Have a flutter and support Co-Opera Co - Join the OperaLottery

Co-Opera Co, the inestimable training opera company, have come up with a fun fundraising idea. To raise funds for their 2013/14 season  which includes performances at Hackney Empire in September 2013, they have launched OperaLottery, a lottery where you have the chance to win prizes from £50 to £10,000. Tickets cost between £1 and £10, initially there will be five draws between May 4th and January 1st 2014 with prizes from £50 to £10,000. 50% of the money raised will go towards much needed funds to put on the season at The Hackney Empire in September and 50% will be given as prize money. You can buy a ticket or two at the Co-Opera Co website. Go one, have a flutter, you might surprise yourself and you'll be supporting a very worthwhile cause.

Co-Opera Co's season at Hackney Empire opens on 3 September 2013, and they will be performing two contrasting operas with oriental theme, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Genius and Murder in Brighton

This autumn's Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) will include a newly commissioned music drama on Carlo Gesualdo (1566 - 1613), the renaissance Prince famous both for the amazing chromaticism and harmonic instability of his music, and for the fact that he murdered his wife and her lover. BREMF's new drama will premiere in 3 November, but if you can't wait that long then the BREMF Consort of Voices will be performing Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories along with works by Palestrina and Monteverdi on May 27 at St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe. Further information from the BREMF website.

Preserving the memory of Felicja Blumental

Felicja Blumental

Polish/Brazilian pianist Felicja Blumental (1908 - 1991) is perhaps best remembered for her Chopin interpretations, her recordings of the Mazurkas are particularly notable. Born in Poland, she first performed in public at the age of ten, and studied at the Warsaw Conservatory even though two years under the minimum age. She and her husband, Markus Mizne, emigrated to Brazil in 1938 to escape anti-semitism. Always adventurous in her programming, Blumental championed the music of her adopted country. Villa Lobos dedicated his Fifth Piano Concerto to her,  Lutoslawski orchestrated his Variations on a theme of Paganini for her, and Penderecki dedicated his Partita for Harpsichord and Orchestra. Blumenthal died whilst visiting Israel in 1991 and in 1999, TelAviv Museum of Art named its International Music Festival after her. Also keeping Blumental's memory alive is Brana Reords which is dedicated to restoring Blumenthal's recordings to the catalogue.

Queen of Heaven

The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage this year is entitled Queen of Heaven (see my review) and the programme is centred on movements from Palestrina's Missa Regina Coeli, with Allegri's Miserere and James MacMillan's setting of the same text, which was premiered by The Sixteen, conductor Harry Christophers, in 2009. This CD boxed contains all the music from the tour, with extra, giving the listener the opportunity to explore further. The set includes the group's latest recording, Volume 3 of their Palestrina edition including the complete Missa Regina Coeli, plus their 2011 disc of James MacMillan's music which includes the Miserere,  some of his Strathclyde Motets and Tenebrae Responses, and their disc of Allegri's Miserere with Palestrina's Missa Pape Marcelli which was originally issued on the Collins Classics label and re-issued on Coro in 2003. The set is a wonderful way to re-visit music heard on the tour, but also to discover new delights.

All Change in Scotland

The Edinburgh International Festival has announced its new director, and Scottish Opera has announced its new conductor. Fergus Linehan will become the festival director and chief executive of the Edinburgh International Festival from 2014. He is currently director of Warehouse Arts and was previously head of music at Sydney Opera House, he has also led the Sydney Festival and the Dublin Festival in his native Ireland. He will be planning his first festival for 2015. He replaces Jonathan Mills who has been in place since 2006. Mills, a surprising choice for director, has presided over a a successful expansion of the festival and has delivered as series of themed programmes. It will be interesting to see what direction Linehan takes, though some commentators have seen his appointment as indicating a move away from music at the festival.

And over at Scottish Opera, it has been announced that Emmanuel Joel-Hornak will take over as musical director in August, replacing Francesco Corti. Joekl-Hornak has worked with Scottish Opera, conducting Hansel and Gretel (2012) and La Traviata (2008-9). His first performances with the company, as musical director, will be announced in May. Trained at the Paris Conservatoire, Joel-Hornak has an extensive performing CV but does not appear to have led an opera company before. Joel-Hornak was described by the Scotsman as drawing 'flavoursome' playing from the Scottish Opera orchestra in La Traviata and Opera Britannia refers to him producing 'one sublime moment after another' in Hansel and Gretel. He replaces Francesco Corti, whose performances with Scottish Opera have not always been popular in critical circles. 

Alamire at Choral at Cadogan

Alamire

Vocal ensemble Alamire, under their conductor David Skinner, came to the Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 24 April 2013 to perform their programme The Tudor Dynasty: For every syllable a note as part of Choral at Cadogan. The programme explored the changes to English choral music wrought by the reformation, particularly with the attitude to text. Skinner and his singers started with the the Eton Choir book, music by Walter Lambe  and by John Sheppard which was totally melismatic, which contrasted with John Taverner's ground breaking sensitivity to the text. The reformation produced music in English, with Thomas Tallis exploring total comprehensibility. This feeling for text was reflected back in the Latin music which Tallis and Byrd started writing after Edward VI's death and the programme concluded with a group of motets from Tallis and Byrd's 1575 publication Cantiones Sacrae.

Supporting Streetwise Opera with Handel

Soprano Elizabeth Watts, who is a patron of Streetwise Opera, has released a digital single of the aria Lascia chi'io pianga from Handel's Rinaldo in support of Streetwise Opera. On the recording she is accompanied by the Sacconi Quartet and Streetwise Performers from Nottingham and Manchester in the chorus, with musical director Duncan Ward. Streetwise Opera were nominated in the Accessibility category in the recent Opera Awards.

The recording of the Handel aria comes from Streetwise Opera's latest event, The Answer to Everything, which premiered at the BFI Southbank this week. This mixes film and live opera:  film director Rupert Jones, opera director Emma Bernard and film producer Jess Gormley have brought together Streetwise’s homeless and ex-homeless performers with professionals including Elizabeth Watts to create a  film opera, which includes pieces by Britten, Handel and Vivaldi, and new commissions by Gavin Bryars, Orlando Gough, Emily Hall, Anna Meredith and Duncan Ward. This production celebrates 10 years of Streetwise's work producing ground-breaking opera productions working with the homeless. Elizabeth Watt's Handel recording is available from the iTunes website at a cost of 79p, all proceeds go towards Streetwise Opera's workshops programme.

Cry 'God for Harry, England and St. George!'

Title page of Henry V
from the first quarto (1600)

What better way to celebrate St. George's Day (23 April), than in the company of Shakespeare and William Walton in the historic Temple Church. Temple Music Society put on a performance of William Walton's complete score from the Lawrence Olivier film of Henry V interleaved with speeches from the Shakespeare play to form a satisfying whole, allowing us to both hear the music in context and to experience the way that Walton's score interacts and supports the text. Walton's music was played by the Aurora Orchestra which was joined by the boy choristers from the choir of Temple Church, conducted by James Vivian who is music director of the Temple Church. The role of the narrator was taken by the actor John Hopkins and the whole directed by Kenneth Richardson.

Amazingly, despite being nominated for an Academy Award in 1946, William Walton's score for Lawrence Olivier's 1943 film of Shakespeare's Henry V had to be painstakingly reconstructed by Christopher Palmer. It seems astonishing that the original performing material would be disposed of, given the iconic status of the film. It was not only a striking filmic adaptation of the play, complete with Olivier's notable performance, but a piece of remarkable wartime propaganda.

Birthday Boys at the Proms

Brunnhilde
(Arthur Rackham 1910)

Proms Preview: Anniversaries are usually a time for rediscovery and reflection, but with this year's centenarians (Wagner, Verdi and Britten), there is perhaps less to discover. At this year's Proms each is getting rather different treatment. We get nearly all of the major Wagner canon (Der Ring, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and Tannhauser). At one point in the season this approaches wall to wall Wagner, non-believers should keep away. And, of course, you can always listen at home rather than suffer six hours confined to a seat in the Albert Hall.  And the balance might be better on the raidio as conductors struggle with Wagner's huge orchestras let out of the pit. Verdi gets only a token presence with the Four Sacred Pieces and selected arias with Joseph Calleja, rather than the chance to re-discover one of the lesser known operas. With Britten we are treated to Glyndebourne's semi-staged version of Billy Budd plus an extensive voyage round the composer's non-operatic works with some intriguing items.

But there is another centenarian, Witold Lutoslawksi, and here we do get to do some re-discovery with a handful of his major orchestra works including the cello concerto and the piano concerto plus some smaller ones. Also there is other Polish themed music, with works by Panufnik (whose centenary is next year) and Szymanowski.

Two figures get the centenary treatment out of turn, Granville Bantock and Michael Tippett. And I can't complain about either. I look forward to hearing the group of Bantock orchestral works at the Proms and hope it triggers an interest in doing more. And the prospect of Tippett's A Midsummer Marriage is a complete delight.

Adventures at the Opera Awards

I attended the Opera Awards last night (22 April 2013), to cover them for OperaToday.com. The first ever awards event which puts opera firmly in the spotlight. At one point in the evening I spoke to Sarah Connolly, who was one of the nominees in the Female Singer category, and she talked about having been in the same location (the ballroom at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane) attending the Olivier Awards, but for those opera was just one category amongst many. At the Opera Awards it was all about opera. The operatic luminaries present were pretty impressive, including Janet Baker, Joyce DiDonato, Sarah Connolly, Jonas Kaufmann, Antony McDonald, Antonio Pappano, Pierre Audi and many more. The event had two intentions, to recognise achievement across the board in opera and to raise money for a new foundation to support young singers and performers. And I got to interview Joyce DiDonato.

Moto Perpetuo - Cd review

The Romanian cellist Ovidiu Marinescu recorded the Bach Cello Suites for Navona Records in 2011 to critical acclaim. On this disc he performs a variety of works for solo cello, either alone or in chamber groups, by six contemporary composers, five American and one British, with a range of ages and styles; Andrew March, Greg Bartholomew, Alan Beeler, Bill Sherrill, Arthur Gottschalk and Nicholas Anthony Ascioti. All are united in their lyrically expressive view of the cello and the possibilities it offers, all write in essentially tonal style but bring a variety of attitudes and interests, including non-standard scales and at least one tone-row. 

Andrew March's Three pieces for Solo Cello was written in direct response to hearing Marinescu playing the Bach Cello Suites. Andrew March (born 1973) was born in the UK and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. The first movement, The Night is for Stillness, takes its title from the New Zealand Prayer Book. As you might expect from the title, it is a slow, melancholy piece with a long singing line interrupted by moments of drama. The melodic material and the writing for the cello rather reminded me of the Walton Cello Concerto. The second movement is a Moto perpetuo, short but taxing with the forward movement interrupted by pauses. The third, To Reflect in a Quiet Spot, is the longest. It takes its title from a line in a medieval Latin text, Confessio by the Archpoet, and includes the idea of the composer sitting quietly in a secluded waiting for musical ideas. A slow haunting piece similar in tone to the first movement, again we have a fine singing line, with lovely expressive playing from Marinescu. He plays all three movements with rich and deeply vibrant tones, singing the lovely lines which March gives him.

May at the Barbican - Handel, Muhly, York Bowen and more

The Barbican Centre's May brochure starts David Daniels seducing Catherine Bott, luckily the subject of the article is Handel's Imeneo rather than anything spicier. Daniels stars in a concert performance of the opera (recently seen staged at the London Handel Festival), Handel's penultimate, with Christopher Hogwood conducting the Academy of Ancient Music with a cast which includes Rebecca Bottone and Lucy Crowe(29 May). Other events are equally enticing, with a Nico Muhly weekend, Tippett's First Symphony, a Jonathan Lloyd premiere, Valery Gergiev celebrating his 60th birthday, Ian Bostrige and the Britten Sinfonia going to sleep and a rare outing for York Bowen's Viola Concerto. Not to mention the Guildhall Gold Medal.

New music at the Proms

Its that time of year again, when the Proms prospectus arrives and we wade through it picking out the delights and noting things that have been missed. As might be expected there is a fine collection of contemporary music. There are 17 world premieres, eight UK premieres, a European premiere and a clutch of London premieres. There are 17 BBC commissions and co-commissions. The composers range from Sean Shepherd (born 1979), Tansy Davies (born 1973) and Thomas Ades (born 1971) to Anthony Payne (born 1939) and Helmut Lachenmann (born 1935), John McCabe (born 1939), Sofia Gubaidulina (born 1931), Philip Glass (born 1931) and Harrison Birtwistle (born 1934). There are even premieres of works by Benjamin Britten and Prieulx Rainer. Performers range widely, including the National Youth Orchestras of Great Britain and the USA, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and Ex Cathedra, but of course the BBC orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, not to mention the BBC Singers, feature heavily. 

The Proms opens and closes with new work. Julian Anderson's Harmony, a BBC commission, is premiered at the first night of the Proms performed by BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo (12 July). It sets a text by Richard Jefferies about time and eternity. Anna Clyna is London born but has spent most of her adult life in the USA, where she is composer in residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her short piece Masquerade opens the Last Night of the Proms, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop (7 Sep).

Celebrating Delius and Ireland

Ireland in 1917

Delius in 1907

Delius and Ireland: A Celebration is a five-day festival being run by Birmingham Conservatoire celebrating the music of Frederick Delius and John Ireland. Running from 17 to 21 June 2013, the festival will be one of the biggest that the conservatoire has hosted with over 60 people involved from the senior and junior conservatoire, students and faculty as well as orchestras, choirs and guest artists. The festival intends to give an ambitious overview of two of the 20th centuries major composer pianists. In addition to following on from the Delius and Ireland anniversaries in 2012, the festival will acknowledge the 25th anniversary of the death of  Birmingham pianist and teacher, Denis Matthews, and the 60th anniversary of the death of Arnold Bax, as well as finishing with the premiere of a work by Benjamin Britten.

London English Song Festival

Royal Hospital Chelsea on
Stanford's Map of 1897

The London English Song Festival encompasses song in all its variety, with choral concert at the chapel of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea which celebrates the English part-song and madrigal, plus three song recitals at the Forge in Camden given by a whole selection of young British singers (including Rupert Charlesworth, the winner of the London Handel Song Competition) accompanied by William Vann. Repertoire includes an emphasis on Britten, plus songs by Lennox Berkeley, William Alwyn and many more including some interesting rarities such as songs by Matyas Seiber.  In addition there are two 'bring a song' sessions, allowing amateur singers the spotlight for once. The festival runs from 2 to 12 May with all events at the Forge, Camden apart from the opening choral concert.

ENO's Opera Squad in Action

Donations by members of the Friends of the ENO raised £19,000 towards the March events by ENO's Opera Squad. This is ENO's learning and participation programme which takes orchestra and singers into schools to introduce young people from a wide range of backgrounds to live classical music and opera. During March 2013, over 3,600 students from 17 Primary and Secondary schools in Brent, Ealing, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham heard ENO’s orchestra perform extracts from The Magic Flute conducted by ENO’s Head of Music, Martin Fitzpatrick, with three singers from ENO’s talent development schemes, Charles Rice as Papagano, Natalie Montakhab as Papagena and Nazxan Fikret as Queen of the Night. Following the visit, trust & foundations supporters provide tickets to ENO Dress Rehearsals at the London Coliseum, giving young people and their teachers the opportunity to experience live opera at no cost. You can find further information at the ENO Opera Squad website, with learning resources for schools at http://www.operasquad.com/. There is a video of the Opera Squad in action after the break.

Historic organ returns home

In 1794 William and Robert Gray built a new organ for the west gallery of Holy Trinity Church, Clapham. This is the period that Holy Trinity was home to William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner and gave the name to the Clapham Sect. The sect was active from 1790 to 1830, the period when the organ was built at the church. In 1846 the organ was purchased, second hand, for the new church of St John in Notting Hill. The organ was placed, relatively unchanged, in the west gallery. But changes to worship habits, with the introduction of a robed choir in the chancel, led to the organ being moved to the Lady Chapel in 1873. This meant the loss of the 1794 case. Remarkably much of this organ survives today and its restoration is being celebrated at a concert on 11 May given by Thomas Trotter.

Tunes in Color - Yohanen Cinnamon

One of the things that I have commented on in reviewing CD's over the years it the absence of Light Music, that no-one seems to write it any more. We seem to have developed a rather siloed approach, with crossover by and large replacing Light Music. Then, once in a while, comes along a CD which confounds that. Tunes in Color is a disc of music written by Yohanen Cinnamon, a composer who lives in Jerusalem, has never received any formal training and whose day job is to teach Bible and Talmud studies. Cinnamon has gone to some financial lengths to produce this CD, investing both time and money. There are 18 tracks in total, played by musicians from major Israeli orchestras plus London Brass. The tracks were recorded variously in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Blackheath Concert Halls. The music was arranged by a trio of arrangers, Israel Edelson and Yonathan Goodman for the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem recorded tracks and David Louis for the two London tracks recorded by London Brass.

Courtauld Community Choir returns

Following on from the success of the Courtauld Community Choir's performance at one of the Courtauld Gallery Lates during the Peter Lely exhibition (see my article) the suggestion arose to organise another event during one of the evening events for the Picasso exhibition, Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 (which runs until the 27 May 2013). Both singers and staff seemed to be enthusiastic, but quite what the choir should sing took longer to settle. Finally we assembled at 5pm on Thursday 17 April 2013 to rehearse Poulenc's Salve Regina for performance at 7pm in the gallery that evening. Arrangements for the choir's performance had become more complex owing to the great success of the Piccasso exhibition, so that all on-line tickets for the evening event had sold out before Easter and Courtauld Gallery staff were expecting a full house for our performance.

An encounter with Kate Lindsey

The American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey made her UK debut last year as Zerlina in Don Giovanni at Covent Garden. On May 18, 2013 she makes both her Glyndebourne debut and her role debut as the Composer in Katharina Thoma's new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos which will be Vladimir Jurowski's last project as musical director, with Soile Isokoski as Ariadne and Laura Claycomb as Zerbinetta. I travelled down to Glyndebourne to meet Lindsey and interview her for OperaToday.com. Modern Glyndebourne with its combination of new and old buildings, is something of a maze. Once the cab had dropped me at the stage door, I was welcomed and then taken on a circuitous route, circumnavigating some building works, through to the old building which was once the green room of the old theatre but is now the artists' area. A pleasant courtyard led to the artists' canteen, where over coffee I chatted to Lindsey.

Dressed all in black, with very striking black cowboy-style boots, Lindsey is slim and attractive, with long dark hair, so it is easy to understand why she has been making something of a success of travesty roles. Niklausse in Les Contes d'Hoffmann is something of a speciality, she returns to the role next year in Munich, and she has a growing roster of Mozart travesty roles, Cherubino and Annio with Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito) to come. But she has also been performing Angelina in Rossini's La Cenerentola so clearly she does not plan to stay permanently in trousers.