon Concert

The Salomon Orchestra's next concert is on Sunday May 18th at St. John's Smith Square, London. As usual its going to be an interesting programme, Messiaen's L'Ascension, Weber's Bassoon Concerto (with Robin O'Neill) and Saint-Saens's 3rd Symphony. It should be interesting experiencing the symphony in true French style with the organ at the rear of the concert hall rather than behind the performers. The conductor is Andrew Fardell.