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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.

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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 …).

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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.

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

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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."

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Reviews

22 Dec 2017

French orientalism : songs and arias, Sabine Devieilhe

Mirages : visions of the exotic East, a selection of French opera arias and songs from Sabine Devieilhe, with Alexandre Tharaud and Les Siècles conducted by François-Xavier Roth, new from Erato

Sabine Devieilhe—Mirages

Sabine Devieilhe, Jodie Devos, Marianne Crebassa, Alexandre Tharaud, Les Siecles, Francois-Xavier Roth

Erato 0190295740153 [CD]

$17.03  Click to buy

A stunning "Ou va la jeune hindou"! (Bell song) from Delibes Lakmé. Devielhe's agile coloratura negotiates the challenges so gracefully that they seem almost effortless, flowing as fluidly as molten silver. The decorations sparkle - like bells - evoking emotions an innocent virgin cannot otherwise articulate. Lines float with a legato which seems inexhaustible, and dance with sensual rhythm. The natural freshness in Devieilhe's voice evokes Lakmé's purity without artifice. If Devieilhe is still quite young, that adds tender fragility to her portrayal. Listen also to the way the orchestra replicates exotic "oriental" sounds with western instruments. Les Siècles' background in period-inspired performance pays off handsomely. Also included here are a good "Viens, Malika" (with Marianne Crebassa) and "Tu m'as donné le plus doux rêve".

"Celle qui vient est plus belle" from Massenet Thaïs, and "!A vos jeux, mes amis" from Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, indicating whee Devieilhe's career will develop. Berlioz La Mort d'Ophélie , Debussy La Romance d'Ariel and Charles Koechlin's Le Voyage show she's also promising in song, where Devieilhe is accompanied by Alexandre Tharaud. But there are other treasures, too. One of the many reasons why Roth and Les Siècles are so extraordinary is because they know their music history and make intelligent, perceptive connections. Thus they present, together, "La jour sous le soleil béni" from Messager's Madame Chrysanthėme, a French Madama Butterfly with "Mes longs cheveaux descendent" from Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande, a thoughtful juxtaposition which brings out the contrast between two almost contemporary pieces.

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Still further reason to get this recording is that it includes Maurice Delage's Quatre Poėmes hindous. Delage (1879-1961) travelled to India, Indo-China and Japan, absorbing non-western musical form. Although there are several recordings of these songs, most aren't easy to come by except for Felicity Lott/Armin Jordan from 1995, so it's refreshing to hear Devieilhe with Roth and Les Siècles who are even more idiomatic than Jordan and the Kammerensemble de Paris. What gives this performance the edge is the orchestral playing. Les Siècles, with their extensive experience in Ravel and in unusual instruments, create the exotic sounds of the East of Delage's imagination so well that the songs have an almost authentic "Indian" flavour, even the one titled Lahore which is in fact a setting of Heinrich Heine's Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam, also set by Grieg, Liszt, Delius and Stenhammer. In Delage's setting, cello, viola and harp are plucked like Indian string instruments, while the voice curls sensuously around. In the song Bénarès, we might think we hear tablas and Indian reeds, but we're actually hearing western instruments played by musicians who have endeavoured to understand what their Asian counterparts might do. When western composers discovered Asia, they opened new possibilities in western form. From The East to Debussy, to Stravinsky (whose Le Rossignol is also on this disc. Modern and ancient, in symbiosis. With Roth and Les Siècles: "The unexpected is always with us", to borrow a phrase from Luciano Berio, another Roth speciality.

Anne Ozorio

      

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