Recently in Reviews

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.

Henry Purcell, Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Vol. III: The Sixteen/Harry Christophers

The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.

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.

Anima Rara: Ermonela Jaho

In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

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.

Requiem pour les temps futurs: An AI requiem for a post-modern society

Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.

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.’

Ádám Fischer’s 1991 MahlerFest Kassel ‘Resurrection’ issued for the first time

Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.

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.’

Max Lorenz: Tristan und Isolde, Hamburg 1949

If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.

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."

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Reviews

13 Feb 2019

Philip Glass: Akhnaten – English National Opera

There is a famous story that when Philip Glass first met Nadia Boulanger she pointed to a single bar of one of his early pieces and said: “There, that was written by a real composer”. Glass recalls that it was the only positive thing she ever said about him

Akhnaten, English National Opera

A review by Marc Bridle

Above:Anthony Roth Costanzo (Akhnaten)

Photo credit: Jane Hobson

 

Sitting through English National Opera’s production of Akhnaten, you clearly get the sense that there are many bars of great music here, written by a great composer, but what this opera shares with Satyagraha, which was staged at ENO last year, is an overwhelming sense that Glass simply doesn’t know when to finish what he has started. To suggest the ends of his operas are interminable is something of an understatement. They go on. And on.

I’m not sure it helps that in recent years there has been a tendency to take Glass’s music more slowly - each of the three acts here was longer than advertised in the press notes, and the performance itself was significantly broader than the only recording of this opera. This had benefits - and drawbacks. Visually, Phelim McDermott’s direction is stunning - it’s beautiful to look at, the colours are distinctively Egyptian (the blues, purples, oranges and golds), the heat from the sun is often so bright you can feel its warmth against your face, and there are clever juxtapositions between symbiology and elements of the scenery - but it is also full of distractions. If I found the performance often to be lacking in power, and slightly flat in expression - contrary to the widely held belief that Minimalism doesn’t have the musical range to be expressionist - it was undeniably beautifully sung and, in the case of Act II, almost overwhelming so.

Akhnaten is, I suppose, what you might call a palindromic opera. This isn’t just in the narrative - starting with the funeral of Amenhotep III and ending with the death and funeral of Akhnaten himself; it’s also reflected in the recapitulation of the music, too, at either ends of the opera (though in typical Glass fashion he goes on. And on.). Almost identically palindromic are the orchestral and vocal timbres of the opera itself and the great repetitions you hear in both. There are no violins, so the balance given to the orchestra is predominantly dark; on the other hand, Akhnaten is sung by a counter-tenor and Nefertiti by an alto so they, too, occupy an almost identical range albeit at polar opposites of the sound spectrum. A great production of Akhnaten doesn’t ignore these spatial contrasts - and ENO’s comprehensively embraces them. The almost hieroglyphic symbiology which appears on the backdrop during the opening orchestral prelude to the opera is itself a kind of symmetry to McDermott’s direction: a square frame comes to represent ‘The Window of Appearances’, an image of steps reflects the iron staircase a fully naked Akhnaten descends before his coronation ceremony and which he later climbs to get closer to the sun, and a symbol of a house defines the reign of the young pharaoh himself.

One of the blessings of this production is that it remains so relatively close to the libretto and its historical reference points. Glass does fit a lot into a short time span - an entire almost two-decade reign. One could argue the essence of agelessness, and immortality, is ever-present, only for it to be cruelly cut down by death itself. Glass’s “portrait” operas are, after all, about historical figures who live long after their events, who shape humanity in their own time and forever afterwards. But Akhnaten’s reign was about cult, it was about redefining the very concept of religion itself and the ruin and unrest of a society that never accepted it. In that sense, Akhnaten has a particular relevance that is still being fought about today - but if you look slightly deeper beyond the surface of McDermott’s production he also touches on social division, race and gender identity, for example.

Akhnaten’s recognition of the sun - or Aten, predominantly the sun disc and its rays of light - is the dominant visual image of the production. It is exactly that - a vast disc - blinding in Act I, but by Act II is set in the background as something to be reached towards against a myriad of sunsets and sunrises. The cleverness of Bruno Poet’s lighting is that the colours merge and distort and change and are so subtle that the eye never really notices them until after they’ve happened. The overwhelming memory of Act II - and it’s a powerful one - is of Akhnaten slowly climbing the stairs to get closer to the sun, almost to become consumed by and absorbed into it. Strip lights are used to show rays of sunlight fanning out of Akhnaten like a brilliant plume of peacock feathers. And yet, the mythology of human destruction - that getting too close to the sun is fatal - never quite strays far from the mind.

Katie Stevenson Anthony Roth Costanzo Rebecca Bottone.jpg Katie Stevenson (Nefertiti), Anthony Roth Costanzo (Akhnaten) and Rebecca Bottone (Queen Tye). Photo credit: Jane Hobson.

I had mentioned at the beginning of this review that there are some distractions. This is mainly to do with the juggling - done with quite mesmerising effect by the Gandini Juggling Company. The booklet notes do suggest that this art-form was commonplace in Ancient Egypt so it isn’t as if it’s just there for no purpose - and, in fact, their purpose is quite a symbolic one in McDermott’s production. It’s clearly completely absorbing to watch, and I think if your peripheral vision is good enough you can clearly focus on what is happening elsewhere on stage too. The distraction is really at a human level in that you constantly (or, I certainly did) felt disaster was just around the corner: a clash of balls here, batons that slip between fingers. Technically, it was extraordinarily balletic and often coalesced around Glass’s music. Symbolically the balls do represent the disc of the sun, but most cleverly of all is their use during the death of Akhnaten himself. As the jugglers throw the balls high up into the air and let them drop to the floor the effect is of an executioner’s axe.

The casting of this production is superb - I’m not really sure it has a single weak link. Anthony Roth Costanzo, singing the role of Akhnaten for the third time (his second for ENO, and once in Los Angeles) has evolved into a dominant stage presence. It is rarely enough for an opera singer just to be able to sing the part but what makes Costanzo such a delight to watch is his undeniable stage presence. His devolution into something close to method acting - the defined body tone, the balletic - near glacial - movements, the almost Vedic discipline, and the spiritual closeness to Glass’s music - are extraordinarily convincing. Align this with singing that has such sweeping beauty and a range of emotion that is unusual for a counter-tenor and his assumption of the role of Akhnaten is a deeply moving portrait rather than a performance. Act I rather passed me by, to be honest, it all felt rather anodyne from a musical point of view - but Costanzo has rather less to do in that rather than simply move (naked, or otherwise). Act II, however, was a tour de force - simply one of the most emotionally, and vocally, powerful displays of singing I’ve heard for quite some time. The voice can sometimes feel a little strained at the bottom of the register - but Glass rarely goes there - although those repeated, long “Ha’s” were glorious with a breath control that was peerless. The love duet - itself starting and ending in such slow motion like a mating ritual, with the lovers intertwining in an ocean of blood-red drapery - had extraordinary intensity to it - both as a visual and vocal spectacle. But perhaps nothing quite came close to Costanzo’s ‘Hymn to the Sun’. His ascent towards and into the vast disc of the sun seemed eternal but was also somehow completely motionless. It had been sung magnificently.

Roth2 Hobson.jpg Anthony Roth Costanzo (Akhnaten). Photo credit: Jane Hobson.

One can’t fault Katie Stevenson’s Nefertiti either. The voice is exceptionally beautiful to hear, razor sharp yet full of expressive touches. The chemistry between her and Costanzo - especially in the love duet - was entirely of the kind where you found yourself being drawn into their love story and not away from it. Equally fascinating, was Costanzo’s on-stage relationship with his mother, Queen Tye, sang by Rebbeca Bottone. If with her white-powdered face, tightly curled hair and almost stony gaze, she slightly reminded me of the Virgin Queen she has a magnificently authoritative presence and powerful, resonating voice to match. Zachary James’ Scribe dominates the stage like Fafner - the voice powerful, his diction absolutely crystal clear. In many respects, so much of the casting was exemplary because ENO had brought in identical singers from the 2016 run of this production - there was a very distinct sense of everything just falling into place as you very rarely get in revivals.

My only real criticism of this performance is with Karen Kamensek’s conducting of it. No one should underestimate the difficulty in playing Glass’s music, but one of the issues with this production is whether the pacing of it is because McDermott wants the music played this slowly because the movement of the actors on stage relies on it being played this way, or whether Kamensek is of the view (now also largely believed by Dennis Russell Davies in his later reworkings of Glass’s scores) that the music should simply be played this way and McDermott fleshes out his production around this. This largely worked with her conducting ofSatyagraha last year; it wasn’t always so successful with Akhnaten on opening night here. You might, for example, certainly expect a more flexible, but broader, tempo to bring more power to the music in Akhnaten - but oddly that didn’t always happen. The magnificent timpani and brass passages that Glass writes for the Funeral of Amenhotep III in Act I, for example, were oddly underwhelming. On the other hand, that very expansiveness was absolutely compelling in Act II and Act III when the music is much less dramatically visceral and more intensely drawn. There’s no denying the ENO orchestra play this music with impressive precision - though I think on this occasion they took a little more time to find their stride.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had much truck with people - or critics, for that matter - who find Glass’s music incomprehensible, or the musical equivalent of watching paint dry. Akhnaten is an unquestionable masterpiece - and in many respects Phelim McDermott’s production of it is one that brings this work to life. It would also, I think, be very hard to imagine a better cast Akhnaten than the one we have here.

Marc Bridle

Akhnaten - Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nefertiti - Katie Stevenson, Queen Tye - Rebecca Bottone, Horemhab - James Cleverton, Aye - Keel Watson, High Priest - Colin Judson, Scribe - Zachary James; Director - Phelim McDermott, Conductor - Karen Kamensek, Set Designer - Tom Pye, Costume Designer - Kevin Pollard, Lighting Designer - Bruno Poet, Gandini Juggling Company, Orchestra and Chorus of English National Opera

English National Opera, London; 11th February 2019

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):