Scotland to Mesopotamia and beyond: Music at Oxford celebrates birthdays for Robert Saxton and Gregory Rose

Ancient Assyrian statue in the Louvre
thought to show Gilgamesh

Music at Oxford launches its Spring/Summer season on Friday 10 March 2023 with a concert from the English Symphony Orchestra with its recently appointed creative partner, violinist Esther Abrami in which they pair Scottish-themed works from Bruch and Mendelssohn with the premiere of Robert Saxton's Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Saxton, who was professor of composition at Oxford until 2021, celebrates his 70th birthday this year.

Another birthday celebration featured in the season is that of Gregory Rose, who celebrates his 75th birthday by conducting the premiere of his Oboe Concerto with soloist George Caird and the Jupiter Orchestra, in a concert that also includes music by Albinoni, Janacek and Tchaikovsky. And further celebrations take place at the final concert of the season, when Paris-based ensemble, Quatuor Modigliani, celebrates its 20th anniversary with a new piece by Jean Frederic Neuburger, plus Beethoven's String Quartet no. 13, Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge as the finale.

Other visitors to Oxford for the season include Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, and the Marian Consort who perform music by Renaissance nun Raffaella Aleotti, Vincente Lusitano and William Byrd.

Full details from the Music at Oxford website.

An enjoyable romp: Rossini's 1825 coronation opera Il viaggio a Reims from English Touring Opera

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - end of Act II - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims; English Touring Opera, directed Valentina Ceschi, conducted Jonathan Peter Kenny; Hackney Empire

Rossini's 1825 coronation opera proves rather more than an occasional piece and a largely young cast have a great time and bring the work to life

Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro (The Journey to Reims, or The Hotel of the Golden Fleur-de-lis) was his last opera in the Italian language. Written for Paris in 1825, it was an occasional work, commissioned to celebrate the coronation of King Charles X at Reims. With a cast of 14 major roles, Rossini never intended it to have a life beyond performances in 1825 and he reused much of the music for his final comedy, Le comte Ory.

That English Touring Opera is performing the work at the time we are planning the coronation of King Charles seems to be something delightfully serendipitous. But Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims was the third of ETO's main stage productions for the Spring tour. It opened on Saturday 4 March 2023 at Hackney Empire in a production directed by Valentina Ceschi, with Lucy Hall, Luci Briginshaw, Susanna Hurrell, Esme Bronwen-Smith, Julian Henao Gonzalez, Richard Dowling, Edward Hawkins, Grant Doyle, Jean-Kristof Bouton, Jerome Knox, Timothy Dawkins, Matthew McKinney, Llio Evans, Hollie-anne Bangham, Edward Jowle, Brenton Spiteri, Peter Edge and Eleanor Sanderson Nash. Designs were by Adam Wiltshire, with Cordelia Chisholm's gold box frame from Giulio Cesare, lighting was by Ric Mountjoy. Jonathan Peter Kenny conducted the Old Street Band.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Julian Henao Gonzalez (Conte di Libenskof), Esme Bronwen-Smith (Marchesa Melibea) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Style and youthful charm: English Touring Opera brings out the musical delights of Donizetti's murderous heroine, Lucrezia Borgia

Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia - Paula Sides - English Touring Opera (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia; Paula Sides, Thomas Elwin, Aidan Edwards, Katie Coventry, directed: Eloise Lally, conducted Gerry Cornelius, the Old Street Band; English Touring Opera at the Hackney Empire

A welcome outing for Donizetti's rarely staged Lucrezia as ETO brings out the work's musical riches in an engaging performance from a largely youthful cast including a period instrument band

With the exception of his comedies and a bare handful of more serious operas, Donizetti's operas are only rarely seen in the opera house, so it was welcome indeed that English Touring Opera's second production of their 2023 Spring Season was Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. Last seen in London in 2011 at ENO (in Mike Figgis' production with Claire Rutter), the work's previous major outing in the capital was at Covent Garden in 1980 with Joan Sutherland.

On Friday 3 March 2023, English Touring Opera (ETO) performed Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at the Hackney Empire. Directed by Eloise Lally, the performance featured Paula Sides as Lucrezia, Thomas Elwin as Gennaro, Aidan Edwards as Alfonso and Katie Coventry as Orsini, plus Jerome Knox, Brenton Spiteri, Monwabisi Lindi, Peter Edge, Phil Wilcox, Matthew McKinney, Edward Jowle, Aaron O'Hare,  Masimba Ushe and Ben Knight. Designs were by Adam Wiltshire within the gold box frame designed by Cordelia Chisholm for Giulio Cesare, lighting was by Ric Mountjoy. Gerry Cornelius conducted the Old Street Band, ETO's period instrument ensemble.

Donizetti wrote Lucrezia Borgia in 1833 for La Scala, Milan, three years after his breakout success with Anna Bolena and a year before Maria Stuarda. Lucrezia Borgia returns to the same literary version of history, this time based on a play by Victor Hugo. It is a strange piece. With most operas of the period, you can summarise what the opera is really about, the emotional nub. With Lucrezia it is tricky, the plot is almost inconsequential and is really only the unfortunate confluence of public and private in the life of its murderous heroine. Often, Donizetti's music fails to convince of these murderous intentions, yet is unfailingly wonderful. I came out of the theatre charmed and delighted, without being put through any sort of emotional wringer.

Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia - Thomas Elwin, Katie Coventry & the ragazzi - English Touring Opera (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

With 'Arctic' she wanted to provide positivity and hope, to show what is worth preserving: Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing on her latest project

Eldbjørg Hemsing

The Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing recently released her debut album, Arctic, on the Sony Classical label. Recorded with the Arctic Philharmonic, the disc is a musical portrait of the Arctic featuring music by Jacob Shea alongside works by Frode Fjellheim, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Ola Gjeilo, James Newton Howard, Henning Sommerro, Selim Palmgren (1878-1951), Ole Bull (1810-1880) and Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). Recorded in one of the Artic Philharmonic's home towns, Bodø which is the second largest town in North Norway and located just North of the Arctic Circle, the recording was made in the cultural centre, Stormen (the storm) which opened in 2014. Eldbjørg comes from a musical family, both her mother and sister are violinists and together the two sisters organise a chamber music festival, The Hemsing Festival in their home town of Aurdal.

One or two statistics are perhaps helpful here, to convey the sheer distances involved. Bodø, just inside the Arctic circle, is around 1,200 km from Oslo in the very South of Norway. Tromsø is a further 500 km North of Bodø (some 1,700 km from Oslo) and it is over 900 km from Bodø to Honningsvåg at the very tip of Northern Norway. Aurdal, where Eldbjørg comes from, is some 170 km from Oslo, between Oslo and Bergen. All these distances are by road, courtesy of Google Maps, and for comparison, London to John O'Groats is 1,100 km.

When I ask Eldbjørg, why make an album about the Artic, she comments 'Why not?'

The Forte Sessions

Founded by Royal College of Music Masters student Matthew Iddeson, the Forte Sessions is a newly established media platform which aims to 'increase accessibility' in classical music as well as taking performances out of traditional spaces.

For their first video, launched last month, guitarist Zoe Barnet performs the Sonata III, ‘Chanson’ by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce (1882-1948) in London's historic Denmark Street, the traditional home of British rock and roll.

The Forte Sessions are on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fortesessions/ and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fortesessions

Handel in Rome: soprano Nardus Williams makes solo debut with Dunedin Consort

Having made an impression with her performance as Belinda in Errollyn Wallen's opera Dido's Ghost with the Dunedin Consort [see my review], soprano Nardus Williams is returning to sing with the consort in her solo debut with them in an all-Handel concert, Handel in Rome, directed by Benjamin Bayl. This is the first of a series of projects that the consort is doing with Nardus Williams.

Handel in Rome features some of the dazzling music that Handel wrote for his Italian patrons whilst he was in Rome during 1707 and 1708. Opera was banned in the city at the time, so composers and patrons turned to other large-scale forms and the concert includes arias from two of Handel's Italian oratorios, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and La Resurrezione. But much of the time, Handel wrote for private events held by his patrons and we here two of his smaller scale cantatas, Ero e Leandro (telling the story of Hero and Leander) and Tra le fiamme, telling the story of Daedelus. There will also be instrumental music including one of his Opus 6 concerto grossos.

Benjamin Bayl is a former student of the Dunedin Consort's music director, John Butt, and this will be the first time that Bayl has directed the consort.

There are performances at Glasgow University Chapel (28 March), Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh (29 March), Wigmore Hall, London (30 March), Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden (31 March). Full details from the Dunedin Consort's website.

The African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall

Omo Bello, Richard Olatunde Baker, Rebeca Omordia

The African Concert Series is returning with its fifth edition, but this time at the Wigmore Hall where on 13 May 2023 there will be a day of concerts with piano music, chamber music and art song.

Things begin with a late-morning recital from the concert series' artistic director, pianist Rebeca Omordia playing music by Nigerians Ayo Bankole (1935-1976) and Christian Onyeji (born 1967), Moroccan Nabil Benabdeljalil (born 1972), South African David Earl (born 1951) and Ghanaian Fred Onovwerosuoke (born 1960). 

In the afternoon, Journeys from Home features songs by composers of African backgrounds but whose careers took them elsewhere, performed by Omo Bello (soprano), Richard Olatunde Baker (percussion) and Rebeca Omordia. Composers featured include Ayo Bankole who studied in London, Cambridge and Los Angeles; Akin Euba (1935-2020) who worked in Germany, America and the UK, and the renowned 18th-century Paris-based violinist Joseph Bologne (1745-1799) famously known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. 

In the evening, there will be chamber music performed by the Ubuntu Ensemble, founded by double bass player Leon Bosch. The programme includes the world premiere of a song cycle by Grant McLachlan (born 1956) for the South African star, baritone Theo Magongoma accompanied by the pianist Tessa Uys, plus works by Peter Klatzow (1945-2021), Mokale Koapeng, Fodé Lassana Diabaté and Moussa Dembele. 

Full details from the Wigmore Hall website.

The Manchester Guitar Festival is back: three days of the world's finest guitar stars

Aquerelles Guitar Quartet

The Manchester Guitar Festival is back at Stoller Hall from 19 21 May 2023. The three-day festival features some of the world’s finest guitar stars from the world's of acoustic,  jazz, flamenco  and blues, plus workshops and master-classes, and there will be an opportunity for budding young guitarists to try out the world of Chetham’s as part of events with Chetham’s Guitar Choir and Chetham’s Guitar Academy.

The festival opens with Eric Bibb whom The Guardian described as 'one of the finest American exponents of acoustic Blues'. Bibb and his band will play a mix of classics and new material from his forthcoming album, Ridin'. Saturday moves towards Flamenco with Flamenco guitarist Miguel Pérez from Seville. He will be joined for the evening by Spanish Flamenco artists - dancer and choreographer Andrés Peña and cantaor (singer) Miguel Rosendo. Together they will present Espiritu Flamenco. The weekends ends with Manchester’s Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, one of the world’s leading guitar quartets, known for their extraordinary ensemble in performance and expansive repertoire.  

Running alongside the festival’s live performance schedule, are a series of talks and workshops led by musicians, Chetham’s School of Music guitar tutors and graduates. For little ones, the Stoller Hall’s monthly Stoller Story Sounds will run an interactive storytelling session for 3- 5 year olds, and their grown-ups. For older children, aged 8-16,there is the Guitar Choir, the place for young and budding guitar players to meet other young players and learn and play alongside them with hands on tuition and guidance led by professional guitarists and teachers. 

Full details from the Stoller Hall website.

Keenly dramatic: Puccini's Tosca at Opera North with a feisty Tosca, an unexpected Cavaradossi and a remarkable Scarpia

Puccini: Tosca - Robert Hayward - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop)

Puccini: Tosca; Giselle Allen, Andrés Presno, Robert Hayward, director: Edward Dick, conductor: Garry Walker; Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds

A modern, film-noir take on Puccini's classic proves to be gripping theatre, with a trio of terrific performances from the leads

Edward Dick's production of Puccini's Tosca for Opera North debuted in 2018 with Giselle Allen (Tosca), Robert Hayward (Scarpia) and the late Rafael Rojas (Cavaradossi). The production returned to the Grand Theatre, Leeds in January 2023 with Giselle Allen and Robert Hayward returning to their roles and Mykhailo Malafii as Cavaradossi (in March, Magdalena Molendowska and Andrés Presno were due to take over as Tosca and Cavaradossi).

I caught the performance at the Grand Theatre on 28 February 2023; Malafii was ill and Cavaradossi was sung by Andrés Presno. Garry Walker conducted, with Callum Thorpe as Angelotti, Matthew Stiff as the Sacristan, Alex Banfield as Spoleta, and Richard Mosley-Evans as Sciarrone. Sets were by Tom Scutt, costumes by Fotini Dimou, and lighting was by Lee Curran.

Scutt's semi-permanent setting for the opera was somewhat abstract yet highly functional, effectively providing all the spaces needed for the mechanics of the plot. Act One featured a dome (with a hole at the centre) with one panel missing. This was what Cavaradossi was painting, the final panel of his Magdalene for the dome, her eyes. The missing panel in the ceiling suggested something off-kilter elsewhere. The stage was surrounded by columns of lights and a semi-circle of altars. The acting area was raised, but leaving a passageway around the altars so a young altar girl could walk around and light them, something that happened both in Acts One and Act Two. 

Puccini: Tosca - Robert Hayward - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop)

About as close as you’ll get to an acid trip without breaking the law: George Crumb's Black Angels & a new work by Mother Moor from Manchester Collective

George Crumb's Black Angels, subtitled 'Thirteen Images from the Dark Land' is a work for electric string quartet written in 1970. Composed over the course of a year, the date "Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 (in tempore belli)" as written on the score, the Latin phrase being a reference to the Vietnam War taking place at the time when Black Angels was composed. Notoriously demanding, musicians are instructed to chant in foreign languages, play instruments upside down, incessantly tap strings with thimbles and glass rods, scream, shout, beat, count and pray.

Touring across the UK from 16-24 March 2023, the Manchester Collective is presenting Black Angels, a programme for quartet and live electronics which features Crumb's iconic work alongside a new commission by Los Angeles-based hip-hop artist, activist, poet and composer Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa).

A self-taught musician, Moor Mother is one half of the art collective Black Quantum Futurism (along with Rasheedah Phillips) and is known for her experimental music work, mixing in influences from jazz, blues, hip-hop and other Black classical traditions. Her new work, DREAM CULTURE, is the artist’s first chamber commission.

Also in the programme is the slow movement of Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet, the work that inspired Crumb's piece, plus Edmund Finnis' String Quartet No. 2 and Gabriella Smith's Carrot Revolution. The performers are Rakhi Singh – Music Director, violin, Emily Nebel – Violin, Alex Mitchell – Viola, Hannah Roberts – Cello and Joe Reiser – Live electronics, with performances in The White Hotel, Salford, Future Yard, Birkenhead, Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, Strange Brew, Bristol, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, and Kings Place, London.

Full details from the Manchester Collective website.

Intriguing reinventions: Danish accordion player Bjarke Mogensen's Album for Astor

Album for Astor: Bjarke Mogensen, Johan Bridger, Mathias Heise, The Danish Chamber Players; OUR Recordings
Reviewed 27 February 2023

Danish accordion player Bjarke Mogensen & friends in striking modern reinventions of some of Piazzolla's classics

This new disc from OUR Recordings, Album for Astor features the Danish accordion player Bjarke Mogensen with Johan Bridger (vibraphone), Mathias Heise (harmonica) and members of The Danish Chamber Players in a sequence of modern interpretations of music by the great master of Argentinian Tango Nuevo, Astor Piazzolla.

The disc features Adiós Nonino, Vibraphonissimo, Café 1930 from Histoire du Tango, Tristango, Aconcagua, Fuga y Misterioso, Coral, Allegro Tangabile, Contramilonga, Novitango, and Despertar in new arrangements by Mogensen with a variety of line-ups from solo accordion to accordion and vibraphone, and accordion and harmonica, to accordion and chamber ensemble, some of the originals are songs but here presented in instrumental transcriptions.

French Connections: the Piccadilly Chamber Music Series returns with five concerts

Piccadilly Chamber Music Series

The Piccadilly Chamber Music Series, artistic director Warren Mailley-Smith, is returning to St James' Church, Piccadilly for its sixth season, presenting five concerts exploring piano trio repertoire from France in the 19th and 20th centuries alongside masterpieces by Beethoven.

The repertoire includes piano trios by Debussy, Chaminade, Faure, Lili Boulanger, Ravel, Chausson, Saint-Saens, Louise Farrenc, Taillefaire and Chopin, plus a selection of Beethoven's piano trios including The Archduke. Performances feature artistic director, pianist Warren Mailley-Smith with a variety of fine instrumental musicians.

The series opens on 3 March 2023, with Warren Mailley-Smith (piano), Harriet Mackenzie (violin) and Katherine Jenkinson (cello) in Debussy's Piano Trio, Beethoven's Piano trio in C minor Op.1 No.3 and Chaminade's Piano trio No. 1 in G minor Op. 11. Debussy's only piano trio was written when he was just 18, and staying in Fiesole where he was living with Tchaikovsky's patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, as the music tutor to her daughters. 

Full details from the Piccadilly Chamber Music Series website.

Stravinsky and Bharatanatyam: Seeta Patel Dance Company's new version of The Rite of Spring using classical South Indian dance

Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was written for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes for choreographer Nijinsky. After the chaotic premiere, Stravinsky was dismissive of the choreography partly as a result of the choreographer and dancers' reliance on counting which bore no resemblance to Stravinsky's conception of his rhythms in the piece. As it was, after the initial run, when Diaghilev came to revive the ballet a few years later, Nijinsky was suffering from a breakdown in his mental health and no-one else could remember the ballet, so Massine rechoreographed it. Since then, there have been countless different versions as each choreographer seeks to get to grips with the primal energy of Stravinsky's score, and of course, each comes up with something different.

Now, the Seeta Patel Dance Company is presenting the London premiere of a Bharatanatyam interpretation of Stravinsky's ballet on 13 and 14 March 2023. Bharatanatyam is the classical South Indian dance, normally seen in solo presentations but here the whole ensemble will be dancing. The company will be accompanied by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

The company uses a male dancer as The Chosen One – elevating him to a deity to whom all sacrifice themselves. Whilst it is traditional for The Chosen One to be a woman, Kenneth MacMillan allowed for either sex in the role. By associating Stravinsky’s work and Bharatanatyam dance, Patel seeks to bridge the gap between classical Indian and Western culture through the mediums of dance and music.

London-born choreographer and dancer Seeta Patel trained in both Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance, and she has performed with companies such as DV8 Physical Theatre, and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company. The evening will begin with Seeta Patel in a solo performance accompanied by South Indian musicians.

Full details from the Sadler's Wells website.

Two major role debuts as ETO launches Spring tour with strong revival of Handel's Giulio Cesare

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Susanna Hurrell (Cleopatra); Francis Gush (Cesare) - English Touring Opera (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Handel: Giulio Cesare; Francis Gush, Susanna Hurrell, Carolyn Dobbin, Margo Arsane, Alexander Chance, director: James Conway, conductor: Cordelia Chisholm; English Touring Opera at Hackney Empire 

This was the third time I have seen this production, and it never pales: ETO's fine young cast brings Handel's masterpiece to life in Conway's imaginative setting

English Touring Opera opened its Spring 2023 season with a revival of James Conway's fine 2017 production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. The production was revived in 2020, but that run was inevitably cut short, so this tour (with nine performances in total) was something in recompense, and the production has influenced the whole shape of the season. All three operas will be presented with the Old Street Band, ETO's period instrument ensemble thus giving us period instrumental performances for Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Rossini's Il viaggio a Rheims, whilst both these operas will have productions presented inside Giulio Cesare's gilded box set.

James Conway's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare opened at the Hackney Empire on 25 February 2023, with Sergey Rybin conducting the Old Street Band. Francis Gush was Cesare and Susanna Hurrell was Cleopatra, with Alexander Chance as Tolomeo, Carolyn Dobbin as Cornelia, Margo Arsane as Sesto, Edward Hawkins as Achilla, Kieron-Connor Valentine as Nireno and Edward Jowle as Curio. Designs were by Cordelia Chisholm. Both Gush and Chance were making their role debuts.

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Carolyn Dobbin (Cornelia); Margo Arsane (Sesto) - English Touring Opera (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

The production sets the opera at the time of its writing with the Romans as the English constantly fascinated yet repelled by the French court (the Egyptians), and this works remarkably well, partly thanks to the clarity and beauty of Chisholm's designs and the imaginative direction from Conway. The focus is on character, which places the onus on the singers, but the benefit is a focus on the opera rather than gimmicks.

Moments of musical magic: Dvorak's Rusalka at Covent Garden with Asmik Grigorian, David Butt Philip & Semyon Bychkov

Dvorak: Rusalka - Ross Ramgobin, Sarah Connolly, Hongi Wu - Royal Opera House (Photo Camilla Greenwall)

Dvorak: Rusalka; Asmik Grigorian, David Butt Philip, Sarah Connolly, Emma Bell, Rafal Siwek, directed: Ann Yee & Natalie Abrahami, conducted: Semyon Bychkov; Royal Opera House

An imperfectly realised theatrical vision lifted by finely musical performances and stunning orchestral playing

With a hit number that is known by many who have never seen the opera and its tale of tragic love, Dvorak's Rusalka might seem like a sure-fire hit for opera companies, but the work came relatively late in the West. David Pountney's 1983 production for English National Opera was an important milestone (the company had given the work's UK premiere in 1959) as Pountney explored ideas of a young girl's sexual awakening. By contrast, the 1993 production at New York's Metropolitan Opera, which came from the Vienna State Opera, was firmly in the unquestioning fairy tale realm. Since then, productions have tended to veer between these ideas. At Grange Park Opera in 2008, Anthony McDonald (as director and designer) mined a really vivid vein of darkness in the fairy tale, and this is a vein that has continued in the UK with Melly Still's production at Glyndebourne and Jack Furness' imaginative and wonderfully poetic staging at Garsington last year [see my review].

In Europe, directors have sometimes taken a rather harder-edged view, with Christoph Loy's 2020 staging in Madrid exploring ideas of fractured family relationships, with Rusalka as a crippled dancer in a theatre [see my review]. An earlier Salzburg production set the work in a brothel, but when this production came to Covent Garden in 2012 it failed to convince [see my review].

Covent Garden has now had another go, creating its own production, directed by Ann Yee and Natalie Abrahami, with sets by Chloe Lamford, costumes by Annemarie Woods, lighting by Paule Constable and choreography by Ann Yee. Asmik Grigorian was Rusalka with David Butt Philip as the Prince, Sarah Connolly as Jezibaba, Emma Bell as the Foreign Princess and Rafal Siwek as Vodnik. Semyon Bychkov conducted the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Dvorak: Rusalka - Asmik Grigorian - Royal Opera House (Photo Camilla Greenwall)

A bit of a whirlwind: counter-tenor Francis Gush discusses his forthcoming debut in the title role of Handel's Giulio Cesare with English Touring Opera

Francis Gush in rehearsal for Handel's Giulio Cesare with English Touring Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Tonight, 25 February 2023, English Touring Opera (ETO) launches its ambitious Spring tour at the Hackney Empire with a revival of James Conway's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare, conducted by Sergey Rybin with Francis Gush in the title role and Susanna Hurrell as Cleopatra. I first saw Francis in the role of Arsace in Handel's Partenope with HGO in 2019 [see my review], he has also covered Athamas in Handel's Semele with Opéra de Lille and performed in Purcell’s The Indian Queen under Emmanuelle Haïm at the Opéra de Lille. I caught up with Francis, via Zoom, in the middle of rehearsals to talk about Handel's writing for the voice and how it suits him, learning Cesare and his ideas about the character, as well as the wider world of Baroque opera and how his lockdown job of being a builder helped when he returned to opera.  

Francis comments that rehearsals were going well but that it was something of a whirlwind, and they had just had their first stage and orchestra rehearsal. For Francis, having the orchestra makes it easier to get into the emotional landscape of the piece. Francis had never sung in Handel's Giulio Cesare before, and in fact, his casting with ETO was rather late notice (at the beginning of January), so he had to prepare the piece in a month. He had done a couple of the arias before, but there was much learning needed, and it was a challenge, learning all the recitative on your own. He spoke the text at first, which took a lot of time, and the notes are so moveable and not always intuitive. It needs you to learn not just your part but the whole drama. Francis had not seen James Conway's production before [it debuted in 2017, see my review], but people he studied with have been involved in the production previously. 

A lasting picture of struggle and resilience: a new live version of Derek Jarman's Blue to commemorate the film's 30th anniversary

Derek Jarman's final film, BLUE, was completed in May 1993, just months before his death. A response to the onset of blindness as a result of his battle with HIV, the film presents an unchanging screen of celestial blue accompanied by voices which deliver a collage of fragments from Jarman's diary, describing the gradual onset of blindness, and as his daily life is stripped away, only the essentials remain.

To celebrate the film's 30th anniversary, Neil Bartlett is directing a new live version of the film, the production is being presented by WeTransfer,  with performances at Brighton’s Theatre Royal as part of Brighton Festival, Turner Contemporary in Margate, HOME in Manchester and Tate Modern in London.

For the live performances, four actors will deliver Jarman's words, activist and art collector Russell Tovey, Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard, and TS Eliot award-winning poet and acclaimed spoken word performer Joelle Taylor, whilst the film's original composer Simon Fisher Turner will accompany them with a new live score.

Created at the height of the AIDS epidemic, BLUE is a testament not just to Jarman's remarkable courage but also to the rage and loss of an entire generation. Revisiting the piece now creates an opportunity to both revisit the pioneering contribution of the LGBTQI+ community to national life over 30 years and how different generations have dealt with the trauma of the AIDS epidemic. It paints a lasting picture of struggle and resilience at a time when the whole world has been figuring out how to survive in the face of a global pandemic.

Blue Now is at the Brighton Festival (7 May 2023), Turner Contemporary, Margate (13 May), HOME Manchester (21 May) and Tate Modern (27 May).

As an addition to the live performances, WeTransfer has commissioned a digital iteration of BLUE NOW to appear on its arts platform WePresent. This version will not copy the original BLUE but instead pay tribute to the original artwork and its creator Derek Jarman through the words and voices of contemporary LGBTQIA+ artists. Since 2009, WeTransfer has donated up to 30% of its media inventory to artists and social causes, giving a platform to underrepresented voices within the creative community. Designed by WeTransfer’s creative studio, WePresent’s BLUE NOW content series will bring the legacy of this artwork to a large global audience where it will be accessible for free. 

Full details from the Fuel Theatre website.

A voyage round Pauline Viardot: Anna Bonitatibus & Angela Hewitt in Berlioz, Liszt, rare late Rossini and something by the Viardot herself

Pauline Viardot

Berlioz: Les nuits d'été Op. 7, Pauline Viardot: Scène d'Hermione, Liszt: Tre sonetti di Petrarca S270/2,  Rossini: Giovanna d'Arco; Anna Bonitatibus, Angela Hewitt; Wigmore Hall

Music by Pauline Viardot & composers associated with her makes for an absorbing and finely performed programme, from the subtleties of Berlioz through to bravura late Rossini

Pianist Angela Hewitt currently has a residency at Wigmore Hall and for her concert on Thursday 23 February 2023, she joined forces with mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus for a concert that might have been described as a voyage around the great 19th-century singer and composer, Pauline Viardot. Hewitt and Bonitatibus performed four significant works, three by composers who had links to Viardot and one by Viardot herself. Alongside Berlioz' Les nuits d'été Op. 7 and Liszt's 3 sonetti di Petrarca S270/2 we had two rarities, Viardot's Scène d'Hermione and Rossini's Giovanna d'Arco.

Viardot sang both Cassandre and Didon in excerpts from Berlioz' Les Troyens and when the idea was raised to create a version of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice for mezzo-soprano (the gradual raising of pitch at the Paris Opera meant that Gluck's original French version was no longer accessible to contemporary tenors), it was for Viardot that Berlioz created his version.

On 'Dead Man Walking': baritone Michael Lafferty on learning the role of Joseph de Rocher in Jake Heggie's opera for its Guildhall School performances next week

Michael Mayes as Joseph de Rocher in 2019

On 27 February 2023, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama presents Jake Heggie's opera Dead Man Walking in a new production directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and conducted by Dominic Wheeler. In advance of the production, we hear from Michael Lafferty who is one of the two baritones sharing the role of Joseph de Rocher. Based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, the opera premiered in 2000 in San Francisco, but only received its UK premiere in 2018 at the Barbican in a semi-staged performance with Joyce DiDonato and Michael Mayes. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland gave the work's UK stage premiere in 2019. 

Here, Michael Lafferty talks about exploring the role of Joseph de Rocher.

This production of Dead Man Walking is certainly one of the most ambitious we’ve staged so far, and I think we all feel it too. It’s such a huge work. The opera is so intricate, from the complicated scene changes to the depth of the material. It’s an intensive rehearsal process, and it takes a vast amount of concentration. 

The two leading roles of Sister Helen Prejean and Joseph De Rocher require a big sing. In addition to the vocalism, range, dynamic colour and the musical writing, it is also an incredibly hard-hitting real-life story. To me, knowing that these characters were real hits home more than other works; there is something about performing the role of a death row inmate in the 80s that is more real than a Verdi or Mozart work set in the 18th or 19th century. Knowing that we are portraying characters based on real lives is a daunting task, but one with great privilege. 

Handel for All: The English Concert launches its impressive and heartening plan to film Handel's entire output for free on-line viewing

The English Concert performing Handel’s Serse at St Martin-in-the-Fields
(Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell)

Handel's output was prodigious, nearly 70 operas and oratorios, 150 cantatas and other vocal works, not to mention all the instrumental pieces and chamber music. In total, it all adds up to over 600 (the exact count, of course, depends on how you count the various versions of pieces), and the English Concert plans to film every piece and make these recordings available via a free on-line resource. 

The project, Handel for All, launches this month with the release of Handel's Samson with Stuart Jackson in the title role [available on the English Concert website], plus Paula Murrihy, Matthew Brook & Sophie Bevan, which was recorded as part of the 2021 London Handel Festival [see my original review]. Next month comes Handel's cantata Armida Abbandonata with Mary Bevan, then in April, Saul with Iestyn Davies as David. There are lots of smaller works to come this year including Acis & Galatea with Lucy Crowe, and Apollo e Dafne with Chiara Skerath and Jonathan McGovern.

To be recorded this year for release next year are Solomon, Amadigi, Ariodante, the first batch of Chandos Anthems and more. And there is the promise to mix the works that are seldom heard along with the famous once, as well as the commitment to support the development of young talent.

The on-line portal is planned to include teaching materials too, including digital and self-led sessions for use in schools and at home, and Music Minus One – interactive digital learning materials.

This is an incredibly impressive project, and plans for this year and next are heartening, but it is very much the long hall. In the past, the English Concert has performed its Handel in concerts and including the significant annual tour which included performances in the USA. COVID rather changed this, and it looks as if, admirably, the ensemble has decided to rethink rather than going all out to go back to the mixture as before.

Handel for All will be celebrated on 28 February 2023 at Barbican Hall preceding a concert exploring Handel as a composer and philanthropist. Handel: The Philanthropist will see The English Concert, directed by Harry Bicket, and joined by Ann Hallenberg, Elena Villalón and James Way for an historically informed recreation of arguably Britain’s first benefit concert.

Bach: Barnaby Smith, artistic director of VOCES8, & the Illyria Consort in a disc of alto arias

Bach: Ich habe genug, BWV 82, Vergnügte Ruh, Beliebte Seelenlust, BWV170, arias from St Matthew Passion, St John Passion, Mass in B Minor, Easter Oratorio; Barnaby Smith, Illyria Consort; VOCES8
Reviewed 22 February 2023

The artistic director of VOCES8 returns to solo arias, with a disc of Bach notable for the purity and beauty of tone and expressivity of line, along with superbly expressive playing from the Illyria Consort

Counter-tenor Barnaby Smith (perhaps best known for being the artistic director of VOCES8) has followed up his debut album of arias by Handel with a disc of music by Bach, on the VOCES8 label. Recorded with the Illyria Consort, leader Bojan Cičić, the disc features the cantatas Ich habe genug, BWV 82 and Vergnügte Ruh, Beliebte Seelenlust, BWV170 alongside arias from the St Matthew Passion, the St John Passion, the Mass in B Minor and the Easter Oratorio.

Smith began his career singing as a treble in The Choir of Westminster Abbey and studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Andreas Scholl and Ulrich Messthaler. This link to Scholl is perhaps telling, Smith has a similar fluidity of tone and a great beauty of line. For anyone who wants to simply listen, much of this album is spine-tinglingly beautiful, but if you want a projection of the text then that is another matter. Smith's technique is aimed at this liquid beauty, often at the expense of diction. It is not that he is emotionless, but the emotion comes from the melodic beauty and the expressive shape that he imbues it with.

In memory and celebration of Harvey Parker, 2001 – 2021: Love in Mind gala to launch of charity to support young artists experiencing mental health crises.

Harvey Parker, 2001 – 2021

Classical, pop, jazz and dance music artists are joining forces for a gala to support a new charity devoted to the mental well-being of creatives. Love in Mind at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday 30 April 2023 launches The Harvey Parker Trust, in memory of 20-year-old Harvey Parker, a gender-fluid, autistic, and prodigiously talented mixed-race musician whose mental health took a tragic turn just days before Christmas 2021 when they ended their life. This new charity aims to make a positive difference and raise funds for young artists experiencing mental health crises and give them access to emotional and mental health support.

The line-up at the gala will include cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Chineke! Orchestra, and the evening will include performances from members of the National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain, Future Talent and Choir of Westminster School. Alongside these will be Mark Rylance, songwriter Charlie Deakin Davies, electronic music group Clean Bandit, and an ensemble from jazz organisation Tomorrow’s Warriors.

London nightclubs Heaven and G-A-Y will support an afterparty in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall featuring DJs drawn from the worlds of music, fashion and art. 

Further information and tickets from the Southbank Centre website.

Guildhall School's Easter Courses include Acting, Shakespeare for GCSE, Poetry Writing, Production Arts, Music Performance, Music Theory and Music Production.

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama has announced a range of in-person and on-line courses for the Easter holidays. The courses are aimed at a variety of age groups from eight years and up, and they run for a duration of two to five days during the Easter holidays.

In-person music courses include:

• The Easter Music Course is for young instrumentalists (aged 8 -14) playing any bowed string, wind, brass or percussion instrument who are looking to gain some ensemble experience in a welcoming and supportive environment
• Essential Music Theory: Grade 5 for those aged eleven and over, who are preparing for the ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory exam and/or wanting to improve their knowledge of music theory
• Music Production in Logic Pro is for beginners and those who have a basic understanding of music production (aged 14-17), who wish to gain the skills to independently write and produce music
• Conducting & Ensemble Direction for music educators, professional musicians, and music students of any conducting ability who are aged 18 and over

On-line music courses include Mastering Aural Tests and Film Music Composition, whilst beyond music, there are courses on Writing Poetry, Audition Technique (Acting) and Shakespeare for GCSE: Mastering Macbeth.

The deadline for courses is 5pm, Wednesday 29 March 2023, full details from the Guildhall School website.

Listening with different ears: Francesco Cordi directs Bach concertos and Brandenburg Concertos at Wigmore Hall

Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg
Dedicatee of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1, 3, and 6, Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, Concerto for two oboes and bassoon; English Concerto, Francesco Corti; Wigmore Hall

Superbly vivid playing complemented by a real sense of enjoyment of the music and great presence.

Harpsichordist Jean Rondeau and I seem to be fated. Having missed his recital in Lucerne early this month, owing to my travel problems, Rondeau had to withdraw from the English Concert's concert at Wigmore Hall last night (21 February 2023), however, the good news is that he had an excellent replacement.

Francesco Corti directed the English Concert from the harpsichord at Wigmore Hall on 21 February 2023 in an all-Bach programme centred on Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1, 3 and 6, plus the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052 and the Concerto for two Oboes and Bassoon.

We began with the Harpsichord Concerto, the earliest surviving of Bach's such works dating from the 1730s though versions of the movements existed earlier. As ever, when listening to these concertos I often wonder what Bach intended. We heard the sort of instrumentation he planned, harpsichord and chamber group of single strings, but we were in a far larger hall than in Bach's time as the concerto was probably written either for family performance or by the Collegium Musicum in Zimmerman's Coffee House. The string players of the English Concert performed with strong, vibrant tone and the harpsichord that Corti was playing had an admirably rich sound. So, during the solo harpsichord moments, Corti's performance really counted, but when there was a stray string line accompanying the harpsichord, it was the strings that dominated.

The problem is that we listen with modern ears, where we expect a solo instrument to dominate and we have to accept that perhaps Bach's idea of a concerto may have been very different. Whilst the results are certainly not historical, you can begin to understand why Wanda Landowska played Bach in modern concert halls on a huge, steel-framed harpsichord!

A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry's Court: Christmas 1400, London

A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry's Court: Christmas 1400, London; Cappella Romana, Alexander Lingas; Cappella Records
Reviewed 21 February 2022

Using the relatively little known occasion when the Byzantine Emperor celebrated Christmas at the English court in Eltham, the American ensemble specialising in Byzantine and Orthodox chant explores the twin worlds of contemporary music for the Byzantine and the Sarum rites. 

The Byzantine Emperor, Manuel II Palaiologos (1350–1425), ruled a shrunken state heavily pressed by the Ottoman Turks, led from 1389 to 1402 by Bayezid I (better known as Bajazet, whose defeat by the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) was covered in Handel's opera Tamerlano. Manuel was forced to turn to the West for support, appealing to Charles VI of France, Richard II of England and the Pope for aid. In 1399 Manuel and his substantial retinue travelled West, travelling through Italy to France where he lived for two years. For Christmas 1400, Manuel was hosted by King Henry IV of England at Eltham Palace, where the two monarchs celebrated Christmas together. Returning to Paris in February 1401, Manuel would eventually leave for Byzantium in November 1402, by which time Tamerlane had already defeated Bayezid.

We know that the Christmas 1400 celebrations at Eltham Palace were extensive and magnificent. (The present Great Hall at Eltham, however post-dates the events, having been built in the 1470s.) We also know that Manuel was devout and attended mass daily, having brought his own entourage of priests. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Roman Catholic Church were in schism at the time, so it is highly unlikely that the two monarchs attended a joint mass. Instead, each would have had his own grand festal celebration and whilst no musical records of the meeting survive, it is possible to reconstruct what was likely performed. 

The disc from Cappella Romana under Alexander Lingas, A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry's Court: Christmas 1400, London on the choir's own, Cappella Records, features music from the Services to Christmas Eve and the services on Christmas Day.

An inclusive approach and inventive instrumentation: RNS Moves and BSO Resound join forces for Kate Whitley premiere

Clarence Adoo, founder of RNS Moves

RNS Moves, the inclusive ensemble bringing together disabled and non-disabled musicians from Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS) are joining forces with players from BSO Resound, the disabled-led ensemble at the core of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, for a performance at Sage Gateshead on 3 March 2023.

They will perform a new piece, Falling, by Kate Whitley (co-founder of the Multi-Storey Orchestra). Falling was composed after a series of workshops and has been specially orchestrated to feature the accessible electronic instruments used by the musicians – including a Linnstrument and the Headspace. The performance will be conducted by RNS Principal Conductor Dinis Sousa. The evening, which also features the Royal Northern Sinfonia, will include works by Ligeti, Sibelius, and Kodály. 

The Linnstrument is an expressive MIDI controller for musical performance that senses the fingers’ subtle movements in five ways, enabling musical performance expression that can rival that of fine acoustic instruments. 

The Headspace is an innovative MIDI wind instrument controlled by breath and head movements. It was created by German composer-inventor Rolf Gehlhaar for Clarence Adoo MBE, who co-founded RNS Moves after a life-altering car accident left him paralysed from the neck down, meaning he could no longer hold his position as a trumpeter in RNS. 

Full details from the Sage Gateshead website.

25th anniversary Lotte Lenya Competition

Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weill (Photo: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music)

Founded in 1998, the Lotte Lenya Competition is intended to recognise talented young singers/actors who are dramatically and musically convincing in repertoire ranging from opera/operetta to contemporary Broadway scores, with a focus on the works of Kurt Weill. 

This year, the 25th anniversary competition, organised by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, takes place on 29 & 30 April 2023 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, USA. 24 contestants have been selected as semi-finalists, from a pool of 271 applications from 20 countries across the globe. The semi-finalists will audition in person and receive feedback and coaching, with the finalists competing for a pool of prizes totalling $120,000.

This year's judges include Dame Josephine Barstow, conductor James Holmes, one of two living recipients of the Kurt Weill Lifetime Achievement Award, and actor Kyle Scatcliffe who won a special award in the 2010 competition for Extraordinary Promise.

The finale will be streamed live on the Kurt Weill Foundation website.

Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival

The National Centre for Early Music's (NCEM) Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival returns to the historic Yorkshire town for a weekend of music under the theme of Sacred and Profane, from 26 to 28 May 2023. Performers at the festival include the Tallis Scholars, the Irish Baroque Ensemble, Ensemble Molière, and EEEmerging+ rising stars The Ministers of Pastime.

Ensemble Molière opens the festival with Sacred Reflections, a reflective, sacred concert in the Quire of Beverley Minster, and the ensemble returns in lighter mood to close the festival with Theatrical Tastes presented in Beverley’s East Riding Theatre. Ensemble Molière is the first ensemble to be chosen as the New Generation Baroque Ensemble, supported by BBC Radio 3, the Royal College of Music, and the National Centre for Early Music.

This year the Tallis Scholars are celebrating both their own 50th anniversary and William Byrd's 400th, with Reflecting Byrd, a programme that will mix Byrd with works by Byrd’s friend and mentor Thomas Tallis and John Sheppard.

The Irish Baroque Ensemble appears in Beverley for the first time, with Quintessential, a programme of music from central Europe, featuring music by Muffat, Biber, Telemann and Weichlein. Rising stars, the Spanish ensemble The Ministers of Pastime make their UK debut with Phantastic Kapellmeisters, The Music of 17th century Vienna. 

There is also a lively programme of talks and walks reflecting Beverley's history, as well as workshops both for adults and children, not to mention an informal concert in the ancient and atmospheric Monk’s Walk Inn performed by the Eboracum Pub Band, who promise to recreate the bawdy atmosphere of a 17th century tavern.

Full details from the NCEM website.