Illuminating the text: predominantly youthful cast in BREMF's staging of Monteverdi's first opera

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - Brighton Early Music Festival (Photo Robert Piwko)

Monteverdi L'Orfeo; Rory Carver, Helen Charlston, Jenni Harper, Richard Moore, Andrew Robinson, dir: Thomas Guthrie, musical dir: Deborah Roberts, Oliver Webber; Brighton Early Music Festival at The Old Market
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Npv 11 2017 Star rating: 4.5
An outstanding performance in the title role illuminates this intimate production of Monteverdi's masterpiece

Rory Carver - BREMF (Photo Robert Piwko)

Having staged one of opera's important pre-cursors, the 1589 Florentine Intermedi, a few years ago Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) has turned its attention to the first great opera, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, as part of the 2017 festival's exploration of classical music's root.

Thomas Guthrie staged the work at Hove's The Old Market (we caught the second of three performances on Saturday 11 November 2017) with Deborah Roberts and Oliver Webber as joint musical directors. Rory Carver was Orfeo with an ensemble of eight singers sharing the other roles, Jenni Harper, Helen Charlston, Benedict Hymas, Dominic Bevan, Richard Moore, Andrew Robinson, Victoria Adams and Emily Burn. Instrumental support was provided by the Monteverdi String Band (leader Oliver Webber), the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Aileen Henry (harp), James Bramley (chitarrone) and Claire Williams (harpsichord, organ, regal).

This was a relatively small scale production, a welcome opportunity to experience the work on the sort of intimate scale that reflected the work's origins as a courtly entertainment. But Thomas Guthrie's setting was anything but courtly, as he took his inspiration from 1960s Mods and the film Quadrophenia. The anonymous designer had done a good job creating some very strong period looks for cast and chorus, Rory Carver's suit was particularly sharp, and both Jenni Harper and Helen Charlston had strikingly differentiated costumes for their various characters.

Bar a few suspended trees, there was no set but some very effective lighting. For much of the time Guthrie used his chorus as backstop, the noise of movement in the Act One party scene was however somewhat distracting, whilst in the Hades acts I worried about the lack of synchronicity between the choristers ceremoniously carrying candles. Having the cast twist/jive to the dances was a mistake, it looked embarrassing and elicited titters from the audience.

Helen Charlston, Dominic Bevan, Rory Carver
BREMF (Photo Robert Piwko)

The effect of the staging was to place a strong focus on the singers, the majority of whom were young (Rory Carver is still studying at the Royal College of Music). All concerned were impressive in their ability to convince us that they knew what they were singing about (the opera was performed in Italian). A truism perhaps, but it is important given the predominance of recitative in Monteverdi's operas. For all the singers, the text was clearly important both clarity of diction and using it to colour the music.

Rory Carver was Orfeo, and his account of 'Possente Spirto' made my spine tingle in a way which has not happened for a long time. Technically adept, his way with the ornamentation was nicely naturalistic, but it was the way he created a strong sense of Orfeo's presence and the young man's intense journey. Orfeo is a huge role, and that Carver sang it so well and held us so spellbound is a great credit and I look forward to seeing far more of him.

Both Jenni Harper and Helen Charlston created a series of nicely differentiated characters. Harper was an unusual La Musica, poised contained and deliberately rather sexy,, whilst her La Speranza was intense and a little desperate, keen to leave the gates of Hades. Euridice is trickier and frankly Monteverdi and his librettist Striggio seem less interested in her (I rather miss the final intense dialogue between Orpheus and Euridice in Gluck's version), but Harper was poised and elegant. Helen Charleston's La Messagera was searing, this is a gift of a role and Charlston did not disappoint. In complete contrast her Proserpina was poised and sexy.

Benedict Hymas impressed greatly singing Pastore ! and one of spirits in Hades, personable and stylish, he then dazzled us with his account of Apollo's final aria and duet with Orfeo. Dominic Bevan provided strong support as Pastore 2, a spirit in Hades and Eco whilst Victoria Adams brought great strength of personality to Pastore 3. It is perhaps tricky casting a young singer as Caronte, bass voices can be notoriously slow to develop. Richard Moore had all the notes, but as yet not quite the resonance, instead he gave us great commitment and admirable firmness of purpose. (His outfit, leather jacket jeans, red-handkerchief in rear right-hand pocket, seemed to reference gay stereotypes which were not developed).

Andrew Robinson, sporting a dashing pork-pie hat (a la Madness) was perhaps less fierce than usual as Plutone, but impressive nonetheless and contributed firm support as Pastore 4 and a spirit in Hades. Emily Burn made a demure Ninfa.

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - Benedict Hymas, Rory Carver - Brighton Early Music Festival (Photo Robert Piwko)

These soloists were supplemented with a nine-person non-professional chorus, who rose admirably to the demands the staging made of them. The instrumental playing also reflected the intimacy of the performance, there were few moments as grand as the opening toccata, played on-stage by members of the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, but the opera was full of discreet virtuosity and some lovely instrumental timbres.

Occasional corners of the staging revealed, perhaps, the time limits of rehearsals but overall this was a fine ensemble account of this great opera. The whole cast illuminated Striggio's text and Monteverdi's music but it was Rory Carver's performance that really stays in the memory.

Elsewhere on this blog:

• The quintessence of German Romanticism: Schumann's Liederkreis from Ailish Tynan and James Newby - Concert review
• So what exactly is an haut-contre? - feature article
• An appealing surface with friction underneath: Composer Marcus Paus introduces his new disc - interview
• Exotic journey: Voyages, Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton - CD review
• Russian revolutionaries: The Prince Regent's Band in Russian chamber music for brass ensemble - CD review
• Significant achievement: Tosca at Icelandic Opera with Claire Rutter in the title role - Opera review
• A window on Polish 17th century: Eamonn Dougan and the Sixteen's latest instalment from the archives - CD review
• 30 year journey: Paul Berkowitz's completion of his Schubert sonata cycle - interview
• Sheer beauty: Rachmaninov's Vespers - CD review
• Opera at the V&A: Opera: Passion, Power and Politics - exhibition review
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'The quintessence of German Romanticism' - Schumann's Liederkreis from Ailish Tynan & James Newby

James Newby (Photo Ben Mckee)

Schumann Liederkreis Op.24 & 39; Ailish Tynan, James Newby, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 10 2017 Star rating: 4.5
Vivid story-telling in performances of two of Schumann's great song cycles

Pianist Nigel Foster's London Song Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the biggest festival yet, Circles, Cycles and Revolutions. We caught up with the festival on Friday 10 November 2017 at Hinde Street Methodist Church when Nigel Foster accompanied soprano Ailish Tynan and baritone James Newby (winner of the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Award) in an all Schumann programme, Die beiden Grenadiere, Der arme Peter, Liederkreis Op.39 (setting Eichendorff) and Liederkreis Op.24 (setting Heine), all the songs written in Schumann's amazing song year of 1840.

The programme opened with James Newby singing a group of Heine settings. Die beiden Grenadiere is a lyric ballad about two returning French veterans distressed at the French defeat and capture of the Emperor. Newby captured the sense of storytelling in the narrative building to a fine climax which is then punctured by Schumann's downbeat postlude. Newby's voice as dark and nicely vibrant. A highly communicative singer, he is visually expressive as well as colouring the words but a tendency to hide behind the music stand rather muted communications with his audience.

Ailish Tynan

Die arme Peter is a short, three-song cycle about a young man whose sweetheart marries someone else. The first song, with its delightful hurdy-gurdy in the piano, moved into a darker mood as attention turned from the wedding to poor Peter. Newby and Foster traced the downward arc of the cycle from her, to Peter's demise, Newby growing in intensity and drawing us into the story.

Ailish Tynan then sang the Liederkreis Op.39 setting poems by Eichendorff. There is no storyline, and Roger Vignoles called this cycle 'the quintessence of German Romanticism - all the stuff you think of: forests and hunting horns and castles on the Rhine', and of course Die hexe Loreley. Ailish Tynan and Nigel Foster took a story-telling approach to the cycle, giving each song its own particular dramatic atmosphere. Tynan, perhaps I should say, held her music in her hand allowing little to come between her and her audience. She is a born story-teller, giving each song the right combination of line and text. So 'In der Fremde' started off in sombre mood with impetuous joy in 'Intermezzo'. The vivid narrative of 'Waldesgespräch' was really brought alive, and her incarnation of Loreley at the end mesmerising.

'Die Stille' was quietly confiding, then in 'Mondnacht' Foster played the lovely clear piano introduction and Tynan's voice simply floated to join him. 'Schöne Fremde' was again impetuous, pushing forward, and the performance captured the strange atmosphere of 'Auf einer Burg' with its oddly up in the air postlude. Words tumbled over each other in 'In der Fremde' but Schumann's sombre postlude cast a different light on the song. The lyric sadness of 'Wehmut' led to the magical piano prelude to 'Zwielicht', Tynan sang the song with quiet intensity yet bringing out the complex concepts in the second half. 'Im Walde' opened with joy, yet the wedding disappeared, leaving an intense loneliness. Finally the impulsive, vivid excitement of 'Frühlingsnacht'.

So what exactly is an haut-contre?

Samuel Boden (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

The haut-contre, that high tenor voice so necessary for French baroque repertoire, is a fascinating and relatively rare thing. So it was particularly interesting to be able to get up close, so to speak, at a private event for Arcangelo's patrons and supporters when Jonathan Cohen (Arcangelo's artistic director) was joined by tenor Samuel Boden (who features on the group's latest disc of music by John Blow) to perform music by Charpentier and to talk about what exactly is the haut-contre.

It has been a busy year for Arcangelo, they have just finished a residency at the Wigmore Hall where they were the first Baroque group to do so, and the group's recording of Bach cantatas with Iestyn Davies won the Baroque Vocal category in the 2017 Gramophone Awards, whilst their disc of music by John Blow, An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell & other works on Hyperion, with Samuel Boden and Thomas Walker, is winning plaudits.

Jonathan Cohen and Samuel Boden started the evening with an excerpt from Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux Enfers which led to a discussion about the importance of clarity of language when singing French baroque music. Samuel Boden's mother is a language teacher which has helped him, recognising that the words are as important as the music. In a sense, the music is there to colour the words, and of course sung French of the period is far more formal than spoken French. For Samuel, the expressive language allows you to tell a story with just the singer, a lute or a harpsichord in a relatively intimate room. They then performed some more Charpentier, this time a powerful excerpt from Acteon.

An appealing surface with friction underneath: composer Marcus Paus on the music on his new disc

Marcus Paus

The Norwegian composer Marcus Paus has a new CD out. On Sheva Contemporary, it is entitled Odes & Elegies and features instrumental solo and concertante works with Tom Ottar Andreassen (flute), Jan Bertelsen (oboe d'amore), Ole Eirik Ree (cello), Bjarne Magnus Jensen (violin), Henning Kraggerud (violin), Norwegian Radio Orchestra / Ingar Bergby, Oslo Camerata, and The Arctic Chamber Orchestra. When I spoke to Marcus by Skype he explained that all the works on the disc involve a soloist (they are a mix of solo pieces and concertante works) and he feels that the soloist as protagonist in the works introduces a certain overall theme of solitude to the disc.

 
Many of the works on the disc have concrete themes, and Marcus explained that this was one of his favourite ways of working, using his music to empathise with something pre-existing. He feels that though his music is not quite descriptive, this empathy is innate in his musical make-up. He refers to himself as a musical dramatist, whatever the form of the piece, and his music conveys something that is human.

The visual arts is a strong theme in Marcus's music, two works on the disc are inspired by visual artists (Marble Songs was composed in response to an exhibition by the Norwegian sculptor Håkon Anton Fagerås and Vita is inspired by the Norwegian Sculptor Emmanuel Vigeland) and each of his four quartets is named for a painter. Both Marcus's parents are singers and he grew up thinking about music as belonging to the other arts, and some of his earliest experiences were of music in film. But his parents also wrote their own music, so a link between music and the written word is also important for Marcus. He is happiest writing music to something, or for someone. He likes writing for people he knows well (such as Loves last rites on the disc, written for violinist Henning Kraggerud), this gives him a chance to get to know them better and for them to experience his music on a more visceral level.

Asking a composer to describe their music is always a tricky question, but Marcus says that this is a question that every composer needs to ask themselves. He thinks of his music as melodic, it speaks in terms of melody, and has a frankness and directness. A lot of his music is tonal, but it is not always traditional even though it is not abrasive. He adds that his language can be more dissonant than it seems. This is evidently important to him, he wants his music to speak on various levels and for there to be a level of pain and poignancy under the melody. This is what he is attracted to in music, an appealing surface with friction underneath.

Waddesdon Imaginarium, Winter Light at Waddesdon

Waddesdon Imaginarium (courtesy of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama)

At dusk on Sunday 11 November 2017, a ten-minute light and sound performance will be projected onto Waddesdon Manor (the National Trust house near Aylesbury, and former home of the Rothschild family). The Waddesdon Imaginarium will be repeated eight times each evening, Wednesday to Sunday, until 2 January 2018 as part of Waddesdon's Christmas Winter Light contemporary art programme. The spectacular video has been created using the latest in video projection mapping technologies by video design students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Seven students on the BA (Hons) Video Design for Live Performance at the Guildhall School have worked with the house's curatorial team and have scanned in 3D no less than 50 objects from Waddesdon’s collection, as well as mapped the front elevation of the building to enable the projection, and calculated the projection requirements (14 large format projectors) necessary for the enormous 1,700 square metre facade. In addition, around 40 students on other music pathways including the BMus (Hons) Electronic Music have been commissioned to create original music to accompany the projection. Uniquely, Waddesdon will be using three musical interpretations to accompany the 3D video projection performances, offering visitors different experiences of the Imaginarium.

Inspired by the architecture, gardens and history of Waddesdon, visitors will be see roaming porcelain animals, dancing musical clocks, fluttering clouds of butterflies and moths, and 18th-century portraits creating a fantastical visual story of Waddesdon. Waddesdon’s 2017 Winter Light programme also includes Electric Menagerie, a series of eleven light-based artworks inspired by the real and fantastical animals associated with Waddesdon and the Rothschild family, created by American artist Lauren Booth.



Full details from the Waddesdon website.

Voyages: Mary Bevan in Duparc, Faure, Schubert, Debussy & more

Voyages - Duparc, Faure, Chabrier, Schubert, Deodat de Severac, Pierre de Breville, Debussy, and Maurice Rollinat; Mary Bevan, Joseph Middleton; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 7 2017 Star rating: 4.5
A voyage to exotic places through the eyes of the poets Baudelaire and Goethe

On this recital of mainly French song on the Signum Classics label, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Joseph Middleton begin with Henri Duparc's L'invitation au voyage and then move through songs by Faure, Chabrier, Schubert, Deodat de Severac, Pierre de Breville, Debussy, and Maurice Rollinat. The thread that links them is their poetry, inspired by Baudelaire's images of women in far off lands, Bevan and Middleton combine songs which are inspired by Goethe's Mignon's images of a perfect distant land.

So we have settings of Baudelaire and Goethe in French translation, alongside Schubert's Goethe settings in German. Schubert's Vier Mignon Lieder and Debussy's Cinq poems de Beaudelaire form the twin centrepieces of the recital. Along the way there are some fascinating wayside stops, Chabrier's L'invitation au voyage, so different from the Duparc setting, and with Amy Harman's evocative obbligato bassoon, Duparc's classically poised Romance de Mignon, Deodat de Severac's evocatively exotic Les hiboux and Pierre de Breville's fluidly passionate Harmonie du soir.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen & Ben Gernon premiere Richard Blackford's Niobe in Prague

Niobe Mourning Her Children - Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651)

Violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen will be giving the premiere of Richard Blackford's violin concerto Niobe with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Ben Gernon at the Rudolfinum in Prague on Saturday 11 November 2017. Blackford’s score was inspired by the story of Niobe, recounted by Homer in the Iliad. (See the orchestra's website for further details of the concert).

Niobe, who has seven daughters and seven sons, mocks Leto, goddess of motherhood yet mother of only two children, Apollo and Artemis. In revenge, Apollo murders Niobe’s sons, while Artemis kills her daughters and her husband, Amphion, king of Thebes, commits suicide. Niobe in grief turns to Zeus for help, who takes pity and turns Niobe to stone; she continues to weep, however, for eternity, her tears flowing as a stream from the rock.

Comments Waley-Cohen, 'The Greeks saw Niobe as a warning against hubris, but what happened to her can also be interpreted today as a tale about the overly severe punishment of women judged to have stepped out of line. Her punishment seems so brutal, as does the punishment that many women face today around the world. Richard’s concerto is an incredibly powerful piece and a story that is so relevant to women’s issues today.'

Waley-Cohen, Genon and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra will be recording the concerto for Signum Classics.

Waley-Cohen has a busy weekend as she is performing at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday 12 November with pianist Huw Watkins, in Beethoven, Brahms, Janáček and Ravel.

Russian Revolutionaries: Music by Ewald and Böhme

Victor Ewald and Oskar Böhme music for brass ensemble; The Prince Regent's Band; Resonus Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 27 2017 Star rating: 4.0
A new sound-world, Russian brass chamber music played on instruments of the period

Unless you are a brass player you may have never come across the music on this disc. The first volume in a projected series exploring late 19th century and early 20th century Russian brass music, Russian Revolutionaries volume 1 on Resonus Classics, presents music by Victor Ewald and Oskar Böhme performed by The Prince Regent's Band). The ensemble uses instruments of the period, this means that works like the Ewald quintets are played on two cornets, althorn, baritone and tuba (rather than the modern two trumpets, French horn, trombone and tuba). The conical-bore instruments of the Saxhorn family provide a more mellow homogeneous sound, they were favoured by bands of the period for that reason. (The PRB's website has an excellent introduction to the instruments they use, as well as videos).

The late 19th century in Russia saw a drive to improving standards in the music profession. As part of the drive the cutting edge technology included the latest brass instruments from France and Germany. Brass chamber music was surprisingly popular, Grand Duke Alexander of Russia (who became Alexander III) had his own ensemble, made up of aristocratic players. There were a great many bands, and a great deal of music, some written by Russian born composers and some by musicians who had travelled to Russia.

Opera weekender at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Opera Passion, Power and Politics installation
baroque theatre for Handel's Rinaldo (c) Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Victoria and Albert Museum has surrounded its Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition (see my review) with a huge variety of live events showcasing opera in its wide variety of forms. This weekend, 10-12 November 2017, there is the Opera weekender with a weekend of free performances, pop-up events, talks and workshops. 

The weekend launches with the opera Before sleep at the end of love, a contemporary tragedy, written in our era of broken encounters induced by social media and dating apps, constructed around the writing of Donald W Winnicott, Roland Barthes and Friedrich Nietzsche, composed by Jack Sheen and Sarah Hardie. Orlando Gough's Hospital Passion Play combines live performance with filmed inserts from stroke rehabilitation wards, a collaboration between artists, medical professionals, vocal groups and patients.

Other performers include TETRA Early music quartet, and pop-up performances from the Royal College of Music International Opera School. There will be screenings of Garsington Opera's 2017 production of Handel's Semele and an animation of Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. The team behind Grange Park Opera will talk about the building of the new opera house and Streetwise Opera is offering a singing and acting workshop, no experience needed.

Full information from the Victoria and Albert Museum website.

Tosca in Iceland: Claire Rutter joins a mainly Icelandic cast for Puccini's classic opera

Puccini: Tosca - Kristján Jóhannsson, Claire Rutter - Icelandic Opera (Photo Johanna Olafsdottir)

Puccini Tosca; Claire Rutter, Kristján Jóhannsson, Ólafur Kjartan Sigurðarson, dir: Greg Eldridge, cond: Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason; Icelandic Opera at Harpa
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 5 2017 Star rating: 4.0
A significant achievement for Icelandic Opera, Greg Eldridge's production combined tradition and imagination in a nice balance

Icelandic Opera's new production of Tosca mixed local and foreign talent. The production team was led by Ireland-based Australian director Greg Eldridge with set designer Alyson Cummins, costume designer Natalia Stewart, and movement director Jo Meredith, and the leading lady soprano Claire Rutter, who plays Tosca, is British. The rest of the cast is Icelandic, with Kristján Jóhannsson as Cavaradossi, Ólafur Kjartan Sigurðarson as Scarpia, Ágúst Ólafsson as Angelotti, Þorsteinn Freyr Sigurðsson as Spoletta, Fjölnir Ólafsson as Sciarrone and Bergþór Pálsson as the sacristan, conducted by Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason. The production opened at Harpa in Reykjavik on 21 October 2017, and we caught the performance on 5 November 2017.

Ólafur Kjartan Sigurðarson
(Photo Johanna Olafsdottir)

Harpa is more strictly a concert hall than opera house, it offers a fixed stage area with lighting rig but with no wing or flies, and for Tosca no drop curtain. Alyson Cummins' set design took a number of fixed elements which were configured very effectively for each scene, pillars, a stained glass window, monumental doors and railings, making the most of the height of the space.

Though Greg Eldridge's production was set in the 1920s it had a very traditional feel, but within this context there were a number of details where Eldridge was clearly trying to re-think things. And whilst the general look and feel was 1920s, Tosca's costumes were rather defiantly pre1914 in style. The context for the production was the 1922 March on Rome by Mussolini and his Blackshirts. Technically the march failed, but in the end King Vittorio Emmanuele III capitulated and handed control to Mussolini (which provided the historical context for the opera's reverses in political fortune).

The opera opened with the church occupied by partisans with a death to Mussolini flag, and interesting details which Eldridge brought to the production included Tosca's first entrance as a staged 'diva moment' complete with photographers, the sacristan playing a larger role than usual in the opera as one of Scarpia's minions and Scarpia's apartment in Act 2 having a large amount of monitoring equipment. The final act took place with a public audience for the execution, when a number of prisoners were shot including a child.

But the biggest change was that Scarpa was a senior member of the Church, Tosca repeatedly kissed his ring, and his henchmen and entourage were mainly churchmen. When Tosca has killed Scarpia at the end of Act Two, she does not place candles beside him but covers his corpse with his cope.

I am a little uncertain about the idea of having Scarpia as part of the Roman Catholic Church, using his position for his own venal ends. Part of Scarpia's power, surely, is the way he has risen to power through force of personality, in opposition to the church.

With a relatively straight-forward set, Eldridge did not attempt anything too complex for the end of Act One, the West end of the church was facing us so for the Te Deum the cast simply assembled and faced us (the notional altar). It was a relief to have blocking which, for once, wasn't liturgically risible and generally made some liturgical sense.

A window on Polish 17th century music: Marcin Mielczewski from the Sixteen

Marcin Mielczewski choral works; The Sixteen, Eamonn Dougan; Coro
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 27 2017 Star rating: 3.5
Another 17th century Polish composer released from the archives

You have probably never heard of Marcin Mielczewski. He is the latest in a series of 17th century Polish composers being brought to light by Eamonn Dougan and The Sixteen. Their latest disc on the Coro label features a programme of Marcin Mielczewski's choral music,including movements from his Missa Cerviensiana and Missa O gloriosa domina.

This is the fifth volume in the Sixteen's Polish series, and the unfolding programmes have allowed us to appreciate both native Polish composers and how they were influenced by the Italian composers working at the Polish court. King Sigismund III was, in particular, very fond of large-scale poly-choral music and Marcin Mielczewski almost certainly took part in musical performances under Asprillio Pacelli and Giovanni Francesco Anerio, as well as studying with Franciszek Lilius, a composer of Italian descent.

There seems to be a great deal we still do not know about Marcin Mielczewski, though he worked at the Royal court and would ultimately become chapel master to Bishop Charles Ferdinand Vasa. No Mielczewski seem to have survived either, so much is surmise and we can just listen to the music.

A feisty heroine and a smelly hero: Hampstead Garden Opera revives The Enchanted Pig

Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton's The Enchanted Pig premiered at the Young Vic in 2006. Written for a cast of opera singers and singing actors, the piece is billed as a musical tale though it is through composed throughout. The work is being revived by Hampstead Garden Opera at Jackson's Lane Theatre. Laura Attridge's production, conducted by Hannah Quinn, opens on 10 November 2017 and runs until 19 November.

Based on Romanian and Norwegian folk tales, the piece tells the story of a princess who marries a pig (in fact an enchanted prince), but that is only the start of her problems. In Flora, the princess in question, the piece gives us a feisty heroine who goes off in search of her love, and meets a whole welter of people. The cast of eight play a total of 15 named characters in all.

I remember being enchanted by the work when we saw it in 2006, so this new production should be a delightful chance to re-encounter the work.




Full details from the Hampstead Garden Opera website.

A 30 year journey: pianist Paul Berkowitz on his complete Schubert sonatas recordings

Paul Berkowitz (Photo Tony Mastres)

Canadian pianist Paul Berkowitz is celebrating the completion of his recording of all the Schubert piano sonatas with a concert, performing Schubert's final three sonatas at St John's Smith Square on Thursday 9 November 2017. The recording project, which is on Meridian Records, has spanned a remarkable 30 years of Paul Berkowitz's life. Paul explains that the recording project did not start out as a complete cycle, that in the way of these things it rather grew.

Paul has always felt close to Schubert's piano music, though when the first recording from the cycle came out 30 years ago the sonatas were not well known and not many pianists were playing them. Paul never heard the sonatas as a child, but aged 14 he discovered them on someone's piano and was 'blown away'. He fell in love, but his teacher would not allow him to learn them, they were too complicated, and he was only allowed to learn the A major (D. 664).

Later, whilst studying with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute, Paul badgered Serkin into letting him study the B flat sonata, and he also took a number of master-classes. For his London debut Paul played the B flat sonata and later, when he came to live in London (where he was resident for 20 years) he took the opportunity to give three recitals at the Wigmore Hall, each a week apart. He was still pretty young, around 35, but was always attracted to late works and played the late sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. His performances created a bit of a stir, and the founder of Meridian Records, John Shuttleworth, came back stage after one of his Wigmore Hall recitals and asked him what he wanted to record, something unlikely to happen nowadays,

So Paul recorded the last three sonatas of Schubert. It was 1982; Brendel had recorded them in the 1970s but few other pianists were playing them. The plan had been to record just the B flat sonata and some fillers, but things went so well that Paul recorded the other two sonatas (the final session finished at 1.30am, something he admits would be less likely nowadays).

It was his first recording for disc (previously he had recorded for radio) and he found he disliked the recording process with all its patching. But he was been lucky that Meridian have always allowed him to record in long takes, laying down a complete movement, doing patches and then doing a final version of the complete movement again. For those first recordings it was Paul who did the editing, selecting takes from 120 minute cassettes, again something which does not happen nowadays,


Paul feels that there is a degree of refinement you can achieve in the recording process which allows you to aim for the ideal version of a piece in your head. Generally though, he knows that time is pressing during the recording process, and his indulgence is doing the final complete play through of a movement after all the patching.

Having recorded the final three sonatas he wanted to learn more. As he did so, he performed them and then recorded them. Once around half of the sonatas were recorded, it felt natural to continue. Though he loves all of the sonatas, he admits that few of the early sonatas are as earth shattering as the late ones. He has not recorded the completions of unfinished sonatas, feeling that no modern completion can touch Schubert's genius, though he has recorded the two complete movements of the Reliquie sonata and the Wanderer Fantasy.

Paul mentions John M. Gingerich's book Schubert's Beethoven Project, and talks about the way Schubert's early sonatas are like Mozart in their use of long subject. But having heard Beethoven's piano sonatas in 1826, with their use of short motifs, Schubert's later sonatas do something similar; starting with a pithy motif which expands into a subject. And the B flat sonatas is the most complex Schubert wrote. Paul also comments on how some of the most poignant moments in all three late sonatas tend to be in C sharp minor, no matter the key of the sonata itself.

Though Paul accepts that his approach to Schubert has probably changed over the years, he does not like listening to his recordings; but he suspects that he is better nowadays at keeping the tempo steady He also thinks he hears more of the inner parts than he used to, he no feels that you should be able to hear all the parts and makes more of the contrapuntal aspects of the music.

For his St John's Smith Square recital on Thursday 9 November, Paul is playing the last three sonatas, all written in the last two months of Schubert's life. Paul feels they make a good cycle, and the three have contrasting moods, C minor - dramatic, A major - hopeful, B flat major - acceptance. Paul comments that you could imagine them as different approaches to death, and that many of the texts of Schubert's lieder of the period are about the same subject.

Paul started playing the piano at the age of six. He also played the violin, he was terrible but thinks it is useful to know about string playing. Whilst it was his family that introduced him to the piano, his father was worried about piano as a career and Paul was supposed to go to university to do a science degree. For his first year he did music and science simultaneously, but then moved fully into music.

Currently Paul does not feel particularly pressed by the idea of what next, now he has laid all the Schubert sonatas down, though he would like to learn something new. He did the Beethoven Diabelli Variations last year for the first time and they were almost completely new to him. Other ideas include Schumann's Humoreske, and he feels he should do more Bach and has not played much in public. Similarly he used to do a lot of Chopin but has not done much recently, and another departure might be Debussy.


Elsewhere on this blog:

• Sheer beauty: Rachmaninov's Vespers - CD review
• Opera at the V&A: Opera: Passion, Power and Politics - exhibition review
• The woman who was Fidelio The remarkable voice of Anna Milder-Hauptmann - feature article

The Ear of the Huguenots: Paul van Nevel & the Huelgas Ensemble - CD review

Eclectic journey: Guy Johnston's Tecchler's Cello - CD review

Musically satisfying: Mozart's Don Giovanni from HeadFirst Productions - opera review

Viscerally engaging: Conductor Finnegan Downie Dear introduces Shadwell Opera's production of Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse - interview

Viola da gamba delight: Robert Smith in Telemann's newly discovered fantasias - Cd review

Beyond Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos of Roger Sacheverell Coke - CD review

Picture Perfect: Rameau's Pygmalion at BREMF - opera review

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Warning: this is not an opera! (it's much more fun...)

Billed as somewhere between a gig, an exhibition and a cabaret night, Shadow Opera's Stop all the clocks promises music by Weill, Schoenberg, Berg, Britten, Satie and Poulenc, alongside specially-made short films inspired by the music the singers will be performing live, creating immersive, engaging vignettes. We are promised an evening to delight, inspire and thoroughly seduce with delicious musical oddities!

Performers include Sophie Goldrick (mezzo-soprano), Patrick Terry (countertenor), Frieda Love (cabaret artist), Alice Privett (soprano), Sofia Troncoso (soprano), and James Long (piano), and the event takes place at the Copeland Gallery, Peckham, 9, 10, 11 November 2017.

I am sure it will be a fascinating evening, but I slightly worry about an event which bills itself with 'WARNING: THIS IS NOT AN OPERA! (it’s much more fun…)', and the press release says of the composers, 'don’t know who they are? doesn't matter, they’re dead anyway…'.

Further information from the Shadow Opera Group website.

Sheer beauty: Rachmaninov's Vespers from Jeremy Backhouse & the Vasari Singers

Rachmaninov All night vigil; Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Adam Tunnicliffe, Vasari Singers, Jeremy Backhouse; Vasari Media
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 27 2017 Star rating: 3.5
A highly personal reading from conductor Jeremy Backhouse, emphasising flexibility of phrasing and beauty of tone

Rachmaninov's All-night vigil (Vespers) is a work which is rightly popular both with choristers and with audiences. Like many choirs, the Vasari Singers has been performing the work for quite a number of years and in part to celebrate Jeremy Backhouse's 60th birthday, he and the choir have recorded the work to be released as the second disc on the choir's Vasari Media label.

Though the work was premiered in the concert hall, Rachmaninov intended the All-night vigil as a liturgical work. Though richly orchestrated and more coherently symphonic than earlier settings of the Russian liturgy, Rachmaninov follows the limitations that liturgical performance entailed, with no use of instruments and a great deal of traditional chant. But the work is also a romantic attempt by Rachmaninov to get to grips with his Russian roots at a time of great turmoil (he would be forced to flee Russia for ever two years after the work's premiere).

In the last 30 years there has developed a tradition of performance of the work by Western choirs, a tradition which has developed a lighter more flexible view of the work than some of the more classic Slav recordings. It isn't just whether the choir's second basses can manage to be adequately audible in the low notes, but the attitude to phrasing, clarity and general lightness of texture.

On this recording Jeremy Backhouse takes these considerations to the logical conclusion and gives us a highly personal reading which is shaped to his choir's tone and timbre. From what I can judge, the choir's Russian is excellent and sung with admirable clarity, but it is also recognisably a British choir. Backhouse likes to phrase intently, shaping the music considerably and pulling back on the tempo in many small ways. He takes his time over the slower movements, allowing the singers to linger, but pushes forward impulsively too. Throughout the choir follows, and gives a lively light clarity to the sound, phrasing is always flexible. And yet...

Opera: Passion, Power and Politics at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Opera Passion, Power and Politics installation - baroque theatre for Handel's Rinaldo
(c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics has rather daringly been chosen to inaugurate the new exhibition hall at the museum. Opera is not the easiest of arts to confine to an exhibition, but the show takes a cross-arts view of its subject, bringing in the sociological, political and cultural contexts. The show is very much designed to leverage the museum's collections, the strong theatre museum collection as well as the wider holdings in art and design.

Bodice of a theatre costume c.1750
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

So we are presented with a black box, with seven zones around a central area. Each zone takes a city and an opera, explaining both what is significant about the opera and why it arose from the cultural and social context. There are installations, pictures, objects, manuscripts, printed books, musical objects and more, the black walls are used for slogans and diagrams which highlight the salient points of the operas. And there is music too. Not only videos, but an aural sound-track, listened to via headphones.

This is keyed to your location. At its best this means we can look at a display about the singer Anna Renzi, the first Ottavia in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, including her first contract and hear Anne Sofie von Otter singing Ottavia's 'Addio Roma' from the opera. But at its worst the keying of music to physical location means that a couple of steps across the exhibition space can make you lurch from one recording to another in a disturbingly disorientating manner.

Inevitably the way the exhibition is constructed is rather contrived, but there is no doubting that the premieres of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea in Venice, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna, and Verdi's Nabucco in Milan are all striking combinations of musical and social crux points. Similarly perhaps with Handel's Rinaldo in London, Richard Strauss' Salome in Dresden and Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Leningrad, but the French premiere of Wagner's Tannhäuser in Paris is more of a fudge and it seems remarkable that there is no French opera in the exhibition. Rinaldo is hardly Handel's most ground-breaking opera, but as the first Italian opera written specifically for London it holds its place, and similarly Verdi's Nabucco is hardly that composer's greatest opera, but it was his first major success and the amazing after-life of 'Va pensiero' is highly significant.

The woman who was Fidelio: Anna Milder-Hauptmann

Judging by the music she performed, Anna Milder-Hauptmann must have been a remarkable soprano. She was Beethoven's Leonore in the 1805 & 1806 performances of Leonore and in the 1814 Fidelio, and she also commissioned and premiered Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, not to mention giving notable performances as Gluck's heroines and as Cherubini's Medée.

She was born Anna Milder (the Hauptmann came from a short-lived marriage) in Constantinople where here father was pastry-chef to the Austrian ambassador. Once the family had returned to Vienna, she went on to study with Salieri and in 1801  (at the age of 16) was contracted with Emmanuel Schikaneder's Theater an der Wien.

She sang Leonore in all three of Beethoven's operatic performances, Cherubini wrote the title role of Faniske for her in 1806, and she had a notable success in Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride in 1812 and sang in the first Viennese performances of Cherubini's Medée. In 1815 she moved to Berlin where Spontini was music director of the Berlin Court Opera . In March 1829 she sang in Mendelssohn's revival of Bach's St Matthew Passion.

The Ear of the Huguenots

The Ear of the Huguenots; Huelgas Ensemble, Paul van Nevel; Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 24 2017 Star rating: 3.0
Inspired by the Genevan Psalter, music written for the Huguenots in this fascinating historical exploration

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation this year has given rise to all manner of celebrations and commemorations. This disc from Paul van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi looks at things from a musical point of view. The Ear of the Huguenots presents us with a selection of music written for the Protestants, notably music setting texts from the Genevan Psalter.

Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble give us music written for the Protestants by Claude Goudimel, Claude Le Jeune, Jacques Maudult, Paschal de l'Estocart, Jean Servin, Guillaume Costeley, as well as music written  in Rome by Giovanni Animuccia and Palestrina.

We start with a group of psalm settings, Claude Goudimel's Psalm LXVII is an elegant four part setting, for voices and instruments. As with Tallis' music for Edward VI, the clarity of diction and text is most important. The Genevan Psalter was produced in 1562 and was hugely influential. The Psalm settings on the disc are all from composers associated with the Huguenot circle in France. Claude Le Jeune's Psalm LXVII is similarly spare and elegant, just to voices and viol. Jacques Maudit's Psalm CI starts off surprisingly austere, before four part harmony warms it somewhat. There is something striking about the musical austerity of these pieces.

Seasons in the Mind of Men

The annual Samling showcase, Seasons in the mind, takes place at the Wigmore Hall on 9 November 2017, performed by a group of artists who have all participated in the Samling Artists Programme. Sopranos Lauren Fagan and Rowan Pierce, mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew, tenor Nicky Spence, bass-baritone Milan Siljanov and pianists James Baillieu and Ian Tindale will be performing Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, Strauss, Britten, Novello and more, in a programme which explores the four seasons seen and heard through the eyes and ears of composers and poets spanning the last two centuries. Also joining the concert will be actor Alex Hassell who will be reading works by John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Wallace Stevens and Billy Collins.

The Samling Artist Programme is an intensive residential masterclass programme led by world-class artists, teachers and experts, which attracts young singers and pianists from around the world, and there are now over 300 Samling Artists.

Full details of the concert from the Wigmore Hall website.

Tecchler's Cello: Guy Johnston's birthday present to his cello

Ola Gjeilo, David Matthews, Beethoven, Mark Simpson, Jean-Baptise Barriere, Charlotte Bray, Respighi; Guy Johnston, Tom Poster, Magnus Johnston, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Carlo Rissari, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; King's College, Cambridge
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 20 2017 Star rating: 3.5
For its 300th birthday, Guy Johnston takes his cello on an eclectic musical journey back to its birthplace in Rome

At first sight, the programme of this new CD, on King's College, Cambridge's own label, is somewhat eclectic, not to say indigestible; Ola Gjeilo, David Matthews, a Beethoven piano trio, Mark Simpson, Jean-Baptise Barriere, Charlotte Bray and Respighi. The linkage between the works being cellist Guy Johnston, or more specifically Guy's cello, the Tecchler cello of the title.

The CD is arranged as a metaphorical and physical journey from Cambridge to Rome, taking the cello home to the city where it was made 300 years ago. Johnston is joined in the journey by Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge (Johnston was a chorister at King's), pianist Tom Poster and Magnus Johnston (recorded at Hatfield House where Poster and Magnus Johnston are Guy Johnston's regular collaborators in the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival), cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (like Guy Johnston, Kanneh-Mason is a BBC Young Musician of the Year, and they recorded at the Royal Academy of Music) and Carlo Rizzari and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (recorded in Rome).

There are also the three new commissions from David Matthews, Mark Simpmson and Charlotte Bray, recorded at the Wigmore Hall.

The journey celebrated the cello's 300th birthday in 2014, but also perhaps a recognition of Guy Johnston's acquisition of it in 210 and those who had helped this happen, the Stradivari Trust, Royal Society of Musicians and private contributors.

Thought provoking & musically satisfying: Don Giovanni from HeadFirst Productions

Mozart: Don Giovanni  - Matthew Sprange,
HeadFirst Productions

Mozart Don Giovanni; Matthew Sprange, Caroline modiba, Elizabeth Roberts, Samuel Pantcheff, Jorge Navarro Colorado, Sian Cameron, dir: Sophie Gilpin, cond: Sonia Ben Santamaria; HeadFirst Productions at the Pleasance
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on Oct 30 2017 Star rating: 3.5
Mozart's Don in a new production as part of a Festival of Love, Sex and Death

After their successful outing with Puccini's La Boheme, HeadFirst Productions returned to the Pleasance with a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni (30 October 2017) with Matthew Sprange as the eponymous (anti-)hero, Caroline Modiba and Elizabeth Roberts as the Donna Anna and Elvira. Samuel Pantcheff sang the careworn Leporello, with Jorge Navarro Colorado as Don Ottavio, Sian Cameron as Zerlina and Ian Beadle as Masetto, and Stephen Holloway was the Commendatore. Sophie Gilpin directed, and Sonia Ben Santamaria was the conductor.

How are we to judge the Don? Is he man free from the social mores of his time or a malevolent narcissist? The trouble I’ve always had in forming a cogent view is that the opera’s construction has been fiddled and farted with so often, including by Mozart, to accommodate the exigencies of cast and taste, that it can prove difficult to see the wood for the trees. The Don’s motivations are a mystery and Anna and Elvira’s seem to turn on the head of a pin.

Viscerally engaging: Shadwell Opera brings Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse to Hackney Showroom

Shadwell Opera - Maxwell Davies: The Lighthouse - rehearsal with Paul Curievici, Owain Browne & Pauls Putnins
(Photo © Nick Rutter)

Shadwell Opera's production of Peter Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse opens at Hackney Showroom on 3 November 2017 (until 12 November), directed by Jack Furness (artistic director of Shadwell Opera) and conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear (music director of Shadwell Opera) the immersive production will build on the company's recent successes including a double bill of Schoenberg's Erwartung and Mark-Anthony Turnage's Twice Through the Heart last year and Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for A Mad King in 2015.

Shadwell Opera - Maxwell Davies: The Lighthouse
rehearsal with Finnegan Downie Dear (Photo © Nick Rutter)

The company has developed a reputation for bringing musical and dramatic intensity to contemporary and 20th century pieces, though perhaps The Lighthouse might seem a somewhat safe choice as it has quite an established reputation (the work was premiered in 1980 by Maxwell Davies' The Fires of London and Peter Sellars directed the USA premiere in 1983).

When I recently met up with Finnegan Downie Dear he explained that for him The Lighthouse had the best opera libretto that he had ever come across, combining clarity of structure with mystery and intrigue, incredibly well made yet a mystical ghost story. Whilst the company has a reputation for presenting contemporary works which deserve to be heard again, they want to change what people who have never been to the opera think about the form. With The Lighthouse, he and Jack Furness were presented with interesting challenges to bring something of Shadwell Opera's own style to the production.

Swansong

Iain Burnside's musical plays, cross-arts projects involving lieder and drama, have been a highlight of the programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the last few years or so, including Why does the Queen die?.  His latest, Swansong premieres at the Guildhall School on Saturday 4 November 2017. Swansong looks at Schubert's last song-cycle, Schwanengesang, fourteen songs written at the end of his life, but in fact assembled by his publisher, Schubert may not have intended them as a cycle.

Using a group of actors, singers and pianists (all students from the Guildhall School), Burnside's new musical drama presents the fourteen songs of Schwanengesang in their traditional order interspersed with monologues from six different characters; each casts a fresh light, from different angles, on the songs. Three are Schubert’s contemporaries: his friend Franz von Schober, his laundry girl Liesl and the canny publisher Tobias Haslinger who assembled the songs into a cycle. The other three are from later generations: Johannes Brahms sees his adopted city, Vienna, through North German eyes; Ivor Gurney reflects on the composer from the City of London Mental Hospital where he spent the last 15 years of his life; and Emily, an American graduate student visiting Vienna. on this collection of masterly songs, and on the genius who created them, months before his death.

Swansong is directed by Iain Burnside with designs by Oscar Selfridge, with Declan Baxter (Ivor Gurney); Poppy Gilbert (Liesl Raimund); Oliver Higginson (Franz von Schober); Jordan Angell (Tobias Haslinger); Harvey Cole (Johannes Brahms); Erica Rothman (Emily Jacobsen), Harriet Burns, James Robinson and Andrew Hamilton (singers), Michael Pandya and Dylan Perez (pianists).

Swansong is at Milton Court Concert Hall on 4 & 5 November 2017, further information from the Guildhall School website.

Viola da gamba delight: Telemann's newly discovered fantasias

Telemann Fantasias for viola da gamba; Robert Smith; Resonus Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 13 2017 Star rating: 4.0
The newly discovered Telemann viola da gamba fantasias in an engaging new recording

2015 was something of a bumper year for viola da gamba players, as Telemann's Fantasias for Viola da Gamba were re-discovered. On this disc from Resonus Classics, viola da gamba player Robert Smith performs all 12 fantasias.

Musicologists have long known that Telemann wrote sets of fantasias for harpsichord, flute, violin and viola da gamba. But whereas the music for the harpsichord, flute and violin sets survives, all that we had for the viola da gamba sonatas was the press announcement. Then in 2015, a complete manuscript was found in the Lower Saxony State archive.

Each of the twelve pieces has two or three short movements (there are 34 tracks on this 79 minute disc). The last movement of each sonata tends to be light-hearted and dance-like, and throughout there is great fluidity and fertility to Telemann's imagination.

By the time he came to write the fantasias (published in 1735) the viola da gamba was rather an old-fashioned instrument. Telemann self-published the music and it was clearly intended for good amateurs (the biggest market for published music). In his article in the CD booklet, Robert Smith argues that though the music is intended for amateurs, there is nothing easy about it for professionals.