Recent CD Reviews

My review of the Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats from Yale is here.
Buy it if you are interested in early Mendelssohn. His Magnificat is strongly performed ...

And my review of Handel operatic arias with oboe obbligato is here.
Successfully mixes familiar and unfamiliar and performed with style, charm and a nice poignancy. What more could you want? ...

And here is the review of Racines Sacrees, a fascinating modern take on Middle-eastern music.
Imaginatively mixes modern and ancient in a stylish synthesis ...

Finally my review of Bernstein's Mass is here. All the reviews are at MusicWeb International.
You can’t help but admire the commitment and intensity … a diverse but cohesive whole. … terrific value ...

The Kings Consort

I've had two separate emails informing me that the Kings Consort is alive and well. Their website gives full details. Forthcoming are performances of the Matthew Passion in Lucerne, Spain and the Netherlands. Their current diary page lists October as their next London gig, when they are bringing Bach's Lutheran Masses to the Wigmore Hall.

Toby Spence sings Jacques Brel

On Sunday we went to the Wigmore Hall to see Toby Spence and the Scottish Ensemble, director Jonathan Morton. The Scottish Ensemble is a small string group, numbering some dozen or so players and is currently celebrating their 40th anniversary.

The theme of this concert developed over casual discussions after Toby Spence last sang with the group. Discovering that Spence had a wish to sing the songs of Jacques Brel, Jonathan Morton put together a programmes centring on these. The first half consisted of two of Satie's Gnossienes, beautifully played on solo piano by Andy Massey. The strings played Morton's own arrangement of four movements from Debussy's Children's Corne. The results worked surprisingly well on strings, crisply played by the Scottish Ensemble. Then the group were joined by accordionist Ian Watson for Kurt Schwertsik. This was a striking suite for strings and accordion. Schwertsik was a sometime assistant to Stockhausen but Adieu Satie is most definitely tonal, and each movement is firmly in dance form. The results are engaging and lively, though I am not sure quite what the link to Satie might be.

In the second half, strings, piano, accordion and percussion came together to accompany Toby Spence in 9 songs by Jacques Brel. These worked surprisingly well. Spence sang, naturally, without a microphone so the projection of words suffered somewhat. But the gains were the way he shaped the songs with a full lyric voice. With 14 instrumentalists on stage, the noise was sometimes quite loud. But the results were striking and rather inspiring. Between each song, Spence talked about the songs, his delivery was a little stilted but it helped to create a more casual atmosphere, very unlike the traditional Wigmore Hall concert.

The concert was recorded for the hall's record label and I look forward immensely to the results.

Retrospect Ensemble - Rachmaninov Vespers

To the Cadogan Hall on Thursday to hear the choir of the Retrospect Ensemble, conducted by Matthew Halls, perform Rachmaninov's Vespers. The slightly dry acoustics of Cadogan Hall are not an obvious location for Rachmaninov's rich, dark orthodox inspired piece. But perhaps they formed a fitting backdrop to a performance which was in the lighter, brighter English tradition. There were basses who went down to the famous low notes, but their voices did not resonate with the dark brilliance of some Slav ones. The other singers were competent in their Russian but sang with a light, beautifully moulded sound which was some way from the sounds of Russian Orthodox Choirs. Halls brought out the Romantic feel of the music, pushing it and moulding it to show that this was music by the creator of the famous symphonies and piano concertos.

The choir numbered some 22 singers and was inevitably made up from London's pool of talented singers, I knew at least two, one of whom has recorded for me. But I felt that the singers had not quite sung enough together, there was a strong feeling of a group of individuals rather than an ensemble. There were too many moments when there was a lack of unanimity about when to come in on Halls beat; this was particularly noticeable in an unforgiving piece like P&aauml;rt's Totus Tuus. There was a great deal to admire in the concert and both singers and conductor treated Rachmaninov with utmost sincerity and great intelligence. There were fine solo performances from Ruth Massey and Mark Dobell.

Before the concert started Matthew Halls made a short speech asking people not to clap until the end of each half. But this effect was rather ruined by the very audible harmonica-like sound of his pitch pipe, as he re-tuned the choir between each movement. Also, he informed us that there was going to be a short break in the 2nd half, between parts 2 and 3 of the Rachmaninov. It would have been fine if he'd just said that, but it seemed odd to emphasise that the break was because he was concerned for the health of his singers voices. Each time I've sung in the Rachmaninov, we've sung it through without a break and included another work in the first half.

The biography of the Retrospect Ensemble in the programme now makes no mention of the Kings Consort which seems a great shame and gives me a feeling of history being airbrushed.

The hall was not full but the audience were rightly most enthusiastic about the performance.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of volume 1 of Veracini's Overtures and Concertos from L'Arte dell'Arco is here.

This disc makes a strong case for Veracini's music...

And my review of a recital of Baroque violin concertos from Concerto Italiano is here. Both reviews are at MusicWeb International.

Four 18th century Italians whose music is dazzling - buy it ...

Sun, Italian Lakes and Contemporary music

The 2010 SoundSCAPE festival takes place at Lake Maggiore in the Italian lakes from 14th to 24th July. The festival mixes young performers with up and coming composers to provide a rich mix of coaching and performance. They run courses for both composers and for performers, involving residences from established performers and composers. All taking place in beautiful surroundings, sounds the perfect mix.

Next year!

Booking has opened already for both the Barbican's Great Performers Season 2010/11 and the LSO's 2010/11 season at the Barbican. For the Great Performers the Barbican give up to 20% discount to members if you book early, so there is great incentive to plan your life away. Besides there are some fabulous concerts.

Handel's Alcina, with Anja Harteros Vessalina Kassarova, Veronica Cangemi, Caitlin Hulcup and Les Musiciens du Louvre under Mark Minkowski, and Ariodante with Joyce DiDonato, Karina Gauvin and Il Complesso Barocco under Alan Curtis. Cecilia Bartoli is doing a programme based on Handel and his Rivals with Il Giardino Harmonico. and the Sixteen are doing Messiah.

Andreas Scholl and Philippe Jaroussky are giving a joint recital with Ensemble Artaserse which should have many music lovers salivating at he combination. As it is Pergolesi's anniversary year the English Concert are doing the Stabat Mater with Anna Caterina Antonacci and Sara Mingardo, plus music by Vivaldi and Porpora. And Ian Bostridge is doing a programme with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante performing Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Caldara, Handel and Boyce.

Further forward in time there is the Academy in Ancient Music under Richard Egarr doing Mozart's La Finta Giartiniera, Idomeneo performed by the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock with Steve Davislim, Camilla Tilling and Anna Caterina Antonnacci sand a performance of the Mass in C minor which includes Sally Matthews, Ann Hallenberg and Rainer Trost.

Then there are visits from the Houston Symphony under Hans Graf (Holst's The Planets), the LSO under Simon Rattle (Messiaen's Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum and Bruckner 9) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel (Mahler 9, Beethoven 7, Bernstein 1 and Adams's Slonimsky's Earbox).

Finally there is Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande with mainly French forces, Natalie Dessay, Simon Keenlyside, Laurent Naouri and the Orchestra de Paris under Louis Langree.

The LSO programme is not quite as interesting to us, partly because it concentrates on the late 19th and early 20th century symphonic repertoire. Though there is a performance of RVW's Oxford Elegy, a commission from Eric Whitacre, Elgar's The Kingdom, Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible plus a terrific concert from the NYSO.

So, as you can see there is plenty to tempt you, especially if you get 20% off. But it seems an alarming tendency in concert going for booking dates to get earlier and earlier, so that we now know what we are doing in May next year.

When a Man knows

Plans are now well advanced for the first performance of my new opera When a man knows. The opera is based on a one-act play by Alan Richardson which has been extensively performed all over the world, including a run at the King's Head in Islington. With just 2 characters, a man and a woman (baritone and soprano), the opera expands the cast to 4 by adding two chorus (alto and tenor) with an instrumental ensemble of piano, violin, clarinet and cello.

We are doing a concert performance at St. John's Waterloo as a try out, and plan to do a short run of more studied semi-staged performances of the revised work late this year, early next. As it last around 75 minutes, we'll be providing drinks afterwards in the hope that people will stay and discuss the new piece.

Here's the full blurb:

When a man knows

An opera in one act
by Robert Hugill

Based on the play by Alan Richardson, Robert Hugill's gripping new opera uses just 4 singers and 4 instrumentalists to create a taut music drama.

A man is tied up on a deserted warehouse.
Why is he there?
The shocking truth is revealed in a powerful new opera

FifteenB Productions present in concert the world premiere of Robert Hugill's When a man knows with Deborah Stoddart as the Woman and Dario Dugandzic as the Man, conducted by David Roblou.

Dark, disturbing, imaginative,
and yet compelling and intriguing piece of writing"
review of the original play

Tickets include a glass of wine after the performance and we hope that audience members will stay and give us their thoughts on and reactions to this exciting new opera.

Tickets price £10/ concessions £5 are available on the door or in advance from Islington Music, telephone 020 7354 3195.

presented by FifteenB productions

Recent CD Review

My review of Moniuszko's final opera Paria is here, on MusicWeb International.

For interested parties only. You may wonder what all the fuss is about. …

Opera goes to Prison

From Feb 26th to March 6th Pimlico Opera are going back to prison to present another of their inestimable theatrical presentations using prisoners. This time it is Carmen the musical, performed in Wandsworth Prison. This year's programme was put in jeopardy late last year, but luckily the Prison Service saw the light and understood how valuable this sort of programme can be in rehabilitation. In fact last year's Grange Park Opera included an ex-prisoner in the chorus, a past participant in one of Pimlico Opera's prison projects. Usually they present a musical, so this year's Carmen is a bit more of a stretch, but its certainly a fascinating prospect.

Coming to a PC near you, Opera Live

Opera Houses are slowly waking up to the possibilities of modern technology, in a piecemeal and varied sort of way. You only have to look at the way internet booking was taking up quickly by some and very slowly by others to understand how live hook-ups and video-streaming are being implemented quite patchily. Besides the high profile, high definition Cinema showings from the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera, there are a number of sites offering live opera streaming.

Now the Royal Opera Liege has joined the throng and the big advantage is that its free. So from the 2nd February for 5 days you can watch Bellini's Capuletti e Montecchi with Patrizia Ciofi and Laura Polveri directed by Claudia Muti (conductor Riccardo Muti's wife). With Rigoletto following in March.

Buxton Festival 2010

Besides the three main works in the Buxton programme (see this post), Luisa Miller (Verdi), The Barber of Baghdad (Cornelius) and Idomeneo (Mozart/R. Strauss), they will as usual be playing host to visiting opera companies.

The Opera Group will be reviving their production of George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill, which also comes to Covent Garden again. Psaphha will be doing Bernstein's magical little opera Trouble in Tahiti and the Opera Theatre Company will be bringing their production of Alcina. The Classical Opera Company will be performing Mozart's incomplete Singspiel Zaide, though plans for them to bring Arne's Artaxerxes (seen at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre) seem to have foundered.

The Habit of Art

Off to the National Theatre last night to see Alan Bennett's new play, The Habit of Art with Richard Griffiths and Alex Jennings. The fact that it is a play within a play meant that Bennett managed to mix in some profoundly funny lines, involving Rent Boys and all sorts of things, but also consider the profundities of creating a work of art. This latter was also a duality because at the centre of act 2 is a discussion between Auden (Richard Griffiths) and Britten (Alex Jennings) about the creating of Death in Venice which Britten is nervous about and Auden feels that Myfanwy Piper's libretto misses the point. Auden(Griffiths) also made an interesting point, that no-one hears the libretto and that its function is not to be heard but to inspire and usher in the music, the libretto should challenge the composer.

The Auden character raises an interesting point, that for Britten the Dionysius figure should be a schoolboy figure in blazer and whites; perhaps someone should do a production with a young looking baritone so that the dialogue between Apollo and Dionysius could be between two school-boys, both candidates for Britten's desire.

But overlaying this discussion is the fact that we are witnessing a rehearsal of the play, complete with Stage Manager (Frances de la Tour) so we have two levels of discussion about the strains of creating a work of art.

I much enjoyed the play and found it very thought provoking. Perhaps more than usual as it rather fed into my anxieties about my own new opera which is going to go into rehearsal later this year. So a very apt time to see a play about the problems of creating an opera.

In the first half Britten/Jennings does not really have a function in the plot, so the actor playing Britten has various pieces of business and occasionally accompanies a choir boy singing bits of Britten (The Ash Grove, parts of Turn of the Screw); the idea being the Britten is auditioning a choir boy for his next work. The young man singing (one of three listed in the programme) performed nicely.
Certainly a recommended event, though I would have been interested in the dynamic if the actor playing Auden (originally scheduled to be Michael Gambon), had actually looked like Auden

Recent CD Review

My review of a disc of Polish composer Romuald Twardowski's music is here, on MusicWeb International. The disc includes thw wonderful Exegi Monumentum plus Three Frescoes and Ioannes Rex

For anyone interested in exploring dramatically interesting late 20th century tonal music

V&A says goodbye to music

Its seems that the V&A plans to disperse its musical instrument collection. One of the advantages of major museum like the V&A having a collection of instruments is the serendipity of it, people can wander in without having planned to see them. I can well remember my childhood visits to the museum and being delighted at being able to see and hear the instruments. Also, as a museum of decorative arts, the instruments themselves are often of decorative interest as well. Gems include Elizabeth I's Virginals, a recorder (of ivory and tortoiseshell) which belonged to Rossini and two pianos owned and decorated by Burne-Jones.

The gallery is in need of refurbishment and I imagine that the collection itself might require a bit of investment. Instead of doing this, they plan to move part of the collection to the Horniman Museum (which has an excellent collection already), with the rest either going into store or being placed with other museums. This is on a par with the other reference collections in the museum, which generally seem to be either being played down or put into storage. The V&A is frankly running out of space and their drive to modernise and include more contemporary decorative arts, whilst entirely worthy, is meaning that bits and pieces are being squeezed.

The Horniman Museum is an entirely loveable and admirable institution, but it already has an overflowing collection of musical instruments (including its own holdings as well as the Dolmetsch collection). Also, it is in South East London, hardly well placed to attract lots of tourists. We need a musical collection in one of the National Museums.

The problem is that, in a museum of Decorative Arts, the musical instrument gallery looks a little out of place. You can understand collections of lace, pottery or iron-work. But the interest in the musical gallery was never completely decorative. In stead of bemoaning the instruments removal from the V&A perhaps we should be campaigning for their home in another more suitable museum. How about the Theatre Museum, oh I forgot, the V & A canned that one as well and have an etiolated version at South Kensington. Perhaps the Tate should make space for the gallery in their latest carbuncle at Bankside.

Too Loud

On Saturday we went to a preview of the play, The Little Dog Laughed which is about to open at the Garrick Theatre. It was an enjoyable, if relatively slight, piece with a stand-out performance from Tamsin Greig.

In order to provide 'atmosphere' the producers have decided to play pop music in the auditorium before the play and during the interval. This seemed to be set one or two levels too loud, almost preventing conversation. Rather than providing atmosphere, it seemed to impose itself on you and made me rather restive. At the interval, it was a relief to get out into the foyer - perhaps that was the idea, to drive you to the bar. When the music stopped and the show started such was the difference (reduction) in volume that it was a bit of a shock and you had to concentrate to listen to the singers properly.

Stile Antico at King's Place

On Thursday we went along to King's Place, our first visit for a long, long time, to see Stile Antico (artistic director Matthew O'Donovan) perform their programme In Paradisum - Swansongs and Memorials by the Renaissance masters. Stile Antico are a group of 13 young singers who perform unaccompanied, without conductor. Of the singers, 3 of them were common to the Chapelle du Roi, at whose December concert my own motet Videte Miraculum was performed.

Hall 1 at King's Place is not ideal for this sort of music. Granted it has a lovely, warm acoustic which set the group's tone off nicely, but what I missed was the resonance and acoustical warmth that comes from performing this repertoire in a church of the period. But there were gains, we were far closer to the singers and the result was a far more intimate recital than it might have been in a church.

Singing without a conductor when you are performing large scale pieces like Sheppard's Media Vita and Gombert's Magnificat primi toni means that something of the large scale shaping of the piece is lost, but the gains are significant as the group listen to each other and watch each other intently. The performances were intensely vivid and vital, you felt that each gesture counted. Yes, there were occasional moments when the larger scale pieces seemed to go onto automatic pilot and need a stronger direction, but these were few and I was impressed by how much control of scale there was. Only in Josquin's O Bone Jesu did they seem to lose their way a little.

But however much I enjoyed the other pieces in the programme (Byrd's Retire my soul, Lobo's Versa est luctum, Schütz's Herr, weenn ich nur Dich habe and the final spiritual madrigal from Lassus' Lagrime di San Pietro) it was to Sheppard's astonishing epic Media vita to which I come back. The group have just released a disc of Sheppard's music, including this piece, and the concert was in celebration of this.

The motets were separated by short pieces of plainchant from the Requiem mass, a rather beautiful solution to the scheduling. The result would have made an intensely pleasing pair of sequences for the first and the second half. But instead of keeping their positions on stage, the singers re-grouped for every item with a great deal of moving around and going on and off stage. The audience were thus encouraged to applaud each piece. What could have been an intensely moving continuous sequence of plainchant and polyphony, became instead a series of items in a concert. I felt that an opportunity had been missed. Add to this that, after some items, one or two of the audience seemed a little too keen to applaud, coming in just at that wrong moment when the piece was finished but hasn't quite gone.

Recent CD Review

My review of Handel's Teseo from Stuttgart Opera is here on MusicWeb International. I can't help wishing that one of the UK record companies could have captured some of the UK's Handel centenary opera performances the way Carus have here in Stuttgart.
A fine record of a memorable occasion …

Towards a new opera - DATE!

My new opera When a man knows is moving towards its first performance. I now have a venue, a date, a conductor and singers for the two leads. This week I will be sending out scores to the singers, which is always rather unnerving. In fact, the whole period between now and the concert makes me nervous as the work is exposed first to the performers and then to the public.

We plan a simple concert performance on Sunday June 13th 2010, at St. John's Church, Waterloo. There will be drinks afterwards so I can get feedback from the audience. The conductor will be David Roblou who runs Midsummer Opera.

Review of Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia

My review of the Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia is now on-line here, at Music and Vision. (Note that the site is now subscription, see Music and Vision for details).
Magnificent Scholarship...

Twelfth Night

The Royal Shakespeare Company are currently presenting Gregory Doran's production of Twelfth Night at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. We caught the play on Friday 10th Jan. Perhaps the most talked about feature of the production is Richard Wilson playing his first Shakespeare play at the age of 73. Wilson plays Malvolio, but is best known for playing the character of Victor Meldrew in One Foot in The Grave.

Doran sets the play firmly in Illyria, which became the Balkans, in the early 19th Century (i.e. the period when Byron was visiting the area). The leading players wear early 19th century costume and the others all wear local, traditional costumes. These looked authentic, the sort of clothing and accoutrements that you could buy from Joss Graham. To increase the authentic feel of the locale, Paul Englishby's music had a strong ethnic feel to it. I am not sure that Englishby got the sound quite right, I rather suspect that the Clarino would have been used; at least the instrument is prevalent in Greek folk musik. But that is a minor point, Englishby's music both played live on stage and behind the scenes went a long way towards establishing the correct atmosphere. The Duke (Jo Stone-Fewings) had a band of musician's at his disposal on stage, all gorgeously clad and Ashley Taylor-Rhys (who played Curio) also doubled as an instrumentalist.

Of course the play is most famous for the songs, written for the jester Feste (Miltos Yerolemou). Here I was not quite as impressed. Yerolemou's voice seemed to have just two settings, either a West End Musical bark (which he used sparingly) or a rather weak, husky tone. It was this latter which he used for most of the songs and this came over as rather unfocussed. At least one of the songs seemed to have a vocal line which was too elaborate for Yerolemou's comfort, which rather marred the performance, especially as it was doubled by an instrument. Yerolemou was however performing the songs in the character of Feste, so there is also the element of whether Doran and Englishby wanted the sound to be casual and less than perfect.

What I really want is a counter-tenor or high tenor singing with just a lute accompaniment in these songs. But I suspect that few actors capable of playing Feste have the requisite voice and that few counter-tenors or high tenor's would be interested in playing Feste in a long run of a play. It has to be said that Yerolemou made a strong and touching Feste, part of a brilliant ensemble cast.

Reviews rather tended to concentrate on Richard Wilson, but in fact it was the ensemble nature of the playing which impressed and the way Wilson did not really dominate. Though he did bring elements of Victor Meldrew with him. The comic sections with Sir Toby Belch (Richard McCabe) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (James Fleet) were rather less annoying than usual.

Column on the Salisbury Review

My column from the Winter edition of the Salisbury Review is now on-line here. It covers the issues surrounding James MacMillan's St John Passion and the issues of possible anti-semitism that the text raises.

Latest Press release - Spherical Editions

Latest publications of music by Robert Hugill

We are pleased to announce the latest additions to our catalogue of music by Robert Hugill. Included in the list are motets, anthems, an award winning song along music for piano and for chamber orchestra.

Awards
In March 2008 Robert's song He looked at me , setting a text by A.E. Houseman, came 3rd in the English Poetry and Song Society's A.E. Housman Competition. He looked at me is available in versions for tenor or baritone and piano, and is part of the Four Songs to Texts by A.E. Housman for tenor and piano.

Motets

Robert's motet Videte Miraculum was premiered by the Chapelle du Roi, conductor Alistair Dixon on Saturday 19th March 2010.

Ivan Hewett, writing on www.telegraph.co.uk , said Robert Hugill's Videte Miraculum soared too, especially at its ending, with the three sopranos perched at a perilous altitude (to their credit, they never wavered).'

And on Seen and Heard they said 'This had a lovely opening and a simple, well considered structure, with the harmonies based in tonality but moving gradually to build up tension through dissonance. Hugill made use of parallel and contrary motion to excellent effect, and motivic sections returned to give a sense of overall coherence. He also used a wide range of textures, including unisons, octaves and polyphony in different numbers of parts. This was another well written work which deserves further performances.'

The anthem, Thou O Christ , setting words by St. Symeon the New Theologian was premiered at St. Botolph without Bishopsgate at a service celebrating St. Symeon. Also new to the catalogue are Lege mich wie ein Siegel , an unaccompanied setting of Luther's translation of 'Set me as a seal upon thine Heart' , and A New Song , an upbeat and rhythmic setting of Psalm 98.

Other works

Also new are two short piano sketches, based on two poems by Robert Browning, Two Sketches after Poems by Browning . And Concerto Piccolo reworks material from Robert's Blake setting, What Is Man? (which is included on Robert's current CD from Divine Art), to form an attractive sequence of recitatives and arias for chamber orchestra.

Full list of new works

Please contact David Hughes at Spherical Editions if you would like a review copy of the score or any of these

He Looked at me - soprano (or tenor) and piano [sph006012] - £1
Four Songs to A.E. Housman - tenor and piano [sph006511] - £3

Videte Miraculum - choir:SSAATTBB, Latin text [sph001021] - £2
Thou, O Christ - choir:SATB, English text [sph004212] - £1
A new song - choir:SATB, English text [sph004211] - £1
Lege mich wie ein Siegel - choir:SATB, German text [sph004210] - £1

Two Sketches for Piano after poems by Browning - piano solo [sph007514] - £1
Concerto Piccolo - Chamber orchestra (2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings) full score [sph007012] - £4
Individual parts (flute1, flute2, oboe1, oboe2, clarinet1, clarinet2, bassoon1, bassoon2, horn1, horn2, violin1, violin2, viola, cello and bass) £2 each.
For a set of parts, 20% discount applies.

Notes for Editors: Spherical Editions publish the full catalogue of London based classical composer Robert Hugill. The entire catalogue is available for purchase on-line, also available on the web site are audio samples and sample pdf's.


Sample PDF's

Chelsea Opera Group

Chelsea Opera Group are venturing into more popular territory for their next concert. On Sunday Feb 21st they will be performing Verdi's La Traviata at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, conducted by Gianluca Marciano. No unusual editions or rarity value here, but a fine opportunity to hear Nelly Miricioiu as Violetta. Miricioiu, is perhaps a bit mature for an ideal Violetta, but this represents a rare chance to hear her in London in mainstream repertoire. Apart from the odd Tosca, she has been represented in London in recent years mainly by more out of the way operas. For which we are profoundly grateful, but for once it will be interesting to hear her here. Germont Pere will be sung by Alan Opie, so we can be sure of some fireworks in Act 2.

Baroque Opera - patchwork or perfection

When we consider opera performances during the baroque period we rather tend to consider them the way we might a contemporary performance of the same work. Granted there were castrato voices and the production values were different, but the essential works were the same. Going to see Handel's Giulio Cesare in London in 1732, when Handel last revived it, then we would hear pretty much the same work as has been recorded in the 20th and 21st centuries. Wouldn't we.

Well, Up to a point, Lord Copper. Baroque opera required an impresario and for much of Handel's later operatic career he functioned as his own impresario. But if the Impresario was not a composer then the opera company would have one or more composers as their call. It tended to be the libretto, rather than the composer, which was chosen first. So that if you had wandered around Italy at the time you could have picked up repeated settings of the same libretto by different composers. Singers often travelled with suitable libretto which would be re-set.

But this presupposes that the composer was in charge of what was actually performed and most of the time he wasn't. Première runs would usually be the only time when the opera stood a chance of being performed as the composer wrote. Each revival would be re-worked for a new cast. And if the composer wasn't available, then another musical hand brought in by the Impresario would do it. Sometimes, with star singers or if the revival was put on in short order, arias would be imported from other operas.

Handel did a lot of this. When he revived his operas he behaved like an Impresario and Handel the Impresario was rather cavalier with Handel the Composer. There are examples of revivals where the star castrato sang no arias by Handel, but simply included suitable arias that he already knew. On desperate occasions, Handel let singers perform arias by other composers, when less desperate he substituted other arias from his own operas.

The ultimate of this is the Pasticcio, where an existing libretto was fitted with pre-existing arias and one of the Impresario's tame composers cooked up some suitable recitative. We have to understand that for many of the Italian speaking audiences, the libretto was the thing followed by the voices. Something of this was true in London as well, though the Londoners were less tolerant of large amounts of Italian recitative.

When Telemann produced Handel's operas in Hamburg tended to do new recitatives, in German, and adjusted the arias. No-one ever thought of the manuscript as a musical bible, it was more of a source book.

This means that if our time travel happened to wander in to an opera performance during the baroque period, they would be unlikely to encounter the sort of musical thoroughness that we apply today. The performance would almost certainly have an element of musical patchwork to it.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Kile Smith's Vespers, performed by the early music group Piffaro is here.
A brilliant new work in the spirit of the Lutheran Vespers service ...

And my review of Vivaldi's opera Argippo is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
A lively and personable, if imperfect, account ...

Further mentions

I've just discovered that the concert by the Chapelle du Roi, conductor Alistair Dixon, on 19th December which featured my new motet Videte Miraculum, was on Mark Pappenheim's Top Ten list in the Independent on 19th December. Very gratifying, especially as I was mentioned by name.

Les Troyens in Amsterdam

On Monday I logged into the Netherlands Opera's web site www.dno.nl, Monday being the first day of booking for their production of Berlioz's Les Troyens which opens in April. And, by the wonders of Modern Technology, we acquired two tickets in the 1st Balcony for the performance on 4th April 2010. I can still remember the amount of paper work or phone calls which used to have to be suffered before you could buy ticket abroad, before the invention of the internet. It is a great boon for itinerant opera lovers such as ourselves that you can book on-line. The take up has not been universal and some opera houses were faster than others. when we booked to go and see Susan Chilcott in Poulenc's Carmelites in Amsterdam in the '90s we had to spend rather a long time on the telephone. Whereas I seem to remember that Dresden Opera House had on-line booking quite early on. But Munich had an arcane system whereby you had to write to them to request tickets, then if you got tickets they wrote to you and you had to send them a cheque (no credit cards).

On-line booking is wonderful for serendipitous opera going. Last year I read about the new production of Carmen at the Opera Comique in Paris, conducted by John Eliot-Gardiner. The Opera Comique Web-site was most helpful, we were free and there were tickets. Bingo!

In Amsterdam we will be seeing the revival of Pierre Audi's 2003 production, one that we missed in 2003 when we managed to see Trojans in London, New York and Paris. This time round Eva Maria Westbroek is Cassandre, Yvonne Naef is Didon and Bryan Hymel is Enee, with John Nelson conducting. I can't wait

Review of Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia

Magnificent Scholarship

My review of the magnificent new Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia is now on Music and Vision. (Note that the sight is moving to being a subscription site so you will have to register to read the review I'm afraid).

ETO plans for autumn

English Touring Opera will be hitting the road again in March with Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, visiting 16 different venues around the country.

But more interesting are their plans for Autumn 2010, because they will be premiering a new opera by Alexander Goehr, based on King Lear. Goehr remains an under-valued figure when it comes to opera in the UK. Covent Garden performed his re-working of Arianna in 1995, but despite being fascinating, well-made and utterly approachable, the work has never been revived by them. (Though a subsequent Cambridge production has led to a recording on NMC). I'm not sure whether his epic opera based on the Anabaptist uprising in Munster, Behold the Sun, has ever been performed; and I seem to remember that there were issues with the musical text that the Deutsche Oper chose to perform, so that I don't think it was premiered in the composer's preferred version.

So it is with great interest that ETO will not only be premiering Promised End but will be touring it round the UK. The opera will have a libretto based on King Lear by Frank Kermode. The ETO press release describes the librettists as William Shakespeare edited by Sir Frank Kermode so, unlike Thomas Ades and The Tempest, it looks as if Goehr will be setting Shakespeare's words.

Of course, such a heavy-weight piece requires a strong cast and Roderick Earl will be playing Lear, Nigel Robson is Gloucester and Lina Markeby plays both Cordelia and the Fool, The Conductor is Ryan Wigglesworth and the director is James Conway.

With such a meaty piece to prepare and tour, the question of course is what to put with it. Here, ETO have hit on the theme of Drama and are presenting Sheridan's The Duenna in the original musical version with music by Thomas Linley (both Junior and Senior) which hasn't been revived for over 100 years. We are all familiar (in theory even if not in fact) with Prokofiev and Roberto Gerhard's version of this story, so it will be illuminating to hear the Georgian original. Richard Suart will be playing Don Jerome.

Review of New Year's eve concert at the Wigmore Hall

For their New Years eve concert at the Wigmore Hall, Florilegium joined forces with Dame Emma Kirkby to put together a programme devoted to the music of Handel and Purcell. Florilegium opened with Handel's Concerto Grosso Opus 3, No. 3 in the alternative version for flute rather than oboe. I must confess that I missed the oboe's edgier tone in the texture but the group gave the piece a lively and attractive performance. A greater issue was the use of double bass on the bass line, which with such a small group of players seemed to give the piece an overly dark sound.

This was followed by Handel's cantata Tra le fiamme with Emma Kirkby. Accompanied by such a small instrumental group (just 1 instrument to a part) gave the piece an intimate chamber feel, very much like that of the early performances in the Palazzi in Rome I would suspect.

There then followed Handel's Concerto a Quattro, which was described as an expansion of Handel's Trio Sonata in D minor to include a substantial cello part for Count Rudolf Franz Erwin, a passionate cellist. Though there seems to be no mention of the work, or Count Erwin, in the new Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. Still, it was a charming piece with a showy cello part.

The first half finished with Sweet Bird from L'Allegro, where Emma Kirkby duetted with Ashley Solomon's recorder. In both her vocal contributions Emma Kirkby's voice was perhaps not quite as flexible as it was, but this was balanced by a new depth both to her vocal colouring and to her interpretations. The problem with hearing older performers is that you have to banish their younger selves from your ears, it is a problem of longevity. And Kirkby is still one of the finest Handelian sopranos around, she understands that there is no need for volume and knows how to make each not count musically. Also, her stage manner is as charming and welcoming as ever.

The second half was devoted to Purcell. Suites from The Fairy Queen opened and closed, and in between we had Music for a While, Sweeter than Roses, The Plaint (from The Fairy Queen) and An Evening Hymn, plus a selection of Chaconnes from the ensemble. Kirkby was heartbreakingly beautiful and moving in the Purcell songs and the ensemble made an involving and lively contribution. All in all a wonderful evening. The encore was an aria from Solomon, given in what was effectively an chamber reduction, but marvellous.

And another review

This time on the Seen and Heard web site, by Carla Rees.

Videte Miraculum was heard in versions by Tallis, using a spacious six part texture and in a world premiere version by Robert Hugill. This had a lovely opening and a simple, well considered structure, with the harmonies based in tonality but moving gradually to build up tension through dissonance. Hugill made use of parallel and contrary motion to excellent effect, and motivic sections returned to give a sense of overall coherence. He also used a wide range of textures, including unisons, octaves and polyphony in different numbers of parts. This was another well written work which deserves further performances.

Recent CD Review

My review of Salvatore Sciarrino's Madrigali is here, on MusicWeb International.
Not for the faint-hearted … uncompromising but rewarding ...

Recent CD Review

My review of Robin de Raaff's opera Raaff is here, on MusicWeb International.
Should be of interest to anyone who loves opera and wants to know where it might be going in the 21st century ...

As seen in the Telegraph

A nice review of Saturday's St. John's Smith Square concert from Ivan Hewett in the Telegraph - 'Robert Hugill's Videte Miraculum soared too, especially at its ending, with the three sopranos perched at a perilous altitude (to their credit, they never wavered).'

Premiere

Well Saturday's concert went off well. Alistair Dixon and La Chapelle du Roi gave a fascinating concert mixing old and new with premieres by Paul Ayres and Gabriel Jackson along with my own piece. It was fascinating to hear Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium performed by just 9 singers rather than by the plushly upholstered tones of a large group of singers. I was extremely pleased with Videte Miraculum, and it was fascinating to re-acquaint myself with a work written some months ago.

New Lamps for Old

My motet Videte Miraculum gets its premiere tomorrow in the Chapelle du Roi's New Lamps for Old concert. My motet sets the same text as Thomas Tallis's respond Videte Miraculum and there will be similar new/old pairings from Francis Pott, Kenneth Leighton, Morton Lauridsen, Paul Ayres and Gabriel Jackson.

Recent CD Review

My review of Handel's cantata Apollo and Dafne is here.
Showing its age but certainly in the realms of the interesting and, perhaps, desirable. ...

Messiah at ENO

Last night we went to see ENO's staging of Messiah. Well we managed the first 2 parts and I'm afraid that we left at the second interval. The Part 1 was almost OK and had the odd magical moment. The designs were superb, complete with a reflective floor and some imaginative video installations (sets Tom Pye, lighting Jean Kalman, Video Lexo Warner, Lysander Ashton and Tom Pye). The costumes were casual modern, which meant that the men of the chorus as usual looked profoundly stuffy and they had managed to make Catherine Wyn-Rogers look frumpy which is quite an achievement.

I can see the point of staging the piece in a setting which mirrors the actions of everyday life, with all sorts going on. But I am afraid that I lost patience as soon as the first cute tot dashed across the stage. This particular tot (Max Craig) was rather ubiquitous and Deborah Warner seemed to use him to undercut arias and moments of drama. This was made most manifest in the turning of the 'And there were shepherds' section into a school nativity play with lots of cute kids. This was a shame as treble (either Harry Bradford or Louis Watkins) was excellent.

At moments of drama she also introduced dancers (choreography Kim Brandstrup). This increased in Part 2 when the opening section, including He was despised accompanied a strange dance of a young man being beaten up and then being comforted by Catherine Wyn-Rogers, with the chorus watching. The later sections of this part seemed to be taking place at some sort of revival meeting. I felt that in this part, Warner had lost her way somewhat and was at a loss to know what to do with the chorus especially in the more complex movements. So she did as little as possible with them.

There were some striking images, but the happy-clappy evangelical atmosphere engendered seemed at odds with Handel's music. Frankly, I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed, just listening. The soloists were a decent bunch. Soprano Sophie Bevan had to cope with some startlingly fast speeds from conductor Lawrence Cummings, but did superbly though she rather tended to over-ornament. Catherine Wyn-Rogers was profoundly moving and it was a shame that she had been encouraged to bellow sections of He was despised. Tenor Eamonn Mulhall was a last minute replacement for ailing John Mark Ainsley. Mulhall was impressive, though he did not quite seem to have got the measure of the tricky Coliseum acoustic. Brindley Sherratt was wonderful as the bass soloist, combining drama with sympathy for Handel's style.

The chorus were a little taxed by the music, and there were some moments of frankly raw singing particularly from the tenors. The staging used a community group in addition to the choir and I felt that Warner and Cummings should have had the courage of their convictions and used a larger choir with a full symphony orchestra in the pit. As it was, Cummings seemed to be treading a strange line between period and modern practice.

So all in all, a rather mixed view, I'm afraid. As a raison d'etre for staging Messiah the jury is still out as far as I am concerned.

Review of Christine Brewer / Charles Mackerras Wagner concert

My review of the concert of music by Wagner given by Christine Brewer and Charles Mackerras with the Philharmonia Orchestra on 10th December at the South Bank is here.

Digging into the past

Some years ago I was given a pair of 19th century bound volumes labelled plays. The bindings gave no clue as to who had had the contents bound. Inside were some dozen librettos for performances by the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden. Each libretto listed the work to be performed, the orchestral members (by surname) and conductor (always Michael Costa) along with the artists involved. For some productions the designers of the scenery were named, always the same people. No dates were given. All operas were sung in Italian, including Fidelo and Les Huguenots.

There were various interesting points. No director was ever named. The orchestral players are all men and are listed by surname only, but the chorus members are not mentioned at all. The repertoire consists of operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Bellini, Mozart and Beethoven. As I have no information on the original owner of the wordbooks, I have no way of knowing whether the selection is the complete picture. For instance there is no Verdi, despite I Masnadieri being premiered in London in 1847.

I have finally got in contact with the Royal Opera House archives and they have been able to confirm the dates for the librettos, they range from 1849 to 1854, with most being clustered around just a couple of years. Interestingly the House's archives are not complete as a lot was lost in the fire in 1857.

This is the second time recently that we have been attempting to trace an exact date for a musical document. Previous D. had had access to a fragment of manuscript with a partial rehearsal schedule call for Aldeburgh on it under Britten's direction, requiring some fascinating research into Aldeburgh performances under Benjamin Britten.

A tale of two counter-tenors

Last night we went to the Wigmore Hall for Bejun Mehta's recital with Nicholas Drake accompanying on piano. And last week we went to the Barbican for Philippe Jaroussky's concert with Concerto Köln. Both counter-tenors are in the current vanguard of young start counter-tenors. Both have relatively high-placed voices which enable them to sing a wider range of pieces than is commonly associated with counter-tenors.

Jaroussky stuck firmly to baroque repertoire, mixing operatic arias by J.C. Bach with more well known ones by Handel. Jaroussky's voice is sweet and beautiful, but does not strike me as being exceptionally powerful. He does, though, have an upward extension which means that he has greater flexibility and control in his upper reaches and seemed unphased by top E's (and perhaps even F's) [at concert pitch, I've no idea what the written pitch of the notes was]. This is allied to a strong technique, which meant that he was able to dash off with ease the virtuoso vocal parts written by J.C. Bach.

I am not sure that Handel was the best partner for the J.C. Bach arias, as Handel's ability to mine the depths of emotion, with relatively economical means rather showed up J.C. Bach's showier (flashier?) arias, which seemed to skim the surface, but did so in a quite brilliant manner. One could understand why his music was popular. Especially when these vocal lines were coupled to attractive proto-Mozartian accompaniments.

Concerto Köln played conductorless and there were times when I felt that a stronger guiding hand might have helped. Jaroussky had a tendency to go over-board in the da capo sections of the Handel arias, re-writing the vocal line in an alarming manner. This is definitely a place where less is more.

Mehta in his recital, ranged far more widely, creating a programme which would not have been out of place for a variety of more traditional song recital voices. He started with Purcell and Haydn's English Canzonets. Finished the first half with Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte. Then in the second half gave us a ravishing selection of English song from Vaughan Williams, Howells, Stanford, Lennoz Berkely, Gurney and Warlock.

Mehta's voice is similarly quite highly placed, and he sang most of the songs in quite high keys, providing plenty of top E's. But Mehta's voice also has darker tones than Jaroussky's and I was conscious at times of Mehta's managing his voice in its upper register, whereas I wasn't conscious of this with Jaroussky.

Mehta seems to be conscious of delivery a finely crafted vocal line, and sometimes seemed to sacrifice other elements to the beauty of line. There was a feeling that he rather slid round the notes a little too much, his technique seemed far more suitable for the songs in the 2nd half than the first. Or perhaps it was just that he had relaxed a bit more. For whatever reason, the Purcell and Haydn, whilst beautifully done, rather failed to make their mark completely. I think that Mehta is also a little to interventionist and perhaps needed to find a vein of plangent simplicity [something he did only at the end with a lovely performance of Music for a While as his final encore].

Beethoven's cycle was well crafted and dramatic, but I wanted more a feeling of the words.

But in the English songs, technique and music seemed to come together. Mehta's plangent tones exactly suited the songs. Voice, artists and composer seemed to come together perfectly in Howells The little boy lost and The Willow Bird. Stanfords La Belle Dame sans merci enabled Mehta to demonstrate his dramatic skills.

Both counter-tenors explored new repertoire, Jaroussky brilliantly venturing 4 barely-known J.C. Bach arias which needed (and got) a brilliant technique to make them work. American born and trained Mehta was also venturing into new repertoire, not only was his recital unusual territory for a counter-tenor, but for Mehta himself the English song repertoire was relatively unfamiliar territory.

Now out on AudioBook

The play for which I wrote incidental music, Candle Dancing by Coni Koepfinger, has been released as an audio-book. The audio book includes a little of my original incidental music as background to the readings, enough to give you a flavour of the original 1998 production. The audio-book is available from Tate Publishing here.

War and Peace

Prokofiev wrote War and Peace in 1942, but there followed over a decade of changes before he could get the opera performed. Even when he submitted it to the Soviet Authorities in 1941/1942 he was forced to make changes. Now Dr. Rita McAllister has gone back to the original manuscripts, notably the composer's piano score, to reconstruct Prokofiev's first thoughts, his original setting of the opera in 11 scenes. This has included McAllister having to orchestrate some 450 bars of music. Dr McAllister's article about her new edition can be read here. From the first Prokofiev had to re-work the War scenes to comply with the Soviet authorities desire to make them more patriotic. The 10 year process of re-working emphasised the public, patriotic at the expense of the personal in the opera.

Now a collaboration between the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Rostov State Rakhmaninov Conservatoire is bringing this first version of the opera to the stage in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It will be fascinating to see Prokofiev's first thoughts. War and Peace is one of those operas which has no definitive version; many of Prokofiev's revisions were done at the behest of others and take on an increasingly desperate nature as he tried to get the opera performed. Having a good edition of his first thoughts (previously hidden in the Soviet Archives) will enable us to make more informed decisions about what to include (and to miss out) of future performances.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of a disc of Bach Missae Breves is here.
Now showing its age ...

And my review of Emmanuelle Haim's new recording of Handel's oratorio La Resurrezione is here. Both reviews on MusicWeb International.
Time and again my ear was drawn to the lovely instrumental contributions ...

Conch shells and horns

On of the most striking moments in the recent performance of Gluck's Alceste by Chelsea Opera Group was during Act 3 the Infernal God summons Alceste and is meant to be blowing into a conch shell. The composer writes for two horns, playing in unison, but the horn players hold the bells of their horns nearly together and the horns act as sort of mutes for each other. The effect is described by Berlioz in his Treatise on Orchestration. It both looks and sounds fascinating; looks, because of course, it is rather a contortion for two horn players standing side by side to place their bells together as the instruments are played laterally. And it sounds hauntingly fascinating. Though it doesn't seem to be a commonly used effect.

Recent CD Review

My review of Christmas a cappella from Chicago a Cappella is here, on Music and Vision.
... I would have liked a little more grit ..

Les Arts Florissants - Grands Motets

Last Thursday (sorry for the late posting) we went to the Barbican to see the final concert in Les Art Florissants 30th Birthday jamboree. The audience seemed to include rather more of the great and good than usual, reflection of the high status that this celebration has been achieving.

Whereas the earlier events had covered much of their more recent musical explorations, this concert went back to their roots presenting music by Rameau, Lully, Campra and Desmarest. What we got was 4 works, a Grand Motet by each composer. All were written for the same sort of ensemble, choir, group of soloists and orchestra with trumpets added for some movements.

All 4 composers used large groups of soloists with all 6 (Amel Brahim-Djelloul soprano, Emmanuelle de Negri soprano, Toby Spence tenor, Cyril Auvity tenor, Marc Mauillon baritone, Alain Buet bass) being employed in the final Lully Te Deum. Though there were solos, all composers used small groups of singers to contrast with the larger choir. In fact there was rather a lot of inevitable coming and going. You got the feeling that the original motets, written for sacred use, would probably have had the solo parts sung by choir members so that the division between solo, ensemble and choir was less obvious. It was a shame that this could not be done, but with the choir placed behind the large orchestra it was difficult to see how this could have been achieved on the rather limited Barbican stage.

Toby Spence's voice has darkened and grown larger since he regularly sang for William Christie (I remember him memorably in a performance of Rameau's Les Boreades some years ago), but he has not lost the flexibility and sang with great beauty even if he was slightly louder than ideal at times. Cyril Auvity sang the high tenor roles and the two of them had a number of memorable duets.

Though all four composers wrote music of interest, the palm surely goes to Rameau for his spectacular orchestrations in his motet, Deus Noster, with its depictions of tempests. The formal part of the evening concluded with Lully's very grand Te Deum, which uses two choirs as well as all 6 singers. But this was not the end. We got two encores, the second of which Tendre Amour from Les Indes Galantes was sung by everyone, with the soloists joining the choir. The result was sensuously beautiful and so romantic as to be incredible.

Review of "Alceste"

My review of Gluck's Alceste from the Chelsea Opera Group is here, on Music and Vision.

OAE's Dream of Gerontius

The problem with period performance is that we do not always have period voices to go with the period instrumental performances. In early music this can be fudged, to a certain extent, because we don't actually know what the singers sounded like. But in Baroque opera there is no getting away from the fact that Handel, Hasse, Vivaldi et al wrote for some of the greatest voices of the day. And if the greatest voices of our day sing this repertoire then compromises have to be made, often in terms of vibrato etc.

When it comes to Elgar things are both more and less complicated. We have recordings to supplement the writings and musical manuals, so that we know a great deal about the types of sound produced and techniques used. But the singers of the day used rather different techniques, with generally a narrower focus in the voice and a tighter control of vibrato.

As a sample of what this means, consider RVW's Serenade to Music. It was recorded by the original singers, most of whom were quite mature when the recording was made. But nowadays the work is performed with younger singers, partly because when opera singers mature their voices often develop far more significant vibrato than their forebears; that this is not a hard and fast rule is indicated by the fact that one of the basses on the original recording has a very, very intrusive vibrato.

But it is not just vibrato and width focus which are a concern, there is also the issue of the use of portamento as ornament, a technique which is generally anathema to modern singing techniques, partly I think because combined with a profound vibrato it can sound rather as if the singer has no idea where the destination note is and is simply sliding up to it.

These thoughts occurred to me as I listened to the magical opening of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius at the Royal Festival Hall last night (24/11/2009) in a performance by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Jeremy Skidmore, with the Ex Cathedra XL Anniversary Choir and Susan Bickley, Adrian Thompson and Roderick Williams as soloists. Skidmore and the OAE gave us a truly magical account of the prelude, with a tone quality which took me back to those early Elgar recordings. The strings used vibrato sparingly, and the balance was more in favour of the wind; the wind and brass played on period instruments which had differences in timbre to their modern counterparts. The whole orchestral sound felt far less uniformly homogeneous than a modern group, perhaps because it was not founded on the base a warm, all-encompassing vibrato-led string tone.

When Adrian Thompson came in, it became apparent that whilst he was a willing participant in the experiment, his voice and technique was slightly at odds to the prevailing style. Thompson is mainly known in the UK as a character tenor, but his repertoire stretches to Loge and bigger roles. When singing quietly he gave is beautifully intense tone, but in the bigger moments, when his voice opened up, his vibrato became very pronounced. If he had been singing with the London Symphony Orchestra this would not have been too disturbing (when I heard David Rendall in the role with the LSO his notable vibrato was quite acceptable in the context). But it WAS noticeable given that the orchestra were using it sparingly. Hence my thoughts about period voices. But the volume that the orchestra produced was noticeably less than a modern orchestra and without the extensive vibrato, the string tone died quicker. So this meant that Thompson was able to sing much more of the piece in his lighter, more concentrated tones. And he did give us some discreet use of portamento.

At the big moments,I could not rid myself of the thought that Thompson's expression was applied to his voice, rather than done via the voice. So that moments like Sanctus fortis did not count for as much as when done by, say, Richard Lewis.

Roderick Williams was a notable presence as the bass soloist, singing in his familiar warm, rich tones, though you felt his performance would have been pretty much the same had he sung the role with the LSO. Though given his musicality, this was no bad thing.

As the Angel, Susan Bickley had to step in at the very last moment as the planned singer (Anna Stephany) was ill. Inevitably Bickley's performance was a little more understated and more careful than it might have been in regular circumstances. It was noticeable how the singer used the transparency of the orchestra to sing passages in far quieter manner than she otherwise might have done; the moments when she did let go were made all the more climactic. Bickley's performance was beautifully musical and concentrated.

Skidmore used a choir of just 100 singers; small for a regular Gerontius, but they made a good impression here. Using a slightly smaller group, with a preponderance of young voices, meant that we got a cleaner, more disciplined sound which was focussed and tidy in a way which is harder with a larger group. That said, there was no loss of power at the climaxes, notably in Praise to the Holiest. But the climaxes were not simply about noise, you noticed far more Elgar's attention to orchestration and timbres. The performance seem somehow far more subtle than a modern one, with blazing climaxes.

In the programme book, there were a series of interviews with orchestra personnel describing the instruments that they were playing on; instruments which are both similar too and different from those of modern orchestras. Notably amongst the instruments used were Denis Brain's horn and Elgar's own Trombone!

I must confess to not being as moved as I have been in some performances of Gerontius. There again, the most moving performance of the title role that I have heard was when Richard Lewis sang it with the LPO with Bernard Haitink conducting. Lewis was in his 70's and had just had both his hips replaced, his tone quality was what it was, but you felt that he lived and breathed the part. When He sang Sanctus fortis the expression was all in the voice, not applied. And when he opened Act 2 (I went to sleep and now I am refreshed) you felt he meant it. Also notable about that performance, the harpist was Sidonie Goosens who had actually played under Elgar!

The Dream of Gerontius is a difficult work to get right, and, given the fact that period performances of the work are extremely rare, we should regard this as a work in progress. Skidmore and his forces got so many things right, particularly the magical timbres and flexibility of the orchestra, and the beauty of the choral tone. So I hope that we can look forward to further experiments and a recording at some point.

Towards a new Opera (4)

Having worked through the score of the new opera two or three times, I am currently in the process of creating the piano reduction which is always a good discipline. Even though the work is currently written for only 5 accompanying instruments (piano, violin, clarinet and cello), creating a single piano part out of them is sometimes a bit challenging, requiring some deft jigsaw work. It also provides me with a different view of the accompaniment and helps to shape it.

Once I have something approaching the vocal score I will then play it through a few times. Given that my piano playing is rather limited, this means that the neighbours have to put up with me bashing away rather slowly. It might sound primitive and limiting, but I find it enormously helpful to see how the work feels under my fingers.

I am thinking of expanding the orchestration, but will probably wait until after I am able to organise a performance of the work next year. So that we can see how it works in its current form. I rather fancy adding some percussion, but have not yet come up with any concrete ideas.

Review of The Tsarina's Slippers

My review of the new production of Tchaikovsky's The Tsarina's Slippers at Covent Garden is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Review

My review of Bach's St. John Passion from Il Fondamento and Paul Dombrecht is here, on MusicWeb International.

Little to set it apart from its rivals ...

Review of Turandot

On Friday we went to see the new production of Puccini’s Turandot at the London Coliseum. ENO’s first ever production of Puccini’s final opera has been coming in for rather mixed reviews, especially as Rupert Goold’s production is distinctly untraditional.

First we have to understand that Puccini’s Turandot is no more Chinese than Sullivan’s Mikado is Japanese. The libretto for Puccini’s opera was based on a play by the Venetian playwright Gozzi, who in turn based his play on a Persian legend. So setting the opera in naturalistic China makes no particular sense and usually directors feel free to pick and choose the sort of exoticism that they use. But the main concern is to create a dramatically coherent production, not with ultra-naturalism; Turandot set in medieval China only makes sense if the drama works.

Of course, Puccini’s music is so infused with exoticism that it would be difficult to set the opera in, say, a spa town in the Italian Alps.

So we should not get too worked up if Rupert Goold has chosen to set his production of Turandot in a completely demented Chinese restaurant. In fact he and designers Miriam Buether and Katrina Lindsay have delivered up a vividly theatrical event. The first act takes place inside a Chinese restaurant, with the guards replaced by dominatrix waitresses. In the centre is the door to the kitchen, from which all sorts of nastiness appears. Ping, Pang and Pong are re-cast as chefs.

The first scene of Act 2 takes place on the fire escape stairs at the back of the restaurant, where Ping, Pang and Pong are taking a quick cigarette break, then the second half of Act 2 returns to the restaurant. Act 3 takes place in the kitchens, with the central cooking range being used for the torture of lieu.

So far so good and generally the dramaturgy works. But I had three main problems with the production. Firstly, the chorus are dressed as archetypes, from Elvis impersonators to nuns, as if they are intended to represent humanity, a detail which I thought meant that Goold was preaching a little too much. This was, however, a relatively minor point. More importantly, Goold has invented a character, the Writer, who is entirely silent but seems to direct the action, sometimes actually manipulating the singers and arranging the events. This is Goold’s take on the incompleteness of the opera. Because in Act 3, the Wreiter leaves the stage with Liu’s body, only to find he has been locked out and that the characters have taken over. Finally, Turandot kills him and during the final apotheosis the Emperor does not appear on stage, instead the singers stare out at us intently as if he is in the audience. Instead the slowly dying author takes centre stage. This was a mistake, too often Scott Handy’s Writer took attention away from the important cast members. If the production could be re-worked to avoid this unnecessary character then I think it would be a satisfying and vividly theatrical experience.

And the third problem? Well Goold is inexperienced in opera and in terms of generating good performances out of his singers, he seems to have had rather mixed success. Amanda Echalaz was outstanding as Liu and in her scenes in Act 3 turned in some of the finest singing and acting of the evening, her death scene was shattering. And there were good performances from James Creswell as Timur, Benedict Nelson as Ping, Richard Roberts as Pang and Christopher Turner as Pong. Here ENO had reaped strong rewards by casting a group of young singers in the roles. Nelson, Roberts and Turner were particularly lively and strong as the masks and made a good ensemble.

But with his two principals, Goold rather failed. Gwyn Hughes Jones sang Calaf strongly and impressively, but costumed in a black frock coat he failed to convey much of the Prince’s passion by any bodily movement. He was entirely too stiff and in Nessun Dorma Goold seems to have been unable to stop Jones signally emotion with stock telegraphic gestures. Still, Jones’s singing was such that you forgave him. And perhaps Goold intended the character to be stiff and impassive.

With Kirsten Blanck, Goold had a soprano who has all the notes for Turandot, which is a good start. Blanck does not seem to have the sort of laser sharp voice which I like in this role; her account of In questa regia was richly modulated with a strong vibrato. She has quite a warm voice and seemed to come over as impassive rather than icy. Vocal preferences apart her account of the role simply lacked the intensity which was needed. After all Gwyneth Jones did not have an ideal Turandot voice but her performance was so intense, so coruscating, that you couldn’t help but capitulate. Goold used the traditional version of the ending (Alfano with Toscanini’s cuts) so that we go briskly from Liu’s death to the end. This does not give the singer much time to thaw. Blanck was obviously trying to thaw, but this change did not quite reach her voice and visually she was limited by the rather over the top bride costume, with wacky make-up. It would have helped if some way could have been found for her appearance to reflect the change by jettisoning the head-dress or removing the make-up to make her seem more a real person. But on the plus side, this was Blanck’s first Turandot and she had learned it in English (not her native language, she is German).

If this new Turandot had had a performance of the title role delivered with the necessary coruscating intensity, then I think that this production would have come together. Goold and his designers have nearly got things right, and with a bit of tweaking and a more defined central performance, this could be a winner. It was certainly popular, as the auditorium was full.

In the pit Edward Gardner produced a dramatic, if rather brash, account of the score, but he engendered some terrific playing from his orchestra.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Guerrero's Battle Mass from Westminster Cathedral is here.
Performances which are of a very high calibre and extremely seductive ...

And my review of Thomas Hampson's 2nd American song recital Wondrous Free is here, both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
All lovers of good singing will want to hear this ...

Review of Maria di Rohan

My review of the Opera Rara/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment concert performance of Donizetti's Maria di Rohan in the Vienna version is here on Music and Vision

Les Arts Florissants at the Union Chapel

As part of their 30th anniversary celebrations, Les Arts Florissants presented a concert of Monteverdi's 6th Book of Madrigals. Instead of their usual home of the Barbican Hall, they de-camped to the rather more Gothic surroundings of the Union Chapel in Islington. This huge octagonal chapel is hardly a space that you would immediately associated with Monteverdi's rather intimate madrigals, but in fact the lively but not over resonant acoustics seemed to work rather well. Also, given that 7 sides of the chapel have balconies, sight lines were pretty good.

An ensemble of 6 singers and 4 instrumentalists was nominally directed by Paul Agnew, with William Christie being unusually absent. In fact Agnew sang tenor (he was one of the 6 singers) and his direction was so discreet as to be almost invisible, surely the best sort, as the singers and instrumentalists seemed to interact quite naturally - though I am quite sure that this was the result of a great deal of rehearsal.

The singers, Miriam Allen, Hanna Morrison, Maud Gnidzaz, Anne Magard, Sean Clayton, Paul Agnew and Lisandro Abadie, come from a variety of backgrounds and countries, so one of the groups most impressive feats was the way that the blended and interacted so beautifully. Throughout the evening, you were aware of the individual singers listening to each other and reacting. As Monteverdi divides his soloists into ensembles, duets and trios, so the singers reacted accordingly. The voices were blended into a rather Consort of Musicke type English sound, with perhaps just a little added vibrancy. Whilst not as cool in performance as the Consort of Musicke, they were not quite a richly vibrant as some of the Italian groups singing this repertoire.

The continuo instruments (harp, archlute, theorbo and harpsichord) were generally discreet and in the centrepiece of the programme, the sestina Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata, the singers performed unaccompanied in a profoundly intimate manner.

In these rather unlikely surroundings Les Arts Florissants managed to communicate brilliantly with their audience, conveying the intense nuances of Monteverdi's music.

Review of Arne's Artaxerxes

I have long been familiar with the aria A soldier tired from Thomas Arne's opera Artxerxes because I, like many people I suspect, listened to it regularly as part of Joan Sutherland's wonderful boxed set, The Art of the Prima Donna. I was always curious as to why the rest of the opera was never performed. Now it has been.

Ian Page's Classical Opera Company are currently performing Martin Duncan's colourful new production of Arne's Artaxerxes at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre. And the explanation for its lack of performance before lies in the problem of the parts. The opera's score and parts were burned when the theatre (Covent Garden's predecessor) burned in 1808. The opera's full score had been published, but without the recitative and the opera's finale.

We also have the original libretto, so now Ian Page has written replacement recitatives and Duncan Druce has crafted a new finale. It is lucky that Arne's full score was published because no-one would quite have expected him to use such a full orchestra. Once of the joys of the piece is the richness of the orchestration, Arne uses horns, oboes and bassoons with regularity, has a few numbers with flutes and with clarinets and even has trumpets and timpani in the overture and the finales. And, of course, that famous aria, which I referred to above, uses a trumpet solo as well.

Arne made his own English translation of Metastasio's Artaserse, a libretto also set by Gluck, J.C. Bach and Hasse. Arne's version was premiered in 1762 at the Theatre Royal (the predecessor to the current Covent Garden). The cast included two castratos (as Artaxerxes and Arbaces), plus Arne's pupil and ex-mistress, Charlotte Brent, as Mandane (who gets some of the best music of course). It was incredibly popular and went on being performed into the 19th century as Bishop produced his own version after the original parts burned. But the programme for last nights performance (5th November) was frustratingly vague as to when the last performance of the opera was.

Martin Duncan and his designer Johan Engels set the piece in a spare, vivid blue box which filled all the stage and expanded into the auditorium. Engels created a walkway round the pit, which became a white box set into the stage area. This looked good, but meant that the front rows of the stalls had to be removed to fit it in. Also, the extra instrumentalists (trumpets, clarinets, timpani) had to play from the side of the stage as the only way into the pit was across the stage and down a set of impressive steps, so there was no slipping in and out easily. I felt sorriest for the two flute players who were rarely used, but had to sit quietly in the pit for the whole of the performance (around 2 hours 20 minutes of music, plus 2 intervals).

Above the stage, Engels had suspended blue twinkly lights and there were aubergine coloured screens which raised and lowered for entrances. The only extravagance was the royal throne which was part throne, part costume and the wearer had to be strapped in. The money went on the costumes which were all gorgeously coloured, in exaggerated Georgian style, with wigs, but long hair and expansively wide hips on the coats and dresses. There was also an oriental hint. The fabrics of the clothes seemed to be made from Kimono fabric (Artaxerxes had a wonderful orange fabric with cranes on it). And the 4 actors who doubled as supers, servants and furniture movers, looked a bit like samurai. In fact, the costumes reminded me in spirit of those for Covent Garden's production of Mitridate re di Ponto (which was designed, I think, by Paul Brown).

The shoes were to die for, high-heeled and gorgeously coloured; even Andrew Staples had shiny black heeled numbers, with Laboutin style red insteps on the soles.

There are 28 arias in the piece, and Arne seems to deliberately keep things moving. Very few of the arias are Da Capo, and the recitative moved swiftly as well. The outer acts came in at just under an hour each and the middle act was only 35 minutes.

The title role, Artaxerxes, is not the biggest role. Christopher Ainslie was announced has having a viral infection, but apart from his voice lacking all its colours, I didn't detect that much to apologise for. The biggest male role is Arbaces, sung by Caitlin Hulcup. Basically Arbaces' father, Artabanes (Andrew Staples) has killed Xerxes (Artaxerxes father) and is plotting against Artaxerxes so that Arbaces can be put on the throne. Artabanes unwittingly implicates Arbaces in his plot and has to condemn him as a traitor. This causes confusion with Arbaces sister Semira (Rebecca Bottone), who is in love with Artaxerxes, and Artaxerxes sister Mandane (Elizabeth Watts), who is in love with Arbaces. The only other cast member is Rimenes (Steven Ebel), who is a supporter of Artabanes and in love with Semira.

Arne writes in the galant style which predominated between Handel and Mozart (very much in the J.C.Bach mould). The arias are lyrically attractive, often with some pretty tricky singing, though virtuoso singing for its own sake seems to have not been the point. I think the opera was popular because of its melodic attractiveness and lack of deep complexity. It is attractive and fun. The characters are barely more than puppets and you don't feel deeply for any of them. Andrew Staples was rather too nice as the villain. And though both women had plaintive arias, you never quite felt sorry for them; Arne did not pull the heart strings the way Handel did.

I felt that Duncan's very stylised production rather put the audience at one remove, at times, he had the 4 attendants manipulating the singers. And the large, stylised costumes meant that the show had an abstract, unreal effect. You wanted to find out what the piece would be like in a more naturalistic setting. That said, Caitlin Hulcup impressed as Arbaces, with some very moving arias, though you wanted to kick him (the character, not the singer) for so pig-headedly refusing to explain that it was his father 'what done it'. Rebecca Bottone brought a nice edge to Semira's character and Elizabeth Watt's neatly caught Mandane's dilemma at being trapped between love for Arbaces and anger at her father's death and desire for retribution.

Frankly it is not Metastasio's nicest plot. But Duncan, Engels and the cast gave a terrific performance.

Ian Page and his band accompanied in fine style, contributing some lovely instrumental solos, though there were times when I would have liked a larger body of strings.

Recent CD Review

My review of the Tallis Scholars disc of Flemish Polyphony (including the amazing 12-part Brumel Battle Mass) is here, on MusicWeb International.
Fabulous music, beautifully and intelligently sung ...

Towards a new opera (4)

Having got to the end of my new opera/music theatre piece in draft form, and managed to do a fair amount of tidying up on it, I have sent copies of the score to a couple of people that I hope will be involved in the first performance. I'm hoping to do a low key concert performance next year in order to road-test the piece. So I'm now at the rather scary stage (well I find it scary) of having people looking at the score with me hoping that they don't dislike it, don't find it unsingable etc. Length is still an issue, it comes in at about 75 minutes which will make it a big sing for 2 principals, particularly the Man who is on stage the whole time. So here's hoping.

Blog-oddity

A friend brought to my attention a rather odd site, purportedly about how to make money, which seems to have a series of posts from my Blog in the Music column. The posts are uncredited, without a link back to this blog. But what is even odder is that the posts seem to have been run through some sort of Automated translator, perhaps twice, and the results are so bizarre as to be funny. Below is a sample from my review of the Salomon Orchestra concert.

On Tuesday we went to St . John’s Smith Square for the Salomon Orchestra’s unison . Conducted by Philip Ellis, they gave the initial open opening of John McCabe’s Symphony ‘Edward II’ and Ellis’s own unison unfolding taken from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet

I contingency declare which I when I saw the full ballet, I had doubts about McCabe’s measure for David Bintley’s ballet Edward II, anticipating the song as well formidable and sonorous for the dance generally as Bintley was formulating a grand chronological ballet in the normal demeanour . In 1999, before long after the initial opening, McCabe re-worked the song in to his harmony, yet in actuality the name sonorous apartment would be improved . The outcome is 45 mins of intensely absolute song and it is obscure because the work had to wait for compartment right away for the initial open opening . Salomon’s comment of the work was constrained and thespian . Granted there was the peculiar severe dilemma, but these counted for small opposite a excellent opening of such a frozen work.


I particularly like the 'unison unfolding' bit.

I don't seem to be the only one, there are plenty of other posts on the site presumably culled from other blogs. I just don't know what the point is?

Salad Days the contemporary opera version

Tete-a-tete is an amazing opera company who, since their founding in 1997, have been mid-wife to a remarkably number of contemporary operas. Their evenings of short 1-act operas have expanded into their remarkable opera festival at Riverside Studios in August when a wide variety of groups are able to show-case their works.

So it is with not a little puzzlement that I received a flyer through the post for the group's latest production - Julian Slade's musical Salad Days. Now, don't get me wrong, Salad Days is entirely charming but it is hardly contemporary opera. Its not opera at all and you can't really kid yourself that enticing people in to see it will persuade people to try out the group's more contemporary operatic offerings. Perhaps it is just that director Bill Bankes-Jones has a burning desire to stage Salad Days, let us hope so.