A journey through sound: 'looking up | looking out' from a cellar full of noise - a trumpet, a tuba & live electronics create a bit of magic

looking up | looking out - Alistair MacDonald, Diana Salazar, Oliver Iredale Searle, Timothy Cooper, Karlheinz Stockhausen; a cellar full of noise; TNW Music
Reviewed 6 March 2023

Contemporary music and contemporary improvisations on movements from Stockhausen's Tierkreis; never have trumpet, tuba and electronics sounded so imaginative and so magical

looking up | looking out is a disc from contemporary music group a cellar full of noise on TNW Music, Centred on Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Tierkreis, the disc mixed recently composed pieces by Alistair MacDonald, Diana Salazar, Oliver Iredale Searle and Timothy Cooper with improvisations on Stockhausen’s Tierkreis.

TNW Music is the label for The Night With..., a charity based in Glasgow presenting salon-style concerts of interesting music in intimate, informal venues across Scotland and further afield. Run by composer Matthew Whiteside, it provides development and commissioning opportunities for young and emerging composers.

a cellar full of noise was brought together by Matthew Whiteside for the 2017 The Night With… season, though the performers had been friends since studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). The ensemble is made up of Tom Poulson (trumpet), Danielle Price (tuba), and Timothy Cooper (composer & live electronics).

THIS IS MY BODY: Figure’s Co-Artistic Director Philip Barrett introduces their latest project, an immersive performance of Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri

The Swiss Church, London

After recent successes with Handel's Serse at Opera Holland Park (June 2022) and requiems by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Fauré at North London's Union Chapel (November 2022), innovative historical performance ensemble Figure offers an immersive, surround-sound performance of Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri at the Swiss Church on 14-15 March 2023.

Written in 1680, Buxtehude's cycle of seven cantatas has as its full title, Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima (Limbs Most Holy of Our Suffering Jesus), and is described in the manuscript as a sung devotion. The stanzas of its main text are drawn from the medieval hymn Salve mundi salutare, also known as the Rhythmica oratio. Each cantata addresses a part of Jesus’ crucified body: feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart and face; in each, Biblical words referring to the limb frame verses of the hymn’s text. 

Performed by solo voices (from memory), in the warm resonance of the elegant, white-washed Swiss Church (Covent Garden), Figure’s performance will both amplify Buxtehude’s original intentions and embody its subject matter, by placing a standing audience in the body of the sound – in the heart of the Passion scene – as the singers move freely throughout the space. Directed from the chamber organ by Figure’s Musical and Co-Artistic Director, Frederick Waxman, the performance will run uninterrupted before the evening gives way to drinks and further, more informal music-making.

Here, Figure’s other Co-Artistic Director, Philip Barrett introduces the work and the performance:

Season finale: Northern Chamber Orchestra's final three concerts in Macclesfield

The Northern Chamber Orchestra in 2022 (Photo: Sara Porter)

The Northern Chamber Orchestra's 2022-23 season in Macclesfield is concluding with a trio of concerts with music ranging from Bach and Handel, to Pergolesi and Mozart, to contemporary composers Lera Auerbach and Arvo Pärt. The orchestra's 2022-23 season in Macclesfield is its first to use the brand new, purpose-built, auditorium at The Kings’ School in Macclesfield.

On Saturday 11 March 2023, soprano Caroline Taylor and countertenor Ralph Thomas Williams join conductor Christopher Jones and the orchestra for Stabat Mater, a programme featuring Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Sogno di Stabat Mater, a 2005 work by Lera Auerbach that reworks some of the themes from Pergolesi's piece.

On 1 April, the wind players from the orchestra will be directed by the principal oboe of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, John Roberts, in Mozart’s Serenade for 13 Winds ‘Gran Partita’  and music by Joachim Raff and Ruth Gipps. Then on 6 May, Spanish violinist Jorge Jimenez directs the orchestra in Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2, 5 & 6, plus music by Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt.

Full details from the Northern Chamber Orchestra website.

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.