June on Planet Hugill - Israel in Egpyt, Death in Venice and Fiddler on the Roof

Celestin Boutin and Nina Goldman
Death in Venice, Garsington Opera
photo Clive Barda

Welcome to June on Planet Hugill, where we hit the festival season with Opera Holland Park, Garsington Opera at Wormsley, Grange Park Opera and Spitalfields Music Festival, not to forget the London English Song Festival, and the Voices of London Festival.

Opera Holland Park

Opera Holland Park had a triumphant opening of the season with Puccini's Il Trittico, and they went on to give the first London professional staging of Jonathan Dove's Flight, and their first ever staging of Verdi's Aida at Holland Park.

Garsington

Garsington Opera at Wormsley opened with a rather disappointing country house wedding Cosi fan tutte redeemed by a strong musical performance. Paul Curran's production of Britten's Death in Venice showed a stunning personal vision.

Grange Park Opera

Bryn Terfel's starred as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (performed with no amplification), there was a finely balanced new production of La Boheme, and an imaginative re-casting of Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila.

Opera elsewhere

We saw Christopher Maltman in Don Giovanni at Covent Garden and the double bill of Hans Werner Henze operas at the Guildhall School.

We make the top 10!

Planet Hugill is currently number 2 in the list of top UK Classical Music Blogs compiled by Cision the PR Software, Marketing and Media Relations firm.

Ranking blogs is far more of a black art than the old print newspapers, which went only on circulation and so lists like those from Cision are helpful in supporting us as they combine traffic stats with other social media indicators (such as how many times we've been re-tweeted).

Many of the others on the list are old friends and in case you are interested the full list is:

1. Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music Blog
2. Planet Hugill
3. The Cross-Eyed Pianist 
4. Boulezian 
5. British Classical Music: The Land of Lost Content
6. Where’s Runnicles?
7. Richard Bratby
8. new:dots
9. Classical Iconoclast
10. The Official two Moors Festival Blog

Introducing Handel's friends - an encounter with Ellen T Harris

Ellen T. Harris - © Bryce Vickmark.

Ellen T Harris's book George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends came out earlier this year (see my review) and now Ellen Harris has transformed the book into an exhibition at the Handel House Museum in London. Running until Sunday 10 January 2016, the exhibition Handel: A Life with Friends offers new insight into Handel's life through his friends and neighbours in and around Mayfair via a combination of telling objects, documents, recordings and narrative. The result is a remarkably engaging and telling narrative which completely transforms the book and gives us a real sense of the community of friends in which Handel was situated. It is an exhibition full of intriguing, and interlinking, stories and telling objects, and I was lucky enough to be taken round by Ellen Harris.

It is very much a neighbourhood exhibition; as Ellen demonstrated in her book all of Handel's friends lived in close proximity and a map on the wall of the exhibition shows how close they all were. The exhibition rather aptly brings them all back into Handel's own house. One of the events linked to the exhibition is a walking tour round all the surviving areas. One house confused at first, as the address in Handel's will does not exist but Ellen discovered that the street had changed its name (Chapel Street has become Alford Street). The area now known as Mayfair was in the process of being built, most of the people in the exhibition moved into their houses as the first occupants. Ellen points out the house Mary Delany lived in when she was Mary Pendarves, and to which Handel came to play through the whole of Joseph to her!

We started with her showing me her favourite object in the exhibition. On the chimney piece in the first room is a painting by Hogarth, one of his family group conversation pieces The Wesley Family which depicts a family poised to start making music (see image below). Ellen loves the picture and explains eagerly that this is the first time the picture has been exhibited as it is kept at the Duke of Wellington's house, Stratfield Saye (the Duke is a direct descendant of the family depicted). The picture is important in Handel studies because one of those depicted is Anne Donnellan one of the friends in Ellen's book and here she is in the act of being about to sing. And Handel's friend Mary Delany watched it being painted and was so impressed that she started taking lessons from Hogarth (thankfully for Handel studies, Mary Delay was a prolific letter writer).

East of Tallinn: Orient music festival Part III - concerts

Ensemble Indra from Japan, Orient Music Festival, Tallinn - photo credit Hilary Glover

After the first day of the Orient music festival, organised by Tiina Jokinen (from Estonia Record Productions: ERP) and composer Peeter Vähi, with its ethnomusicology conference, film premiere, and after show party in the Latvian Embassy, the music could really begin.

The first concert was the spectacular Indra, Taiko drummers from Japan. Ensemble Indra (Ishizuka Yū, Ishizuka Eri, Inoue Nanase, Ōkawa Masashi, and Motoyama Yūhei) are a family-based group founded in 2013 by Ishizuka Yū (the eldest son of a well-known noh musician (hayashikata) Mochizuki Saburō).

In Hinduism, Indra is a heroic god, who slew the stone dragon and freed the seven rivers. He is the King of gods as well as being the god of rain and thunderstorms – quite apt for this group of cheerfully fierce drummers. Indra are as much about show and choreography as they are about music and have incorporated hayashi and buyō styles into their routine as well as noh and kabuki.

Extra atmosphere was added to their performance by the venue. The weather was fortunately dry enough for the audience to sit outside (with cushions and blankets provided) so that the concert could take place in the Japanese gardens of Kadriorg Park.

Piano duo rarities

Julian Jacobson &
Mariko Brown
photo
Roger Harris

Piano duo partnership Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown return to the Purcell Room on 7 July 2015 for a programme which mixes the known and the unknown. They will be starting with the London premiere of Nathan Williamson's Instinctive Ritual which the duo commissioned and premiered earlier this year. The evening ends with Julian Jacobson's own transcription of George Gershwin's Second Rhapsody, a work which is still remarkably unknown.

Between these to, the pair will be performing Poulenc's Sonata as well as Germaine Tailleferre's Image and Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole. Also included will be three pieces from Samuel Barber's Souvenirs Op. 28 his 1953 ballet suite written for piano four-hands.

Further information from the South Bank Centre website.

Disappointing Guillaume Tell at Covent Garden

Gerald Finley - Guillaume Tell - Royal Opera House
photo credit Clive Barda

Rossini Guillaume Tell; Gerald Finley, Malin Bystrom, John Osborn, Sofia Fonia, dir: Damiano Michieletto, cond: Antonio Pappano; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 05 2015
Star rating: 3.0
Banal imagery and an apparent dislike of French Grand Opera, but superb musical performance

It is over 20 years since Rossini's Guillaume Tell was performed at Covent Garden and having heard Antonio Pappano perform the piece at the Proms with his Santa Cecilia forces, we were eagerly anticipating the new production. The reports from the first night were rather depressing, not just because of the controversy over the Act 3 ballet, but from the general lack of enthusiasm for this production of Rossini's grand opera. We went along to the matinee on Sunday 5 July 2015, the production's third outing with Gerald Finley as Guillaume Tell, Enkelejda Shkosa as Hedwige, Sofia Fomina as Jemmy, John Osborn as Arnold, Malin Bystrom as Mathilde, Eric Halfvarson as Melcthal, Samuel Dale Johnson as Leuthold, Michael Colvin as Rodolphe, Michael Lessiter as a Huntsman, Enea Scala as Ruodi, Alexander Vinogradov as Walter Furst and Nicolas Courjal as Gesler. The production was directed by Damiano Michieletto, with sets designed by Paolo Fantin, costumes by Carla Teti and lighting by Alessandro Carletti. Antonio Pappano conducted.

The basic set consisted of white walls with a dark brown earth floor. The 'earth' moved and was granular so that people could grasp handfuls of it and dig into it, evidently it was made of grains of rubber. For Acts Two to Four a huge uprooted tree formed the main focus of the action, and there was a revolve which was used extensively.

John Osborn, Malin Bystrom
photo credit Clive Barda

The floor surface was disturbing on two counts. First, it seemed to absorb sound a bit and some of the voices suffered somewhat. Secondly, it entirely prevented dancing which was worrying in a production of the grandest of French grand opera. This genre involved the synthesis of visual splendour, grand historical sweep, dance, choral and solo singing into a whole which was articulated by a story of personal tragedy set against historical circumstance. To this, Rossini brought an element of dramatic thrust and an Italian feel for melody, but the work is built on a generous almost ponderous scale and the plot takes a long time to develop. Act One lasts around 80 minutes when uncut and we only get a little plot at the very end.

It is possible to find within the opera a tauter, more dramatic and more Italian opera and Welsh National Opera's production last year used a trimmed edition which brought this out. But Covent Garden was using the shortest of Rossini's sanctioned four-act French versions and many people had hoped they might go for something even more generous. Lamberto Gardelli's classic recording and the recent Naxos recording from the Rossini in Wildbad Festival have shown that the fullest of versions of this opera have a very real dramatic validity, provided you understand French grand opera.

Rameau's Castor et Pollux

Rameau Castor et Pollux; Colin Ainsworth, Florian Sempey, Emmanuelle de Negri, Clémentine Immler, Ensemble Pygmalion, Raphael Picon; Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 30 2015
Star rating: 4.0
New recording of the revised version of Rameau's opera about fraternal love

Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera Castor et Pollux had a rather varied history during Rameau's lifetime. Indifferently received on its premiered in 1737, Rameau waited 17 years before revising it. This revised version of 1754 has received a new recording from Raphael Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion on Harmonia Mundi with Colin Ainsworth as Castor, Florian Sempey as Pollux, Emmanuelle de Negri as Télaire, Clémentine Margaine as Phébé, plus Christian Immler, Sabine Devieilhe, Philippe Talbot and Virgile Ancely.

Rameau wrote Castor et Pollux originally in 1737 after two of his major successes, Hippolyte et Aricie and Les Indes Galantes. Castor et Pollux dealt with the love of the twins Castor and Pollux for the same woman, Télaire. The music's novelty disconcerted the public and the piece was not a success, but those very qualities attract us to the work today. Admittedly, the oddities of the plot cannot have helped the original reception. After a prologue, the opera opened with Castor's funeral and he only reappears (resurrected) in the final act.

When Rameau finally came to revise it, he worked again with the original librettist, Gentil Bernard. They removed the prologue, streamlined the plot, and added a first act with Castor still alive so that Act Two now opens with Castor's funeral. There are still weaknesses and oddities in this version. The role of Phébé (in love with Pollux and responsible for Castor's death) is a bit flimsy, and a Tragédie en musique where the only haut-contre disappears at the end of Act one and does not reappear until the end of Act Four is surely a bit problematic. But the subject of two men in love with the same woman had resonance for Rameau, and the revised version places strong emphasis on the fraternal bond.

This isn't the work's first time on disc, and this revised version appeared 10 years ago on Naxos performed by Kevin Mallon and his Aradia Ensemble with Colin Ainsworth as Castor (Ainsworth sings the role on this new recording).

Orquesta Filarmónica de México UNAM makes its UK debut

One of the finest orchestras in Mexico and the oldest symphonic ensemble in Mexico City, the Orquesta Filarmónica de México UNAM made its UK debut on 5 July 2015 at a concert at the Cambridge Corn Exchange which marks the start of a UK tour. Conducted by their Music Director, Jan Latham-Koenig, the orchestra will be performing a programme which mixes British and Mexican music. This reflects that the tour is part of 2015: the Year of the UK in Mexico and The Year of Mexico in the UK, a joint initiative of the British and Mexican governments designed to strengthen cultural and economic relations between the two countries.

The orchestra is joined for the tour by Tasmin Little (violin), Jorge Federico Osorio (piano) and Rodrigo Garibay (tenor saxophone), to perform two British works with violin solo, RVW's The Lark Ascending and Holst's Song of the Night, plus music by composers, Chávez, Marquez, De Falla, Gershwin, Piazzolla and Moncayo. Tasmin Little has worked with the orchestra before and said she is "thrilled to be performing with the Orquesta Filarmónica de México UNAM for their UK tour. I made my first visit to Mexico City this February and worked with the orchestra’s wonderful players and their marvellous maestro, Jan Latham-Koenig. Our concerts together were so enjoyable and the audiences could not have been more enthusiastic. I am sure that the orchestra will receive similar enthusiasm from UK audiences."

The orchestra was established in 1936 at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City, it became the first professional symphonic ensemble in Mexico to present an annual season of concerts. At nearly 80 years old, they are the oldest symphonic ensemble in Mexico City.

Launched on 5 July at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, the tour will continue to G Live in Guildford (7 July), The Anvil in Basingstoke (8 July) and the Cadogan Hall (9 July).

University of Cape Town Opera School in London

Running from 6 July to 11 July 2015 at the Tricycle Theatre, the Darling Musical Experience is presenting a 90 minute version of Mozart's Don Giovanni adapted for the South Africa of today, directed by Raimondo Viviano van Staden with text adaptation by Alexander Kuchinka. Many of the singers come from the University of Cape Town's Opera School and on Thursday 2 July 2015 we received something of a preview of the event when students from the school gave a fund-raising gala in London.

Dr Lisa Engelbrecht introduced the work of the opera department, some of whose alumni include Pumeza Matshikiza and Pretty Yende, and then Dr Englebrecht accompanied five of the current batch of students in an attractive selection of arias from Mozart's Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, and music by Verdi, Struass, Delibes, Rossini, Richard Strauss, Bellini, and Offenbach, finishing with Mzilikazi Khumalo's opera Princess Magogo and a medley from the musical Man of La Mancha.

 There were five singers in all, sopranos Maudee Montierre, Goitsemang Lehobye and Amanda Meke, baritone Johannes Slabbert and bass-baritone Martin Mkhize.

Maudee Montierre sang Donna Anna's Non mi dir, Amanda Meka sang Zerlina's Batti Batti and Amanda joined Johannes Slabbert for Zerlina and Don Giovanni's duet La ci darem la mano, all from Don Giovanni. Martin Mkhize sang Figaro's Se vuol ballare from Le Nozze di Figaro.

Goitsemang sang Amelia's Come in quest'ora bruna from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, and the Czardas from Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus. Maudee and Amanda sang the flower duet from Delibes' Lakme. Maudee, Amanda and Goitsemang sang the trio from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and a trio from Mzilikazi Khumalo's opera Princess Magogo.

Johannes sang Einst traumte mir from Johann Strauss's Fursten Ninetta, Martin sang Resta immobile from Rossini's Guillaume Tell and both joined together for the duet Suoni la tromba from Bellini's I Puritani. Johannes and Amanda sang the fly duet from Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld.

The evening finished with all five singers joining for the Impossible Dream medley from Man of La Mancha.

Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music

Peter Aisher, Janis Kelly, William Wallace, Timothy Connor, Maria Ostroukhova, Kieran Rayner, Simon Grange, Elspeth Marrow, Katie Coventry, Sofia Larsson - Albert Herring - Royal College of Music - photo credit Chris Christoudoulou

Benjamin Britten Albert Herring; Peter Aisher, Katie Coventry, Timothy Connor, Janis Kelly, dir: Liam Steel, cond: Michael Rosewell; Royal College of Music International Opera School at the Britten Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 04 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Strikingly imaginative version of this modern classic

Benjamin Britten's comic opera Albert Herring, with its youthful lead, and large number of vivid characters, would seem ideal material for music college performance. But many of the characters require the young singers to play far older. The new production at the Royal College of Music, directed by Liam Steel, designed by Anna Fleischle, with lighting by Joshua Carr, applied a lively imagination to the problem and came up with a vividly etched, and strongly characterised performance. Lady Billows was played not by a student, but by Janis Kelly who has sung the role in Los Angeles and who teaches at the Royal College of Music. The remainder of the cast were all from the opera course, and we saw the second cast (4 Jully 2015) led by Peter Aisher as Albert, Katie Coventry as Nancy and Timothy Connor as Sid. Michael Rosewell conducted the Royal College of Music Opera Orchestra.

Peter Aisher
photo credit Chris Christodoulou

Anna Fleischle's set was on a revolve, one side a very striking depiction of the Herring's shop and the other the village hall. By some dextrous adjustments to the libretto these to settings did duty for the whole opera, (the opening scene took place in the village hall, and the May Day celebrations had clearly been relocated to the village hall by a thunderstorm). Liam Steel also used the revolve itself during the scene changes, with much coming and going in the town.

The characters of the town worthies were all played rather younger than they often are, giving them an additional reason to be in awe of Lady Billows (Janis Kelly) and thus not requiring the young singers to play old. And having a young cast meant that the entered with a will into Liam Steel's very distinctive style of physical theatre. Not everything was naturalistic, and a certain stylised element to the movement worked extremely well with the music and reminded me of some stagings of Rossini's comic operas.

But Liam Steel was clearly interested in more than just telling a story, and his lively imagination had been at work in all sorts of details in the staging and the plot. There was a great deal of comic business, such as the Vicar (Kieran Rayner) constantly fiddling with the microphone during the May Day celebrations, which was very funny but sometimes felt like and added layer of comedy rather than being germane to the plot.

A career illuminated - Christoph von Dohnanyi in conversation at the Royal Academy of Music

Christoph von Dohnanyi - photo credit Bertold Fabricius

The conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi was 85 last year, and the Royal Academy of Music held a slightly belated celebration for him on Wednesday 24 June 2015, when the distinguished conductor discussed his career with Jonathan Freeman Attwood, the principal of the Royal Academy of Music.

Christoph von Dohnanyi was born in Berlin, though because of his father (the jurist Hans von Dohnanyi) they moved around a lot and his schooling included a year at the Thomasschule in Leipzig. There was a lot of music until the start of the war when the music stopped. After the war he was 15 and he had to decide whether to try to make up the years he had missed. At 16 he started studying law in Munich but moved on to music at the Musikhochschule where his studies included composition, chamber music, accompanying and he won the Richard Strauss prize.

'Christoph can you improvise?'

He went to the USA to further his studies, going to Florida where we would study with his grandfather, the composer Ernst von Dohnanyi. When asked about studying with his grandfather he surprised everyone by saying that he had only met his grandfather once previously. He was 20, and his grandfather's first question as 'Christoph can you improvise'. This was something he'd never learned and which he now regards as very, very important. In fact, he commented that his grandfather hated practising and was very good at improvising and he included an anecdote about his grandfather playing an entire sonata in the wrong key.

Art on the Underground - Music on the Underground

Matt Rogers
(c) Benedict Johnson

Art on the Underground, Transport for London's official art programme launched Underline this week. This is a year long interdisciplinary programme which will be celebrating the Victoria Line. Three visual artists, an architectural collective and a composer will be commissioned, drawing inspiration from from the character of the most intensively travelled line on the network, and the organisations, communities and histories connected by it.

Giles Round

Composer Matt Rogers, whose opera The Virtues of Things premiered at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre earlier this year, is writing a new commission which will be performed by members of London Sinfonietta live in stations on the Victoria line in spring 2016.

Liam Gillick will screen a series of new films shot within the Tube network. Architectural collective Assemble will develop a new public site at Seven Sisters, taking inspiration from subterranean geology to inform their above ground interventions. Closing the Underline series, Brixton-based artist Zineb Sedira will present a new film work and photographic series currently in production.

The series launches with Giles Round's 12 month project Design Work Leisure, a design office that revisits the values and vision of Arts & Crafts exponent William Morris who believed that great art should be for everybody. Over the 12-month period of the project, the office will build on London Underground’s rich design heritage to devise, research and develop bespoke products for the physical environment of the network for staff and passengers to enjoy. The first prototype will be a bespoke relief tile especially for the Victoria line based on the iconic Stabler tiles commissioned by Frank Pick in 1936. The prototypes will be proposed to London Underground for real use on the network with further examples including a platform clock and staff cutlery. Where possible the designs will be rolled out for use in stations and staff spaces.

East of Tallinn: Orient music festival Part II - Workshops and masterclasses

Orient Music Festival workshop - picture credit Hilary Glover

Orient Music Festival; Tallinn, Estonia
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on May 25 2015
Star rating: 5.0
An immersive exploration of the music and cultures and the East

The Orient music festival (25-31 May 2015) began with an ethnomusicology conference. But the rest of the week-long festival focused on workshops, demonstrations, and concerts. With the mornings free to explore Tallinn (or to gone one of the free tours run by local young people who bring 800 years of history to life) and the evenings full of concerts, the afternoons could be devoted to an more immersive approach to culture.

The afternoon workshops, held in a huge tent next to the President’s Palace in Kadriorg Park, included a tour of Taarab music by Mitchel Strumpf and demonstration of quanun playing by Samir Ally Salim (both from the Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar). Here, although there are thousands of maqam, we were showed the difference between a few of the nine most commonly used such as rast (major scale), hijaz, bayati, and Kurd. Since Taarab orchestras contain instruments with fixed tuning such as accordion, and maqam involve microtones, either the orchestra has to limit itself to playing a few maqam or players have to learn to miss notes out. This workshop was given in English, and for the Estonian people in the audience there was a translator. Samir took people through a song and taught them to sing the chorus while he played.

Music for soprano and string quartet - Carolyn Sampson and the Heath Quartet

Carolyn Sampson

JS Bach, John Musto, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg; Carolyn Sampson, The Heath Quartet; the Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 13 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Ravishing performance of a 20th century classic, paired with a new work for the same forces of soprano and string quartet

Soprano Carolyn Sampson joined the Heath Quartet at the Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 1 July 2015 for a striking programme of music for soprano and string quartet. Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op.10 was teamed up with the world premiere of John Musto’s Another Place setting poems by Mark Strand. Also in the programme were three chorale preludes by JS Bach, and Anton Webern’s Slow Movement for string quartet from 1905.

The Heath Quartet

The concert started with the Heath Quartet (Oliver Heath, Cerys Jones, Gary Pomeroy and Christopher Murray) in three Bach chorale preludes. Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV731, Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Her BWV662, and In dulci jubilo BWV608. The first introduced us to the intriguing sound-world of Bach chorale preludes on string quartet. The players used minimum vibrato, which created a timbre both ancient and modern as it had elements of the viol-like to it but they used very expressive modern phrasing. The first was affecting, and quietly contemplative whilst the second prelude was more developed but with a lovely inwardness. The final one was a light textured and contrapuntal version of the familiar tune, played on the first violin with everyone going a bit mad around.

Mark Strand (1924-2014) was a Canadian-born poet; Strand said of his style, "I feel very much a part of a new international style that has a lot to do with plainness of diction, a certain reliance on surrealist techniques, and a strong narrative element”. The American composer John Musto (born 1954) set five of Mark Strand’s poems in a new cycle for soprano and string quartet, Another Place which was commissioned by the Wigmore Hall. The songs were composed soon after the poet’s death, and John Musto has chosen poems, The Coming of Light, Another Place, XVIII from Dark Harbour, An Old Man Awake in His Own Death, The End which seem to deal with the searching for another place, perhaps somewhere not of this world. Death and transition seem to hover over the cycle, but John Musto’s style is not maudlin and the whole had a certain cool rapture about it, a feeling of distancing. It was very much a song cycle, the string writing was substantial but the string parts were clearly accompanying rather than the soprano being an equal, though Carolyn Sampson was clearly very collegial in her performance with the Heath Quartet. John Musto’s music was tonal, with a vocal line sympathetically written for a singer; melodic, yet expressionist in the use of wide intervals.

La gazza ladra - Rossini's last Italian comic opera

Rossini La gazza ladra; Giulio Mastrototaro, Luisa Islam-Ali-Zade, Kenneth Tarver, Maria Jose Moreno, Bruno Pratico, Lorenzo Regazzo, Mariana Rewerski, Stefan Cifolelli, Classica Chamber Choir Brno, Virtuosi Brunensis, Alberto Zedda; Naxos
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 23 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Highly theatrical new recording of Rossini's last Italian comic opera

Rossini's comic operas seem to make an arc of development from the early one act farse through to the opera semi-seria La gazza ladra (The Thievish Magpie), which was his final Italian comic opera. Its blend of comedy and tragedy has meant that it frequently remains best known for its overture! This new recording on Naxos from Alberto Zedda was recorded live at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival with a cast including Giulio Mastrototaro, Luisa Islam-Ali-Zade, Kenneth Tarver, Maria Jose Moreno, Bruno Pratico, Lorenzo Regazzo, Mariana Rewerski, Stefan Cifolelli, Pablo Cameselle, Maurizio Lo Piccolo and Damian Whiteley. Zedda conducts the Classica Chamber Choir, Brno and the Virtuosi Brunensis  with Gianni Fabbrini providing fortepiano continuo.

The recording was in fact made at the 2009 festival and has had to wait until now for its release. Zedda conducts his own critical edition and thus makes the set rather desirable for Rossinians. In fact the opera has not fared particularly well on disc and the most highly recommendable recording in recent years has been the English language one on Chandos. Part of the problem is that the piece requires a large cast with two buffo basses, three substantial female roles and the tenor hero not to mention a host of comprimario roles making a total of 11 in all. The other problem, though, is the work's reputation sitting uneasily between comedy and tragedy, with a plot which seems to land bits of a rescue opera quasi Fidelio in the midst of The Barber of Seville.

The Bear at the Proud Archivist

For their next opera production, Operaview is moving to a gallery. At the Proud Archivist gallery in Hackney they will be staging four performances of William Walton's one-act opera The Bear in the context of a photography exhibition by Yiannis Katsaris.

Yiannis Katsaris's exhibition is of photographs inspired by Walton's opera, which is in turn based on a Chekov play. So Yiannis Katsaris has taken a series of photos of Russians living on London today resulting in an interesting juxtaposition.

The Bear will be directed by Natalie Katsou with Dale Wills as musical director. The opera runs from 8 to 11 July 2015, with the exhibition on from 6 to 12 July. The Proud Archivist is at 2-10 Hertford Road, London N1 5SH. Tickets available on-line through EventBrite.

Pop up: L'Italiana in Algeri... Or the showgirl in Vegas

Rossini - L'Italiana in Algeri - Pop-Up Opera - Picture credit: Richard Lakos

Rossini L'Italiana in Algeri; Helen Stanley, Oskar McCarthy, Oliver Brignall, Bruno Loxton, dir: James Hurley; Pop-Up Opera at the Brunel Museum
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Jun 8 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Sparky updating of Rossini's comic gem

Pop-Up opera out did themselves last night with yet another triumph. 'L'Italiana in Algeri'... or rather 'The showgirl in Vegas', performed at the Brunel Museum, was a delightful example of their ability to bring opera into the laps (sometime literally) of the audience.

Directed by James Hurley, and with the orchestra deftly played by Berrak Dyer on keyboard, the entire opera was based around the backstage area at a Vegas show. A couple of racks of dressing up clothes provided the costuming, a chest of cleverly chosen objects, projected videos, and repurposing of lighting and cables provided the props. But don't let low budget be confused with low rent, this company can hold its own against any of the big players.

Renowned for bringing opera to unusual spaces such as rooms above pubs and cafes, boats, caverns, tonight the show was in the now defunct access shaft for the Thames tunnel at Rotherhithe.

I did wonder how a circular cylinder bored into the earth would work as a concert venue, and, although small and difficult to get into (entrance was via a crawl space and a descent down what felt like rickety scaffolding), it actually worked very well. The curved walls meant that performers could turn away and sing into the wall and the audience hear reflected sound. A makeshift bar on the terrace in front of the museum provided the interval drinks.

West Green House Opera

The auditorium at West Green House Opera

Started by Marylyn Abbott, who lives at West Green House, West Green House Opera performs an annual season in the stunning garden's of the house with performances of an interesting range of operas but always with Mozart at the core. This year they will be performing Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos along with a programme of music which includes a recital from soprano Joan Rodgers, and a visit from the Garsington Opera Alvarez Emerging Artists Programme.

The company launched the season at a soiree at Leighton House on Tuesday 30 June 2015, when we were able to hear an introduction to the season from Artistic Director William Relton, along with a group of four Richard Strauss songs from soprano Rebecca Nash, accompanied by Kelvin Lim. Rebecca will be performing the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos this year and all I can say is that if her performance on Tuesday is anything to go by, we are in for a great treat.

West Green House gardens at night

There are not one but two theatres in the garden, the larger seats 400 people in a temporary pavilion, erected annual. The season opens with Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro on 25 and 26 July 2015, which is directed by Richard Studer and conducted by Jonathan Lyness with Ben McAteer as Figaro, Caroline MacPhie as Susanna, George von Bergen and Helena Dix as Count and Countess Almaviva, and Anna Harvey as Cherubino.

Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos is the following weekend on 1 and 2 August 2015, directed by Richard Studer, conducted by Jonathan Lyness with Rebecca Nash as Ariadne, Jonathan Stoughton as Bacchus, Nicola Said as Zerbinetta and Rosie Aldridge as the Composer.

In between there is Mozart's Phoenix with the Garsington young artists and William Relton as Lorenzo da Ponte, Joan Rodgers, Simon Rowland-Jones and Gary Matthewman perform Simon Rowland-Jones's A Turn Outside based on the poems of Steve Smith, plus a selection of lunchtime events.

William Relton, who joined as Artistic Director two months ago, is busy planning next season but this one is already a strong combination. He is an actor and director, and we last saw him as the Major-Domo in Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne (see my review).

Australian Marylyn Abbott rescued West Green House after the devastation of the bombing there and the gardens are entirely her creation. At all events, the garden opens early enough so that you can explore before the performance, and many events have long dinner intervals so you can picnic in the gardens. Tickets are available from the box office,

westgreenhouseopera.co.uk 

01252 848676  enquiries@westgreenhouse.co.uk

Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

Handel L'Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato (1740); Gillian Webster, Laurence Kilsby, Jeremy Ovenden, Ashley Riches, Peter Harvey, Gabrieli Consort and Player, Paul McCreesh; Winged Lion
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 19 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Combination of musicology and musicianship in this delightful disc.

Handel's  flexible (not to say cavalier) attitude to his works in performance,  mixing and matching, cutting and pasting to suit the circumstances and the needs of the performers has encouraged modern day performers to follow suit. Of course, it does not help that modern concert-going habits make many of the works too long in their original forms.

But much of the most rewarding Handel scholarship on disc has involved recapturing versions of Handel's works from specific moments or time periods.

Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players

On this disc, on the Winged Lion label, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players take us back to 1740 and the premiere of Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. More than just the original version, we have the whole Handelian concert experience with parts one and two prefixed by concerto grossos from the Opus 6 set, and part three prefixed by one of the Opus 7 organ concertos.

Paul McCreesh conducts the Gabrieli Consort and Players with soprano Gillian Webster, treble Laurence Kilsby, tenor Jeremy Ovenden, baritone Peter Harvey and bass Ashley Riches, with William Whitehead at the organ.

Whilst the majority of the recording was made at Henry Wood Hall and St Silas the Martyr Kentish Town, in an imaginative gesture typical of Paul McCreesh the organ concerto and the chorus with organ ad lib which concludes part two of the oratorio were both recorded at St Paul's Church, Deptford where the 2004 William Drake organ reuses some of the original pipes to recreate an organ of 1745, thus giving us a chance to hear the concerto with the sort of organ sound Handel might have known. The remainder of the recording uses the 2001 Handel House Organ which lives at St George's Church Hanover Square.

St John's Smith Square 2015/16 season launch

Tabea Debus at the St John's Smith Square season launch 2015/16

On Monday, St John's Smith Square had a launch for its action packed 2015/16 season. We heard from chairman Martin Smith and artistic director Richard Heason, who introduced the season. We also heard from Jude Kelly and Gillian Moore from the South Bank Centre because, during the two year closure period for the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, some of the South Bank's programming will be transferred to St John's Smith Square, in a remarkable example of collaboration between the two venues. The final speaker was the Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey. 

Of course, being the launch of concert hall there was also music. Soprano Katherine Watson was accompanied at the piano by Christian Curnyn, Director of the Early Opera Company, in Tristes apprets from Rameau's Castor et Pollux a lovely taster of their complete performance of Rameau's opera later in the year. And recorder player Tabes Debus, a St John's Smith Square Young Artist, played Moritz Eggert's Ausser atem for three recorders and one player, a truly remarkable tour de force.

Jude Kelly at the
St John's Smith Square season launch 2015/16

Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars' 2000th concert (!) launches the second London International A Cappella Choir Competition. And the St John's Smith Square Christmas Festival brings groups such as Chapelle du Roi, Siglo de Oro, Choir of Christchurch Cathedral, Ex Cathedra, Choir of Merton College, Ensemble Plus Ultra, and Choir of Clare College, Cambridge.

There is a wide range of Handel, including a number of rarities. Stephen Layton and the Holst Singers continue their Handel oratorio cycle with a performance of Handel's Solomon, whilst the Whitehall Choir is performing Handel's early and rarely performed oratorio Athalia, and a performance of another rarity Alexander Balus is also planned. Ian Bostridge joins the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for a programme of music by Handel and Telemann. John Lubbock, the Orchestra of St Johns and OSJ Voices bring their annual performance of Handel's Messiah, as do Stephen Layton, Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. David Bates and La Nuova Music perform a programme based around Gloria settings by Vivaldi and Handel. Handel's diva Margherita Durastanti is celebrated by the Brook Street Band with soprano Nicki Kennedy

The music of the Bach family is also very much in evidence. Arcangelo performs Magnificat settings by three Bach's JC, JS and CPE, whilst Solomon's Knot is pairing Magnificat settings by JS Bach and Kuhnau, and Rachel Podger joins the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for violin concertos by Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi and Pisendel. The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are performing Bach's Mass in B Minor. Stephen Layton returns to conduct Bach's St John Passion with the choirs of Eton and Winchester Colleges, and the Academy of Ancient Music. The Artistic Director of St John's Smith Square, Richard Heason, takes to the podium for a Come and Sing Messiah with Smith Square Voices and Chartwell Sinfonia.

Ed Vaizey at the
St John's Smith Square season launch 2015/16

Rare opera includes Bampton Classical Opera in Salieri's La grota di Trofonio and music by Benda and Linley, whilst Bury Court Opera performs music by Zelenka. Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company are performing Rameau's Castor et Pollux, whilst the London Mozart Players perform Stephen Oliver's realisation of Mozart's L'oca del Cairo as part of the London Mozart Players' Mozart Explored: 1783. Less rare, but no more delightful, Opera Danube is performing Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld.

The pianist Warren Mailley-Smith is giving an amazing eleven concert series performing the Chopin's complete works for solo piano, whilst pianist Martino Tirino is exploring the great piano quintets. The St John's Smith Square Young Artists Series includes groups as diverse as the Gesualdo Six, Ligeti Quartet, and Tabea Debus. The Park Lane Group's Young Artists Series will be presenting its own spring series, celebrating five great contemporary composers James MacMillan, Brett Dean, Helen Grime, Robin Holloway and Sally Beamish.

Other groups which perform as part of the season include Salomon Orchestra, Kensington Symphony Orchestra, Islington Choral Society, Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, and the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra.

The South Bank Centre's programming threads its way through the season as they bring their International Piano Series and International Chamber Music Series, plus concerts from the London Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as part of Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra's Stravinsky series. Oliver Coates is curating a series Deep Minimalism which includes music by Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel and Galina Ustvolskaya.