March 31, 2005
BRAHMS: Lieder, Complete Edition, Vol. 8
Johannes Brahms, Lieder, Complete Edition, Vol. 8
Juliane Banse (soprano), Andreas Schmidt (baritone), Helmut Deutsch (piano)
cpo 999 448-2 [CD]
This latest release in the collaborative project to record the complete songs of Johannes Brahms focuses on four opus numbers, among the last groups of Lieder to be so designated by Brahms. The present recording represents typical songs from the so-called mature composer, most of these having been written between 1883-88. Each of the opus numbers includes a mix of texts drawn from the works of contemporary, well known poets and from the milieu of popular folk-songs. As an example of this mix, the songs from op. 97 comprise settings of poems by Reinhold, Alexis, and Groth, as well as two songs for which the source is simply given as Volkslied. As in most of the previous releases of this project, the singers Juliane Banse and Andreas Schmidt divide the repertoire and are accompanied by the pianist Helmut Deutsch.
The first group of songs from op. 95 focuses on popular songs adapted from Serbian and on texts by the poet Friedrich Halm. Common to both groups as set by Brahms are modulations or changes in tempo in the final part of individual songs. The two vocalists in this recording show an especially sensitive awareness at communicating such shifts in mood. In the first song of op. 95, “Das Mädchen” (“The Maiden”) — designated as “Serbian song” — a young woman reflects on the possibilities of being kissed by an older or younger man. In the last section of the piece the tempo increases as she vows to cover her face with rose-water in anticipation of a younger suitor. Banse conveys the excitement of the young woman through a brighter tone toward the close as well as a subtle yet increasing aspiration, both matched by the accompanist in attentive support of the singer. In the third song from this same group, “Beim Abschied” (“At Parting”) based on a text by Halm, Andreas Schmidt achieves a similar effect by following an opposite interpretive move. The lyrical voice in this song had endured many tedious individuals among his acquaintance if only for the chance of a fleeting moment with the beloved. As his thoughts dwell on her in the final two verses, the tempo slows noticeably starting at the words “nur die Eine” (“just that one”); Schmidt and the accompanist Deutsch imitate the lingering sentiments of the man and underscore the commitment to “that one” as opposed to indifference for the others. Through his use of distended vowels in these verses Schmidt emphasizes the mood of expectancy, resulting in a feigned patience for the “die anderen” (“the others”).
Three of the four songs from op. 96 derive from poems by Heinrich Heine, all of which are here sung by the baritone. Schmidt brings to these songs a sense of the dichotomy present in Brahms’s own musical interpretations of Heine’s poems. In “Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht” (“Death, it is the cool night”), op. 96, no.1, an opposition is set up from the initial verses between death/night and life/day. The lyrical voice is first identified in the transition between day and night, as twilight takes over and the voice begins to fall into a dreamy sleep. From these elements Schmidt uses his voice to render an interpretive version of the song which suits the ambivalence of Brahms’s setting. His voice rises upward on “Nacht” (“night”), yet “Tag” (“day”) takes on the tone established for death at the start of the song. Once the voice moves in transition toward the dream, Schmidt invokes the word “Tag” differently, and his farewell to the mundane allows for the vision of love in the second strophe. Here love is indeed celebrated — and proclaimed with varying, joyful intonations as Schmidt recalls the nightingale — until the realization, in closing with a decreasing tempo, that his vision occurs only in a dream. These same oppositions predominate in “Es schauen die Blumen” (“All the flowers gaze”) op.96, no.3, also based on a text by Heine. The generalizing word “alle” is used twice in rhyme during the first strophe to indicate the natural habits of flowers and streams. Yet the third instance of “alle,” proclaimed in resounding elation by Schmidt at the second strophe, refers to love-songs and human emotions, which filter back to the beloved. This hopefulness causes the final word “trüb” (“gloomy”) to be sung on a higher, softer note, as though the voice wishes to communicate sadness yet determination in the expectation of love.
The late songs of Brahms have often been typified as overly sentimental: such judgement being indeed an oversimplification, as this collection clearly shows. In addition to the examples discussed above, the last two opus numbers included in this recording — opp. 97 and 105 — show the mature composer continuing to treat sentiment in a sophisticated, independent style. From op. 105 the song “Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer” (“Ever fainter grows my slumber”), based on a poem by Hermann von Lingg, depicts a woman aware of her impending death yet preoccupied with thoughts of a beloved. During the initial description of sorrow and care the accompanist supports the soprano Banse in her reflective state. Once the thought of dreams begins in this strophe, the woman slips into a reverie of hearing her lover call outside the door. As the text indicates that no one is able to open her door for the man, the accompaniment changes to a separate voice of impending frustration for the woman; together with this instrumental contrast, Banse uses her own voice to indicate varying shifts in mood ranging from expectancy to disappointment. Although the dream ends at this point, the second strophe elucidates a continuing spectrum of emotions. A final cry, “o komme bald!” (“O come soon”) is expressed in both rising tones of hope and the quiet mood of resignation.
The song repertoire of Brahms is both rich and varied, as evident from the four groups of Lieder in this recording. Because of the degree of character and mood portrayal, the decision to use several singers is well taken. Such thoughtful and dramatic performances by Banse, Schmidt, and Deutsch will surely encourage further listening of the larger corpus of songs composed by Brahms.
Salvatore Calomino
Madison, Wisconsin
The Ring of the Nibelung in Chicago
Scene from Siegfried (Photo: Lyric Opera of Chicago)
Lyric’s solid-gold ‘Ring’ dazzles in new revival
BY WYNNE DELACOMA [Chicago Sun-Times, 31 Mar 05]
Valhalla proved to be a failed paradise for Wotan and his band of doomed gods and goddesses in Wagner’s epic set of four related operas, “The Ring of the Nibelung.” But Lyric Opera of Chicago audiences are experiencing the real thing this week as the company opens the first of three weeklong revivals of its production of the “Ring” unveiled in the 1990s.
With performances of “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walkure” on Monday and Tuesday behind them and “Siegfried” and “Gotterdammerung” to come on Thursday and Saturday, Lyric is offering its audiences an intoxicating, operatic paradise.
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Raimondi, Kirchschlager and Newcomers in Wiener Staatsoper's Le nozze di Figaro
Scene from Le nozze di Figaro (Photo: Wiener Staatsoper)
Der Graf zu demokratisch, die Gräfin zu reif
VON WALTER WEIDRINGER [Die Presse, 31 Mar 05]
Schrott, Tezier, Anger, Keszei: Erfreuliche Rollendebüts ohne Sensationen in Mozarts “Le Nozze di Figaro”.
Schlecht war der erste Eindruck. Einen ganzen Akt lang häuften sich nur Probleme, Missverständnisse und verpuffte Pointen. Ein neuer Figaro mit Höhenproblemen, ein Hausdebütant als Graf, der ständig Gefahr lief, über sein Kostüm zu stolpern - und das ganze Ensemble immer wieder ehrlich überrascht von Jun Märkls Tempi und Zäsuren. Dass die Sänger desto besser wirkten, je länger und genauer sie Ponnelles bald 30 Jahre dienende Inszenierung bereits kannten, stellte der Probensituation an der Staatsoper wahrlich kein gutes Zeugnis aus.
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March 30, 2005
LAURIDSEN: Lux aeterna
Morton Lauridsen: Lux aeterna
Polyphony with Britten Sinfonia, Pauline Lowbury, leader, Stephen Layton, conductor.
Hyperion CDA67449 [CD]
The title piece, Lux aeterna (light eternal), a five-movement work by American composer Morton Lauridsen (b.1943), is intended to be an “intimate work of quiet serenity.” The composer’s quest for texts that express “hope, reassurance, faith and illumination in all of its manifestations,” results in a free compilation from various liturgical observances or feasts: the Introit from the Requiem; select verses of the Te Deum, sung at the end of Matins on Sunday or in thanksgiving for a special blessing, interpolated with a verse from the Beatus vir (Ps. 111:4); verses from O nata lux, the Lauds hymn for the feast of the Transfiguration; Veni sancte spiritus, the sequence for Pentecost; and the Agnus Dei and Communio from the Mass for the Dead with an “Alleluia” tag added by the composer. Admittedly, the work is non-liturgical. Still, the fashioning of these texts causes the work to be viewed by some as a “Requiem” or quasi “German Requiem.” Indeed, it is neither a Requiem nor a Mass for the Dead, in spite of the opening and closing movements. As a meditation on “light eternal,” texts other than those from the Requiem could have been used. One need only read the Exsultet, which overflows with the symbols and imagery of “the Light” that conquers death, and which dispels darkness. Further, the theme of the texts used in the three inner movements is more Trinitarian (Te Deum = God the Father; O nata lux = God the Son; Veni sancte spiritus = God the Holy Spirit). Unfortunately, their importance and strength is reduced to the occurrence of the word “light” in their verse. That being said, the texts are not what the ear remembers in this work; it is the music. The words are merely the vehicle for the vocalists.
An emotionally charged work, the title itself causes the air to teem with monastic modalities and incense. Clearly educated in the manner and madrigalisms of the early masters, Lauridsen neither replicates nor imitates, but defines and speaks his own musical mind: a single recurring chord (D-major triad with an added E), that re-creates itself throughout the work, becoming “the harmonic symbol of the luminous.” A composer with the heart of a Humanist, who heeded Leopold Mozart’s counsel—to read poetry aloud in order to understand the lyricism of music—Lauridsen’s masterful lyricism is a result of his “passion for poetry.” The harmonic style, chromaticisms, dissonances and divisi writing reveal his contemporary soul. When looking at the work in its entirety, text and music, it appears to be more of a cycle, referencing a particular theme, than an extended motet. Composed for Paul Salamunovich and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lux aeterna premiered 13 April 1997. The first recording of this work (RCM 19705) by the Master Chorale, while a solid performance, is surpassed by the intensity and passion offered by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia.
Madrigali: Six ‘Fire Songs’ on Italian Renaissance Poems (1987) stands in stark contrast to Lux aeterna. Inspired by the madrigals of Gesualdo and Monteverdi, Lauridsen effectively explores the darker, earthy terrains of human emotion. The listener again hears what may be somewhat of a hallmark for Lauridsen—the use of a single chord with an added second—as the unifying element within the work. In this case, it is a B-flat minor chord with an added C, which the composer calls the “fire-chord.” This collection of six Italian love poems is set in an extended “arch form,” climaxing with the fourth lament Io piango (I weep), which begins innocently enough in unison and moves to a tantalizing, biting dissonance on the word piango. This interplay between consonance and dissonance reaches its moment of torment and the apex of the “arch” on the phrase Sorte fiera e inaudita (what cruel, unheard-of-fate). Everything after that is falling motion. Within the vocal lines of these madrigali one can audibly “see” the “eye music” which Renaissance composers often used for the visual appeal, enjoyment and inspiration of the performer. The vocal ensemble Polyphony, under the direction of Stephen Layton, navigates the harmonic complexities with ease and skill; what is difficult on the page, sounds effortless to the ear; Polyphony’s sense of ensemble is beyond reproach.
The concluding three motets, Ave Maria (1997), Ubi caritas et amor (1999), and O magnum mysterium (1994) return the listener to the spiritual plane. The Ave Maria is an indulgence in vocal sonorities cast in the double choir style of Venice. The vocal writing for the inner voices is particularly appealing. Ubi caritas, an antiphon for Maundy Thursday, states the chant tune in the sensuous rendering of the male chorus, which is ten ornamented with tone clusters, creating a tonal shimmer that would best be appreciated in the appropriate acoustical space. If when listening to the third motet, O magnum mysterium, one feels caught in a cycle of Lux aeterna, the ear has not deceived. O magnum mysterium, which sings with similar sonorities of the Lux aeterna, pre-dates Lauridsen’s contemplation of the larger work. This motet is the composer’s “affirmation of God’s grace to the meek… a quiet song of profound inner joy.” Extended melodic lines, arching suspensions, and singing dissonances best characterize these three motets.
The choral work of Polyphony, under the direction of Stephen Layton, is solid and inspiring throughout the CD, but it is in the a capella performances where their true musicianship, impeccable intonation and sense of ensemble is most appreciated and at its best. They truly sing with one heart. The choral sound, for the most part, is warm and rich. At times however, the straight tones of the sopranos are rather piercing. One may reason that this as one of the drawbacks of hearing these works recorded as opposed to a live performance. The texture, sound and harmonic sensibilities of Lauridsen are at their best in a live performance. This music demands an acoustical space that is a performing partner, as with the choral tradition of Venice, where overtones spin their own galaxy of harmonies. Polyphony, Stephen Layton, Britten Sinfonia and Pauline Lowbury recorded this CD in 2003, along with the composer at the Temple Church in London. The only thing that is better than this recording is a live performance.
Geraldine M. Rohling
Philippe Jordan at the Met
Philippe Jordan (Photo: Arve Dinda)
A Conductor of Rare Sensitivity
BY JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun, 30 Mar 05]
On Monday night, the Metropolitan Opera began another run of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” but without music director James Levine in the pit. He was at Carnegie Hall, directing his new band, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conducting at the Met was Philippe Jordan, the sensational young Swiss. He is the son of the esteemed maestro Armin Jordan; indeed, they are the most noted father-son conducting pair since the Kleibers. But Philippe will far outpace Armin. That is the safe betting, at least.
Two years ago, young Mr. Jordan made a splash at the Mostly Mozart Festival. He was alert, commanding, very, very musical. And he has already become a conductorial hero at the Salzburg Festival.
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Gassmann's A Gas
Florian Leopold Gassmann
L’Opera Seria, Nationale Reisopera
By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 29 Mar 05]
Florian Leopold Gassmann must have been a gas. There is nothing funny about his other 21 operas but L’Opera Seria is a scream. Everything is lampooned, from squabbling stage mammas to brainless tenors. We know little about the piece’s 1769 premiere, but the audience at Vienna’s Burgtheater must have hyperventilated.
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Aprile Millo in Philadelphia
Aprile Millo
A transcendent soprano returns to town she loves
By David Patrick Stearns [Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 Mar 05]
NEW YORK - Few cosmic mistakes have ever been so glaring: Soprano Aprile Millo, who embodies the traditional operatic values that Philadelphians hold dear, hasn’t sung here in nearly 20 years.
Among current singers, her warm, vibrato-rich voice is the one most likely to reaffirm memories of the late, great Renata Tebaldi, who is an unofficial patron saint in the narrow streets of South Philadelphia. But since a 1986 concert performance of Verdi’s I Lombardi, she’s been virtually absent — until Sunday, when she heads the Academy of Vocal Arts gala at the Kimmel Center, and then April 21, for a recital presented by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
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March 29, 2005
VERDI: Falstaff
Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff
Donald Gramm, Kay Griffel, Benjamin Luxon, Nucci Condo, Elizabeth Gale, Max René Cosotti,
Reni Penkova, Ugo Trama, Bernard Dickerson, John Fryatt
The London Philharmonic and The Glyndebourne Chorus, John Pritchard, conductor
ArtHaus 101 083 [DVD]
Years ago I remember reading a commentary on Verdi by a respected critic — Conrad L. Osborne — to the effect that most of early Verdi could have been written by Donizetti except for the first great success, Nabucco, that could have been written by Rossini. If one accepts that proposal, it would mean that Rossinian operas bracketed Verdi’s career, for surely Falstaff, at the very end, reflects the energy, elegance, joyousness and sophistication of Rossini from one end to the other.
ArtHaus Musik has released on one DVD a 1976 performance of Falstaff from the Glyndebourne Festival in a Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production conducted by John Pritchard. This opera has led something of a charmed life on recordings from various eras largely, I suspect, because its unique requirements and attractions have kept it in a kind of “festival” category of the repertory. Companies generally don’t approach Falstaff unless they have something special to contribute to its performance history. Hallmarks of the Glyndebourne production style have always included an ensemble approach to casting along with admirable musical and dramatic values—exactly the conditions under which Falstaff blossoms.
Ponnelle’s production is restrained and tends to downplay much of the traditional Falstaff “shtick.” There aren’t a great many props, furniture is kept to a minimum (there’s not the bourgeois display of wealth chez Ford that is the actual attraction for Falstaff) and he doesn’t encourage “comic bits” from his cast. Humor, and there’s much of it indeed, grows out of the situation at any given moment and the characters’ honest reactions to it.
The women are dressed almost exclusively in white. Quickly gets a black overdress, perhaps to indicate she’s widowed, while the younger women wear stylized fifteenth century gowns and wimples in pure white. The men are more detailed and more eclectic as to period. Dr. Caius sports a King Henry V haircut, Fenton looks far more early Tudor, while Ford alone sometimes suggests the late Elizabethan period in which Shakespeare set the story. Sir John himself often resembles an Edwardian gentleman, but that may well reflect the casting as much as the design choices.
Donald Gramm was surely among the suavest of Falstaffs vocally and physically. His phrasing is both elegant and refined, and he hasn’t been tricked out in too egregious a “fat suit.” He appears plump but far lighter in weight than several contemporary tenors and baritones seen on- or off-stage. In fact, this Falstaff for once seems a credible suitor to the ladies of Winsor, a genuine threat to Ford, and above all a nobleman in much more than mere title. That Gramm was really a bass is demonstrated clearly at the end of the “Honor” monolog when he takes an unexpected low option, but throughout he actually sings the role beautifully in a way that few ever have. The Gramm/Ponnelle Falstaff is unconventional and may put off some who love the traditionally disreputable crusty old rogue; but taken on its own terms it’s a successful alternate take on the character that’s most convincingly performed. British baritone Ben Luxon is handsome of both voice and bearing as Ford. Max René Cosotti is visibly more than a decade or so older than Fenton, the full dark beard not assisting the illusion of a teen-ager, but he sings quite nicely in a well-controlled, high and clear, slightly reedy tenor. . Ugo Trama is a solid Pistola; Bernard Dickerson a younger than normal, almost handsome but satisfyingly skuzzy Bardolph; and John Fryatt an appropriately annoying Dr. Caius.
The women are beautifully matched, their several ensembles flying along light as air. Kay Griffel’s Alice sets the tone with a richly colored full lyric soprano and winning personality. Reni Penkova does what can be done with Meg, and Nucci Condo, known as a comprimaria on a number of audio recordings from the period, turns in a ripely sung and acted Quickly with solid contralto underpinnings. For a modern audience, her noticeable resemblance to Nathan Lane may distract from — or possibly enhance — her most enjoyable performance. Elizabeth Gale is an enchanting Nanetta, lacking only a truly magical floated high piano to place her at the very top of recorded heap in the role.
Distinguished conductor John Pritchard has the lightness of touch required and draws strong work from the London Philharmonic, but he neglects to let the score breathe occasionally. Speed and precision seem to be his main goals and these are not irrelevant to Verdi’s score by any means. But there needs to be some contrast — Pritchard pushes ahead, at times almost mercilessly as when the “Pizzica, pizzica, pizzica, stuzzica” section of the scene tormenting Falstaff falls apart before it can even begin, because the women simply can’t get any more breath. It’s a very good job by any standards, but amid all the chiaro, there is some important scuro in Falstaff and Pritchard doesn’t always find it.
TV director Dave Heather’s video shots are among the finest I have encountered — a lovely mix of close-ups (avoiding a tiresome parade of “tonsil shots”) and pull-backs. He clearly understands that it’s important to allow two or three people to play a scene together in the frame without restlessly shifting from one to another constantly. You can elect subtitles in five languages and see clips from other Glyndebourne operas, a ballet and some orchestral concerts as a promotional bonus at the end of the program. This is a most attractive and very nicely produced Falstaff, an all too rare souvenir of the prematurely deceased Gramm in performance and at the very top of his form.
William Fregosi
Maria Callas — Living and Dying for Art and Love
Maria Callas — Living and Dying for Art and Love
TDK DVUS-DOCMC [DVD]
The legend of Maria Callas has transcended her death, and after more than twenty five years, titans of opera still proclaim her the ultimate Diva: artist, actress, musician, lover and woman. Iambic Productions and BBC’s 2004 DVD, Maria Callas: Living and Dying for Art and Love, is a fascinating look at the life of Callas from the perspective of her final role and performance at Covent Garden, Tosca.
Callas once said, “An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house.” Never did a role epitomize the life of Callas than Floria Tosca. Her interpretation of Tosca was a reflection how she viewed herself, a beautiful, fresh woman, brimming with passion for her love and art. For Callas, she saw the love she lived and died for, Aristotle Onassis, as her personal Scarpia, a man so magnetic, yet so hurtful and deceiving.
This fresh take on Callas’s biography includes many captivating interviews featuring Grace Bumbry, John Copley, Judi Dench, Plácido Domingo, Nicholas Gage, Tito Gobbi, Antonio Pappano, Alan Sievewright, David Webster, and Franco Zeffirelli. The film also highlights many interviews with Callas, focusing on her thoughts of the role and her interpretation of Puccini and his music. The musical excerpts feature Callas’ live video-taping of “Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore”, as well as ensemble excerpts, “Tre sbirri… Una carrozza…” and “E qual via scegliete?” with Tito Gobbi and Renato Cioni.
Gobbi once said of Callas, “She shone for all too brief a while in the world of opera, like a vivid flame attracting the attention of the whole world, and she had a strange magic which was all her own. I always thought she was immortal-and she is.” Iambic and BBC’s biography allows us to once again bask in the glow of this Diva, experiencing for the first time or remembering once again the power of such a performer.
Sarah Hoffman
Three Renderings of Faust in New York
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Faust as Scientist
BY FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun, 29 Mar 05]
Knowledge and the unknowable are the keys needed to unlock the 19th-century perception of the Faust myth. The modern idea of a deal with the devil for financial or carnal supremacy is completely irrelevant, and speaks volumes about the difference between 20th-century thought and that of its antecedents. In breaking free of the restrictions of formalism and established religion, however, the Romantics in literature incorporated some cautions of their own.
Characters who were daring enough to challenge man’s previous limits were inevitably brought up short when they ventured to go too far. Dr. Frankenstein, called the new Prometheus by his own creator, Mary Shelley, is forced to realize the evil nature of his imperfect creation. Captain Ahab causes his own death and the destruction of all but one of his crew when he dares to approach the white whale too closely. And Goethe’s magician, Faust, makes his deal with the devil in order to acquire not only youth but also the ability to aspire. His one demand of the demon is that he will leave him forever unsatisfied.
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Where's Bryn?
Bryn Terfel
BBC keep viewers in the dark over cancelled opera
By Stephen Ward [Daily Telegraph, 29 Mar 05]
The BBC broadcast the first act of Wagner’s The Valkyrie live last night without telling viewers that the rest would be blacked out because the star, Bryn Terfel, had a sore throat.
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Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans in Washington
Piotr Tchaikovsky
Joan of Arc Rendered in Russian
By BERNARD HOLLAND [NY Times, 28 Mar 05]
WASHINGTON, March 27 - “The Maid of Orleans” was to have been Tchaikovsky’s international coming-out party. The Russian landscapes of his previous operas were left behind. His subject would be Joan of Arc. Tragic romance and history would circle each other in the grand French tradition of Meyerbeer.
“The Maid of Orleans” enjoyed a brief but telling success in 1881, but then fell victim to the assassination of Czar Alexander II and the cultural freeze that followed. It has not had good luck since. Saturday night it returned to the Washington National Opera for the first of six performances at the Kennedy Center.
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‘Maid of Orleans’ opera is rewarding - yet curious
BY CLARKE BUSTARD [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 Mar 05]
WASHINGTON Mirella Freni, the esteemed Italian opera singer, turned 70 last month. That’s an advanced age for a soprano to be taking on a major theatrical role.
She chose wisely in portraying Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky’s “The Maid of Orleans.” The role lies low in the soprano register (in fact, it was introduced by a mezzo-soprano), is generally dark in tone color and calls for more reverence and wonder than passionate histrionics.
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Le Monde Profiles Rolando Villazon
Rolando Villazon
Rolando Villazon, la vie à pleine voix
Marie-Aude Roux [Le Monde, 29 Mar 05]
Rolando Villazon est un ténor à sang chaud. Ce fils de Mexico est capable de vous attendre sur une place venteuse de Vienne, par une après-midi teigneuse, tete et mains nues, dans le grand froid qui tient encore la capitale autrichienne en cette mi-mars. La veille au soir, il incarnait avec une grâce incroyable un fragile et magnifique Roméo dans le Roméo et Juliette de Gounod, monté à la Wiener Staatsoper.
Front bouclé et oeil noir de taurillon, voix claironnante de jeune homme à longues enjambées, Rolando Villazon fend ce reste tenace d’hiver comme il traverse la scène : avec une présence superlative. On peinerait presque à le suivre jusqu’à l’appartement qu’il occupe chez Placido Domingo, à qui on l’a si souvent comparé depuis qu’il a raflé trois prix au concours Operalia, organisé par le grand ténor espagnol, en 1999
Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Barbican
St. Matthew
St Matthew Passion
Tim Ashley [The Guardian, 28 Mar 05]
Like any masterpiece, Bach’s St Matthew Passion can be approached in different ways. Interpretations have varied from austere meditations on the crucifixion to music dramas of almost tragic implacability. Richard Hickox’s Good Friday performance with the City of London Sinfonia and the BBC Singers veered towards the latter, presenting us with an almost operatic experience, characterised by wide emotional fluctuations rather than contemplative homogeneity.
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St Mathew Passion
Neil Fisher [Times Online, 29 Mar 05]
YES, performing in Bach’s Matthew Passion must be an inspiring, soul-searing event. And knowing that the man who plays the all-important Evangelist is visibly moved by the music around him, and engaged by the awesome story that he’s telling, can and should add to its sum emotional effect.
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More Degradation from Calixto Bieito
Calixto Bieito (Photo: Antonio Moreno)
Cavalleria Rusticana/ I Pagliacci Staatsoper Hannover
By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 28 Mar 05]
Rape, alcohol abuse, lesbianism and gratuitous violence: these are the themes of both Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, as Calixto Bieito sees it. Odd. They were also the themes of the last opera he staged. And the one before. Can it be coincidence or did Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Mozart and Verdi all write operas featuring fisting?
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March 28, 2005
BEETHOVEN: Fidelio
Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio — Vienna State Opera 1944 & 1953
1. Performance of 5-7 February 1944: Neralic, Schöffler, Ralf, Konetzi, Alsen, Seefried, Klein, Gallos, Schweiger.
Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Karl Böhm.
2. Performance of 12 October 1953: Poell, Edelmann, Windgassen, Mödl, Frick, Jurinac, Schock, Hendrks, Bierbach.
Chor und orchester der Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler
Andante AN 3090 [4CDs]
I grew up during the Age of LP and compared with CD’s the size had its disadvantages but there were some distinct gains as well, especially in the field of artwork. Collectors may have the same set on CD but they will rarely separate from those glorious RCA-Soria recordings like Carmen (Price, Corelli) or Otello (Vickers, Gobbi) with their lavish booklets. Though there are no colour photographs in this set under review I nevertheless was reminded of those old glories. This 4Cd-set is so wonderfully packed and designed into what looks like a small hard cover book that just paging in it gives one already some joy. Of course, neither performance is a great discovery for the collector. The Böhm-set already appeared twice on LP and twice on CD. The Furtwängler only has one LP- and one CD-reissue, which is quite understandable as the conductor led exactly the same cast the same year for a commercial recording on HMV (3 LP’s) and with all spoken dialogues cut as if producer Legge didn’t trust the singers to speak their lines. At the time he was not alone in this false belief. The next commercial Fidelio (Fricsay) came out on DG with actors for the dialogues; an even more ridiculous solution as one could clearly hear the differences in timbre between actors and singers.
A surprise awaits the listener if he doesn’t directly plunge into playing. Though there is no essay on the differences in interpretation between Böhm and Furtwängler, someone clever at Andante has just put the timings of tracks next to each other and there goes one’s prejudices and expectations. Take “Gott, welch Dunkel hier”. One is tempted to think Böhm will be a little bit more incisive, a bit more lively maybe stressing Florestan’s defiance while one presumes Furtwängler to linger a little bit more on the prisoner’s sad fate. And then there are the sober figures stating that Furtwängler is indeed exactly …ten seconds slower than Böhm in a scene that takes 12 minutes. And in the aria itself the differences of tempi are almost imperceptible. The same happens in the long Leonore III overture that at the time was still played just before the final scene: twenty seconds Furtwängler comes behind Böhm in an almost 16 minutes track. And one really ponders on the real influence of those giant conductors and slowly but inexorably one has the feeling that as much as those conductors lead they are led too by the same orchestra with its own traditions and long proof tempi.
Therefore differences will mostly depend on sound and individual singers. As to sound the Böhm-version has the slighter margin. By that time in the war it was impossible to broadcast directly as the possibility of an air attack was very real and then the whole Reich would have heard a mad scrambling for safety: bad for morale. Therefore Böhm and his singers went into a radio studio and recorded the opera during two days (not that they were safe from air attack over there) and it shows in the clearer and warmer sound (though the modern engineers did a wonderful job too when I compare this performance with some other recordings made in those war studio’s where one immediately hears orchestral discrepancies while the impression here is one of the good mono-recordings of the early fifties). The Furtwängler was really recorded in the house (not the still to be re-built Opera itself but in the fine Theater an der Wien so famous for its many operetta premières). Though the singers sound as fine with Böhm as with Furtwängler the latter’s orchestra suffers slightly as it sounds somewhat harsher, more metallic. And of course there are a few scenic sounds: doors opening and closing, feet running away but nothing really disturbing and in return one gets applause at the appropriate places, a feature this reviewer maybe somewhat strangely misses on studio-recorded recordings.
Now why should one go for these recordings apart from the formidable atmosphere in the Furtwängler: well, mostly for the singers (There are or were five Böhms and four Furtwänglers available). The discovery of Böhms’ set is soprano Hilde Konetzy. There is little available of this stalwart of the Vienna Opera: some roles when she had become a seconda donna (Chénier with Corelli, Tebaldi) and in her best days an Otello (Böhm, Ralf) while the first and only complete live performance ever recorded with Tauber (Bartered Bride Covent Garden 1939) suffers from a mike that had difficulty getting her outbursts on acetate. On this performance she already had a career of 15 years of strenuous roles and some of the youth had gone out of the voice. But in its place came a more rounded and warmer tone and several extra decibels. The voice never sounds overtaxed and demonstrates a good legato that doesn’t show any German bark at all. The voice has Italianate colour in it. Only a small flatness at the top betrays her. Her competitor if one can Mödl call so as there is no question of ” best buy” is her usual fascinating self: fine recognizable timbre, clear enunciation and somewhat careful above the staff where she prefers mezza-voce because after a career of barely ten years she was already in slightly heavy vocal weather (The Met never heard her in her prime as she made her début three years later). But the usual intensity is there, the impressive amount of vocal colours which remind one of Callas (not the same voice, but the same total immersion). From time to time she goes flat as in the duet with Rocco but in “O Namenlose Freude’ she is simply marvellous, changing from one moment to another from a heavenly pianissimo to a jubilant forte and that’s where Konetzy, good on her own, is a little bland in comparison. That’s the place too where one hears Windgassen strain for volume and still being drowned under the weight of Mödl’s voice. The men in both sets are indeed definitely not of the same weight: Swedish Torsten Ralf is one of the best Florestans on record as he has it all: volume, beauty in the voice, a good top, excellent enunciation and stylish singing. Wolfgang Windgassen in the Furtwängler is not in the same league. He was and always remained a lyric tenor, struggling with a part too heavy, often aspirating and chopping up phrases. He tries to compensate with a lot of mezza-voce and a few well chosen pianissimi but has to shout in the cabaletta to “Gott ! Welch dunkel”. That is one of the reasons this reviewer likes live-sets so much. Engineers cannot tamper with the balance between voices and Mödl clearly sings Windgassen away. The rest of the cast is very fine in both sets. Paul Schöffler with Böhme has more volume while Edelmann in the other set is somewhat more refined but both men characterize well. Gottlob Frick has a slight edge on Herbert Alsen (Furtwängler) as the voice is simply more beautiful and far easily recognizable. I cannot chose between Irmgard Seefried (Böhm) or Sena Jurinac (Furtwängler): both so youthfully fresh and exuberant. Furtwängler of course enjoys the services of Rudolf Schock as Jacquino who has the better and more interesting voice than Peter Klein. Both Poell (Furtwängler) and Neralic (Böhm) are warmhearted. Now the nice thing of this set is that for once one has not to choose between two versions as one gets them both. Warmly recommended.
Jan Neckers
WEAVER & PUCCINI: The Puccini Companion
Perhaps best of all, it does this through a selection of writings from some top scholars, who are also, blessedly, skilled and communicative writers. Occasionally some repetition creeps in, and conflicting assertions are offered (the story that a performance of Aida set Puccini off on the path of opera composition is both repeated and debunked). Any such arguable weakness aside, this Companion is much more than a shortcut to a basic grasp of the issues arising from the art of this indispensable composer. Any doubter of the worth of Puccini's operas should have moved away from that stance by the book's last page; here is a mine of glittering ore in the social, cultural and aesthetic history of 20th century opera.
As one might guess, editor Puccini has close ties to the composer; she is his granddaughter. The book begins with her biographical sketch of the family history and Puccini's early years. Puccini gave evidence in the schoolroom of what today would be labeled "attention-deficit disorder." His sister Ramelde is quoted explaining Giacomo's lack of any "interest in any kind of study" as being due to his "vitality and restlessness of character." Not so long ago Puccini's views on and depiction of women served as a meaty repast for his more ravenous critics. One has to wonder if they considered his family. His father passed at an early age, and Puccini grew up surrounded by a gaggle of sisters with the most wonderful names: Oilia, Tomaide, Temi, Maria, Iginia, Ramelde, and Macrina. A younger brother, Michele, tried to find a place for himself in his brother's shadow, and died sadly while seeking that place in South America.
After the granddaughter's family history, the larger part of the book consists of essays that focus on the operas in chronological order. The choice of texts, collaboration with librettists, and reception of each opera gets full attention, and along the way the changing opera scene comes into view. Verdi hears of the young Puccini's early success with Le Villi, as recounted in Julian Budden's essay, and the essayist offers a thorough discussion of the whole topic of the supposedly 'symphonic" nature of Puccini's composition (in more strict terms, Puccini's raising of the orchestra to prominence in balance with the vocal line). Michael Elphinstone continues this discussion and offers an amusing anecdote of that still restless student in his literature class, required at the conservatory: "Alas!!!...Oh, God!...It's too much; bye, Professor,...I'm dying!"
Editor Weaver then moves to Manon Lescaut, developing an argument as to the commonalities and variances in Puccini's leading soprano roles. At one point Weaver proposes that there is more variety than most sopranos recognize in the portrayals, critiquing a certain "generic Puccinian pathos" that has crept into performance practice. A point for debate, but Weaver won over this reviewer by curtly dismissing the lazy criticism of Suor Angelica by describing the opera as "one of Puccini's subtlest accomplishments."
Continuing the discussion of the female roles, Harvey Sachs brings in a fascinating contrast in the wonderfully titled "Manon, Mimi, and Artu." Artu, as in Arturo Toscanini, a conductor with whom Puccini had a love/hate relationship. The story of La Boheme's premiere offers another one of those insights that puts into perspective one of the most contentious issues in opera performance, transpositions. For the chosen Rodolfo, Evan Gorga (they had names then!), could not handle the tessitura, and the role had to be transposed down. In fact, for every Puccini rave for a singer, there seem to be two assessments of grudging acceptance and another two of dire displeasure. Every age, it seems, has its share of Evan Gorga's.
Fedele D'Amico elaborates on the creation of Boheme, referring to its "decapitated romanticism." That phrase, perhaps better applied to Turandot (!), could have used some elaboration. Venturing into deeper, psychological waters, Franco Serpa has some fascinating things to say about nihilism and Tosca; it's doubtful that a serious reader of this essay would allow anyone to get by with that tired slag, "a shabby little shocker." This reviewer is also thankful to Serpa for making a distinction between Puccini and verismo composers such as Mascagni.
Madama Butterfly is the focus of Arthur Gross' "Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton." Gross covers the various changes that followed the tumultuous 1904 premiere, and the exposition reveals what a completely original creation the opera is, despite its nature as an adaptation.
The eventual blazing success of Butterfly somehow could not remove from Puccini the sting of that brutal first performance. He himself wrote of a desire to make progress away from his "sugary music," and Mary Jane Phillips-Matz tells the story of how that compulsion led to the brilliantly composed Fanciulla del West. The incredible media attention the Met premiere provoked suggests the kind of publicity firestorm that erupts over a blockbuster movie today. Sadly, Fanciulla could not sustain its initial ecstatic reception, but Puccini remained confident in the artistic success of his accomplishment (and rightly so). Leonardo Pinzauti details the next step forward for Puccini - the three one-acts called Il Triticco. Here Il Tabarro receives a great deal of deserved attention, although Pinzauti's description of Michele as a "victim" could have been further developed, or even explained.
William Ashbrook makes a valiant try to make La Rondine something other than a misstep, but the struggle drains away the strength of the argument. Finally, as far as the operas go, Turandot is covered by Jurgen Maehder, who strangely fills in very little of the story of Puccini's illness and death. Those details are available in an appendix, but they do seem to be relevant to a death-haunted opera such as Turandot is.
The last major essay, by David Hamilton, reviews the early recordings of Puccini's music and tries to posit a performance tradition. Fascinating stuff, but once again, the chief conclusion to be drawn seems to be that much talk of the "Golden Age" is from those unable to distinguish the precious metal from the fool's version.
The book closes with various appendices and a bibliography of major works on Puccini. One wonderful quote offered there has Puccini venting against a conductor's slack tempi, which "enervates everything." That quote should be printed boldface in large type and placed at the front of every score placed before every conductor of the master's operas.
With its many choice photos and handsome layout, The Puccini Companion does honor to the co-editor Simonetta's grandfather, the greatest 20th century opera composer and a man without whose art, very possibly, the world of opera could not continue to exist. The convinced and the unconvinced should both find much of interest in this fine book.
Chris Mullins
Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/puccini_companion.jpg
image_description=The Puccini Companion — Essays on Puccini's life and music
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product_title=The Puccini Companion — Essays on Puccini's life and music
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product_id=ISBN 0-393-32052-9
SALAZAR: Vísperas Completas de Nuestra Señora
Juan García de Salazar: Vísperas Completas de Nuestra Senora
Capilla Penaflorida; Ministriles de Marsias; Josep Cabré (cond.)
NAXOS 8.555907 [CD]
Sacred music from the Spanish Baroque deserves to be held up next to the finest Italian examples of the same period. Equally celebratory in nature, the music written for use in Catholic Vespers services on this recording is an example of the mixed concertante style developed in Venice. While not as monumental as Claudio Monteverdi’s conglomerate Vespers of 1610, the Vísperas Completas de Nuestra Senora by Juan Garcia de Salazar (1639-1710) contrasts polyphonic and homophonic choruses with plainchant, monody, instrumental pieces, and organ improvisation.
This disc intends to establish a coherent musical sequence for the service without attempting an exact liturgical reconstruction. The layout of the Vespers revolves around the five psalms of the office: 109, Dixit Dominus, 121, Laetatus Sum, 147, Lauda Jerusalem, 112, Laudate pueri, and 126, Nisi Dominus, and the Magnificat. The various antiphons, introit, responsories, and prayers, as well as psalms 112 and 126 are sung in plainchant. Psalms 109, 121, and 147, and the Magnificat, however, are complex choral works with intricate polyphony, doubling instruments, and declamatory homophony. In addition, hymns and motets for solo voices and chorus and short organ and instrumental interludes are interspersed throughout the service making for incredible variety of music.
The performers on this recording seem to carry each contrasting style in their blood. The men sing the plainchant cleanly and effortlessly in perfect unison. The motets engage the soloists and chorus in a call and response role. Accompanied by the strumming theorbo and festive brass they could be mistaken for a madrigal at a feast. The choruses are performed with stunning sensitivity to both the complex polyphony and the passionate text painting. The instruments, while often doubling the voice parts, add a pure and intense color both joyous and reflective.
The conductor and baritone Josep Cabré extracts an intensity and excitement from the chorus, Capilla Penaflorida, and early music band, Ministrales de Marsias. Despite an occasional rough intonation spot in the melismas of the polyphonic pslams, the chorus sings with a fervent joy. The Ministrales of Marsias provide an ebullient opening Entrada which is appropriately tapered down when accompanying the Capilla. Overall, this disc provides a remarkable example of the glory of Spanish music at the height of the Baroque in all its variety, excitement, and sensitivity.
Adam Luebke
BACH: St. John's Passion
J. S. Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245
The Netherlands Bach Society; Jos van Veldhoven (cond.)
Gerd Türk (Evangelist); Stephan Mac Leod (Jesus); Caroline Stam;
Peter de Groot; Charles Daniels; Bas Ramselaar
Channel Classics CCS-SA- 22005
The explosion of research into the music of J. S. Bach allows for innumerable interpretations of his works. Scholars meticulously study the musical source material, letters and writings from the 17th and 18th centuries, and anything else that could possibly lead to an insight into Bach’s musical practice. Invariably, each interpreter achieves new conclusions and raises new questions forming their own distinctive ideal. In the last decade and a half, the dialogue over Bach’s choral music has been particularly active and fierce with proponents of massive romantic proportions and those who prefer single singers and instrumentalists on a part.
This recording of J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion by Jos van Veldhoven and the Netherlands Bach Society leans toward the “single singer” position with mild modification. In the liner notes, Van Veldhoven puts forth a convincing case to use solo singers, the ‘concertists,’ supplemented by one additional ‘ripienist’ per part for the choral sections. This small ensemble allows for a single instrumentalist on a part as well. The only mild limitation of the small choir is the inability to truly convey the integral link between text and music that Bach creates so vividly in the chorales.
Another interesting contention van Veldhoven makes is that Bach added flutes in later revisions of the work. As a reconstruction of the first performance in 1724, the only wind instruments on this recording are an oboe and oboe d’amore. The immediate result of this omission is a monochromatic sound dominated by strings. The loss of color is most notable in the movements when the flutes provide obbligato to the soprano soloist. In “Ich folge dir gleichfalls,” the solo instrumental line is taken by a violin which seems to work quite well. However, in “Zerfliesse,” the coupling of an oboe on the flute part with the oboe d’more makes a thick reedy sound through which the soprano Caroline Stam has a little difficulty singing.
Overall the musical quality of the recording is superb. The small ensemble plays and sings the piece like chamber music with a communal connection and sensitivity to one another. Gerd Türk admirably narrates the story as the Evangelist and Stephan MacLeod’s Jesus maintains a restrained peace throughout the Passion. Carolyn Stam and the other soloists, Peter de Groot, alto, Charles Daniels, tenor, and Bas Remselaar, bass, all sing with beautiful clarity and emotion. Remselaar’s “Eilt” is the highlight of the recording as he navigates the brisk octave and half runs and florid melismas with a frightening intensity juxtaposed against the calm serenity of the chorus’ chorale.
A final note of praise should extend to van Veldhoven and the recording’s producers. The liner notes are contained in a two hundred page hard bound book with scholarly background information on the Gospel of John’s telling of the Passion story, the sources of Bach’s musical setting, and Veldhoven’s interpretation. Also included are beautiful reproductions of Dutch artwork spanning the 11th through 20th centuries capturing moments in the Passion story. The spacing of this artwork at its corresponding place in text of the work highlights the scholarly intentions of this project. Van Veldhoven’s fine recording captures a vision of the St. John Passion shaped by years of musical, historical, and cultural research.
Adam Luebke
Krassimira Stoyanova at the Rousse Festival
Krassimira Stoyanova In Recital At The 45th March Music Days
Rousse, Bulgaria, 24 March 2005
Her occasional home-coming always turns into a music event in her native Bulgaria. This time Krassimira Stoyanova appeared at the Rousse March Music days in a recital including twenty melodies and songs by opera composers: Gounod, Donizetti, Puccini in the first part and Tchaikovsky and Rahmaninov in the second plus two “encores” by Bulgarian composers Dobri Hristov and Liubomir Pipkov. She performed this same recital at Carnegie Hall on January 18, 2005, accompanied by Yelena Kurdina.
French and Italian opera repertoire is the strong point of this fine Bulgarian soprano who, since 1999, has been a regular at the Vienna National opera on which stage Stoyanova can be seen between April 2 and May, 16 in “La Bohème,” “Simone Boccanegra,” “Falstaff” and “Les Contes d’Hoffman.”
Krassimira Stoyanova is a “sparkly” performer who “catches” the audience from the beginning, making it experience all the drama of the works. From the most dramatic fullness of sorrow and despair like Donizetti’s “La mère et l’enfant” through Gounod’s “A une jeune fille,” Tchaikovsky’s “Ni slovo, o moi drug,” “Snovo kak prezhde, odin” and Rachmaninov’s “Poliubila ya pechal svoiu,” “Ne poi krassavitsa…” to the radiant “Ma belle rebelle” et “Venise” (Gounod), Puccini’s baroque-like “Salve Regina,” “Terra e mare,” “Storiella d’amore,” “Sole e amore” and Rachmaninov’s “Vessennie void,” Stoyanova suggests all the range of emotions with her moving vibrato, lighter in the French melodies and darker in the rest of the songs, large amplitude and subtlety of singing. Some Russian performers could take lessons from her approach to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov: dynamic phrasing, clear diction, observed measure of emotion, sincerity and naturalness, as well as pleasure of singing. Both Donizeti’s songs “La Sultana” and “Ah! Rammenta o bella Irene” (genuine arias), Rachmaninov’s “Ne poi krassavitsa…” and all five Tchaikovsky’s songs were of her best. On the other hand, the variety of the program and, perhaps, because of some problems with the acoustics, some vowels in the French melodies seemed lacking in control of pronunciation.
Both Bulgarian “encores” “Devoiche” by Dobri Hristov and “Lullaby” by Liubomir Pipkov were polar opposites from the point of view of dynamics of phrasing and emotions. The first one was performed with much humor and vitality that thrilled the audience; and the second with great control of the voice and heavenly floated pianissimi.
Maria Prinz was an expressive and careful accompanist who demonstrated a good knowledge of all the three different styles of music, although sometimes her tone sounded a bit loud and hard perhaps due to the peculiarity of the acoustics. Nevertheless, this evening was a great experience for both performers and audience at Rousse, Bulgaria.
Chicago's Ring
Three `Ring’ circus
The Lyric Opera makes a trek up Wagner’s summit — all 16 glorious, daunting hours of it
By John von Rhein [Chicago Tribune, 27 Mar 05]
Ringheads, rejoice! The end of the world is nigh.
So, for that matter, are the flying Valkyries, swimming Rhinemaidens, spinning Norns, fearless heroes, empowered heroines and all the other mythic characters that make Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (“The Ring of the Nibelung”) the greatest, most monumental fairy tale ever composed.
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The timeless appeal of Wagner’s epic
BY WYNNE DELACOMA [Chicago Sun Times, 27 Mar 05]
“We’re getting jazzed,” said a top Lyric staffer last week about the company’s upcoming immersion in Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung.”
They aren’t the only ones. Music lovers throughout the world have been getting jazzed, or the linguistic equivalent appropriate to their era, about Wagner’s four-opera saga since its premiere as a complete cycle in the Franconian town of Bayreuth, Germany, in August 1876.
Loosely based on Nordic mythology, the first “Ring” cycles were presented in a brand-new theater built to Wagner’s specifications. Among the audiences in 1876 were Kaiser Wilhelm, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Saint-Saens, Liszt and a tribe of 60 international music critics, including critics for London’s Daily Telegraph and the New York Times.
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Deborah Voigt: The Comeback Kid
Deborah Voigt
Gastric surgery brings career revival for the soprano rejected by Covent Garden
Opera singer loses 7st after having her stomach stapled
Richard Jinman [The Guardian, 28 Mar 05]
When the soprano Deborah Voigt was dropped from a Covent Garden production of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos last year she claimed it was her inability to fit into a sleek black dress that prompted her dismissal.
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With Surgery, Soprano Sheds a Brünnhilde Body
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 27 Mar 05]
Deborah Voigt, arguably the leading dramatic soprano singing today, has a gleaming voice that easily soars over the largest Wagnerian orchestra. But big voices tend to come in big bodies, and Ms. Voigt, to her dismay, long fit the stereotype of the oversize opera singer.
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Offenbach's Whittington
Jacques Offenbach
South Seas romp for desert island Dick
[Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar 05]
Rupert Christiansen reviews Whittington at the Bloomsbury Theatre
Here is a splendid curiosity - a three-act operetta by Offenbach, written as the 1874 Christmas panto blockbuster for the famous Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square and never subsequently staged in its original form. All credit to the tirelessly exploratory semi-professional University College Opera for its worthwhile revival.
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Mozart's C Minor Mass Reconstructed
Robert Levin
Kritik Osterklang: So logisch klingen nun Trompeten und Pauken im Credo
VON WALTER WEIDRINGER [Die Press, 26 Mar 05]
Mozarts c-Moll-Messe, von Robert Levin rekonstruiert und vervollständigt: Gediegen und frisch musiziert unter Helmuth Rilling.
“Die spart (Partitur, Anm.) von der hälfte einer Messe, welche noch in der besten hoffnung da liegt”, erwähnt Mozart 1783 in einem Brief an seinen Vater. Bei der Hoffnung sollte es bleiben: Sein rätselhaftes Gelöbnis, die c-Moll-Messe zu vollenden, hat Mozart nicht gehalten. Das ehrgeizige Projekt einer umfangreichen Kantatenmesse im Stile von Bachs Schwesterwerk in h-Moll blieb ein Torso. Nur Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus und Benedictus hat Mozart abgeschlossen, nicht alles davon ist jedoch in zweifelsfreier Form erhalten. Vom zentralen Credo existieren gar nur zwei Sätze, noch dazu voller offensichtlicher Instrumentationslücken.
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March 26, 2005
Surprises at Wigmore Hall
Susan Bullock
Susan Bullock
Wigmore Hall, London
Tim Ashley [The Guardian, 26 Mar 05]
Susan Bullock is widely regarded as the finest dramatic soprano to have emerged in the UK for some years. She is an exceptional Wagnerian and many would question why she is not singing Brünnhilde in one of the Rings-in-progress at Covent Garden or English National Opera, particularly since she is already established as an interpreter of the role abroad.
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Strauss, Britten, Wagner, Debussy, Rorem: Susan Bullock (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano) Wigmore hall, 23 March, 2005
Anne Ozorio [Seen & Heard]
The Wigmore Hall’s reputation is based, in part, on presenting carefully chosen new performers. Its famously well-informed audience sets it apart from “any other venue” and gives it a cutting edge. For this concert, the Hall was packed, filled with familiar faces: a sign that this canny audience knew something interesting was afoot.
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Leaving the "Audience Clamoring for More"
Kendra Colton
Handel chills thanks to soprano’s cool
By Richard Dyer [Boston Globe, 26 Mar 05]
Handel had his troubles with sopranos as people. There’s a story that he once grew so enraged he tried to throw one of his divas out the window. On the other hand, no composer has written more knowledgeably and lovingly for the soprano voice than Handel did.
Conductor Grant Llewellyn and the Handel & Haydn Society came up with the idea of a program built around some of the arias he wrote for a few of his favorite soprano voices. The much-recorded Canadian early-music singer Nancy Argenta was supposed to come to sing them, but she canceled about 10 days ago. Boston-based soprano Kendra Colton agreed to step in. A few adjustments were made in the program so that Colton could sing arias that were already in her repertoire, and everything went off without a hitch.
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A Long Night at the Royal Danish Opera
The New Opera House at Copenhagen
The Protocols of Going to the Danish Opera (and Going Home)
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 26 Mar 05]
For a New Yorker accustomed to watching the madcap dash to the exits that typically ensues as soon as a performance ends at the Metropolitan Opera, the relaxed pace and genteel protocols of opera-going in Copenhagen were a balm.
Of course, maybe my recent experience was not typical. The citizens are still abuzz about the new $441 million home of the Royal Danish Opera, which opened in January. Arguments continue about the architectural quality of the imposing structure. But over all the city could not be more excited about its new house.
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In Copenhagen, There’s Music in the Air
Erika Lorentzsen [Washington Post, 27 Mar 05]
Months before its completion, it was clear that something intriguing was taking shape at Copenhagen’s former Royal Naval Dockyard. A huge glass sphere topped by a flat roof, the evolving structure became a standout in a city known for its innovative architecture and design.
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Rape of Lucretia
Rape of Lucretia (After Guido Cagnacci)
Rape of Lucretia
Hilary Finch at St John’s, Smith Square [Times Online, 26 Mar 05]
NO BETTER time than Easter to plead the cause of Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera. Forged in the same white fire of creative energy as Peter Grimes, Lucretia can remain problematic because of the apparent moralising of the framing Chorus. But watching this play of passion in a week of Passions certainly put things into context.
Peter Hoare’s robust tenor, and Geraldine McGreevy’s serene soprano, as Male and Female Chorus, urged us to see “through eyes which have wept with Christ’s own tears”. And, for those with ears to hear, Britten is not Christianising so much as providing an archetype of the eternal redemptive man of sorrows.
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The Independent Interviews Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu: Born to sing of suffering
Angela Gheorghiu, the diva of the age, has a special affinity for the tragic heroines of Puccini’s operas. ‘I, too, have tears in my voice,’ the soprano tells Lynne Walker
[The Independent, 25 Mar 05]
“If Puccini were alive today, I’d be in love with him. I am sure of it. He knew how to write for sopranos: he really loved them,” says Angela Gheorghiu. And this soprano knows Puccini’s heroines well, having most of them in her repertoire or in her plans. On her latest CD, a handsomely packaged set from EMI, she steps into the shoes of all his major soprano characters, with the exception of the adulterous Giorgetta in Puccini’s most impressionistic score, Il Tabarro.
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A Delicate Drama at Merkin Hall
Degas: Singer in Green
You’ve Never Heard Wagner Like This
BY FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun, 25 Mar 05]
When opera singers reach a certain level of fame and stature, they almost invariably express the desire to present song recitals as well. Often the problem is that they have little training in this specialized art and too much practice in their own stylistic niche. As a result, many highly publicized evenings at Carnegie or Alice Tully turn out to be woeful disappointments, proving only the lack of adaptability of many of our best singers.
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Is it curtains for Muti?
Riccardo Muti (Photo: Theresia Linke)
Maestro in a maelstrom
By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 25 ar 05]
Leaflets distributed this week outside La Scala opera house in Milan announced the world premiere of “an opera of a few minutes (because that’s enough)”, composed by the theatre’s audience. The music consisted of loud heckling whenever members of La Scala’s orchestra appeared. The libretto was curt: “Don’t touch the maestro. Riccardo Muti belongs to art. He belongs to us!”
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March 25, 2005
Handel's Sosarme at Theater St. Gallen
Christophe Dumaux (Sosarme)
Koloraturgefechte
Familienaufstellung in der Barockoper: Händels “Sosarme” am Theater St. Gallen
Vital und virtuos lässt Alan Curtis mit seinem Barockensemble Händels vergessene Oper “Sosarme” in der Schweizer Erstaufführung am Theater St. Gallen wiederauferstehen. Die Regie jedoch spart mit Fleisch und Blut.
Bettina Kugler [St. Galler Tagblatt, 25 Mar 05]
Mit noblem Herrschergestus rückt der feine junge Herr im weissen Anzug fürs Schlusstableau die Opernwirklichkeit zurecht. Unvermittelt angeschmachtet von der Liebsten und scheinbar ohne Rücksicht auf den eben ausgefochtenen tragischen Höhepunkt des Familienzwists, von dem hier im Heldenton einer Opera Seria drei Stunden lang die Rede war, darf Fernando alias Sosarme die Totgeglaubten wieder aufrichten und dann, ganz cleverer Familientherapeut, die Sache mit einer zeitgeistigen Aufstellung zu Ende bringen.
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Moscow Celebrates the Golden Mask Festival
Scene from The Mariinsky’s production of The Nose (nominated for best opera production)
Going Behind the Mask
Once again, Moscow’s yearly drama extravaganza features the best drama from all over Russia.
By John Freedman [Moscow Times, 25 Mar 05]
In all the years of its existence, the Golden Mask Festival has been nothing if not a study in contrasts — no other Russian festival embraces as fully the multiplicity of the performing arts. Once a year, for just over two weeks in the spring, the best Russian opera singers, ballet dancers, dramatic actors, directors, conductors, puppeteers and other sundry performing artists gather to show their stuff and compete for the coveted Golden Mask award.
This time, having reached its 11th year, the festival has gone to great lengths to reach the outer limits of large and small.
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An Interview with Peter Schreier
Peter Schreier
Von Bach kann die Kirche lernen
Zur Matthäus-Passion: Gespräch mit Peter Schreier
[Merkur Online, 25 Mar 05]
“200 oder 300” Matthäus-Passionen hat Peter Schreier (69) schon hinter sich, als Sänger, seit den 80er-Jahren in der Doppelfunktion als dirigierender Evangelist. So auch an diesem Karfreitag im Gasteig, wenn er das Opus mit dem Münchener Bach-Chor aufführt (14.30 Uhr, Live-übertragung auf Bayern 4). Und damit wohl zum letzten Mal hier zu hören sein wird: Zum Jahresende will Schreier, einer der grössten Bach-, Mozart- und Schubert-Interpreten unserer Zeit, seine Gesangskarriere beenden.
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March 24, 2005
Operatic Detritus
John Harbison
Wrestling With a ‘Lolita’ Opera and Losing
By DANIEL J. WAKIN [NY Times, 24 Mar 05]
In an introduction to the score for his “Darkbloom: Overture for an Imagined Opera,” which will have its premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra tonight, John Harbison calls the piece the remnant of a misguided project, an “unproduceable” opera based on a “famous and infamous” American novel.
What made it unproduceable, at least in part, was the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal involving priests and minors, Mr. Harbison said in an interview this week. The novel was Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” a work about a man’s passion for an adolescent girl.
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U Carmen E Khayelitsha Premieres
Scene from U Carmen E Khayelitsha
Changing SA’s townships through opera
By Nick Miles [BBC News, 24 Mar 05]
As the limousines arrive at the premiere of an award winning film version of Carmen, U Carmen E Khayelitsha, they have to slow down for a group of barefooted children pushing shopping trolleys filled with scrap metal across the road.
Welcome to a movie premiere in a South African township.
Outside the venue for the premiere - a converted sports hall in the impoverished former township of Khayelitsha - life is hard, rows of shacks with corrugated iron roofs stretch into the distance.
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Trouble at the Bolshoi
 |  |
| Leonid Desyatnikov (Composer) | Vladimir Sorokin (Libretto) |
STATE DUMA WANTS TO CANCEL PREMIERE IN BOLSHOI
MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian State Duma has ordered its committee for culture to check the information about the staging of the opera Rosenthal’s Children after Vladimir Sorokin’s libretto in the new building of the Bolshoi Theater.
A relevant decision was made at the Wednesday plenary session. All in all, 226 deputies voted for this decision, 12 deputies voted against and nobody abstained from voting.
This was an initiative of State Duma deputy Sergei Neverov (United Russia faction).
Speaking at the plenary session, Mr. Neverov said it was necessary to urgently specify and inform the MPs about the supposed performance. The opera’s premiere is scheduled for March 23.
“We should prevent the staging of Mr. Sorokin’s vulgar plays in the theater which is a symbol of Russian culture. Otherwise, this pornography will be discussed all over Russia,” Mr. Neverov stressed.
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Bolshoi embroiled in row over ‘pornographic’ opera
Tom Parfitt in Moscow [The Guardian, 4 Mar 05]
A scandal has engulfed the Bolshoi Theatre after pro-Kremlin MPs ordered an investigation into an opera which they claim is “vulgar and pornographic”.
Rosenthal’s Children, which features a godlike figure who creates clones of famous composers, was to open later this month.
The libretto was written by Vladimir Sorokin, a controversial postmodernist author, whose novel Blue Lard caused outrage in Russia with scenes of homosexual liaisons between the Soviet leaders Stalin and Khrushchev.
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L’Opéra Bolchoïaut; de Moscou dénonce le retour de la censure
[Le Monde, 10 Mar 05]
Les députés ont exigé une “vérification” de la moralité d’un opéra.
Moscou correspondance
Le temps de la censure artistique est-il en train de revenir en Russie ? Le Bolchoïaut; risque de faire les frais de ce retour. Mercredi 2 mars, un député de la Douma, Sergueïaut; Neverov, a fait voter par l’assemblée une résolution demandant la “vérification” par la commission de la culture de la moralité d’un opéra, Les Enfants de Rosenthal, dont les représentations devaient commencer le 23 mars (Le Monde du 5 mars). Première commande musicale passée par l’Opéra moscovite depuis vingt-cinq ans, l’œuvre a été élaborée par l’écrivain Vladimir Sorokine et le compositeur Leonid Dessiatnikov.
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Genetically modified Mozart
A new opera about clones is raising hell at the Bolshoi - and it hasn’t even opened yet. Vadim Prokhorov reports
[The Guardian, 16 Mar 05]
It’s rare for a new opera to get the kind of controversial publicity associated with rap artists and Hollywood movies. But that’s what’s happening at the Bolshoi. As soon as it was announced, three years ago, that the Bolshoi was going to produce its first Russian contemporary opera in a quarter of a century, all hell broke loose. The shadowy anti-communist youth group, Moving Together, whose members wear T-shirts featuring Vladimir Putin as a sign of their support for the Russian president, began staging noisy demonstrations in front of the theatre and the residence of Alexander Vedernikov, the music director.
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Under Siege
As the Bolshoi prepares for the debut of “Rosenthal’s Children,” composer Leonid Desyatnikov discusses his controversial creation.
By Raymond Stults [Moscow Times, 18 Mar 05]
New operas by Russian and Soviet composers once played a prominent part in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater. But nearly 26 years have passed since the theater last produced an operatic world premiere. On Wednesday, the long drought will finally end with the staging of “Rosenthal’s Children,” a work fresh from the pens of composer Leonid Desyatnikov and writer Vladimir Sorokin.
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Protests over Bolshoi ‘porn’ opera
[CNN, 23 Mar 05]
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has sparked outrage by putting on an opera that some lawmakers and a pro-Kremlin youth group say is pornographic.
The opera, “Rosenthal’s Children,” is about a scientist who clones five great classical composers — Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Wagner, Mussorgsky and Verdi.
The scientist then dies, and the cloned musicians — unprepared for life on their own in the 1990s — end up on the street.
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Protests fail to halt Russian opera
Tom Parfitt in Moscow [The Guardian, 24 Mar 05]
Rosenthal’s Children, the opera branded “pornographic” by Russian MPs, premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow last night despite noisy protests outside and opprobrium from its detractors.
More than 200 protesters from the pro-Kremlin youth movement Moving Together gathered outside the theatre, shouting: “Sorokin - out of the Bolshoi.”
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“Les enfants de Rosenthal”, opéra au parfum de scandale, triomphe au Bolchoïaut;
[AFP, 24 Mar 05]
MOSCOU (AFP) - “Les enfants de Rosenthal”, nouvelle production du Bolchoïaut; au coeur d’une controverse entre défenseurs de l’ordre moral et tenants de la liberté artistique, a reçu un accueil triomphal du public pour sa première représentation mercredi soir.
“Formidable, remarquable, très contemporain, nous pensons que c’est une victoire pour ce théâtre”, s’enthousiasme un groupe de mélomanes dès la fermeture du rideau.
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Sometimes It's The Little Things
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Acoustical Tales: What Concert Halls Get Wrong
By BARBARA JEPSON [Wall Street Journal, 24 Mar 05]
A new wave of distinctive 21st-century concert halls is changing the look and feel of classical music performance in the U.S. These halls have impressive architectural pedigrees and price tags — Frank Gehry designed the $275 million Disney Hall in Los Angeles; Rafael Vinoly, the $265 million Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; Santiago Calatrava, the coming $300 million Atlanta Symphony Center. Most of them, like architect William Rawn’s $99 million Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, Md., shun the gilded, red-velvet opulence of traditional European models in favor of Modernist simplicity. They also strive for heightened spatial intimacy between audience and performer: Disney Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has terraced seating areas surrounding the stage.
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Four Operas at the Budapest Spring Festival
Budapest Opera House
Four cheers for opera
By Kevin Shopland [Budapest Sun, 24 Mar 05]
FOUR operas, more than four reasons to go. The operas: Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Péter Eötvös’s The Balcony, Wagner’s Parsifal, and Handel’s Semele.The reasons to go: great music, top performers, the best conductors, inventive directors, and two truly excellent performance spaces.
All four operas are being given within the framework of the Budapest Spring Festival. Lady Macbeth and Parsifal will be given at the Hungarian State Opera, one of the most opulent, beautiful and human-scaled opera houses anywhere.
The Balcony and Semele will be given in the brand new Festival Theater in the just christened Palace of Arts, a world class building that has all the critics talking.
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Leontyne Price & Samuel Barber: Historic Performances (1938 - 1953)
This CD preserves a landmark recital in which Barber accompanied Price in a program of art songs at the Library of Congress, which was given on 30 October 1953 in honor of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Part of that recital was the premiere of Barber’s Hermit Songs, op. 29, a work commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation of the Library of Congress.
This recital was broadcast at the time and some may know the performance of the Hermit Songs found on this release from its earlier release on CD (RCA Victor Gold Seal 61983). Yet the concert is available in its entirety only with this recording, which includes the other music Price and Barber performed then: Quatre Poèmes de Paul Eluard by Francis Poulenc, La Voyante by Henri Sauget, along with several other songs by Poulenc, Fauré, and Barber. The choice of music for the recital is excellent, with Sauget’s La Voyante (“the medium,” which evokes Menotti’s opera of the same name) emerging as a particularly memorable cycle. In 1953 American modernism had not yet taken its cues as strongly from serialism as would occur in the next decade. At this point, modern American composers like Barber benefited from their strong association with French modernism as embodied by the composers found in this program.
The recording shows the young Price as a nuanced interpreter of song. Those who know Price from her work in opera should appreciate the details she brings to this recital of almost chamber-music intensity. The evenness of register and clarity of line, two qualities of Price’s voice throughout her career, are clearly present in this relatively early recital. At this early in her career Price approached the music for this recital with assuredness and finesse, which adds to the attraction of this CD. At the same time, Barber shows himself to be a fine interpreter of his own music and also a memorable accompanist. Barber does not merely attend to the details of his own works at the expense of the others, but rather treats the other composers in the program in the same meticulous way.
In addition to Leontyne Price’s recital, this recording includes a program of songs that was broadcast on 26 December 1938 (through the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia) in which Barber accompanies himself. This recital shows the composer’s own voice well, as he performs six folk songs and six Lieder, roughly half an hour of music. As much as a recording like this may be regarded as a curiosity of sorts with the composer as performer, the fine singing and playing by Barber shows the high-level of musicianship he conveyed.
This CD is a wonderful addition to the series of Great Performances from the Library of Congress. The series already includes some remarkable chamber music, as found in the first CD in the series, a program by the Budapest String Quartet with George Szell as pianist and other memorable performances. The prospect of other such releases makes this a series worth watching. For now, this release of these performances by Price and Barber merits interest as an historic recording and also for the high quality of performance it preserves.
James L. Zychowicz
Madison, Wisconsin
image=http://www.operatoday.com/images/408.jpg
image_description=Leontyne Price & Samuel Barber: Historic Performances (1938 & 1953)
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product_title=Leontyne Price & Samuel Barber: Historic Performances (1938 & 1953)
Great Performances from the Library of Congress, Vol. 19
product_by=Leontyne Price (soprano) and Samuel Barber (baritone and piano)
product_id=Bridge 9156 [CD]
Parsifal Gets Poor Reception in Berlin
Hanno Müller-Brachmann as Amfortas (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)
Kein Gral weit und breit
Buhkonzert in der Staatsoper: Bernd Eichingers Bühnendebüt “Parsifal” ist müdes Stehtheater
Von Klaus Geitel [Berliner Morgenpost, 21 Mar 05]
Noch nie gab es im Entrée zur Staatsoper ein derartiges Photographengedrängel. Die Kameraleute boxten sich beinahe um die besseren Positionen. Und das alles bei der Premiere des “Parsifal”. Es war, als habe unversehens Hollywood die Produktion übernommen. Dabei war doch bloss die Erstlingsregie von Bernd Eichinger in den heiligen Hallen der Oper angesagt.
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Punk Parsifal provokes outrage in Berlin
Krysia Diver in Stuttgart [The Guardian, 22 Mar 05]
It is one of the world’s great opera houses, used to being filled by some of music’s finest voices.
But the sound ringing around the Staatsoper in Berlin last weekend was of a different sort.
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Brust, Bauch, Helm, Speer
Von Eleonore Bünning [FAZ, 21 Mar 05]
21. März 2005 Als “Winterbayreuth” hat sich die Lindenoper in Berlin schon oft verkleidet, nicht erst seit den grossen Kupfer-Barenboim-Wagnerfestivals der neunziger Jahre. An diesem Abend trägt sie den Titel zu Recht. Die neue “Parsifal”-Produktion, die fortan im Spielplan die zwar langweilige, aber regiehandwerklich superkorrekte Inszenierung von Harry Kupfer aus dem Jahr 1992 ersetzen soll, tritt auf wie ein Gegenentwurf zur schrillen Bayreuther “Parsifal”Premiere des vorigen Sommers.
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They booed? That’s great!
[The Guardian, 23 Mar 05]
A controversial new production of Wagner’s “punk” Parsifal, by Bernd Eichinger, film-maker and writer of Downfall, provoked outrage when it was premiered in Berlin last Saturday. Here he defends his production.
A lot of critics complained that it was staged too close to the orchestra. But that is not a failure - that is exactly what I wanted to do. In a Wagner opera, you have to understand that there are more than 100 musicians; it is a big orchestra, big music. In order that the singers can really be appreciated you have to bring the action forward, closer to the audience. If you put them too far away in the distance of the stage you hear less.
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Parsifal, Staatsoper, Berlin
By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 22 Mar 05]
“Can we have your liver?” the Knights of the Holy Grail ask Amfortas. “But I’m using it!” the king protests. To no avail. Resigned, he reaches into his torso and produces a palpitating organ. Just in time for Mass!
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Der Rosenkavalier at the Met
Richard Strauss
Lushly Lamenting the Wages of Time and a Lost Golden Age
By JEREMY EICHLER [NY Times, 15 Mar 05]
Some operas sound out universal themes, while others capture the precise fears and longings of the worlds from which they were born. Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier” does both, through the vehicle of a romantic comedy with a rapturous score that has been cherished by opera lovers since its premiere in 1911. It made a successful return to the Metropolitan Opera repertory on Friday in Nathaniel Merrill’s popular production, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
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Der Rosenkavalier, Metropolitan Opera, New York
By Martin Bernheimer, Richard Fairman and Brendan Lemon [Financial Times, 23 Mar 05]
The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier is supposed to be no older than 32 - sensitive, sensual and emphatically sensible. Richard Strauss told us so. She is seldom played that way. Over the decades, the role has become the specialty of well-upholstered divas of a certain age who stress regal pathos at the expense of erotic allure. It wasn’t like that, however, on Friday at the Met, where Angela Denoke basked in revisionist revelation.
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March 23, 2005
New Digs for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Conservatory celebrates progress on swanky new home
David Wiegand [SF Chronicle, 23 Mar 05]
A month shy of the halfway point in the 26-month construction of its new Civic Center home, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music started the party early last week with a ceremony to “top out” the new building on Oak Street.
Conservatory President Colin Murdoch, students, faculty members, architects, builders, former Mayor Willie Brown, the all-important money- givers and others were on hand to sign a white-painted steel beam that was raised into place atop the framework of the $80 million project, which will open in fall 2006.
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Orlando Furioso at New York City Opera
Antonio Vivaldi
The Lost Rigors of the Baroque
BY FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun, 21 Mar 05]
Jorge Luis Borges used to teach that there were only five or six basic stories in all of world literature. A fan of Baroque opera might be forgiven for thinking that there were only a few actual stories, and that “Orlando Furioso” was the primary one. Soon after Vivaldi composed two operas on the subject, George Friedrich Handel fashioned three. The first in the trilogy, 1733’s “Orlando,” was premiered on Sunday afternoon in a new production at City Opera.
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Trading the Dangers of War for the Perils of Love
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 22 Mar 05]
For the new production of Handel’s remarkable opera “Orlando” that opened on Sunday afternoon, the New York City Opera has assembled a splendid cast, headed by the exciting countertenor Bejun Mehta in the title role. Still, if a Handel opera is not to seem like a stagy succession of da capo arias in which characters simply posture themselves and proclaim emotions, a production must help the singers penetrate the beguiling musical surface to tap the dramatic subtext. The director Chas Rader-Shieber’s enchanting production, introduced two years ago at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., does this and more.
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Making a good case for making war, not love
BY JUSTIN DAVIDSON [Newsday, 23 Mar 05]
Handel’s opera “Orlando” is a seductive broadside against love, and New York City Opera’s new production makes this distaste for romance seem irresistible for a while.
When the titular knight goes soft, the magician Zoroastro intervenes to warn him away from the vagaries of passion. Better, he counsels, to stick to such sensible, manly stuff as vengeance, mayhem and murder: Make war, not love.
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Madama Butterfly at Covent Garden
Cristina Gallardo-Domâs (Photo: www.gallardo-domas.com)
Madama Butterfly
John Allison at Covent Garden [Times Online, 23 Mar 05]
IT’S STRANGE that such a basically fine performance can leave so many question marks, but that is perhaps the peculiarity of Madama Butterfly. Puccini’s shabby little shogun shocker contains some of the composer’s greatest music, yet it is put to such shallow, manipulative ends that anyone who likes their opera to be more than a high-class musical is likely to come away feeling unsatisfied. At least the Royal Opera’s latest revival is musically rewarding, and boasts one of today’s leading interpreters of the title role, but the picture-book production shows little willingness to tackle the problem.
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Tosca at the Met
Maria Guleghina as Tosca (Photo: www.mariaguleghina.com)
The Bells of Castel Sant’Angelo
BY FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun 23 Mar 05]
To this day, many sophisticated music lovers dismiss Puccini as a panderer or even a hack. But his supreme craftsmanship is the best refutation of this position. So dedicated was he to creating just the right effect for “Tosca” that he came before dawn one morning to the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome and faithfully recorded the actual pitches of all of the church bells that can be heard there throughout the early hours, including those of the Basilica of Saint Peter’s.
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Salvatore Licitra as Cavaradossi
Last-Minute Hero Revisits the Scene of His Triumph
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 23 Mar 05]
Originally, the Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra’s performance in Puccini’s “Tosca” at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night was to have been his Met debut. Being a behemoth international company, the Met must make casting plans years in advance and this performance had long been on the books.
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March 22, 2005
An Eye On The Prize
Susanna Phillips
Ex-Huntsville resident wows Metropolitan Opera for $15K prize
By HOWARD MILLER [Huntsville Times, 22 Mar 05]
Susanna Phillips one of four eligible for Met’s program
Soprano Susanna Phillips, a former Huntsville resident, is among the four top winners picked Sunday in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York.
Phillips won $15,000 toward her studies and eligibility to be considered for the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
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In a Contest of Young Voices, a Battle Over What May Be
By BERNARD HOLLAND [NY Times, 22 Mar 05]
Having gone through more than 1,500 entries, 22 regional winners, 9 finalists ending with 4 grand prizes, another year of Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions are done. The final nine sang at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday afternoon, and to show how well auditions and apprentice programs work (and to give judges time to make up their minds), four singing alumni of the Met programs rounded out the afternoon.
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A Symphony for Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Stories that make music
Hans Christian Andersen was fascinated by musicians, and his fairy tales, in turn, have inspired 10 Danish composers to write in his honour
By Jessica Duchen [The Independent, 21 Mar 05]
The words of Symphonic Fairytales are not by a musician, but by one of the 19th century’s most extraordinary writers: Hans Christian Andersen. The Danish fairy-tale author’s bicentenary falls on 2 April this year and a worldwide project is under way to celebrate him in music. Ten Danish composers have been commissioned to write pieces based on his stories; as part of this, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), Chorus and Youth Chorus has achieved quite a coup with a new work from Per Norgard, Denmark’s musical éminence grise, which they will premiere on Andersen’s birthday at Symphony Hall.
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Handel's Ezio at the London Handel Festival
Countertenor Tim Mead (Ezio)
Ezio
Britten Theatre, London
Erica Jeal [The Guardian, 17 Mar 05]
Ditched after five performances following its 1732 London premiere, and only occasionally dusted off since, Handel’s opera Ezio hasn’t been staged in Britain for a quarter of a century - which makes it prime material for exhumation by this year’s London Handel Festival.
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Click here for program information regarding the London Handel Festival.
Ezio
Robert Thicknesse at Britten Theatre, SW7 [Times Online, 21 Mar. 05]
THE curtain rises on Black-adder-land — epicene monarch, black-clad baddie, hooped ladies and preening hero — and you think, hmm, three hours of trying to turn opera seria into comedy could be a bit wearing. Worst fears aren’t entirely realised, but if you don’t trust Handel to hold an audience with a serious exploration of relationship and motivation, why bother?
The London Handel Festival has brought us some notable rarities from among the man’s operas, and this one too has seldom been seen; but if the performance falls short, it’s not because the piece is rubbish.
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Peter Grimes in Salzburg
Benjamin Britten
Die alten bösen Bilder
VON WILHELM SINKOVICZ [Die Presse, 21 Mar 05]
Brittens “Peter Grimes” wie aus der Gemäldegalerie.
Salzburg zur Osterzeit steht heuer ganz im Zeichen Benjamin Brittens. Nun ist “Peter Grimes”, die Festspiel oper Anno 2005, auch schon 60 Jahre alt, aber von einer Verankerung im internationalen Repertoire kann, wenn überhaupt, erst in allerjüngster Zeit die Rede sein. Jetzt, da das Stück von der Tragödie des Individuums in der Zeit der Vermassung aktueller denn je scheint, setzen es die meisten grossen Häuser auf den Spielplan. Zeit also, bei einem Festival ein mustergültige Produktion zu präsentieren, scheint das Kalkül Simon Rattles gewesen zu sein, der damit den Festspielgedanken so unzeitgemäss wie richtig interpretiert. Zumindest in der Theorie. Man muss vielleicht ein bisschen weiter ausholen, um zu definieren, warum eine Inszenierung, wie sie Trevor Nunn im grossen Festspielhaus vorgestellt hat, in diesem Fall ein wenig zu kurz greift.
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Peter Grimes
Erica Jeal [The Guardian, 22 Mar 05]
The swish of expensive fabric, the chatter of the great and good, the click of paparazzi cameras - the Salzburg Easter festival is here again, and the foyer of the Grosses Festspielhaus is a stage in itself. Glyndebourne may appear posh, but at least there you don’t end up apologising for treading on somebody’s train.
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Salzbourg, l’heure anglaise
Salzbourg : de notre envoyé spécial Christian Merlin [Le Figaro, 22 mar 05]
Simon Rattle met les rives de la Salzach à l’heure anglaise, en faisant de Benjamin Britten le noyau de la programmation du Festival de Pâques de Salzbourg 2005.
Si étonnant que cela puisse paraître, Peter Grimes, pourtant solidement ancré au répertoire international depuis sa création en 1945, n’avait jamais été joué à Salzbourg.
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Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performs Pergolesi and Rossi
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Baroque, but Swelling and Fading Into Another Era’s Style
By ALLAN KOZINN [NY Times, 22 Mar 05]
As a seasonal concert, with a mildly ecumenical touch, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra played a concert of sacred music in the Medieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday evening (with a repeat tonight). The principal offering was Pergolesi’s dramatic, deeply emotional setting of the Stabat Mater. It was preceded by string arrangements of six pieces by Salamone Rossi, a Jewish composer who worked in Mantua, Italy, around the same time as Monteverdi, and wrote Hebrew Psalm and prayer settings in a lively madrigal style.
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Rossini's Il turco in Italia in Hamburg
Scene from Il turco in Italia
Die Tigerin ist verschnurrt: Rossinis Oper “Türke in Italien” in Hamburg
von Manuel Brug [Die Welt, 22 Mar 05]
“Es werde Lichter”, sprach der Libretto-Dichter und liess die Buffa-Puppen tanzen. Keine Charakter, sondern Typen, irgendwie geboren im ganz normalen Uraufführungswahnsinn italienischer Opernhäuser im frühen 19. Jahrhundert; fest am Faden hängend und ganz nach Bedarf herumgeschoben von ihren Schöpfern. Dieser Poeta in Gioachino Rossinis “Türke in Italien”, der sich und seine Erfindungsnöte vorlaut zum Thema einer komischen Oper macht, ist ein ziemlich einmaliger Fall. Und deshalb immer öfter ein gefundenen Fressen als Alter Ergo für seine Regisseure.
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Simon Rattle Stirs Things Up At Salzburg
Simon Rattle
Was wird aus Osterfestspielen?
VON WILHELM SINKOVICZ [Die Presse, 22 Mar 05]
Britten, Debussy und ein “Ring” aus Aix. Simon Rattle wirft in Salzburg alle alten Bräuche über den Haufen.
Da ist einmal das quirlige künstleri sche Ego des neuen Mannes: Si mon Rattle, als Nachfolger Clau dio Abbados bei den Berliner Philharmoniker sozusagen naturgemäss auch Chef der Salzburger Osterfestspiele, ist schon von seinem Selbstverständnis her das Gegenteil des Festivalgründers Karajan. Der hatte 19