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.
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 …).
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.
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.
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.
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’.
‘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.’
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.
‘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 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’.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
On March 12, 2016, Los Angeles Opera presented the local premiere of Lee Blakeley’s staging of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly which had been seen in 2010 at Santa Fe Opera. When Blakeley’s Geisha, played magnificently by Ana Maria Martinez, forsakes her traditional religion and breaks the rules of her culture, she eventually faces a choice between total loss of honor and suicide. Everything that happened on the stage Saturday night pointed toward the tragedy. Puccini’s unforgettable music and exquisite singing by Los Angeles Opera’s top-notch cast kept audience members on the edges of their seats all evening.
Puccini and librettist Giuseppe Adami later wrote in Il Tabarro: “Chi ha vissuto per amore, per amore si mori. (Who has lived for love, dies for love).”
American lawyer John Luther Long wrote the original short story, Madame Butterfly based on the recollections of his sister who went to Japan with her husband, a Protestant missionary. Another influence on Long’s story was the 1887 novel, Madame Chrysanthème by French naval lieutenant Julien Viaud writing as Pierre Loti. He tells of a naval officer and a geisha who were temporarily married while he was stationed in Nagasaki. Most likely Puccini heard French composer André Messager’s 1893 opera, Madame Chrysanthème, based on the Loti work. We know that when the Italian composer was in London he saw the turn-of-the-century play David Belasco based on Long’s story, Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan.
Ana Maria Martinez’s interpretation demonstrated to audience members that she studied her character thoroughly from both a musical and a dramatic point of view. Her vivid portrayal showed details in pose, gesture, and expression that made Butterfly a flesh and blood woman. Martinez completed her characterization with brilliant vocal artistry that included clear, well-focused tones replete with emotional color. Thus, her aria, "Un bel di," became part of a continuous action propelling her toward tragedy.
Milena Kitic was a warm voiced, dramatically believable Suzuki who sang meaningfully and with beautiful tones that blended sensitively with the voice of her mistress. Stefano Secco’s Pinkerton was a thoughtless oaf who never considered the feelings of anyone but himself. He sang with a warm Italianate voice but his tones were a bit tight at the very top of his range.
Ana Maria Martinez (kneeling) as Cio-Cio-San, with Milena Kitic as Suzuki and Stefano Secco as Pinkerton
The surprise of the evening was Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program (YAP) member Kihun Yoon who brought distinction to the role of Sharpless with his strong, resonant voice and his characterization of the American consul as a sentient human being. As Cio-Cio San’s uncle, the Bonze, Nicholas Brownlee (YAP) was an outstanding actor. Keith Jameson was a persistent marriage broker who pestered Butterfly on behalf of Daniel Armstrong’s assiduous Prince Yamadori. Watching Secco’s Pinkerton, one wonders how long he would stay married to his new wife, Kate, whom Lacy Jo Benter (YAP) played as an innocent young woman.
No matter how many times I’ve heard an opera before, when James Conlon conducts it I hear new sonorities and gain new insight. On Saturday evening he played Butterfly's "Japonaiserie" with clarity and lyrical beauty. He imbued every phrase with meaning and produced a performance of consistent musical and dramatic values. Under his leadership, Madama Butterfly was a masterpiece of musical theater.
Maria Nockin
Cast and production information:
Cio-Cio-San, Ana Maria Martinez; B. F. Pinkerton, Stefano Secco; Suzuki, Milena Kitic; Sharpless, Kihun Yoon; Goro, Keith Jameson; Prince Yamadori, Daniel Armstrong; The Bonze, Nicholas Brownlee; Kate Pinkerson, Lacy Jo Benter; Imperial Commissioner, Patrick Blackwell; Official Registrar, Gabriel Vamvulescu; Uncle Yakuside, Sal Malaki; Cousin, Rebecca Tomlinson; Mother, Renee Sousa; Aunt, Danielle Marcelle Bond; Trouble, Nicholas Cuenca Terry; Conductor, James Conlon; Director Lee Blakely; Scenery Designer, Jean-Marc Puissant; Costume Designer, Brigitte Reiffenstuel; Lighting Designer, Rick Fisher; Chorus Director, Grant Gershon; Movement Director, Nicola Bowie; Prompter, Susanna Lemberskaya.
![Ana Maria Martinez as Cio-Cio-San [Photo by Ken Howard for LA Opera]](http://www.operatoday.com/LABF_0445a.png)
