Recent CD Reviews

My review of Vesselina Kasarova' disc of Handel's arias for Carestini is here.
Strong technique and imaginative but try before buying ...

And my review of Harnoncourt's account of the Monteverdi Vespers is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
Entirely fails to convince ...

EPSS Housman Competition

My song, He Looked at Me has come 3rd in the English Poetry and Song Society's Housman Competition. The song will be performed, along with the other winners, at a recital by Gordon Pullin and Jolyon Laycock at St. Mary's Church, Bathwick, Bath on Saturday 7th March, 3.30pm. Tickets, price £9, are available from the Bath Festival Box Office.

Typically, in London Bus style, the date of the concert clashes with the forthcoming 15B Consort concert at St. Mary's Cadogan Street, Chelsea. So while my song is being premièred, I will be busy rehearsing.

Gleanings from this month's Opera

From this month's Opera magazine.

The interview is with Vivica Genaux, who makes some interesting observations on the difficulty of making a decent mark in a role like Rosina (Barber of Seville) where you get just 20 minutes rehearsal and have to fit in to an existing concept.

There is an obituary for Richard Hickox; evidently when I saw him conduct Aida in Manchester, at the RNCM, in 1974 it was his operatic debut. And an obit. for Richard Van Allan; Van Allan sang for Glyndebourne Touring opera in his early days, covering an amazingly wide range of roles - Cavalli to Mozart, Haydn, Rossini through to Britten, Prokofiev, Maw and Dove.

Also in the Obits., one for the English mezzo Enid Hartle, written by Linda Esther Gray.

A Viennese performance of Gluck's original Orfeo, which was written for Vienna, where Stephen Lawless and Lynne Hockney seem to have made sense of the final dances, rather than them being something embarrassedly tacked on. Still in opera seria land, they Handel's Ezio has cropped up in Turin of all places, along with a performance of Peri and Caccini's Euridice. One of the earliest operas, I saw it many, many years ago in Florence and, I am afraid, found it entirely forgettable.

Over in Lyons there were doing La Clemenza di Tito, with Sesto transmogrified into an androgynous one which the reviewer refers to as Sesta! How would the opera work if Sesto was really turned into a woman! And in Marseille they have been doing Reyer's Salammbo. I know Reyer mainly for his opera Sigurd, which covers the same territory as the Ring but in a different fashion. It is an opera I have long wanted to hear but entirely failed to do so. I know it mainly from an excerpt on a Regine Crespin recital record.

Still in France, and back on the cross dressing track, Giorgio Batistelli seems to have come up with that rare thing, a contemporary comic operaDivorce a l'Italienne; complete with a heroine played by the Rossini bass Bruno Practico.

Peter Eotvos's Love and Other Demons has wandered its way from Lewes to Lithuania (in the same production). In Lithuania, Mariso Montalvo, for whom the leading role was written, was finally able to perform in the opera having had to drop out of the Glyndebourne performances due to ill health. There was also a staging of Ponchielli's I Lituani - beat that for a combination of obscurity and local colour.

Evidently the original of the holy Grail is kept on an altar in Valencia Cathedral, so it seems entirely apt that they should be performing Parsifal.

We missed the Reginald Goodall celebrations at the London Coliseum, which was a shame as it sounds as it it was fascinating. Evidently Peter Pears said that no-one had ever conducted Peter Grimes better than Goodall.

Over in Munich they have been digging up one of E.T.A. Hoffman's operas ReadingLiebe und Eifersucht. The review was not impressed, alas. The review of the ROH's latest outing of Les Contes d'Hoffman says they should think twice before replacing the production. True perhaps, but for some reason the production is still attached to a woefully old-fashioned edition of the score. Can't we have a re-studied version which uses a version of the score which utilised recent scholarship (and spoken dialogue!).-

Recent CD Review

My review of an attractive disc of double concertos by members of the Bach family is here, on MusicWeb International.
Delightful and instructive ...

Review of Die tote Stadt

It is a measure of how voice types changed, and how orchestras have got louder, that the role of Paul on Korngold's Die tode Stadt was one of Richard Tauber's major roles. Tauber could in no way be described as an heroic tenor, but nowadays if Korngold's opera is performed at all it is given with an heroic tenor as Paul. At Covent Garden on Friday (only the works 2nd staged outing ever in the UK), Paul was sung by Stephen Gould and Marie/Marietta by Nadja Michael. Neither singer could be described as lyric in any shape or form; Michael was previously a mezzo-soprano and numbers Salome in her repertoire.

Both had little problem projecting over Korngold's large orchestra. Korngold's style is in many ways a sort of super-charged Richard Strauss, his operas live in the hinterland between Strauss and say Schreker. There are lyrical moments, but much of the music is gorgeously taxing. Both Paul (Stephen Gould) and Marie/Marietta (Nadja Michael) are on stage for much of the time so that complaining that their performances were a little effortful is a bit unfair as Korngold gives them so much of a challenge. It is unfair so complain that Tauber and Lehmann on their recording of the work's famous duet, make the piece sound far more beautiful than Gould and Michael were able to. Voices just are not like that any more. It was noticeable in the quieter moments that Michael had to make and almost audible effort to keep her vibrato in control and produce a good sense of line.

The role of Marie/Marietta calls for a sexy soprano with a gleaming, free upper voice; something that Michael does not really have. The singer I would like to hear in the role is Karita Mattila.

That said, Gould and Michael made a convincing dramatic pair. Gould's physique is hulking, anti-heroic which contrasted strikingly with Michael's slim, scantily clad form. Gerald Finley gave a master class in how things should be done, in the relatively small role of Frank/Fritz. The role is mainly unexceptional, but Fritz gets to sing the Pierrot Lied, the opera's other big number; this Finley did with his customary finesse and sense of line.

Willy Decker's production, which is already rather well travelled, was quite spectacular and Decker seemed to spare no expense when it came to an excuse for a striking stage effect. Some of it was a little over done and made the work seem an overheated result of Paul's imagination; something which seemed to pre-empt the work's remarkable finale. When we discover that much of the preceding action HAD been the result of Paul's fevered imagination.

Ingo Metzmacher kept Korngold's complex score flowing and did not allow the large orchestra to get out of hand. The result sounded gorgeous from an orchestra point of view.

Recent CD Review

My review of Daniel Hope's Vivaldi disc is here.
An interesting dialogue between modern ways and period practice …

Comic Opera

David Sawyer and Armando Ianucci’s new comic operetta, Skin Deep, seems to have been received with distinctly muted critical comment. This is not surprising; if producing new opera is a difficult business then producing new comic opera is even harder. You only have to look at the tally of 20th century comic operas which have made it into the repertoire.

Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi is an obviously a comic masterpiece, but what else is there? Are Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and The Voyages of Mr. Broucek comedies, perhaps; we’ll include them just in case. Then there is Shostakovich’s The Nose and Prokofiev’s Love of Three Oranges. Apart from operettas by Lehar and Straus, I can’t think of anything else from the pre-1950 period. Strauss and Hofmanstal thought of Der Rosenkavalier as a comedy, but its more of a serious opera with comic interludes. For the post-1950 period, all I can think of is Britten’s Albert Herring and, perhaps, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (again more of a serious opera with comic interludes); and neither of these is really laugh out loud funny. I’m sure I’ve missed one or two, but it is hardly a large haul for 100 years of opera composing.

It would perhaps be helpful if we looked back over the history of comic opera.

When early Italian opera moved from court to public opera house in Venice in the late 17th century, the purely serious plots gained an admixture of comedy. Essentially this developed into a genre where serious aristocrats were surrounded by comic servants. Eventually the developments of librettists like Metastasio purified serious opera and purged it of comic element. Instead serious operas would have comic interludes between the acts.

Of course, serious opera was never completely serious all the time. Salieri wrote an opera which sent up the whole genre of opera seria. And in his later opera, Handel played with the genre. He never wrote an out and out buffo opera, but such works like Serse and Partenope view opera seria with a distinctly satiric eye. In fact Serse is based on a libretto written for Cavalli, but purged of nearly all the comic servants. And Partenope is based on a libretto which Handel wanted to set earlier on in his career but his patrons would not let him.

Whilst some comedies work because they set comic situations to music, to understand Handel’s lighter works you have to understand the conventions of opera seria itself. This is something which we will come across again and again, that intention is all. The very nature of the operatic libretto means that it contains the possibility of comedy, if you stretch the genre slightly then you get an opera which is in some way comic. Handel doesn’t actually write comic music, he simply writes with comic intention. The problem is, of course, that to really appreciate the comedy you have to understand the genre (opera seria) which is being sent up.

In 18th century Italy, comic opera (opera buffa) developed out of the comic interludes performed in serious opera. But it is Galuppi with his librettist, playwright Goldoni, who developed one of the most influential forms of comedy in their operas for the Venetian commercial opera theatre. Here they mixed serious and comic characters in a comic plot; the serious characters were usually the aristocrats, sung generally by the soprano and the castrato, who were surrounded by comic servants. It is a development of the plots written for Cavalli, but rendered more thoroughgoing comic.

Galuppi also developed the multi-part finale, which was further developed by Mozart. In fact, to really understand Mozart and Da Ponte’s trilogy of comic operas you have to have experienced one of Galuppi and Goldoni’s pieces. Mozart and Da Ponte build on the conventions of the early generations and send them up. So that the serious character of Don Giovanni is certainly not the most likeable. In Le Nozze de Figaro the plot is ostensibly of the same type as one of Goldoni’s and Galuppi’s, but again Mozart distorts things by making Cherubino a sexually overcharged adolescent, and the servants run rings round the Count (who isn’t a castrato of course, but simply a baritone).

Mozart brings something else to his comedies as well, a sense of humanity. He breathes life into the highly structured plot by creating real feeling people. This has the effect of transforming a situational comedy into something far more subtle; there are fewer belly laughs and far more sighs of sympathy and empathy.

Again it comes back to intention, the difference between a comic opera and a serious one is often the intentions of the composer. There is a saying that the difference between a comedy and a tragedy is simply a happy ending.

This sense of a composer’s intention can be seen in Beethoven’s Fidelio. The opening scenes all have the feeling of a lightly comic singspiel; you could feel the work developing into a half serious/half comic situational piece. But instead, Beethoven lurches in another direction. It works because Beethoven’s music is the work of a genius, but it is hardly a prototype for how to write an opera.

When we move to early 19th century Italian opera, composers seem to develop an awareness that their style of music can be innately funny. Rossini uses music, particularly ensembles, for comic purposes. But again, intention is all. In Tancredi Rossini wrote a serious opera, but one which leads to a happy ending. Later on he wrote a tragic ending for the work, but though this is fine music, it somehow feels wrong. The opera seems to be leading to the lighter ending, after all just consider the best known number from the opera, Tancredi’s Di tanti palpiti.

For Rosina’s opening aria in Il Barbiere di Sivigila Rossini re-cycled the opening section of an aria from Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra, most definitely not a comic opera. But Rossini’s transferral of the piece to its new setting works, because his music for all his operas is so closely related; the comic ones differ from the serious ones only in detail and intention.

Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore is a prime example of an opera whose plot could easily form that of a tragic one, with only a little tweaking. Just consider Dulcanamara’s entrance, written slightly differently and he would be scary rather then funny. Conversely, it is fatally easy to imagine some of Donizetti’s serious operas done as comedy such is the absurdity of the plots. It is this fundamental absurdity which provided Gilbert and Sullivan with a source of so many of their ideas. Similarly it would be fatally easy to turn Norma into a comic plot, after all a virgin priestess who managed to have two children without anyone knowing is ripe for comic development.

The reason why such operas as Il Barbiere di Sivigila and L’Elisir d’Amore managed to survive in the repertoire was that the composers not only created superb comic operas, but imbued them with humanity, creating characters with whom we can empathise rather than just stock situations.

But after this there is rather a desert when it comes to Italian comic opera. Verdi only essayed two, the first is not a great success and the second, Falstaff, is one of the most serious comedies in existence! We would have to look to operetta if we want to find comic works. Opera composers seem to have avoided writing much in the way of comedy, perhaps recognising the sheer difficulty of making it work.

The problem for a contemporary composer is that past masters of the comic opera have all shown a strong awareness of what their particular operatic genre was. The comedy within the operas is usually dependent on the composer knowingly stretching the operatic genre. This, of course, requires the composer to be confident their sense of what the operatic genre is. This is something which we have, by and large, lost. Few composers today have a confident view of what their own particular operatic genre is. A work like Thomas Ades’s Powder her Face works precisely because it uses the operatic genre itself to fuel the comedy. A comic opera will not full work if the composer simply sets a funny libretto. That is not to say that a contemporary comic opera is doomed to failure, but it certainly makes it very tricky to bring off. Still there is hope, after all Giorgio Battistelli has just produced a comic opera that is almost an opera buffo, based on the film Divorce Italian Style.

O Star of Evening

The web page advertising for the forthcoming FifteenB concert on March 7th is now up. The six of us in the FifteenB consort will be performing a programme based on Vespers, with a sequence of plainchant and motets including my new, a cappella version of Lucis Creator Optime along with some juicy motets by Fayrfax, Frye and Aston. More information here.

A Little Night Music

The Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre is in many ways a strange place to stage a musical. It is quite a small theatre with no space for a large band, and rather dry acoustics. But stage musicals they do. Their previous one, amazingly, was La Cage aux Folles, goodness knows how they managed to fit that in to the theatre. Currently they are performing Sondheim's A Little Night Music. A musical with a significant score and a large cast (15 major singing roles). They used a band of just 7, who are perched up high away from the stage. All the singers are miked and what you hear is mixed and broadcast over speakers, Gareth Owen is credited with the sound design.

We saw the show on Saturday. When it opened, at first it sounded as if the singers were miming to a recording, though I gradually became accustomed to the sound quality. It was very loud, too loud at times for the small theatre and you never felt that you were hearing any of the voices acoustically, only electronically. This was a shame as most of the actors are accomplished singers with track records in previous musicals, so I felt that the show could have been made to work with no amplification at all.

Trevor Nunn's production was lovely to look at, quite inventive with the stage designs of David Farley, who also designed the traditional costumes. As usual with this show, it got off to a bit of a slow start. But then the sheer delight of Sondheim's songs catches you. Some, of course, are regularly done as solo items but all the songs work far better, and are far funnier and apposite when heard in context. It is also amazing how he manages to use them to advance the plot.

One of the interesting things about this musical is the way Sondheim aims for a score with lots of music but without burdening the leads. He uses a group of singers who, though named, take no explicit part in the plot; instead they sing commentaries on the action. Nunn used the 5 actors as supernumeraries in various scenes, which worked very well.

Gabriel Vick made a personable and believable Henrik. Nunn has cast the whole show with a careful thought to the ages so that the young look suitably young. Vick has an attractive voice but, as usual, his technique was rather taxed by the rather operatic requirements of his solos. Not for nothing did the TER recording us a real opera singer (Bonaventure Bottone) in this role. Anne was similarly very young. She was played by Jessie Buckley who evidently came second in the recent TV show looking for an actress to play Nancy in Oliver. She made Anne completely captivating and believable. My only complaint is that her opening number, Soon required more of a trained voice than she has, she sang it with a very noticeable break and her upper register sounded a little too unsupported.

Alexander Hanson made Fredrik very much the charming and sexy older man, and he managed his way around the tongue-twisting passages of his musical contributions in an admirable fashion. Alistair Robins and Kelly Price were the Count and Countess, suitably attractive looking and both attentive to musical values as well.

Hannah Waddingham was the main recipient of Nunn's thoughts about the ages of the characters, she is noticeably younger than other actresses in the role. Waddingham's Desiree is only just approaching 40 and this works very well. Waddingham's way with the show's best known number, Send in the Clowns made it the opposite of a belting torch song, and made you wish Sondheim had given Desiree more to sing. Her mother was superbly played by Maureen Lipmann, with her usual fine sense of comic timing. And her delivery of Liaisons was masterly, lovely to hear the song properly sung for once, as opposed to being wobbled through (Lila Kedrova) or half spoken (Hermione Gingold).

Kaisa Hammarlund as Petra delivered The Miller's Son as the outstanding item it is, and Jeremy Finch's Frid got to sing Silly People which was cut just before the first run.

I hope that this show might transfer to a bigger theatre, it certainly deserves it.

We're list in the Top 100 Musicology blogs here.

Review of Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble at the Barbican

My review of the Handel, Purcell, Haydn anniversary celebration from Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble is now on-line here, at Music and Vision.

Recent CD Review

My review of Andrew Parrott's 1984 recording of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 is here, on MusicWeb International.
Everyone ought to have this brilliant performance in their library ...

January Newsletter

Robert Hugill - Performance News - January 2009

Recent Performances
Gaudete
On Sunday 14th December, the choir of All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London, conductor Paul Brough, gave the liturgical premiere of my motet Gaudete . The performance was part of Evensong and Benediction at All Saints Church. Gaudete is from volume 1 of the collection Tempus per Annum .

Puer natus est nobis
Also from Tempus per Annum , my motet Puer natus est nobis was premiered by The Chapelle du Roi , conductor Alistair Dixon, at their concert 'The Marriage of England and Spain' at St. John's Smith Square, London on Saturday 20th December 2009.

Jesu Rex Gloriae
My motet for the Feast of Christ the King, Jesu Rex Gloriae received a revival at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street, Chelsea. It was sung at High Mass on Sunday 23rd November by St. Mary's Latin Mass Choir, conductor Malcolm Cottle.

Faith, Hope and Charity on the Radio
Faith, Hope and Charity , in the version for string orchestra, was featured on the BBC Radio 3 programme Radio 3 Requests on Sunday 12th October 2008. The show played the recording of the work by violinist Simon Baggs and the strings of the Chameleon Arts Orchestra, conductor Paul Brough, from my CD The Testament of Dr. Cranmer which was released in 2007.

Publication of Tempus per Annum - volume 2
This Autumn the 2nd volume of Tempus per Annum was published by Spherical Editions. Volume 2 contains 22 motets for Lent, Passiontide and Ascension. When complete the collection will cover the entire Church's year in 72 motets, so volume 2 means I am half way through.

Future Performances
Lucis Creator Optime - Saturday March 7th
On Saturday March 7th, at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street, Chelsea, my motet Lucis Creator Optime will be premiered by the 15B Consort at their concert Star of the Evening - Music for Vespers . The concert centres around music for Vespers and Marian motets. Lucis Creator Optime is a setting of the vespers hymn, my second setting of the text, this time unaccompanied. The 15B Consort is drawn from members of my choir FifteenB and consists of Rowena Wells, Alison Cross, Sally Prime, Robert Hugill, Katie Boot and John McLeod.

The Woodward Scale - Saturday 16th May
'Light breeze. Vending machine cups may roll.
Light carrier- and dry-cleaning bags rustle'
On Saturday 16th May 2009, as part of the Music Under the Pyramid concert series at Christ Church, Redford Way, Uxbridge, London Concord Singers , conductor Malcolm Cottle, will be giving the premiere of The Woodward Scale . The work sets Antony Woodwards' amusing modern day re-write of the Beaufort Wind Scale used to estimate wind strengths. The original text to The Woodward Scale appeared in Country Life in 2002.

Review of Handel's London Operas

My review of the Classical Opera Company's programme of arias from Handel's London operas, at the Wigmore Hall, is here, on Music and Vision.

Support your local opera company

Surrey Opera going on the road with their latest production next month. They will be performing Madama Butterfly in Redhill and Tonbridge. Such local companies are an important part of our infrastructure. Not only do they give opportunities to up and coming young singers and directors, but they provide valuable local input into the operatic scene.

Madama Butterfly will be conducted by Jonathan Butcher, the group's artistic director and will be directed and designed by James Hurley and Rob Mills. They are presenting 3 performances in Redhill and 3 in Tonbridge. Full details from the group's website, here.

After Madama Butterfly, they'll be back in the autumn with performances of The Barber of Seville in Epsom and East Grinstead

St. John Passion writ small

The Kingsway Ensemble is a new group looking to tackle some of the great baroque repertoire in a lively and inclusive way. The group is a mixture of young professionals players and semi-professional singers. They are kicking off with a performance of the St. John Passion on Saturday 21st February and St. Giles in the Fields (near Tottenham Court Road, London).

Whilst not actually 1 voice to a part in the choir, it will be small and intimate in scale. Just 1 instrument per part and a small choir with soloists being taken from the choir. Andrew Tortise will be the Evangelist. And the audience will be joining in the chorales. It sounds an ideal way to tackle the work, a nice balance of authenticity of scale with a modicum of common sense. Add to the the fact that the venue, St. Giles in the Fields, was built around the time that the work was premiered.

Alas, we won't be there as I'm singing in Norfolk. But, if you are in London at this time, do go along and support the group.

The original Serenade to Music

When BBC Television broadcast the 2008 Proms performance of Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music they included an introductory programme about the work with a short clip of two of the modern day singers, Sarah Tynan and Ed Lyons, listening to the original 1938 recording. Tynan’s interesting comment was that the original singers sang it rather more dramatically than is generally done today; an interesting point.

Performances of the original 16-singer version Serenade to Musictoday tend to use a team of predominantly young singers. The original performers, all well known oratorio singers, were all mature singers their ages in the range 39 to 54 with the majority falling into the middle of this.

They were regular singers of oratorio; this repertoire being considered to cover Handel’s oratorios (especially Messiah), Bach’s Passions and Mass in B minor, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and 9th Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah through numberless lesser English imitators to the works of Elgar.

But an oratorio singer of that period implies something different from today’s singers of a similar repertoire. Handel oratorios were done with larger accompaniments, often with additional instrumentation, so that to be a singer in oratorio implied a voice with a degree of dramatic potential. The principal exception to this was Elsie Suddaby who had by far the lightest voice of the sopranos. What the singer needed to combined was power with flexibility. Speeds in Handel and Bach were slower, but a singer still needed to be able to negotiate the runs albeit at a slower speed.

This, I think, gave rise to a particular style of English singing and English singer. The rather peculiar parochialism of the English music scene meant that few singers had major International careers and many relied upon countless oratorio performances for their bread and butter. The results can be seen in a singer like Walter Widdop who sang Wagner at Covent Garden and abroad, but recorded creditable performances of Bach and Handel, albeit on a larger scale than might be done nowadays.

Oratorio was common to all the singers. But a glance over their other roles reveals some remarkably things. There is quite a prevalence of Wagner. Amongst the women Eva Turner, Lilian Stiles-Allen, Muriel Brunskill, Astra Desmond and Mary Jarred all sang major Wagner roles along with other items from the dramatic soprano or mezzo-soprano repertoire. Even Isobel Baillie, who is reckoned to have a more lyric voice, essayed a single performance of a single act of Tristan.

Amongst the men, Heddle Nash sang David in Die Meistersinger, but that is hardly a heavy role. For the rest, Walter Widdop, Parry Jones, Harold Williams, Roy Henderson and Norman Allin all sang significant Wagner roles.

So think about this, casting Serenade to Music from a group of 40 year old contemporary singers, 10 of whom had significant experience of major Wagner roles including 2 Brunnhildes, a Wotan and a Siegfried. Makes you think doesn’t it, because voices have changed so much that nowadays you’d get more power but less flexibility. And, of course, more wobble.

The 1938 singers do use vibrato, and one of the men has a positively invasive vibrato which is perfectly clear whenever he is singing, even in ensemble. But none of them has the sort of wide amplitude vibrato which is almost a wobble which happens to many dramatic singers. In crude terms we’ve replaced the 1930’s narrow focussed voice with a wide amplitude one.

Of course, this is just a crude, broad brush summary. But one which, I think illuminates the changes in voice types which has happened in the UK since the 1st War; the 1938 singers were by and large post 1st War trained.

The original cast of Serenade to Music along with their age at the time of the first performance and a selection of their heavier roles.

Sopranos:
Isobel Baillie (43)
Mendelssohn:Elijah, Elgar:Oratorios, Gounod:Faust, Beethoven: 9th Symphony, 1 Act of Tristan with Walter Widdop

Lilian Stiles-Allen (42)
Brunnhilde (and other dramatic sop roles), Verdi:Requiem, Schoenberg:Gurrelieder, Mahler:8th Symphony, Beethoven: 9th Symphony

Elsie Suddaby (45)
Lyric soprano, lightest of the 4

Eva Turner (46)
Turandot, Aida, Santuzza, Freia, Sieglinde, Brunnhilde, Tosca

Contraltos:
Muriel Brunskill (39)
Beethoven: 9th Symphony, Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Elgar:Oratorios, Gounod:Faust, Kundry (Parsifal), Mahler 8th Symphony

Astra Desmond (45)
Elgar Oratorios, Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex, Delilah, Fricka, Carmen, Ortrud

Mary Jarred (39)
Erda, Fricka, Elgar, Mendelssohn: Elijah, Marget (Wozzeck), Nurse (Frau Ohne Schatten)

Margaret Balfour
Elgar, Beethoven: 9th Symphony

Tenors:
Heddle Nash (44)
David (Meistersinger), Duke (Rigoletto), Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Elgar: Oratorios

Frank Titterton (45)
Oratorio

Walter Widdop (46)
Elgar: Oratorios, Radames, Siegmund, Siegfried, Tristan, Lohengrin

Parry Jones (47)
Mendelssohn: Elijah, Berg: Wozzeck, Schoenberg: Gurrelieder, Busoni: Doctor Faustus, Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Wagner: Tannhauser (title role), Stravinsky: Les Noces

Baritones:
Harold Williams (45)
Wolfram (Tannhauser), Iago (Otello), Canio (Pagliacci)

Roy Henderson (39)
Wagner roles(Donner, Kothner, Herald:Lohengrin), Mendelsohn: Elijah, Stravinsky: Les Noces, Elgar Oratorios

Basses:
Robert Easton (40)

Norman Allin (54)
Baron Ochs, Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Hagen (Gotterdammerung), Mozart: Nozze de Figaro, Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Wotan, King Mark, Osmin

Seat Games

When I was doing the on-line booking for our Christmas trip to the Playhouse to see La Cage au Folles, I had trouble getting the seats I wanted, because the on-line booking would not let me leave a single seat on its own. Carrie Dunn's article in The Guardian explains all.

Recent CD Review

My review of a disc of favourite operatic arias from Bulgarian soprano Vania Vatralova-Stankov is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD review

My review of the Barbara Hendricks re-issue of Orchestral Songs is here, on MusicWeb International.
A fascinating portrait of a talented and well-loved artist ...

Recent CD Review

My review of Concerto Italiano's disc of masses by Pergolesi and Alessandro Scarlatti is here.
Charming and inventive … vibrant and involving ...

Recent CD Review

My review of Bruckner's E minor mass and Rheinberger's Requiem from KammerChor Saarbrücken is here, on MusicWeb International.

Much to commend on this disc ...

The compleat Handel

As part of the Handel centenary celebrations, Radio 3 is planning to broadcast all 42 of his operas. They span a remarkable 40 year period of his career and the vast majority were written for London. Yet the remain very little known. Most ordinary opera goers have heard only a tiny handful. A Handel freak like myself has heard less than half of them in 30 years of opera going. if you're interested the ones I've seen are:- Agrippina, Alcina, Ariodante, Flavio, Lotario, Giulio Cesare, Giustino, Radamisto, Rinaldo, Rodelinda, Orlando, Partenope, Poro, Serse, Siroe, Scipione, Tamerlano, Teseo, Tolomeo.

One problem with the operas is that to the uninitiated they can all sound the same. This seems to apply to Emma Pomfret whom the Guardian persuaded to listen to all 42 operas and write about it in an article in the Guardian which would almost be enough to put you off listening to Handel again.

Of course, to the uninitiated everything can sound the same. If you don't like Puccini, or are resistant to his charms, then inevitably all his music sounds alike. Handel, on stage, suffers also from problems with the way it is produced and poor dramaturgy is something which I've come across repeatedly on stage. For Handel to work you've got to understand the structure of opera seria and the arias. A good producer can help a newcomer appreciate Handel's stylised world, a poor producer can make the operas sound pointless. But when listening, you've got to do the work yourself. Throughout his career Handel played with form. The earlier London operas are a bit hide-bound by the requirements of the opera company's noble sponsors who seemed to expect Serious Opera. Later in his career Handel was able to be more flexible and to create a dramatic point by playing with our expectations, particularly in the moments where he fails to deliver the da capo just when we think it is coming. To appreciate this though, you've got to follow what is going on.

So listening to the Complete Handel will require work, but it will be rewarding. I'm not going to be able to hear it live, the BBC are broadcasting it in the Afternoons. But I will definitely be using their Listen Again activity.

Recent CD review

My review of the Handel boxed set from the Academy of Ancient Music, containing Handel's Opus 3 and Opus 6 Concerti Grossi, plus the Opus 4 Organ Concerti, is here, on Music and Vision.
'... the playing here is some of the most incisive that I have heard ...'

The King's Consort New Year's Eve concert

To the Wigmore Hall on New Year's Eve for the King's Consort's concert under their current director, Matthew Halls. It was an all Bach evening and, given the smallness of the Wigmore Hall platform, everything was performed in small scale chamber versions. There were 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 double bass and 3 oboe players (the third doubling oboes da caccia and d'amore), plus Halls himself on harpsichord.

The opened with a conjectural early version of the 4th Suite, scored for just strings and oboes (no trumpets etc). The 3 oboes sounded fabulous together but, by some quirk of the acoustic, tended to rather dominate the ensemble. Granted, we were sitting at the very back of the balcony, so perhaps balance was better elsewhere. The ensemble gave a fabulously crisp and lively account of the piece.

This was followed by Cantata BWV 58 Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, composed for the first Sunday of the New Year. It is not a jolly piece, but a dialogue between Soprano (Lucy Crowe) and Bass (Andrew Foster-Williams). Both Crow and Foster-Williams gave brilliant performances; Foster-Williams had been announced as being ill but you couldn't tell from his wonderfully resonant account of the bass solos.

Part 1 ended with the Quodlibet BWV 524, a bizarre pot-pourri of texts and tunes written for a family wedding and full of jokes and references which we can no longer understand. The 4 singers were Crowe, Robin Blaze, Charles Daniel and Foster-Williams. They had a great time, as did the ensemble; they almost convinced us that they were performing a real piece of music, and gave us a rare glimpse of unbuttoned, secular Bach.

Part 2 opened with the harpichord concerto in A, BWV 1055. Here we discovered another balance problem. Even though the harpsichord was moved and its cover put up, the balance between keyboard and strings was not idea. The keyboard just did not dominate in the way we nowadays expect. In solo passages with string accompaniment, the strings were just too dominant. Perhaps Halls speeds did not really leave time for the melodic material to register, or perhaps we need to learn new ways of listening to this material.

A further cantata followed, another dialogue one for Soprano (Crowe) and Bass (Foster-Williams), Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57. This was another dialogue cantata, between Christ and the Soul, written for Boxing Day 1725. Again Crowe and Foster-Williams gave superb performances, both having some sublime (and some virtuosic) moments.

Finally we were treated to the motet Lobet den Herren, sung by just the 4 singers (Crowe, Blaze, Daniels, Foster-Williams) accompanied by the ensemble. Bach playing and singing at its finest and most incisive

La Cage aux Folles

On Monday we went to see La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre. Terry Johnson's production originated at the Menier Chocolate Factory, but most critics seemed to think that it had benefited from being moved to the bigger theatre, not that the Playhouse is huge.

I had never seen the musical live, but was familiar with the previous West End production where it was produced at the Palladium in 1986. This was a highly glamorous creation and I had always felt that this style was unsuitable for the musical, which could benefit from a slightly grittier edge.

The Menier production, being essentially small scale, has followed this line. The nightclub is a rather dowdy place and the dancers, though technically superb, definitely carry with them a whiff of drag troupes like Bloolips.

The night we went, everyone was ill, so that both Georges and Albin were played by covers and Robert Maskell, playing Albin, was announced as being ill. In fact Maskell was superb and the only sign of illness was that his voice sounded a little tired by the end.

Maskell's Albin was, of necessity, camp but not grotesquely so and Maskell generated an enormous amount of sympathy for the character. His delivery of I am what I am at the close of Act 1 was definitely no torch song and profoundly moving. Albin was presented as a drag entertainer like the old style drag artists such as the Trollettes. Maskell's Albin was javascript:void(0)certainly no Danny La Rue, but a more believable rather rumpled figure.

The musical has the profound virtue of putting two middle aged men at the centre of the show, and this production did not try to over glamorise them. Instead their relationship was rendered believable, touching and ultimately very moving.

The chorus, some 8 strong, were wonderful. All men, they danced, sang and managed to look funny, sexy and threatening.

We went to the show expecting a bit of frilly Christmas entertainment but found the show was much more than this. Highly recommended.

Christmas Music

We spent Christmas in Canterbury and managed to attend a couple of services at the Cathedral. The cathedral choir does amazing work at this period, in the 25 hours from 3pm on Dec 24th to 4pm on Christmas day they sang a carol service, evensong, matins, sung eucharist and finally evensong again. An amazing tally.

For Christmas eve Evensong they did the Lloyd Responses (second set), the Nunc Dimittis from Wood in B flat and Praetorius's Omnis mundus jucundetur. The Magnificat was sung plainchant, preceded and followed by the Antiphon O Virgo virginum, the previous 10 days having been devoted to all the great O anthems. Wood in B flat was unfamiliar to me but proved to be sung in Latin and richly romantic.

On Christmas day we were treated to a crisp performance of Poulenc's Hodie Christus natus est, a wonderful account of RVW's Te Deum and Walton's Jubilate. This latter was striking and also unknown to me. The anthem was Britten's Sycamore Tree. All were given in strong performances which made due allowance for the cathedral's acoustic and formed a moving start to Christmas day.

We did not wait for Sung Eucharist (and hence missed the Archbishop's sermon). The setting for the service was Mozart's Spaurmesse.

La Chapelle du Roi at St. Johns Smith Square

On Saturday Chapelle du Roi, conductor Alistair Dixon, gave their programme The Marriage of England and Spain as part of the St. Johns Smith Square Christmas Festival. The centre-piece of the programme was the pair of motets by Philippe de Monte and William Byrd. De Monte set 4 verses from Psalm 137 (By the Rivers of Babylon) and sent the motet to Byrd. It was de Monte's way of commiserating with the suppression of Catholics in England. Byrd responded with his motet Quomodo cantabimus which set other verses from the same psalm. A wonderfully powerful pairing.

On the English side we also got Sheppard's lovely respond, Reges Tharsis and Tallis's Beati immaculati. On the Spanish side there was Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium, Guerrero's Alma Redemptoris and O Domine Jesu. The concert finished with Victoria's lovely 8-part Alam redemptoris mater.

The choir numbered only 8 singers, but managed to make a lovely rich sound, especially in the Spanish pieces.

But of course, there was one other item in the programme. My own Puer natus est nobis, the motet for the 3rd Mass on Christmas Day from Tempus per Annum. The work's style fitted in well with the programme (which also included medieval carols), and showed that the motets from the collection work beautifully when sung by singers used to polyphony and plainchant. Dixon's speeds in my motet were not what I had quite envisaged, but he managed to find something hauntingly beautiful in the piece.

Review of Hansel and Gretel

If it's Christmas it must be Hansel and Gretel, except that David Pountney's ENO production seems to have fallen out of use and Covent Garden, amazingly, have not performed the work since before the war. That has now changed and they have a new production directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. It has been double cast but we saw the first cast on Thursday (18th December).

Set Designer Christian Fenouillat has provided a neat single set. Basically a sloping sided box, so that the rear of the stage is a square raised above floor level. For act 1 the front space is taken by Hansel (Angelika Kirchschlager) and Gretel's (Diana Damrau) bedroom; we never see the kitchen where this act of the opera usually takes place. Then for act 2 this disappears and we learn that the box is covered with images of the wood. The rear 'wall' is in fact used to display a variety of effects, initially an non-threatening image of the wood which gradually changes to a threatening one. Then the Sandman (Pumeza Matshikiza) appears, using the raised level of the rear opening to make her body appear smaller than it is. Finally, the angels appear from the same opening, creating a fantasy fireside along with Mother (Elizabeth Connell) and Father (Thomas Allen).

Act 3 opens with the Dew Fairy (Anita Watson) appearing from the rear along with her cleaning trolley and she proceeds to clean up after the shenanigans at the end of Act 2. When the Witch's hut appears it is a small scale, edible cake in the shape of the hut. We glimpse the witch (Anja Silja) who, when not seen by the children, has exposed (false) breasts like a fertility image.

When Silja does appear she is the embodiment of a frightening old woman, albeit a slightly glamorous one. When the children try to flee the rear of the stage changes and their exit is cut of with a huge deep freeze containing the suspended bodies of dead children. Then the forest turns into the witch's kitchen, where she cooks the bodies of young children into gingerbread. The result is freaky rather than scary but the transformation is eminently theatrical.

Damrau and Kirschlager formed a wonderful team as the two kids and their hi-jinks seemed to make more sense in the context of them lazing in their bedroom. Connell and Allen also managed to develop a credible relationship in what is quite a short time. Once in the wood, Damrau and Kirschlager continued to entrance and develop distinctly separate personalities.

As the witch, Silja was scary without ever being hackneyed and her scream and laugh were wonderful. She is still a wonderful singing actor, but her voice now how so much vibrato that you are uncertain what note she is singing. This did matter, but given the strength of her characterisation, this mattered less than it might have.

The children from Tiffin were a little disappointing, but it seemed that Colin Davis did not allow them very much leeway both in terms of the volume of the orchestra and the amount of stage business they had been given.

Davis and the orchestra gave a lovingly rich account of the score. This is very much an orchestrally driven account of the piece. Davis's speeds were on the moderate side but it never felt slow, simply a gently rich interpretation.

The production had a number of quirky points and was most enjoyable. It does not say as much as Pountney did, but Leiser and Caurier have certainly provided a very revivable account of the opera.

Gleanings from this month's Opera Magazine

In the interview with Jonas Kaufman he is described as one of the world's leading lyric tenors, which seems strange for a man who has Florestan and Aeneas (Les Troyens) in his repertoire. It is interesting that Hugh Canning suggests that Wunderlich is a sing whose career Kaufman's resembles, so certainly a space to watch. And he's doing Don Carlos at Covent Garden next year; if only it was in French life would be complete!

A survey of lesser known tenors makes the interesting point that in the era of the 78, most singers with a certain degree of celebrity could be asked to make a few records. But nowadays this becomes increasingly unlikely and there are all sorts of people who have fallen through the cracks.

In Montpelier they have been digging up hidden gems again. First off Pizzetti's Fedra. Pizzetti is definitely a name rare on the London operatic stage; surely we ought to get a fresh look at his operatic version of Murder in the Cathedral?

The second Montpelier opera was La Esmeralda by Louise Bertin. Until Montpelier revived it the opera had last been performed in 1836, but Liszt had prepared the vocal score and Berlioz took the rehearsals. Sounds like another one for the lists of possibles.

Still in the neglected opera corner, over in Karlsruhe they have been trying out Alfanos' Cyrano de Bergerac.

In Dublin, Balfe's Falstaff has received a rare outing (and there is going to be a recording). If we can get decent new editions of the operas, let us hope that this is a promise of more Balfe operas to come. Perhaps singing them in Italian might get over the slight neo-G&S aura which hangs over his work.

And in Macerata they've presented Marco Tutino's opera The Servant based on the Robin Maugham short story (and Joseph Losey film). Sounds the sort of thing it would be interesting to present in the UK.

Drottningholm revived FLorian Gassman's 1769 opera buffa Opera Seria, which turns out to have a libretto by Calzabigi, librettist of Gluck's Reform operas.

And in Martina Franca they heard Mercadante's final opera, Pelagio. Mercadante's music has been heard at Wexford, but even they do not appear to have managed to conjure the composer out of Verdi's shadow, and performances of his operas are still rare.

In Munich they've just presented Robert Carsen's new production of Ariadne auf Naxos, not a rareity I grant you, but it was performed in the small(ish) but perfectly formed PrinzRegenten Theater, which has an auditorium shaped like Bayreuth's. Still in Munich, Agnes Baltsa appeared as Klytemnestra in Elektra. Baltsa is a singer who seemed something of a fixture at Covent Garden for a period before disappearing with remarkable rapidity.

Weimar's Ring has reached it's conclusion, but seems to provide no element of final redemption, which seems to negate Wagner's point. But trying to judge an opera performance based on what someone has written is always tricky, even though I end up doing it rather a lot. Over in Lisbon, Susan Bullock has been doing her duty as Brunnhilde in Graham Vick's Siegfried. We, of course, have to wait a few years yet to hear her in the role.

In the UK age is catching up on me and I marvel that ENO's Jonathan Miller Barber of Seville is currently 21 year's old and WNO's Giles Havergal Barber is 22 years old. In the former John Tessier sounds as if he was terrific, but its too much to hope that he got his final aria (the one Rossini re-used in La Cenerentola).

Opera North's Tosca starred Takesha Meshe Kizart who, it turns out, is the great-niece of Blues legend Muddy Waters.

Finally, in We hear that... It seems that Richard Bonynge is conducting Roberto Devereux at Holland Park next year. Rosemary Joshua is doing Despina at Covent Garden in 2011, I'd like to say that I wish it was something more exciting, but that would let me down by showing how low Cosi comes in my reckoning.

Recent book review

My review of Thomas E. Muir's Roman Catholic Church Music in England, 1791 - 1914: A Handmaid of the Liturgy is here, on MusicWeb International.

Essential reading for anyone with interest in music in the RC Church in England ...

Gaudete!

If you are not doing anything this evening and are in London, then my motet Gaudete is being performed at Evensong at All Saints Church, Margaret Street, W1, the choir of All Saints being conducted by Paul Brough

Recent CD Review

My review of Red Byrd's Elizabethan Christmas Album is here, on MusicWeb International.
Shows its age but a charming Christmas present ...

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Lully's Armide on Naxos is here.
A creditable and approachable Armide ...
And my review of Puccini's Il Tabarro with Tito Gobbi is here. Both reviews on MusicWeb International.
For dramatic truth this can hardly be bettered ...

Review of "Parisina d'Este"

My review of Opera Rara's performance of Donizetti's Parisina d'Este is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Thomas Linley's The Song of Moses on Hyperion Helios, is here.
Music which deserves to be better known ...

And my review of Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day from I Barocchisti is here. Both reviews are on Music and Vision.
Crisp and lively but does not quite live up to opening promise ...

Review of Sancta Civitas

My review of the Bach choir's recent London concert, performing RVW's Sancta Civitas and Howells's Sir Patrick Spens is here, on Music and Vision.

Review of Rusalka

My review of ETO's final performance of Rusalka at the Cambridge Arts Theatre is here, on Music and Vision.

Review of Riders to the Sea

The short run of performances of Riders to the Sea at the London Coliseum were intended to be conducted by Richard Hickox. In the event they were performed as a memorial, conducted by Edward Gardner.

ENO and director Fiona Shaw, chose to perform opera alone with a short prologue, rather than trying to fit its austere perfection into a triple bill - something few opera companies have done successfully. ENO obviously miscalculated the demand for the opera as the run had to be extended by adding a further performance later on Friday evening. So that after we had attended the 7.15pm performance on Friday 28th November, the performers would have to do everything again at 9.30pm.

Shaw and her designers Dorothy Cross and Tom Pye used designs evoking the Aran Isles on the West Coast of Ireland. For the prologue Susan Gritton gave a powerful and moving performance in Finnish, Sibelius's Luonnotar, a setting of part of the Kalevala about the birth of the world. Luonnotar is a spirit of the air who drifts through the waves and Gritton had as her back drop evocative vidoes from Dorothy Cross. At the end of the piece we had a short atmospheric interlude from John Woolrich whilst 6 men helped the heavily pregnant Luonnotar out of her boat. These men then helped set up Maurya's house. In fact there was no house, just an austere rocky setting with the house invisible but assumed to be there, indicated by key props like a kettle and a chair.

The men occupied the house until the women, Nora (Claire Booth) and Cathleen (Kate Valentine) erupted into it. We began to understand that these were the ghost of Maurya's already dead sons and husband. The ghost of the recently dead Michael haunted the stage, watching much of the action.

RVW set the text of Synge's play almost complete and eschewed any sort of aria, instead providing the singers with an expressive arioso which reflected the speech rhythms of Synge's Irish inflected English. Shaw got the sort of naturalistic acting from the singers which made sense of this, for most of the opera. Booth and Valentine were strong in the important roles of the daughters. And Leigh Melrose made as much as he could of the short role of Bartley, the sole surviving son whose death triggers the final catharsis.

Patricia Bardon was almost unrecognisable as Maurya, the old woman who is mother to the family. Bardon was severe, but not overly grim and fierce as Maurya which made her more sympathetic than some interpreters.

Though Shaw paced the whole opera well, I felt that from Maurya's 'I seen the fearfullest vision', when she relates seeing the ghosts of her two most recently dead sons, the acting style could have become less naturalistic. The setting did so, as the ghosts of the dead husband and sons came on along with their now lost boats. But Bardon, Valentine and Booth were firmly entrenched in a naturalistic acting style. And I wanted something a little more transcendent, reflecting RVW's ending. I had the feeling that though Shaw was responsive to RVW's music, for her ending she was staging the words more than the music. RVW's music with the great scena at the end for Maurya, 'They're all gone now' helps transcend the bleakness of the action into something wonderful.

Luckily, Patricia Bardon's performance was everything that we could hope for. Here account of the ending was beautifully musical and profoundly moving.

I do hope that this production does not disappear, it proved to be a strong account of RVW's operatic masterpiece and deserves to be seen more.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Joyce di Donato's Handel recital is here.
An absorbing and brilliant recital ...

And my review of Kathleen Ferrier singing Bach and Handel is here. Both reviews on Music and Vision.
Profoundly moving performances, strong musicality and emotional truth ...

There's something about Mary

The Armonico Consort are a talented vocal ensemble, based in Warwick, whose range extends from 16th century polyphony to staged performances of Rossini's Barber of Seville. They made a rare London appearance on Tuesday (25th November) as part of the Choral at Cadogan series at the Cadogan Hall.

Entitled There's Something About Mary, the concert concentrated on polyphony written during the short reign of Mary Tudor, when elaborate Latinate music enjoyed a brief renaissance in England. The centre piece of the programme was Tallis's wonderful Missa Puer Natus est Nobis, with the choir performing all 3 surviving movements (Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei) interspersed with contemporary organ music by Tallis, John Bull, Antonio de Caezon and Francisco Correa de Arauxo, and polyphony from Guerrero, Lobo and Sheppard.

Tallis's mass was written for 7 part choir (AATTBaBB) but was performed transposed up by a 16 voiced ensemble which included 6 sopranos, 3 altos, 3 tenors and 4 basses. I am entirely unclear quite how the parts were allocated but the general effect seemed to be a little weak on the inner parts. The choir made a fine rich sound, but it was most definitely soprano and bass led.

Cadogan Hall is a tricky place in which to sing polyphony and the group seem to take a little time to get used to it. The acoustic is rather dry for choral music and lacks the sort of resonance which adds lustre to this music. At first, the start of each movement was a little tentative but in the end they sang with a rich sound.

In fact the piece that worked the best was Guerroro's lovely Ave virgo sanctissima - a 5 part piece with 2 soprano parts. The resulting textures were rich and luscious, with better internal balance than in the Tallis. This is not a group where individual voices are massaged into uniformity, the singers all displayed lovely voices which blended whilst retaining their individuality.

The organ interludes were performed by Charles Matthews on a little chamber organ whose tones were delightful, but sounded a trifle quiet in the Caodgan Hall.

Though they performed Lobo's Versa est in luctum, they performed Vittoria's Versa from the Requiem in memory of Richard Hickox. The closing work from the printed programme was John Sheppard's Libera nos with its astonishing dissonances, you never wanted it to end.

ETO Handel celebration

English Touring Opera have announced the dates for their ambitious Handel Celebration in Autumn 2009, part of the celebration's for the company's 30th birthday. They are reviving their productions of Tolomeo, Alcina, Ariodante and Teseo, and adding a new production of Flavio. The tour opens on 15th October 2009 at the Britten Theatre and then moves on to Exeter, Malvern, Buxton and Cambridge. It will come as a great relief to all ETO's Handel opera lovers that the London season is at the Britten Theatre rather than the Hackney Empire. Though the Britten Theatre is smaller, it has the advantage of better transport infrastructure; getting home to south London from Hackney after a 3 hour Handel opera is no fun at all, lovely though the Hackney Empire is as a theatre.

Their spring 2009 tour includes Mozart's Magic Flute and Janacek's Katya Kabanova, plus concert performances of Bellini's Norma.

Richard Hickox (1948 - 2008)

I first saw Richard Hickox conduct in Manchester in the mid 1970's (probably 1974). He was the conductor in the Royal Northern College of Music's production of Aida. I don't recall that any of the production's singers went on to be famous but it was conducted by Hickox who would have been in his late 20's. Looking back on it, it was an incredible achievement for a young conductor. [Having done a little research it turns out that John Rawnsley was, I think, the Amonasro in that production]

He came back into my purview in the 1980's when I came to live in London. Initially I sang with the London Philharmonic Choir and Hickox was known because he conducted the LSO Chorus. He used to conduct large scale choral works with them on Sunday evenings at LSO concerts. My main feelings about his conducting was that he was more than competent but rather uninteresting; the most interesting thing was his repertoire.

Hickox remained on the radar and cropped up periodically. He did one or two very good things at the Spitalfields Festival, especially the 1985 Handel Alcina with Arleen Auger (which was subsequently recorded). Out of this, there were attempts to form an opera company. They subsequently did Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea, again with Auger and Della Jones, but this was not so successful. I also remember an interesting take on Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Hickox's recordings usually came to my attention because of their interesting repertoire, though I must confess that I don't have that many on my shelves. In areas of interest such as RVW, I tended to prefer other conductors. But somewhere along the way he grew into a conductor of stature, giving performances of interest. I am not quite sure when this happened. The Barbican performance of RVW's Pilgrim's Progress was very notable (it was subsequently recorded) but I felt that the performance this summer at Sadler's Wells had far greater stature, no matter what you thought about the relative merits of Gerald Finley and Roderick Williams as Pilgrim. But where I was most impressed was with the sequence of RVW symphonies that Hickox did with the Philharmonia. These were all revelations and I now deeply regret that we could not make the first in the series which included the Sea Symphony.

Some conductors only really develop into interesting personalities in old age; Mackerras is a prime example. I began to feel that this was what was happening to Hickox and that he had the most interesting 20 years of his career ahead of him. I never had any really idea of his age, except to know that he must have been around 5 years older than me (in fact 8). He never seemed to age and even in his 40's looked like the same little boy of 20 years earlier. Unfortunately we'll never know what sort of conductor he would have developed into, but at least we have his astounding catalogue of recordings to listen to.

Review of Bellini's 'I Capuletti e i Montecchi'

Orpha Phelan's production of Bellini's I Capuletti e i Montecchi for Opera North[Nottingham Theatre Royal, 22nd November] opened with a drop, curtain apparently of metal, inscribed with a huge target and pockmarked with bullet holes. During the overture, the chorus, in contemporary costume, assembled slowly and passed through a secret door in the drop curtain.

When the overture finished and the drop curtain rose we were in a space. The opera's setting remained stylishly unspecific, almost abstract. For Act 1 the playing area was a triangle of parquet flooring, surrounded by dark. For the first scene a chandelier was added.

It was apparent that this was to be a contemporary version of the opera. Capellio (Nikolay Didenko) was some sort of gang leader, perhaps Mafia, perhaps Irish. Didenko had the physique for the role but I felt that Opera North could have found a more subtle singer closer to home. His supporters, both male and female, were all be-suited thuggish types. Lorenzo (Henry Waddington) was the decent doctor, ministering to Capellio's clan.

Edgaras Montvidas as Tebaldo stood out in his leather overcoat; he stood out also because he is tall and slim, relatively rare for a tenor. Montvidas, a Lithuanian, was a Young Artist at Covent Garden and is now at Frankfurt Opera. He is a Pollione rather than Nemorino and should easily encompass the Duke in Rigoletto. As Tebaldo he was, perhaps, a little more vigorous than was desirable, nudging the role closer to Verdi than was perhaps desirable. But he looked so good, sounded good and shaped the role so well that it hardly seemed to matter.

Sarah Connolly's Romeo, when he arrived, was dressed in a white linen suit. Women are tricky to dress in men's suits and, frankly, designer Leslie Travers attempt for Connolly wasn't flattering. As in her recent Octavian for ENO, Connolly looked a little too mature but sounded fabulous. She captured something of Romeo's impetuousness and youthful ardour.

For Giulietta's first scene a matching triangular glass and metal structure descended, to create a very striking stage image. Reflected in the glass could be seen vague images of Capellio's guards, guarding Giulietta. Marie Arnet's Giulietta was discovered lying on the floor. I gradually warmed to Arnet's Giulietta, but initially her voice seemed a little uncertain. In the upper register it's vibrato gave it a quavery feeling, rendering the voice fragile and uncertain. To a certain extend this could have been to give the character naivety and uncertainty. But fioriture in music of this period needs to be sung with a firmness of voice that Arnet seemed to lack. This was a shame as she beautifully conveyed Giuletta's fragility and her toughness. She was especially good in the scene where Giulietta refuses to flee with Romeo because of her family honour.

Just before Giulietta was due to be married to Tebaldo, Phelan turned the chorus into Giulietta's dream/nightmare - a Giulietta double was manhandled by her father's men and by Tebaldo. In some ways this was an apposite touch, but unfortunately Phelan's drama seemed to find more violence in the piece than was portrayed in Bellini's music. But for much of Act 1, the violence jarred with the music; the people described in Bellini's music are not as rough and uncouth as those that Phelan and her cast created. This was a shame, because much of the staging was thoughtful and effective. For the quartet, Phelan had the chorus act in tableaux, the soloists moving to interact with them as in a dream, then returning to their places at the front of the stage.

But in Act 2 something happened to Bellini's music and to Phelan's production. For much of Act 1 Bellini had raided earlier operas with the result that the piece is fluent but not always striking or moving. Act 2 he wrote from scratch in his new flexible style. Phelan's production similarly transformed itself. The act opened in the aftermath between the two sides. Travers's barely representational set from Act 1 had been transformed into a stunning abstract frozen explosion. Violence behind her, Phelan's production flowed effortlessly and beautifully. Her staging of the final scene was simple and moving, supporting strong performances from the principals.

Marie Arnet's Giulietta will never be my favourite; one or two fluffed notes indicated that she might not have been on the best form. But her Giulietta was touching and moving, fragile and tough. Her singing was nicely phrased and, whilst I found her vocal quality a little too fluttery, she displayed a good feel for Bellini's touching music.

She was ably complemented by Sarah Connolly's stunning Romeo. Connolly combined Romeo's youthful posturing and impetuousness with a seriousness of purpose (both dramatic and musical) with a lovely feeling for Bellini's musical line. The feeling for line which she brings to Handel, helped transform her shaping of Bellini's romantic arioso into something special. How about a Chandos Opera in English recording of this opera.

Review of "Boris Godunov"

When I first saw Boris Godunov in the original version (at Munich's Staatsoper in the '90s) it seemed like abbreviated highlights of the full opera. But then I was used to the very full version done at ENO (with John Tomlinson as a memorable Boris) and at Covent Garden (in the Tarkovsky production, originally with Robert Lloyd).

Both of these, it should be remembered, used David Lloyd Jones's edition and performed everything Mussorgsky wrote including the St. Basil's Cathedral scene from version 1 which did not make it into version 2. In Mussorgsky's 2nd version, the Simpleton sings only in the final Kromy forest scene, whereas in the versions I am talking about he appears twice, both outside St. Basil's Cathedral and in the final scene.

Thus performed, the opera is a long rambling piece, where the chorus features as the protagonist. The original version is more concentrated and Boris emerges more as the lead character. Frankly this shorter version came as something of a relief on a busy weekday evening, when the longer, more leisurely version could have been a bit of a trial.

We saw the new ENO production on Wed. 19th November. Tim Albery's production, in a setting by Tobias Hoheisel, used a fixed set, a wooden barn-like structure with an uneven floor and great doors which could open to disclose events happening behind. The result was apposite for the rougher scenes but less so for those in Boris's apartments.

The feeling was that both set and version of the opera were chosen for reasons of economy; this seemed to be confirmed in scene 3 when the inn consisted of simply a mobile drinks cart and a couple of stools. No Matter. What was important was the performance.

The opening scene sounded as glorious as ever, though the decision to place some percussion in the balcony meant that those of us in the upper reaches of the theatre (we were in the front Upper Circle) got a rather distorted aural experience. The sounds of a struck metal plate dominated. Peter Rose's Boris sounded mellifluous and thoughtful with beautifully shaped melodic lines, meditative rather than deeply troubled.

Brindley Sherratt's Pimen was truly impressive, with Gregory Turay providing able support. Such was Turay's appeal that I rather regretted not having the Polish act so I could hear more of him. Sometimes Pimen comes over as a boring old fart (the Gurnemanz of Russian opera) but not here where Sherratt was vivid and enlivening.

By contrast the Inn Scene was a bit subdued. Yvonne Howard did her best as the hostess but Albery seemed to take the humour rather seriously and little of the rumbustiousness of other productions came through. I have vivid memories of Haakon Hagegaard proving himself a fine comedian at the Royal Opera House.

Boris's scene with his children is shorter in this version though Sophie Bevan and Anna Grevelius proved very apt as the children. But here the limitations of Rose's Boris came through as he only seemed mildly troubled rather than haunted. But I hoped things would improve.

John Graham Hall was an impressive Shuisky, well in control, firm of voice and deeply untrustworthy. Hall's voice was strong and robust, not quite suggesting the oiliness which Robert Tear brought vocally to the role.

By the time of the scene outside St. Basil's Cathedral, we were resigned to the fact that the setting would not make any attempt to evoke the cathedral. The chorus continued to impress and Robert Murray stood out as a very pitiful (in the best sense) Simpleton.

By the closing council chamber scene it was apparent that Rose's Boris was one of the most beautifully sung accounts of the role that I have ever heard. Each phrase was carefully shaped. The only person to come close was Robert Lloyd when he first sang the role, but Lloyd's performance changed over the years as his delivery got closer to Chaliapin's bark.

Because Rose's delivery was totally unlike Chaliapin's bark does not mean it was wrong. In most ways it was a joy to hear the role so gloriously sung. Unfortunately Rose seemed unable to imbue his voice with the troubles that Boris feels. Rose's Boris never seemed more than mildly perturbed and in the final scene, never seemed ill. Boris should feel as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, his eyes are haunted from the first moment we see him. But Rose did not achieve this. Perhaps he needs to sacrifice some of the perfection of his performance.

Rose's Boris was a magnificent achievement, but very much a work in progress. As a result the ENO chorus emerged as one of the principal protagonists of the opera. Which made it regrettable that we lacked the Kromy Forest scene.

It is ironic that the very virtues of this production (strong supporting roles,strong chorus) and the weakness of the central character made me long for the longer version of the opera.

Edward Gardner and the orchestra played the score with a fine sweep. I hope that ENO allow Albery, Rose and Gardner to revisit this work and strengthen it, turning a promising performance into a powerful.

Review of Pelleas and Melisande

My review of Independent Opera's Pelleas et Melisande is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Review

My review of Naxos's 3rd volume of Vivaldi's sacred music is here, on MusicWeb International.
Mallon’s soloists are capable but they don’t quite thrill me ...

Gaudete!

My motet Gaudete in Domino semper, from Tempus per Annum will receive its first liturgical performance on Sunday 14th December 2008 at 6.00pm at the church of All Saints', Margaret Street, London. Where the choir of All Saints, conductor Paul Brough, will be performing it at Evensong.

The motet sets the text of the Latin Introit for the 3rd Sunday in Advent (which is the day when the motet will be performed). The motet was recorded by the eight:fifteen vocal ensemble, conductor Paul Brough, as part of their Testament of Dr. Cranmer CD.

Recent CD Review

My review of the Brook Street Band's disc of Handel's English Cantatas is here, on MusicWeb International.
A most welcome addition ...

An eagle eyed reader has spotted an inaccuracy in my Wigmore Hall season preview. I referred to a recital in January by Jonas Kaufmann, but when you check the site there isn't one. In fact, going back to their original season brochure, Kaufmann's recital was announced for Jan 11 2009, but now seems to have been replaced by one from Patricia Rozario

Recent CD Review

My review of a live recording of Don Giovanni from the Met. is here, on Music Web International.
Historical curiosity only ...

1001 and counting

The previous post was my 1000th. Amazing!

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine

The interview is with Patricia Bardon, who is singing Maurya in the new ENO Riders to the Sea, something I'm looking forward to immensely. Evidently as a child she wanted to be Tina Turner or Aretha Franklin. She is someone who you associate with Handel, but evidently she waited 10 years before her first major Handel role. The interview was done before the ENO Partenope, but she talks about a previous production which was played for laughs and wonder's whether the work is a comedy. Quite. Interestingly she's performing it again in a production by Pierre Audi, now that won't be comedy! Apart from Handel I still remember her striking performance in Bizet's Djamileh.

The previous issue's article about musical criticism and current standards seems to have created quite a heated correspondence. It is an interesting point about what qualifies a critic to be a critic; I suppose my view would be that it takes someone who has ears to listen and who can write comprehensibly about what they've heard - something that is not always as easy as it sounds.

Some interesting comments about the initial critical reception of Donizetti's Parisina d'Este. Evidently the critics found it noisy and shouted, comments that today seem quite unbelievable. It makes you realise that earlier critical views are always so difficult to assess and to place in context.

Scottish Opera's 15 minutes operas are back next year. Maybe this time I'll get to hear some of them.

Evidently Opus Arte have recorded Jonathan Dove's Pinnochio, I can't wait.

Obits for Peter Glossop, a singer whom I never got to hear live alas, but I still treasure his recording of Verdi's Macbeth in concert with Rita Hunter, doing the original version.

I Masnadieri in Australia - evidently the critic Chorley, after hearing the opera in 1845 in London he described it as the worst opera Verdi ever wrote! Still in Australia, a new Orlando had a theme running through it, sheep! It was also so cut that it lasted under 3 hours.

Over in Austria they performed Karl V by Karl Krenek, as it is 12 tone its rather a different style to his Johnny spielt auf.

Over in Brazil, Ariadne auf Naxos was staged for the first time since the 1980's, with Zerbinetta and her ensemble as a rock group.

And in Paris they did the 4 Act Italian version of Don Carlo, is nothing sacred.

And in Berlin Il Turco in Italia appeared set in Fellini's film era, sound familiar. ENO did a similar thing some years ago, and it didn't work then.

Mozart's Idomeneo in the tiny Cuvillies Theatre in Munich. Hugh Canning raises the problem of doing Idamante as a tenor; having too many tenors in the cast. You wonder what Mozart might have made of the opera had he lived. Still it did have John Mark Ainsley as Idomeneo.

In Venice, Death in Venice made an appearance, 35 years after it was first performed there in 1973. Evidently this was a production which takes the erotic relationship between Aschenbach and Tadzio seriously.

At Fort Worth, Of Mice and Men opened in a new production, with the 89 year old Carlisle Floyd in attendance. They also performed Angels in America, Peter Eotvos's operatic version. The reviewer comments, quite rightly, the problems of trying to boil a 7 hour play down to an opera lasting less than 3 hours. You wonder why people try in the first place.

Is it me, or does the best bit of the new operatic version of David Cronenberg's The Fly seem to be the pictures of a naked Seth Brundle. And in San Francisco the imported production of Handel's Ariodante was so bad the review says it makes a good case for opera in concert! More cuts in the Santa Fe Radamisto, which ran for under 3 hours. Still the designs looked fab.

Finally, in We hear that...
Mary Plazas is doing Lucrezia Borgia in Buxton.
Covent Garden are doing a new production of Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki next year.
Nina Stemme is doing Isolde at Covent Garden in 2009-10, I hope they are doing a new production for her!

Schnittke Choir Concerto performance

On Saturday 15th November, London Concord Singers are performing Schnittke's Choir Concerto at the church of St. Alban the Martyr, Holborn, London. The concert begins at 7.30pm and also includes 6 movements from Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. If you are around, do come, you'll get to hear one of the choral masterworks of the 20th century and also hear yours truly singing, as I'm a member of the choir. The work divides the choir into 16 parts and at the end goes into 26 parts, so we'll be singing with a few extra singers than usual.

Interestingly both works in the concert date from times of stress in their respective composers lives. Tchaikovsky wrote the Liturgy around the time of his abortive marriage; a time which was very productive musically for him. Schnittke had a heart attack during the composition of the concerto and was pronounced clinically dead.

Premiere of Gabriel Jackson's Requiem

My review of the Vasari Singers concert, which included the premiere of Gabriel Jackson's Requiem, is here, on Music and Vision.

A few months ago I reviewed a CD of Finzi's music with James Gilchrist as the tenor soloist. Gilchrist's voice sounded alarmingly stressed at the top, so much so that I did wonder about his vocal health. But shortly afterwards we heard him live and he sounded his usual mellifluous self. Gilchrist was the soloist on Sunday on the Radio 3 programme about RVW's On Wenlock Edge. Again Gilchrist's voice sounded stressed. I can only put this down to a tendency for recording engineers to place the microphones too close, so that his voice does not have time to settle.

This is a problem which can occur most frequently with big voices. Many years ago Jane Eaglen, in interview, said that at that time she was happy with only one of her recordings, the Chandos Tosca. She explained how big voices were difficult to record and this was born out by her Chandos Aida and Turandot, where the Turandot was superb but the Aida gave her a significant beat in her voice.

We have recently acquired the new Halle Dream of Gerontius, here is its Bryn Terfel's voice which causes concern. Though he is admirably firm of tone and with superb diction, the recording captures an exceptional beat in the voice. I suspect that if you heard him live, this would not be a problem as the voice would have had time to settle in the distance between him and you in the concert hall. Obviously the decision taken on the recording was that immediacy was more important than avoiding the beat in Terfel's voice.

Perhaps it is me, perhaps I'm a little to allergic to excessive beat in voices. But I am becoming increasingly aware that our recorded experience can entirely fail to reflect the reality.

Gabriel Jackson Requiem

Tonight we are off to St. Martin in the Fields (now beautifully restored) to hear the Vasari Singers, conductor Jeremy Backhouse, perform Gabriel Jackson's new Requiem, a 30 minute unaccompanied setting of the Latin text interleaved with other poetry. I have sung in a number of Jackson's smaller pieces and was on the judging panel the year he won the Liturgical category of the British Composer Awards. I very much look forward to hearing one of his larger scale choral pieces.

St. Cecilia's Day

If you feel like celebrating St. Cecilia's Day this year then wander along to St. John's Smith Square, where La Nuova Musica are presenting a programme which includes Purcell's 1683 St. Cecilia's Day Ode Welcome all the Pleasures. Along side this they present the 1684 Ode by Purcell's teacher, John Blow, Begin the Song. Blow is currently still a little under appreciated I think. Not only did he teach Purcell, but they were friends and Blow replaced Purcell at Westminster Abbey on Purcell's sudden death. Blow's one act opera Venus and Adonis (written in 1685) was an important precursor to and influence on Dido and Aeneas

Also featured in La Nuova Musica's programme is Handel's Gloria and Laudate Pueri with the ever wonderful soprano of Lucy Crowe.

Recent CD Review

My review of the recital of songs by Argentinian composers Carlos Guastavino is here, on MusicWeb International.
A lovely recital ...

Les Arts Florissants at the Barbican

For their latest visit to the Barbican, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants gave us 3 acts from Rameau's comedie ballet Les Indes Galantes.

This was Rameau's 2nd major operatic work, coming just after the tragedie lyrique Hippolyte et Aricie. The new work was a vastly different style, lighter with more emphasis on dance and with a different plot for each act. One of the features of the genre was that each act was separate. Rameau expanded and revised the work over the years so that at its first showing there were fewer acts than now. So Christie's decision to present just 3 acts made perfect sense. Without dancers, sets or costumes, the work could never have quite the same impact. Though the women's dresses were all designed by Christian Lacroix, which added a strong element of style to the proceedings.

The young cast were a wide variety of nationalities with only Stephane Degout being a native French speaker. Though their diction was excellent, Degout's was noticeably more idiomatic than the rest. Ed Lyons started off sounding a little too English but by his 2nd appearance in the final act, he was far more convincing.

We were presented with the acts set in Turkey, Peru and America; each dealt with a love triangle in some way and love always triumphed. Though the large cast (6 singers) were spread across the 3 acts, the show was something of a showcase for Portugese bass Joao Fernandes who was the only singer to appear in all 3 acts.

Musically the evening was triumph with all the singers displaying a good feeling for Rameau's style. We also had some lovely voices and some fine musicality. Sometimes with shows by Les Arts Florissants you get the feeling that with the voices, style triumphs over substance and voice quality, but not here. I felt sorry not to hear more of Spanish tenor Juan Sancho who only appeared in the Peruvian act. Similarly mezzo Juliette Glastian impressed in the Turkish act; but Sony Yoncheva was able to display her winning personality and pert stage manner in both the Turkish and American acts.

The singers performed off the book, moved around and generally 'acted' their roles. No producer was credited. I felt that a slightly stronger hand was needed on the directorial side. Some singers, like Stephane Degout, rightly felt that less was more and he impressed with his stage performance. But Fernandes did rather over-do the dramatics some times and rather needed reining in; this was particularly true in the American act where Rameau's characterisation verges on cariacature; Fernandes came dangerously close to giving a Mr. Bean impression ('Mr. Bean goes to the Opera' perhaps?).

The chorus started out placed behind the orchestra but they too sang without scores and moved about, making entrances and exists. This was inevitably a little distracting, but did add to the general aura of it being a real dramatic event. The only miscalculation was in having them sing from the front of the stage, placed either side of the orchestra. Communication seemed less than perfect and there were occasional moments when the two wings of the chorus got a little out of synch.

Naturally, musician ship was perfect and in the best possible taste. This was a lovely evening of Rameau, beautifully performed and thoughtfully presented.

RVW Symphonies on the SouthBank

On Sunday the Philharmonia Orchestra, under Richard Hickox, did a 3-part programme at the Royal Festival Hall, performing 3 Vaughan Williams Symphonies. It was the penultimate offering in their RVW series this year, the final one is tomorrow (6th November). On Sunday we got the Tallis Fantasia and Symphony no. 9 in the first part, the 3 Shakespeare Songs sung by Philharmonia Voices and Symphony No. 6 in part 2 and then the concert concluded with Symphony No. 5. The subtitle of the concert was Vaughan Williams the Visionary.

By offering the Tallis Fantasia and the 9th Symphony, as in the BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at the Proms this year, we heard what was essentially the first and last of RVW. Hearing it in the improved Festival Hall was a treat, rather than the vast spaces of the Albert Hall. Whilst these spaces can be effective, having the Tallis Fantasia close up, especially with the luxurious string sound of the Philharmonia, was a real treat. In the 9th Symphony the saxophones seemed to be play with slightly less vibrato than their BBC colleagues, which was a great improvement. Hickox has developed into a fine RVW conductor and his account of the visionary 9th was engrossing.

When asked about the final movement of the 6th Symphony, RVW quoted Prospero 'We are such stuff as dreams are made of' so it seemed entirely appropriate to pre-fix the symphony with the Shakespeare songs, perfectly sung by Philharmonia Voices (interestingly with 3 counter-tenors and 1 mezzo-soprano on the alto line). The symphony itself was perhaps not quite as engrossing as No. 9, but still a fine performance. As usual with the final movement, I felt that everything could have been even quieter, though the orchestra showed fine control. Hickox's reading made the movement seem a little warmer than usual; more Prospero's dreams than a vision of the cold war about to engulf Europe.

Then finally the 5th symphony, always a moving piece with its echoes of The Pilgrims Progress. There were a couple of moments when I did wonder whether the players were getting a little tired (the concert had around 150 minutes of music in it). But as ever, the 5th Symphony with its glorious cor anglais solo worked its magic.

Review of Mathilde de Shabran

My review of Covent Garden's new production of Rossini's Mathilde de Shabran is here, on Music and Vision.