November 30, 2006
Christine Brewer's Enthralling Night
By Stephen Brookes [Washington Post, 30 November 2006]
Christine Brewer may be the most powerful dramatic soprano currently striding the world's concert stages. Her voice is almost a force of nature -- more like a beautifully controlled tornado than anything else -- and it's no wonder she's been making a name for herself as a full-blooded and huge-voiced Wagnerian.
Salzburg Festival Looks for ‘Nocturnal Side of Reason’
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 30 November 2006]
Earlier this fall Jürgen Flimm, the acclaimed German theater and opera director, began his tenure as the artistic director of the prestigious Salzburg Festival. In New York on Tuesday Mr. Flimm made one thing clear: Even though he has long worked at the festival, “Mozart 22,” last year’s ambitious presentation of all 22 of Mozart’s operas and dramatic works in staged production, was not his idea.
Monteverdi's naked ambition
Warwick Thompson [This Is London, 29 November 2006]
Buff nude sex scenes. Steamy homoerotic clinches. Comical cross-dressing... When you see student productions this good, you know the future of opera is assured. Oh yes - and there's some great singing, too.
November 29, 2006
CHARPENTIER: Le Malade Imaginaire
At the request of Molière, who expected the first performance to take place at court in Versailles, Charpentier composed a very developed prologue entitled the «Eglogue en musique et en danse» («Eglogue in music and dance»), similar to the prologues which were to precede the lyrical tragedies of Lully, combining solo recitative and choruses, in praise of the king (Louis XIV). The Malade imaginaire is the last play by Molière, who died after its fourth performance, on the 17th February 1673.
As a genre, the comédie-ballet was invented by Molière and Lully in the 1660s and reached a climax with Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, in 1670. But the dispute between Lully and Molière (at the end of 1671), following the king’s musician being granted a monopoly for all dramatic productions with music in Paris — including those of Moliere — led the playwright to approch another composer, recently returned from Italy, who had not yet written any music for the stage: Charpentier.
The composer must have revised the music for the comedie-ballet at least twice, between 1673 and 1685, to meet the constraints imposed by the royal monopoly accorded to Lully and the Academie royale de musique, which after April 1673 held exclusive rights for all dramatic perfomances with music at the Palais Royal. These restrictions meant that Charpentier had to limit the number of singers and instrumentalists involved in each performance.
The recording presented by the Arts Florissants in 1990 and reissued here, has well stood the test of time. William Christie and his famous ensemble offer us a sparkling and dynamic interpretation. The group appears in its best form, giving the impression of freedom and exuberance — qualities which are lacking in another very good version recorded by Marc Minkowski and the Musiciens du Louvre also in 1990. Despite the homogénéity of the whole production, certain passages are particularly memorable; for example the opening Eglogue, where the orchestra and singers (Monique Zanetti, Noémi Rime, Howard Crook) are most impressive; the first interlude, includes an Italian aria «Zerbinetti», sung by an old woman (admirably depicted by the countertenor Dominique Visse) and dialogues between Polichinelle and the string orchestra, then another between Polichinelle and the ‘Archers’ which display all the skill and imagination of the musicians and actors. The latter include Alain Trétout and Jean Dautremay, who are dazzling. In brief, Le Malade imaginaire by the Arts florissants represents one of the best recordings of Charpentier’s music, which justifiably has attracted much attention during recent years. A pleasure that should not be missed.
Marie-Alexis Colin
Université de Montréal
All the Ends of the Earth: Contemporary & Medieval Vocal Music
In some cases it is a modern use of modality and chant-like figuration; in some cases a modern adaptation of earlier formal structures; in still other cases the relationship emerges in the new use of early texts and cantus firmus melodies; and in yet other instances, the relationship is a less concrete one, rooted in a spiritual affinity between modern composer and her earlier counterpart. The music of Arvo Pärt and James MacMillan immediately come to mind, and it is no surprise that both of these composers have been significantly associated with early music performers: Pärt with Paul Hillier and MacMillan with The Sixteen.
“All the Ends of the Earth,” this recent recording from the Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, celebrates this relationship with an array of compositions by modern composers from the UK (Judith Weir, James Weeks, Bayan Northcutt, Michael Finnissy, Robin Holloway, Jonathan Harvey, and Gabriel Jackson), paired with diverse works from early English and Scottish sources. Of the modern pieces, Weir’s “All the Ends of the Earth” and Jackson’s “Thomas, Jewel of Canterbury” are exceptionally impressive. The former, based on Perotinus’s famous “Viderunt,” retains the chant structure and layered texture of the organum, and brings to it new upper-voice counterpoint with intricate ornamental figuration. The latter sets a commemorative text in praise of Archbishop Thomas Becket (one of two texts in the original fourteenth-century motet; the other text is in honor of another Thomas, a martyred monk of Dover), and does so with tone clusters, a richly ornamental linear style, interesting canonic interplay, and shimmering effects.
The early works range from the Winchester Troper and the famous thirteenth-century St. Andrews Manuscript to John Dunstable’s fifteenth-century declamatory motet, “Quam pulchra es.” The range of pieces gives a fair idea of things that are being echoed in the modern works, though one wonders why, when some of the models are so specific, those particular works are passed by. The absence of “Viderunt” (Weir) and the fourteenth-century “Thomas gemma Cantuarie” (Jackson) is a lost opportunity, and one of the very few regrets in this excellent recording.
The performances here are extremely well prepared. The difficulty of much of the modern writing presents enormous challenges to the performers, and the choir meets them with unflagging confidence and expert control of difficult harmonies, complicated rhythms, and intricate figuration. On occasion one might wish for a greater brilliance of treble tone—it would well serve the color and dynamism of much of the writing—but in the end, the lingering impression is one of very satisfying and accomplished ensemble singing. High praise for that, and high praise for a program that does not recycle the “tried and true.”
Steven Plank
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CHARPENTIER: Andromède; Ballet de Polyeucte
It presents several dance entries with varied titles that suggest the martyr’s internal conflict («Sentiments genereux et lasches» («Generous and cowardly feelings»).
Charpentier’s Andromède was also a revival; written by Corneille in 1650, this tragedy was performed again in April 1682, with new music composed by Charpentier to replace the original score of Charles Dassoucy. This revival, which was enormously expensive (above all for the costume and scenery ), doubtless aimed at restoring the glory of the Comédie Française, whose productions had been eclipsed by the new operas (tragédies lyriques) of Lully. In fact at the same time, Lully gave the first performances of his Persée — an opera composed on a libretto by Quinault which deals with the same myth. As Catherine Cessac explains in her book (Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Paris, 1988; rev. 2004; Engl. Translation 1995), Charpentier’s music was conceived in the same spirit as the decor and stage machines, which were the main attraction of the spectacle.
The recording by the New Chamber Opera and the Band of Instrument, directed by Gary Cooper, is uneven. In Andromède’s overture the musicians seem sometimes hesitant, which provokes a certain instability in rhythm as well as in dynamics; but the performance quickly picks up and gains in homogeneity when we hear the four singers (Rachel Elliott, soprano; James Gilchrist, tenor; Thomas Guthrie, baritone; Giles Underwood, bass) who are always very expressive. In this respect, the last two choruses of Andromède are quite successful.
The Ballet de Polieucte, opens with an overture originally composed by Charpentier for the revival, in July 1679, of Le Dépit amoureux, a play written by Molière in 1656. Here the instrumentalists exhibit a certain mastery of the style of the work, and manage to underline the contrasts between the dance entries (particularly in the striking «Marche de Triomphe», or gay «La joye seulle»).
Despite a few imperfections, we should be grateful that this recording presents us with two unknown works by Charpentier. But a recording cannot in any sense replace a stage representation and we hope that it may open the way for new performances (on stage). It is a pity that that these two musical plays have not yet aroused the interest and curiosity of stage directors, actors and musicians, particularly in this fourth centenary of the birth of Pierre Corneille (1606-1684). While in the Comédie Française in Paris Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, L’Amour médecin and the Sicilien, with music by Lully, have enjoyed considerable, well merited, success for many years now, Corneille remains very neglected. But John Powell, Professor at the University of Tulsa (USA), eminent specialist of the music and theater in 17th century, invites us to appreciate his reconstruction of Andromède on the following web site: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~john-powell/Andromede/index.htm
Marie-Alexis Colin
Université de Montréal
November 28, 2006
Opera on verge of caricature
ELISSA POOLE [Globe and Mail, 27 November 2006]
Verdi's Macbeth wastes no time on the psychology of its characters in its first act, and the king's murder is no sooner mentioned than accomplished. But the opera unfolds on two planes, at two separate tempos. On the one hand, there's the trajectory of violence, which moves extremely quickly and escalates with unstoppable momentum once the first murder takes place.
Andreas Scholl, Barbican Hall, London
By Richard Fairman [Financial Times, 27 November 2006]
No performer of classical music has as limited a home territory as the counter-tenor. From a repertoire with a tiny base, almost all of it in the Baroque era, he is expected to go out and conquer an audience as fearlessly as any soprano or tenor.
MEYERBEER: Robert Le Diable
First Performance: 21 November 1831, the Opéra, Paris.
| Principal Characters: | |
| Robert, Duke of Normandy | Tenor |
| Bertram, his friend | Bass |
| Raimbaut, a Norman peasant | Tenor |
| Alberti, majordomo to the King of Sicily | Bass |
| Isabelle, Princess of Sicily | Soprano |
| Alice, a Norman peasant | Soprano |
| Un Héraut | Tenor |
| Une Dame d’Honneur | Soprano |
| Un Prêtre | Bass |
Background:
Robert Le Diable was such a success that it made the fortune of the Grand Opéra. Striking scenic effects, powerful contrasts, brilliant orchestration, effectively dramatic recitatives, and melody that was attractive and, although it contained many traces of the old Italian opera conventionalities, at times rose to a vivid dramatic power, unexpected and until then unknown, all combined to win universal approval, for there was something to please every taste. Meyerbeer’s music certainly saved the libretto, for in it the melodramatic and grotesque are carried to the point of absurdity. The opera has a certain historical interest in that, being the first of Meyerbeer’s works after his arrival in Paris, it shows the beginning of his later style; Italian influences are still strong, but there is also evidence of his study of French style. From a broader historical point of view “Robert the Devil” is also of interest, for it contains some of the earliest signs of the influence of the Romantic movement on French dramatic music.
Synopsis:
Robert, Duke of Normandy, is really the son of the Devil by a mortal woman, the chaste Princess Bertha of Normandy. Disguised and under the name of Bertram, the fiend follows his son about, constantly leading him into temptation in hope of winning his soul for Hell. The mother’s good influence clings to Robert in the form of a foster-sister, Alice. Banished from Normandy because of evil deeds inspired by Bertram, Robert has come to Sicily where he has fallen in love with the beautiful princess Isabella, and she with him. Bertram does his best to interfere with the match, and by his wiles keeps Robert from attending the tournament, the winner of which is supposed to have the right to claim Isabella’s hand. Having thus seemingly lost his chance to win her honestly, Robert is led by Bertram to a ruined convent at midnight. There Bertram summons the ghosts of faithless nuns, singing the impressive invocation: “Nonnes, qui reposez.”
The ghosts dance about Robert in wild diabolical revelry. With a magical branch he obtains here, Robert puts to sleep Isabella’s guards and tries to force her to his will, but she pleads with him so earnestly that he breaks the branch and thus loses its supernatural power. Once more Bertram tempts Robert and tries to induce him to sign a contract yielding his soul; he reveals himself as his father and the young man, overcome by emotion, is about to sign. But Alice repeats the last words of his mother, warning him against the fiend and thus delays the signing of the pact until the clock strikes twelve. The spell is broken, Bertram disappears to the nether regions, and Isabella is revealed in her bridal robes waiting at the altar for the redeemed Robert.
Click here for the complete libretto.
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/robert_le_diable_courbet.png image_description=Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable, 1857 by Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) audio=yes first_audio_name=Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Robert Le DiableWinAMP or VLC first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Robert_Le_Diable.m3u second_audio_name=Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Robert Le Diable
Windows Media Player second_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Robert_Le_Diable.wax product=yes product_title=Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Robert Le Diable product_by=Alain Vanzo (Robert), Samuel Ramey (Bertram), Walter Donati (Raimbaut), June Anderson (Isabelle), Michèle Lagrange (Alice), Jean-Philippe Marliére (Alberti), Michel Philippe (Un Héraut), Françoise Galais (Une Dame d’Honneur), Philippe Désert (Un Prêtre), Orchestre et Chœur National l’Opéra, Thomas Fulton (cond.)
Live performance, July 1985, Paris.
November 27, 2006
HOLD THE MOZART
by ALEX ROSS [New Yorker, 4 December 2006]
New works by John Adams and György Kurtág in Vienna
When, in October of last year, John Adams unveiled “Doctor Atomic,” his opera of nuclear hubris and fear, he might have been expected to take a week or two off, or, at least, a day. Instead, on the afternoon following the première, in San Francisco, he sat down with the director Peter Sellars to plot out a new piece. The two longtime collaborators looked over a volume of South Indian oral tales, as rendered in English by the folklorist A. K. Ramanujan, and chose one about a woman who transforms herself into a tree. “A Flowering Tree,” the result of their labors, had its première earlier this month at the MuseumsQuartier, in Vienna. The score is opulent, dreamlike, fiercely lyrical, at times shadowy and strange—unlike anything that the fifty-nine-year-old composer has written.
Renée Fleming: The last diva
With her latest collection of rare arias, the flamboyant soprano Renée Fleming conjures up a golden era of magic, muses and operatic excess. Edward Seckerson salutes a woman for whom style is everything
[Independent, 27 November 2006]
The photograph is by Snowdon, the pose statuesque, the image one that Gustav Klimt might have dreamt up. And even if the words "Homage - The Age of the Diva" were not emblazoned across the artwork we'd still know exactly where Renée Fleming's new album was coming from - namely the turn of the last century. Now there was a time when the goddesses of opera and song really ruled. They dictated fashion, they dictated style, but most importantly they dictated the repertoire. Roles were created with their personalities and temperaments in mind. And on- and offstage their image was contrived to reflect their status - imperious, untouchable. The soprano Emmy Destinn was once photographed with a lion draped over her Steinway Grand; Mary Garden opted for a tiger when promoting her perfume. Product endorsement is nothing new.
Britten's Queen for the Ages
BY BENJAMIN IVRY [NY Sun, 27 November 2006]
The Queen, it seems, is all the rage. First it was television, on which Dame Helen Mirren made her wildly successful acting turn as Elizabeth I in the eponymous Golden Globe-winning TV film. Then it was the movies, in which Ms. Mirren played Queen Elizabeth II in film director Stephen Frears's much buzzed about "The Queen." Now such royal mania may extend to the opera stage, where there are signs that a longdismissed opera by Benjamin Britten about Elizabeth I,"Gloriana," may finally be gaining wide appreciation.
In Mozart’s Backyard, a Fraught Rebirth of an Opera House
By ANNE MIDGETTE [NY Times, 26 November 2006]
A soprano opens her mouth to sing an aria and stutters, bringing out little fragments of a beautiful melody. A mezzo coaches a baritone, constantly interrupting to instruct him in proper technique. A tenor, auditioning, opens his mouth and falls silent. “Don’t you have anything that’s not by Mozart?” says the conductor he is auditioning for. “I can’t stand Mozart either,” the tenor says.
November 25, 2006
Dardanus
Neil Fisher at the Royal Academy of Music [Times Online, 24 November 2006]
Once again you can blame the French for not looking after their own. They sniffed at Berlioz’s magnum opus, Les Troyens, gave nul points to Bizet’s Carmen, and, in 1739, it was the same story when it came to Rameau’s now largely forgotten Dardanus.
Public Voices: Juilliard's 10th Annual Alice Tully Vocal Debut Recital Features Philadelphia Native Raquela Sheeran
[Evening Bulletin, 24 November 2006]
Perhaps one of the most important resources the Juilliard School can offer its young vocal artists is the annual Alice Tully Vocal Debut Recital series. This year, on Nov. 30, soprano Raquela Sheeran will become the 10th vocal debut with a program including Strauss' Mädchenblumen and a selection of Gershwin and Rachmaninoff songs. She will be joined by pianist David Shimoni and the AXIOM ensemble.
Lady MacBeth isn't evil, just ambitious
LOUISE PHILLIPS [Globe and Mail, 24 November 2006]
Few would argue that Vancouver Opera has grown into a darned good company over the past decade, but Covent Garden, it ain't.
And Verdi's 1847 Macbeth, although praised by critics for its orchestrations, has never enjoyed the same prominence as later works such as Rigoletto or A Masked Ball.
November 22, 2006
Direktor sein ist schwer
[Die Presse, 22 November 2006]
Mortier bleibt jung für Paris, Berlin sorgt sich um die Oper, Hans Neuenfels um Mozart und Gott.
A New Barber For a New Met
BY JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun, 22 November 2006]
The Metropolitan Opera has a new production of "The Barber of Seville," Rossini's opera-buffa masterpiece. It comes courtesy of Bartlett Sher, director of "The Light in the Piazza," a hit at Lincoln Center.
A Sleepwalking Habit in Her Operatic Future
By ANNE MIDGETTE [NY Times, 22 November 2006]
VIENNA, Nov. 21 — It’s like turning a book into a movie: sometimes an opera that you’ve loved on recordings can pale when you see it onstage. This is especially true of operas that aren’t performed enough to let operagoers get used to them.
Alessandro nell’Indie, Coliseum, London
By Richard Fairman [Financial Times, 21 November 2006]
Ah, to have been an opera lover in the 1950s and 1960s. That was when the adventurous went out prospecting for unknown operas and came back with gems from the bel canto era like Bellini’s Il pirata or Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda which had been lost for half a century or more.
Manon Lescaut, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
(Photo: Dan Rest/Lyric Opera of Chicago)
By Allan Ulrich [Financial Times, 21 November 2006]
While one is not suggesting for a moment that life imitates art, in opera, the bad girls really do have all the fun, even if they suffer for it more exquisitely than commonfolk.
November 20, 2006
Songs of Amy Beach
With the revival of interest in American Romantic music, Beach has begun to appear on more recital and concert programs. Now, this recital disc devoted entirely to Amy Beach’s songs, performed by baritone Patrick Mason and pianist Joanne Polk, should bring Beach squarely into the mainstream of serious American art song composers. It is refreshing to hear her songs in a man’s voice, and a special treat to hear the accompaniments, written by a composer who began life as a child piano prodigy and who clearly has a sensitivity for the instrument, performed by an artist who has already made a name for herself recording Beach’s complete piano works for the Arabesque label.
The program is presented chronologically, with an ear for contrast in mood, so that the 56-minute program gives a satisfying sense of the largely self-taught composer’s range and development. While her songs may not have broken much new ground musically, she was very good at what she did, and these songs are quite interesting and satisfying to listen to. Through Patrick Mason’s extensive notes, for which he acknowledges the help of Adrienne Fried Block, Beach’s biographer, we get a real sense of the composer as a person, and of her relationship with her husband, whose poetry she sometimes set and to whom each year, on his birthday, she dedicated a song, which he would sing as she accompanied him.
Block’s biography of Beach is entitled Passionate Victorian, which describes the songs on this disk quite well. The texts are for the most part contemporary with Beach herself, or from a generation earlier, so the poetic diction of some of the earlier songs contains some Victorianisms that may sound dated to us today. But the poems’ resonance with Beach’s passionate nature shows up clearly in the musical treatment she gives them. Mason points out in his notes on “The Summer Wind” (1891), “the sensuality of Amy Beach’s music…the eroticizing of Nature in poetry encourages unashamed expression of sexual feelings not otherwise appropriate at the time (for a woman at any rate). Amy seems liberated by these texts to reveal her true self.”
Mason’s straightforward, authentic delivery of these texts helps keep a song like “Baby” from slipping into simple sentimentality, instead profoundly expressing a parent’s wonder at the miracle of a newborn child. The singer’s diction is for the most part excellent, and I found it easy to follow most of this all-English-language program without having to consult the texts. My one regret is that, perhaps in an effort to achieve this clarity, Mason covers his higher notes more than I would like, making a less resonant sound at the tops of the soaring phrases than the music deserves. In the middle and lower range, however, his voice is quite beautiful (I particularly enjoyed the long held word “past” in his low range in the opening song, “Twilight”).
Listeners interested in exploring Amy Beach’s songs have a choice between this disc and another all-Beach collection on the budget Naxos label by mezzo-soprano Katherine Kelton and pianist Catherine Bringerud. Naxos’s disc is about half the price of this one and contains about twenty more minutes of music (36 songs, compared with 22 on this Bridge release). While there is some overlap between the two programs, many of the songs on each disc are not duplicated on the other, so the two may be considered supplemental rather than direct rivals. If I had to choose between the two, I would probably choose the Naxos disc if my interest were largely in getting intelligent, professional performances of the most songs, including songs in French and German, for a very reasonable price. On the other hand, while Katherine Kelton is an expert on Beach’s songs, the Naxos budget constraints don’t allow for the booklet to contain notes that are anywhere near as extensive as Mason’s. Thus, the Bridge disc enables us to feel that we’ve really gotten to know the woman whose photograph at age sixteen graces its cover. Furthermore, while Catherine Bringerud is comfortable in the Beach accompaniments, Joanne Polk’s extensive experience with her solo music gives the highly important piano parts of these songs a level of detail and excitement that helps to make the performances on Bridge more memorable and the overall program more interesting to listen to as a complete program.
Barbara Miller
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/beach_songs.jpg image_description=Songs of Amy Beach product=yes product_title=Songs of Amy Beach product_by=Patrick Mason, baritone, Joanne Polk, piano product_id=Bridge 9182 [CD] price=$17.98 product_url=http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&sourceid=41277783&bfpid=0090404918223&bfmtype=musicLASSUS: Lamentationes Jeremiæ Prophetæ; Requiem
In addition to this sizeable musical legacy, a body of letters from Lassus to Albrecht’s son, Wilhelm, also survives. The letters move between Latin, Italian, French, and German, a lingual range that aptly symbolizes his musical scope, as well, for his liturgical works are joined by Italian madrigals, French chanson, and German Lieder. All in all, a striking example of musical internationalism. Significantly, however, his output is so impressively large that it is easy to concentrate on particular genres, even particular affective moods, and not feel constrained in the choice. Such is the case with this present recording by Stephen Cleobury and Collegium Regale, the choral scholars of the famed Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. The program here is tightly focused on music of lament, including a five-voice setting of the “Lamentations of Jeremiah” (1585) and a four-voice “Requiem” (1578), as well as the motets “In monte Oliveti” and “Vide homo.” Lassus is much at home in this dolorous language—one is quickly reminded of his famous “Penitential Psalms,” as well—and the intensity of its affective substance is deeply moving.
As is the performance. Collegium Regale sings with a generous sound, wonderfully well focused and vowel rich. Their lines unfold with rounded contours that seem both natural and at the same time the product of highly cultivated technical control. And in low sonorities with close harmonic voicing, the blend, like that of a fine trombone choir, is simply exquisite. To savor the sound is in many ways to savor the pieces, for Lassus here often foregoes complex counterpoint in favor of textures that allow the sound to predominate. Thus, the recording is a felicitous match of an ensemble whose sound is irresistible and pieces that repeatedly offer it the chance to shine.
Enthusiasts will find nothing to complain about here. Others may find that the general consistency of much of the program is rather a lot of a good thing. On occasion where the text suggests it—words of derision or defilement, for instance—Lassus will respond with increased animation, a dissonant pang, and so forth—but for the most part, things seem more uniform than not. The enthusiast will, once again, relish it all, and not be tempted to look for diversity. There is, after all, so very much to savor.
Steven Plank
Oberlin College
MAHLER: Symphony no. 3
One of the earliest recordings of this work, it is known in the discography of Mahler’s music through its previous release on the Fonit Cetra label and sometimes disparaged when compared to Mitropoulos’s live performance of the same work with the WDR Symphony Orchestra (Cologne).
While Mahler purists may prefer the conductor’s later recording, this one from 1956 is not without interest. This performance involved cuts, with the opening movement and Finale relatively shorter than customarily taken. Yet this recording documents one of those rare occasions when Mahler’s Third Symphony was performed in the years before the so-called Mahler revival assigned to the early 1960s. If tempos are somewhat out of character when compared to the understanding of the work five decades later, it is evidence of a lack of familiarity with the score and the taste of the particular conductor in shaping a work. In truth, the performing tradition for this Symphony was not as rich as that of other music by Mahler, which were heard more often in those days. From this perspective the revival of interest in Mahler’s work was not a wholesale discovery of his music, but in its full scope, so that performances of a monumental score like that of the Third Symphony become more common and audiences could be more discriminating when dealing with a conductor’s interpretation.
The matter of cuts, though, bears understanding in the spirit of the time that Mitropoulos performed the work. The performing tradition for Mahler’s music was not yet strong enough then for precedents to invoke. This was also the time when Mahler’s name brought along associations with Bruckner, as found in Redlich’s dual biography of the two composers, and Dika Newlin’s groundbreaking study entitled Bruckner, Mahler, Schoenberg. If Mahler was known alongside Bruckner, it is no wonder that a conductor like Mitropoulos would take cuts, since Bruckner’s music was known in editions that involved cuts and other manipulations of his scores. With the critical edition to begin only at the end of the 1950s and continue through the 1980s in presenting scores sanctioned by the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft, in 1956 Mahler’s scores did not yet have the iconic status that would come with the establishment of a Gesamtausgabe. Without such a structure for establishing the shape of Mahler’s works in print, it does not seem unusual for conductors to consider cuts, especially when his style is tied to that of Bruckner, for whom cuts were part of the performing tradition for his music.
Beyond the substantial issues connected to cuts. Mitroupolos’s interpretation, it has merits in the intensity the conductor brought to this performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony. Quick tempos aside, Mitropoulos has captured the spirit of the work, albeit without the details entirely in place – sometimes without the continuity of the score as the composer intended it. While the Orchestral performs well enough, some passages also reflect a lack of familiarity with the score, as occurs with the trombone solo in the first movement. Valiant an effort, it is not the kind of approach someone like Jay Friedman would take decades later in the various performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or even those in the following decade, when Leonard Bernstein recorded his first cycle of Mahler’s symphonies.
With the virtuosic tempos of the first movement bringing it to an enthusiastic conclusion, the second movement has a similar urgency to it that gives it a less elegiac character than modern audiences may expect. The full orchestral sound is also a departure from the more subdued tone that Riccardo Chailly would give it. In Mitropoulos’s hands, the second theme has a more gypsy-like sound that offers stark contrast when the principal theme returns. The string textures are, perhaps, less rich than possible with slower tempos, and orchestral effects like portamento are not evident in this interpretation, which is also a product of its time, when twentieth-century modernism eroded some nineteenth-century conventions, like the overtly romantic slides that would have seemed archaic at the time of this performance.
The third movement is also brisk, but not without interest. The brass are particularly fine in this recording, and the trumpet – not Flügelhorn – for the Posthorn solo in this movement offers a clean reading of the passage. This kind of substitution changes the character of Mahler’s sound enough to call attention to the performance, but another performance choice that would not be tolerated today is the use of a translation of Mahler’s texts for the vocal movements. The also Beatrice Krebs offers a clearly enunciated reading that gives the text in English, rather than the preferred German. Yet is it entirely wrong to do this? Didn’t Mahler confide to Otto Klemperer that he did not might if conductors of future generations adapted his scores? After all, a performance like this one by Mitropoulos brought the then-unfamiliar score to a broader audience, and the understanding is aided by a translation that does not alter drastically the rhythms of the vocal line in the fourth movement (“O Mensch, gib acht”) and the following choral movement, “Es sungen drei Engel.” The choral forces are, perhaps, less clear than the solo work by Krebs, but the audience in Carnegie did not need to bury its head in the program to read the text when they could hear music with heads raised up. This is by no means a suggestion that Mahler performances return to rendering the works in translation, but this recording documents its time, when such a choice was permissible for the few concerts that would include a work like this.
With the Finale, albeit cut, Mitropoulos still evokes the majesty that is part of the movement, particularly the concluding gestures that bring the work to its climax. Again, the tempos may be somewhat quicker than today’s audience expect, but he achieves a clearly effective result in the final bars, with the relentless timpani and brass reinforcing the solid harmonic movement that Mahler used to create a fitting conclusion to the work. Even though the applause seemed to have been truncated, the audience responded enthusiastically that is still part of this remastered CD issue of an historic performance by one of the outstanding conductors of the twentieth century. This recording may not be the only one someone may want for their collections, but it remains significant for what it reveals about the performing tradition of this work and the legacy found in the discography that includes this release.
James L. Zychowicz image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/mahler3.png image_description=Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 3 product=yes product_title=Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 3 product_by=New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Dimitri Mitropoulos (cond.) product_id=Archipel ARPCD 0344 [CD] price=$11.98 product_url=http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&sourceid=41277783&bfpid=0675754916824&bfmtype=music
November 19, 2006
Der Anfang ist Programm
Glänzender Auftakt: Drei kleine Henze-Opern im Prinze
Tobias Hell [Merkur Online, 20 November 2006]
Es war ein programmatischer Auftakt, den Klaus Zehelein für den Beginn seiner ersten Spielzeit als neuer Präsident der Bayerischen Theaterakademie gewählt hatte. Ein Stück Theater über das Theater, das mutig nach vorne blickt, ohne dabei seine Vergangenheit zu vergessen oder gar zu verleugnen.
BEETHOVEN: Fidelio
The essentially German-speaking cast includes the American soprano Gladys Kuchta in the role of Leonore and the tenor Julius Patzak as Florestan. While it is difficult at times to recommend an opera recording because of two principals, in this case the casting lends itself to such a stance. The performance of Kuchta in the first act is notable, and with Florestan’s entrance in the second act, Patzak’s interpretation is memorable for its nuance and passion. While a number of fine studio recordings of this opera exist, this live, idiomatic performance has much to offer in the excitement that comes from the single take that must suffice, without the opportunity to fall back to another take in the studio.
For this recording, the interaction between the principals is exemplary, but the dialogue presumably rendered by actors sounds overdubbed. While such a detail is sometimes unclear on live recordings of staged performances, those speaking seem too close to the microphones for an authentic sound. Nevertheless, this apparent broadcast is free of stage and hall sounds. Those interested in Kuchta’s legacy in Europe should enjoy this recording, which demonstrates her finesse in this role, among the others she performed well.
The tenor Julius Patzak is also represented well in this recording for a role that he was known to have owned. Modern audiences may be familiar with Patzak for the legendary recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde he recorded with Kathleen Ferrier under the direction of Bruno Walter. In this performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio audiences can hear another aspect of his voice in an exemplary interpretation of the role of Florestan. Patzak offered lyricism, but not at the expense of drama, which emerges clearly in his scena at the opening of the second act, “Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!” His enunciation of the text is a model of clarity, despite the clicking of the transfer apparently from LP to CD. In Patzak’s ensemble work with Kuchta, the two performers play off each other as if they were one, as should occur in a number like no. 15 “O namenlose Freude.” Patzak neither strains in this role, nor forces his personality on the role. Entirely in character, his passionate interpretation is a remarkable aspect of this performance.
Yet the bonus tracks included on the second CD are part of another live performance, one led by Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Festspiel. Recorded on 27 July 1957, that production benefits from a strong cast the includes Giusseppe Zampieri as Florestan, Christel Goltz as Leonore, and Sena Jurinac as Marzelline. In some ways the quality of the bonus tracks rivals that of the primary recording. It is a substantial selection from the work, with nos. 2, 3, and 9 from the first act, and nos. 11-14 from the second. (The excerpts end with the music that precedes Pizzaro’s entrance.) In these cuts, Jurinac’s execution of the role of Marzelline is particularly effective, and, as with the Patzak performance, Zampieri’s interpretation of Florestan is powerful. It is difficult to compare two singers like these, as each has much to recommend in recordings made around the same time. The conducting of the Karajan performance benefits from the accompaniment by the Vienna Philharmonic, which offers a bit more polished sound that is needed in such virtuosic numbers as “Abscheulicher,” where the music of Leonore must be supported by an orchestra that can allow her to resonate the way that Goltz does so well.
In the Karajan tracks, the dialogue is rendered by the singers, and while the speaking voices are a bit more distant, they are simultaneously more natural sounding than in Bamberger’s recording. Yet more than those details, it is the ensemble of the Karajan performance that merits attention. The first-act quartet, “Mir ist so wunderbar” is outstanding for the clarity that Karajan achieved and resembles, in some ways, the tight ensemble that he elicited in a famous recording of Lucia di Lammermoor from approximately the same time, when the applause was so enthusiastic that he reprised the sextet in performance, before continuing with the rest of the opera. In this recording of Fidelio no such reprise occurs. Rather, the listener may want to return to various parts of numbers like the quartet no. 14 “Es schlägt der Rache Stunde,” where the voices emerge as individually as they do in the earlier ensemble in moving forward the emotional pitch of the score.
This release offers essentially two complementary interpretations of Beethoven’s Fidelio from the middle of the twentieth century. Recent audiences who know modern productions of the opera, like the one the New York Met offered several years ago (and preserved on DVD) can apprehend the traditionally strong interpretation that this work brings. In its message of the power of love and the importance of freedom, these performances of Fidelio resonate as strongly as when they were recorded half a century ago.
As to the release itself, the sound is good, with the minor noise at the end of the first disc suggesting a transfer from LP that is dependent on the quality of the source. Yet the source is essentially fine enough to result in a successful transfer. Those unfamiliar with the LP release will not be disappointed in the interpretations that this recent Gala release makes available in this format.
James L. Zychowicz
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/fidelio_gala.jpg image_description=Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio product=yes product_title=Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio product_by=Gladys Kuchta, Julius Patzak, Melita Muszely, Helmut Kretschmar, Heinz Rehfuss, Karl Kümmel, Erich Wenk, Nord-Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Carl Bamberger (cond.) product_id=Gala GL 100.772 [2CDs] price=$11.98 product_url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FIGGQ4?tag=operatoday-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B000FIGGQ4&adid=1RNWNFRZBMH7C3TYZYFS&The Gondoliers
Hilary Finch at the Coliseum [Times Online, 20 November 2006]
You can’t blame easyjet for everything, but Venice isn’t quite the remote and exotic dream that it was in the days of Marco Polo — or of Gilbert and Sullivan. A company has to work pretty hard to make The Gondoliers a hot ticket — and English National Opera’s first staging doesn’t really work quite hard enough.
Mozart-fest without the Mozart
By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 19 November 2006]
An impoverished Indian girl transforms herself into a tree so that she can sell her blossoms at the prince’s palace. The prince falls in love with her and they marry, but a jealous sister strips the tree of its branches, consigning the girl to the netherworld.
MARSCHNER: Der Vampyr
Music composed by Heinrich August Marschner (1795-1861). Libretto by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück after the play Der Vampir oder die Totenbraut by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter.
First Performance: 29 March 1828, Theater der Stadt Leipzig, Leipzig
| Principal Characters: | |
| Lord Ruthven, the vampire | Baritone |
| Sir John Berkley | Bass |
| Janthe, his daughter | Soprano |
| Sir Humphrey Davenaut | Bass |
| Malwina, his daughter | Soprano |
| Edgar Aubry, employee of Davenaut's | Tenor |
| The Vampire Master | Spoken role |
| John Perth, Lord Ruthven's steward | Spoken role |
| Emmy, his daughter and Dibdin's fiancee | Soprano |
| George Dibdin, servant of Davenaut's | Tenor |
| Berkley's manservant | Bass |
| James Gadshil | Tenor |
| Richard Scrop | Tenor |
| Robert Green | Bass |
| Toms Blunt | Bass |
| Suse Blunt, Toms's wife | Mezzo-Soprano |
Setting: Sir Humphrey Davenaut's Estate in Scotland, 18th century
Synopsis:
The vampire Lord Ruthven appeals to his Vampire Master to grant him another year of life on earth before being condemned to hell. The Vampire Master agrees provided Ruthven can bring three more victims to him before midnight. Almost instantly, Janthe, daughter of Lord Berkley, falls into Ruthven's clutches and is despatched in the vampires' cave. Her father's rescue party comes belatedly onto the scene and Ruthven is accused of her murder. He is stabbed and left for dead. Aubry, a member of the house of Davenant, comes upon Ruthven's near-lifeless body, however, and helps him recover in the moonlight. Horrified at realising that Ruthven is a vampire, Aubry is nevertheless sworn to secrecy because Ruthven had once saved his life. At a wedding party among the local peasantry shortly afterwards, Ruthven sets his sights on the bride, Emma, lures her away and murders her. Finally, Malwina Davenant prepares to marry Ruthven himself according to her father's wishes (she would prefer Aubry), but Aubry reveals the vampire's true nature and Ruthven is straightaway dragged down to hell by a demonic crew. Davenant awards Malwina's hand to Aubry.
[Synopsis Source: Boosey & Hawkes]
Click here for the complete libretto (original 4-act version)
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/heinrich_marschner.png image_description=Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861) audio=yes first_audio_name=Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861): Der VampyrWinAMP or VLC first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Vampyr.m3u product=yes product_title=Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861): Der Vampyr product_by=Leo Heppe (Sir Humphrey), Liane Synek (Malwina), Fritz Sperlbauer (Edgar Aubry), Georg Oeggl (Lord Ruthwen), Peter Lagger (Sir Berkley and Robert Green), Gisela Rathauscher (Janthe), Kurt Equiluz (Georg Dibdin and James Gadshill), Traute Skladal (Emmy), Johannes Blaha (Toms Blunt), Erich Kuchar (Richard Scrop), Maria Nussbaumer (Suse), Das Grosse Wiener Rundfundorchester, Kurt Tenner (cond.)
Live performance, 1951, Vienna
Chilean Soprano Marambio Makes Met Debut
By MIKE SILVERMAN [AP, 19 November 2006]
NEW YORK -- Giacomo Puccini may never have been more popular than at the Metropolitan Opera these days. His "Madama Butterfly" opened the season, "Tosca" is playing in repertory now, and "Turandot" along with a new production of "Il Trittico," an evening of three one-acts, are due in the spring.
'Hansel and Gretel' magic
(Photo: LA Opera)
L.A. Opera sings a very different song of the forest
By Sandra Barrera [LA Daily News, 19 November 2006]
Douglas Fitch has created a "Hansel and Gretel" that's part paint-by-number artwork, part puppet show.
When asked to direct and design the L.A. Opera production, opening today at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Fitch — a 46-year-old New York visual artist who just spent the summer at Tanglewood Music Festival staging a triple-bill — says his mind immediately drifted toward his longtime fascination with paint-by-number kits.
November 17, 2006
Purity conquers passion
Ivan Hewett reviews June Anderson at the Queen Elizabeth Hall [Daily Telegraph, 16 November 2006]
June Anderson, who was standing in for an indisposed Barbara Frittoli, is no rabble-rousing diva. She is something rarer and finer. She is one of the great singers of Italian bel canto of the past 30 years, much talked of, but rarely seen in this country and not much recorded.
Soprano set for dramatic 'Manon Lescaut'
Georgia Rowe [Contra Costa Times, 16 November 2006]
WHEN CRITICS describe Karita Mattila, words like "intense," "passionate" and "incendiary" often come up. So it's no surprise that the Finnish soprano, in town to sing the title role of "Manon Lescaut" for San Francisco Opera, has strong feelings about Puccini's lyric drama.
Orphée aux enfers, Juilliard Opera Center, New York
By Martin Bernheimer [Financial Times, 16 November 2006]
Everyone knows that Lincoln Center hosts two opera houses, the mighty Met and the brave City Opera. We tend to forget a third haven for the lyric muse: the academic Juilliard Opera Center. We remembered on Wednesday.
Kunst im Zeichen ihres utopischen Potenzials
Eröffnung von «New Crowned Hope», dem Wiener Mozart-Festival von Peter Sellars
Peter Hagmann [Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 16 November 2006]
Ein Wirtschaftsmigrant sei Mozart gewesen - so sieht es der amerikanische Bühnenkünstler Peter Sellars. Die gesellschaftspolitischen Ansichten, die der Komponist in «Le nozze di Figaro» (1786), «Don Giovanni» (1787) und «Così fan tutte» (1790) im Verein mit seinem Librettisten Lorenzo da Ponte zum Ausdruck gebracht habe, hätten ihn in Wien um alle Aufträge gebracht und ihn zur Arbeitssuche im Ausland gezwungen.
November 16, 2006
MOZART: Idomeneo
Surely this fate derives from the disfavor that any work in the “opera seria” form faced, with the greater popularity of earthy, vital Italian opera, especially verismo. Recent decades have seen a renewed appreciation for all of Mozart’s work, and a blossoming of singers who shine in early Classical repertory.
Thus today Idomeneo makes frequent appearances on opera stages, usually with a musical performance sensitive to the orchestral and vocal practices of Mozart’s era. This Ponto CD, however, from a Vienna Opera staging in 1971, offers a bold, passionate, unashamedly Romantic take on the score. Many passages call to mind the darker edges and fuller sound of later Mozart, especially the final symphonies, and the final choral outburst sounds as if came from an early draft of the Requiem.
Purists may balk, but this Idomeneo may make many a listener who had never warmed to the opera feel the heat radiated from a truly exciting performance. Jarosloav Krombholc may not be a household name, but his conducting is expertly paced and committed. Unfortunately, the recorded sound tends to approach distortion at loud climaxes, but those who appreciate the excitement of a good in-house recording will know that allowances must be made. And for once the inclusion of applause, quite lengthy at times, adds to the atmosphere rather than detracts from the musical impetus.
The male voices triumph, though once again, what might be called “inauthenticity”rears its handsome, if you will, head. In the title role, Waldemar Kmentt sings with the grand authority and furious power of a Verdi Otello, while still managing an admirable agility in the great show piece “Fuor del mar.”Andrew Palmer’s informative booklet essay confusingly claims that this performance features a soprano in the role of Idamante, almost always sung by a mezzo these days. Well, the biographical note after the short essay correctly identifies Werner Krenn as a tenor, and as Idamante. He does sound like a younger Kmentt, and yet he is distinctive enough to have his own vocal identity.
Though far more well-known that the two tenors, the two name female voices on this set make troublesome contributions. Caught late in her career for the role of the princess Ilia, Lisa della Casa sings laboriously much of the time, with frequent lapses in intonation at the top of her range. Moments recall the greatness she had possessed, but that may not mitigate the overall weakness of her singing for many listeners. Sena Jurinac, by comparison, sings better in the fiery role of Elettra, and the role can lend itself to a certain amount of less than beautiful singing. Jurinac makes some unpleasant sounds as the tessitura rises and the coloratura gets more ornate. Those raw moments aside, hers is an exciting performance.
Is this an Idomeneo for those who don't really care for Idomeneo? Possibly. But anyone who enjoys full-bodied Mozart and strong tenor singing should find this set most enjoyable listening.
Chris Mullins
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/Idomeneo_Ponto.png image_description=W. A. Mozart: Idomeneo product=yes product_title=W. A. Mozart: Idomeneo product_by=Waldemar Kmentt, Werner Krenn, Lisa della Casa, Sena Jurinac, Reid Bunger, Manfred Jungwirth, Orchester und Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Jaroslav Krombholc (cond.) product_id= Ponto PO-1044 [2CDs] price=$11.98 product_url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FIGGWI?tag=operatoday-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B000FIGGWI&adid=074HRJ026V12VCWYPC5R&November 15, 2006
The Grove Book of Operas (2nd ed.)
Now in its second edition, the New Grove and its companion series, The New Grove Dictionary of Operas (1992) and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd ed., 2001), collectively form the corpus of Grove Music Online, an online subscription research service. In contrast to this massive collection, the editor of the New Grove, the late Stanley Sadie, published in 1996 The Grove Book of Operas, a single-volume reference that offered “synopses of 264 of the most popular and most commonly performed operas,” arranged alphabetically according to title. This was hardly a new idea. However, with its content being derived from The New Grove Dictionary of Operas, yet written in a style aimed at a wide non-specialist audience, The Grove Book of Operas proved to be an immediate success.
Laura Macy succeeded Sadie as editor of the Grove Music Dictionaries in 2001 and Oxford University Press became their publisher in 2003. Although the focus of attention has been on the development of Grove Music Online, a second edition of The Grove Book of Operas now appears in which Macy acts as revising editor. The new edition, according to Macy, “retains the style and basic layout of the first,” albeit with a “more generous use of space and a more readable font.” Macy therefore limited her editing duties to updating entries, to selecting “the very few operas that we had room to add,” and to making “the tough decisions about which few operas could afford to be deleted.” In addition, she commissioned David J. Levin to write an introductory essay about trends in contemporary opera production.
Any compilation purporting to be a definitive selection of core repertory is bound to engender controversy as to what works are included and what works are excluded. The new edition adds entries on relatively new works, such as The Death of Klinghoffer (première 1991) and Sophie’s Choice (première 2002). Yet, no works by Thomas Adès or Jonathan Dove are included. Similarly, no works by Vaughan Williams, Barber or Copland, established composers appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic, are included; but, Harrison Birtwistle is ostensibly over-represented with three distinct entries (the same number accorded Prokofiev and Stravinsky). Time will tell whether these editorial decisions were made wisely. Thankfully, recommended recordings are not included,2 which would inevitably exacerbate the controversy and, over time, needlessly taint the book as dated. In any event, readers may consult The New Grove Dictionary of Operas for omitted material, although a new print edition is not currently contemplated.
Each entry follows a common format with (1) an opening statement about genre, première, librettist and cast, (2) a cast list, (3) an outline of background information and the synopsis, and (4) an editorial note. The length of the entries varies. Few entries exceed four pages, Orfeo ed Euridice being a notable exception because of its tabular comparison of the Italian and French versions.3 Some entries, such as Lucrezia Borgia, barely take up one complete page. No entry provides a bibliography or references. The book’s back matter, however, includes a glossary, an index of role names, an index of incipits (beginning words) of arias, ensembles, etc. and an index of operas and composers. An index of librettists and a general subject index would be welcome additions.
Where the entries vary the greatest is in the length and quality of the concluding editorial notes. Clive Brown’s note to Der Freischütz, for example, devotes half of a page to the work in its historical context. And Julian Rushton provides even more for Idomeneo. Richard Osborne, on the other hand, provides a short paragraph of commentary on each of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L’Italiana in Algeri. It could be argued, of course, that the respective sections providing background more than make up for the brief conclusions.
Laura Macy wrote the entries for the newly added works, each of which follows the established format. One of these relates to The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams that merits some analysis. She makes it plain at the outset that “the story is told both in ‘real time’, with events unfolding on the ship, and in the witness accounts told after the fact.” The synopsis differentiates between these two modes of storytelling, along with a description of the chorus that concludes each scene. In her closing remarks, she helpfully points out that Adams was influenced by Bach’s Passions. Yet the choruses “disrupt the narrative; and their abstract themes have the unsettling effect of distancing the listener from the story.” She rightly states that the “virulent anti-Semitism voiced by ‘Rambo’, and not clearly condemned by Adams, and the composer’s general refusal to draw a clear good/evil dichotomy between the hijackers and their victims, has enraged many critics.” She then concludes that Adams and his artistic collaborators “were prescient in 1989, in realizing that terrorism — its causes and its effects on the survivors — was a reality that Art would ultimately be forced to confront.” Perhaps, but her observation that the choruses tend to “disrupt the narrative” is key to understanding this work. Traditionally, the opera chorus acted as interlocutor or commentator in the manner of Greek drama. Here, the chorus can be seen as representing the outside world — the public sphere in a Habermasian sense4 — where so far “no consensus has developed on how properly to define ‘terrorism’ generally,” as a consequence of which the “dismal truth is that the international community has dealt with terrorism ambivalently and ineffectually.”5 The choruses, then, confound the passing of unalloyed moral judgments upon the actions of the hijackers.
The introductory essay by David J. Levin, “Issues and Trends in Contemporary Opera Production,” provides an overview of the work product of operatic stage directors since Wagner.6 While the contributions of directors such as Robert Wilson, Calixto Bieieto, Peter Sellars and David Alden are discussed, the essay broadly outlines the various techniques and modalities taken in the modern staging of opera without unduly focusing upon any one director’s work. Mention is also made of the emergence of the DVD as the preferred medium to record opera productions, which permits consideration of performers’ dramatic and musical interpretations. According to Levin, “with the shift from LP and CD to DVD comes a shift from the aural to the audio-visual, a shift that stimulates as it reflects the increasing attention accorded opera’s scenic elements.”
As the foregoing may suggest, the subject of opera is so vast that no single-volume work could possibly deal with it in a comprehensive manner. Having said that, The Grove Book of Operas, second edition, should be on every opera-lover’s short list of indispensible reference books. Highly recommended.
Gary Hoffman1. Only the 27-volume (projected) Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenhart, second edition (Kassel & New York: Bärenreiter; Stuttgart: Metzler, 1994 – ), rivals the New Grove in scope and scholastic quality.
2. One exception is the entry concerning Pfitzner’s Palestrina where reference is made to a “fine recording under Rafael Kubelik . . . with Nicolai Gedda (Palestrina) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Borromeo).”
3. A similar exercise is undertaken in the entry respecting the various iterations of Boris Godunov.
4. See, e.g., Jurgen Habermas, The Divided West (Cambridge, Oxford & Boston: Polity, 2006).
5. Tel-Oren v. Libyan Arab Republic, 726 F.2d 774, 807 (D.C. Cir. 1984) (Bork, J., concurring) (citations omitted).
6. Readers will have to wait for Levin’s larger study, Unsettling Opera — Staging Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Zemlinsky, which is expected to be released by the University of Chicago Press in June 2007.
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/Grove_Book_Operas.png image_description=The Grove Book of Operas, Second Edition product=yes product_title=The Grove Book of Operas, Second Edition product_by=Edited by Stanley Sadie and Laura Macy (Oxford, New York, et al.: Oxford University Press, 2006), 784 pages; 30 color illus., 158 halftones & music examples; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 product_id=ISBN13: 978-0-19-530907-2 | ISBN10: 0-19-530907-3 price=$39.95 (list) product_url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195309073?tag=operatoday-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0195309073&adid=1073YYXZ85P7YAXS0VM4&GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier
He sings a passionate lament as he contemplates his approaching demise. Suddenly the woman he loves runs in, and a glorious duet in tribute to their love commences...though death awaits them both...
Tosca? No, Puccini's masterpiece lay a few years ahead. The above describes the brief final act of Umberto Giordani's Andrea Chenier, from a libretto by Luigi Illica (who would co-author the libretto for Tosca). Giordani's opera had a firmly held place in the repertory during much of the 20th century, but the last few decades have seen it lose its grip. The dramaturgy, it is true, can make Tosca seem like Harold Pinter. Nevertheless, the irresistibly melodic score offers fine showcases for a powerful triumvirate of tenor, soprano, and baritone, and so why not a wallow once in a while?.
This TDK DVD of a January 2006 performance features a cast about as good as our contemporary scene can offer. Carlo Guelfi, though without the beauty of a baritone such as Dmitiri Hvorostovsky, employs his dark sound to project the conflicted emotions of Carlo Gérard, the one-time servant who becomes a cynical force in the French revolution, all the while retaining a furtive desire for the beautiful aristocrat Maddalena di Coigny. That powerhouse Maria Guleghina does her best to tone down her innate strength, so that Maddalena's sensitivity can be felt. Almost girlish in the first act, frightened and desperate in the middle ones, and nobly passionate in the final, Guleghina succeeds, even though the sheer turbine power of her vocalism makes her "La momma morta" more a cry of anger than pain.
José Cura has the title role. As is typical of this handsome, masculine singer, he tends to let his looks serve as characterization. His throaty tenor will never make him universally loved, but he has the power and the high notes for roles such as Chenier. He and Guleghina, who have often sung together, make a formidable pair. Perhaps that is why director (and designer) Giancarlo del Monaco has the duo climb the outsized criss-cross bars of their prison cell at the opera's climax and reach out into space, rather than walk hand in hand toward the guillotine, as more common stagings end the show. Two indomitable singers aren't going out meekly.
Del Monaco's set and concept mix the traditional, especially in costuming, with modern stage craft. The shiny mirror-like walls of the first act encompass a bare stage. All the aristocrats wear grotesque make-up, an unsubtle touch that distances the viewer rather than supporting the drama. Transitions between acts and scenes, especially in the last half of the opera, occur seamlessly, allowing this somewhat fragmented drama to flow effectively.
Experienced conductor Carlo Rizzi provides his usual competent if not insightful reading, and the chorus and orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna follow him with idiomatic skill.
A very good performance then, if hardly a great one.
Chris Mullins
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/Chenier.png image_description=Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier product=yes product_title=Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier product_by=José Cura, Maria Guleghina, Carlo Guelfi, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Carlo Rizzi (cond.) product_id=TDK DVWW-OPACH [DVD] price=$26.99 product_url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FS9JBS/102-1794228-1665730?ie=UTF8&tag=operatoday-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B000FS9JBSHandel Unwrapped by Scottish Opera: “Tamerlano” at tea-time
The occasion was a special pre-performance event designed to offer local people the chance to get an insight into the operas that the Company are currently showing, and in this case it was Handel’s great drama “Tamerlano” written in that miraculous period of his life, 1723-25 when he also produced “Giulio Cesare” and “Rodelinda”. They call the series “Opera Unwrapped” and judging from the example last week, it is a resounding success.
The format is simple: the audience are invited to attend, for free, for an hour in the early evening prior to a performance that they may, or may not, be attending. All are welcome - on this occasion there were school children of about 8 or 9, and all ages above - and the musicians are members of the regular orchestra and the singers are the understudies, or covers for the first cast. What is essential is an excellent communicator as host to guide proceedings and explain what is being seen, and Scottish Opera certainly had that in Mark Hathaway, staff producer and assistant to the opera’s director John la Bouchardiere. He had the sort of engaging charm and self-deprecating wit that everyone responded to immediately - no High Artiness here.
In an hour, young and old in the audience were given a quick but informed resume of the baroque opera form, Handel and his times, the castrati and today’s countertenor voice, the de capo aria and - to the delight of the kids - how to replicate an angry tyrant spraying a room with machine-pistol bullets. That went down particularly well and judging by their faces in a box above me, it was a real “shock and awe” success. On the subject of the countertenor voice, our host invited second-cast Robert Ogden to demonstrate the entire range of his voice, from the top of his falsetto to the bottom of his root baritone voice - again this drew appreciative applause and much comment. It also presumably cleared up any lingering misconceptions about the singer’s masculinity that might have remained in the minds of those not yet familiar with the voice-type. Some more insights into high-level work in the set and safety lines - demonstrated by a brave soprano - concluded the entertainment, and entertaining it certainly was, judging by the buzz of fascinated and positive reactions all around the auditorium.
Many opera houses already have outreach programmes, and pre-performance talks, but this most open and democratic of formats which encourages people to just pop into the theatre after work, or school, seems to work particularly well as a blue-print for extending and deepening the company’s relationship with its local population.
Anyone who saw the little nine year old girl leaning over the balcony and studiously mimicking the conductor as he guided the orchestra through a lively ritornello, or watched the twelve year old boy riveted by Tamerlano’s furious outbursts and gun-toting in Act Three, could only assume that they, at the very least, went home wanting to come again one day to the magical world of opera. Let us hope that Scottish Opera will still be there for them.
Sue Loder
image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/Tamerlano.png image_description=Max Emanuel Cencic (Tamerlano) on throne (Photo: Bill Cooper) product=yes product_title=Above: Max Emanuel Cencic (Tamerlano) on throne product_by=Photo by Bill Cooper. All photos courtesy of Scottish Opera.BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007
The worldwide search is on for opera’s rising stars to compete for the coveted title BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007 and a £15,000 prize.
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007
Young singers from every continent are now taking part in auditions in the hope of being selected to represent their country in the world’s most prestigious singing competition.
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is organised by BBC Cymru Wales in association with Welsh National Opera and the City and County of Cardiff.
The Competition’s musical adviser Julian Smith is travelling the globe to hold auditions enabling singers from every continent to stake their claim for operatic stardom.
The 25 finalists will travel to Cardiff early next summer to sing at the National Concert Hall of Wales, St David’s Hall, before a panel of distinguished jurors and equally discerning audiences.
Julian Smith said; “Over 600 aspiring singers will be hoping to be selected to take part in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Auditions will take place in venues ranging from Rio to St Petersburg and from Toronto to Melbourne. Those singers selected will have to demonstrate high levels of vocal talent, musicianship and communication skills.”
The series of concerts to find the 2007 recipient of opera’s greatest singing title will be held between Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 17.
The winner will follow in the footsteps of such operatic stars as Karita Mattila (Finland, 1983), Katarina Karnéus (Sweden, 1995) Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Russia, 1989), Lisa Gasteen (1991 winner) and the winner of the inaugural Lieder Prize in 1989, Wales’ Bryn Terfel.
The 2005 winner of the biennial Competition, American Nicole Cabell, has shot to international stardom. The lyric soprano has signed an exclusive recording contract with Decca with her first solo recital album scheduled for release in 2007.
In August 2006 Nicole made her BBC Proms debut in Britten’s Les illuminations and in September came her Royal Opera House début at the Barbican as Princesse Eudoxie in a concert performance of Halévy's La Juive.
The 2007 winner will receive £15,000 which is an increase in prize money of £5,000. The rewards for each of the four other finalists has been increased by £500 to £2,500. This has been made possible thanks to new sponsorship from the Richard Lewis Trust.
The winner may also be offered high-profile engagements with both the BBC and Welsh National Opera.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by John Nelson, and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, will accompany the competitors in the preliminary round concerts. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will accompany competitors in the final.
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize
The 25 contestants are also eligible to compete for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize. This competition takes the form of a series of four preliminary round concerts at the New Theatre, Cardiff, and a final at St David’s Hall.
The winner will receive a prize of £5,000 and may be offered a recital as part of the prestigious Rosenblatt Recital Series at St John’s Smith Square, London. The winner may also be selected to be one of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists.
The accompanists will be Llŷr Williams, Simon Lepper and Phillip Thomas.
Masterclasses will also be held during the competition, led by such operatic legends as Brigitte Fassbaender and Siegfried Jerusalam, on Saturday, June 16.
The St David’s Hall, TV, radio and online audience will again be able to have their say with the Audience Prize, sponsored by Visit Wales.
Booking details
Postal booking forms are now available for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World season tickets and the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize Final at St David’s Hall and Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize season tickets, which include the four preliminary round concerts at the New Theatre and Final at St David’s Hall. Tickets can also be purchased for the Masterclasses at the New Theatre on Saturday, June 16. Booking forms are available from St David’s Hall Box Office on 029 2087 8444 or online at bbc.co.uk/cardiffsinger
On February 24, 2007, bookings open for all tickets, including individual concert tickets for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the Rosenblatt Recital Series Song Prize. Bookings can be made in person or by post to St David’s Hall, The Hayes, Cardiff CF10 1SH, by calling 029 2087 8444 and online at stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk from February 24, 2007. A booking form can also be downloaded from bbc.co.uk/cardiffsinger