Rupert Brooke opera at historic Cambridge Theatre

The Festival Theatre in the 1920's
(now Cambridge Buddhist Centre)

You may not have heard of the Cambridge Buddhist Centre and might think that it is a slightly unusual venue for the first performance of a new opera about Rupert Brooke! But the centre is based in an old theatre, originally built in 1814 and with one of the oldest surviving curved cycloramas. The opera receiving its premiere there is Strange Ghost by David Earl. Written for 14 singers, and chamber orchestra, Strange Ghost has its origins in a song cycle setting Rupert Brooke poems, The Ungathered Blossom of Quiet, composed by David Earl while he was living in Grantchester. Grantchester was where Brooke himself lived while studying at Kings College, Cambridge, and the well-known poem he wrote in 1912, The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, commemorates his love for both the house in which he lodged, and the area itself.  The opera (with a libretto by Juliet Jenkin) which has developed from the song cycle is designed to commemorate Brooke's centenary this year. The opera consists of ten key scenes from Brooke's life.

The work is directed by Dionysios Kyropoulos, a director and researcher with an academic interest in historical acting and baroque staging. The musical director is Dominic Peckham and baritone James Schouten plays Rupert Brooke.

The theatre which forms part of the Cambridge Buddhist Centre was built in 1814 and known as the Barnwell or Festival Theatre. The theatre's original two-tiered galleries survive, though the boxes they contained have been removed. The theatre was originally run by William Wilkins (father of the architect) and one of them (father or son) seems to have designed it. Not much evidently survives of the original stage machinery and the theatre spent a long period in the 19th century as a mission hall. There is an illuminating article on the Cambridge Buddhist Centre website.

Further information from the opera's website.

Ethel Smyth's Serenade - in print at last

Ethel Smyth's orchestral Serenade (which she wrote in 1890) is a work which Edward Greenfield commended in The Gramophone, referring to the memorability of the thematic material and Brahms-inspired writing which is more than distinctive enough to establish its own identity. Greenfield's reference comes in his review of Odaline Martinez's 1996 recording of the work on Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The problem with such works is that, no matter how recommendable they may be, getting hold of the orchestral material can be a problem for orchestra which might otherwise wish to schedule it.

Now help is at hand, Odaline de la Martinez's new edition of the work is now available through Lorelt and can be bought online at the Lorelt website. Lorelt (Lontano Records Ltd) was founded by Martinez in 1992 and promotes recordings of important repertoire neglected by major record labels. The three main areas covered were 20th and 21st Century Composers, Latin American Classical music and Women Composers of all periods. Now the remit has extended to printed music, and we are promised editions of other works.

I bumped into Odaline de la Martinez on Monday (at a Christmas drinks party!) and she was telling me that the availability of the music has already led to a number of performances all over the world, and we can hope for more.

This isn't the only Ethel Smyth that Martinez has in the pipeline, she has been recording Smyth's opera The Boatswain's Mate for Retrospect Opera so we have that too look forward to!

Stanford Choral Music from Winchester

Stanford choral music; Winchester College Chapel Choir, Jamal Sutton, Malcolm Archer; Convivium Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 24 2015
Star rating: 4.0
A fine selection of Stanford's highly varied sacred music

Stanford's sacred choral music has remained one of the staples of church, chapel and cathedral choirs everywhere. On this new disc from Convivium Records, Malcolm Archer (director of chapel music at Winchester College) directs the choir of Winchester College Chapel in a varied programme including the Benedictus and Te Deum from the Service in C, the Three Latin Motets, Op.38, and anthems For lo, I raise up, Op.145, Come, ye thankful people come, If ye then be risen with Christ and The Lord is my Shepherd. The organist is Jamal Sutton, assistant director of chapel music at Winchester College.

Born in Dublin in 1852, Stanford's initial musical education was at Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick's Cathedral. He received an organ scholarship to Queen's College, Cambridge in 1870 and moved to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1873 and revitalised the choir there. Throughout his life, Stanford returned to church music and one of the reasons why the music has remained so enduring is the outside influences he brought to it so that, for instance, his services are sometimes symphonic in their treatment.

The programme on this disc is quite varied mixing sacred songs and anthems, with music from the Service in C and Stanford's late Three Latin Motets. The programme mixes the various elements up so that the three Latin motets are scattered through the disc.

Winchester College Chapel Choir

We open with the Benedictus in C from Stanford's Service in C which was published in 1909 and represents one of most cohesive attempts to bring thematic and structural unity to the rather diverse mix of movements in the morning, evening and communion services. Immediately we can appreciate the fine, soft-grained tones of the young tenors and basses in the choir, combined with the bright toned trebles. They are all nicely flexible in Stanford's canticle. This is followed by Beati quorum via, a six-part motet from Three Latin Motets and very much choral favourite. Here is receives a finely shaped performance, with nicely fine-grained tone.

Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber is Philip Moore's adaptation of Stanford's song Golden Slumbers given a new text by Isaac Watts and here sung by the trebles with a confident solo by Angus Armstrong. The result has the gentle melodic appeal which characterises much of Stanford's work. The companion Te Deum in C comes next, and here Stanford needs all his skill to make the wordy text of the Te Deum fit a musically satisfying structure. The choir sings with robust, confident swagger and it is noticeable how much unison, or near unison, Stanford uses.

Hodie Christus Natus Est!

Priory Church of the Order of St John, Clerkenwell

On Thursday 10 December 2015 my choir, London Concord Singers, will be performing in the Priory Church of St. John in Clerkenwell, London EC1V 4JJ, a church which is on the site of the old Clerkenwell Priory and one of London's lovely, yet almost unknown spaces. The church is now part of the Museum of the Order of St. John.

Choir will be conducted by Robbie Jacobs, conductor of the choir Reverie, and the programme pairs Palestrina's double-choir Missa hodie Christus natus est with Francis Poulenc's Christmas motets, Morten Lauridsen's O magnum mysterium, Richard Rodney Bennett's Five Carols and seasonal music by Anton Bruckner, Scheidt, Sweelinck and Warlock.

The event will also be a rather poignant celebration as it is almost exactly a year since Malcolm Cottle, the founder of the choir, died suddenly just six days before the choir's Christmas 2014 concert.

Further information from ConcertDiary.com and tickets from EventBrite.

Shades Lengthen in Hackney

On Thursday 10 December 2015, violinist Benjamin Beilman and the London Contemporary Orchestra give the premiere of Edmund Finnis' Shades Lengthen at the Church of St John at Hackney. The work has been commissioned by the music education charity, London Music Masters and will also be performed in a private free pre-concert for the London Music Masters children and some local primary school children from the Hackney area, when children will also be performing a response to Finnis' Shades Lengthen which they have composed themselves in a series of workshops with the London Contemporary Orchestra. The evening concert is woven around Edmund Finnis' piece with a programme of Saariaho, Pärt, Cage and plainchant.

Using the venue, the Church of St John at Hackney, the concert takes the themes of stillness, dusk, Compline and the closing of the day. Performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra and choir, the programme begins and ends with plainchant, then cellist Oliver Coates performs Kaija Saariaho's Sept Papillons. Also in the programme is Arvo Pärt's Annum per annum and John Cage's In a Landscape. At the centre will be Edmund Finnis' Shades Lengthen, played by Benjamin Beilman who is London Music Masters Award Holder. Finnis is Composer in Association with the London Contemporary Orchestra and has written a number of pieces for them.

Further information and tickets from the London Contemporary Orchestra's website.

Bastard Assignments - Fresh and Clean at the Asylum

Bastard Assignments - Fresh and Clean - Asylum, Peckham

Fresh and Clean music by Edward Henderson, Josh Spear, Neele Hülcker, Andy Ingamells, Timothy Cape, Alex Nikiporenko; City Lit Community Choir, Edward Henderson, Josh Spear, Neele Hülcker, Andy Ingamells, Timothy Cape, Alice Purton, Zoé Saubat and Mariona de Lamo; Bastard Assignments at the Asylum
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 06 2015
Music, theatre or what? An intriguing, absorbing and challenging evening of events organised by the contemporary music collective Bastard Assignments

Bastard Assignments is a composers collective in South London, run by Edward Henderson and Timothy Cape, both of whom trained at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where Bastard Assignments was formed in 2011. The group is run by a fluid collective of artists and they brought one of their current series of events Fresh and Clean, to Asylum in Peckham. The venue was built in the early 19th century as the chapel for the Licenced Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution Asylum, a group of almshouses in Peckham. The almshouses are now run by Southwark Council but the chapel was hit by an incendiary device in the war and is effectively a roofed ruin, being run as an arts venue.

Andy Ingamells -- Packaged Pleasure

There, on Sunday 6 December 2015, Bastard Assignments presented a series of works to an audience wrapped up against the cold, and free to wander round the chapel at will. The distressed nature of the environment formed an intriguing backdrop to the high-tech projections used in some of the works. The programme consisted of I Did and I Didn't by Edward Henderson performed by the City Lit Community Choir, Non Fiction written and performed by Josh Spear, ASMR for Contemporary Music Ensemble by Neele Hülcker performed by Josh Spear, Neele Hülcker, Edward Henderson and Timothy Cape, Packaged Pleasure written and performed by Andy Ingamells, NEED by Timothy Cape performed by Alice Purton, Zoé Saubat and Mariona de Lamo and Modus Triplex by Alex Nikiporenko performed by the same ensemble.

We started almost before we knew it, as the City Lit Community Choir was spread out amongst the audience and started singing at a discreet signal from Edward Henderson so that we experienced the music from all around us, without always being aware from whence it came, especially given that the lighting was low and dramatic. Henderson's piece consisted of a variety of semi-free sections, each cued by signal, so that the singers moved from quiet sustained notes, with small gradations of sound leading to a Beach Boys hit and then the performers speaking multiply and at random, then finally silence which of course led us to wonder whether this was the end. An intriguing essay in community and communal theatre.

BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales appoints Xian Zhang as Principal Guest Conductor

Xian Zhang - photo B. Ealovega

The Chinese conductor Xian Zhang has made history by being the first woman conductor to be appointed to a titled role with a BBC orchestra. Whilst Marin Alsop made history when she conducted the Last Night of the Proms in 2013, Xian Zhang's appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales makes history too, and it is perhaps surprising that it has taken so long for a woman to appointed in this role. The appointment takes place from September 2016 and lasts for three years. On 27 September 2016 Zhang conducts her inaugural concert as Principal Guest Conductor at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, with a programme including Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 and Barber’s Violin Concerto, with Chloë Hanslip as soloist. Further highlights of Zhang’s 2016-2017 season include a collaboration with Chinese composer Qigang Chen, and her tenure with BBC NOW promises to bring out her interest in contemporary Chinese composers.

Xian Zhang trained at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, earning both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees before moving to the United States in 1998. She conducted Puccini's La Boheme at English National Opera this season and in 2014 conducted Verdi's Nabucco with Welsh National Opera.

Songs of the Big Smoke

Gavin Robert, artistic director of Song in the City

On Tuesday 8 December 2015, Song in the City will be hosting Songs of the Big Smoke at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama's Milton Court, as a fund raiser for Help Musicians UK. The evening will be a staging of London-themed songs taken from Song in the City's first Cd, Songs of the Big Smoke and the Cd will be available at the event. Song in the City's artistic director is pianist Gavin Roberts and he is joined by Jennifer Witton, soprano, Elizabeth Desbruslais, mezzo soprano, Nicholas Allen, tenor and Piran Legg, baritone with Dinah Stabb, creative director.

Song in the City presents song recitals in and around the Square Mile, but under Gavin Roberts' lively direction the group is more than your average classical venue, they programme concerts around inventive and often challenging themes and through the seemingly traditional genre of song, aim to revolutionise the relationship between classical musicians and their audiences.

Help Musicians UK is the leading UK charity for professional musicians of all genres, from starting out through to retirement.

Further information and tickets from Song in the City's Eventbrite page.

Deep End - The Swingles

Deep End; The Swingles (Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson, Sara Brimer, Clare Wheeler, Oliver Griffiths, Christopher Jay, Kevin Fox, Edward Randell); Swingle CD
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 20 2015
Star rating: 4.0
The latest Swingles and the earliest, in a disc which features the voice of founder Ward Swingle

The Swingles as a music entity has travelled a long way since Ward Swingle founded the Swingle Singers. In its early days his London-based version of the ensemble featured classically trained singers who went on to have varied careers (Catherine Bott is one such alumnus). The current style of the group  (Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson, Sara Brimer, Clare Wheeler, Oliver Griffiths, Christopher Jay, Kevin Fox, Edward Randell) is somewhat different to the original but fine music making, good training and classical background are still a feature. This disc, Deep End appeals partly because one of the tracks features the voice of founder Ward Swingle. It was always intended that he feature on the disc but his death before production meant that an existing recording of his voice was used and the disc becomes something of a memorial.

Swim is an attractive rather ambient feeling number by Swingle member Edward Randell, where airy, lyrical vocals are complimented by electronica. Narnia, co-written by three Swingles Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson, Sara Brimer, Oliver Griffiths, uses some rather African sounding rhythms to underpin what is essentially a catchy song in a rather attractively elaborate arrangement.

La cathedral engloutie is, not unnaturally based (loosely) on Debussy's prelude. It not only features spoken word by Ward Swingle but John Taylor on piano. It starts with Taylor's jazz piano, a long way from Debussy, and then the Swingles wordless version of the Debussy forms a backdrop to Ward Swingle talking of his musical background and influences. It sounds an indigestible mix but is in fact rather moving.

Cries of London - opening of Spitalfields Winter Festival

Fretwork - Asako Morikawa, Reiko Ichise,
Richard Tunnicliffe, Richard Boothby

Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Ravenscroft, Richard Dering, William Cobbold; Red Byrd, Fretwork; Spitalfields Winter Festival at St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Dec 04 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Local connection? Opening concert a Spitalfields highlights the continuity of street cries, yet fails to fully engage

This year’s Spitalfields Winter Festival opened on 4 December 2015 with a concert at St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, celebrating the area’s rich local heritage. Viol consort Fretwork (Asako Morikawa, Emily Ashton, Sam Stadlen, Richard Tunnicliffe, Richard Boothby) and vocal ensemble Red Byrd (Cecilia Osmond, Harvey Brough, John Potter, James Newby, Richard Wistreich) put together a programme of Cries of London, featuring sixteenth-century street traders’ cries set to music by the leading composers of the day (as well as captured in countless paintings and prints over the centuries). 

John Potter & Richard Wistreich of Red Byrd

The concert programme consisted of Cries set by four composers: Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Ravenscroft, Richard Dering and William Cobbold - performed in flexible combinations of singers and viols. These were interleaved with three movements of Gibbons' In Nomine in five parts for viol consort and his Duo for two treble viols.

Spitalfields blogger The Gentle Author set the scene in a pre-concert talk, showing how the tradition endures to this day: the One Pound Fish Man of Upton Park is now a YouTube sensation and pop star in Pakistan; Jack Cohen of Tesco fame and Michael Marks (& Spencer) started off as market traders; Lionel Begleiter – later Bart – grew up in a flat on the corner of Brick Lane, and famously incorporated street cries into Oliver! Of course the tradition is also under threat from gentrification, but then it might be argued that the wealthy patrons of the higher-status poets and composers of the sixteenth century were already cynically exploiting this edgy, noisy urban culture for their own genteel – or even patronising – entertainment.

In case you missed it: November on Planet Hugill - Curious women, arsonists and a cafe-concert

Finnegan Downie Dear (piano) with Gareth Brynmore John (baritone) at Exeter College Chapel
at Oxford Lieder Festival 2015, photo credit Robert Piwko

Welcome to November on Planet Hugill, a month which included a remarkable group of unusual and rarely performed operas.

A Clutch of Unusual Operas

The first opera written for Paris, Luigi Rossi's Orpheus at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Wolf-Ferrari's Le donne curiose at the Guildhall School. Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina at Brighton Early Music Festival. Handel's Tamerlano at the Barbican with Max Emanuel Cencic and Xavier Sabata. Simon Vosecek's Biedermann and the Arsonists from Independent Opera. Leoncavallo's Zaza with Ermonela Jaho from Opera Rara. Georg Friedrich Haas's Morgen und Abend at Covent Garden.

Festivals in Oxford, Brighton and London

I spent a day at the Oxford Lieder Festival, which you can read about in part one and part two of the article. At Brighton Early Music Festival, there was Convent, court & salon: three contrasting 17th century women, and Handel's Acis and Galatea. And London Song Festival visited La Serenissima.

Concerts in various places

Muhly premiere and Britten canticles at the Wigmore Hall

James Baillieu and Allan Clayton at the Wigmore Hall, photo Clive Barda

Purcell, Britten, Muhly, Adès, Barber; Iestyn Davies, Allan Clayton, James Baillieu; The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 04 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Music for two voices and piano from Purcell to Britten and Nico Muhly

Friday 4 December 2015's recital at the Wigmore Hall was an interesting confluence of a number of the hall's series, notably the Song Recital Series, Contemporary Music Series, Introducing James Baillieu and Focus on Nico Muhly. The recital featured pianist James Baillieu accompanying counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and tenor Allan Clayton. The programme combined Purcell (in realisations/arrangements) by Britten, Tippett and Thomas Adès, with Britten's canticles My Beloved is Mine and Abraham and Isaac, Thomas Adès' The Lover in Winter and the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Lorne ys my liking, plus Samuel Barber's Three Songs, and folk song arrangements by Britten and Muhly. The whole sort of worked, partly thanks to the superb performances from the three performers. It was also fascinating from the standpoint of seeing how the influence of Purcell threaded his way through the music.

James Baillieu and Iestyn Davies at the Wigmore Hall, photo Clive Barda

We opened with three Purcell realisations performed by Iestyn Davies and James Baillieu, Music for a while arranged by Michael Tippett, Sweeter than roses  realised by Benjamin Britten and Full Fathom Five realised by Thomas Adès. In all three the vocal line seemed unchanged so were were able to appreciate the beauties of line and tone provided by Iestyn Davies, along with a superb attention to the words. Perhaps singing with piano he was able to sing rather fuller than he might to with harpsichord or lute, but the biggest difference of course was what was happening in the accompaniment. Tippett provided an arrangement which seemed pure Purcell with just hints of Tippett, whilst Britten's realisation was more interventionist with a greater sense of the 20th century composer's personality, and the realisation by Thomas Adès seemed hardly to be 17th century at all.

This group was followed by Allan Clayton and James Baillieu performing Britten's Canticle 1: My Beloved is Mine  with its strangely homoerotic quasi religious text. Britten's flowing accompaniment did bring out hints of Purcell, and some of the lyrical rapture and vocal flourishes seemed Purcell inspired as well. Allan Clayton sang with a lovely combination of beauty of tone, and a strong sense of line, both he and Baillieu gave performances which were full of vivid detail. And Clayton gave a real sense that the words truly meant something so that passages like 'he is my altar' were very striking and the ending was pure magic.

Expect fireworks - Rhinegold Live - Trio Elegiaco

Trio Elegiaco

The next Rhinegold LIVE is on Monday 7 December 2015 when, at the Conway Hall, you will get the chance to hear Trio Elegiaco in Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor. Trio Elegiaco consists of John Paul Ekins (piano), Hannah Dawson (violin), and Pierre Doumenge (cello), and whilst all are extremely exciting and experience performers their debut as a piano trio came at the Sacconi Festival in Folkestone earlier this year. At that debut they got a standing ovation, so expect fireworks. In fact the trio was formed specifically to play the Tchaikovsky trio in Folkestone, but such was the success that the Trio Elegiaco seems set to run.

The performance takes place at Conway Hall on 7 December 2015, at 7pm, with drinks from 6.15pm and the Tchaikovsky will be followed by a Q&A between Kimon Daltas, editor of Classical Music Magazine, and members of the group. Tickets are free, sign up at the Rhinegold LIVE website.

Beyond Nine Lessons and Carols, our survey of recent Christmas discs

Buying Christmas discs is always tricky. Do you really want endless variants of the same nine carols, or modern pop re-workings which lose the essential elements of the original music? This Christmas we look at five varied discs each of which has a different take on the Christmas theme. But each performing group does so in their own distinctive yet intelligent way. We move from The Swingles modern re-invention in Yule Songs, through Rupert Gough and the Choir of Royal Holloway's contemporary take on a traditional carol concert, to Nigel Short and Tenebrae's exploration of lesser known English arrangements seasoned with some Warlock and Bax in A Very English Christmas. Alternatively you might want Renaissance polyphony and there is Stile Antico's latest disc, the beautifully crafted A Wondrous Mystery: Renaissance Choral Music for Christmas centred on Clemens non Papa's Missa Pastores quidnam vidistis.  I have also slipped in a disc from last Christmas, the Marian Consort's Christmas with the Shepherds with Jean Mouton's Missa Quaeramus cum pastoribus.

The Swingles have produces Yule Songs, Volume II in which the vocal ensemble presents atmospheric new versions of popular standards and not so well known pieces. You can sample their approach with their version of the God bless ye merry gentlemen:



The disc ranges from these traditional reimaginings to recently created pieces, and along the way you get a striking version of John Dankworth's Blow, blow thou Winter wind. It is pure Swingles, but in a slightly Christmas mode and definitely worth investigating if you want something upbeat and imaginative.

Music literacy for all? Estonia shows the way as part of the Year of Music

26th Estonian Song Festival, 2014 - photo by Ivo Kruusamägi 

2015 has been the Year of Music in Estonia with major celebrations throughout the year. As a culmination of this the government has announced that for December access to the Meludia platform will be made available free of charge to every citizen and resident. Meludia is a Paris-based French music education company and their innovative new music learning system is gaining wider currency since the company's founding in 2012. The new agreement will mean that all 1.3 million inhabitants gain access to the music literacy programme.

Having attended a number of music events in Estonia, I have always been struck how the rate of music literacy was high and the number of major composers produced by the country is remarkably high considering the population is only 1.3 million. Music has always been important to the country's identity and during the 19th century the song festivals were such an important part of the development of a national identity. So much so that the song festival in Tallinn continued throughout the Soviet era and song was significant part of Estonia's move towards independence. In 1988 spontaneous mass singing at the Tallinn Song Festival grounds was a significant factor in the overthrow of the Soviet regime in the country.

But even so, the collaboration with Meludia is remarkable and I wished that I had the confidence that a British government might implement a similar move!

Meludia aims to teach people using sensations and emotions, rather then deluging them with jargon. If you are interested in learning more about Meludia, then do visit their website to get a free trial and there is a video on YouTube which explains things.

The biggest ever? ETO's Spring season

English Touring Opera's Spring 2016 tour will be their largest tour in decades with a tour from March to June 2016 which takes in 21 cities, 109 performances and 80 people on tour. The programme includes Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Donizetti's Pia de'Tolomei. Gluck's opera certainly does not get the outings which it deserves and certainly not on tour, whilst Donizetti's opera is getting its UK stage premiere!

Also in the tour is a revival of the award-winning children's opera Laika the Spacedog (by Russell Hepplewhite and Tim Yealland) along with Dust Child, a new opera for children with SEN (Special Educational Needs) composed by James Garner, written and directed by Anna Pool. Both will be performed in schools, libraries and studio theatre spaces.

Iphigénie en Tauride is conducted by Martin André and directed by James Conway, and Anna Fleischle will design. Catherine Carby sings Iphigénie with Grant Doyle, John-Colyn Gyeantey and Craig Smith. In Pia de'Tolomei, Elena Xanthoudakis makes her ETO debut in the title role, with by Luciano Botelho and Grant Doyle, conducted by John Andrews and designed by Loren Elstein. Don Giovanni is directed by Lloyd Wood and designed by Anna Fleischle and will be set in turn of the century Vienna with its echoes of Freud. The title role is sung by George von Bergen, making his ETO debut, and by Nicholas Lester, with Camilla Roberts/Gillian Ramm (Donna Anna), Anna Jeruc-Kopec (Donna Elvira) and Lucy Hall (Zerlina), conducted by ETO music director Michael Rosewell.

The tour opens at the Hackney Empire (Sat 5 March, Iphigénie en Tauride, Thu 10 March, Pia de’ Tolomei, Fri 11 March and Sat 12 March Don Giovanni), and continues to Hall for Cornwall, Truro, Lighthouse, Poole, Norwich Theatre Royal, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, Buxton Opera House, Cambridge Arts Theatre, The Hawth, Crawley, The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Grand Theatre Blackpool, Gala Theatre, Durham, Perth Festival, Perth Concert Hall, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Curve, Leicester, York Theatre Royal, Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Tent, Coronation Hall, Ulverston and Sands Centre, Carisle.

Italian realist Cav and Pag at Covent Garden

Dimitri Platanias, members of the Royal Opera Chorus and the Alfa Giulietta
Cavalleria Rusticana - Royal Opera House - (c)ROH, photo Catherine Ashmore

Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana, Leoncavallo Pagliacci; Aleksandrs Antonenko, Dimitri Platanias, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Carmen Giannattasio, dir: Damiano Michieletto, cond: Antonio Pappano; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 03 2015
Star rating: 4.5
Cav and Pag updated to the 1980's with some strongly musical and dramatic performances

Cavalleria Rusticana
(c)ROH, photo Catherine Ashmore

The new double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at Covent Garden was the first time the Royal Opera had performed Cav and Pag since 1989 when the Zeffirelli production was last given. That the new production was being directed by Damiano Michieletto, who was responsible for last season's controversial production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (see my review), meant that anticipation was high at the first night, 3 December 2015. There was a strong cast with Aleksandrs Antonenko as both Turiddu and Canio, Dimitri Platanias as Alfio and Tonio, with Eva-Maria Westbroek as Santuzza, Carmen Giannattasio as Nedda plus Elena Zilio, Martina Belli, Benjamin Hulett and Dionysios Sourbis. The sets were designed by Paolo Fantin with costumes by Carla Teti and lighting by Alessandro Carletti. Antonio Pappano conducted.

Pagliacci - Carmen Giannattasio, Benjamin Hulett, Dimitri Platanias,
Aleksandrs Antonenko  - (c) ROH. Photographer Catherine Ashmore

Michieletto's take on Cav and Pag was a lot more sympathetic to the works' structure than his production of Guillaume Tell had been (one might almost say that the Cav and Pag production was more traditional). Perhaps Michieletto simply likes Verismo more than he does French grand opera, but the recent profile of the director in Opera Magazine had been revealing reading regarding the variety of his output. Whatever the reasons, this new production was a strong and largely intelligent version of this popular yet tricky double bill.

Michieletto and his designers, Paolo Fantin and Carla Teti, seem to have been inspired to a certain extent by Italian realist cinema. Certainly the production, with its extensive use of the revolve, kept the action moving in a very filmic way. The setting was the late 20th century; Alfio's car in Cavalleria Rusticana was a 1985/86 Alfa Giulietta model, quite a rare care nowadays (it seemed to be on Madrid number plates which may have been a comment about the extent of Alfio's journeyings).  

Mama Lucia's bakery, Cavalleria Ruticana - Dionysios Sourbis
(C) ROH. Photographer Catherine Ashmore

Cavalleria Rusticana was set in and around Mama Lucia's bakery where we even saw the staff making the bread (having seen them put loaves into the oven, I was disappointed to find that the realism did not extend to them getting the baked bread out 30 minutes later!). All the events of the opera happened in and around here, and Michieletto set the production in the context of a vividly depicted community. The production worked well and certainly did not go against the dramaturgy of the opera, partly because the libretto though specific as to location has many timeless elements and the sense of community is important.

The production had a two or three distinctive pensées. The prelude started with the depiction of the murder of a young man (whilst Turiddu was singing to Lola off-stage), and the whole production cycled round to the depiction of Turiddu's murder in exactly the same scene as if the events depicted were simply part of a common cycle. During the Easter Hymn the villagers carried a statue of the Virgin Mary, at one point the lighting changed and the villagers froze, whilst Santuzza (Eva-Maria Westbroek) implored the Virgin. The statue came to life and pointed at Santuzza implacably. Then during the Intermezzo we saw Nedda from Pagliacci (Carmen Giannattasio) putting up posters for Pagliacci and flirting with one of the men from the bakery, who would prove to be her lover Silvio (Dionysios Sourbis). This cross linking was carried through into Pagliacci when during the intermezzo there we saw Santuzza in tears talking to a priest and apparently pregnant and then meeting Mama Lucia. I found this cross-linking disturbing and unsatisfactory. The two operas have no real link apart from a commonality of style, and during one opera the last thing we want is to be thinking about characters in the other one. Frankly, it felt as if Michieletto had interpolated a bit of Mascagni into Leoncavallo's opera and vice versa.

City Music Foundation Artists 2015

The City Music Foundation (CMF) provides support, coaching and mentoring for a group of young artists each year, enabling them to develop their skills in the wider music business. The 2015 City Music Foundation Artists are Alexander Soares, piano, Andrey Lebedev, guitar, Bartosz Glowacki, accordion, Emma Halnan, flute, the Gildas Quartet, string quartet and Raphaela Papadakis, soprano.

The programme is about more than the opportunities for live performance offered, the young artists have begun working with senior business people as personal mentors through collaborations with City firms, and are attending professional development workshops and seminars, and will be working to develop promotional tools (such as a website, photography, recordings or video) with funding and expertise from CMF, and will be developing a bespoke musical project to help them created a unique nice and selling point.

Bastard Assignments are Fresh and Clean at the Asylum

Bastard Assignments is an ensemble run by composers Edward Henderson and Timothy Cape. Their next gig is on Sunday 6 December 2015 at Asylum in Peckham, SE15 2SQ. The venue is the early 19th century former chapel of some historic almshouses in Peckham. Hit by an incendiary device during World War II, it has long remained semi-derelict and is being revivified as an arts space.

Bastard Assignments' event, Fresh and Clean, promises an exhilarating evening of new music and performance with new work by Tim Cape, Edward Henderson and Josh Spear, with experimentalists Andy Ingamells from Birmingham, Neele Hülcker and Ludwig Abraham from Germany. 

We are promised that Abraham and Ingamells’ 'radical and uncompromising performances challenge what music is' and can be whilst Neele Hülcker will present work exploring ASMR - an Internet community who get extremely pleasurable physical responses from quiet sounds and whispering! The event will also present new work by resident Bastard Assignments composers Timothy Cape, Edward Henderson and Josh Spear.

Tango Embrace

Astor Piazolla; Yijia Zhang, Andrey Lebedev, Iosif Purits, Tomoyo Maruyama, Davide Mantovan, Beibei Wang, Carl Smith; EITO MUSIC
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 20 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Debut album from young Chinese violinist explores the world of Astor Piazolla

This new disc from violinist Yijia Zhang and friends presents a series of attractive arrangements of music by Astor Piazzolla. Joining Zhang on the disc are guitarist Andrey Lebedev, accordion player Iosif Purits, Tomoyo Maruyama piano, Davide Mantovani double bass with Beibei Wang and Carl Smith percussion.

Born and raised in China, Yijia Zhang  has just graduated from the Royal Academy of Music. This disc makes a fine showcase for his talents as Astor Piazzolla's music is played in imaginative arrangements which all feature Zhang's elegantly lyrical violin tones. Guitarist Andrey Lebedev also features heavily, the two forming a fine duo. (Lebedev has recently been announced as one of the City Music Foundation's 2015 artists). The longest number on the disc, Cafe 1930 seems to be a duo for the two of them in a quietly elegant chamber music feel. Luckily the mood does not stay lyrically reflective for too long and Adios Nonino introduces us to Iosif Purit's lively accordion, which is also showcased in the more reflective Oblivion. There is a lovely rhythmic feel to Milonga del angel.

Inspired by Goethe - Dorottya Láng

Dorottya Láng
picture credit Jonathan Rose

Schubert, Wolf, Eisler, Liszt, Gounod, Berlioz, Lehar; Dorottya Láng, Helmut Deutsch; Rosenblatt Recitals at the Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 01 2015
Star rating: 4.0
A programme inspired by Goethe from this talented young Hungarian mezzo

The young Viennese-trained Hungarian mezzo-soprano Dorottya Láng made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in a recital for Rosenblatt Recitals on Tuesday 1 December 2015 when she was accompanied by Helmut Deutsch. Their programme was themed around the poetry of the great German poet Goethe, with settings by Schubert, Wolf, Eisler and Liszt, plus arias from operas by Gounod and Berlioz based on Goethe's work, and an aria from an operetta by Lehar based on an episode in Goethe's life.

They started with Schubert with a group of eight songs from the years 1815-1822. Hoffnung introduced us to Dorottya Láng's rich, warm tones, beautifully supported and wonderfully even across the range. The song was sung quite straight, rather chorale-like. Auf dem See had fine sensitivity to the words and was appealing but seemed to need a bit more underlying anxiety. Klarchen's Lied was beautifully done if a bit placid, but we got the right amount of vibrant intensity in Rastlose Liebe. Meeress Stille was all contemplative calm, whilst Erster Verlust was plangently expressive, An die Entfernte was beautifully haunting and Versunken showcased Deutsch's brilliant piano playing.

Yet after listening to Dorottya Láng singing the whole group of eight Schubert songs I was aware that though she did all the right things, and shaped the songs beautifully with sensitivity to the words, each seemed to lack just a little intensity. It was as if she hadn't yet found the right spark, but she is young (30 next year) and these performances were more than highly promising.

Biber, Muffat, Telemann and Marcello

European Union Baroque Orchestra and Lars Ulrik Mortensen

The European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) is back at St. John's Smith Square on Thursday 3 December 2015. Under their director, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, the orchestra is playing a programme based around music for feasts and banquets with music from Biber's Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes, and Telemann's Tafelmusik II, featuring young British trumpet player Paul Bosworth, as well as showcasing the 17th Venetian fashion for oboe concertos with Marcello's Concerto for oboe in D minor. And the concert starts with Muffat's Sonata No. 5 in G from Armonico Tributo.

The EUBO brings together young European baroque performers with the intention of nurturing them through the difficult transition from conservatoire to working in the music profession. The orchestra comes together annual for a series of projects, and personnel are selected each year, rather than being permanent. They work with some of the finest baroque musicians, and the orchestra tours extensively.

Further information from the St. John's Smith Square website.

Alessandro Scarlatti - Con eco d'amore

Alessandro Scarlatti arias; Elizabeth Watts, The English Concert, Laurence Cummings; Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 14 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Brilliant disc of arias by this unjustly neglected composer

Whilst his name is not so much on the tips of people's tongues today, Alessandro Scarlatti was one of the major names in early 18th century Italian opera. In fact, such was his fame that his son Domenico never seems to have been able to get out of his father's shadow until he moved to Spain. But Alessandro wrote around 100 operas, as well as six-hundred cantatas. Most of these are currently unknown and this new disc on Harmonia Mundi, from soprano Elizabeth Watts with Laurence Cummings directing the English Concert, seeks to remedy our lack and make us more aware of Alessandro Scarlatti's skill.

Alessandro Scarlatti was born in Palermo in 1660, and trained in Rome, but spent much of his life in Naples where he was maestro di cappella to the Spanish Viceroy. His operatic output on the disc stretches from La Statira (1690) to Griselda (1721) (though in fact his earliest opera dates from 1679), and the operatic arias are supplemented on the disc with arias from some of Scarlatti's many chamber cantatas.

All were written for the finest singers of the day and it is the bravura element which you first notice. But the arias are often complex and can be large scale, with some on the disc very substantial in duration. The operas on the disc vary between the lighter serenatas, written for private festivities to the large scale serious operas such as Mitridate Eupatore (1706) which commentators agree was one of the composer's major operas. Rightly we are treated to three arias from this opera.

The selection of arias is intelligently made, with a great variety of textures and styles. This is not one of those disc where you feel that the singer has chosen simply the most complex pieces so that you simply get a sequence of showings off. Not that the disc is short of showing off, after all that was what these arias were intended to to!

Winter fun at Spitalfields Music

Billed as extraordinary music in unexpected places, this year's Spitalfields Music Winter Festival runs from 4 to 15 December. This year events include Paul Agnew directing Les Arts Florissants in Monteverdi Madrigals in Christ Church, Spitalfields, tenor Allan Clayton performing Schubert's Die Winterreise with the Aurora Orchestra in Hans Zender's version of Schubert's song-cycle in Shoreditch Church, the English Concert in Charpentier and Stradella, and the Riot Ensemble in music by Serbian-Swedish composer Djuro Zivkovic and Spanish composer Helga Arias Parra.

Other performers include The Sixteen, Fretwork, B'Rock, and the Marian Consort, plus the choir of Royal Holloway in music from Scandinavia and the Baltic. All this plus dining experiences, film screenings, historic walks, singing workshops, family entertainment, early music, cutting-edge contemporary sounds, roof-raising jazz and musical treats for younger ears.