Independent Opera's production of Pelleas et Melisande, with Andrew Foster-Williams' powerful performance as Golaud, is on the short list for the Royal Philharmonic Society's awards. The list is here. The list also includes the ENO and the ROH's production of Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur.

The production of Pelleas et Melisandeis also going to make an appearance at the Buxton Festival next year, which is more good news.

Recent CD Review

My review of Red Priest's Priest on the Run is here, on MusicWeb International.

The suspicion of an adolescent desire to shock ...

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine

A clutch of obits for sadly young musicians. David-Alexandre Borloz, a Swiss baritone who we saw at Grange Park was only 32. Australian soprano Deborah Riedel was only 50. Phyllida Ritter, who I first knew of as the Covent Garden Friends Administrator, was 49. Richard Salter, a British baritone hardly known in this country, was 65.

In Argentina they revived an opera sacra (!) by Monsignor Licino Refice based on the life of St. Cecilia; it was premiered in Rome in 1934 with Claudia Muzio, no less, in the title role. In Mexico they've just premiered an opera by Jose Maria Vitier with a libretto by the writer Carlos Fuentes. The opera, Santa Anna, was part of Fuentes 80th birthday celebrations.

In her review of Handel's Orlando from Melbourne, the reviewer suggests that Handel's treatment of Orlando is a subtle and ironic form of humour - the incongruity of a great warrior worrying about affairs of the heart. Interesting, I'd need to think about that one, but it makes you realise that Handel's original audience would have come to the opera with an entirely different set of mental baggage to us.

And over in Dresden history of a different sort came up. Evidently Boris Godunov may not have killed the Tsarevich after all and the new production at the Semper Opera used this fact.

In the review of Palestrina from Munich, the opera is described as a gloomy re-write of Die Meistersinger, another idea to go away and cogitate on.

In Rome, they've just had their first production of Verdi's Otello since 1968 and their first Der Rosenkavalier for 45 years.

In Pamplona you could hear Bellini's I Puritani in the 900 seater theatre - bliss.

Stockholm saw a new opera based on Torgny Lindgren's novel Batseba. As usual, it sounds as if the transformation of the novel to operatic stage was problematic. Novels usually have so much material in them that you end up having to jettison far too much material for comfort.

In Zurich, a new production of Tristan und Isolde set in the Villa Wesendonck, dealing with Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck - fascinating idea, and it sounds as if they production worked well.

The Haydn and Handel Society of Boston (USA) gave the first American performance of Haydn's The Creation 190 years ago.
Seattle saw Rosalind Plowright's Kytemnestra (in Elektra) - now, when can we hear it please!

Some more dates. Covent Garden's 1897 staging of La Boheme was not replaced until 1967 and the 1900 Tosca lasted until 1966!

Sylvia

To the Coliseum on Friday to see David Bintley's new version of Sylvia. I have always found Delibes' score to be delightful, the horn melody for the first appearance of the nymphs is one of the great ballet music moments. And there are more. Though Delibes is content to give us bonnes bouches and neither develops nor digs as deep as Tchaikovsky.

I had not seen Bintley's original 1993 version of the ballet, so don't know how much it differs from the new version. Bintley prefaces the classical myth with a prologue (danced the the overture and scene one) set in an Italian villa with badly behaved count and countess, nanny, valet, children and sundry guests. The gardener is Eros, in retirement and he presents the story of Sylvia as an instructive moral tale for the Count and his family. At the end they reappear, suitably chastened and each with their correct partner. This works surprisingly well and for the opening gives us one of the longest sequences of classical ballet I've seen where the women are all wearing stilleto heels!

The main telling of the tale uses Delibes music slightly differently to Ashton, the role of Diana (the Countess) is far bigger, there are no peasants and in Act 3 there are a hilarious group of pirates along with Eros pretending to be a one legged pirate, complete with peg leg. The classical dance is lovely and serijavascript:void(0)ous, but Bintley keeps the comic moments moving so that the result is charming and entertaining.

Brumel's Earthquake Mass

On Saturday I joined a group of singers in Cambridge to give a scratch performance of Antoine Brumel's Earthquake Mass. It sounds an unlikely event, given that the mass is a substantial work in 12 parts, but having spent the day rehearsing we managed a very creditable performance of the work.

The piece gets its name because Brumel uses the plainchant Antiphon from Lauds for Easter which includes the bit from St. Matthew's Gospel about the veil of the temple being rent and the earth quaking. Brumel uses a lot of canonic effects so that the work sound tremendous. Rather curiously, the majority of parts lie in the tenor range. The soprano parts are low. The counter-tenor and tenor parts are all pretty much in the same range and the bass parts, for the most part, lie high. So instead of using 12 parts to cover a wide vocal range, Brumel uses 12 parts to create an amazing wodge of sound in the middle of the choral range.

Royal Opera new season

New Productions
The first new production of the season is Tristan und Isolde with Nina Stemme and Ben Heppner, conducted by Antonio Pappano. Unfortunately the production is in the hands of Christoph Loy, so we will be firmly in concept land. Pappano conducts.

Opera Genesis are presenting a new opera by Eleanor Alberga in the Linbury. Their track record so far has been patchy, but it is entirely laudable that they continue to try out new operas. Also in the Linbury is a rare outing for Arne's Artaxerxes with Christopher Ainslie in the title role. Conducted by the Ian Page and in association with his Classical Opera Company - make a date in the diary now.

Also, new, also in the Linbury is a revival of Jonathan Dove's perfectly wonderful The Enchanted Pig. We loved it at the Old Vic and look forward to seeing it again.

Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki is arriving in a new production by Francesca Zamballo with a mainly Russian speaking cast. I have happy memories of the ENO version of this with a memorable appearance of the Tsarina, or rather just her giant shoes. Except of course, that was Rimsky Korsakov's telling of the same tale!

Next new production is Prokofiev's The Gambler, being done In English! With John Tomlinson as the General, Susan Bickley as Babulenka, Roberto Sacca as Alexei and Angela Denoke as Polina. Richard Jones directs, with Antonio Pappano conducting.

For me, the potential highlight is the new production of Handel's Tamerlano. Except of course the production is not new and has travelled a bit. The guide has a rather ominous picture of the stage set with a giant purple elephant. Tamerlano is NOT a comedy. So fingers crossed. Ivor Bolton conducts a cast which includes Christianna Stotijn, Sara Mingardo, Christina Schafer and Renata Pokupic. But the name everyone will be following is Placido Domingo as Bajazet. Luckily the role is double cast so those of us who prefer to avoid Domingo can catch Kurt Streit who has proved himself a decent Handelian in the past.

A not so exciting new production. David McVicar's Aida; the opera is typically the elephant's graveyard at the Royal Opera so it will be interesting if McVicar can create something worthwhile (cue lots of dancing girls perhaps).


Laurent Pelly is directing the new Manon, with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon (so we're not holding our breath too hard for the casting to stay in place).

Revivals

The premium revival must be Don Carlo, still in Italian alas. But now boasting Jonas Kaufmann as Don Caro. The remainder of the cast are pretty much as before (Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, Ferrucio Furlanetto, Sonia Ganassi, Robert Lloyd) with John Tomlinson as the Grand Inquisitor.

Prime Revival no. 2 is Der Rosenkavalier with Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch and Lucy Crowe. I keep telling myself that I don't need to see the production again but then we get these fabulous casts!

Another good revival is Sir Charles Mackerras conducting Bill Bryden's wonderful production of The Cunning Little Vixen, this time with Emma Matthews and Christopher Maltman as the Gamekeeper. Emma Bell is luxury casting as the Fox and all the smaller roles are very strongly cast.

Carmen comes back with Elina Garanca, who made a memorable Romeo; she might make the production worth seeing. L'heure Espagnole and Gianni Schicchi are coming back with the same casts, another example of the terrible modern tendency to cast revivals with the same cast as the premiere.

Turco in Italia makes a welcome return (with a different cast!). Aleksandra Kurzak, who impressed in Mathilde di Shabran is Fiorella and Colin Lee, finally getting a decent run of something, as Don Narciso.

La Fille du Regiment comes back, but with Florez and Natalie Dessay again, though this time Colin Lee gets 3 performances rather than 1. Dawn French is off the menu as the Duchess and I suppose that we can't hope for Caballe who was the Duchess in Vienna.

Robert Lepage's dreary, pointless but realistic 1950's The Rakes Progress is coming back. It has Toby Spence in the title role and I think I might almost get over my dislike of the production just to hear him in the role. His Anne Trulove is Kate Royal.

There is a strong double-cast revival of McVicar's eminently intelligent Le Nozze di Figaro, with Erwin Schrott and Camilla Tilling as Figaro and his inamorata. Soile Isokoski does some performances of the Countess.

Salome is coming back with Angela Denoke in the title role. I think Denoke is a real soprano not a converted mezzo, so I look forward to her account.

Review of "Jephtha"

My review of Jephtha from the London Handel Festival is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Review

My review of Pirates of the Baroque from Red Priest is here.
Exciting and invigorating ...

Over the Easter weekend we travelled to Norfolk and spent a few days touring, staying in a hotel in North Walsham. As the church (St. Nicholas's) is listed in Simon Jenkin's book of churches we decided to go to a service, Evensong on Sunday 12th.

It was a sung, solemn evensong with a choir, but the delightful surprise was that St. Nicholas still maintains a choir of men and boys. North Walsham is not a huge town and it is heartening to find that, in this modern age, the church still manages to maintain a lively boys choir.

The choir were notably hard working at the Solemn Evensong we attended. With just 7 men and 6 boys they gave us a Mag and Nunc, plus a Te Deum and the requisite Psalms along with hymns (including a processional one). The service concluded with a dashing French showpiece on the organ from the young organist.

Handel's own parish church, St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, was the only place to be last night, the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. St. George's is one of the few performing interiors left in London which are associated with the composer and, as such, is the venue for the London Handel Festival. Last night the festival celebrated the end of the 2009 festival and the composer's anniversary with a tremendous performance of Jephtha with John Mark Ainsley in the title role. A full review will appear shortly

Recent CD Review

My review of a disc of Domenico Scarlatti's choral music from the choir of King's College, Cambridge, is here, on MusicWeb International.
A programme worth investigating ...

Review of "Dido and Aeneas" and "Acis and Galatea"

Frankly, last night's double bill of Acis and Galatea and Dido and Aeneas at the Royal Opera House was something of a disappointment.

Dido looked stunning in Hildegard Bechtler's spare designs and the singers were all kitted out in slightly Japanese-esque long costumes (men and women) by Fontini Dimou. Wayne McGregor's view of Dido predominantly sombre which worked well with Sarah Connolly's superb Dido. But McGregor is also a choreographer and Dido included a group of dancers from the Royal Ballet, and of course the ballet includes dance music.

I think it was Ian Caddy who once said of the role of Aeneas, that it had never made sense to him until he had realised that Josiah Priest was a dancing master and that if he had taken Aeneas, dancing would have been as important as singing. But McGregor seems to have decided to take a 'divide and rule' option. The dancers danced and the singers sang and rarely did the two meet. In fact, apart from a little tentative movement, the singers were pretty static.

The dancers, wearing costumes which looked like stylish gym kit, appeared danced and went away again, rarely relating to the singers. Also their dance was all aerobic gymnastics, which did not seem to relate to the court atmosphere which McGregor needed to be creating. Perhaps some of this can put attributed to whatever the requirements and working conditions were in Milan where the production originated.

But all in all this was a Dido where the pleasures were mainly musical. In addition to Connolly's Dido there as Lucy Crowe's superb Belinda, bright, clear and brilliant. Lucas Meachem's Aeneas looked that part but seemed a little stiff, though neither Purcell nor McGregor really gave him much to do. Sara Fulgoni made a genuinely creepy sorceress, rather than a guyed one and Iestyn Davies was luxury casting as the Spirit.

After the interval the look change as Bechtler produced a series of translucent drops, evoking the pastoral beauties of the landscape lived in by Acis and Galatea. The opening chorus was danced with the singers invisible off stage, always an annoying event. I like to see the singers even if they are not required to act. The dancers all wore customised all-in-one leotards making them look unclothed and emphasising the fine lines of many of the bodies. Even if you didn't like Handel, this was a good evening provided you liked pert bottoms.

I must confess that Danielle de Niese and I have got off to a bad start. I first saw her live in David McVicar's Giulio Cesare for Glyndebourne (though we saw it at the Proms). I hated on sight the Bollywoodisation of Cleopatra's arias; I felt, and still feel, that this does not work emotionally and that we never really take Cleopatra seriously. That said, you can't fault de Niese for her ability to sing coloratura and dance. (Though Lisa Milne did similar when she played Morgana in the McVicar Alcina at ENO).

So Acis and Galatea was another opportunity to reassess de Niese. She came on wearing an ugly blond wig with a plait (one reviewer said it looked as if she was channelling Heidi). Not only was the wig ugly, but its flaxen blond colour was just not flattering to de Niese's complexion.

De Niese has a noticeable vibrato which gives her voice a rich, luxurious feel; you can understand why she plays sexy parts. She can do the complicated passagework, but it does not have the pinprick sharpness that I think it requires in this role. Many reviewers have compliments about her performance, but for me it seemed lacking. I longed to hear someone like Lucy Crowe in the role, she has the sort of bright, crisp delivery that I like (AND she can do sexy, just look at her Poppea in the ENO Agrippina).

Each singer got an attendant dancer to shadow them, so that even though de Niese trained as a dancer she was required, mostly, to be stationary whilst her shadow partner moved. This left one wondering where to look.

Acis was played by Charles Workman who looked the part. I found myself, however, less in tune with his voice. He sang with admirable firmness, but there was a quality in the voice which made it seem as if his voice was about to crack. I felt that his vocal quality would be ideal in later music, notably 19th century, but that he was not ideal in Handel.

Costumes were modern, as if the cast came in their street clothes. But this meant that Paul Agnew's Damon looked as if he had wandered of the set off Last of the Summer Wine. Agnew seemed luxury casting as Damon.

Matthew Rose has largeness of physique to play Polyphemus and he has the largeness of personality as well. Add to this a fine Handelian technique and I found that it was Rose's performance which I enjoyed the most. You felt profoundly sorry for the monster as he set his few treasures out only for Galatea to dismiss them.

There was another problem with the staging - its sheer busyness. We had both singers and dancers on stage all the time. And though McGregor's choreography was more plastic than in Dido, the results were sometimes overly busy. He seemed to need to fill every moment, and didn't trust Handel's music or really give it space.

Acis and Galatea is a masque, so its not the most dramatic of piece. Staged in such a hyperactive way, there were moments in the middle when the tempo simply sagged and you wished that McGregor had staged it in a more austere, less decoratorly fashion.

Musically things were in the safe hands of Christopher Hogwood with the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment, though I did wonder whether a few more instrumentalists might have made a richer sound in Covent Garden's cavernous acoustics.

So, all in all, not an ideal evening. But one that piqued one's interest; I would be happy to give a revised version of the show another go.

Chelsea Opera Group new season

Chelsea Opera Group have announced their 2009/2010 season. On 28/11/2009 they are performing Gluck's Alceste in the French version, conducted by Nicholas Collon. This will be a welcome chance to hear the opera in London as I don't think it has had a proper outing since the production for Janet Baker at the Royal Opera House.

Then on 21st February 2010 they are celebrating 10 years of their association with the soprano Nelly Miricioiu and presenting her in La Traviata. Finally, on 23 May 2010 we have Rossini's Guillaume Tell with Majella Cullagh as Mathilde, conducted by Dominic Wheeler. A mammoth undertaking but one which will be well worth it as this wonderful opera deserves to be performed more. Both these 2010 concerts are at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

COG's next concert is on 7th June 2009 when they are doing Verdi's original version of Simon Boccanegra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Recent CD Review

My review of a disc of Hildegard of Bingen's music given a new dressing up by percussionist Christoph Haas is here on MusicWeb International.

Hildegard’s music in dialogue with contemporary percussion ...

St. Matthew Passion from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

To the Barbican on Sunday to hear Bach's St. Matthew Passion performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly. Generally I prefer small forces in this work, particularly when it comes to singers. My preferred recording is Paul McCreesh's account with 1 voice to a part; we heard McCreesh and his forces perform the work at St. Johns Smith Square and were bowled over. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are currently touring their own St. Matthew Passion, again with just 8-singers but unfortunately we are going to miss the performance at the South Bank on Thursday, though seeing it performed with just 8 singers in the vast cavern of the Royal Festival Hall is not ideal.

So why, do you ask, were we at the Barbican on Sunday to hear the work sung by 90 singers and an orchestra of some 90 players. Well, I've never been completely dogmatic on the issue and my main response is 'convince me'. The a notable large scale version of the work that I saw was a performance at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1970's which had Jessye Norman singing the alto solos and this was, in many ways, profoundly moving.

Also, the Leipzig players have a special connection with Bach. Not only do the come from Leipzig where Bach spent his final great period of his life, but the orchestra was founded not long after he died. They are still involved in performing Bach cantatas at the St. Thomas Church.

One aspect of the performance that I had not anticipated was one which, frankly, made it most special. The two choirs were made up of boys from the St. Thomas Church and the Tölz Boys Choir, though in the case of the latter you had to stretch the word boy a little when it came to their tenors and basses. This meant that not only were the organisers arranging a tour for some 180 singers and musicians, but half of these were boys and some 60 were pre-pubertal boys. This was one of the biggest choir of boys that I have seen for a long time.

Would they be up to it? The answer was a resounding yes. St Thomas's provided Choir 1 with the Tölz Boys Choir making up choir 2. The choral sound was bright, clear, flexible and firm. They were responsive to Riccardo Chailly's shaping of the music, could spin long lines where necessary and had a brilliant attack in the turbae. All in all, I have never heard a performance quite like it.

The choir was beautifully counter-balanced by the Leipzig Orchestra. They provided some superb solo playing in the various arias and accompanied finely. Under Chailly's direction this was a highly shaped performance. Not for Chailly the emulation of period performance practice, he shaped the music as he would any later piece in the repertoire. And you have to respect him for it, this is a genuine performance style and if I have to have symphonic Bach, then I want it as good as this. As with Sir Colin Davis's Messiah with the LSO, the sheer quality of the music making and the superb way the singers and players responded to Chailly's vision made the whole thing worth while.

My only problem with this style performance is the nature of the extreme contrasts which it engenders. The Evangelist (Johannes Chum) sings accompanied by a few continuo instruments and then the chorus come blasting in with one of the turbae. You can't change it, if you want symphonic Bach then you get these extremes of contrast.

If I have left the soloists till last it is because they provided a well integrated, but not showy, ensemble which meshed in with Chailly's vision. You never felt that any of them were chafing under his direction and all shaped their musical lines accordingly, resulting in some moments of great beauty. Soprano Sibylla Rubens was a last minute replacement, but she still produced some beautifully refined tone. Mezzo Marie-Claude Chappuis was similarly refined. I did not feel that her performance reached the depth of expression that someone like Janet Baker brought to the role, but you sensed that refinement, stillness and great beauty were the keynotes of this performance. Tenor Maximillian Schmitt was a good equal to these. Extremely noteable was the bass soloist, Thomas Quasthoff, who contributed some of the finest singing of the evening, though his tendency to croon the quieter passages may not have been to everyone's taste (I'm in two minds about it myself!).

Johannes Chum contributed a vivid Evangelist, but stillness and beauty were still the watchwords and he never got over-wrought as some Evangelists can. I sensed that the part might lie a little high for him, there was a feeling that the top notes were carefully shaded off. But he never sounded strained and maintained his musical elegance to the end. Hanno Muller-Brachman was a Christus of noble demeanor with a voice which resembled the young John Tomlinson.

The same forces will be going into the studio to record the work and I can't wait to hear the results. Whilst symphonic Bach will remain something of a speciality for me, when performed like this who can resist.

ENO new Season

ENO have announced their 2009/10 season and, such is the way of these things, Autumn 2009 is already open for booking for Patrons.

Overall its a bit of a mixed bag, plenty of new stuff but rather too much mixture as before as well.

Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre in a production by the Catalan group La Fura del Baus arrives in the UK in September, having already had an outing on the Continent. Its a co-production, so comes with a polyglot cast, which might not be ideal. Still it will be interesting to see the work. Edward Gardner conducts.

Also keenly anticipated is Turandot in a production by theatre director Richard Goold. The title role is being sung by the German soprano Kirsten Blanck in what is also her role debut. Blanck has been gradually moving into heavier territory and I will be interested to hear her in the role. Her Calaf is Gwyn Hughes Jones, with Amanda Echalaz as Liu. Edward Gardner conducts. I have not yet been able to learn which edition they are using. It is too much to hope that they will use the uncut Alfano ending, which has not received a proper staging in the UK yet.

New in the autumn also is a double bill of Bluebeards Castle directed by Daniel Kramer, with The Rite of Spring, in a production by Michael Keegan Dolan and his Fabulous Beast company. Edward Gardner conducts. Curious combination, but then Bluebeard is always difficult to place.

Finally the Christmas offering is Messiah in a production by Deborah Warner. The only comment on this one can be why? When Handel has so many amazing theatre works which remain unperformed at the Coliseum, why try to perform on of his non-theatre works, and one which isn't even built around a dramatic narrative. Oh, well, at least it has a fine cast, Sophie Bevan, Catherine Wyn Rogeors, John Mark Ainsley and Brindley Sherratt conducted by Laurence Cummings.

After Christmas Jonathan Miller's L'Elisir d'Amore comes from New York City Opera. Set in 1950's America, I'm not sure why we need the new production when the previous one worked adequately. Still get get to hear Sarah Tynan, John Tessier and Andrew Shore in the leads.

Having done so well with Jenufa, David Alden is being let loose on Katya Kabanova, with Patricia Racette in the title role and Susan Bickley as the mother-in-law from hell.

More excitingly Fiona Shaw is directing Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers.

Another new Tosca hoves into sight, this time a production by Catherine Malfitano with Amanda Echalaz repeating her Opera Holland Park triumph, along with Julian Gavin and Anthony Michaels Moore. Edward Gardner conducts. Certainly a cast to look forward to.

Penny Woolcock is directing The Pearl Fishers, though its no longer the rarity that ENO think it is. No word yet on which edition they are using, but I do hope that they use Brad Cohen's edition which re-creates Bizet's original last Act rather then the confection generally used. Rory Macdonald conducts.

The final new production is Mozart's Idomeneo, directed by Katie Mitchell with Paul Nilon, Emma Bell and Sarah Tynan. Edward Gardner conducts. For this one we do know which edition they are using, they have chosen Mozart's Vienna version, which turns Idamante into a tenor and makes the casting rather too tenor heavy.

Actually there is one more new production, but this is going to be a site specific piece done in collaboration with Punchdrunk.

Revivals: Anthony Michaels Moore in Rigoletto. Turn of the Screw is back with the same 4 principals as when it was new, but with Sir Charles Mackerras conducting. Lucia di Lammermoor is back, again with Barry Banks and Anna Christy.

So we have two new productions (Tosca, L'Elisir d'Amore) which replace apparently viable existing ones. At least two revivals with near identical casts to the work's first outing. The only English operas are Turn of the Screw and Handel's Messiah.

There is enough in the season to generate interest, but the season includes no Strauss, no Wagner and no Verdi apart from Rigoletto. The management seem to have an unhealthy interest in Puccini. There is lots of interest in this season, but the overall shape is odd.

Review of "Alessandro"

My review of Handel's Alessandro from the London Handel Festival is here.

Recent CD Review

My review of Jake Heggie's opera Three Decembers is here.

Tuneful and accessible but would have benefited from a little more grit ...

Review of "Ermione"

My review of the Opera Rara performance of Ermione is here on Music and Vision.

Daniel Taylor at the Wigmore Hall

The London Handel Festival decamped to the Wigmore Hall on Friday for a recital entitled Famous Castrati Arias for Sensino and his rivals, given by counter-tenor Daniel Taylor and the London Handel Orchestra directed by Adrian Butterfield.

They opened with a crisp account of Concerto Grosso opus 6 no. 5. With only 12 strings the sound was lithe and lively rather than luxuriant, but this fitted in well with the Wigmore Hall's chamber music ethos, and you could hardly have fitted many more people on stage. Afterwards they were joined by Rachel Brown for Telemann's Flute Concerto in D major, TWV51:D3. An attractive and charming piece that just lacked the memorability of Handel's best pieces.

Then Daniel Taylor sang two arias from Rodelinda. First the accompagnato Pompe vane di morte followed by the aria Dove Sei, then Unolfo's Act 3 aria, Un zeffiro spiro where they are also joined by Rachel Brown on recorder.

Taylor has an attractive bright voice with just a hint of glare at the top when under pressure. He has a naturally dramatic presence coupled with a lively and vivid way with the music. He sang from memory and was instantly communicative whilst still being musical. Despite the drama of his performance, there was still a fine sense of line and good detail.

The second half opened with the 8th concerto from the Opus 6 set, again in a lively and lithe performance. Taylor followed this with a brilliant performance of Cara Sposa from Rinaldo. Though written for Nicolini, Senesino sang the aria at a revival of Rinaldo in 1731. The printed programme concluded with a pair of Tolomeo's arias from Giulio Cesare. Taylor's Tolomeo was certainly not effete, but nasty and vicious. Both arias were vividly done and one could not have looked for more drama coupled with musicianship.

Taylor spoke between each group of arias, introducing them and relating anecdotes from his previous performances. He has a natural and winning manner and his spoken introductions helped make the concert something special. As an encore he did an aria from The Choice of Hercules, again joined by Rachel Taylor's recorder.

Edinburgh Festival 2009

Edinburgh Festival has announced its programme for 2009 which, predictably, includes a decent amount of Handel. More eyebrow raising is the fact that the opening concert, conducted by William Christie, will feature the oratorio Judas Maccabeus, which was written by Handel as part of the tub-thumping surrounding the Duke of Cumberland's post-1745 campaigns.

A sign of the times is the fact that Rinaldo and Acis und Galatea are being giving in concert form rather than staged. Rinaldo is being performed by the Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suziki with a cast including Robin Blaze. Acis is being done by Nicholas McGeegan and Göttingen forces and features Mendelssohn's version of the work, which McGeegan his forces have recorded. Also featured are concert performances of Verdi's Macbeth with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Wagner's Flying Dutchman from Hamburg with Franz Grundheber and Eva Johansson. Plus The Sixteen doing Purcell's The Fairy Queen.

Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses is being staged with the puppet company Handspring, directed by artist William Kentridge. A fascinating idea, but I can't help feeling they should have chosen a more intractable work, e.g. The Fairy Queen, which would have responded well to such a staging.

The only Full opera staging is Handel's Admeto, which will come hot foot from the productions premiere at Göttingen. Nicholas McGeegan conducts and director Dorris Dorie is setting the work in a Japanese samurai world, so that when Alceste returns from Hades she acquires a spirit-ghost played by a Butoh dancer. Interesting? Perhaps? Still Tim Mead is singing Admeto.

Also being staged is a programme of Bach cantatas from Stuttgart under the general title of Actus Tragicus. The production sets the music against the background of an ordinary rooming house with a cross section of everyday tasks. (Another hmmm for this one I'm afraid).

The Royal Ballet of Flanders is also doing The Return of Ulysses, but in this case the ballet has no relationship to Monteverdi, music is by Purcell along with songs from the 1940's and 50's.


There are some notable concerts. A programme of early evening Bach programmes at Greyfriars. And a programme of Gaelic Psalm singing with singers from Lewis, certainly a programme which would come very high on my list of desired options.

Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Ghent are doing Mendelssohn's Elias, but as there only seem to be 4 soloists they get a black mark. Jordi Savall and the Concert des Nations are doing a programme of Handel and Marin Marais, but the Handel's the Water and Fire music I'm afraid.
Sir Charles Mackerras is doing Haydn's Seven Last Words in the oratorio version, with a work by Giorgio Battistelli in the same programme.

The RSNO under Stephane Deneve give us Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette complete.

Chamber music and vocal recitals include Jordi Savall's Hesperion XXI, Christopher Maltman, Bejun Mehta in a wide ranging vocal recital, Macmillan's Seven Last Words and much much more.

In terms of large scale staged opera, the festival is not quite as impressive as it used to be in the 70's but in terms of sheer breadth and variety it seems to have recovered something of its old poise.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of the Laudantes Consort's disc of Bruckner and Durufle Requiems is here.
Creditable even if not ideal ...

And my review of Pietro Vinci's Ricercars played on an historic Sicilian organ is here.
More of a disc to dip into than to play in its entirety ...

An a disc of Strauss songs sung by Karita Mattila and Christine Schaefer is here. All three are on MusicWeb International.
Not ideal but comes moderately close and gives us some superb Strauss singing ...

Roayl Ballet double Bill

To the Royal Ballet on Friday to see the double bill of MacMillan's Isadora and Jerome Robbins Dances at a gathering.

I saw Isadora when it was new, when it was a 2 act ballet which used a dancer (Merle Park I believe) and an actress to play Isadora and mixed spoken and dance sections. It was interested, but never seemed to gel. Now MacMillan's widow has digested it down into a single act of just over an hour. The staging uses a lot of film, much of it archive, along with Nichola McAuliffe's recorded voice as Isadora. The result flows a little better, but it still seemed disjointed and the dance never seemed to get time to build. Each number followed by spoken dialogue and film, effectively meant that any emotional tension was dispersed.

The same is true of Richard Rodney Bennett's score, which never seemed to develop much of a life of its own. It was not helped by the fact that some of the big numbers needed pastiche music (which Bennett does very well). But the more serious moments never seemed to have the emotional pull that the best bits of his Edward II score, for David Bintley, did.

I'm afraid that Isadora seems to be an honourable failure. We have to admit that MacMillan, if he had lived, would undoubtedly cast the work into a rather different form.

The companion piece was Jerome Robbins Dances at a Gathering. Set to Chopin piano pieces, 5 couples dance solos, duets and ensembles. The language is classical with some wry touches of humour. But after 40 minutes, though the dancers exhibited poise, grace and wit, I wanted something more; I longed for the Revolutionary Prelude, something which stretched the emotions somewhat. The ballet was enormously popular with the audience. But at around an hour and a quarter, it had left me behind long before the end.

LFO Concert

My review of the London Festival Orchestra concert at the Cadogan Hall, with pianist Martyna Jatkauskaite is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Review

My review of Mendelssohn's charming adaptation of Handel's Acis and Galatea is here, on MusicWeb International.

A convincing and charming case for Mendelssohn’s delightful reworking ...

Review of "The Magic Flute"

My review of ETO's Magic Flute is here, along with a selection of pictures, on Music and Vision.

Wouldn't you know it.

My choir, London Concord Singers, are busy rehearsing for a concert at the Grosvenor Chapel on Thursday 26th March. The programme consists of a group of motets by birthday boy Mendelssohn, motets by Morales, Gesualdo, Victoria, Monteverdi and Cecilia McDowall, plus Bach's Jesu, meine Freude.

Ironically, it turns out that another group is performing the same Bach motet, in the same venue, 5 days earlier (on Saturday 21st March). Still the remainder of their programme could not be more different, as they are doing a programme of contemporary Polish music including Penderecki's Stabat Mater

On Saturday we caught the first chunk of the BBC Radio 3 broadcast of Rusalka from the Met. Unfair, I know, to judge a performance from its first couple of scenes (we heard Rusalka and Jerzibaba but not the Prince).

I know that Renee Fleming gained plaudits for her recording of Rusalka with Sir Charles Mackerras at the helm. But her account of the song to the moon was pure diva. It was too slow and seemed to be milked for nearly every ounce of 'expression'. The result made Fleming sound far too old for the character, too mature. By contrast Stephanie Blythe sounded wonderful as the witch, beautifully focussed with a nice sense of line and definite malevolence. Her performance made me want to continue to listen!

Which I couldn't, of course, because we were en route to the Hackney Empire for The Magic Flute, part of English Touring Opera's Spring season. A review will appear in due course.

From this month's Opera

Gleaning from the March issue of Opera magazine.

In the feature article, Michael Tanner considers something which I've long felt to be true, that concert performances of operas can be profoundly satisfying.

The interview is with Veronique Gens. Evidently her family hails from the Auvergne, where her grandmother had a house, so she is well placed to record the Canteloube; certainly makes me want to dash out and buy her recording on Naxos. Opera speculates that she must be one of the few international sopranos who can milk a cow!

Gens seems to prove the adage that the French don't like French singers, she has never sung at the Opera or the Chatelet in Paris. But in Brussels she'll be doing Iphigenie (en Aulide) where Pierre Audi is planning to do both Iphigenies in the same evening. Why? I remember when David Freeman did it, with Marie Angel. Both operas were cut and neither seemed to relate to the other.

Also, joy of joys, Gens is returning to Covent Garden to sing the title role in Agostino Steffani's Niobe. No, I've never heard of it either. Steffani was an older contemporary of Handel's, and may have helped him get his job in Hanover. Interesting Steffani wrote a Hamlet opera, now that would be interesting!

There is also an article celebrating ETO's 30th anniversary; in fact this week their Spring season starts at the Hackney empire and we're off to see The Magic Flute on Saturday. Their recent roster of operas has been impressively catholic, including quite a lot of Janacek and Handel, alongside early Italians like Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and a forthcoming series of concerts of Norma. Last tour they did Rusalka and the Peter Brook derangement of Carmen. In fact the Rusalka evidently sold better than the Carmen; nor surprising really because the Dvorak was the better production I think.

In Austria, Toby Spence was doing Tom Rakewell; now why couldn't we have heard him doing it in the new Covent Garden production. As I never want to see that production again, I do hope someone else in the UK casts him in the role. Still in Austria, it is 45 years since Strauss's Intermezzo has been done in Vienna. Still in Vienna, there was a staging of Oscar Straus's mDie lustige Nibelungen, now why can't UK opera companies put this on as a Satyr Play epilogue to their Ring cycles.

Over in Ghent, a new production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia cast mainly with Dutch or Flemish singers; good to see that such works are getting cast with non-anglophone singers.

And in Toulouse, Enescu's Oedipe, an opera that I have always wanted to hear and entirely failed to. But this performance was the first fully staged performance in France since the opera's creation, so I'm not going to hold my breath regarding seeing it. Couldn't some enterprising company borrow the production? (Too expensive probably).

And in Germany the Komischer Oper, Berlin, did La Traviata in German with a cast hailing from Ireland, Wales and Greece; not surprisingly not much of the German came over.

Another opera I've always missed in the theatre, Marschner's Der Vampyr cropped up in Bologna of all places, in a new production by Pier Luigi Pizzi. For these performances they included a cabaletta written by the 20-year old Wagner for the tenor's big Act 2 aria.

Over in Mexico they did enterprisingly did Acis and Galatea, but in Spanish.

And in New York, Opera in the Heights offered the very 19th century programme of Don Pasquale, preceded by the 1st act of Lucia di Lammermoor - what a combination. And at the Met, Stephanie Blythe sang Orfeo. Blythe was also Dalila in Pittsburgh. Wonderful to find that in some places, body fascism absent.

New York City Opera gave a concert performance of Barber's Antony and Cleopatra. Another opera that I've always missed. Unfortunately Martin Bernheimer's view of the work has rather put me off.

In the We hear that... column:-
Richard Jones will be doing a new Il Trittico at Covent Garden with Anja Harteros as Suor Angelica, in 2011.

Jonas Kaufman will sing Parsifal at the Met in 2013-13 in a new production shared with Lyon.

Recent CD reviews

My review of the re-issue of Gothic Voices The Voice in the Garden is here.
Listen again and re-tune your ears ...

And my review of a highlights disc from Hasse's Cleofide (which shares a libretto with Handel's Poro) is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
An attractive and finely sung disc ...

Nuclear Scientists view of 'Dr Atomic'

The Guardian has an interesting account of what a modern date Nuclear Physicist thinks of John Adams opera Dr Atomic, the Guardian article is here.

Our concert on Saturday had a good appreciative audience and we were very pleased with the performance. No recording I'm afraid, but the new setting of Lucis Creator Optime went very well; as anticipated the bitonal textures worked very well in the rich acoustic of St. Mary's Church.

It was interesting singing one to a part in such an acoustic, it seemed to lend a clarity to the textures which you don't get when using a bigger group.

The Aston Gaude, mater matris Christi and the Fayrfax Magnificat Regale were both large-scale, quite long complex numbers which proved somewhat tiring to perform. But achieving a conductorless performance with just 6 of us was, I think, a significant achievement.

I Fagiolini at Cadogan Hall

On Thursday we were in the Cadogan Hall for the latest in their Choral at Cadogan series, this time I Fagiolini with a fascinating programme which spanned Carnival and Lent. For the first half, we were presented with a number of Venetian Carnival items then in the second half Tallis's Lamentations and Gesualdo's Responsories for Good Friday. This made it a tricky programme for the singers, going from the light-hearted foolery of Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso to the controlled anguish of Gesualdo's late style. But Robert Hollingworth and his group managed it superbly.

All the first half items were staged, against a back drop of an Italian street and for the scenes from L'Amfiparnaso the actors used masks. I use the word actors advisedly as Vecchi's music was not designed to be sung on stage but used as an accompaniment, so the singers sat at the side whilst other singers mimed with Hollingworth himself as a Pantalone and William Purefoy as a hilarious whore. A couple of the comic works by Croce and Banchieri were sung in English versions by Timothy Knapmna. Knapman also wrote English rhyming introductions to the scenes from L'Amfiparnaso and these were delightfully spoken by Kit Hesketh-Hervey.

The 2nd half opened with a haunting account of Tallis's Lamentations. Given the slightly dry, un-church-like acoustic of the Cadogan Hall, the performance needed to be all the more controlled and gave us a hint of what the private, non-liturgical performances of this piece might have been like in the Elizabethan era. This was followed by Clemens non papa's Fremuit spiritus Iesu, in a terrific performance. Then finally the 5 Gesualdo responsories, the lights of the auditorium gradually dimming until the final Tenebrae.

Recent CD Review

My review of a disc of cantatas by Handel, Hasse and J.S.Bach, including Emma Kirkby singing Silete Venti is here, on Music Web International.
A delightful programme ...

Review of "Tosca"

Opera Holland Park rather enterprisingly presented their recent production of Puccini's Tosca at Richmond Theatre. We saw the last night of the run on Sunday 1st March.

The production, directed by Stephen Barlow and designed by Yannis Thavoris, was an object lesson in how to present an opera on a budget. The production's brilliance lay not so much in the decision to stage the piece in 1968 using a single set for all 3 acts, but in the way Barlow made the details of his production mesh with the updating. As ever, the devil is in the detail.

The best updating of Tosca for me remains the Scottish Opera production from the late 1970's which relocated the action to Fascist Italy. But Barlow's new production gives it a close run.

Barlow sets the piece in 1968 against the background of political turmoil, Angelotti (Paul Reeves) and Cavaradossi (Sean Ruane) become hippyish student protesters, reacting against the oppressive local regime of the Mafioso political boss, Scarpia (Nicholas Garrett). The location must be a small town, rather than Rome, but Scarpia is a political operative who has the town sewn up. The backdrop is the local election, which is regarded as a foregone conclusion (as was usually the case at the time in Southern Italy). This sort of detail evidently reflects the type of political control that actually did happen. It is the election, rather than a war, which causes the Te Deum and Cavaradossi's Vittoria outbreak in Act 2.

The set consists of the piazza outsite of the church and the Te Deum is half political rally, with a religious processing leading into the church. The result is theatrically far more satisfactory than the rather lame religious processions going nowhere which often constitute the end of Act 1 of the opera. Nicholas Garrett does not make an obvious Scarpia, he is slighter and far more attractive than most singers in the role. His voice does not easily dominate the stage, yet, but his interpretation grew in stature and you came to believe in his dangerously attractive Mafia boss. He was the type who hides real violence under a stylish exterior. Barlow built on this, making Amanda Echalaz's Tosca struggle with an obvious attraction to the man, despite his dangerous nature.

The area round the church was bestrewn political and other posters, many advertising Scarpia's party and others advertising the singing of Tosca. Sean Ruane's Cavaradossi is doing a huge chalk picture of the Magdalene on the pavement outside the church, a neat solution. Ruane has an attractive Italianate voice and managed to look the part of an artistic drop out.

For Act 2, Scarpia is having his dinner at the Trattoria next to the church, run by his henchman Sciarrone (Henry Grant Kerswell). Spoleta (Benjamin Segal) is a policement and the other men are dubious be-suited types. The Trattoria functions as some sort of unofficial HQ for Scarpia and Cavaradossi is taken into the kitchens to be tortured with a blow-touch. All very convincing and typical of the type of operative that Scarpia is. We overhear Tosca's performance on TV rather than through a window. The actors all made this work, neatly, beautifully and dramatically. You did not feel that you were seeing an awkward updating but a real version of Tosca.

The scene between Tosca and Scarpia was brilliant, really dangerous and sexy. Neither singer quite managed to make you believe this was real and not just acting (few can do that), but they came very close and achieved something striking.

For Act 3 we were still outside the church and, in lieu of an execution, Scarpia's men were planning to simply shoot Cavaradossi, put him into an abandoned car and torch it. At the opening of the act Sciarrone's son (Daniel Harraghy) sings the shepherd boy's song as he brings early morning supplies to the Trattoria. He finds Scarpia's body but panics, hides it again and runs away to fetch his father; it is of course Sciarrone who raises the hue and cry after Scarpia's death in the opera, an example of Barlow's neat way with detail.

In many ways this was a traditional staging of Tosca, Barlow did not try to do anything alarmingly different with the characters. He simply fitted them into his new scenario and allowed it to illuminate things. At the end Tosca immolates herself on the abandoned car using the petrol intended for Cavaradossi.

Amanda Echalaz will be doing Tosca and Liu at ENO in 2009/10. Her Tosca is still relatively light voiced, a young singer rather than a mature one; Echalaz makes the character impulsive, not inclined to the grand diva manner. This was reflected in her musical performance. Her account of Vissi d'arte was touching.

Sean Ruane has a lovely voice and sang Cavaradossi's arias with good open tone, a fine sense of line and musicality. He was a little bit solid, I could have done with more dramatic flexibility, more light and shade. This was reflected in his voice where he seemed to only be able to sing loud or soft. His singing sounded lovely, but I wanted a bit more subtlety.

As I have mentioned, Nicholas Garrett does not yet have the heft required for the really big moments, such as the end of Act 1. But he applied himself musically and dramatically, really making the role work on his term. His scene with Tosca in Act 2 was electric.

The remaining cast were all impressive and formed a cohesive ensemble. I could have wished that stage management had found some fake tan, they all made very pasty Southern Italians!

The City of London Sinfonia under Phillip Thomas gave a convincing and flexible performance of Tony Burke's orchestral reduction. The acoustic at the Richmond Theatre is not ideal, with the orchestra in the stalls, out in front of the stage, and there were moments when the orchestral sound was a bit underpowered. But the musicians generally made us hardly miss the fuller orchestral version.

I hope that Opera Holland Park revive this production again. It is not necessarily my perfect Tosca, but it is certainly a brilliant solution to a particular set of problem, brilliantly executed.

Review of Dr Atomic

My review of John Adams' Doctor Atomic is now on-line here, at Music and Vision.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of the 2nd volume of Bach's Weimar cantatas from the Purcell Quartet is here.
There is much to enjoy on this set ...

And my review of Tavener's Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas from Ars Nova Copenhagen is here. Both review are on MusicWeb International.
Captures the rhythmic vitality of this brilliant but tricky music ...

Candledancing Resurgam

Just over 10 years ago I was contacted by an American playwright, Coni Koepfinger, with a view to providing music for the production of her play CandleDancing. The play dealt with miracles in the context of the modern day church and require a score which included excerpts from a Requiem mass to be sung on stage. The work was premiered in Pittsburgh, USA and the production and my score went on to win an award in the Pittsburgh press.

I went on to develop the score into a full liturgical Requiem mass, but I have always had a fondness for the original stage score and the way it mixed music and speech.

Now the text of the play is finally being published, further details here. There are also plans for an audio-book with my music and a rehearsed reading in the USA. I'll keep you posted.

London Handel Festival: Theodora

The London Handel Festival opened yesterday with Theodora, full review here, on Music and Vision.

It was heartening to find the festival performing the work uncut, even though it meant spending 3.5 hours in St. George's Church, Hannover Square. A venue which has mixed sight lines, rather uncomfortable pews, terrible provision for loos (not good in long Handel pieces) and last night we seemed to have some very noisy standing room audience as well. The festival were recording the performance, so I hope the mysterious booming noises coming from the back of the balcony did not affect things too much. But, its easy to moan and we should give the festival credit for putting on such a varied and fabulous programme on what is probably a shoe string.

Recent CD Review

My review of volume 11 of the Cardinall's Musick's Complete Byrd Edition is here, on Music and Vision.

Another review that wasn't

No, we haven't had any more power cuts. But last night (Thursday) we went to Sadlers Wells to see Opera North's production of David Sawyer's new operetta, Skin Deep. Having read the reviews following the first night in Leeds, I was aware that the piece might have issues but we went with open ears, hoping to be delighted and entertained.

The piece is an operetta in the strict sense of the word, in that it's subject is relatively light (a satire on cosmetic surgery) and it uses spoken dialogue. Whatever you think of Armando Iannucci's libretto, it does seem to be written using operetta forms; not only does it rhyme, but seems to be structured in terms of aria, ensemble, dance number etc. The draw backs of the libretto are that the plot itself is rather trivial and it seems a little on the wordy side. But I must confess that I was rather more impressed with the libretto that I expected to be, following the critical comment I had expected it to be far wordier than it is. Mind you, Iannucci does not seem to have taken on board Martin Crimp's comment that a libretto should always have something missing. You feel that Iannucci's libretto would make quite an adequate sit-com.

What it doesn't do is make an adequate opera.

I'm not quite sure where the root problem lies. David Sawyer has obviously worked very hard and his music is accomplished, but he does not strike me as a natural light-music composer. Simply, this was an operetta without tunes. More importantly, Sawyer seems to have eschewed closed forms. I think that the piece would have worked, even without tunes, if we had had a series of set pieces written using closed forms (march, waltz, beguine etc.). As it was we had neither.

Now, it is perfectly possible that Sawyer thinks that the work does have tunes and does use closed forms. This can often happen when writing, you get so close to the music that you don't always realise what people can (and can't) apprehend. (On a personal note, I've written a few pieces which I think are very tuneful but which other people simply hear as mournful noodling round in a plainchant-esque way).

If you played a recording of the work, without telling anyone the subject matter, then I doubt that the listener would have realised that Skin Deep was supposed to be funny. It doesn't sound funny.

The cast all worked very, very hard. But usually you had to strain to grasp the words and the laughs all came from Richard Jones's production. This was not one of his better affairs. Jones seems to have decided to stage the libretto rather than the music, so that we got farce with the odd production number. These latter came over very awkwardly as it is difficult doing a big song/dance number with music which does not seem to fit the genre.

The opera is in 3 acts with an interval after act 2. When the interval came (at 9pm after 90 minutes of music), neither of us could face going back for the final act. My companion didn't like the music much (an thought the plot puerile) and I found that I just didn't care about what was happening on stage. So we left. I am prepared to believe that staying for Act 3 might have changed our opinions, but I am not convinced that it would have done.

Th'unkindest cut

Last week's Samson at the Barbican seems to have been well received by the critics in the broadsheets (Hilary Finch's review in the Times is here). What is interesting is that no-one seems to have mentioned that the work was heavily cut. I'm sure they noticed, after all you don't review a work like Samson without doing your homework. So we must assume that in a succinct review in print, it wasn't deemed worthy of notice. This is interesting in itself because the cuts meant that we lost 3 small solo parts (Israelite Man, Philistine Man and Virgin). Perhaps Handel oratorios are regarded as being so long that cuts are taken as read.

But this seems to be a very Handelian phenomenon. It is not so long ago that Covent Garden could mount a new production of Alcina for Yvonne Kenny and miss out an entire character (Oberto). Granted, this DID cause comment in critical circles. Imagine if someone put on, say, The Marriage of Figaro with one of the smaller characters cut entirely, perhaps Don Basilio or Dr. Bartolo, this would certainly cause a storm. Wouldn't?

There are, in fact, operas which I feel would be improved if certain characters were removed, but that's an entirely different article.

Review of "Adriana Lecouvreur"

My review of Sunday's performance of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur is here, on Music and Vision.

Free opera

www.classicaltv.com are promoting their new site by offering the Sky Arts video of the new ENO La Boheme as a free Webcast. Its free until March 2nd. So if you're curious about Jonathan Miller's new production or Alfie Boe's voice then here's your chance to fine out. You'll need the Microsoft Silverlight plugin.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of the Faure Requiem recorded by the French choir Accentus, using the original chamber version, is here.
Fine singing and playing but fails to tug the heart-strings and thrill the soul ...
And my review of an amazing French baroque arrangement of Vivaldi's Four Seasons is here, both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
Charming and convincing … lightness and deftness ...

The review that wasn't

To the Royal Opera house on Saturday for a performance of George Benjamin's new opera Into the Little Hill. This was being performed, in a double bill with Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Down by the Greenwood side in the Linbury Studio by the Opera Company with the London Sinfonietta. Both productions were by John Fulljames with designs by Soutra Gilmour.

They opened with the Birtwistle, which seems to have become something of a period piece. Set for soprano (Claire Booth) and four actors (Pip Donaghy, Wela Frasier, Robert Hastie and Julian Forsyth), it pits the soprano against the actors. The soprano sings a series of laments based on folk-songs about women murdering their illegitimate children. The actors, using rhythmical speech, act out an old mummers play about St. George and Bold Slasher. Fulljames updates things, making them all down and outs and subverts things by having St. George played by a black actor (Wela Frasier) and Bold Slasher (Robert Hastie) played as a skin-head. The work mines the seam of violence (in the action and in the music) which appears in Punch and Judy. But it seemed a strange, rag-bag of ideas; a rather period theatre-piece. My only complaint about the performance was that we couldn't hear any of Claire Booth's words.

After the interval we had Benjamin's new opera. Much anticipated, I may add. We had to wait some 15 or so after the end of the interval before the piece started. The set was abstract, imaginative and obviously a bit tricky to set up, the shale covering the stage seemed to give serious problems! Still once underway the piece enchanted. The 2 singers were Claire Booth and Susan Bickley and they played everyone, including the chorus. The plot is essentially The Pied Piper of Hamlin, a little update with an extremely lucid libretto by Martin Crimp. Then 10 to 15 minutes in, the lights failed. After a further 10 minutes we were ushered into the bar (where the lights were still on!) and offered a free drink. But by now it was nearly 9.30pm and it being 14th February, my partner and I had a dinner date. So I'm afraid we decamped. Eventually the performance recommenced in the bar itself.

I can see that I will have to wait even further for a proper hearing of Benjamin's opera. This is shame as it has all the markings of a fine and lucid piece. In the programme book, Benjamin talks about the orchestration being transparent so that the vocal lines can be in the foreground, without struggle. From the section I heard, this is very true as the singers got the words over beautifully and the lovely orchestration still told.

Also in the programme book, librettist Martin Crimp talks about how a text for music should have something missing; that a libretto should not draw attention to itself. That text for music can afford to stand still (whereas a play cannot), as music can provide the motion. Crimp's article was a testament to intelligent and lucid libretto design, it should be essential reading for all trainee librettists!

Review of "Samson"

My review of The Sixteen's performance of Handel's Samson from the Barbican on Thursday 12th February is here, on Music and Vision.

To the Barbican Centre last night for The Sixteen's performance of Handel's Samson (a review will appear in due course). Their 1996 recording of the work lasts some 205 minutes so we were not surprised to find the concert starting at 6.30pm, though getting to the Barbican by this time is always quite a challenge unless you have the sort of job where its OK to leave early. Not surprisingly the hall seemed to be full of rather flustered and stressed audients.

The programme said that there was only 1 interval, after Act 1, which was a surprise. In fact the work was cut, quite significantly. The article in the programme mentioned that it was common to cut the work, because of its length, but entirely failed to specify what cuts had been made. Surely some mention should have been made of the fact that three entire characters had disappeared!

In fact the cuts were such that we lost around 40 minutes of music and the concert finished at 9.30pm. Why on earth did the management of the Barbican Centre put us through the stress of arriving for a concert at 6.30pm if it was scheduled to last only 3 hours. We could have 1) started the concert later, 2) had more music, or 3) had two intervals. Or even a combination of the above.

All I can think is that when the concert was originally programmed, no-one had decided on the cuts so it was assumed that the work would be done full length. This isn't the first time that this has happened at the Barbican, its almost as if they delight in making us struggle to enjoy the music.

Recent CD Review

My review of Sir Andrew Davis's account of Handel's Messiah with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is here, on MusicWeb International.
A real symphonic account which respects Handel's original conception ...

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 ...