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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The voices of six women composers are celebrated by baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and soprano Yunah Lee on this characteristically ambitious and valuable release by Lontano Records Ltd (Lorelt).
As Paul Spicer, conductor of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, observes, the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as ‘old as Christianity itself’, and programmes devoted to settings of texts which venerate the Virgin Mary are commonplace.
Ethel Smyth’s last large-scale work, written in 1930 by the then 72-year-old composer who was increasingly afflicted and depressed by her worsening deafness, was The Prison – a ‘symphony’ for soprano and bass-baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra.
‘Hamilton Harty is Irish to the core, but he is not a musical nationalist.’
‘After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.’ Aldous Huxley’s words have inspired VOCES8’s new disc, After Silence, a ‘double album in four chapters’ which marks the ensemble’s 15th anniversary.
A song-cycle is a narrative, a journey, not necessarily literal or linear, but one which carries performer and listener through time and across an emotional terrain. Through complement and contrast, poetry and music crystallise diverse sentiments and somehow cohere variability into an aesthetic unity.
One of the nicest things about being lucky enough to enjoy opera, music and theatre, week in week out, in London’s fringe theatres, music conservatoires, and international concert halls and opera houses, is the opportunity to encounter striking performances by young talented musicians and then watch with pleasure as they fulfil those sparks of promise.
“It’s forbidden, and where’s the art in that?”
Dublin-born John F. Larchet (1884-1967) might well be described as the father of post-Independence Irish music, given the immense influenced that he had upon Irish musical life during the first half of the 20th century - as a composer, musician, administrator and teacher.
The English Civil War is raging. The daughter of a Puritan aristocrat has fallen in love with the son of a Royalist supporter of the House of Stuart. Will love triumph over political expediency and religious dogma?
Beethoven Symphony no 9 (the Choral Symphony) in D minor, Op. 125, and the Choral Fantasy in C minor, Op. 80 with soloist Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado conducting the Freiburger Barockorchester, new from Harmonia Mundi.
A Louise Brooks look-a-like, in bobbed black wig and floor-sweeping leather trench-coat, cheeks purple-rouged and eyes shadowed in black, Barbara Hannigan issues taut gestures which elicit fire-cracker punch from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
‘Signor Piatti in a fantasia on themes from Beatrice di Tenda had also his triumph. Difficulties, declared to be insuperable, were vanquished by him with consummate skill and precision. He certainly is amazing, his tone magnificent, and his style excellent. His resources appear to be inexhaustible; and altogether for variety, it is the greatest specimen of violoncello playing that has been heard in this country.’
Baritone Roderick Williams seems to have been a pretty constant ‘companion’, on my laptop screen and through my stereo speakers, during the past few ‘lock-down’ months.
Melodramas can be a difficult genre for composers. Before Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden the concept of the melodrama was its compact size – Weber’s Wolf’s Glen scene in Der Freischütz, Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea or even Leonore’s grave scene in Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Tuxes and gowns, a marathon of trotting on and offstage by renowned singers, a ritzy audience abusing their palms with ritual clapping—yes, EuroArts has another opera gala event available on DVD in this two-disc Vienna State Opera Gala concert.
Director of the Vienna Opera Ioan Holender claims in a short note at the front of the enclosed booklet that this gala is not a celebration but “an opportunity to recall the great dedication and the many sacrifices that Austrians brought to the task of rebuilding their beloved” opera house, critically damaged in an air raid in March 1945. Ten years from that event, in November, a rebuilt opera house opened, and 50 years on, this gala took place. Quiet moments for reflection do not, however, appear in the two-disc DVD record of the gala. Five conductors, a huge cast of fine singers, including superstars such as Placido Domingo and Edita Gruberova, and an elegantly dressed and coiffed audience all seem in the mood to enjoy the glory of the operatic tradition till going strong in the Austrian capital.
However, a couple of distinguishing characteristics separate this DVD from typical galas, affairs which may entertain a live audience but make for less than riveting viewing later. First, instead of a random assortment of arias without theme or sensible order, this concert focuses on selections from several of the operas presented in that first season after the rebuilding of the house—and all of them operas central to the house’s repertory. As each section begins, the director cuts away from the concert to the poster with the cast listing for the 1955 production. Second, longer scenes dominate the evening, which allows for a level of characterization not usually found in the formats that center on isolated arias.
The advantages of this strategy do not make much of an impression, unfortunately, on the first disc. Seiji Ozawa opens with the third Fidelio overture, and then Zubin Mehta takes the baton for a Don Giovanni section, which begins with two solo arias. Ferruccio Furlanetto sings Leporello’s catalog aria. Edita Gruberova then appears (to an ecstatic reception from a house audience she has entertained for many years) with a most impressive “Non mi dir.” Finally a fuller cast enters for the act I finale, but Thomas Hampson goes for a gruff sound and a grating smile of self-infatuation. Ildiko Raimondi and Boaz Daniel don’t come across as gala-level signers in their roles as Zerlina and Masetto, although they are unobjectionable. The return of Gruberova, with the glorious Soile Isokoski as Donna Elvira and Michael Schade as Don Ottavio, helps bring this section to life at last.
Disc one ends with another gala favorite, the Rosenkavalier trio. In fact, Angelika Kirschshlager sang Octavian in the recent Berlin Opera Night DVD, and perhaps in the same glamorous female tux. Here she joins Soile Isokoski’s splendid Marschallin and the sweet but unprepossing Sophie of Genia Kuhmeier. West Coast readers may want to make plans to attend Isokoski’s run in this role in summer 2007 in San Francisco. Christian Thielemann conducts, and seems to be a Vienna favorite. Perhaps some of his fans can recommend a better barber. Warning to viewers who like the titles on: the banal translation of the trio seriously undermines the sublimity of the music. Turn them off here.
So far this DVD has been fair entertainment, but disc two takes it to another level. Danielle Gatti leads a dynamic, detailed act three from Aida, and shortly into the other thirty minutes of this section, the gala frou-frou disappears and the drama comes to life. Especially outstanding is Violetta Urmana’s Aida. She only manages a soft ending to “O patria mia,” and the lack of floating high notes may dismay some. But everywhere else, she pours out the dignity and pathos in an uninterrupted stream of gorgeous tone. Franz Grundheber still has a lot to offer, and though his habit of scrunching up one side of his face makes one wish the director backed off on the close-ups, his fearsome King contributes mightily to the scene. Though not in their class, Johan Botha does have enough voice to make a fine aural impression. An attempt at a soft singing in the top range goes awry; otherwise, he holds his own.
Then the crowd goes crazy for Placido Domingo and Agnes Baltsa in the great Radames/Amneris confrontation scene. Domingo can come on stage beaming with an almost childish glee at the fun of the occasion, and then turn on the dramatic power as easy as flipping a switch. Although she is also done no favors by the director’s insistence on close-ups, Baltsa digs into Amneris’s dark infatuation with undeniable relish. And the crowd goes even crazier.
Thielemann comes back on for the Meistersinger prelude, and then we learn the conductor is not the tallest man performing that night, as Bryn Terfel joins him for two of Hans Sachs arias. Terfel will grow further into this role, but what a treat to have his glorious tone and dramatic restraint—yes, that’s right—in this role. He lets his eyes do the acting, and Hampson would have done well to do the same.
Falk Struckmann and Deborah Polaski now join conductor Franz Welser-Most for arias and the finale from act three of Die Frau ohne Schatten, with Botha’s Kaiser, the Kaiserin of Ricarda Merbeth (little to do here but capable), and some lovely “stimmen der Ungeborenen.” Struckmann struggles a bit at the top, and as the tune here is one of Strauss’s loveliest, a more lyric baritone might have impressed more. Polaski’s Dyer’s wife employs her power and edge well, certainly better than in some lines from the finale of Fidelio, which closes the program under the baton of Seiji Ozawa. Polaski’s edginess gets too pointed there. Botha, seemingly the only power tenor employed by Vienna these days, takes on the few lines for Florestan. Hampson, Walter Fink, and Struckmann fill out the scene, with Hampson redeeming himself with some unmannered and handsome vocalizing.
EuroArts ends the disc with something your reviewer loves—a complete round of ovations for the artists, including solo bows. This credits section goes on over 9 minutes, but viewers of a successful live DVD recording, whether of a gala or complete performance, want to celebrate the performers along with the audience present.
And “celebration” is the word, no matter what the house Director writes. Especially for that Aida section, this Vienna State Opera gala concert deserves no less.
Chris Mullins
Los Angeles Unified School District, Secondary Literacy