West Green House Opera’s 2023 season

West Green House - The Opera Garden from West Green House on Vimeo.

West Green House Opera in Hampshire is now well-known for its enchanting Theatre on the Lake, set in the beautiful surroundings of West Green House Gardens which are spectacularly lit throughout the evening. This year's season is as ambitious as ever. The two fully staged productions are Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and opera's most famous double bill Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

Sweeney Todd is brought to West Green by the creative team of director/designer Richard Studer and conductor Jonathan Lyness, who have been with the company since its inception over twenty years ago.  Baritone Matthew Sharp sings the murderous title role with mezzo-soprano Clare Presland playing the resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop Mrs Lovett.  The supporting cast includes Felicity Buckland as the beggar woman, Simon Wilding as Judge Turpin, Eleanor Sanderson-Nash as Johanna and Harry Apps, fresh from Les Miserables in the West End, as Tobias Ragg. Performances are on 22 & 23 July. 

The high drama of Cav & Pag comes to West Green on 29 & 30 July. The double bill will be directed by John Ramster (Eugene Onegin 2021) and conducted by John Andrews.  The stellar casts include Alexey Dolgov as Turiddu and Ronald Samm as Canio. Samantha Crawford makes her West Green debut as Santuzza and Jenny Stafford (Tatyana, Eugene Onegin 2021) returns as Nedda. Bridget Kimak is the designer. 

The Friday night productions look set to be equally exciting. On 21 July, director Thomas Guthrie weaves his magic in his newly devised show Mozart’s Constanze. Soprano Luci Briginshaw sings the music written by the composer for his beloved wife, including the exquisite 'Et incarnatus est' from his Mass in C Minor, alongside players from Orpheus Sinfonia. Dance choreographed by Maria da Luz promises an evening of great beauty.

Robert Murray (Photo: Gerard Collet)

The second Friday of the festival (28 July) brings an entirely different production, Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoe in Concert. Conductor David Parry has written a new English translation full of wit and fun. Tenor Robert Murray sings the title role. Where better to perform this sadly neglected work than on West Green’s very own desert island! 

West Green House Opera is dedicated to supporting young artists and implemented its first Young Artists Covers Programme in 2022. The programme continues this year, culminating in a scenes showcase in London on 22 July and a lunchtime concert in the Theatre Lawn Pavilion at West Green on 23 July.

Finally on 25 July, also in the Theatre Lawn Pavilion, Armonico Consort and Oz Clarke present an evening of wine and music. It is a little-known fact that the famed writer, wine critic and broadcaster Oz Clarke was a singer for many years, starting at Canterbury, continuing with the Schola Cantorum, followed by both the Monteverdi Choir and the Academy of St Martin’s. In a completely unique programme presented in cabaret style, Oz & Armonico Consort investigate the spurious links between wine from across the world and Baroque music. Featuring the work of composers including Bach, Purcell and Vivaldi, plus some of the most upbeat Baroque dance music from South America, it promises to be a highly entertaining evening.

West Green House Opera runs from 21 July to 30 July 2023. Full details from their website.

West Green House Opera's Theatre on the Lake in 2022

Ida revealed: John Wilson & the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment take a fresh look at Gilbert & Sullivan's unjustly neglected opera

Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Benjamin Hulett, Sophie Bevan, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale)

Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida; Sophie Bevan, Benjamin Hulett, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Simon Butteriss, Robert Hayward, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, John Wilson; Queen Elizabeth Hall
Reviewed 7 June 2023

A near ideal cast having the time of their life and, with the historically informed performance, revealing the romantic (and comic) delights of this rarely performed gem

 Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida is surprisingly little known considering that, in their output, it comes between Iolanthe and The Mikado. It was in the D'Oyly Carte company's canon and received occasional revivals, but since the company's demise the opera's appearances in the UK have been rare and English National Opera's ill-fated production in 1992, directed by Ken Russell, probably did not help the opera's reputation.

The opera satirises feminism, women's education and Darwinian evolution, though as Richard Bratby's article in the programme book for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's performance points out, Gilbert is really poking fun at idealism taken to extremes. The opera has some unusual features, in many ways it is an experimental departure, never to be repeated. For a start it is in three acts, not two, and the dialogue is in blank verse. This is because plot and a lot of dialogue were lifted from Gilbert's 1870 play The Princess which satirised Tennyson's narrative poem of the same name. 

Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Morgan Pearse, Robert Davies, Jonathan Brown, John Wilson & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale)

The soprano part of Ida requires a more dramatic voice than the usual G&S heroine; Ida is certainly no soubrette and has a couple of distinctly operatic numbers. And the music itself has a more serious cast than usual. The Topsy-Turvy-dom of the plot is far less farcical than in some G&S operas and Sullivan's music for Act Two, in particular, has a lyric vein rather more serious than usual. It makes you think of some of the late Offenbach operettas where the cast of the piece is veering closer to the romantic opera comique. After Princess Ida came The Mikado and Ruddygore, then Yeomen of the Guard, the most serious opera in the G&S canon. 

On Wednesday 7 June 2023, I caught Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (the first of two performances). John Wilson conducted the Choir & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sophie Bevan as Ida and Benjamin Hulett as Hilarion. Robert Hayward was King Hildebrand (Hilarion's father), whilst Ruairi Bowen and Charles Rice were Cyril and Florian (Hilarion's friends). Simon Butteriss was King Gama (Ida's father), with Morgan Pearse, Robert Davies and Jonathan Brown were Arac, Guron and Scynthius (Ida's brothers). Catherine Wyn-Rogers was Lady Blanche, Bethany Horak-Hallett was Lady Psyche, Marlena Devoe was Melissa and Claire Ward was Sacharissa.

Terrific and intensely atmospheric: the String Quartet No. 1 and Piano Quintet by Olli Mustonen from the Engegård Quartet and the composer on LAWO Classics

Olli Mustonen: String Quartet No. 1, Piano Quintet; Engegård Quartet, Olli Mustonen; LAWO CLASSICS

Two chamber works by the Finnish polymath; terrific contemporary chamber music in superb, intensely atmospheric recordings

When I spoke to members of the Norwegian Engegård Quartet back in 2020 [see my interview], they were about to embark on a mini-festival devoted to the music of Finnish composer Olli Mustonen, and had a project to record his chamber music. The quartet had commissioned Mustonen's String Quartet no. 1, premiered it in 2017 and enjoyed playing it, now we have the fruits of all that with a disc from Lawo Classics featuring Olli Mustonen's String Quartet No. 1 and his Piano Quintet, with the composer on piano.

Olli Mustonen started composing when he was five and was studying with Einojuhani Rautavaara very soon afterwards! But Mustonen has always had a multi-threaded career, winning awards for his recordings of piano music by Shostakovich and Alkan as well as holding a number of distinguished conducting appointments, and he is currently artistic director and principal conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra.

Young Artists on the move: announcements from YCAT, Northern Aldborough Festival's Vocal Competition, VOICEBOX and BBC Radio and Music's Open Music scheme

YCAT young artists 2023

The Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) has announced the latest group of artists to join its roster, whilst the Northern Aldborough Festival has revealed the semi-finalists in its forthcoming vocal competition. A brand-new initiative, VOICEBOX, has announced the names of the singers who will make up its inaugural cohort, and BBC Radio and Music launched the second edition of the Open Music training scheme, 

YCAT has selected all six finalists at its recent round of auditions at Wigmore Hall (on 2 June 2023) to join its roster. The young artists are Ignas Maknickas (piano), Charlotte Spruit (violin), Will Duerden (double bass), Trio Chagall (piano trio), Hana Chang (violin), Atenea Quartet (string quartet). In addition to performance opportunities, the young artists will receive professional publicity materials and digital support to enhance their online presence, ensuring maximum exposure for their exceptional talents to cement their path to becoming full-time performing musicians.

Also announced was the next YCAT-Music Masters Robey Artist - Cellist, Sterling Elliott - further cementing YCAT’s collaboration with Music Masters and their commitment to celebrate and champion underrepresented voices in the industry. Full details from the YCAT website.

The Yorkshire-based Northern Aldborough Festival's Vocal Competition runs from 20 to 21 June 2023 and the semi-finalists for the competition, where winners receive a cash prize plus opportunities to perform at festivals including Leeds Lieder, Newbury Spring Festival, Ryedale Festival, Music@Malling, as well as the Northern Aldborough Festival itself, are Mezzo-soprano Aileen Baker and pianist Daniel Silcock, mezzo-soprano Rachel Barnard and Beth Haughan, soprano Alexandra Beason and Yupeng He, baritone Jack Holton and Max Bilbe, soprano Betty Makharinsky and Vladyslav Kuznetsov, soprano Georgie Malcolm and Edward Campbell-Rowntree, mezzo-soprano Camilla Seale and Evi Wang, mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw and Kristina Yorgova. Full details from the festival website.

VOICEBOX is a new initiative, the first programme of its kind in the UK, offering a bespoke curriculum for advanced singers specialising in contemporary vocal performance. Designed and led by soprano Juliet Fraser, this fully funded programme is separated into four intensive residency periods, hosted by partner organisations around the UK, Britten Pears Arts, Suffolk, City, University of London , Sound Festival, Aberdeen and Dartington Music Summer School & Festival, Devon.

This year’s cohort are Patricia Auchterlonie, Hester Dart, Tara Lily Klein, Oskar McCarthy, Sarah Parkin, and Pascal Zurek. On the review panel this year were Juliet Fraser, Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Nwando Ebizie. Full details from Juliet Fraser's website.

VOICEBOX's first cohort: Hester Dart, Pascal Zurek, Tara Lily Klein,  Oskar McCarthy, Sarah Parkin and Patricia Auchterlonie

BBC Radio and Music launched the second edition of the Open Music training scheme, with a call out for applications from creatives and musicians across the UK. The first edition of Open Music ended in October 2022 and the former trainees have gone on to take up opportunities at the BBC and beyond, in the fields of radio production, presenting, communications and sound engineering. The participants were mentored by BBC radio presenters Mary Anne Hobbs, Linton Stephens, and Katie Derham – amongst others –  and by staff across BBC Radio and Music, from Radio 3 to BBC Introducing,  Radio 1Xtra to the BBC Concert Orchestra. Full details from the BBC website.

Organ recitals, orchestras Ukraine, Hungary, India, China, and the Czech Republic: Fairfield Halls' new season

Fairfield Halls

Fairfield Halls in Croydon has announced a busy season ahead. Its International Orchestra Concert Series 2023/24 is headlined by a visit from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine as part of as series that brings orchestras from Hungary, India, China, and the Czech Republic. And before then, the hall's 2023 lunchtime Organ Recital Series gets underway.

Fairfield Halls' International Orchestra Concert Series 2023/24 launches on 12 September 2023 with a concert from Concerto Budapest, conducted by Andras Keller, in Liszt's Rhapsody No. 2, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 (soloist Mihaly Berecz) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Other concerts in the series include the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (18 October), as part of its largest UK tour for 100 years, in Symphony No. 2 by Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) plus music by Strauss, Beethoven and Sibelius, the  Symphony Orchestra of India, conductor Zane Dalal (5 December) in Khachaturian's Violin Concerto (soloist Marat Bisengaliev), plus music by Rossini and Tchaikovsky, the China Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, conductor Daye Lin (22 March 2024) in Chausson's Poeme and music from Tan Dun's score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen. And the series ends with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Ilya Mashkevich (16 May 2024) in Smetana, Bruch and Dvorak.

Tomorrow, 8 June 2023, Fairfield Halls' Croydon launches its 2023 Organ Recital Series with a Coronation-themed recital from Andrew Scott, managing director of Harrison & Harrison Organ Builders and director of music at St Michael & All Angels, Croydon. There are further recitals at lunchtimes on Thursdays across the year (29 June, 13 July, 21 September, 9 November) with organists including Jonathan Holmes, Norman Harper, Marilyn Harper and Herman Jardaan. Tickets are only £5 (with free tickets for under 18s) and attendees at events can enjoy a free cup of tea or coffee, which will be available from The Cube Café starting from 12:00pm, along with a 20% discount on food purchases in the café, allowing them to indulge in a delightful light lunch before the recital.

Full details from the Fairfield Halls website.

Flooding Pimlico with Music: Pimlico Music Foundation presents Britten's Noye's Fludde with 200 local school children

The Pimlico Musical Foundation (PMF) is presenting a performance of Britten's Noyes Fludde at St Gabriel's Church, Pimlico on 5 July 2023.  The project features 200 school children from five local schools, and PMF is using the event not just to teach them some wonderful music, but also to help them think about climate change. PMF will be running workshops in the schools, in which the children will write their own lyrics for some of the opera’s traditional hymns, reflecting the local area as well as environmental issues. They will also decorate costumes for the performance and help build the set.

The performance will involve a community chorus of children from all five partner schools, members of the PMF’s Foundation Scholars programme, a team of world-class opera singers in principal roles including Gareth Brynmor John as Noye and Felicity Buckland as Mrs Noye, and a community orchestra supported by young professionals from the Southbank Sinfonia. It will be part of SouthWestFest 2023, the annual cultural community festival for south Westminster.

PMF Artistic Director James Day says "The Pimlico Musical Foundation exists to provide high-quality, free musical education to the children of Pimlico. Britten’s Noye’s Fludde is a masterwork and gives us a framework to teach key musical concepts while exploring an issue important to all members of our community".

Full details from the PMF website.

Opera Rara and The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama collaborate on fringe events for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World

The ongoing partnership Opera Rara and The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) continues this month with an exhibition that delves into The Foyle Opera Rara Collection, one of the finest collections of manuscripts, letters and memorabilia relating to 19th-century Italian bel canto opera (10-18 June), plus two lunchtime concerts by mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek (13 June), tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez (14 June) and pianist James Southall, Interim Music Director of the David Seligman Opera School at RWCMD, include restorations of Donizetti songs from the collection. The concerts and exhibition are part of RWCMD’s programme of fringe events complementing the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, which takes place from 10 to 18 June 2023.

The Foyle Opera Rara Collection, now held at RWCMD, was created by Patric Schmid and Don White who founded Opera Rara and the collection reflects their interests in the Italian bel canto tradition. The close partnership between Opera Rara and RWCMD also continues through conductor Carlo Rizzi, who as well as being Artistic Director of Opera Rara, is RWCMD International Chair in Conducting.

Full details from the RWCMD website.

Spitalfields Music is back with its Summer Music Festival

Spitalfields Music is back with its Summer Music Festival running from 30 June to 12 July 2023 in historic venues in and around Spitalfields. The festival features 16 premieres, including new works from Michael Finnissy and Rasmus Zwicki in a programme inspired by Hans Christian Anderson, Ian Wilson's musical exploration of his father's battle with Alzheimer's, the English premiere of a piano quintet by James MacMillan, Klaus Lang, Catherine Lamb and , plus the English premiere of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's Biblical cantatas, performed by the Dunedin Consort, some 300 years after they were first performed in Paris.

The three masses of William Byrd will be performed by The Odyssean Ensemble at the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, 400 years after Byrd’s death. Set against a backdrop of Byrd’s struggles during the Reformation when many persecuted Catholics were imprisoned at the Tower of London, the music will be juxtaposed with prose and poetry highlighting more recent examples of persecution of and by religious groups, including Afghan women under the Taliban.

Six new works by emerging composers will receive their London premieres performed by harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and violinist Fenella Humphreys as part of the ongoing partnership between Spitalfields Music and Cheltenham Music Festival. Also featured in the festival will be Eleanor Alberga's String Quartet No. 2, and Libby Larsen's opera Try Me Good King.

An evening of protest songs will feature music by Schubert, Strauss, Britten, Boulanger, Wallen and Kit & The Widow performed by Roderick Williams, Nardus Williams, and Allyson Devenish, narrated by poet Rommi Smith.

Full details from the Spitalfields Festival website.

Hogarth's Garden

London Early Opera is launching its new vocal consort with a new programme Hogarth’s Garden at St Nicholas Church, Chiswick, on on Friday 23 June 2023. The church's cemetery is the resting place of the artist William Hogarth who inspired much of the artwork at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and was a governor and supporter of the Foundling Hospital where Handel performed.

The concert is based on Hogarth’s works and his inspiration for 18th-century London including music from Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem  and L’Allegro, plus catches and cantatas connecting themes of paintings in Handel’s own collection to musical masterpieces, along with music inspired by Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Curated by artistic director and conductor, Bridget Cunningham, the evening features narrations from Lars Tharp, Hogarth enthusiast and ceramics historian (BBC Antiques Roadshow).

Bridget Cunningham and London Early Opera have already recorded two discs of music written for the 18th century Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and the currently have a GoFundMe appeal to raise money to record a further disc of the music from the concert.

Full details from EventBrite.

Earth, Water, Air and Fire: synaesthesia, music and art from Music@Malling

Deborah Pritchard with painting by Maggi Hambling (Photo: Matthew Holley)

Music@Malling's Summer concert series, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, explores synaesthesia, music and art, in a series of concerts from 9 to 11 June 2023 presented by Chamber Domaine and conductor Thomas Kemp in historic venues in Kent including All Saints' Church, Tudeley and St Mary's Church, West Malling.

The series features performances of eight synaesthesia-influenced works by Deborah Pritchard with inspirations including Marc Chagall (with a performance in All Saints' Church, Tudeley which has a complete set of Chagall windows), and Maggi Hambling, who has very recently created a painting in response to Deborah Pritchard's piece Light, for which they were collaborators, which will be displayed at the festival in June. The concerts also feature Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.

The main Music@Malling Festival runs from 22-30 September 2023, and will include premieres by Gavin Bryars, Brian Elias, Deborah Pritchard, and Judith Weir, plus an installation by Anish Kapoor with music by Brian Elias.

Full details from the Music@Malling website.

Because: in a slightly unlikely but completely seductive pairing, countertenor Reginald Mobley is joined by jazz pianist/composer Baptiste Trotignon

Because - spirituals, gospel, Florence Price, Harry Burleigh; Reginald Mobley, Baptiste Trotignon; Alpha Classics

A profoundly lovely, imaginative and highly sympathetic take on spirituals and gospel

A disc of spirituals, gospel, and art song recorded by a counter-tenor and a jazz pianist/composer might seem a somewhat counter-intuitive project. But Because with Reginald Mobley (countertenor) and Baptiste Trotignon (piano) on Alpha Classics is a disc that I will treasure. It starts with the design, featuring striking photographs of Mobley by Richard Dumas.

The disc moves from spirituals to gospel, songs by Florence Price and Harry Burleigh, to a song by Trotignon and even a Motown number. Throughout them all, Mobley sings with a lovely warm, focused tone bringing a purity to the line which is complemented by Trotignon's jazz-based accompaniments. The result is a striking and engaging sound-world. This is late-night listening, which is how we first heard the disc.

Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra: A more than enjoyable event celebrating The Beano with Colin Currie and the BBC Concert Orchestra

Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto - George Jackson, Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: BBC / Mark Allan)

Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra - Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto, Ravel, Dobrinka Tabakova, Nancy Galbraith, Prokofiev, Arturo Marquez; Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra, George Jackson, Nadia Wadia, Asha Sthanakiya; Royal Festival Hall

Let's face it any concert that fills the Royal Festival Hall with families enjoying the premiere of a new concerto by one of Britain's most talented young composers has to be a good thing.

I have to confess that I always feel a bit of a fraud when I go to family-oriented classical music events. Having no children of my own and not being able to borrow any for the occasions, usually, I am a lone adult in a sea of parents and children. This was even more the case on Saturday 3 June 2023 when there were celebrations at the Southbank Centre for the 85th anniversary of The Beano, with a focus on the character of Dennis the Menace (and his dog, Gnasher). Now, whilst I have never seen the popular CBBC animated series Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed, the original comic was certainly a firm part of my childhood. But the Dennis of the film series is rather different from the Dennis of my memory, more modern and very streetwise.

Before the concert, the Clore Ballroom was awash with children enthusiastically making music for massed improvised percussion inspired by characters from The Beano, alongside lots of other drop-in activities. Then, for Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall, conductor George Jackson and the BBC Concert Orchestra, with percussionist Colin Currie, performed Gavin Higgins' Beano Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (which had received its premiere that morning at the first iteration of this concert), alongside music by Ravel, Dobrinka Tabakova, Nancy Galbraith, Prokofiev and Arturo Marquez. And there was music from the animated series, Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed too, in arrangements by Stephen Whibley.

Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto - George Jackson, Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: BBC / Mark Allan)

When all is said and done, His passport simply says that he is a musician: I chat to composer & multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey about his new disc of choral music

Richard Harvey

Composer Richard Harvey's Easter Songs were released as an EP on the Altus label earlier this year. Settings of poetry by George Herbert, Christina Rossetti and Joseph Mary Plunkett, they were recorded by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Jérôme Kuhn, with an instrumental ensemble of two violins, cello and harp. Richard has had quite a diverse career. Now known both as a composer of classical music and a composer for film and TV, his early career encompassed playing in the pioneering Early Music ensemble Musica Reservata and the progressive rock and folk band Gryphon, and working with film composer Jean-Michel Jarre. Richard wrote his 1995 Concerto Antico for guitarist John Williams and his 2009 Concerto Incanto for recorder player Michala Petri.

The recording of the Easter Songs came about originally because the Swiss conductor, Jérôme Kuhn asked Richard for choral music for an Easter-themed concert. So, he went looking for texts, preferably something older (for copyright reasons), and either not used or not used to death. He found himself inspired by Christina Rossetti's writing, finding her poetry very singable and having set one poem of hers, he is resolved to look at her more, in the future. A further choice was the poetry of Joseph Mary Plunkett. Richard finds him a very interesting man, an Irish revolutionary, he was a passionate Republican but also very creative, yet was executed in 1916 when he was still in his 20s. Again, Richard found his texts very singable. The third piece came about because Jérôme Kuhn brought two of his choirs to London earlier this year, and they gave a concert at St James' Piccadilly, and for that, Richard wrote a further Easter piece. He had enjoyed setting George Herbert's poetry before, finding him very celebratory and open-hearted.

Last August (2022) Richard had a recording slot with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) and decided that he would record all three of the Easter Songs ahead of the premiere of the third one. He describes it as a rare treat to work with the choir and when they come up, he grasps the opportunity to work with the choir with both hands. Along with the EPCC, he drew on a pool of fine instrumental players who are at home in a variety of styles, and understand what he is after.

Richard Harvey (Photo: Paramet Odd Lerdkasem)

An intimate, chamber production of Wagner's Die Walküre from Regents Opera

Wagner: Die Walküre - Justine Viani (Sieglinde), Catharine Woodward (Brünnhilde), the Valkyries  - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson)

Wagner: Die Walküre; Brian Smith Walters, Justine Viani, Gerrit Paul Groen, Keel Watson, Catharine Woodward, Ingeborg Novrup Børch, director: Caroline Staunton, conductor: Ben Woodward; Regents Opera at the Freemasons' Hall
Reviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 27 May 2023

Reduced forces, but heightened drama from the second instalment of Regents Opera's Wagner in the round

Regents Opera returned to the Freemasons' Hall for Caroline Staunton's production of Wagner's Die Walküre (seen 27 May 2023) with Brian Smith Walters as Siegmund, Justine Viani as Sieglinde, Gerrit Paul Groen as Hunding, Keel Watson as Wotan, Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde, and Ingeborg Novrup Børch as Fricka. This was the second instalment of musical director Ben Woodward's new arrangement of Wagner's tetralogy, with the orchestra reduced to just 22 players, including organ. Combined with the staging, which thrust the action into the centre of the room, surrounded on three sides by the audience, the overall effect was to create an intimate, chamber production of Wagner's most intimate chamber opera, which rarely has more than two characters on stage at a time.

Wagner: Die Walküre - Keel Watson (Wotan) - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson

Style, imagination & not a little daring: a new staging of Handel's Saul at Berlin's Komische Oper

Handel: Saul - Rupert Charlesworth, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo Barbara Braun)

Handel: Saul; Luca Tittoto, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Rupert Charlesworth, Nadja Mchantaf, Penny Sofoniadou, director Axel Ranisch, conductor David Bates; Komische Oper Berlin

An international cast bring Handel's oratorio to vivid and striking life in an evening of musical and dramatic pleasures.

Over the Whitsun weekend, the Komische Oper Berlin had something of a Handel festival on with revivals of Barrie Kosky's production of Handel's Semele and Stefan Herheim's production of Handel's Serse, plus a new production of Saul.

Axel Ranisch's staging of Handel's Saul opened on Saturday 27 May 2023 with David Bates conducting. Luca Tittoto was Saul with Rupert Charlesworth as Jonathan, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as David, Nadja Mchantaf as Michal and Penny Sofoniadou as Merab. Stage design and videos were by Falko Herold and costumes by Alfred Mayerhofer.

The work was sung in English and was, perhaps inevitably, cut. Bates conducted the Komische Oper orchestra with the addition of Baroque harp, Baroque trumpets and Baroque timpani (duplicating the special low timpani that Handel borrowed from the Tower of London) plus two harpsichords, organ and two theorbos.

Before the music started, we heard a German voice whispering the plot so far (quite a complex one) to accompany Herold's vivid animation of the story. The orchestral sound, from the outset, was crisp and vivid, with historically informed string articulations accompanying an equally striking stage picture as the chorus appeared, rejoicing, in multi-coloured clothes (modern with a nod to hippie-chic).

Handel: Saul - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo Barbara Braun)

No ordinary evening: Christof Loy directs Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Sara Jakubiak & Jonathan Tetelman

Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini - Sara Jakubiak, Jonathan Tetelman - Deutsche Oper Berlin (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini; Sara Jakubiak, Jonathan Tetelman, Ivan Inverardi, Charles Workman, director: Christof Loy, conductor: Ivan Repusic; Deutsche Oper Berlin
Reviewed 26 May 2023

Loy's modern look at Zandonai's over-blown classic featured stunning performances from the two lovers and an intelligent approach to the drama, creating a remarkable evening in the theatre

Riccardo Zandonai's reputation rests almost entirely on his 1914 opera Francesca da Rimini, a work that retains a toehold on the repertoire. A somewhat overblown romantic tragedy based on a play by Gabriele d'Annunzio, the work would seem an unlikely fit for the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under director Christof Loy's forensic eye. Yet the Deutsche Oper has evinced a fascination for operatic byways, witness its sequence of Meyerbeer productions, whilst Loy has proved highly effective in reviving romantic rarities, witness his powerful production of Weber's Euryanthe at the Vienna State Opera. And Loy's last appearance at the Deutsche Oper was for Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane, another late Romantic.

Christof Loy's production of Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2021 as a live stream without an audience. Thus the production's revival this month (with substantially the same cast) was the first performance with a live audience. We caught the performance on Friday 26 May 2023, conducted by Ivan Repusic, with Eva-Maria Abelein as revival director. Designs were by Johannes Leiacker with costumes by Klaus Bruns. Sara Jakubiak was Francesca with Lexi Hutton as her sister Samaritana and Kyle Miller as her brother Ostasio. Jonathan Tetelman was Paolo with Ivan Inverardi and Charles Workman as his brothers Gianciotto and Malatestino.

Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini - Sara Jakubiak - Deutsche Oper Berlin (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Zandonai's style is lushly romantic, somewhere between Verismo (Mascagni was one of his teachers), Massenet (a big influence on the composers of Puccini's generation) and the inevitable nod to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. But unlike Wagner, Zandonai does not keep his passions under control. If Tristan und Isolde is one long-delayed orgasm, then Francesca da Rimini is a whole sequence of musical climaxes.

The story is 40 years old but nothing much has changed about women's rights in the region: Bushra El-Turk on her opera Woman at Point Zero which comes to Covent Garden next month

Bushra El-Turk: Woman at Point Zero (Photo Nika Prokopenka Transparant-AllArias)

Bushra El-Turk is a composer who brings immense cultural richness to her works. Born in the UK to Lebanese parents, her musical practice can involve other musical cultures and traditions. Her opera Woman at Point Zero is being performed at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre (28 to 30 June 2023) as part of Shubbak Festival and Aldeburgh Festival 2023. It is a multi-media piece, created by Bushra, with writer Stacy Hardy, director Laila Soliman and film designer Bissane Al Charif, with an instrumental featuring both Western classical instruments and traditional instruments from other cultures.

Bushra El-Turk (Photo Ben McDonnell)

Woman at Point Zero is a co-production between LOD muziektheater, All Aria's festival (deSingel Antwerp, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Concertgebouw Brugge & Transparant), Royal Opera House, London, Shubbak, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Britten Pears Arts and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, supported by ENOA Creative Europe programme of the European Union, Fedora and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC). It premiered at Aix en Provence Festival last year and toured to Antwerp, Ghent, and Brugge, and the production will be presented at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg (7 June 2023). 

The opera is based on Nawal El Saadawi's 1975 novel which Bushra describes as just landing in her lap whilst she was writing her first opera, Silk Moth, in 2015. It dawned on her that El Saadawi's novel needed to be staged, and its story chimed in with Bushra's interest in stories about imprisonment and what it means. Woman at Point Zero features two women, Fatma, an activist imprisoned for manslaughter and Sama, an ambitious documentary filmmaker. Its dialogue form is very interior, just two women whose discussion constantly questions things, freedom today and power dynamics.

The director of Woman at Point Zero, Laila Soliman, who is Egyptian, was already looking into women prisoners and inserting documentary work into her theatre works. With Woman at Point Zero, they decided to take the work into the present day by introducing voices of women imprisoned for killing their husbands, voices of today from the real-life prison where Fatma is imprisoned.

Norwich-based music writer, Tony Cooper, offers a glimpse to the 2023/24 season of Norwich Chamber Music opening in September.

Alim Beisembayev(Photo: Nabin Maharjan)

Curated by Misha Donat - writer, lecturer and a senior music producer for BBC Radio 3 for more than a quarter of a century where he collaborated with many of the world’s leading musicians - the forthcoming season of Norwich Chamber Music offers classical-music aficionados another great, grand and exuberant feast of chamber music from a coterie of distinguished international performers.

The opening concert on Saturday, 16th September (7.30pm) falls to Kazakhstan-born pianist, Alim Beisembayev, playing Bach, Schubert, Debussy and Ravel. A pianist of extraordinary talent, Beisembayev’s career took off at an alarming rate after winning First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2021 performing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Manze.  

Regents Opera's new production of Wagner's Die Walküre: a photo essay

Wagner: Die Walküre - Keel Watson (Wotan) - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson

Regents Opera's new production of Wagner's Die Walküre opened at the Freemason's Hall, London, on 21, May 2023, with further performances on 23 & 27 May. Ben Woodward conducts his own arrangement for 21 piece orchestra, Caroline Stanton directs, with Brian Smith Walters as Siegmund, JustineViani as Sieglinde, Gerrit Paul Groen as Hunding, Keel Watson as Wotan, Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde and Ingeborg Novrup Børch as Fricka, and you can read Ingeborg's article, From Psychic Shellfish to a leading role in Wagner's Ring Cycle: Ingeborg Børch's Regents Opera journey on this blog.

We are pleased to present a selection of Steve Gregson's photographs of the production,

Wagner: Die Walküre - The Valkyries - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson)

Ein Sommernachtstraum in Essen: Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel & Wilhelm Hensel

Ein Sommernachtstraum - Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel; Jacquelyn Wagner, Valentina Stadler, Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, Jérémie Rhorer; Philharmonie Essen

An imaginative evening combining music by Felix and Fanny with the texts that inspired them, along with the magical timbres and textures of the period instruments.

Beginning our journey to Berlin and Hannover with a stop over in Essen to visit the Folkwang Museum, we happened upon an imaginative concert given at the Philharmonie Essen on Sunday 21 May 2023 by Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie. The centrepiece of the concert was Mendelssohn's overture and incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ein Sommernachtstraum). Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie were joined by soprano Jacquelyn Wagner, mezzo-soprano Valentina Stadler, members of the Aalto Kinderchores and the Women's Choir of the Philharmonic Choir, Essen, plus actor Wolfram Koch. The remainder of the programme focussed on the idea of music and telling tales, with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Szene aus 'Faust II' from 1843, and her Hero und Leander from 1831.

For A Midsummer Night's Dream Wolfram Koch gave us not a plot summary but speeches from the play, whilst before each of the works in the first half we heard extracts from the works by classic German authors that inspired the music, Grillparzer, Goethe and Schiller.  The result was to place the siblings' musical inspiration rather more firmly in a literary context than usual.