February 28, 2005
STRAVINSKY: Oedipus Rex; Les Noces
Igor Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex; Les Noces
Martyn Hill, Susan Bickley, Edward Fox, Robert Craft, Alison Wells, Jennifer Lane, Andrew Greenan, David Wilson-Johnson, Joseph Cornwell, Alan Ewing
Philharmonia Orchestra, Simon Joly Chorus, Tristan Fry Percussion Ensemble, International Piano Quartet
Robert Craft, cond.
NAXOS 8.557499 [CD]
Robert Craft has begun an ambitious project of recording Stravinsky’s oeuvre with two of the best dramatic works, Oedipus Rex — a sort of melodrama in a fever — and Les Noces (The Wedding), which simply defies any generic classification. The two make an ideal pairing, Rex as high drama told at a breakneck crawl, Noces as a kind of musical Polaroid camera that churns through frozen snapshots with a mind numbing velocity. Craft was a close confidant and collaborator with Stravinsky, and was responsible for many premiers and other definitive statements. For better or worse this fact brought down upon his head a certain amount of critical skepticism on the part of academics. This can be set to one side in these recordings, which are certainly reliable in a workaday sense, if a little tepid in terms of insight and energy.
I like my Stravinsky recordings crisp — lines well separated, with a good sense of presence and definition in all the parts — which is why I find this Naxos recording sufficient (as most Naxos products are), but only sufficient. Recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London, they have a certain “live” presence, an indefiniteness in the mix, where I would have appreciated more precision. In all fairness to the recording engineers, Noces is a fatally flawed recording proposition to begin with: scored for four pianos, a small army of percussion instruments, chorus, and vocal soloists, it will never be recorded in anything like its live imprint. The effect of the four pianos in concert is not to be replicated, but we might hope to get something of the percussion at appropriate moments, and this is usually the case here, with the exception of the all important bells, too often obscured and kept from playing their role as a kind of place marker in the music. Oedipus is another matter. Its drama allows for a recording engineer to create a drama in the mix, bringing essential dramatic persons and instruments forward, while letting the inessentials recede into the background. On some tracks this is done with astonishing accuracy, but on others it seems hit or miss. Here is where an engineer should come into their own, but only if they can compound craft with a really good sense of the music. Intuition seems slightly lacking on this recording.
The artists involved, singers and instrumentalists alike, are all adequate, again in the normal Naxos fashion, but no individual performance stands out. While this would set the music forward, were it any other composer, Stravinsky — to remain crisp — requires a fine sense of artistic individuality, a humor like his own, to bring the best out. You can’t simply play Stravinsky, as you might Shostakovitch, and leave the drama to the score. Stravinsky’s music is a cult of the personality, like the man, above musical logic. Lose sight of that fact and the result is tepid at best. While there are moments of individual genius here, for the most part the work is simply workmanlike.
Caveat emptor: these recordings were released previously on the Koch International Label. The apparently anonymous translation of Rex is a serviceable, albeit liberal synopsis of the Latin text. Latin-deprived souls will have to extrapolate from the English gloss. The transliteration from the Cyrillic and English translation of Les Noces by Philip Taylor, on the other hand, shows considerable care and fidelity.
Lukewarm recommendation.
Murray Dineen
University of Ottawa
February 27, 2005
Rossini's La Cenerentola in Milwaukee
Vivica Genaux
Genaux’s huge voice lifts ‘La Cenerentola’
She meets vocal challenges of title role with power, agility
By TOM STRINI [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 Feb 05]
Vivica Genaux hasn’t been singing long enough for the whole world to recognize it, but she is one of the greatest singers of our day.
Genaux returned Friday to the Florentine Opera, to sing the title role in Rossini’s “La Cenerentola.” Her voice was huge, and as dark and rich as a profound red wine. Rarely do voices with such weight come to roles such as this, which are loaded with quick, tricky ornaments and aerobatic coloratura tangents. For all its power, Genaux’s singing seems effortless, and her voice is incredibly agile. She articulated every note with utter clarity and accuracy, even in the fastest runs and at the extremes of her range.
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Chicago Opera Theater to Present Handel's La Resurrezione
Handel’s oratorio a confrontation between hope and despair
BY WYNNE DELACOMA [Chicago Sun Times, 27 Feb 05]
From an artistic standpoint, Chicago Opera Theater’s inaugural season last year in the new Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park couldn’t have been more successful.
Productions of Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea,” the haunting Chicago staged premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “Death in Venice” and a version of Rossini’s whimsical “Il viaggio a Reims” set in the American Wild West were outstanding on both musical and theatrical levels.
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Fledermaus at Opera Australia
Cast of Die Fledermaus (Photo: Opera Australia)
Fledermaus, Opera House
By Peter McCallum [The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 Feb 05]
Fledermaus, Johann Strauss, Opera Australia, Opera House, February 25
This is the triumph of style over content certainly, but in Fledermaus everything triumphs over content.
The director, Lindy Hume, with designers Richard Roberts and Angus Strathie, has transposed 19th-century Austro-Hungarian imperial decadence onto 20th-century American imperial decadence, marrying brash New York energy with creaking Viennese charm.
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Outsourcing Hits Wexford Festival
Opera festival snub for ‘too costly’ RTE
John Burns [Times Online, 27 Feb 05]
RIP-OFF Ireland has reached the opera house. Wexford Festival is hiring an eastern European orchestra because it says that the local equivalent is O150,000 more expensive.
While the government last week established Culture Ireland, an agency to promote Irish art overseas, one of the country’s premier cultural events is now outsourcing its music to Poland and its singing to Prague.
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February 26, 2005
More Fallout from Dismissal of Fontana
Ricardo Muti
Workers strike at Milan’s la Scala opera
Associated Press [25 Feb 05]
ROME - Milan’s La Scala opera house has fired its top administrator, sparking angry protests from employees who have threatened to bring the curtain down on more performances, news reports said.
La Scala’s board of directors on Thursday dismissed Superintendent Carlo Fontana, who had a rift with conductor Riccardo Muti, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported. Fontana’s post will be taken over by Mauro Meli, director of La Scala’s theatrical division.
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La Scala suffers from lack of harmony
From Richard Owen in Rome [Times Online, 26 Feb 05]
BARELY two months after the restoration of La Scala was unveiled at a glittering gala, the great opera house is in chaos, with strikes threatening to bring down the curtain amid backstage intrigues worthy of an Italian libretto.
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau at Berlin Cathedral's 100 Year Jubilee
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Photo: Schubert)
Lied und Leidenschaft
[Berliner Morgenpost, 26 Feb 05]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau über den Berliner Dom und die neue Sängergeneration
Der Berliner Bariton Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau gehörte über Jahrzehnte hinweg zu den weltweit gefeierten Liedsängern. Der fast 80jährige ist nach wie vor als Dirigent, Maler, Buchautor, Ehrengast aktiv - und wird heute im Konzert des Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchesters Berlin zum 100jährigen Jubiläum des Berliner Doms als Sprecher auftreten. Volker Blech sprach mit Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
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Salome at the Semperoper
Salome (Photo: Semperoper)
Auf den Kopf gestellt
[Sächsische Zeitung, 26 Feb 05]
Mit der Premiere von ,Salome” startet die Semperoper am Sonntag Richard-Strauss-Festtage. Peter Mussbach inszeniert.
Sie inszenieren die sechste ,Salome” seit der Dresdner Uraufführung 1905 - empfanden Sie die Tradition des Stücks als Last?
Da ich die Oper zum ersten Mal anfasse, dominierte die Lust. Eigentlich habe ich ja für ,Salome” Regie-Verbot, welches mir Mitte der 70er Jahre die Strauss-Erben aussprachen. Seinerzeit hatte ich vor Gericht mit der Frankfurter Oper um Urheberrechte an einer Inszenierung von Wagners ,Götterdämmerung” gestritten - und den Prozess gewonnen. Aufgehoben ist das Verbot nicht. Die Erben haben aber auch nicht interveniert.
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Thomas Hampson in Vienna
Thomas Hampson (Photo: Sheila Rock)
Seefahrer und Selbstmörder aus Amerika
[Die Presse, 26 Feb 05]
Thomas Hampson brachte ein ungewöhnliches Potpourri.
Kurzweilig und mit pointierten persönlichen Anmerkungen verfeinert eröffnete Bariton Thomas Hampson seinen vierteiligen Amerika-Zyklus: Er liess das Publikum im Neuen Saal an seiner Spurensuche nach dem “amerikanischen Lied” teilhaben, zog verbindende Fäden von der Alten in die Neue Welt. So sprach etwa der Mahler-Zeitgenosse Edward MacDowell fliessend deutsch und wurde von Franz Liszt hoch geschätzt. Seine wonnig-traurige Seefahrer- “Ballade” brachte Hampson dann im Grossen Saal darstellerisch raffiniert zur Geltung. Auch Charles Griffes (1884-1920) europäische Wurzeln - er war mit Engelbert Humperdinck befreundet - wurden nachvollziehbar, so in “Des Müden Abendlied”.
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John Blow's Venus & Adonis at the Wiener Kammeroper
Venus & Adonis (Photo: Angermayr/Goerge & Klinger/Husar)
Eine barocke Multimedia-Show
VON GERHARD KRAMER [Die Presse, 26 Feb 05]
Mit “Venus und Adonis” setzte die Wiener Kammeroper ihre Programmschiene “Barockoper” erfolgreich fort.
“Master of the famous Mr. H. Purcell”: Die Gedenktafel in der Westminster Abbey zeigt deutlich, dass John Blow, geboren 1649, schon für Zeitgenossen ein wenig im Schatten seines um zehn Jahre jüngeren Kollegen im Hofdienst und mutmasslichen Schülers Henry Purcell stand. Dabei war Blows Karriere als Organist, Komponist und Chorleiter vielfältig und verantwortungsvoll. 1683 schrieb er “Venus und Adonis”, eine “Masque for the entertainment of the King”. Eine Oper im Taschenformat sozusagen, aus der Tradition des höfischen Maskenspiels emporgewachsen zum musikdramatischen Meisterwerk - nur mehr ein Schritt trennt es von Purcells “Dido and Aeneas” (1689).
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Lyric Workshop Opens at the Paris Opéra
L’Opéra de Paris prépare la relève
Christian Merlin [Le Figaro, 26 Feb 05]
Il y a eu l’Opéra studio de Louis Erlo, l’Ecole d’art lyrique immortalisée par Michel Sénéchal, puis le Centre de formation lyrique : à chaque nouveau directeur, la structure pédagogique de l’Opéra de Paris ou sont encadrés les jeunes chanteurs change d’appellation. Gérard Mortier a annoncé récemment à la presse la création de l’Atelier lyrique, dont il a confié la direction à Christian Schirm, ancien adjoint d’Hugues Gall à Genève et à Paris. Comme l’a souligné Mortier avec un mélange de malice et d’affection, Schirm aspirait à prendre la direction d’un théâtre d’opéra : la mission qu’il lui a confiée pourrait etre une préparation idéale à cette future tâche…
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Click here for more information on l’Atelier Lyrique.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt at Zurich Opera
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Enlightening conductor
[Daily Telegraph, 26 Feb 05]
Whether conducting early music or Bartók, Nikolaus Harnoncourt says his job is to tell orchestras not just what to do, but why. He talks to Geoffrey Norris
It is the day before the opening night. Zurich is agog for the new production of Monteverdi’s opera L’incoronazione di Poppea, but there is a snag. The Poppea has gone sick. A new one has had to be flown in from Frankfurt, and in only a matter of hours has had to be acclimatised to the radical staging and familiarised with the edition of the score that Zurich Opera is using.
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February 25, 2005
BYRD: Consort Songs
William Byrd, Consort Songs
Emma Kirkby, soprano, Fretwork
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907 383
This CD collaboration between the early music viol ensemble Fretwork and vocalist Emma Kirkby is devoted to songs of William Byrd composed in the vernacular to be sung with string accompaniment; interspersed with these is a selection of short instrumental pieces in various genres. As a composer whose work was associated especially with the English Catholics, many of Byrd’s compositions from the last quarter of the sixteenth century were based on sacred Latin texts. The less familiar English consort songs chosen for this recording represent a mix of both secular and religious themes. Topics in the song texts include the constancy of Penelope, the narrative of a pet dog who meets an unexpected end, an elegy on Sir Philip Sidney, and the execution of Mary Stuart as bound up with the vicissitudes of Fortune in this world. This selection is further balanced by vernacular songs of an overtly religious character focusing on topics such as the vanity of earthly pleasure and possessions, the Nativity, and a lengthy prayer for divine grace. Finally, some of the song texts draw on a thematic complex of both sacred and profane.
Among the secular texts several stand out for both their expressive and narrative content. The song “My mistress had a little dog” tells of a pet trained as performer who also hunts after rabbits. Here the interplay of voice and accompaniment is especially effective between Kirkby and the players of Fretwork. In the first of five strophes the little dog’s acrobatic talents are emphasized in Kirkby’s melismatic decorations executed on the words “tumbler” and “might,” in “A tumbler fine that might be seen.” Just as the voice uses embellishment to suggest upward, athletic movements of the dog, the viols can be heard to follow the singer’s decoration or to give their own accompaniment during her long, sustained notes. This technique prepares the listener for additional such decoration in subsequent strophes relating the dog’s history. In the penultimate section the little dog has been slain which is reflected by a change in musical setting. Kirkby modulates her voice to effect a somber tone and the viols play a much slower, dirge-like accompaniment. To underscore the event the soloist focuses her repetitions on the earlier part of the strophe, where the sad news is imparted, and embellishes the word “shake” in imitation of her quivering emotions. The song ends with a call to justice for the slain pet of her mistress.
In their approach to the religious songs Kirkby and Fretwork make use of related techniques. As an example, “He that all earthly pleasure scorns” opposes in two equivalent strophes the vocabulary of sinful life - attracted to riches and “heaps of gold” - and that of the anchoritic existence typical of those saints abandoning this world for blessed solitude. In the first strophe decoration is placed on words such as “sinner” and - increasingly - on “heaps of” gold, as the phrase is repeated and varied. Such embellishment from the first part contrasts with the emphases in the second dealing with a sainted life of renunciation. Here those individuals following the model of Christ “upon the Cross” seek out a life apart from the temptation of possessions, “In woods and fields from men unknown.” The words “upon” and “unknown” in these lines are highlighted with skillfully performed vocal decoration, thus serving as a counterweight to the introductory section on “earthly pleasure.”
The five instrumental selections, spaced more or less evenly between the songs, are drawn from various collections by Byrd, some of which contained originally a mix of vocal and purely instrumental pieces. The three Fantasias, despite the freedom of form often associated with this musical type, show clearly repeating and varied structural elements, some related to dance rhythms. The strength of Fretwork as a period ensemble is reinforced by their performances of these intricate pieces, as well as the dance types represented by the Pavan and Galliard. These selections are an ideal complement to the consort songs, both providing the listener with a rich sampling of William Byrd’s compositional legacy.
Salvatore Calomino
Madison, Wisconsin
New York Throws a Party for Handel
Nicholas McGegan (Photo: Wenzel)
A Rollicking 320th-Birthday Party in Honor of Handel
By ALLAN KOZINN [NY Times, 25 Feb 05]
Through a felicitous quirk of its touring schedule, Nicholas McGegan and his period instrument ensemble, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, performed a program devoted mostly to music by Handel on Wednesday evening, the 320th anniversary of Handel’s birth.
For Mr. McGegan, this was clearly a fine excuse to party. Throughout the evening at Zankel Hall, he conducted this San Francisco-based orchestra ebulliently, swinging his arms broadly and all but dancing off the podium.
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Le Nozze di Figaro at the Met
Andrea Rost (Photo: Zoltan Tombor)
Michael Portillo - Happy ending
[New Statesman, 28 Feb 05]
Opera - A revived production of Mozart that came close to perfection.
In 1998, New York’s Metropolitan Opera staged a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro with a glorious cast that included Bryn Terfel as Figaro and Cecilia Bartoli as Susanna. The recent revival employed singers who are less well known, but it none the less came close to being a perfect night at the opera.
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La Scala Dismisses Fontana
La Scala licenzia Fontana, subentra Meli
Il cda della Fondazione rimuovere il sovrintendente
Bufera in Comune: l’assessore Carruba si dimette
[Corriere della Sera, 24 Feb 05]
MILANO - Il sovrintendente del Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Fontana, è stato rimosso. Lo ha stabilito il Cda della teatro che in una nota rilasciata al termine della riunione fa sapere di aver revocato “con effetto immediato, il Sovrintendente dottor Carlo Fontana, affidando l’incarico al direttore della Divisione Teatro alla Scala, maestro Mauro Meli”.
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Tohuwabohu an der Mailänder “Scala”
VON DANIELA TOMASOVSKY [Die Presse, 25 Feb 05]
Turbulent geht es derzeit an der Mailänder Scala zu: Nach der Premieren-Absage am Dienstag wurde nun Intendant Carlo Fontana ausgewechselt.
Am Dienstag hätte die Premiere von Tschaikowskis “Pique Dame” am “Teatro degli Arcimboldi” - der zweiten Spielstätte der Mailänder Scala - über die Bühne gehen sollen. Doch die Gewerkschaften wussten dies zu verhindern: Sie riefen zum Streik auf - so lange, bis die finanzielle Lage des Opernhauses (ein Defizit von zwölf Millionen Euro) geklärt und vor allem der Machtkampf an der Spitze des Opernhauses beigelegt ist.
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La Scala Fires Top Exec as Budget Row Boils Over
[Reuters, 24 Feb 05]
MILAN (Reuters) - Milan’s La Scala fired its top executive on Thursday as the world-famous opera house battles to plug a growing budget hole.
La Scala reopened last December after three years of renovation work to bring it into line with its European rivals. But the cost of the facelift and new theatrical machinery ran well over budget to 61 million euros ($81 million).
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Bach's B-Minor Mass at the Musikverein
Die tönende Glaubenswahrheit
VON WILHELM SINKOVICZ [Die Presse, 25 Feb 05]
Franz Welser-Möst dirigierte eine bewegende Aufführung von Bachs H-Moll-Messe im Musikverein.
Die heutzutage gern gepflegte Diskussion über die Frage “Darf man Bach auf ,modernem’ Instrumentarium aufführen?” ist dümmlich. Dass sie überhaupt geführt wird, beweist nur, wie wenig adäquate Bach-Aufführungen es heutzutage gibt. Wer die von Franz Welser-Möst geleitete Wiedergabe der Hohen Messe im Musikverein hörte, hat sich garantiert keinen Augenblick lang mit solchen Lappalien beschäftigt. Er hatte keine Zeit, denn da wurde Musik gemacht, auf jenem Niveau, mit jener Dringlichkeit, die von Takt zu Takt signalisiert, welche inneren wie äusseren Höhenflüge des Geistes sich in dieser Partitur vereinigen.
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February 24, 2005
Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin at Wigmore Hall
Credits: EMI Classics (Ian Bostridge), Justin Pumfrey (Mitsuko Uchida)
Bostridge/Uchida
Wigmore Hall, London
Erica Jeal [The Guardian, 24 Feb 05]
A decade ago, Ian Bostridge’s recording of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, with Graham Johnson, played a major part in boosting his nascent career. These days, though, the tenor is more often found collaborating with pianists who are soloists in their own right. His second recording of the song cycle has seen him developing a partnership with Mitsuko Uchida - and it might be his most fruitful so far.
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Richard Strauss Festival Begins 27 February at the Semperoper
Elektra (Set Design: Ruth Berghaus)
Dresdner Festtage Richard Strauss vom 27.2. bis 10.3.2005
Weltstars in der Semperoper zu erleben in Opernaufführungen, Konzerten und im Liederabend
The Saxonian capital of Dresden has long been associated with the operas of Richard Strauss, many of which were originally premiered at the city’s exquisite Semper Opera during Strauss’s lifetime… . [N]o less than six all-Strauss performances in late February and early March, encompassing four towering operas, an orchestral concert, and a Recital by Dame Felicity Lott. The operas will be Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau Ohne Schatten, with stellar casts including such important international artists as Luana DeVol, Susan Anthony, Sumi Jo, Evelyn Herlitzius, Gabriele Schnaut, Petra Lang, Reinhild Runkel, Sophi Koch, Stephen Gould, Günter Neumann, Hans-Joachim Ketelsen, and Alan Titus. The experienced conductors will be Kent Nagano, Wolfgang Rennert, and Michael Boder. In addition to this operatic feast, an orchestra concert under the baton of Ion Marin will offer several works representative of ‘The Young Richard Strauss’ (Macbeth, the Burlesque for Piano and Orchestra, and Aus Italien). Finally, the radiant British soprano Dame Felicity Lott will be the soloist in a Recital showcasing her peerless interpretation of Strauss’ soaring melodic style.
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Tan Dun's Water Passion at Perth
Tan Dun (Photo: Waring Abbot)
Fine blending of a sensual palette
Mark Coughlan [The Australian, 25 Feb 05]
IN pursuing its theme of transcendence, the Perth Festival has brokered some imaginative collaborations, such as the Tura New Music concert at the Art Gallery of WA, featuring Morton Feldman’s music inspired by the paintings at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas… .
Music inspired by another artist is also the subtext of Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St Matthew. Best known for his Oscar-winning film score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tan’s homage to Bach’s St Matthew Passion was commissioned for the 250th anniversary of the great composer’s death.
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A Bad Day at the Staatsoper
Rigoletto, Bavarian State Opera, Munich
By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 24 Feb 05]
The apes have landed. The Duke of Mantua is a gorilla. Monterone is an orang utan, surrounded by hairy baboons. The cult film director Doris Dörrie is monkeying with Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Bavarian State Opera.
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A Full House at Royal Albert Hall
Carmen, Royal Albert Hall, London
By Richard Fairman [Financial Times, 24 Feb 05]
It is strange how easily Raymond Gubbay manages to fill the Royal Albert Hall for opera, when less than a year ago his Savoy Opera company collapsed because he could not sell enough seats in a theatre a fraction of the size. How irrelevant that ill-starred venture and its demise seem now.
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February 23, 2005
Die Welt Interviews Rolando Villazón
“Sänger sind Einhörner”
Neben ihm verblasst sogar die Netrebko: Ein Gespräch mit dem Tenor Rolando Villazón
von Manuel Brug [Die Welt, 24 Feb 05]
Der 32-jährige Mexikaner Rolando Villazón hat sich in seinen wenigen Karrierejahren bereits als eine der grössten Tenor-Hoffnungen erwiesen. Ein Interview mit dem nie stillsitzenden Lockenkopf ist wie eine Bühnenvorstellung. Manuel Brug hat es erfahren.
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Katharina Wagner and Doris Dörrie Receive Harsh Treatment in Munich
Wer kann, der singt, wer nichts kann, inszeniert
Von Julia Spinola [FAZ.Net, 23 Feb 05]
Zwei Frauen dominierten das Münchner Kulturgeplauder der beiden vergangenen Tage: Wagner-Urenkelin und Bayreuther Wunschmaid Katherina [sic] Wagner inszenierte am Gärtnerplatztheater Lortzings “Waffenschmied”, und “Männer”-Filmemacherin Doris Dörrie brachte einen Abend darauf an der Staatsoper Verdis “Rigoletto” heraus.
Zwei Frauen, wie sie unterschiedlicher kaum scheinen könnten: Die eine, aufgewachsen mitten im Herzen des Wagner-Mekkas, muss erst noch lernen, dass es auch eine Realität jenseits der Opernfiktion gibt. Die andere hat mit den hehren Sphären eines abgehobenen Kunstanspruchs rein gar nichts am Hut und bezeichnet sich selber gerne als “Operntrottel”.
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Wie aufregend! Nein, wie brav
Die Oper verliert: Katharina Wagner und Doris Dörrie kämpfen in München mit Lortzing und Verdi
von Egbert Tholl [Die Welt, 23 Feb 04]
Was Berlin kann, kann München auch: drei Opernpremieren an einem Wochenende. Inszeniert von drei Frauen. Am Prinzregententheater gräbt die junge Florentine Klepper für die Bayerische Theaterakademie eine barocke Hofoper aus - ein musikalischer Hochgenuss. Am Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz inszeniert Katharina Wagner Lortzings “Waffenschmied” - ein musikalisches Desaster. Und an der Staatsoper bringt Doris Dörrie Verdis “Rigoletto” heraus - ein letztlich gewonnener Kampf der Musik gegen Bilderfluten.
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Samson et Dalila at the Met
Rembrandt: The Blinding of Samson (1636)
A Samson With Vocal Willpower and Dramatic Flair
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 23 Feb 05]
Though a sizable contingent of opera connoisseurs and critics have long considered Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila” a musically tepid melodrama, this 1877 opera has been an enduring favorite with audiences. It’s not hard to understand why.
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Verdi's Requiem Tours France
Oswald Sallaberger fait du “Requiem” de Verdi un ardent hymne à la vie
[Le Monde, 23 Feb 05]
Le chef a dirigé l’Orchestre de Rouen à Paris, avant une tournée en Normandie.
A qui s’adresse le compositeur d’un Requiem ? Au défunt, que sa musique doit accompagner dans une ultime transcendance, ou à la communauté endeuillée, qui se voit ainsi rappeler son état de mortel ? Dans le cas de Verdi, agnostique déclaré mais chantre du sacré à l’opéra, la réponse ne fait aucun doute. La Messa da Requiem, créée en 1874 à la mémoire du compositeur Rossini et de l’écrivain Manzoni, est destinée à tout etre humain sensible au pouvoir des sons.
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The Controversy Continues in Munich
Alarmstufe Rot
[Merkur Online, 23 Feb 05]
Staatsoper: Doris Dörrie bietet “Rigoletto” als verkleidetes Uralttheater
Eine gross angelegte, staatstheaternde Rettungsaktion sollte es sein. Und dass Doris Dörrie jene Verweigerer, die Oper doof statt dufte finden, an die Hand nehmen will, um sie heim in die Hochkultur zu holen, ist ja prinzipiell in Ordnung. Dabei pflegt die Filmregisseurin nur zu gern mit ihrem Nichtwissen in Sachen Musiktheater zu kokettieren, um augenzwinkernd nach Kumpanen zu suchen: Oper, die mischen wir mal so richtig zeitgeistig auf.
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Aida in Philadelphia
Aida, Opera Company of Philadelphia
By George Loomis [Financial Times, 23 Feb 05]
Like picking a growth stock, the Opera Company of Philadelphia showed shrewd judgment by engaging sopranos (for two of its four 2004/05 productions) who promptly became media darlings.
Unfortunately, when the time came for Anna Netrebko, hugely touted by her record company, to sing in Don Pasquale, the stunning Russian soprano cancelled on the grounds of exhaustion. With Angela Brown, who created a stir with her Aida at the Metropolitan Opera last fall, the company again appeared dogged by bad luck, as illness forced her out of the premiere. But on Sunday she sang the second performance at the Academy of Music with no sign of diminished faculties. Brown lacks Netrebko’s figure but has a fine, full-bloomed soprano that rides handsomely over the most sonorous of Verdi’s ensembles. And her easy, unforced production of tone adds to the appeal. She took charge in “Ritorna vincitor” as if to assert that now the drama is really under way. But there is some unsteadiness in the middle register, the voice falls short of an ideal roundness of tone and one sometimes missed an arching sense of line. The treacherous high C in her second aria, “O patria mia”, hit squarely but cautiously, was not the crowning moment that it should be.
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February 22, 2005
CAVALLI: Arias and Duets from 5 operas
Francesco Cavalli, Arias and Duets from 5 operas
Gloria Banditelli, mezzo-soprano; Rosita Frisani, soprano; Roberto Abbondanza, baritone; Gianluca Belfiori Doro, counter-tenor; Mario Cecchetti, tenor; Mediterraneo Concento, directed by Sergio Vartolo
NAXOS 8.557746 [CD]
Some years ago, those of us who are aficionados of pre-1750 repertory - and all the more so, those of us who are privileged to be able to teach it - were happy to have any recording of the music we hold so dear. We were happy to excuse wooden-ness or sloppiness of performance because, well, some idea of the sound of pre-Classical repertories was better than none at all. Over the last couple of decades, with the proliferation of phenomenal performers and ensembles who specialize in early music, this resignation faded: we now are spoiled by having our choice of many polished performances, and the privilege of comparing their relative merits.
This is, however, especially true of works by a specific subset of “greats” - Monteverdi Bach Handel Vivaldi. Less-renowned composers are not as reliably represented; and this is certainly the case for Monteverdi’s younger colleague Francesco Cavalli, for whose works we have just a handful of modern recordings. This is why Sergio Vartolo’s project of providing an anthology of “hits” from a cluster of early Cavalli operas is potentially very welcome…
… but alas, it reminds this reviewer of the (bad?) old days. As a teacher, I welcome the resource this collection provides. Cavalli’s works are, indeed, representative of early Venetian opera in a way that Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, though wonderful music, is not; and the notes, though a little rhetorically flamboyant, are solid and even provide information about the manuscript from which the operas are edited (!).
As a musician and fan of seventeenth-century music, however, I am disappointed. One of the most inventive trends in recordings of the repertory of this era over the last decade has been the application of flexible continuo groups - not just harpsichord, but chitarrone, melodic bass-line instruments, harps, guitars. This recording, on the other hand, features an unbroken harpsichord sound - and further, the instrument is rather tinny, and played with little in the way of variety in articulation. The singers are not bad, but their diction is overall really sloppy (and these are all native Italians!) and the inflection of their phrases tends toward the monotonous. As a consequence, the dramatic energy that Vartolo describes as characteristic of Cavalli’s scenes is hard to discern in this recording.
A bright aspect of this compilation are the performances by tenor Mario Cecchetti, far and away the most accomplished and dramatically effective of the singers. The women on the recording are reasonably good if not particularly memorable; baritone Roberto Abbondanza has a relatively generic resonance, and counter-tenor Gianluca Belfiori Doro is especially unconvincing (his voice compares favorably to developing counter-tenor technique of the 1970s and 80s, but pales in comparison to the refinement achieved by many recent virtuosi). The ensemble Mediterraneo Concento - the latest incarnation of an instrumental ensemble that Vartolo has been leading for a number of years - is skilled but a little pedestrian.
Had this recording been issued in 1980, I would have been enthusiastic; given its 2003 release, I am disappointed that Vartolo and his crew - who have put together some very convincing performances of music from the turn of the seventeenth century - didn’t do better. The expressive bar in early music has been raised over the last few years, and this disc doesn’t clear it. Still, I will make sure my university library acquires a copy of this recording, which does give sound to an important and interesting repertory that has been silent for almost four centuries. I’ll just wait eagerly for someone to come along and perform it with a bit more panache.
Andrew Dell’Antonio
The University of Texas at Austin
Poppea in Zurich
L’incoronazione di Poppea, Zurich Opera
By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 22 Feb 05]
The early music movement has come a long way since the 1970s. Or has it? Zurich Opera’s new L’incoronazione di Poppea invites comparisons. This opera house’s Monteverdi cycle three decades ago changed the way the world thought about the composer. Now it’s time for the remake. Same conductor, different directors. Klaus-Michael Grüber staged a spare, emotional Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria three years ago. For Poppea, it’s Jürgen Flimm’s turn.
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Rigoletto in Munich
Doris Dörries “Rigoletto” ausgebuht
Wenig Begeisterung im Nationaltheater
München - Idee ungewöhnlich, Experiment gescheitert: Unter dieser Kurzformel könnte man Doris Dörries erste und von grossem Medieninteresse begleitete Münchner Opern-Inszenierung zusammenfassen. Giuseppe Verdis 1851 in Venedig uraufgeführten Opernklassiker “Rigoletto” auf dem “Planeten der Affen” anzusiedeln, diese Vorstellung fand bei der Premiere im Münchner Nationaltheater wenig Freunde.
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Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges in Linz
Kritik Oper: Kräftiger Vitamin-C-Stoss
VON HELMAR DUMBS [Die Presse, 22 Feb 05]
Ein Kompendium musikalischer Komik: Prokofieffs “Liebe zu den drei Orangen” im Linzer Landestheater.
Es ist eine der kürzesten Sterbesze nen der Operngeschichte: Ein schnoddrig verkündetes Todesur teil, jemand wuselt mit einem Strick herum, dann ist die intrigante Königs-Nichte auch schon tot. In Prokofieffs Märchen-Oper “Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen” wird schnell gestorben: Auch die den ersten beiden Zitrus-Früchten entsprungenen Prinzessinnen verdursten rasch, wenn auch klagend - eines der Details, mit denen sich der Komponist/Librettist Prokofieff vom Verismo abgrenzt. Keine naturalistische Darstellung, keine opulent auskomponierten Szenen voller Gefühlsüberschwang; statt dessen: Märchen und absurdes Theater, kurze Sequenzen, die einander fast überholen.
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Massenet's Werther at the Wiener Staatsoper
Frauenpower gegen Ahnungslosigkeit
VON WILHELM SINKOVICZ [Die Presse, 21 Feb 05]
Die Staatsoper spielt zwar Massenets “Werther” nicht wirklich, bietet aber zwei phänomenalen jungen Künstlern ein Forum.
Goethes Werther zwischen Nierentischchen und Mammutbäumen
Zuweilen begnügt man sich auch mit Details. Wenn das Ganze so gar nicht stimmen mag, gelingt es viel leicht dem einen oder anderen der beteiligten Künstler sozusagen gegen den Strom schwimmend, eine herausragende Leistung zu modellieren. Im Falle der “Werther”-Premiere darf Elina Garanca das künstlerische Freischärlertum für sich in Anspruch nehmen. Sie sollte die Charlotte singen, wurde von Regisseur Andrei Serban jedoch gezwungen, eine Art Grace-Kelly-Parodie abzuliefern, denn das Stück spielt von Inszenierungs-Gnaden in den fünfziger Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts.
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Anne Sofie von Otter at Göteborg
Anne Sofie von Otter at Göteborg
Yesterday [19 February 2005], I went to the concert hall in Göteborg, where Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg held a recital. It was the first time I actually heard them live, and I must confess that I was apprehensive! I have listened to them so much on recordings and taken so much influence from them, especially when it comes to my repertoire — what if I didn’t like them in concert? The concert hall was full — 1200 seats, imagine that for a recital… I have a hard time getting jobs at all because it is so hard to attract audiences to recitals. But, they are world famous and that, of course, attracts a large audience.
At the beginning of the recital, I was embarrassed by people who clapped their hands after every song. I was wondering when/if the performers were going to say something about it, you could tell they were not happy about it. But what they did was wonderful! After three songs, Bengt Forsberg came to the microphone and talked about the next set of songs, “Four Serbian Folksongs” by Tor Aulin. Then Anne Sofie von Otter talked about the lyrics. As they were about to start, Bengt Forsberg jumped up again and said “ooh I just want to say that these pieces go so well together and would you please clap after all four are finished. We love that you do it, but…” He said it in such a friendly way that everyone felt at ease, and it was a great atmosphere during the rest of the concert.
The program:
Lars-Erik Larsson: Skyn, blomman och en lärka
Wilhelm Stenhammar: Melodi, I lönnens skymning, Gammal nederländare
Tor Aulin: Four serbian folksongs: Till en ros, Vinter i hjärtat, Vad vill jag, Domen
Ernest Chausson: Paysage (for piano)
Cécile Chaminade: L’anneau d’argent, L’amour captif, Viens, mon bien aimé, Sombrero
Intermission
Franz Schubert: Frühlingsglaube (D 686), Im Frühling (D 882), An mein herz (D 860), Im Abendrot (D 799)
Gustav Mahler: Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder, Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald, Aus! Aus!
Erwin Schulhoff: Arabesque (op. 29, no. 1), Two pieces from “Hot music for piano”
Kurt Weill: Nannas Lied, Lied der Seeräuber-Jenny, Speak Low, Foolish heart
A wonderful and varied program. The two performers talked in between the pieces and made the atmosphere of the large room friendly and nice! They truly are professionals and they didn’t seem to do anything but what they wanted to do.
The encores were fun: First, ABBAs “Thank you for the music”, which became hilarious as Bengt Forsberg didn’t play very well and von Otter started waving her arms beating the rhythm. In the end, she grabbed the mike and started to sing into it. I was laughing so hard that I cried- and later we got the explanation to what had happened: The lamps reflected on the music, so Bengt Forsberg couldn’t see the music. The other encore was also Benny Andersson, from Kristina from Duvemala, “Ljusa kvällar om varen”.
For me, this concert became a precious moment. The two performers truly brought out the best from the music, such a varied program, and everything performed in style. Even if they were funny and relaxed, they still performed the music with all the concentration and finesse that you could ask for. I wonder what they are like when they perform in other countries, if they are as relaxed and funny then, or if different cultures call for different behaviour?
This summer I was at the Scubertiade, and heard many good singers. No one talked in between songs though, and I have a hard time thinking that a concert like this could have taken place there. Or am I wrong?
Mia Edvardson
http://www.mia-edvardson.se
February 21, 2005
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Sings Operettas by Lehár, Suppé, and Strauss
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Sings Operettas by Lehár, Suppé, and Strauss
Music from Paganini, Boccaccio, Wiener Blut, Das Land des Lächelns, and Die Lustige Witwe.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano, Rupert Glawitsch, Nicolai Gedda, tenors, Erich Kunz, baritone.
Various orchestras and conductors.
Hännsler Classic CD 94.501. TT: 68:44
This new disc, from Hänssler’s “Living Voices” series, divides essentially into two parts. The first four tracks are “Potpourris” from Léhar’s Paganini and Das Land des Lächelns, Suppé’s Bocaccio, and Johann Strauss’s Wiener Blut. Recorded in 1939 and 1940, these “Potpourris” feature tenor Rupert Glawitsch and a very young Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (b. 1915). The remaining eight tracks include excerpts from Schwarzkopf’s early-50s EMI complete mono recordings of Die Lustige Witwe and Land das Lächelns.
The “Potpourris,” which occupied two sides of a 78-rpm disc, were obviously designed to showcase Glawitsch, as he is given the lion’s share of the music. Schwarzkopf’s relatively limited participation is light years away from the mature artist featured in the EMI excerpts. In the former, we hear a small-voiced lyric soprano, with a tremulous lower register, who sings rather tentatively and with minimal personality. The EMI operettas, on the other hand, are the work of a finished artist, brimming with involvement and personality.
Of course, Schwarzkopf’s interpretations have long divided opera listeners. I’m certainly not going to be the person who’s going to change anyone’s mind in this regard. I will say that unless you are intent on acquiring everything Schwarzkopf recorded, I can’t see much reason to purchase this Hänssler release. Glawitsch’s singing, while more accomplished than that of his young partner, certainly doesn’t come close to eclipsing the stylish and opulently work of such tenors as Tauber, Wittrisch, Wundlerich, and Gedda. And, for not much more than the cost of this disc, you can own the complete EMI recordings of The Merry Widow and The Land of Smiles, reissued on a budget EMI two-disc set.
Kenneth Meltzer
CANTELOUBE: Chants d’Auvergne
Joseph Canteloube: Chants d’Auvergne (Selections)
Veronique Gens, soprano
Lille National Orchestra
Jean-Claude Casadesus, conductor
NAXOS 8.557491 [CD]; 5.110065 [DVD-A]; 6.110065 [SACD]
In the mountains of the vast Auvergne country near the south of France lays the inspiration of Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne. Marie-Joseph Canteloube, born in 1879 at Annonay, spent his childhood in the countryside of Malaret in the south of Auvergne. It was these roots that instilled his love for folk-music, consuming much of his compositional output and research. He wrote Les chants paysan s’élève bien souvent au niveau de l’art le plus pur, par le sentiment et l’expression, sinon par la forme. (The songs of peasants very often reach the level of the purest art in feeling and expression, if not in form.)
Though Canteloube never achieved outstanding success as a composer, he has become widely known for his folk-song arrangements, particularly for his Chants d’Auvergne for soprano and orchestra. A series of five publications written between 1924 and 1955, partially in fulfillment for his work with the Pétain Government reviving interest in folk-music, these settings suitably recount the original songs, with orchestral accompaniments painting the limitless colors and textures of the Auvergne countryside.
Naxos’ recent recording of Cantaloube’s Chants d’Auvergne featuring soprano Véronique Gens, L’orchestre National de Lille, and maestro Jean-Claude Casadesus, is an exquisite performance, beautifully narrating the diverse vignettes of these song settings. Gens, a French soprano currently specializing in works from the baroque and classical periods, reveals a stunning flexibility. Her interpretation is strikingly simplistic, yet artistically driven, implementing various color timbres, scoops, whoops and flutter, effectively evoking the folk style with depth and breadth. The orchestra successfully supports the atmosphere of these folk-songs with colorful timbres and sensuous phrasing.
Unlike other recordings of Chants d’Auvergne who perform only a few of the popular selections, Naxos includes a broad spectrum of songs that are not as frequently performed or recorded, making it a must for performers and enthusiasts alike.
Sarah Hoffman
Michael Bohnen: At the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Michael Bohnen: At the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Arias from I pagliacci, Fidelio, Der Freischütz, Faust, Carmen, Dinorah, Robert le Diable, Die Zauberflöte, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Tannhäuser, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Mona Lisa, and Hamlet.
Michael Bohnen, bass-baritone. Various orchestras and conductors.
Hännsler Classic CD 94.503. TT: 75:50
The title of this most worthwhile CD is, I’m afraid, somewhat misleading. The charismatic German bass-baritone, Michael Bohnen, sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1923-1932. One might expect this CD to only document roles that Bohnen sang there, if not provide transcriptions of actual Met performances.
In fact, the disc includes excerpts from several roles that Bohnen never sang at the Met. Of the twenty tracks on this CD, twelve, by my count, are souvenirs of Bohnen Met roles (Tonio, Rocco, Caspar, Mephistopheles, Wotan, Wolfram, Sachs, and Francesco in Schilling’s Mona Lisa).
But in the end, this is of little consequence. These recordings are all documents of Bohnen in the prime of his career. Michael Bohnen was a superb singing-actor with a vibrant and attractive bass-baritone voice that demonstrated extraordinary facility in the lower and upper reaches of the voice. Bohnen was also renowned as a riveting stage actor. Fortunately, much of this charisma translates to Bohnen’s audio recordings as well.
Unlike many singers—even some very famous ones—Bohnen’s recordings provided a different interpretive sound and ‘face” to each character. The results are always fascinating, although some might find his over-the-top portrayals of Escamillo and Mephistopheles a bit much. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that anyone would object to Bohnen’s chilling impersonation of Caspar in Der Freischütz, in which he tears into the music with an almost frightening abandon, or his noble assumptions of Sarastro, Wotan, and Hans Sachs. Overall, this is singing of a very high order, indeed.
The recordings, which date from 1922-1930, are sometimes performed in the original language, sometimes in German translation. Bohnen seems least comfortable in Italian. His French is quite passable and of course, he uses his native German with a virtuoso actor’s touch. The transfers are a bit overly filtered for my taste, although Bohnen’s voice still shines through with ample presence and color.
The booklet contains German and English essays on Bohnen’s life and Met career. No texts or translations of the arias are included.
Kenneth Meltzer
Wozzeck at WNO
Wozzeck
John Allison at Wales Millenium Centre [Times Online, 21 Feb 05]
FIRST nights of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck are not traditionally sellouts, but then this was anything but a traditional first night.
As the main event of Welsh National Opera’s inaugural weekend in its new home, the Wales Millennium Centre at Cardiff Bay, Saturday night’s performance sent out a volley of positive signals that will stand the company in good stead as it builds new audiences. There are more seats to fill than in WNO’s old house, but a strong forthcoming season combined with adventurous pricing policy should prolong the buzz.
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A Dark Tale of Humanity in Waves of Pity and Terror
By PAUL GRIFFITHS [NY Times, 21 Feb 05]
CARDIFF, Wales, Feb. 20 - For most of its 59-year history, the Welsh National Opera has been looking forward to having a theater built for it here in the capital city of Wales. Now that hope has been fulfilled. On Saturday the company presented its first production made for its new home, the Wales Millennium Center: Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck,” in a performance that lived up to the occasion in every way. Whether the theater did so is less certain.
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Night at altar of popularity
By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 21 Feb 05]
With the first night of Welsh National Opera’s new production of Wozzeck on Saturday, the final block in the edifice of Cardiff’s #106m arts complex fell into place. The Wales Millennium Centre, which dominates a thriving business and leisure development at the seafront, is bright, spacious and flawlessly egalitarian. Covered by a bronze shell, clad in Welsh slate and commanding the eye with a massive inscription that reads “In these stones horizons sing”, the building has succeeded since its official opening in November to be all things to all men.
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Crushed to death under a hill of beans
[Daily Telegraph, 21 Feb 05]
Rupert Christiansen reviews Wozzeck performed by the WNO at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Shocking the audience is an over-used tactic in the business of opera production, and one that pays swiftly diminishing returns - when Calixto Bieito grinds out his umpteenth coke-fuelled orgy, all we do is yawn.
But surprising the audience is a vital element of good theatre (at its most basic level, it’s what keeps us awake), and one of the things I most deeply admire in Richard Jones’s recent work is its arresting poetic strangeness: it’s impossible to anticipate either its starting point or the journey it will take.
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Scottish Opera on the Cutting Edge?
A view to a fresh start
CONRAD WILSON [Herald-Times, 21 Feb 05]
With the major success of his latest opera for Chicago, William Bolcom is America’s musical man of the moment. Yet in Britain he is scarcely a name. A Wedding, his new hit, is based on Robert Altman’s famous film of the same title, then at least we should be aware that he is aslo [sic] the composer of A View from the Bridge, an opera inspired in 1999 by the original blank verse version of the play by Arthur Miller who died last week.
Miller himself gave Bolcom’s opera his blessing, and took pains to assist Arnold Weinstein, the composer’s established librettist, in preparing the text. That, in itself, was no guarantee of a new masterpiece. Indeed, as with so many adaptations of plays and novels, the music could merely have got in the way of the words - which, for many people, was what happened to Sophie’s Choice when the English composer Nicholas Maw got his hands on it. Before writing A View from the Bridge, Bolcom asked himself three questions: “Am I just gilding the lily? Is it worth doing?”
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Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer in Philadelphia
‘Klinghoffer’ drained of its outrage
Changing times may be the cause. And static staging undermined the opera’s local premiere.
By Daniel Webster [Philadelphia Inquirer, 21 Feb 05]
For The Inquirer
Time stands quite still in John Adams’ opera The Death of Klinghoffer.
The pulsing orchestra, the explanatory choruses, the shifting viewpoints, and, above all, the tacit understanding that the events of 20 years ago are being replicated now with no measurable change give the work the feeling of complete stasis.
The Curtis Opera Theatre, with David Hayes conducting, presented the piece in its local premiere - in partial staging - Friday at Perelman Theater. It was the only performance.
Since it was first performed in 1991, the opera has been vilified for seeming to support the Palestinians who hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. It was an early act of terrorism that angered, but also paralyzed, world opinion. In the course of the hijacking, an American, wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and his body dumped over the side with his wheelchair.
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WNO Triumphs With La Traviata
La Traviata
Rian Evans [The Guardian, 21 Feb 05]
Welsh National Opera’s first performance in its new home could so easily have been a disaster. But nowhere was the return of its former musical director Carlo Rizzi more crucial than in this revival, as he transformed the shoddy Traviata of last May into an emphatic restatement of the musical values that have traditionally been at the core of the WNO. Rizzi conducted with authority and passion, and with such care for his singers that where terminal decline had beckoned, he seemed to have effected a miracle cure.
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Handel's Semele at Scottish Opera
Ambition, Deceit and Eroticism — Handel’s Semele at the SCO
19 February 2005
A tale of everyday mortals and gods entranced a nearly full house at beleaguered Scottish Opera last night with the same clever mix of pathos, wit, drama and humour that has kept nations’ favourite soaps at the top of the viewing and listening schedules for decades. And it was the visual elements as much as the vocal and musical that clinched the success of this premiere performance last night. Director John la Bouchardiere (of “The Full Monteverdi” fame) worked with a light touch that engagingly mixed some pretty unusual elements into a confection that finally had the audience calling its approval. Likewise, young Christian Curnyn on the podium brought his Early Opera Company experience and love of truly modern stagings of Handel to bear, and managed to persuade the SCO orchestra to eschew both vibrato and swooping lines without adding any extra period instrumentalists, save a harpsichord. Apart from a slightly unconvincing first 10 minutes (of more later) they played with increasing verve and apparent conviction throughout.
If ambition looms large in this story of poor, upwardly-mobile but slightly foolish, Semele then so does deceit and eroticism. The former was much in evidence from the outset — and it was the director deceiving the audience for the first ten minutes or so, as the curtain rose on a most unexpected scene. I suppose that I, and most of the audience, were expecting some revelation of new production — perhaps an elaborate period set, perhaps a weird and wonderful Germanic “concept” design, perhaps — nothing? Well that’s what we got at first — nothing. Or rather, just a few boring lines of grey metal office chairs set out for a chorus in a dark grey non-set, with four single ones in front, obviously for the four characters who start proceedings — King Cadmus, Prince Athamas, Semele, and sister Ino. I began to wonder if I was here under false pretences and was about to see a “semi-staged” version of this opera/oratorio. There was a palpable sense of disappointment in the house. And this was also the only time that I felt the orchestra was strangely detached from the drama, oddly jerky and with disconcerting moments of silence between some recitatives and arias or arioso.
But all became clear slowly — very slowly — as the pre-nuptial ceremonies commenced. The full chorus were in modern black gear, scores held out as in oratorio proper, and the four soloists also in sombre black modern dress and also clutching their music books for dear life began the formalities of Semele’s forthcoming wedding to Prince Athamas. But, bit by bit, one noticed things not quite right, little glances, Semele looking more and more hunched and dejected, Athamas more and more puzzled, until at last the poor bride- to-be hurls herself away from the courtly protocol and declares herself for Love and Jove. Lisa Milne was in fine voice from the start with excellent diction and a nice touch in endearing silliness so necessary in explaining the subsequent action. Her soprano is rich and her coloratura assured and with breath to spare. Michael George was a resolute Cadmus (and later Somnus too) and his bass- baritone more than a match still for the orchestra below, although perhaps not as athletic as it once was. Athamas was sung by a countertenor new to me: Arnon Zlotnik. A tall, slender young man with an engaging if not particularly compelling stage presence who sang sweetly but without much dramatic power or expression as yet. As is the case often today, most of the role’s original arias were cut and only one — “Your Tuneful Voice” as he is “consoled” by Ino — remained and was, sadly, somewhat lost in the singing. It requires a long legato line, heartfelt expressive despair and superb breath control to reveal the thing of beauty it really is. Best left to the likes of a David Daniels perhaps. Another experienced Handelian, Susan Bickley, lined up alongside Milne and George and took on the roles of both Ino and the vengeful Juno — and very successfully pointed up the two so-different female characters by both vocal timbre and charming, and comical, expressivity. Her voice suffered a little from competition with the orchestra from time to time as she did not have the dynamic power of her fellow sopranos. The vocal “find” of the evening for me was young Kate Royal in the gift-role to actress-singers of Iris: PA to the Gods and generally inept fixer extraordinary. Hers is a strong, rich, and occasionally thrilling voice with huge potential, although at the expense of diction last night. Which leaves Jove, or Jupiter, himself: always a vocal pivot in this work and one of Handel’s most interesting tenor roles when sung by an intelligent as well as highly competent singer. Both of which Jeremy Ovenden is, on this hearing. Since I last heard him, his voice seems to have grown in several ways and his line, power and coloratura were all excellent without ever going “out of style”. Of course everyone was waiting for the “Big Song”, and he despatched that most beautiful of Handelian love arias with both elegance and technical assurance, and we were transported to those Arcadian glades and saw those trees bow down with just an inflection of voice and a shift of light and shade. It was entrancing.
And that brings me to the most interesting aspect of this production: the light. Light as back-projected universe, light as mirror, light through a film lens and light as in defying gravity. This was the “Light Show Semele” I felt, and once we escaped the bleak opening scene, the full inventive skill of video artists, lighting designer, costumier and aerialists came into play. Yes, aerialists — if this production had been presented a year or two earlier they could have advertised it as “direct from the Millennium Dome!” The first intimation of things of the air, rather than the earth, came when Jupiter — in full elegant 18th Century kit — doffed his hat in front of his beloved and it flew upwards and away into the heavens…. disconcerting for Semele as well as us. Another time “Iris” literally flew in to answer Juno’s call for assistance — cannily being replaced by Kate Royal at a vital moment in the wings. And why not? This was Up There, and the whole design seemed predicated on the contrast between the mortals’ rather glum earth- bound existence and the floating, sun-kissed and gravity-defying world of the immortals. The best was left for the seduction of Somnus scene by scheming Juno: his besotted love for the nymph Pasiphae played upon by her teasing him with the sight of his heart’s desire descending a rope, apparently completely naked although of course cleverly body-stockinged, and performing balletic aerial manoeuvres of a gentle eroticism that certainly woke the old duffer up and enabled the theft of his magical powers. Back projected images of the world spinning in the universe came and went at suitable moments, as did a wonderful piece of scenery: the floating pillow bed, refuge to Semele in moments of both ardour and despair. Looking rather like a huge inflatable dog bed, she either reposed on it, Lady Hamilton style, as it swung gently on near-invisible wires or it was used as prop when brought to earth for both Lisa Milne and Jeremy Ovenden to clamber over and on to. It also had the slightly discomfiting ability to move of its own accord across the stage — one wondered for the safety of the singers if it ever got out of control — which distracted one’s attention from the music somewhat from time to time.
If there was a slight disappointment, it came at the end. After the visual delights of the earlier scenes, and a highly emotional death scene as Semele was pulled down into a dark opening breathing her last after Jupiter has carried out her fatal wish, (again cleverly achieved by effective mix of video and stage drama) I felt that the final redemptive, revelatory scene of Apollo’s decree, and the birth of Bacchus from her ashes was rather short-changed and cursory. More could have been done I felt, and was left with a feeling that perhaps either the money or ideas had run out. But that is a minor grumble indeed, and not indicative of the effect of the whole.
The Glasgow audience was loud and long in its appreciation last night — musical director Curnyn and stage director La Bouchardiere receiving much deserved plaudits for pulling off a delightful and, I hope, long-lived production that married so many theatrical elements very successfully. Don’t let the words “multi-media” put you off seeing this most charming and elevated “Semele”.
Sue Loder
WNO Moves In
Welsh opera has a home at last
Charlotte Higgins [The Guardian, 21 Feb 05]
When conductor Carlo Rizzi stepped forward at the end of La Traviata to address a delighted audience in his Italian-accented Welsh, he was marking a piece of history. Welsh National Opera had, after 60 years of peripatetic homelessness, for the first time performed on a stage it could call its own.
It was not, admittedly, the Zaha Hadid-designed Cardiff Bay Opera House that had been on the table in 1992 when Rizzi had arrived as WNO’s music director: but the #106m Wales Millennium Centre, a great, gleaming hulk of building in self-consciously Welsh stone, slate and wood, which opened its doors in November.
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Changes in the Recording Industry
Classical artists moving to ‘boutique’ recording
CLARKE BUSTARD [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 20 Feb 05]
Over the past five years, just about everybody in my line of work (including me) has weighed in on the decline of classical-music recording.
Norman Lebrecht, the English critic and high-culture gadfly, went so far as to write the industry’s obituary last fall and begin compiling a retrospective list of its 100 greatest achievements. As of last week, his list was up to 23 discs. (It can viewed online at www.scena.org.)
The death notice is premature.
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Classical Music in the Blogosphere
Champions of music claim new cyber-turf
By Richard Scheinin [San Jose Mercury News, 20 Feb 05]
In a post last month on his popular blog about classical music, Alex Ross wrote that the music he loves “exists off the radar screen of the major media” these days. But “it’s actually kind of exciting,” he added. “If I were in the business of marketing classical music to younger audiences, I’d make a virtue of this. Classical music is the new underground.”
Classical music as the new underground: That compelling image hasn’t really surfaced in mainstream media writing on the arts. But Ross, the New Yorker magazine’s classical music critic, plows fertile ground all the time on his own blog, titled “The Rest Is Noise,” a daily read for a couple of thousand classical music fanatics.
On any given day, Ross may fire off an essay on his favorite Finnish conductors (the Finns are in); or he may send shock waves through the blogo- sphere by challenging the idea that dead silence in the concert hall — no clapping allowed between the movements of a concerto, for instance — is a good thing. He can be a learned cheerleader for the music, likely to declare that an opera singer or chamber ensemble rocks or is severe — though, on a slow day, he simply may post photos of his cats.
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Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas
Seattle opera lovers get encore of frequently requested “Florencia”
By Melinda Bargreen [Seattle Times, 20 Feb 05]
If you had to name an opera you thought Seattle music lovers were dying to see and hear, what would be your guess? “Carmen”? “Madame Butterfly”? Maybe the ever-beloved story of ill-fated young lovers, “La Boheme”?
Seattle Opera general director Speight Jenkins says it’s none of the above. Instead, he gets the most requests from the public for a repeat of Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas,” which was heard here in March 1998, shortly after its world premiere.
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Survey Reveals Arts More Popular Than Sports
Go to the pub? We’d rather see the opera
Vanessa Thorpe [The Guardian, 20 Feb 05]
Music, drama and the visual arts really are second nature to the English, a national survey has conclusively shown. While news from Italy this weekend that the United Kingdom is regarded as the most cultured nation in Europe has been met with scepticism, it seems we should have a higher opinion of our chief pastimes on this island. DIY shops, fast food outlets and soccer violence are not even half the picture, it is now clear.
In the biggest survey of its kind, conducted by the Office of National Statistics for the Arts Council of England, it has emerged that participation and appreciation of the arts are more popular than sport and are widely indulged in across the social spectrum.
‘It is good news that levels of attendance and participation have remained high against a backdrop of increased competition from other leisure activities,’ said Kim Evans, an executive director at ACE.
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SALGADO: The Teatro Solis 150 years of Opera, Concert and Ballet in Montevideo
Salgado, Susana: The Teatro Solis 150 years of Opera, Concert and Ballet in Montevideo
Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 2003, 493 pages
ISBN: 0-8195-6593-8 (cloth) 0-8195-6594-6 (paper)
During the latter half of the 19th century, and much of the 20th, countless opera companies, mostly Italian, but also some French and an occasional German, toured much of the Southeast coast of Latin America. Cities visited most frequently included Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo, with occasional swings inland (Rosario and Cordoba), but sometimes going as far West as Santiago and Valparaiso.
From its inauguration on August 25, 1856 until well into the twentieth century, the Teatro Solis in Montevideo was one of the leading theatres in South America, and was probably not too far behind the major houses in Europe. This is hardly surprising since Montevideo is only a short trip from Buenos Aires, and most of the companies visiting Buenos Aires would spend a week or two there once the Buenos Aires season was over. Thus, almost all of the great artists of the period, including Caruso, Ruffo, Battistini, Tamagno, Tetrazzini, Stagno, Lauri-Volpi, De Lucia, Zenatello, Muzio, Anselmi, O’Sullivan, Schipa, Lazaro, etc., etc., sang there. The repertory was just as interesting as the artists, and works like Pacini’s Medea and Bondelmonte are known to have been performed in Montevideo. Felice Romani’s libretto for Donizetti’s Parisina was used by a local composer named Giribaldi, and the opera was premiered at the Teatro Solis on September 14, 1878. It was repeated in 1899. There are any number of books already published on many legs of these tours, especially for Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Sao Paulo with various others in preparation. Dr. Salgado’s effort is easily among the best and most useful of these, particularly because it covers the longest time frame (from 1856 to the present), and is in the English language.
A narrative history of the theatre takes up a little less than half the book, with various appendices taking up the rest. The narrative portion is outstanding in terms of readability, and covers highlights of each season, especially artists and operas new to Montevideo. Since the same companies invariably visited other major South American cities, this narrative really provides more than just a history of the Teatro Solis, being just as valuable for the insight it provides into opera in South America.
The chronology, which takes up most of the appendices, is a model of its kind, with dates and casts (as far as possible) of all the performances. Other appendices of special interest include artists who performed at the Solis (with references to the years they sang), musica works performed there, instrumental and vocal ensembles as well as ballet companies.
The book is copiously illustrated, and includes an exhaustive bibliography. Highly recommended.
Tom Kaufman
February 19, 2005
Troubles at La Scala
Scala in sciopero, saltano le prime
I lavoratori del Teatro incroceranno le braccia il 22 febbraio Sulla protesta pesa il caso del sovrintendente Fontana
[Corriere della Sera, 18 Feb 05]
MILANO - I lavoratori della Scala scendono in campo dopo che il Cda ha dato mandato al sindaco di “risolvere consensualmente” entro la prossima settimana il rapporto con il sovrintendente Carlo Fontana e proclamano uno sciopero per martedì prossimo, il giorno in cui agli Arcimboldi avrebbe dovuto debuttare La Dama di Picche di Ciaikovski (i possessori del biglietto potranno chiederne il rimborso alla Biglietteria del teatro alla Scala, ndr).
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Verdi's Otello at Opéra-Bastille
Valery Gergiev dirige avec feu à Bastille un “Otello” controversé
[Le Monde, 19 Feb 05]
Le chef d’orchestre russe a été ovationné le 17 février par le public et par les musiciens.
Ce ne sont pas des notes qui jaillissent de la baguette de Valery Gergiev, c’est un foudroiement : une tempete d’air, d’eau, de feu qui déchire l’espace et fige d’horreur le chœur des Chypriotes massés au port pour le retour vainqueur d’Otello. Une puissance dévastatrice, métaphysique.
Le sorcier Gergiev fait là ses premières armes en tant que l’un des sept chefs permanents de l’Opéra de Paris. Il s’impose d’emblée comme le héros de cette reprise d’Otello dans la mise en scène controversée d’Andreïaut; Serban (Le Monde du 11 mars 2004). Longuement ovationné, le chef d’orchestre russe a également reçu de l’Orchestre de l’Opéra un hommage appuyé.
Debout dans la fosse, ces musiciens, réputés irréductibles, ont adoubé le flamboyant patron du Mariinski de Saint-Pétersbourg, l’applaudissant alors qu’il quittait son pupitre pour saluer en scène.
Galvanisant Gergiev ! tant par le charisme de sa direction ardente et précise que par l’époustouflante liberté avec laquelle il mène à son terme le drame verdien.
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PENDERECKI: A Polish Requiem
Krzysztof Penderecki, A Polish Requiem
Izabela K
Renée Fleming in Boston
Renée Fleming sang the Boston leg of her current recital tour last night at Symphony Hall accompanied by the distinguished German pianist Hartmut Höll. Not only was Ms Fleming in free, shimmering and beautifully controlled voice, but last night’s program of Purcell, Handel, Berg and Schumann was some of her most disciplined work in a very long time.
I am not a great fan of vocal recitals at Symphony, not only because of the hall’s size, but because a recitalist inevitably looks isolated on the huge platform and the Hall’s unattractive stage lighting creates neither mood nor intimacy. Jordan Hall is far more suitable except as to capacity for so popular an artist. Fleming, however, possesses a big enough voice and personality to fill Symphony’s huge expanses, and enough star power to fill its seats last night. Currently very blond, she passed on her customary Ferré gown in favor of Oscar de la Renta in very pale champagne beige with sequins, adding a fourteen foot long semi-sheer white chiffon stole in the second half for well managed dramatic effect. Audience response was rapturous.
The program began with Purcell’s “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” a kind of mini-mad scene for Mary and the sort of angular, dramatic and vocally demanding piece recitalists often favor as warm-up material. An extended recitative is followed by two cantilena sections. It’s a strange and fascinating piece that didn’t pull into focus until Ms Fleming settled down to show her legato phrasing near the end. Thereafter, everything was very much under control. The Purcell selections were “Sweeter than Roses” from Pausanias, “I take no pleasure in the sun’s bright beams,” “I attempt from love’s sickness to fly” from The Indian Queen and “O, let me weep” from The Fairy Queen. The Purcell brought out the first well executed coloratura of the evening and what would also be a theme in the Handel to come — intimate, beautifully sustained laments that held the audience in hushed attention. The swooping portamenti and other liberties that have been controversial in some of Ms Flemings work were left back in the “Expostulation’s” recitative — throughout the evening there was a clean line and great attention to dynamic shading.
The Handel began with a fleet, vivacious “Oh! Had I Jubal’s lyre” from Joshua, and proceeded through a finely spun “O sleep, why dost thou leave me?” (extended applause) and “To fleeting pleasures make your court” from Samson which was played in character as a seductive, kittenish Dalila. Another lament, “Calm thou my soul/Convey me to some peaceful shore” from Alexander Balus was followed by “Endless pleasure” from Semele, also performed in character as a deliciously self-absorbed coquette.
There was a complete change of mood after intermission. Surrounded by diaphanous chiffon, Fleming let out her opalescent tone generously in Alban Berg’s “Sieben frühe Lieder.” She preceded the set with a request that the audience please hold applause until after each of the lieder sets. They did so in the gorgeously sung Berg but their discipline broke down a bit toward the end of the Schumann set that consisted of eight songs: Ständchen, Mondnacht, Er ist’s!, Hauptmann’s Weib, Hochländisches Wiegenlied and Du bist wie eine Blume (both to texts by Robert Burns as translated into German), Aufträge and Stille Tränen. The Schumann was sung simply, directly and with warmth.
There were four encores: a thrilling, full bore performance of Strauss’s Cecilia (Fleming said she hates to do a recital without Strauss somewhere in the evening); Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro;” a surprisingly restrained version of Ms Fleming’s art nouveau arrangement of “Somewhere over the rainbow” that had been purged of about 50% of its usual departures from the vocal line (the crowd loved it); and a lovely, shimmering performance of Maietta’s Lied from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt notable for its perfect legato and for the elegance of Hartmut Höll’s playing of the extended postlude.
Höll’s accompaniment was a revelation. Widely celebrated for his lengthy collaborations with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and mezzo Mitsuko Shirai in German Lieder, among many other distinctions, he brought style, elegance and support (rather than competition with the soloist) to the program, scaling his volume perfectly to Ms Fleming’s, letting his beautifully colored and shaded tone ring out fully only in the Berg in which she herself let fly in an appropriate late Romantic manner. Theirs was a most rewarding collaboration.
William Fregosi
Technical Coordinator for Theater Arts
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Merkur Interviews Film Director Doris Dörrie — Rigoletto at Bayerischen Staatsoper
Weil ich wahnsinnig bin
“Rigoletto”: Gespräch mit Regisseurin Doris Dörrie
[Merkur Online, 18 Feb 05]
Das kann ja schon mal passieren: Die eigene Tochter verliebt sich ausgerechnet in den blödesten Affen der Welt. Eine Vorstellung zum Verzweifeln. Filmregisseurin Doris Dörrie will ganz bewusst solche Assoziationen wecken - und zwar mit ihrer ersten Münchner Operninszenierung. “Rigoletto”, sagt sie, “ist ein so egoistischer Vater. Aber ich kann ihn verstehen. Auch heute würde jeder von uns, der eine 15-jährige Tochter hat, sie am liebsten wegsperren.” Am kommenden Montag hat im Münchner Nationaltheater Giuseppe Verdis “Rigoletto” Premiere. Es singen u. a. Diana Damrau (Gilda), Mark Delavan (Rigoletto), Ramon Vargas (Herzog). Zubin Mehta dirigiert.
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February 18, 2005
KRAMER: Opera and Modern Culture — Wagner and Strauss
Among the leading scholars of the "new musicology" is Lawrence Kramer. Opera and Modern Culture is another work in his quest to clarify the many roles of music in Western society through intellectual discourse. Kramer does not engage in a recitation of facts but rather invites the reader to an intellectual exercise of "thinking through Opera." By their very nature, philosophical discourses tend to indulge themselves in semantics. Kramer's use of guiding concepts (philosophical and symbolic investiture, the norm, Opera), often varies. As he states it, they do not act as "leitmotifs throughout this book," and are rarely "invoked by name." Kramer sees this as an effort not to "box [his] topic in . . . but to open it out in as many dimensions as possible." Others however, may find it to be a matter of "too many words," to paraphrase Peter Schafer.
This investigation of opera and modern culture may be summed up as follows: An exploration of the manner in which opera's legendary antithetical states of being, debasement and supremacy, as exemplified in select operas of Wagner and Strauss -- Lohengrin, The Ring, Parsifal, Salome, and Elektra -- creates a certain idea of opera, a "generic fiction," which is termed Opera (capital O), and, which in turn, influences modern culture's norms of desire, identity and social order. Do not be misled. Wagner and Strauss are not being indicted. They are seen as "symptoms of Opera" -- Wagner as a "symptom of modernity" and Strauss as the "very incarnation of modernity in music." To add to this mix, prominent topics of current opera scholarship intertwine with those of social and cultural history, thus further tightening the weave.
There are indeed risks involved in creating a "tight weave" between music and modern culture. As Kramer expects, "old questions of subjectivity and appropriation in interpretation . . . [for some readers] will rear their ugly heads." (16) Why would they not? New theories or speculations regarding the ethnomusicology of opera -- is this not fundamentally the discourse? -- have no litmus test other than that of time. The intention of such philosophical studies is to engage the reader to think in a new way about an established subject or topic, to question. Whether the questions are old or new, attractive or not, they help the "new thinker" to refine and hone the point, keeping the tumblers turning in the search for truth. In this regard, Kramer's "speculative foray" into opera and modern culture is quite effective. The concerns raised in this book regarding the phenomenon of Opera overlap with those of general world concerns via Opera. In terms of the latter, two of the best discourses in the book are chapter two, "Contesting Wagner: The Lohengrin Prelude and Anti-Anti-Semitism" and chapter five, "Modernity's Cutting Edge: The Salome Complex." The erotic/sexual/psychosexual philosophical discussions however, are becoming tiresome.
Running the continuum of debasement and supremacy, with humanity seeming to prefer debasement, Kramer arrives at a "norm" in Opera, in which the abnormal is actually the hidden truth of the normal; where Wagner is both the cause and the cure for "modernity" and Strauss is the "Wagnerian remainder." This "speculative foray" is not meant to be a walk in the park. It is an intense inquiry, but one that is masterfully crafted.
Geraldine M. Rohling
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Oleg Caetani New Music Director at ENO
ENO names new music director
[Gramophone, 18 Feb 05]
English National Opera has appointed Oleg Caetani as its next music director. He will begin the position in September 2006, succeeding Paul Daniel who leaves in July this year after eight years in the role.
Caetani will divide his time between London and Melbourne, where he is chief conductor and artistic director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - a role he began last month on a four-year contract. He plans to take up residence in London.
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A Star Is Born
Singer found voice, home and wife in Lexington
By Rich Copley [Lexington Herald-Leader, 18 Feb 05]
Phumzile Sojola got the call less than 36 hours before the concert.
University of Kentucky alum Gregory Turay, who was set to be the featured soloist on the Lexington Philharmonic’s Feb. 4 concert, was sick and might not be able to sing. The orchestra needed a tenor in the wings. OK, Sojola thought. He knew the scheduled arias.
Sojola put on his “church clothes” and went to the philharmonic’s rehearsal.
“I go to sing the first aria, Questa o quella, the first aria from Rigoletto, and I thought it went well,” he said. “That didn’t feel so bad. Then we go to the second, La donna e mobile. It’s harder. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is hard.’ All of a sudden, the pressure is getting to me. … I thought it was going really bad.”
But he got encouragement from members of the orchestra and his voice teacher, Everett McCorvey. And the following night, when he did have to fill in for the ailing Turay on a portion of the program, Sojola turned in a crowd-pleasing performance that probably sold some tickets to the UK Opera Theatre’s production of Madama Butterfly, which opened last night and continues through next weekend. Sojola plays the male lead, Pinkerton, in Saturday night’s show.
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The 12th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition
Singer of World contest selection
Contestants from 25 countries have been selected to battle it out in what many consider to be one of the world’s premier singing competitions.
During the 12th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, Soprano Camilla Roberts, from Cardiff, will represent Wales.
Originally from Wrexham, she was winner of the 2004 Welsh Singers Competition last June.
The competition will be held between 11-19 June at St David’s Hall and the city’s New Theatre.
Dame Joan Sutherland has returned this year as the competition’s patron.
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Le Figaro Profiles Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev, le météore
Christian Merlin [Le Figaro, 17 Feb 05]
Pas facile à coincer, Valery Gergiev. Le chef russe le plus charismatique de sa génération a voué sa vie au Kirov de Saint-Pétersbourg, dont il a fait l’un des théâtres lyriques les plus recherchés du monde. Mais il anime aussi trois festivals : les Nuits blanches de Saint-Pétersbourg, le Festival de Pâques de Moscou et celui de Mikkeli en Finlande. N’oublions pas non plus qu’il est directeur musical de l’Orchestre philharmonique de Rotterdam, premier chef invité du Metropolitan Opera de New York, et l’un des maestros préférés du Philharmonique de Vienne, qu’il dirige tant au Musikverein qu’au Festival de Salzbourg et en tournée. Avec un tel calendrier, guère de place pour des invitations à droite et à gauche, et s’il a fait récemment ses débuts aux “Proms” de Londres avec l’Orchestre symphonique de la BBC, c’était une exception dont on se demande si elle va se généraliser, donnant un nouveau tour à une carrière jusqu’ici focalisée sur quatre orchestres.
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February 17, 2005
British Opera's Immigration Problem
A run-through for your money
[Daily Telegraph, 17 Feb 05]
Rupert Christiansen reviews Madama Butterfly by the Ukranian National Opera of Odessa, Touring
The almost constant touring by east European opera and ballet companies continues to be a significant feature of the British cultural scene, and one that requires a little attention.
We ought to be aware that the artists involved are working an exhausting schedule in difficult circumstances that British unions rightly would not tolerate. And there is no doubt that their one-night-stand activities steal audiences away from our own subsidised organisations.
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Daily Telegraph Interviews Lisa Gasteen
Wild side of the Valkyrie
[Daily Telegraph, 17 Feb 05]
Australian soprano Lisa Gasteen, who plays Brünnhilde in the second part of the Royal Opera’s ‘Ring’ cycle next month, talks to Rupert Christiansen about her tempestuous route to the top
When she was a teenager, Lisa Gasteen was thrown out of a school folk group for singing too loud. Now, established as one of the world’s premier Wagnerian sopranos, her ability to turn up the volume comes in handy. In 2001, she made a triumphant debut at Covent Garden as Isolde; next month, she returns to halloo “Hojotoho” as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, the second instalment of the Royal Opera’s new production of the Ring, conducted by Antonio Pappano.
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Marcello Viotti Has Died
Conductor Marcello Viotti Dies in Germany
By GEIR MOULSON [AP, 17 Feb 05]
BERLIN - Marcello Viotti, the music director of Venice’s famed La Fenice Theater who also conducted at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and other leading houses, died at a German hospital after falling into a coma. He was 50.
Viotti died Wednesday night after being in a coma for several days at a clinic in Munich, Germany, his agent, Paul Steinhauser, said by telephone from Vienna, Austria.
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Edinburgh International Festival Confronts Cash Crunch
Festival facing a #600,000 crisis as aid deal is delayed
PHIL MILLER [Herald & Times, 16 Feb 05]
This year’s Edinburgh International Festival was facing a cash crisis last night after the postponement of a #600,000 emergency funding package.
Last week, it emerged that Brian McMaster, director and chief executive of the EIF, had requested the money from Edinburgh City Council and EventScotland because the festival’s funding was “meeting the buffers”.
He warned that the event may have to cancel some of its programme of opera, dance, music and theatre without the money.
However, yesterday the executive committee of the council decided to postpone a decision on its #300,000 grant, which would, if agreed, trigger a further #300,000 payment from EventScotland.
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VIVALDI: Orlando Furioso
Collectors will, however, have to acquire more bookcases to accommodate the Vivaldi Edition, a collaboration of Naïve (opus 111) and various Piedmontese institutions. This venture aims to record all the works in the massive Vivaldian collection at the Turin University Library; more than a dozen CDs have been released in the last couple of years, and many more are to come with the goal of making the works in all 450 Vivaldian manuscripts (of concerti, sacred vocal music, and many other genres) available to the public over the next decade.
About two dozen operatic works (a little under half of Vivaldi's documented operatic output) form part of the Turin collection, and this recording of Orlando Furioso is billed as one of the first of planned yearly Vivaldian operatic recordings in the venture. The recording follows a concert production at multiple French venues (including the Théatre du Champs Elysées) in 2003. Both early music aficionados and traditional opera-lovers will find much to love - and perhaps something to hate - in these three CDs.
Ensemble Mateus has been working for over a decade on a variety of repertories, from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century string music to contemporary experimental works. Starting as a quartet, they have expanded and contracted to fit the occasion; here they appear as a 30-member orchestra, but their precision and dexterity make them sound as tightly planned as a much smaller group. Their ability to nuance every instrumental ritornello makes for a remarkable (and different) fit with every singer; this alone is worth the price of the recording. Most ensembles save this kind of expressive effort for concerti and other all-instrumental works; Ensemble Mateus plays "background" in such a way that the dialogue between soloist and orchestra is as exciting as in the best concerto recordings on the market.
In choosing to feature mostly "non-early-music" singers in the starring roles, the producers of this performance made a difficult decision. This decision pays off in the intensity of the work as a whole, with recitatives that are unusually gripping and arias that are not just displays of fireworks but self-contained dramatic moments: the protagonists are clearly actors as well as singers, and even in this concert performance the dramatic thread is powerful. Clarity of text does not suffer: though there are a variety of accents in this production, every word is clear and purposeful, something that this Italian-native reviewer encounters too seldom (and this even in ostensibly crystal-clear "early music" singing). One exception, perhaps, is bass-baritone Lorenzo Regazzo, whose lushness in the role of Astolfo (well-suited to his more customary Mozart/Rossini work) comes across as somewhat soupy from time to time.
Counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky, who plays Ruggiero, is the crown jewel of this recording: his voice is clear as a bell, flexible as a gold chain, and his arias are truly the most outstanding moments of the production. What makes his sound most effective, though, is its combination with the very different - but similarly superb - sound-qualities of the other protagonists. Alto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, in the title role, has the most dramatically challenging part: Orlando goes mad at the end of the second act and has some remarkable "mad scene" monologues in the third. Her voice is rich and powerful, and she is perfectly cast as the lovesick knight. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, as Alcina, brings a scary edge to the powerful but doomed sorceress; and soprano Veronica Cangemi's ethereal sweetness is ideally suited to the aptly-named role of Angelica.
With the exception of Jaroussky, who has specialized in baroque repertories, all the stars have experience in a wide range of dramatic roles (from the seventeenth century to the present). While not dogmatic in avoiding all forms of vibrato, they are careful to prioritize clarity of pitch, and almost without exception their runs and trills sound both effortless and sparkling. Indeed, the program booklet provides fairly extensive commentary on the performers' approach to ornamentation (a "vocal ornamentation consultant" is listed along with the stars on the first page of the booklet) and it's clear that the singers thought a great deal about how to add to the repeat of the da capo that characterizes every aria in this opera, in such a way as to take advantage of each individual singer's talent as well as the emotion of the aria. While I do not treasure every single voice on the recording, I find each "take" on ornamentation tremendously effective, and creative in a way that is often lacking in more traditionally "early music sound" recordings.
There are recordings of baroque operas in which it is hard to distinguish the different characters, given the similar ranges of the protagonist roles in this repertory, and a tendency for performers to sacrifice individual color in seeking out a "clean" sound, thought most appropriate for pre-classical vocal quality. But every account of the great virtuosi and virtuose of Handel's and Vivaldi's day testifies to the uniqueness of each singer's "grain". Diversity of this sort is certainly evident in this recording of Orlando Furioso, which gives us an opportunity to hear this repertory's dramatic power without sacrificing the clarity and fireworks that provide baroque opera's appeal.
Andrew Dell'Antonio
The University of Texas at Austin
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product_by=Philippe Jaroussky (contro-tenore), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto), Blandine Staskiewicz (mezzo soprano), Ann Hallenberg (mezzo soprano), Lorenzo Regazzo (baritono-basso), Veronica Cangemi (soprano), Jennifer Larmore (mezzo soprano), Choeur "Les Eléments", Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi (dir.)
product_id=Naïve OP 30393 [3 CDs]
Nabucco at the Met — Another View
Verdi’s lament and plea for deliverance
BY MARION LIGNANA ROSENBERG [Newsday, 17 Feb 05]
NABUCCO. Music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Temistocle Solera. Metropolitan Opera, James Levine conducting. Through March 8 at Lincoln Center. Call 212-362-6000 or visit www.metopera.org.
Biography can be a distorting lens through which to view art. A case in point is Verdi’s “Nabucco” (1842), his first great success, which followed the deaths of his children and wife between 1838 and 1840 and the humiliating failure of his second opera.
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