Recently in Performances

ETO Autumn 2020 Season Announcement: Lyric Solitude

English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.

Love, always: Chanticleer, Live from London … via San Francisco

This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).

Dreams and delusions from Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper at Wigmore Hall

Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.

Treasures of the English Renaissance: Stile Antico, Live from London

Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.

A wonderful Wigmore Hall debut by Elizabeth Llewellyn

Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.

The Sixteen: Music for Reflection, live from Kings Place

For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.

Iestyn Davies and Elizabeth Kenny explore Dowland's directness and darkness at Hatfield House

'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’

Paradise Lost: Tête-à-Tête 2020

‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’

Joyce DiDonato: Met Stars Live in Concert

There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.

‘Where All Roses Go’: Apollo5, Live from London

‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields 're-connect'

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.

Lucy Crowe and Allan Clayton join Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO at St Luke's

The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.

Choral Dances: VOCES8, Live from London

With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.

Royal Opera House Gala Concert

Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.

Fading: The Gesualdo Six at Live from London

"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."

Met Stars Live in Concert: Lise Davidsen at the Oscarshall Palace in Oslo

The doors at The Metropolitan Opera will not open to live audiences until 2021 at the earliest, and the likelihood of normal operatic life resuming in cities around the world looks but a distant dream at present. But, while we may not be invited from our homes into the opera house for some time yet, with its free daily screenings of past productions and its pay-per-view Met Stars Live in Concert series, the Met continues to bring opera into our homes.

Precipice: The Grange Festival

Music-making at this year’s Grange Festival Opera may have fallen silent in June and July, but the country house and extensive grounds of The Grange provided an ideal setting for a weekend of twelve specially conceived ‘promenade’ performances encompassing music and dance.

Monteverdi: The Ache of Love - Live from London

There’s a “slide of harmony” and “all the bones leave your body at that moment and you collapse to the floor, it’s so extraordinary.”

Music for a While: Rowan Pierce and Christopher Glynn at Ryedale Online

“Music for a while, shall all your cares beguile.”

A Musical Reunion at Garsington Opera

The hum of bees rising from myriad scented blooms; gentle strains of birdsong; the cheerful chatter of picnickers beside a still lake; decorous thwacks of leather on willow; song and music floating through the warm evening air.

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Performances

Jamie Barton as Adalgisa in LA Opera's 2015 production of
30 Nov 2015

LA Opera Norma: A Feast for the Ears

Vincenzo Bellini composed Norma to a libretto that Felice Romani had fashioned after Alexandre Soumet’s French play, Norma, ossia L'infanticidio (Norma, or The Infanticide).

LA Opera Norma: A Feast for the Ears

A review by Maria Nockin

Above: Jamie Barton as Adalgisa [Photo by Ken Howard]

 

The Teatro alla Scala in Milan gave the first performance in 1831, on the day after Christmas. The role of Norma was written for Giuditta Pasta who regularly sang leading bel canto roles in London, Paris, Milan and Naples between 1824 and 1837. Besides Norma, Pasta created the title role in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Amina in Bellini’s La sonambula. Maria Callas, the most famous bel canto diva of the twentieth century, portrayed Norma in eighty-nine performances with important opera companies around the world.

On Saturday evening, November 21, 2015, Los Angeles Opera premiered Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma in a production by Anne Bogart that was originally seen at the Washington National Opera. It featured a severely raked minimal set by Neil Patel and colorful, luxurious costumes by James Schuette. Like many operas of the bel canto era, Norma is more about singing than acting and LAO assembled an outstanding cast that easily handled Bellini’s difficult music.

Angela Meade was the Druid priestess and dedicated virgin who had secretly borne two children to her Roman lover. Meade sang her music in the grand style of this seminal opera. Despite an occasional shrill high note, her singing grew in authority, confidence and effect as the voice warmed and her “Casta Diva” was emotionally and dramatically eloquent. Although not much action was played out on stage, this Norma always used her vocal resources to express the drama.

Bellini used simple technical methods of instrumentation, together with long melodies bolstered by conventional harmony, to produce the passionate emotional qualities of the score. Casting some of the finest singers performing today, Bogart relied on their ability to act with their voices and she allowed them to put the story of the love triangle across the footlights with their vocal colorations. She showed the Gauls’ dislike of Roman occupation by her treatment of Grant Gershon’s chorus, members of which sang their melodic and rhythmic lines with gusto.

The most beautiful voice in the performance belonged to debutante mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton who sang a creamy-smooth Adalgisa. It’s unfortunate that her character has no aria, but Barton showed her virtuosity in a most exquisite rendering of the duet “Mira o Norma.” Also debuting that night, tenor Russell Thomas was Pollione, the Roman proconsul in Gaul. Because Pollione has betrayed Norma with Adalgisa it is an ungrateful part, but Thomas sang it with a powerful dark voice that he used in fine bel canto style. Morris Robinson’s Oroveso commanded the stage and provided all the breadth, dignity and ocean-deep sonority that Bellini's music demanded.

Two members of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program sang the parts of Flavio and Clotilde. Rafael Moras and Lacey Jo Benter showed great promise and proved they can hold the stage with the best singers of our age. Choreographer Barney O’Hanlon’s dancers reminded us that the piece takes place in a Druid stronghold and they added to its religious aspect. James Conlon’s masterly conducting grounded and emphasized the beauty of the singing. His translucent interpretation reminded listeners of the numerous simple but original strokes of genius to be found in Bellini's instrumentation. Sometimes opera is great theater, at other times it is simply incredible singing. Los Angeles Opera’s Norma was a feast for the ears.

Maria Nockin


Cast and production information:

Conductor, James Conlon; Director, Anne Bogart; Set Designer, Neil Patel; Costume Designer, James Schuette; Lighting Designer, Duane Schuler; Chorus Director, Grant Gershon; Choreographer, Barney O’Hanlon; Oroveso, Morris Robinson; Pollione, Russell Thomas; Flavio, Rafael Moras; Norma, Angela Meade; Adalgisa, Jamie Barton; Clotilde, Lacey Jo Benter.

Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):