Opera Today

La Bohème – English National Opera

The first night of this revival, directed by Ian Rutherford, did the late director proud. Following a triumph in the role on Glyndebourne’s 2005 tour, Peter Auty’s Rodolfo was physically and vocally full of youthful ardour, while as Mimì, Mary Plazas combined the looks of a china doll with the vocal warmth and personality of a flesh-and-blood young woman. Mark Stone’s Marcello was masculine and glamorous, with every word projected clearly; there was real passion in the ‘big moment’ when he takes up the melody in Musetta’s aria. Giselle Allen’s portrayal of Musetta was quite remarkable, a young woman full of promise brought to her knees by miserable poverty, and the exceptional bass Matthew Rose made much of his role as Colline, creating a moment of stillness and awe with his Act 4 aria.

Musically the performance was not entirely successful. Conductor Xian Zhang had a mixed evening with tempi which were at times so measured that they almost ground to a halt, but seemed to have a particular affinity with Plazas in her arias, and as the tragedy reached its conclusion, grew in expressive breadth. A balance problem between pit and stage in the first act caused whole passages of solo singing to become inaudible, but this was seemingly addressed in due course as the issue was no longer apparent after the interval.

However on stage there was diligent attention to detail; a piece of luxury casting found Robert Poulton singing the dual roles of Benoit and Alcindoro, which he contrasted with two very different styles of seediness. The crowded stage of Act 2 felt like a genuine public gathering, with a particularly convincing children’s chorus; the simultaneous duets of Act 3 were well-defined and audible alongside one another. A few minor anomalies in the production’s updating to the mid-20th century can be forgiven in the overall scheme of a staging which continues to feel immediate and ‘real’.

One would hope – and expect – that Pimlott would have been well pleased with this touching and credible realisation of his enduringly popular production.

Ruth Elleson, February 26th 2007

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Boheme_ENO.png image_description=La Bohème – English National Opera product=yes product_title=La Bohème – English National Opera, February 22nd 2007

KÁLMÁN : Die Csárdásfürstin

And possibly many other viewers will agree. Your reviewer found this hopelessly dated film a dreadfully long 95 minutes.

This is a true "film," not a filmed stage production. However, though one might expect the songs to be lip-synced, even the dialogue is. While Otten extols how the operetta captures "those bygone days of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire," your reviewer wanted to replay perhaps 10 times over a more telling exemplar of those times, Maurice Ravel's swirling, manic La Valse, especially for its cataclysmic climax, where the Empire collapses on itself.

Briefly, Die Csárdásfürstin tells of a Count who wishes to marry a cabaret performer. His step-mother objects, but she relents after her numerous ex-husbands appear to reveal her hypocrisy. Perhaps to speakers of German the film has more charm; the subtitles, while not incompetent, can't do much to transmit whatever fun is supposedly there to be communicated. With the relentless good cheer and perky rhythm of most of the music, one either shares Mr. Otten's sweet tooth or starts to worry about cavities.

To your reviewer's ears, Ms. Moffo's "jewel" of a voice exhibits sad flaws in this 1971 recording, especially at the top of her range. Kollo may well have nobility, but a little more charm would have come in handy as well. And as for the immortal melodies - they died away as soon as they struck their last, major-key note.

But Mr. Otten surely represents a certain segment of the music world, and for all those who feel that his views may represent their own more than mine, help yourself to this calorie-rich, nutrition-free sweet.

Chris Mullins

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Csard.png image_description=Die Csárdásfürstin product=yes product_title=Emmerich Kálmán: Die Csárdásfürstin product_by=Anna Moffo, René Kollo, Dagmar Koller, Sándor Németh, Symphonie-Orchester Kurt Graunke, Bert Grund. Staged and Directed by: Miklós Szinetár product_id=DG 073 420-6 [DVD] price=$27.98 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=6103&name_role1=1&comp_id=143648&bcorder=15&label_id=5813

Nicole Cabell, St John’s Smith Square, London

Accompanied by pianist Simon Lepper, the American soprano tackled an impressive variety of repertoire. Her greatest strengths, it seems, lie in poetry and contemplative song. Three Liszt songs – ‘Es muss ein Wunderbares sein’, ‘Die Lorelei’ and ‘Enfant, si j’étais roi’ – held the audience spellbound as the voice seemed to become one with the accompaniment and indeed the piece. Later in the concert, Ben Moore’s Keats setting ‘Darkling I listen’ created a similar magic.

Yet in two Puccini favourites – ‘Quando me’n vo’’ (one of Cabell’s calling cards) and ‘Chi il bel sogno di Doretta’ — her tone was monochrome and there was little sense of character portrayal.

‘Padre, germani, addio’ from Idomeneo was imbued with urgency, while Bolcom’s ‘Amor’, was delivered with mischievous sparkle and wit. However in Gounod’s ‘Je veux vivre’ and (as an encore) Puccini’s ‘O mio babbino caro’, Cabell failed to set the hall alight, despite an unfailing sense of style and poise; her elegant, sophisticated presence just did not sit well with teenaged heroines, nor with the child subject of three songs from Bernstein’s ‘I hate music’.

In other offerings from American music theatre, Cabell proved herself as an entertainer; she struck just the right balance between schmaltz and musicality, a rare gift when presenting a mixed recital programme to a largely classical audience.

This was by no means a flawless recital, and perhaps the variety of repertoire was simply too great. Cabell’s Liszt interpretations alone proved her to be a young artist of exceptional promise; perhaps next time she should focus on such a strength and present it to the best of her ability.

Ruth Elleson

image=http://www.operatoday.com/cabell.png image_description=Nicole Cabell product=yes product_title=Nicole Cabell – BBC Wales/Rosenblatt Recital Series, St John’s Smith Square, February 21st 2007

The Excursions of Mr Broucek, Barbican, London

By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 27 February 2007]

There are occasions when a conductor is so inside a piece of music that, even if you are not familiar with the idiom or might not warm to it under other circumstances, the performance persuades you on its own terms. That will surely have been the experience of many on Sunday, when Jirí Belohlávek led a “concert staging” of Janácek’s The Excursions of Mr Broucek.

Met to Add Seven New Productions for 2007-8

By DANIEL J. WAKIN [NY Times, 27 February 2007]

The Metropolitan Opera will present seven new productions next season, the most since it moved into Lincoln Center in 1966, and intensify its campaign to make opera hot — or at least mildly picante in a media-saturated world.

The Maid of Orleans, Carnegie Hall, New York

By Martin Bernheimer [Financial Times, 27 February 2007]

Tchaikovsky’s Orleanskaya deva is better known hereabouts, if known at all, as The Maid of Orleans. First staged in St Petersburg in 1881, it represents a bizarre yet wondrous mishmash – part grand opera in the old Parisian tradition, part blood-and-guts melodrama predicated on Russian romance, part showpiece for a superhuman mezzo-soprano.

Mortier to Take Over New York City Opera

By RONALD BLUM [AP, 27 February 2007]

NEW YORK -- Gerard Mortier will take over as general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera, putting him in prime position to mount an avant-garde challenge to the Metropolitan Opera across Lincoln Center Plaza.

Rachmaninov and Glinka: Lieder • Songs • Chants

At that time the voice of Galina Vishnevskaya was known in the West, notably in the famous recording of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Yet this release shows Vishnevskaya in her native mileu, with works that are quintessentially Russian, albeit separated by seventy years, from the earliest songs by Glink to the latest ones by Rachmaninov.

At the mention of Russian art song, aural images of several pieces by Tchaikovsky or Mussorgsky emerge, but the repertoire is much richer than that, with a tradition that antedates both composers and extends beyond them. The famous “Vocalise” of Rachmaninov (op. 34, no. 14) is known in various settings, and Vishnevskaya’s performance on this recording is a solid one that shows her burnished timbre and elegant lyricism. This work brings to mind the modal inflections that are stylistically present in the art songs of a number of Russian composers, albeit to varying degrees of emphasis. With the five selections by Rachmaninov chosen for this recording, such modality supports the long melodic lines that reinforce the texts. While Pushkin may be the most familiar of the poets for these selections, the other verses show Rachmaninov’s sensitivity to texts that he found meaningful. “Ne poi, krassavica” op. 4, no. 4 (translated here as “Oh, never sing to me again”) is a fine example of the kind of art song that Rachmaninov pursued and which Vishnevskaya delivers well.

Yet the music of the earlier generation of Russian composers is not without interest, and the art songs of Glinka call attention to the fine vocal music he composed. While Western audiences may know him for the overture to Russlan and Ludmilla, the vocal writing in that opera and other works shows his sensitivity to the declamation of Russian texts and an expressive line that transcends the literal texts. The “Barkarola” (with an anonymous text) translates the Western form to a Russian and vocal idiom. In another, “K nej,” (“To her”) Glinka sets the poetry of Polish writer Adam Mickiewicz, whose works influenced others, including Gustav Mahler. While some of Glinka’s songs are relatively short, some of the more sustained pieces, like “Somnenie” (translated here as “Doubt”) convey the sense of a dramatic moment that a signer like Vishnevskaya can project well in live performances and also in recordings like this. The eight selections of Glinka’s songs are well chosen, and the performances are convincing. With a singer like Vishnevskaya accompanied by such a fine pianist as Mstislav Rostropovich, this recital of Russian song (total duration, about forty-five minutes), not only captures the national style, but also the intrinsically musical qualities of the music these performers chose to preserve in this recording.

Not previously released on CD, this recording was reissued to commemorate Vishnevskaya’s eightieth birthday. The CD is a fine transfer of the recording, with fine sonics and the kind of ambiance that is customary with Deutsche Grammophon. Those unfamiliar with Vishnevskaya’s voice should enjoy this recital which shows the soprano at her prime, and individual who are familiar with the singer in operas and other large-scale works will enjoy her more intimate performances in this song recital.

James L. Zychowicz

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Vishnevskaya_lieder.png image_description=Rachmaninov and Glinka: Lieder • Songs • Chants product=yes product_title=Rachmaninov and Glinka: Lieder • Songs • Chants product_by=Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano, Mtislav Rostropovich, piano. product_id=Deutsche Grammophon 477 619-5 [CD] price=$11.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=13838&name_role1=2&label_id=1068&bcorder=26&name_id=4488&name_role=1

ADAM: Le Postillon de Longjumeau

How is it even possible that in the nineties this charming masterpiece was still performed in German in stead of the original language? For a simple and worthy reason. Decades after its disappearance in France, the opera still had a respectable career in the German-speaking countries where it was considered as another successful Spieloper — a good competitor in the public’s favour of the operas of Lortzing, Nicolai or Flotow. The great recordings of the opera’s hit ‘Mes amis, écoutez l’histoire’ were made in German by Joseph Schmidt, Helge Rosvaenge and Josef Traxel. In 1962 Sender Freies Berlin produced a fine TV-version with John van Kesteren and Stina-Britta Melander. Finally, 20 years ago, a complete French recording appeared with June Anderson and John Aler. Therefore, does this EMI-recording make the radio broadcast redundant as it is sung in the original version, has a lot of dialogue lacking in the radio broadcast and most important of it all, is complete. In the radio recording under review there are some traditional cuts in the second act — all in all some 12 minutes of music mostly for the tenor. These are weighty arguments against this German version.

On the other hand, Le Postillon de Longjumeau survived due to the chances it offers to singers with ringing delivery and charm; and it is here this version has the upper hand. Tenor Robert Swensen has it all — good high notes, vocal heft, a sense of style — while EMI’s John Aler with his light-weight voice and his white timbre is no match for him or the role. Pamela Coburn has probably half the voice of June Anderson, is less agile in her coloratura and still sounds more convincing. She had a long career in German theatres and her German delivery is more believable than Anderson’s French one. Moreover, she performed in operettas by Lehar and Strauss, which are nearer to Adam than Anderson’s Normas or Elviras. There is a lightness of touch with Coburn that is lacking in Anderson’s far more Italian delivery style. And as Le Postillon de Longjumeau is almost one long sequence of tenor and soprano arias and duets, the vocal results might outweigh other considerations. The smaller part singers are fine too, though indeed Jean-Philippe Lafont on EMI is superior over Capriccio’s Peter Lika (who doesn’t disappoint however). The German Radio Orchestra plays well and is conducted with ‘Schwung’ by Klaus Arp. In this kind of music radio orchestras, due to their versatility and their outings in the lighter repertoire are often to be preferred over their all too serious and better known symphonic competitors. So the choice is up to the individual collector’s preference; but this is a version not to be dismissed.

Jan Neckers

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Le_Postillon.png image_description=Adolphe Adam: Le Postillon de Longjumeau product=yes product_title=Adolphe Adam: Le Postillon de Longjumeau product_by=Robert Swensen (Chapelou), Pamela Coburn (Madeleine), Peter Lika (Bijou), Florian Prey (Marquis de Corcy), Jürgen Linn (Bourdon). Rundfunkorchester des SWF Kaiserslautern conducted by Klaus Arp. Recorded 1th of October 1992. product_id=Capriccio 51 180 [2CDs] price=$9.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=41&name_role1=1&comp_id=102307&bcorder=15&label_id=1074

Bach Cantatas, Volume 21

Volume 21 is rich in its program: four cantatas from the pre-Lenten Quinquagesima, including Bach’s audition piece for Leipzig, Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22, and Sehet! Wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, BWV 159 with its hauntingly beautiful and exquisitely memorable aria “Es ist vollbracht,” one of Bach’s most poignant settings of Calvary themes; the other liturgical occasions here—Annunciation, Palm Sunday, and Oculi—elicit two of Bach’s justifiably better known cantatas, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, a richly scored, expansive treatment of Philip Nicolai’s famous chorale, and Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182, featuring two spirited permutation fugues, dazzling in their contrapuntal brio.

The stunning realization of the Pilgrimage itself—all the surviving cantatas performed within a year at notable churches throughout Europe and the US in accord with the liturgical calendar—and the front-rank status of Gardiner and his forces lead to high expectations—expectations that are generally well met. The instrumental playing of the London Baroque Soloists is quite a treat, with subtle and detailed articulation, as in the solo violin part in BWV 182/4, commanding control of fast passage work--182/6 is a good example--and well-contoured phrasing—BWV 1/3 comes quickly to mind--all gratifyingly present. The solo singing, as well, is often wondrous. The lean and languishing tone and free high register of Nathalie Stutzmann in BWV 182/5 is memorable in this aria of expressive dedication. Ruth Holton’s beautiful clarity of sound and elegance of line is much in evidence in BWV 127/3, an aria of funereal cast where the singer’s control must be maintained at considerable length—over eight minutes here—a challenge that never darkens a stunning performance. Bass Peter Harvey is outstanding in BWV 159/4, Bach’s hauntingly affective reflection on Jesus’s last words from the cross, “Es ist vollbracht.” The wrenchingly beautiful oboe line, played with great artistry by Xenia Löffler, combined with rich suspensions, an unusually contoured melody and Harvey’s lyric gift make this one of the high points of the collection.

Given the Scriptural lessons on which the cantatas are based, it is not surprising that they often take a contemplative, poignant turn. And it is this strand of the volume that seems most successful. In other contexts, Gardiner and his forces favor a rhythmic zeal that is often exciting, but also prone to an exaggeration that may not always please. For instance, the choral syncopations in BWV 23/3 are roughly handled, giving an unexpected harshness, and the opening chorus to BWV 127 shows an articulative bent that seems to try too hard to underscore the bitterness explicit in the text. The last chorale of BWV 1 is thrilling in its splendor with lively horn decorations, but here exaggeration also seems to take over as controlled brilliance gives way to a somewhat raucously blaring, full-belted rendition.

There is so much to admire in this project of epic proportions. In this particular volume, however, the admiration comes more quickly in the quieter moments. And these are to be relished, indeed.

Steven Plank

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Bach_118.png image_description=J. S. Bach: Cantatas, Volume 21 product=yes product_title=J. S. Bach: Cantatas, Volume 21
Cantatas for Quinquagesima, the Annunciation, Palm Sunday and Oculi (BWV 22, 23, 127, 159, 182, 54 and 1) product_by=Ruth Holton, Malin Hartelius, sopranos; Claudia Schubert, Nathalie Stutzmann, altos; James Oxley, James Gilchrist, tenors; Peter Harvey, bass; The Monteverdi Choir; The English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, Director product_id=SDG 118 [2CDs] price=$40.49 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=527&name_role1=1&comp_id=37180&genre=90&bcorder=195&name_id=56066&name_role=3

WAGNER: Tannhäuser

At the time this production was staged, reviews called attention to the quality of this particular effort on the part of the Metropolitan Opera and the leadership of James Levine. Based on performances given on 22 November and 20 December 1982 for a broadcast of “Live from the Met,” this 2006 DVD release demonstrates the lasting power of this production of the Paris version of Wagner’s opera.

A tradition staging, akin to the Met’s famous broadcast and, later, DVD release of Wagner’s Ring der Nibelungen, this production is faithful to the conventional treatment of the text as a fully medieval tale, albeit, the medievalism that Wagner brought to the public. Eschewing avant-garde theatrics and abstract imagery, the qualities of this production reside in the faithfulness to the traditional settings associated with the opera, including the colors and shading that bring the work to life on stage and in the imagination of the audience. The famous opening scene in Venusberg benefits from the choreography that points to the sensuality the composer intended, without necessarily indulging in excessive display. With the orchestral playing underscoring the scene, it serves as a fitting introduction to the opening exchange between Tannhäuser, as portrayed by the American tenor Richard Cassilly, and Venus, sung here by the late Tatiana Troyanos. The reviews of the time praised Cassily for his fine sense of drama, and this video preserves his nuanced performance, as well as Troyanos’s elegant and compelling depiction of Venus. The two performers clearly worked well together, both vocally and dramatically, with body language that reinforces the meaning of the text of the emotion of the music in this Otto Schenk production.

After immersing the audience and performers in the seductive world of Venusberg in the opening of the first act, the transformation to a stark countryside demonstrates the gulf between those world. The chorale-lilke hymn of pilgrims awakens Tannhäuser in the real work, with the choral textures flawlessly underscoring the scene. As traditional as this staging is, the flawless execution demonstrates how effective such a setting can be.

The staging gives way in the second act to the German court, the staging recreates in tableau the kinds of images found in illustrations from the period, and it is this sense of an authentic setting that conveys the artistic space for the performers to make the work come alive. Playing off the greeting of Venus at the beginning of the opera, Wagner’s overt parallelism is having the Christian Elizabeth welcome everyone to the German court, and Eva Marton conveys an elegant presence that stands alongside her other opera roles (notably a stunning Turandot from the Met, also available on DVD). Marton’s vocal coloring helps to delineate her character. The overt welcoming of “Dich, teure Halle” shifts to a more personal tone as Elizabeth interacts with Tannhäuser and defends him. Yet her interpretation of the extended prayer scene in the third act is even more impassioned in its parallel of the intensity that Troyanos brings to her sensual interpretation of Venus.

As Wolfram von Eschenbach, Bernd Weikl is quite effective, with a ringing baritone sound that plays off Cassily’s tenor. Yet the extended “Blick’ ich umher” shows Weikl’s commanding vocality that anticipates his fine work in the third act. John Macurdy is a solid Landgraf, with proper stage presence, and the other men fit well the court that Wagner created in what becomes essentially a morality play in the final act. While the third act maintains the traditional staging of the opera in its medieval trappings, the interpretation diverges a bit. Levine focuses on the more recitative-like exchanges in the third act, which contrast pointedly the more isolated lyricism “Song to the Evening Star” of Wolfram and Elizabeth’s “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau.” The dramaturgy verges, at times, to expressionist images, as the closeups on Cassilly point to a Tannhäuser on the edge of reality. This sets up the dénouement, which resolves the conflict implicit in the story, as pure and sacred love redeem the more self-directed hedonism that attracted Tannhäuser almost to the end. Wolfram is an agent of salvation, and Weikl acts well with Cassilly in bring out the inner struggle that essentially involves both of them.

It is a triumphant presentation that is captured well on for television and preserved here on DVD. The limitations that exist with filming opera on stage are mitigated by varying camera angles and a careful selection of long shots and close ups. At times the production captures the intimacy of the stage in ways that would be difficult to see from the audience’s perspective. A quarter century after its presentation on stage and subsequent broadcast, this Met performance remains compelling for musical, dramatic, and scenic qualities that coalesce here. The final bows seem all to swift for such an impressive production, and it calls to mind the late evenings that typified many productions of “Live from the Met.”

The two-DVD set is accompanied by a useful booklet that includes a detailed listing of the tracks, along with a synopsis of the scenes. It does not include a full libretto, but the text is readily available. In terms of presentation, the DVD is appropriate to an international audience with subtitles available in German, French, English, Castillian Spanish, and Chinese. The sound allows for DTS and Dolby Digital. Not listed in the booklet are the bonuses found on the DVD, which include a photo gallery that documents the continuing presence of Tannhäuser in the repertoire of the Met. (The other bonus is an extensive set of excerpts from Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD of the Patrice Chereau’s Ring for Bayreuth, and it is unfortunate that space was not devoted to the Met’s Ring, also available on the same label.) As a whole, this DVD presents a solid production of Tannhäuser that bears repeated viewings.

James Zychowicz

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Tannhauser_Met.png image_description=Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser product=yes product_title=Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser product_by=Richard Cassilly, Eva Marton, Tatiana Troyanos, Bernd Weikl, John Macurdy, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet, James Levine, conductor. product_id=Deutsche Grammophon DVD (2-DVD set, Region 1 coding). B0006580-09 price=$34.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=12732&name_role1=1&comp_id=3429&genre=33&bcorder=195&label_id=5813

BIZET: Carmen

First Performance: 3 March 1875, Opéra-Comique (Salle Favart), Paris.

Principal Characters:
Carmen, a gypsy	Mezzo-Soprano
Don José, a corporal	Tenor
Escamillo, a bullfighter	Bass
Micaëla, a country girl	Soprano
Zuniga, a lieutenant	Bass
Moralès, a corporal	Baritone
Frasquita, a gypsy	Soprano
Mercédès, a gypsy	Soprano
Lillas Pastia, an innkeeper	Nonsinging Role
Andrès, a lieutenant	Tenor
Le Dancaïre, a smuggler	Tenor/Baritone
Le Remendado, a smuggler	Tenor
A Gypsy	Bass
A Guide	Nonsinging Role
An Orange-Seller	Contralto
A Soldier	Nonsinging Role
The Alcalde	Nonsinging Role

Setting: Sevilla, c. 1830.

Synopsis:

Act I

Soldiers and townspeople mill around in a square in Seville. A young peasant girl, Micaela, asks the soldiers if they have seen her sweetheart, Don José. Telling her he'll be back soon, they try to persuade her to stay with them, but she declines. The relief soldiers, including Don José, arrive. Factory bells ring, and a group of cigarette girls emerges from the factory where they work, including the popular gypsy beauty, Carmen. She focuses her attention on Don José, who pretends not to notice. Before leaving, she seductively tosses a flower at him. Alone, Don José recovers the flower and reflects on Carmen's charms. Micaela finds him and delivers both a letter and a chaste kiss from his mother, who asks her son to marry Micaela. Don José promises his love and fidelity to Micaela, despite the temptations of Carmen. A ruckus erupts from the cigarette factory. Carmen has injured another woman, and the officer Zuniga commands Don José to jail Carmen. But Don José succumbs to her charms. He agrees to a rendezvous and lets Carmen escape.

Act II

At Lillas Pastia's inn, Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercedes consort with Zuniga and other soldiers. A group of revelers arrives, celebrating Escamillo, the illustrious bullfighter. The crowd cheers as Escamillo boasts of his victories. He notices Carmen, but she remains indifferent. Zuniga, also smitten, tells Carmen that he plans to return to the inn later to visit her. When the crowd disperses, the smugglers Remendado and Dancairo try to enlist the aid of Carmen, Frasquita, and Mercedes. Mercedes and Frasquita agree to help them smuggle contraband, but Carmen, expecting Don José, wants to stay at the inn. Don José arrives, and Carmen dances for him. But distant bugles signal him to return to his quarters and he prepares to leave. Carmen mocks his obedience and encourages him to run away with her and lead the free gypsy life. Don José remains unconvinced until Zuniga returns to the inn seeking Carmen. In a jealous rage, Don José defies his officer's orders to leave. As the smugglers pounce on Zuniga and escort him out of the inn, Don José has no choice but to remain with the gypsies.

Act III

At the mountain hideout of the smugglers, Don José longs for his mother, who still believes him an honest man. Carmen taunts him and urges him to leave, but he refuses. Frasquita and Mercedes tell their fortunes with a deck of cards. When Carmen takes her turn, the cards foretell death for her and Don José. The gypsies set off to smuggle contraband, leaving Don José behind to guard the camp. Micaela arrives at the mountain hideout searching for Don José and hides among the rocks. Escamillo approaches the camp looking for Carmen. He and Don José exchange words and begin to fight. But the smugglers return in time to stop Don José from wounding Escamillo, who invites them all to the bullfight in Seville. Her hiding place discovered, Micaela begs Don José to return home to his mother, who is dying. Despite his violent jealousy, Don José leaves with Micaela.

Act IV

At the bullfight, a crowd gathers to watch the procession of toreadors. Escamillo and Carmen arrive together. Mercedes and Frasquita warn Carmen that Don José is lurking about. Carmen, unafraid, waits alone for Don José. He approaches and begs her to leave with him. She insists that their affair is over, that she does not love him anymore, and that she now loves Escamillo. As Don José's demands become more desperate, Carmen throws at him the ring he once gave her. Don José murders Carmen, while the crowd inside the bullring cheers Escamillo.

[Synopsis Source: New York City Opera Project]

Click here for the complete libretto.

Click here for the complete score.

Click here for the full text of the novella.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/carmen.png image_description=Georges Bizet: Carmen audio=yes first_audio_name=Georges Bizet: Carmen
Windows Media Player first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Carmen2.wax second_audio_name=Georges Bizet: Carmen
WinAMP, VLC or iTunes second_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Carmen2.m3u product=yes product_title=Georges Bizet: Carmen product_by=Gabriella Besanzoni (Carmen), Piero Pauli (Don José), Ernesto Besanzoni (Escamillo), Maria Carbone (Micaëla), Nerina Ferrari (Frasquita), Tamara Beltacchi (Mercédès), Emilio Venturini (El Remendado), Attilio Bordonali (Moralès), Nello Palai (El Dancairo), Enrico Spada (Zuniga), Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Carlo Sagajno (cond.)
Recorded 1931

Matthias Goerne at the Wigmore Hall

Audiences in the Wigmore Hall are formidably erudite and can appreciate a well-chosen programme of lesser known Schubert. Even if you didn’t know the repertoire, a mere glance at the texts made it clear that these were philosophic songs about cosmic anguish. Songs about Greek heroes pondering fate aren’t supposed to be cute and fluffy.

A friend who hears some 60 high level Lieder concerts a year, has heard all the greats in his lifetime. Yet even he said this was one of his most memorable experiences. Goerne turns 40 this year, and still hasn’t reached his prime but the depth and colour in his singing was astounding. “Schöne Welt, wo bist du ?”, he opens with passionate force, then almost immediately softens his voice to evoke the delicate “springtime of nature”, which lives on only in the “Feenland der Lieder”. The transit is seamless, and the myriad shadings of color in each phrase are achieved with effortless technique, so deeply assimilated that it comes as naturally as instinct. Several of these songs are rarities which Goerne only added to his repertoire for these two concerts, the second of which I attended, but you would never have guessed.

When Goerne sings, he intuitively inhabits the world of his songs. It’s as if he becomes a conduit for the music. Because we’re used to performers as stars with “persona”, it’s not so easy to adjust to performers for whom image is utterly secondary. It does make careful listening more important, because you can’t rely on non-musical clues like the performer’s “noble mien”. But what rewards careful listening repays ! Mayrhofer’s poems are comparatively straightforward but Goerne gives them the dignity Schubert heard in them. For example, “Der entsühnte Orest” resounds with rounded vowel sounds which Schubert reflects in his setting. The pattern isn’t obvious in a superficial reading of the poem, but Goerne curves the words to emphasise their roundness. Suddenly the “heimatliches Meer” becomes a vivid presence. Then when it starts to “softly murmur Triumph ! Triumph !” its role in the song is enhanced. The poem may dwell on worldly success, but in the final strophe we know that Orestes (or rather Mayerhofer, the poet who later drowned himself), will find peace in what the sea represents.

In “Meeres Stille”, Goerne evoked the endless depths of the water with exquisitely resonant deep tones, shaped so carefully that they seemed to pulsate. Holding and floating the notes like this vividly captured the image of the “deep silence” that “weighs on the water…..a glassy surface all round”. The pauses in this song are subtle, but important to the meaning. Goerne incorporates this “todesstille fürchterlich” by extending the line so it seems to hover in the memory while nothing is in fact being sung out loud. This song is famous and often performed, but never quite with the profoundity heard here.

Similar subtlety marked “Der Kreuzzug, where a monk watches knights in their splendour marching off to the Crusades. Goerne’s voice wraps sensually round words like “Seide” (silk), contrasting the image with the austerity of the monks cell. Then he sings the monk’s words with quiet dignity. “I am a pilgrim, just like you”. Then the intensity of the final verse wells up with dramatic intensity. “”Life’s journey through treacherous waves….is after all, a crusade too….”.

Through the recital I was struck by the way Goerne nuanced his singing, by varying depth and well as light and colour. As if he were painting in oils, he can create multiple shadings in a single stroke, blending and intensifying as needed. Oils are pliable, shaped by texture as well as colour : Goerne’s subtle adjustments from deep timbres to lyrical light add depth as well as colour. In comparison, so many other performances have come across like crayon drawings ! Masterpieces may not have the same immediate impact, but they reward deeper appreciation.

The pianist here was no less than Ingo Metzmacher, the conductor. A sympathetic pianist makes a huge difference, and Metzmacher’s contribution here was superlative. His playing was powerful and uncompromising. He was infinitely more inspiring than the milder Elisabeth Leonskaya who accompanied Goerne in a similarly difficult Schubert program in the Wigmore Hall at the beginning of the season. Sometimes a pianist needs to support and nurture : Metzmacher knows that this is a singer who can be challenged. And such results ! His firmness in “Philoktet” created a pulsing undercurrent, underpinning the voice. In “Das Heimweh”, he emphasised the “yodelling” in the piano part. It’s extremely important because it evokes the song of the milkmaid echoing across the mountains. Schubert knew no male voice could get the same effect, so he put it into the piano. Metzmacher’s interests lie very much in modern music, so it was particularly interesting to hear what he does with Schubert Lieder. He played the extended 11 note sequence ending “Abschied”, colouring each note distinctly, capturing the varying pauses. It beautifully confirmed the solemn, contemplative mood of the song, while still reflecting the prayer-like vocal line, to Goerne’s reverential “Lebt wohl, klingt klagevoll”.

This concert was a historic occasion, more so than the first night, because it ended with the presentation of the first ever Wigmore Hall Medal for exceptional service to song. This isn’t going to be a regular award, simply because such contributions are not routine, by any means. As John Gilhooly, Director of the Wigmore Hall said, it was being “dedicated with great affection” to Goerne who, in his 14 years of association with the venue has shown his belief in “all that the Wigmore Hall stands for”. Since the Wigmore Hall aims for the highest possible standards, and has done so for a hundred years, that is praise indeed. Excellence is never going to have populist appeal, but that’s not the point. It’s fundamentally more important to create goals to aim for in the first place.

Goerne beamed as he received the medal, but in his typical self-effacing way, chose to thank the audience by singing instead of making a speech. Never has “An die Musik” come over as sincerely and more heartfelt. I was quite overcome and didn’t realise until later that I was in tears.

© Anne Ozorio 2007

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Goerne_medium.png image_description=Matthias Goerne product=yes product_title=Matthias Goerne at the Wigmore Hall
22nd February 2007, London

Cori Spezzati: Venetian Polychoral Music

By placing choral members in various positions across the chapel, the western choir leaders created the first ‘surround sound’ experience. Cori Spezzati or, “Divided Chorus” was the method in which this polychoral music was positioned across the chapel to create such a spellbinding effect. Of all composers working in this genre, Giovanni Gabrieli seemed most capable of creating such magic. This method rooted itself in Venice partially with thanks to St Marks Cathedrals choirmaster and composer Adrian Willaert. He formed the connective tissue between post-Josquin De Prez composition and what we now hear on this masterful compact disc presented to us by the Chamber Choir of Europe.

This recording, also offered as a Super Audio CD, displays the composers who flourished under the Venetian School established by Willaert. The Chamber Choir of Europe presents us with a dazzling performance centered on the secular madrigal and sacred works of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo. Performances of pieces by Andrea Gabrieli, who studied under Willaert, provide a link from the Franco-Netherlandish style to a later style typical of Venetian polychoral music, exemplified by his nephew, Giovanni.

Listening to these transitions, we can be thankful that Giovanni kept copious records of his uncle’s work. He kept a scrupulous eye on the past, but Giovanni was an innovator for his time, and even when compared to his uncle. Andrea’s “Alla battaaglia” or “A le guancie de rose” are simple, direct and uncomplicated compared to Giovanni’s “Amor dove mi guidi” which employs three four-part choirs. Even Giovanni’s “Kyrie eleison” a massive sounding call and response between choirs - showcases a change in composition and choir organization from Andrea’s compositions.

Giovanni is surely the cinemascopic composer of the Venetian school of polyphonic vocal music on this disc. His madrigals show a quality and complexity that the other composers featured on “Cori Spezzati” lack. However, Willaert, who played such an integral part in this genre, seems shortchanged with merely one minuscule yet scintillating piece, “Oh bene mio.” The listener will benefit from hearing this piece; not only does it refer to the root of the art form of the madrigal, but one can follow its evolution by listening to Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli afterward.

“Cori Spezzati” makes a curious inclusion of three composers from outside of the Venetian school, sent by their kings to study with Giovanni Gabrieli, master his style and return to their respective countries with their own version of the polychoral music of Venice in hand. Still, the madrigals of Johann Grabbe, Hans Nielson and Mogens Perdersøn do serve more than historical interest. Grabbe’s “Cor Mio” and Nielson’s “Deh dolce anima” sound slightly more dark and brooding than Giovanni’s preceding, “Alma cortee s’e bella”. They lack the intensity and elaborations either Gabrieli. But their presence on this album brings the listener a wider scope and variety of the mid-sixteenth century’s polychoral spectrum.

“Cori Spezzati” is an exquisite recording. The Chamber Choir of Europe perform near flawlessly and offer the listener a world of stereoscopic sound and vocal beauty. Only the mostly-English liner notes pose a problem; they lyrics are translated into German. But language should not deter one from hearing a piece such as Giovanni’s “Kyrie eleison”, whose vocals spiral to the heavens and almost echo or cascade off of one another. The beauty of this piece and others on “Cori Spezzati” is as impressive and miraculous as Saint Marks itself.

Blair Fraipont

image=http://www.operatoday.com/cori_spezzati.png image_description=Cori Spezzati: Venetian Polychoral Music product=yes product_title=Cori Spezzati: Venetian Polychoral Music product_by=Chamber Choir of Europe, Nicol Matt (cond.) product_id=Brilliant Classics 92209 [SACD] price=$9.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=101063

Launch of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007

[22 February 2007]
The waiting is finally over for the record number of singers who auditioned to take part in the world’s greatest singing competition, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

Launch of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007

The waiting is finally over for the record number of singers who auditioned to take part in the world’s greatest singing competition, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

The final 25 singers have been selected from more than 1,000 who applied to take part. A record 677 singers from 64 counties took part in auditions held in 44 locations.

This year’s series of concerts to find the 2007 recipient of the coveted title BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the winner of the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize will be held between Saturday, June 9 and Sunday, June 17.

Singers from as far afield as Brazil and China, Australia and Norway will gather in Cardiff to compete in the prestigious competition that has helped launch the careers of such star names as Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Karita Mattila, Inger Dam-Jensen, Lisa Gasteen and Bryn Terfel.

The 2005 winner American soprano Nicole Cabell has seen her career rocket since the competition with rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic including her Royal Opera House debut. Her fist solo CD with Decca will be launched in the spring and her Metropolitan Opera, New York debut is scheduled in her busy diary.

Nicole joined Menna Richards, Controller BBC Wales at the launch of the 2007 competition at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on Thursday, February 22.

Announcing the names of the 25 finalists Menna said: “Each BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition brings the attention of the music world to Wales for this unique search for excellence in opera and song.

“Singers and audiences alike enjoy what are both fiercely contested competitions and an unparalleled experience for young singers. All are winners in this friendly competition as the singers get to work with two excellent orchestras, gain concert and broadcast experience and have the opportunity to take part in Master Classes with jury members who include some of opera’s most respected stars.

“With the BBC’s extensive broadcast coverage on television, on radio and online we are delighted to be able to welcome audiences around the globe to join with us in Wales for the world’s greatest singing competition.”

Making a welcome return to Wales this year is the competition’s Patron Dame Joan Sutherland. She said: “Like so many other lovers of music and song I am eagerly looking forward to being back in Wales for the world’s greatest singing competition in June.

“I am delighted to see the huge success 2005's winner Nicole Cabell is now enjoying which she happily acknowledges was thanks to her success in Cardiff. The competition is always a wonderful experience for not only the St David’s Hall audience and multimedia audiences across the world but is also a delight for every competitor taking part.”

In recognition of the competition’s place in the cultural life of Wales’ capital city, the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Councillor Gareth Neale, said: BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is one of the sparkling highlights in our city’s cultural calendar and the Council is delighted to be an ongoing partner in this celebration of opera and song.

“The competition not only brings some of the world’s most talented young singers to our capital city but also attracts visitors to Wales from Britain and abroad.

“Such is the well deserved reputation of the competition, it also brings the attention of a global audience to Cardiff, highlighting what our great city has to offer and demonstrating the Council’s commitment to the cultural life of citizens.”

Estonia, Croatia and Uzbekistan have singers taking part in the competition for the first time

Ensuring the widest possible audience, the competition will receive extensive BBC television and radio coverage and there will also be full online coverage including audience interactivity at bbc.co.uk/cardiffsinger.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007

The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World preliminary concerts take place at St David’s Hall, Cardiff from Sunday, June 10 to Thursday, June 14 with the glittering final on Sunday, June 17.

The winner will receive £15,000 which is an increase in prize money of £5,000 and is generously provided by Cardiff County Council. The winner will receive a trophy donated by Welsh Royal Crystal and there may be an opportunity of engagements with the BBC and Welsh National Opera.

The prize money for each of this year’s other four finalists is £2,500. This has been made possible thanks to new sponsorship from the Richard Lewis Trust. The Award is created in memory of the internationally distinguished Welsh singer.

Mrs Elizabeth Muir-Lewis said, “Our Trust gives vital financial support to the finalists in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, while at the same time the artistry and voice of Richard Lewis lives on. I cannot think of a better place for his name to resonate in and I am sure he would have been absolutely delighted.” (separate press release enclosed).

Welsh National Opera’s General Director John Fisher chairs a distinguished panel of jurors including the legendary singers Marilyn Horne and Siegfried Jerusalem.

Mr Fisher said, “I have always followed BBC Cardiff Singer of the World with great interest over the years, and I am particularly proud to be taking over as Chairman of the jury this summer.

“The competition is internationally recognised as one of the most important singing competitions in the world, often responsible for the launch of major international careers. I have thought it appropriate that such a competition should take place in Wales, with its renowned tradition of singing, and I look forward very much to being part of this exciting event.”

The Orchestra of Welsh National Opera conducted by Carlo Rizzi and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by John Nelson accompanies competitors in the preliminary round concerts. BBC National Orchestra of Wales will accompany competitors in the final on June 17, conducted by John Nelson and Carlo Rizzi.

Audience Prize

The international flavour of the competition, with nations from every continent taking part, has attracted generous sponsorship from Visit Wales

The St David’s Hall, TV, radio and online audiences will again be able to have their say in choosing a winner through the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World’s Audience Prize in association with Visit Wales, the tourism arm of the Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Networks in the Welsh Assembly Government.

Andrew Davies, the Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks said: “Visit Wales is delighted to sponsor BBC Cardiff Singer of the World’s Audience Prize, for the third successive competition. The prize has been very popular with audiences and with competitors too as it is recognition by the people of Wales, the people who make up The Land of Song, the country that stages the world’s leading vocal competition.

“With eight million viewers worldwide, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition plays a part in raising the profile of Wales and with that our country’s potential as a tourism destination.” (separate press release enclosed)

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize

All contestants may take part in the competition to win the coveted title, the £5,000 prize and a trophy donated by Welsh Royal Crystal. The winner will also be offered a recital as part of the Rosenblatt Recital Series at St John’s Smith Square. The winner may also join Radio 3's BBC New Generation Artists Scheme.

There will be four concerts at the New Theatre, Cardiff from Saturday, June 9 to Tuesday, June 12 and a glittering final at St David’s Hall on Friday, June 15.

Ian Rosenblatt said: “I am delighted to be sponsoring the Song Prize, perhaps the most prestigious vocal music prize in the world. The BBC could not be a better partner for the Rosenblatt Recital Series in its goal of sustaining and encouraging interest in the vocal arts.”

The 2005 winner Andrew Kennedy is now one of opera’s most sought after young tenors. Currently he is singing the lead role in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore with Opera North.

In a message Andrew Kennedy acknowledged the pivotal role the competition has had in advancing his career.

“Driving down the M4 it was so difficult to believe that the last ten days had really happened, made more surreal by the fact that a couple of hours later I would be dressed in a huge padded leather doublet and woollen cloak in the middle of summer and standing on the same stage as Ben Heppner, Renée Fleming and Robert Lloyd with Tony Pappano conducting.

“It was only when all four of them found a moment to say that they had seen me on TV the previous evening, as did a great many of the chorus and other colleagues and friends, that I knew for certain it had really happened.

“It astonished me just how many people had seen the competition from agents to directors through to a couple who stopped me on the tube soon after the final was broadcast. Indeed I got offers from as far afield as Prague, Boston and even Delhi as a direct result of the competition and this is surely a measure of how important the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition is in promoting and shaping young singer’s careers.” (text of full message enclosed)

Judging the Song (formerly Lieder) Prize will be an equally distinguished jury including Brigitte Fassbaender and Helmut Deutsch. The Song Prize jury is also chaired by John Fisher.

The official accompanists will be Phillip Thomas, Simon Lepper and Llŷr Williams.

Details of the competition are available at bbc.co.uk/cardiffsinger. A booking form can also be downloaded from this site.

Click here for a list of singers.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/cabell.png image_description=Nicole Cabell product=yes product_title=Above: Nicole Cabell, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005

MUSSORGSKY: Khovanshchina

This was one of the few references in this sprawling production that was immediately recognizable. Maybe he wore the shirt for a bet. To see what he could get away with on stage. Maybe he staged the entire production with the same thought.

Of course he did not. But had he, the audience would have had one reason for their polite (and I stress polite) applause at the end what I can only say was one of the most incomprehensible productions I can remember. It even gave Pountney’s space station Dutchman a run for its money. WNO audiences are very polite and at times you rather wish they would make their views clearer in curtain calls than the mutterings and mumblings you hear on the way out.

Khovanshchina was never going to be a laugh a minute night out. And those who bought their tickets to hear the wonderful music of Musorsgsky, as orchestrated after his death by Shostakovich, will have been amongst those not disappointed.

Under the baton of Lothar Koenigs the music to those of us not very familiar with the work was a revelation, always beautiful and evocative, at times lyrical and tuneful, at others Wagnerian and haunting.

The same must be said of the chorus of Welsh National Opera who, stalwarts as they are, put up with whatever was thrown at them in this potpourri of historical, architectural and cultural references crammed into one production with stoic aplomb. 

Someone, somewhere, decided this opera would be sung in English. This would have been fine had it been possible to make out more than about one in a hundred words. There were whole arias — and by no means little ditties — where I could not fathom a single word. It sounded quite nice, in a moody Russian sort of way, and was no doubt deeply significant.

I have never been a fan of surtitles. But after a few minutes of struggling to make out a word of what was being sung I was all at sea, struggling to hear singers, follow the dastardly plot and file yet another Pountney visual reference in my cerebral inbox for future analysis.

Even with the show sung in English, we should have had Welsh surtitles. My Welsh is pretty basic but I would have more of a chance of understanding the Welsh than what I could hear from the stage.

At the interval it quickly became clear I was not alone. “Can anyone tell me what is going on, can you make out what they are singing and what is the point of the production?” was the main thrust of interval discussions I overheard. The responses were along the lines: “Haven’t a clue, can’t make much of the words and I stopped trying to understand it ages ago”.

This, of course, is a great pity. This is indeed a powerful and musically gorgeous work that deserves to be enjoyed. Possibly in a year or so the opera can be revived with surtitles or as a straight concert performance.

Admittedly the plot is so complex and the piece so gloomy it is better to regard it as an evocation of Russia and themes religious, political and emotional, rather than a literal tale.

It is about power struggles in the time of Peter the Great between rivals and a spiritual leader with individual views on the future of Mother Russia. By the end they have all been ground down in one dreadful way or another and we are left with yet another image of troubled Russia, its struggles between East and West, modernism and tradition, a people invaded, plundered and constantly in search of a solution.

There really is little point going through the legions of symbolism Pountney and designer Johan Engels wade through with as much subtlety and progress as a German Panzer, low on fuel and stuck in the mud in the Russian winter of 1941. There are undoubtedly scenes of intensity and sheer horror that are visually gripping and chilling. Yet, as a package, the whole is too abstract production led.

Yes, the cast worked extremely hard and Peter Sidhom, singing Shaklovity, made an impact. Robert Hayward and Tom Randle as Prince Ivan Khovansky and Prince Andrei Khovansky had presence and Rosalind Plowright generally coped admirably with the demands of singing Marfa.

The audience managed miraculously to stop coughing during Beate Vollack’s erotic, at times seemingly naked, dance as the Persian Slave. A bit of light relief if nothing else.

There is a further performance at WMC on Saturday, February 14 and the Grand Theatre, Swansea on April 7.

Mike Smith

image=http://www.operatoday.com/plowright.png image_description=Rosalind Plowright as Marfa product=yes product_title=Above: Rosalind Plowright as Marfa

Goerne/Metzmacher, Wigmore Hall, London

By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 22 February 2007]

Schubert and Ives were promised for Matthias Goerne’s latest London recital, one of the German baritone’s typically daring programme ideas. Without warning the Ives was dropped. Apparently the idea had not worked as Goerne intended. That took daring too.

After 45 Years, Lorin Maazel Is to Conduct at the Metropolitan Opera

By DANIEL J. WAKIN [NY Times, 22 February 2007]

It took only 45 years, but Lorin Maazel is returning to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera.

Pavarotti’s heir breaks rules with encore on the high Cs

Richard Owen Rome [Times Online, 22 February 2007]

The Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez appears to have the crown of Luciano Pavarotti within grasp after ecstatic applause forced La Scala opera house to break a 70-year-old taboo and allow him to give an encore of an acclaimed aria.

Victoria de los Angeles performs Ravel, Debussy & Duparc

As a Spanish singer in a French opera set in Spain, her interpretation had an organic integrity that added authenticity to the operatic visit to her home country.

We enjoy a similar musical voyage on this EMI re-release of songs by Ravel, Debussy and Duparc. The Ravel songs provide an ethnic travelogue in Tristan Klingsor’s fantastic text to Shéhérazade and in actual ethnic songs from around the Mediterranean region in the Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grecques, the Chants Populaires, and the Deux Mélodies Hébraïques. The Debussy songs provide imaginary time travel to the worlds of Watteau paintings in the Fêtes Galantes and to an imaginary ancient Greece in the Chansons de Bilitis. The Debussy songs and the Ravel Chants Populaires are accompanied by Gonzalo Soriano on the piano; the rest have orchestral accompaniment.

These songs were recorded in 1963 and 1967 when the singer was in her prime vocally and we hear none of the roughness that crept in as financial concerns caused her to extend her career. Still, it has to be acknowledged that in the upper registers, her voice, while retaining a beautiful purity, does not really blossom. Thus the sound that transports some listeners does not excite everyone. To my ear, this pure tone works very well in most of this repertoire. Ravel’s ethnic songs have a directness from which a heavier vibrato would detract. Thus the Chants Populaires, infrequently recorded, are very successful. The ubiquitous Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grecques bring out the endearing warmth of her personality, but the orchestral accompaniment, while adding color, perhaps makes a bigger production of these songs than they should have (only two of the orchestrations are by Ravel himself). The Deux Mélodies Hébraïques are simple and, especially in the case of the Kaddisch, worshipful. A quick comparison with Cecilia Bartoli’s performance of these songs and the Chants Populaires on her 1996 Chant d’Amour disc shows Bartoli having a richer sound but less clearly understandable texts. Bartoli also sings these songs in Hebrew rather than French, and noticeably modifies her voice to sound childlike in the son’s section of the dialogue in the Chanson Hebraïque.

There is also much to like in De los Angeles’s performance of the Debussy songs. Again, the purity and containment of her vocal sound bring out the ironic detachment as well as the charm of the Fêtes Galantes set. Her performance of the Chansons de Bilitis beautifully evokes what Graham Johnson calls their “Delphic spirituality”, where the eroticism is “veiled, understated, and under-age”. Her ability to sound vulnerable while using her whole voice draws us into the heart of the young woman encountering the birth, consummation and death of erotic passion. Again, one can compare with more recent performances. Dawn Upshaw on her 2004 Voices of Light presents a more sharply defined emotional range: more intensely passionate in “La Chevelure,” while backing off the (already fairly transparent) sound to sound more childlike in places. By contrast, René Fleming on her 2001 Night Songs has a less focused sound with more pronounced legato than either of the others. There is more shimmer in the higher registers, but less personality in the interpretation. De los Angeles’s final Debussy song is the troubled “Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison”, written by the aged Debussy in horror at the devastation of World War I. Again, De los Angeles’s sincerity and pure timbre allow her to sing unaffectedly as one of the displaced children regretting the loss of “our little beds” (as well as the rest of their villages, families, and daily lives).

It is in the Ravel Shéhérazade, and the orchestrated Duparc songs that admirers of a richer sounding voice may be disappointed in this program. In the expansive “Asie”, which opens the entire disc and describes a fantasy voyage across the continent, exploring every dark nook and cranny before returning home to tell one’s friends about it, the changing colors of the travelogue are heard in the orchestra rather than in the singer’s voice. However, the two more intimate songs that follow are quite effective, particularly when one takes into account that they both deal with erotic passion that under the circumstances cannot or will not be pursued, so the singer’s contained sound works well.

There is no faulting de los Angeles’s emotion, musicality or technique in the Duparc songs that close the disc. Duparc himself might object to the performance, since he apparently was annoyed to hear a woman’s voice sing a man’s song. And of course, those who are drawn to Duparc among French composers because he is more like their real love, Wagner, than many others, will want to hear a bigger vocal sound than de los Angeles offers. Nevertheless, she does bring off the intimacy of the opening of “Phydilé” very well, and when the sonic landscape opens out in the climax, she is able to fill it effectively without pushing her voice, reminding us once again of her very successful operatic career.

It should be noted that this disc, released as part of EMI’s “Great Recordings of the Century” series, has been completely remastered at Abbey Road studios. Fans of Victoria de los Angeles should know that all of these performances are also available on the multi-disc set entitled The Fabulous Victoria de los Angeles. Since I had that set already, I compared some of the tracks on my own equipment and that of my audiophile brother-in-law, and he and I both agreed that her middle voice in particular is better captured on the older discs, so I wouldn’t advise buying this disc if you have the older set, or are enough of a fan to consider acquiring it (last I checked it’s still available). The new release includes a 2006 essay by John Steane (in English and in German translation) discussing the songs and the singer, as well as texts and German and English translations of the songs.

Barbara Miller

image=http://www.operatoday.com/de_los_Angeles.png image_description=Victoria de los Angeles performs Ravel, Debussy & Duparc product=yes product_title=Victoria de los Angeles performs Ravel, Debussy & Duparc product_by=Victoria de los Angeles, soprano, Gonzalo Soriano, piano, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Georges Prêtre product_id=EMI Classics 0094634582421 (Angel); 0094634582124 (Dog and Trumpet) 0094634582155 (Digital) [CD] price=$11.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=127234

Simon Boccanegra, Metropolitan Opera, New York

By Martin Bernheimer [Financial Times, 20 February 2007]

Simon Boccanegra returned to the Met on Monday in the handsome, ultratraditional production staged a dozen years ago by Giancarlo del Monaco and designed by Michael Scott (David Kneuss currently holds the book). The convoluted masterpiece cast its spell in spite of first nighters who interrupted the music to applaud the scenery, the diva’s entrance and numerous false cadences.

An Opera by Verdi That Needs Name Tags

By BERNARD HOLLAND [NY Times, 21 February 2007]

The sun does not shine on “Simon Boccanegra.” Its heroine, Amelia, does share a sunrise with the Metropolitan Opera’s gaping Act I garden scene, and a little light filters through windows elsewhere, but gloom is the order of the day in this formidable if largely unlovable product of Verdi’s middle years.

A Mezzo-Soprano Who’s Determined to Do It Her Way, With or Without Star Turns

By ANNE MIDGETTE [NY Times, 21 February 2007}

She has been called “a force of nature.” Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager, says she has “one of the greatest voices in the history of opera.” The Met’s current program book fetes her as one of the leading divas of our time.

MOZART: Die Hochzeit des Figaro

That was the year of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Bonnie and Clyde, but the boisterous, iconoclastic mood of those times remains far, far away inside the Hamburg opera house. The cameras capture — in unsubtle color reminiscent of the “coloring” of b&w films by Ted Turner — a handsome, well-directed traditional production. As a snapshot of a typical, but classy, performance of a standard work at a German opera house in a time now long, long ago, this restored DVD makes for a charming treasure.

The charm begins with a “backstage” perspective as a prompter calls for the conductor, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, who offers an avuncular smile as he enters the pit and cues the overture. Cameras then go into the dressing room, briefly catching sight of most of the principals finishing their make-up or tidying their costume. Eventually our Figaro, Heinz Blankenburg (an American, by the way) passes by, and the camera follows him onto the stage, where the curtain rises at the end of the overture and we see a full house ready for the show.

But that is just a director's trick; this is not a performance filmed before a live audience, as the obviously canned applause at the end of each act indicates. The lip-syncing quickly becomes apparent, as well as a “studio echo” heard in forte passages. However, the film director (Joachim Hess) stays true to the essence of a stage performance, with many wide shots that wisely capture the stage action. Because of the opening sequence, the cast and credits roll after the first act.

The cast's winning verve and comfort in their roles trump any regrets about the dated nature of the presentation. While Blankenburg may play up Figaro's hearty good nature a bit much, he makes for a creditable foil to the excellent Count of Tom Krause. This is a classic portrayal, capturing the Count's lust, temper, frustration, awareness of his own bad behavior — and sung impeccably. Cute but not cutesy, Edith Mathis presents an adorable Susanna. Arlene Saunders doesn't quite have the richness of voice to really score in the Countess's big arias, but she acts well. Though Elisabeth Steiner never looks for a moment like a boy as Cherubino, her high spirits carry her through, along with her attractive voice.

Why has Arthaus provided such a hideous graphic design for the cover? A disgusting greenish wallpaper, thankfully unseen in the production, makes a backdrop for b&w photos of the cast, giving an incorrect impression of the film's content. The booklet essay, however, is a model of its kind, with a fine note on the opera, this production, and cast biographies. The subtitles have only one unfortunate misstep, when a character says of the Count that it is “not his wife who wets his appetite.” Kinky.

As the critical cliche goes, this should not be anyone's only DVD of the Mozart-da Ponte masterpiece. For the many, many lovers of this work, however, a lot of enjoyment awaits them inside that unfortunate cover.

Chris Mullins

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Hochzeit.png image_description=W. A. Mozart: Die Hochzeit des Figaro product=yes product_title=W. A. Mozart: Die Hochzeit des Figaro product_by=Tom Krause (Count Almaviva), Arlene Saunders (Countess Almaviva), Heinz Blankenburg (Figaro), Edith Mathis (Susanna), Elisabeth Steiner (Cherubino), Maria Von Ilosvay (Marcellina), Kurt Marschner (Don Basilio), Members of the Corps de Ballet of the Hamburg State Opera, Chorus of the Hamburg State Opera, The Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (cond.), Joachim Hess (dir.) product_id=Arthaus Musik 101 263 [DVD] price=$29.98 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=8429&name_role1=1&comp_id=2079&genre=33&label_id=4357&bcorder=1956&name_id=57113&name_role=3

VERDI: Aida

Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni after a scenario by Auguste Mariette.

First Performance: 24 December 1871, Opera House, Cairo.

Principal Characters:
Aida, an Ethiopian slave	Soprano
Radamès, Captain of the Guards	Tenor
The King	Bass
Amneris, his daughter	Mezzo-Soprano
Amonasro, King of Ethiopia and father of Aida	Baritone
Ramfis, the Chief Priest	Bass
The High Priestess	Soprano
A Messenger	Tenor

Setting: Memphis and Thebes in Ancient Egypt.

Synopsis:

Background

Aida, an Ethiopian princess, is captured and brought into slavery in Egypt. A military commander, Radames, struggles to choose between his love for her and his loyalty to the Pharaoh. To complicate the story further, Radames is loved by the Pharaoh’s daughter Amneris, although he does not return the feeling.

Act I

Scene I: A hall in the King’s palace; through the rear gate the pyramids and temples of Memphis are seen.

Aida, the daughter of the Ethiopian King Amonasro, lives at Memphis as a slave. Her Egyptian captors are unaware of her true identity. Her father has made an incursion into Egypt to deliver her from servitude. But since her capture, Aida has fallen in love with Radames, a young warrior (Romanza, Radames: “Heavenly Aïda”). She has a dangerous rival in Amneris, the daughter of the Egyptian king. (Duet, Radames and Amneris: “In thy visage I trace.”) Incited by Amneris, the high priest Ramfis (Terzett, Aïda, Amneris, and Radames: “Oh fate o’er Egypt looming”) declares that Radames has been selected by Isis to be the leader of the army against Amonasro. (Battle Hymn: “On! Of Nilus’ sacred river, guard the shores.”) Aida’s heart is torn between her love for her father and her love for Radames. (Scene, Aida: “Return a conqueror.”)

Scene II: The Temple of Vulcan. In the center an altar illuminated by a mysterious light from above.

Solemn ceremonies and dance of priestesses. (Chorus of priestesses: “O mighty Ptha.”) Installation of Radames to the office of commander-in-chief. (Prayer, Ramfis and chorus: “O mighty one, guard and protect!”)...

Act II

Scene I: A hall in Amneris’ apartment.

Amneris’ chamber. Festal dances and music. (Chorus of women: “Our songs his glory praising.”) Amneris receives her slave Aida and cunningly tricks her into professing her love for Radames by lying and declaring that Ramades has fallen in battle. Aida’s distress upon hearing this news betrays her love of Radames. (Scene and duet, Amneris, Aida: “The chances of war afflict thy people, poor Aida;” Aida: “O love, O joy tormenting.”)

Scene II: Outside the city walls at the grand Gate of Thebes.

Radames returns victorious. (Chorus, king and people: “Glory to Egypt, to Isis!”) Grand triumphal march. The Egyptian king decrees that on this day the triumphant Radames may have anything he wishes. The Ethiopian captives are marched in. Amonasro appears among them. Aida immediately rushes to her father, but their true identities are still unknown to the Egyptians. Amonasro declares that the Ethiopian king has been slain in battle. (Amonasro: “This my garment has told you already.”) Out of his love for Aida, Radames uses the King’s grant to release the prisoners. The grateful King of Egypt declares him his successor and the betrothed of his daughter. Aida and Amonasro remain as hostages to ensure that the Ethiopians do not avenge their defeat.

Act III

Scene: On the banks of the Nile, near the Temple of Isis.

(Chorus of priests and priestesses: “O thou who to Osiris art...”) Amneris enters the temple in preparation for her wedding. Outside, Aida waits to meet with Radames as he planned (Aria, Aida: “Oh, my dear country!”). Amonasro enters and he forces Aida to learn from Radames the position of the Egyptian army. (Duet, Aida and Amonasro: “Once again shalt thou gaze.”). Radames enters and affirms that he will only marry Aida, and she later convinces him to flee to the desert with her. As an excuse to ease their flight, Aida asks the position of the Egyptian army, which Radames tells and Amonasro hears. (Duet, Radames and Aida: “Again I see thee.”) When Amonasro reveals his identity, Radames is dishonored. At the same time Amneris exits the temple, and seeing the scene calls the guards. Amonasro flees with Aida, while the despairing Radames allows himself to be taken prisoner to give them time to flee. (Terzett, Amonasro, Aida, Radames: “I am dishonoured.”)...

Act IV

Scene I: A hall in the Temple of Justice. To one side is the door leading to Radames’ prison cell.

Amneris (Scene, Amneris: “My hated rival has escaped me”) desires to save Radames, but he is repulsed by her (Duet, Amneris and Radames: “Now to the hall the priests proceed”). Radames’ trial takes place offstage; he will not speak in his own defense, and is condemned to death, while Amneris, who remains onstage, pleads with the priests to show him mercy. The sentence is that he shall be buried alive. Amneris curses the priests as Radames is taken away. (Judgment scene, Amneris, Ramfis, and chorus: “Heavenly spirit, descend.”)

Scene II: The lower portion of the stage shows the burial place in the Temple of Vulcan; the upper portion represents the temple itself.

Aida has hidden herself in the crypt to die with Radames. (Scene and duet, Radames and Aida: “The fatal stone now closes over me.”) They accept their terrible fate (Radames: “To die, so pure and lovely”), bid farewell to earth and its sorrows, and await the Dawn, while Amneris weeps and prays above their tomb in the midst of the priestly ceremonies, and the jubilant dance of the priestesses. (Finale, chorus of priests and priestesses: “Almighty Ptha.”)

Footnote: The original draft included a speech by Aida (excised from the final version) that explained her presence beneath the Temple: “My heart knew your sentence. For three days I have waited here.” The line most familiar to audiences translates as: “My heart forewarned me of your condemnation. In this tomb that was opened for you I entered secretly. Here, away from human sight, in your arms I wish to die.”

[Synopsis Source: Wikipedia]

Click here for the complete libretto.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Aida_Olbinski.png image_description=Aida by Rafal Olbinski audio=yes first_audio_name=Giuseppe Verdi: Aida
Windows Media Player first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Aida.wax second_audio_name=Giuseppe Verdi: Aida
WinAMP, VLC or iTunes second_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Aida.m3u product=yes product_title=Giuseppe Verdi: Aida product_by=Guglielmo Masini (The King), Irene Minghini-Cattaneo (Amneris), Dusolina Giannini (Aida), Aureliano Pertile (Radamès), Luigi Manfrini (Ramfis), Giovanni Inghilleri (Amonasro), Giuseppe Nessi (The Messenger), Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Carlo Sabajno (cond.)
Recorded 1929

Khovanshchina

Richard Morrison [Times Online, 20 February 2007]

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

In Russia, history tends to repeat itself as tragedy, then farce — then grand opera. Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina is typical: an epic attempt to dramatise power struggles in late 17th-century Moscow. And cosy they aren’t. By Act V all the jostling factions are murdered, exiled or have set themselves on fire (the opera ends with a macabre mass-immolation), thanks to the machinations of Peter the Great, who never appears — Tsarist convention dictating that you couldn’t portray a Romanov on stage.

MONTEVERDI'S ‘COMBATTIMENTO'

by Jay Nordlinger [NY Sun, 20 February 2007]

Monteverdi is making a bit of a splash around the world. Virgin Classics has released "Combattimento," which offers arias and duets from Monteverdi's opera, or proto-opera, "Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda." He wrote this piece in 1624, and it is based on Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata" — a tale of the Crusades.

WAGNER: Parsifal

While he was a prominent figure at Bayreuth, Sawallisch is conspicuous for the lack of a recording of Parsifal from that venue. Yet this release addresses such a need with a cast that includes some of the finest Wagnerian singers of the time. Most importantly, this Myto recording features Ursula Schröder-Feinen, a remarkable singer whose accomplishments are best-known by those who saw her perform. While some recent CDs, like this one, preserve live performances of this singer, the discography is lacking when it comes to studio recordings that include Schröder-Feinen.

As Kundry, Schröder-Feinen is remarkable in her ability not only to perform the role well, but to imbue it with a vocal characterization that emerges on a recording and not just on stage. Her voice is suited to the role, not only for the demands that the role poses, but in the intensity with which she approaches the entirety of the second act. This performance benefits from a freshness and spontaneity often hoped for a Kundry to embody. Schröder-Feinen’s tenuous sounds as Klingsor awakens her give way to the conscious and dynamic vocal presence of Kundry as she attempts to seduce Parsifal, but inevitably fails. Such failure is only on the part of the character in the opera, as it is otherwise for the singer in this performance. Vocally, Schröder-Feinen triumphs in her execution of the act with elan.

Those familiar with Schröder-Feinen will find this performance to represent her well. With a performance like this one of Parsifal, the aural documentation concurs with the usual judgments about the quality of this singer’s voice and interpretive facility. With a freshness some associate with the character of Sieglinde in Die Walkűre, Schröder-Feinen is enticing, and, more importantly, convincing Kundry. As many know, Sawallisch worked Schröder-Feinen, and it is clear from this recording that he elicited some fine singing from her. While her career was relatively short, her quality is evident in performances like this one.

The other members of the cast also effective, with such well-know singers as Theo Adam and Kurt Moll giving the kinds of performances that helped to establish their reputations. Nienstedt’s portrayal of Klingsor is vivid throughout his appearances in the second act, with the Finnish tenor Timo Callio captured in this live performance. Known in the 1970s for roles like Parsifal, Callio is not often found on recordings, and this particular release captures him just before he became more widely known in Europe. Callio was known in the US, but is not a familiar voice, and those interested in hearing him have the opportunity to do so in this recording. In fact, the second act is worth hearing for his approach to that part of the opera.

The liner notes contain some reference to the secondary roles, and as well as they are handled in this performance, the choral forces are notable for their precision and intonation. The chorus at the end of the first act is not only precise in the ritualistic scene, but the intonation rings wonderfully as the scene comes to its close. Likewise, the flower maidens in the second act are extroverted and suitably aggressive in their vocal seduction of the troubled Parsifal. They offer the kind of precision associated with the trio of Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold, creating an intimacy in the scene that can be lacking in some performances. It is this level of detail that makes Sawallisch’s performance compelling, with the nuances essential to a solid interpretation of Wagner’s music fully in place.

In terms of conducting, Sawallisch contributes a fine breadth to the performance, with tempos the tempos flowing naturally. His treatment of the notationally four-square rhythms demonstrates a fluidity of pulse that allows the text to be heard clearly and the orchestral interjections and interludes to contribute to the drama. The Grail procession is not only part of the musical scenery, but also a moment for the audience to reflect on the drama, with the ardent solemnity emerging easily in this notable performance.

On the whole, the CD itself is remarkably clean. Recorded near the stage, the recording presents the voices vividly, if not, perhaps overly prominent. While the orchestra is still audible, the balance with the solo voices and choral forces is not always event, and dynamic levels take their cue from the performers on stage more than the efforts of the conductor in the pit. This is not entirely unwelcome, as it gives listeners the chance to hear some of the famous voices directly, without being obscured by an orchestral passage or lost within an accompanying figure.

A live performance, not a studio recording, the ambiance and balance is not always ideal, but it is possible to become accustomed to it and focus on the recording. Unlike some other CD releases of live performances, this Myto recording also benefits from judicious banding, such that it is possible to find specific sections of each act easily, as reflected in the track listings in the accompanying booklet. The recording does not include the libretto, but this should not pose problems with a work as familiar as Parsifal. Those who wish to have a copy of the libretto might consult some of the resources on the Internet for this text and those of Wagner’s other operas. All in all, this is another fine release by Myto, which makes available some worthy performances in its line of recordings.

James Zychowicz

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Parsifal_Myto.png image_description=Richard Wagner: Parsifal product=yes product_title=Richard Wagner: Parsifal product_by=Timo Callio (Parsifal); Ursula Schröder-Feinen (Kundry); Franz Crass (Gurnemanz); Theo Adam (Amfortas); Gerd Nienstedt (Klingsor); Kurt Moll (Titurel); Orchestra and Chorus of the Rome RAI, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. product_id=Myto 3 MCD 063.328 [3CDs] price=$54.98 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=12732&name_role1=1&comp_id=3426&genre=33&label_id=433&bcorder=1956&name_id=13794&name_role=3

HAYDN: Les Sept Dernières Paroles du Christ

Devotional instrumental music, save that for the associatively “consecrated” organ, leaves us somewhat confused, as the expectations of genre begin to blur. Haydn conceived of the Seven Last Words as an orchestral work in 1786—music to be performed in the context of Holy Week as contemplative reflections on Jesus’s Passion. Strikingly, of course, these Seven Last Words had no words at all, as was also the case with his string quartet arrangement, thus subverting the long-conditioned notion that devotional music is both sung and texted. (It is not only the absence of voice and text that challenges the sense of genre; certain idioms, such as the “horn-fifths” at the beginning of the seventh word seem so rich in association that it is difficult to reconcile their bucolicism with Calvary.)

“Long-conditioned notions” inspired a vocal version of Haydn’s work by the Passau Kapellmeister, Joseph Friebert. Haydn heard this version in 1795 and set about to render it with his own stamp. In this new version, soloists and choir are added to the instrumental landscape, singing texts that expand and reflect on Jesus’s words from the cross, much in the manner of eighteenth-century opera, where poetic arias reflect and expand on recitative. And to make this reflective dynamic more explicit, Haydn also adds unaccompanied statements of the words from the cross themselves—in function like a recitative—sung before the reflections in turn. In one instance, however, he foregoes this pattern and replaces the word from the cross with a new instrumental movement for winds.

The conductor, Laurence Equilbey, in the program notes writes of the vocal version as being like colla parte in reverse. That is, whereas normative liturgical practice often found instruments doubling the voices for support and for timbral enrichment, in this case it is the voices that double the instruments. They enrich the tone color, their addition of text particularizes the moment, but unlike music conceived for orchestra and choir, the role of who accompanies whom is seemingly up for grabs: the presence of voices leads one to expect that, as usual, they are in “first chair,” but the genesis of the version and the sound itself bring that into question.

Much of the most powerful writing remains reserved for instruments alone: the opening introduction, with wonderfully incisive sonorities enhanced here by period instruments is one example, and the movement that precedes the fifth reflection is another. This is moodily evocative, eerie and unsettling, and the scoring for winds alone (including Haydn’s first use of contrabassoon) places the movement in high relief.

Choir and orchestra alike follow Equilbey’s strong dynamic sense, rendering highly contoured lines that move compellingly from theatricality to contemplation. Moreover, the utterly simple writing of the unaccompanied “words” shows the choir’s striking degree of control and infection. The work itself may blur our sense of genre, but there is no lack of clarity regarding the strength of the performance.

Steven Plank

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Haydn_7_Word.png image_description=Franz Joseph Haydn: Les Sept Dernières Paroles du Christ product=yes product_title=Franz Joseph Haydn: Les Sept Dernières Paroles du Christ product_by=Accentus; Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; Sandrine Piau, soprano; Ruth Sandhoff, mezzo-soprano; Robert Getchell, tenor; Harry van der Kamp, bass; Lauarence Equilbey (conductor) product_id=Naïve V5045 [CD] price=$16.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=5170&name_role1=1&comp_id=1396&genre=34&label_id=174&bcorder=1956&name_id=58324&name_role=3

WAGNER: Parsifal

Having established itself as a resource for those with an interest in the rarer corners of the repertory, Dynamic here makes a creditable move into more familiar territory. True, Parsifal is not exactly La Boheme at the box office; nonetheless, the opera attracts the finest singers and directors, so Dynamic has to be willing to endure invidious comparisons here.

But they need not be invidious at all. While by no means a top-rank performance, the strengths here deserve recognition. After a brief opening montage of Venice, conductor Gabor Ötvös enters the pit to lead the Fenice players in a forthright but impassioned reading of the prelude. Ötvös does not linger; the long first act takes just about 100 minutes. Other conductors have taken longer, some considerably so, but the approach here pays respect to both the anxious, unsettled mood of the first act and to Wagner’s unique spiritual aura.

Denis Krief takes credit as director, set, costume and light designer. There is a zen-like purity to his conception (although thankfully no faux-Japanese elements intrude). A floor of rough wooden planks lies bare for acts one and three; the second has ominous walls of curved metal, rather like shavings off Disney Hall in Los Angeles. A few pale white stones and bisecting beams, suggesting a cross, serve to complete the stage picture in the first two acts. Krief’s costumes are in dark, muted colors, except for Klingsor’s. Singer Mikolaj Zalasinski bravely takes the stage in a white thong, with a kimono-like shawl providing a modest amount of modesty.

Visually then, this Parsifal offers the eye little, but Krief has real talent as a director. All the singers inhabit their roles with commitment, moving comfortably and naturally in the bare space. Only Kundry’s already dated pseudo-punk haircut mars the total picture, although the ultra-realistic deceased swan may produce a few giggles.

The cast list may not boast starry names, but there are no weak links. Tall and fairly athletic, Richard Decker doesn’t play up the “fool” side of Parsifal, instead projecting a Siegfried-like energy. At points his voice sounds about ready to wear itself out, and then he recovers his faculties and soldiers on. Matthias Hölle holds the evening together with his determined, serious Gurnemanz, a father figure to the knights and our guide to Parsifal’s transformation in act three. In a role where an unimpressive singer can really do some damage, Hölle’s success cannot be underestimated. Wolfgang Schöne doesn’t make as much of an impression as Amfortas, but the costuming here fails to suggest more strongly his agonizing wound. Doris Soffel also has to work against some unflattering costuming, but she understands Kundry’s complex character. More seductive women, in voice and physicality, have sung the role; Soffel gives as much of herself to the role as any singer can.

Krief may have decided to court controversy with the amount of nudity — male as well as female — in the bisexual orgy of act two. The problem is, the admirable physiques of professional dancers amidst the chorus of attired flower maidens does not suggest sexual corruption so well. The distraction factor can’t be ignored either, with Decker kneeling at one point to sing with bare buttocks exposed right over his shoulder. Krief also “gives up” on the spear toss from Klingsor to Parsifal with an awkward black-out.

But with almost any production of any opera, nits can be picked. With only a few other DVDs of the opera on the market, lovers of Parsifal should give this Dynamic release a viewing, despite the additional cost of an unnecessary third disc.

Chris Mullins

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Parsifal_Fenice.png image_description=Richard Wagner: Parsifal product=yes product_title=Richard Wagner: Parsifal product_by=Richard Decker, Matthias Hölle, Wolfgang Schöne, Doris Soffel, Mikolaj Zalasinski, Ulrich Dünnebach, Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Gabor Ötvös, conductor. Denis Krief, director, set, costume and light designer. product_id=Dynamic 33497 [3DVDs] price=$42.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=146111

Opera North: Breathing new life into “Orfeo”

I was lured by England’s only national company outside of London, a new production by Christopher Alden of Monteverdi’s seminal masterpiece, and a debut in the role for one of England’s most talented yet under-rated tenors: Paul Nilon. Not one of the three attractions disappointed.

Opera North is on a roll at the moment; it has a beautiful old theatre as its home, decorated in a palette of deep red, green and gold, not to mention some fabulous original Victorian tiling now exposed again in all their glory, and is planning even more work in a Phase Two to bring back to life the adjoining Assembly Rooms as another rehearsal and performance space. Aligned to these physical plans is their continuing commitment to challenge preconceptions of opera, advocating lesser-known works (later this season they are presenting Kaiser’s “Croesus”) and to breathe new life into the classics. You don’t get very much more classic than the opera that virtually invented the art-form, and Christopher Alden has most decidedly set out to challenge a few well-worn notions of this favola in musica.

First of all, the evening’s staging is seamless and without interruption by interval which makes for a long sit — some one and three quarter hours. Secondly, Alden gives us just one physical location with no traditional “descent” into Hades, no Styx, no dark and flaming scenes or flying deities. As the curtain rises we are taken to a large room — possibly a palace or ducal space — floored, walled and canopied in a kind of giant parquet wood effect in shades of brown. The costumes are non-specific modern: jeans or dresses with Tudor touches in the form of the occasional ruff or slashed velvet doublet. A few high niches in the side walls are the only entrances and exits for a necessarily agile cast of singers — each niche must have been at least four feet from the boards. Apart from that, just an array of sofas and easy chairs provided visual detail and a base for the assembly of singers who in turn played the wedding guests, the chorus, the Furies and, the audience. Audience? Yes, in a way they were just that, for in this production Alden and Nilon combine their talents to persuade us that this is not Orfeo as hero, great lover or mystical muse; rather, he is Orfeo the Artist, the Performer, and subject to all the angst therein. His great aria Possente spirto is delivered in the form of a nervous singer giving an audition, complete with hastily-erected music stand, shaking hands and despairing glances at an unmoved Caronte. Equally challenging to the paying audience was the way Alden played with our expectations of the ill-fated Eurydice: she seems anything but delighted to be marrying Orfeo, more than happy when dead, and — a typical Alden touch — when masking-taped to a wall to denote her passage into the Underworld she is transmogrified into the character of Speranza who encourages Orfeo to convince the infernal gatekeeper Caronte to let him follow his love. Caronte spends his time sitting in one of the ubiquitous armchairs, apparently reading the Obituaries column of the Times. A nice touch.

For some in the first night audience (a gratifyingly full house) these ideas pushed them out of their comfort zone; but even if Alden’s love-affair with masking tape (used not only to fix poor Eurydice upright to a wall, but also to delineate Pluto’s kingdom and occasionally confine Orfeo) irritated some, then there could be no argument with the quality of the music making. Quite simply it was fine, idiomatic, and intensely stylistic throughout without ever making the mistake of sounding overly “old” or pedantic. Chris Moulds directed a twenty-strong period band, each element of which accompanied different characters, different “affects”, in different parts of the story — recorders, cornets, sackbuts and harp adding a rich sonority to the strings and ubiquitous theorbos.

Of the singers, Paul Nilon of course has to carry much of the opera. This was his first attempt at the character, which is surprising when one considers his great experience in baroque and classical roles, but he rose to the challenge and indeed threw down another to singers currently regarded as masters of the role. Nilon is superb when portraying disturbed or emotionally tangled psyches — his Grimoaldo in Handel’s “Rodelinda” springs to mind. His Possente Spirto e formidabil Nume, the great central pivot of the opera, was superbly sung, superbly acted. If it lacked the icy elegance of an Ainsley or Bostridge, in the context of this production’s most human of heroes, it convinced entirely. The desperation, the hope, the desire of every performer to please an audience, in this case the implacable gatekeeper, was in every note and gesture of this intensely written tour de force for the human voice.

The supporting roles were all consistently well sung and acted — Anna Stephany as Eurydice/Speranza is fulfilling her promise as a young English singer to watch, her voice full and coloured, nicely differentiated between the roles. Among the other female voices, Ann Taylor in the dual roles of La Messagiera and Prosperina had a glorious bloom to her voice, and an amusing stage presence when required. The minor male roles were equally consistent in quality of singing — standouts last night being basses Graeme Broadbent (a cavernously voiced Caronte), and Andrew Foster-Williams (a rather amusingly disinterested and randy Plutone). There were no obvious vocal weak links and this alone is a testament to the strength in depth that Opera North can command at present.

This quality was not lost on the local audience or guests: at the end of the performance there were warm ovations for all concerned, well-deserved cheers for our Yorkshire-born Orfeo — and a few cheerfully-received boos for the director. Certainly one can pick holes in some of the director’s conceits in this production: the eliding of Eurydice’s rescue and second death for instance, but safe to say both Alden and Opera North have upheld their avowed traditions in fine style.

© Sue Loder 2007

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Paul-Nilon.png image_description=Paul Nilon (photo: Dallas Opera) product=yes product_title=Above: Paul Nilon
Photo: Copyright and courtesy of Dallas Opera

BRAHMS: Ein deutsches Requiem

Recorded live on 1 April 1954, this previously unreleased performance makes Ramin’s efforts available half a century after his death in 1956.

Those familiar with some modern performances of this work should notice the somewhat meditative tempos that Ramin used in this work. The opening conveys, for example, a more atmospheric approach to the work, which is borne out in the choral textures that are evident in this recording. Monaural by nature, the orchestral forces seem subdued, with the choral forces more prominent than usual. It is not an unwelcome result, since the chorus is remarkably nuanced, with the boys’ voices evincing a pure and solid tone that uniquely colors the performance.

Ramin’s tempos with the first movement tend to be slower than usual, with the pacing of the second movement seeming more marchlike in character. The quiet opening of the movement conveys a sense of emotional distance that Ramin brings into his interpretation of this work. The austere sonorities offer a different perspective than some give the work, thus reflecting the more classically oriented side of Brahms, even within this less-than-traditional treatment of a Requiem, with its idiosyncratic texts chosen from Scripture in lieu of the conventional Latin Mass.

The third movement is particularly revealing for the interplay between textures, with the solo parts taken by the baritone Gerhard Niese. Niese’s performance is laudable, but sometimes overshadowed by the choral forces that weave around the baritone part in this concerto-like movement in which the text of Psalm 39 resolves, as it were in the verse from the book of Wisdom, with its assurance of salvation for the just soul. In this movement, the counterpoint is nicely clear, and it is in such places that the weaknesses of the original recording medium are apparent. For some reason the sound improves with “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen,” perhaps the best-known section of Brahms’ Requiem, and quite effective in Ramin’s treatment of the music. Near the end of the work, in the sixth movement, the concluding section “Herr, du bist würdig” is contrastingly more extroverted, with Ramin bringing out the spiritual assurances implicit in Brahms work.

As a live performance, some ambient sounds are part of the recording, most from the activity on or near the podium. Audience noise is rare, with the clicking of a baton emerging from time to time to punctuate the choral timbres. A performance like this may never supplant the famous one by Klemperer, but Ramin’s stands well on its own merits. Given the fame of the Thomaskirche and the historically important role of its cantor, this recording offers a fine glimpse into the musical traditions there in the mid-twentieth century.

James Zychowicz

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Brahms_Requiem.png image_description=Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem product=yes product_title=Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem product_by=Agnes Giebel, Gerhard Neise, Thomanenchor Leipzig, Gewandhasorchester Leipzig, Günther Ramin, conductor. product_id=Archipel 0289 [CD] price=$11.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=1441&name_role1=1&comp_id=527&genre=93&bcorder=195&name_id=49695&name_role=3

BRUCKNER: Symphony no. 4

In approaching this work, Philippe Herreweghe contributes a well-thought interpretation of Leopold Nowak’s edition of the 1878/80 version of the work to the discography of this familiar Symphony. Within Bruckner’s expansive structures, the details of performance are crucial for a successful execution, and the Herreweghe commands attention to finer points that support the architecture of this score.

Under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysees meets the challenges of this score well. As popular as Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony is, the performers should have no problem in approaching the music, but that same familiarity can also draw comparisons of this performance with others, be it on recording or in live concerts. From that perspective, the new recording offers a convincing, solid, and even reading of this well-known work. As with Bruckner’s other symphonies, the extroverted passages require solid musicians to execute the various passages that echo the full stops of an organ, and the players are well suited to the task. The relentless horn parts are balanced well by the rest of the brass and winds, with the string texture at the core of the work supporting the fuller textures of the first movement, and also the chamber-music-like demands of the second. Such apposite demands can challenge any ensemble, and the ability to arrive at a convincing reading that sustains the intensity through the conclusion of this cyclic work is laudable.

Throughout the recording the brass are clearly present without overbalancing the winds and strings. Attacks are solid clear, with a nice, ringing tone that resonates well within the overall acoustic balance. Such playing is evident in the opening of the Scherzo, in which the horns set the tone for the rest of the brass in this well-known movement. In fact, Herreweghe is careful to allow the sonorities to ring at various points before proceeding from one section to another. IN that movement some of the quieter passages contain nuances that some conductors do not capture as well, and those interested in this performance may wish to sample this movement to get a sense of Herreweghe’s approach to the work.

The strings are full and could, at times, be stronger sounding. This may be the result of the recording process which is, in fact, otherwise effective. Despite this quibble, the chromatic passages that Bruckner uses in various transitions in the first movement demonstrate the ability of the strings to move together as a unit, suggesting in some places the kind of ensemble associated with chamber music. The woodwinds are similarly engaging in this performance, with the tutti passages reflecting a well-rehearsed and sensitive section. At times the louder passages seem to absorb the individual colors, but the woodwinds manage to maintain their presence in such places.

A solid recording, the sound is mastered well to preserve some of the nuances that Herreweghe brings out. At some crucial points, as the opening of the last movement, the amplitude of the recording backs off just a bit, thus reinforcing the tension already present in the harmonic dimension. Other details emerge in this movement, which has more breadth than sometimes encountered in the concert hall. If Herreweghe is, at times, subtle, it is not at the expense of the overt gestures which, as a result, are more dramatic in such a context.

One of Bruckner’s more popular works, it is difficult to single out any one recording that might serve as a benchmark, but Herreweghe’s recent release stands well alongside others for the clarity and attention to detail that this work deserves. The accompanying notes by Habakuk Traber provide some background information on the genesis of the Fourth Symphony and help to share with listeners the complex situation that exists with the versions and revisions that are endemic with Bruckner’s music. In choosing this version of the work, Herreweghe has given it a reading that deserves attention.

James Zychowicz

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Bruckner4.png image_description=Anton Bruckner: Symphony no. 4 product=yes product_title=Anton Bruckner: Symphony no. 4 “Romantic” product_by=Orchestre des Champs-Élysees, Philippe Herreweghe, conductor product_id=Harmonia Mundi HMC 901921 [CD] price=$18.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=1598&name_role1=1&comp_id=11608&genre=66&bcorder=195&label_id=1076

Jean-Baptiste Lully, Armide (Opera Lafayette)

On February 4th, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park MD hosted a concert performance of the original Armide – the 1686 masterpiece by Jean-Baptiste Lully; in April, the collaborators will offer a fully staged production of the 1777 Armide by Christoph Willibald Gluck, who resolved to conquer Paris by confronting the most famous creation of his illustrious predecessor.

Lully’s Armide, an enduring hit on the French operatic stage for a century after its premiere, is not often heard these days – particularly live. So, even unstaged, Opera Lafayette’s production of this brilliant, complex score was a rare treat to both the early music fans and the generally curious who packed the sold-out Dekelboum concert hall last Saturday afternoon. The 16-piece choir and a period instrument ensemble supported an international – and internationally acclaimed – group of soloists, some with most impressive baroque opera credentials. The casting evidently aimed at creating an ingenious mirror to Quinault’s well-known storyline, for it was dominated by Stephanie Houtzeel’s Armide. Tall, with regal posture, clad in blazing red jacket, the warrior princess ruled her universe with supreme confidence, commanding both respect and admiration of the troupes with her vocal power, range, and technique. Almost uncomfortable at times in its intense expressivity, Houtzeel’s performance was a reminder that the line between high drama and embarrassing melodrama on the 17th-century French stage would probably appear rather blurred to us.

In her interactions with other characters, Armide – in yet another hommage to Quinault – found herself conquered, on occasion, by the “implacable” Renaud of Robert Getchell. His ringing metallic tone, even in all registers, superb sound production, diction, and articulation were most appropriate for a hero crusader, while a certain lack of subtlety in phrasing and ornamentation still kept the audience’s sympathy securely with Armide. Among supporting roles, François Loup who pulled double duty as Hidraoth and Ubalde won praise for his rich, warm tone and elegant phrasing. William Sharp, Miriam Dubrow, and Tony Boutté did very well in their multiple roles (although Dubrow sounded a touch hesitant sometimes). Venerable Ann Monoyios appeared a little tense and had trouble with her projection in the prologue, but by the end of the evening one could see why this sought-after artist regularly works with the luminaries of period music.

The chorus did an excellent job throughout the performance, while the enthusiastic baton of Opera Lafayette’s artistic director Ryan Brown also coaxed some fine playing from the instrumentalists, including two lovely baroque flutes and a diverse continuo group of French viola da gamba, guitar, theorbo, cello, and harpsichord. The strings – divided according to French baroque tradition into five, rather than four parts – were less impressive in my opinion: their articulations (particularly in double-dotted passages) could have been sharper, and the ornaments more precise. There were also some issues with tempo changes between duple- and triple-time passages in the prologue. Yet overall, the ensemble’s rendition of the famously complex score was admirable, and the applause well deserved.

One of the most fascinating features of this concert performance was the part of it that was not, in fact, “concert”: close to forty minutes of period dancing performed by members of the New York Baroque Dance Company and choreographed especially for this production by Catherine Turocy. Unlike the singers, the dancers were costumed: ladies exhibited a contemporary take on high baroque fashion, complete with hair and shoes, while male helmets and tunics reminded one more of ancient Rome than the medieval crusades or Louis XIV’s France (no one – in the audience, at least – seemed to care). As the choreographer herself explained in a pre-concert Q & A, very few details of original choreography survive from Lully’s day; with the exception of a single gigue and two or three versions of the famous Act 5 passacaille, we can only guess what the dancing in Armide would have been like. So, Turocy made a guess – an educated one. The dancers offered examples of stylized baroque choreography: symmetrical, filled with traditional poses, movements, and gestures, and colored with appropriate symbolism as the main characters and ideas of the opera were reflected in its sister medium of ballet. The good spirits, for instance, were dressed in light-colored costumes and porcelain white masks, while the evil ones wore black, with brown masks, and carried long black veils that they would place over the head of their counterparts to symbolize their transformation into them. Along with the unexpectedly athletic set dances, there were episodes of pantomime, as the “stand-ins” for main characters played out the story in movement and gesture (for example, in Renaud’s famous Act 2 air de sommeil). Turocy clearly mined the score for ideas but treated the information creatively: for instance, in Act 3 divertissement, the followers of Hate are meant to capture Love and symbolically break its arrows to free Armide from her feelings for Renaud. In the current production, both captured Amour and (one) arrow were present, but the 17th-century cupid would hardly have behaved quite so insolently in front of the opera’s illustrious original audience.

The Opera Lafayette’s production of Armide was a long-awaited premiere of the new and what surely will be a definitive edition of this opera, prepared by Lois Rosow, a renowned Lully specialist and a professor of musicology at the Ohio State University. Dr Rosow, who was present at the performance, shared her expertise with the audience during the pre-concert Q&A that also included Ms. Turocy and Mr. Brown. Thankfully, this expertise will soon be available to baroque opera lovers worldwide: recorded for the Naxos label, Opera Lafayette’s performance of Lully’s masterpiece is due to be released in 2008.

Olga Haldey

image=http://www.operatoday.com/armide_rinaud.png image_description=Renaud and Armide (Nicolas Poussin) product=yes product_title=Above: Nicolas Poussin: Renaud and Armide (1626-1628)

EMI shares plunge on second warning

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson [Financial Times, 14 February 2007]

EMI on Wednesday delivered its second profit warning in a month, sending shares in the music group plunging again and raising doubts about shareholders’ patience with the management team led by Eric Nicoli, chief executive.

The Handel Singing Competition 2007 – Win or Lose?

For some singers they can become a way of life, travelling from continent to continent, from jury to jury, seeking that golden fleece of success with which to adorn their CV and give them, they hope, access to commercial success on the opera and recital stage, and even (less likely these days) a recording contract. For others they can be nothing but frustrating and counter-productive, and are quickly abandoned as a route to a worthwhile career in opera.

A relatively recent recruit to the roster of such competitions is in the specialised field of baroque singing, and specifically of Handel’s music: the London Handel Singing Competition. There has been a significant increase in the popularity of this composer’s vocal music over recent decades, and even the most staid of traditional opera houses can usually boast at least one of Mr. Handel’s masterpieces in their current repertoire. With this change has come the perceived need for specialist singers trained in the idiom and comfortable with its demands, and this is where the London Singing Competition finds its niche.

Established in 2002 by musical director Laurence Cummings, the format has not changed a great deal from those early days, except that all applicants are now heard, either live or on CD, and the Competition Finals are held now in the middle of the annual London Handel Festival, based in the composer’s old church of St. George’s, Hanover Square. Looking through the requirements for entry, it is obvious that the students and young performers are expected to do a lot of work: research and carefully thought-out repertoire is at a premium. The early rounds to hear the 70-80 applicants are held at the Royal Academy of Music in London, although singers from overseas can send in suitably-recorded CDs instead. After that, the Semi Finals and Final are public affairs in front of the panel of Adjudicators and live audience, and take the form of a semi-formal concert. Like some other competitions, the HSC has introduced an Audience Prize, and this is an opportunity to both empower the listeners, involving them in the eventual outcome, and to give the singers a second chance of success. It is not uncommon for this prize to go to a different young performer than the one chosen by the jury – and who’s to say who will be proven right in time? As has been seen over and over again, win or lose, just appearing in the Semis or Finals can have a great impact on a singer’s career as the events are always attended by music business folk on the look out for new talent.

At the risk of being invidious, some very interesting and talented singers have done well at the HSC, and their names are already becoming well known in baroque circles both in the UK and further afield: Andrew Kennedy, Lucy Crowe, Elizabeth Atherton, Iestyn Davies, and Nathan Vale, to name just a few, have all made their mark since reaching the Finals over the past five years and have embarked on promising careers in opera.

Looking ahead, the HSC is intending to broaden its remit and wants to encourage more foreign singers to apply. To this end, they are offering limited bursaries to help with travelling costs, and this can only result in an even more exciting competition of the highest standard in the future.

This year’s Final is on Monday April 23rd, at 7pm, at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, London, and the Adjudicators will be Ian Partridge, Catherine Denley, Michael Chance, Lindsay Kemp and Stephen Roberts.

For more information on application go to: http://www.london-handel-festival.com/competition.htm

Sue Loder, 2007

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Handel_singing_competition.png image_description=The Handel Singing Competition

SAMMARTINI: Della Passione di Gesú Cristo; L'addolorata Divina Madre.

The virtue of this disc, and of similar explorations into neglected repertoire, is that it gives the listener the chance to make his own judgments about style and historical inevitability, without having to peruse rare scores in some dusty library corner.

These works, from the late 1750s, have nothing to do with those remnants of the baroque which J.S. Bach was still raking over ten years earlier, but are the music of the future — one can see why J.C. Bach chose to travel to Sammartini's Milan at exactly this time (he spent the years 1755-1762 there, arriving, as the New Grove discreetly puts it "possibly in the company of an Italian lady singer"). The content of these two cantatas would likely have horrified Bach senior — operatic conversations between St. Peter (a soprano), St. John (contralto) and even odder, St. Maria Magdalene as a tenor, in the first cantata, and between three Marys (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleophas, Mary Salome — the two half-sisters of the Virgin) in the second.

Listening to these works one indeed sees how much Mozart and the Viennese were in debt to the music of Sammartini and his contemporaries, both in the instrumental symphonies which open the works, and in the arias. Unfortunately Ferrari's recording is not the most congenial manner in which to get to know these works. Soprano Silvia Mapelli is worthy of praise, with a light, lyric, feminine soprano, well-tuned, attractive, and musical. Her colleagues, alas, are not at this level. Bulgarian mezzo Miroslava Yordanova has an aggressive production which is practically a shout, particularly in the anti-Semitic aria given to St. John in the Passione; if I heard that sound in the street I would run the other way. Giorgio Tiboni has an over-bright tenor, like a blaring cornet — all brilliance, with no warmth and no subtlety of inflection. These two weary the ear. The orchestra is competent.

A disc of historical, but not of esthetic, interest.

Tom Moore

image=http://www.operatoday.com/570254.png image_description=Giovanni Battista Sammartini: Sacred Cantatas product=yes product_title=

Giovanni Battista Sammartini: Della Passione di Gesú Cristo; L'addolorata Divina Madre product_by=Silvia Mapelli, soprano; Miroslava Yordanova, mezzo-soprano; Giorgio Tiboni, tenor; Daniele Ferrari conducting the Symphonica Ensemble. product_id=Naxos 8.570254 [CD] price=$7.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=145197

Dust-bowl opera overwhelming at Minnesota premiere

Although opera buffs were sufficiently curious to sell out all five performances of the work premiered by Minnesota Opera on February 10, they nonetheless found it difficult to imagine John Steinbeck’s account of the exodus from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl as an opera.

The 1939 novel seemed too long, too complex and too freighted with despair for such transformation. And doubts were enhanced by reports that identified Gordon with Broadway and Sondheim.

Wasn’t this a task for a heavy-weight composer?

But during rehearsals of “GOW” at St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, word got around that Brian Leerhuber, Tom Joad in the huge cast, had called the new opera “Verdi on steroids.”

And at the premiere that assessment was wondrously born out by Gordon’s amazing and unusual score, for “GOW” — the composer’s first large-scale work — is of monumental dimensions. With two intermissions it runs over 4 hours, and it calls for 13 principal singers, plus 50 featured roles, several sung by one vocalist.

In three acts divided into 33 scenes, “GOW” is of epic sweep and of a mesmerizing grandeur that makes the audience participants in the Joads’ flight from Oklahoma to California in the depth of the Great Depression.

“GOW” is the product of a collective of gifted artists assembled by MO artistic director Dale Johnson. Librettist Michael Korie has stripped down Steinbeck’s 600 pages to a lean and singable text in verse that only occasionally rhymes and retains the speech patterns of the Okies.

Stage director and dramaturg Eric Simonson, a member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre for 20 years, has directed, adapted and acted in numerous plays, including Frank Galati’s stage version of “Grapes of Wrath,” in which he played eight minor roles in the production seen both in London and Chicago.

“I was in on the opera from the start,” says Simonson, who recalls “batting around ideas” with Johnson back in 1996. And, working closely with Gordon and Korie, he was a “hands-on” participant in “GOW” as a work in progress.

“Others had sought permission to make an opera of the novel from the Steinbeck estate,” he says, “but we were the first to whom it was granted.”

“It was then a matter of whittling the book down to a manageable libretto. We decided to focus on Tom Joad and his mother.”

“Once that decision was made, everything fell into place. Everything else was unessential.”

For the sets - a steel catwalk frames the stage - designer Allen Moyer sought inspiration in Walker Evans’ photographic documentation of the Depression. Projections on the back wall of the stage - sometimes black and white, sometimes motion picture excerpts - add to the dramatic impact of the staging.

Costumes are the work of Kärin Kopischke; choreographer Doug Varone has added animation to the action.

Early on the creative crew considered making “GOW” an American “Ring” running over several evenings; the idea, however, was abandoned

And although there will be demands that the opera be “shrunk,” it is now the length that the story demands.

The score - without recitative - is song based and many scenes flow easily into the next. Gordon points to models in “Porgy and Bess,” “Street Scene,” “Showboat” and Sondheim, but he has gone beyond them in a score that is original and completely his.

One recognizes, to be sure, art songs, musical comedy, jazz, traditional blues and other references to the music of the time of the novel, but the composer has assimilated these influences and washed over them with a style essentially contemporary.

“I want the opera to be a powerful evocation of Steinbeck’s story,” Gordon says in an essay written for the premiere, “a story about great flat distances, wide open spaces, vast silences filled with doubt, fear and hope, with pain and loss and ultimately with compassion and human kindness.

“The wide-open spaces of Copland are in it — filtered through me.”

About the score Leerhuber says that Gordon “gives us lines to sing that soar and tunes that are immediate in their expressive outpouring; it is emotionally gripping music that moves you.”

The mammoth cast is without a weak link. Leerhuber - happily free of references to Henry Fonda’s 1940 movie portrayal, is a strong and sensitive Tom Joad, the son who hopes to help his mother — mezzo Deanne Meek — hold the family together.

Tenor Roger Honeywell is lapsed preacher Jim Casy, and baritone Andrew Wilkowske is moving as retarded son Noah, whose suicide by drowning is expanded from the novel to conclude Act Two.

A gem of the score is baritone Robert Orth’s funereal “Little Dead Moses,” with which he angry — but tenderly — sets Rosasharn’s still-born baby afloat on the river.

Yet it is Kelly Kaduce who tops her many colleagues as downtrodden adolescent Rosasharn (Rose of Sharon). As in the novel — something beyond Hollywood in 1940 — she offers her breast to a starving man and then sings the concluding “One Star,” which “like a candle in a dust storm” will one day “fill the sky with silver sparkles.”

Thus — despite the darkness and overt tragedy of their story — Gordon and Korie lower the curtain with hope.

“GOW,” in sum, is not about the Okies; it is the Okies, these “tumbleweeds on the road to nowhere,” as Korie says, confronted head on. Their story is not told; it is lived out with compelling immediacy before the eyes of the audience, who make the journey with them.

And this it is that places “GOW” in the company of Janáček and Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth.”

Almost a century after Mahler’s quintessential score, Gordon and Korie have created a new — and American — song of the earth.

Tom Joad sums it all up at the conclusion of Act Two:

This red land — is us.
All its hardship — is us.
And the flood years.
And the drought years.
And the dust years — all us.
Till we find a place to live,
A home for us to stay,
Our home is here we are,
‘cause us — is USA.

“It’s the story of a disenfranchised people,” says Brian Leerhuber. “And Americans today are struggling with very similar issues of physical and emotional displacement, trying to figure out what the American dream is all about.”

“Grapes of Wrath,” a co-commission of Minnesota Opera and Utah Symphony & Opera, will be on staged in Salt Lake City in May. It will be seen later at Pittsburgh Opera and Houston Grand Opera. Tulsa Opera was considering the work to mark the centennial of Oklahoma statehood in 2007; however, the company’s board of directors, wishing to distance itself from the theme of Okies and the Dust Bowl, vetoed the idea.

Footnote: Since apocalyptic thinking is vogue in certain circles today, it is recalled that Steinbeck’s title comes from the Book of Revelations, Chapter 14, where — in anticipation of the Apocalypse — the grapes in question are pressed.

Ricky Ian Gordon’s latest compact disc is “Orpehus & Euridice,” a song cycle on the world’s oldest love story, premiered on the American Songbook and New Visions series in 2005. Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Ghostlight Records release features soprano Elizabeth Futral, clarinetist Todd Palmer and pianist Melvin Chen.

Wes Blomster

image=http://www.operatoday.com/2081.jpg image_description=Tom Joad: Brian Leerhuber in Minnesota Opera — The Grapes of Wrath product=yes product_title=Above: Tom Joad: Brian Leerhuber in Minnesota Opera — The Grapes of Wrath product_by=Composer: Ricky Ian Gordon
Conductor: Grant Gershon
Lyrics/Libretto: Mchael Korie
Director: Eric Simonson product_id= All photos © Michal Daniel, 2007

Open stage for noise and drama

By Richard Fairman [Financial Times, 12 February 2007]

Right across Europe, it promises to be a noisy weekend. In Madrid there will be giant screens playing opera. Cafés in Lille are offering karaoke opera evenings. At English National Opera, would-be prima donnas can roll up to view a singing lesson and the Opéra national de Bordeaux is going one better with an open invitation to perform in full costume and make-up.

Steinbeck’s Suffering Okies Head West, Operatically

By BERNARD HOLLAND [NY Times, 12 February 2007]

ST. PAUL. Feb. 11 — “The Grapes of Wrath” is an epic in a peculiarly American way. Famously in John Steinbeck’s novel of migrant workers in the Depression, and now in an opera by Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie, its knights and ladies are poor people of little natural distinction, ennobled by the desperation of their lives. Their shining ambition is to survive, although a lot of them don’t.

Star Power, Charisma and Ardor in ‘Onegin’

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [New York Times, 12 February 2007]

The Metropolitan Opera’s affecting revival of its 1997 production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” which opened on Friday night, is all the more impressive because it might have turned out so differently. In a risky move, the production brought major Russian artists steeped in their national operatic heritage together with two Met stars making brave forays into far-afield repertory.

Click here for Financial Times review.

Click here for New York Sun review.

Nachruf: Bei ihm war Oper stets hochexplosiv

[Die Presse, 11 February 2007]

Zum Tod des griechischen Baritons Kostas Paskalis.

Seine Charakterstudien waren von einer Unmittelbarkeit, wie sie auf den Opernbühnen heutzutage nicht mehr zu erleben ist. Ob Rigoletto oder Scarpia, der Graf René im „Maskenball“ oder Alfio: Wenn Kostas Paskalis eine Rolle gestaltete, dann schien diese Persönlichkeit stets janusköpfig, vordergründig, vielleicht nobel oder – im Falle von Puccinis Polizei-Chef – von zynischer Freundlichkeit; doch war vom ersten Auftritt an, vom ersten Ton, der gesungen wurde, zu ahnen, dass da finstere, vielleicht böse Abgründe der Seele drohten, oder zumindest ein Zornespotenzial schlummerte, das im entscheidenden Moment zur Explosion kommen konnte.

All the Rage: 'Otello,' 'Die Walkure' and Pianists Par Excellence

By Tim Page [Washington Post, 11 February 2007]

Placido Domingo continues to astound. The tenor is now 66 and still adding roles to his repertory (he recently agreed to take on the baritone role in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra"). Happily for Washington, we are going to have a second chance to hear Domingo in a role he has sung here before -- that of Siegmund in Wagner's "Die Walkure."

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

By ALAN RICH [Variety, 11 February 2007]

Greeted, as will be its eternal fate, by a rousing round of cheers and an impressive chorus of dissent, the steel-edged masterpiece of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht howled its way into the Music Center over the weekend. A new production in body and intent, the handiwork above all of incoming music director James Conlon, this new "Mahagonny" brilliantly exposes (and that's the word) the agitprop turmoil of its time and place -- Germany on the brink of Nazi takeover, with a population willing to greet life's realities with sneers.

LEONCAVALLO: I Pagliacci

Music composed by Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1858-1919). Libretto by the composer based on a crime report.

First Performance: 21 May 1892, Teatro Dal Verme, Milan.

Principal Characters:
Canio, leader of the players	Tenor
Nedda, Canio’s wife	Soprano
Tonio, a clown	Baritone
Beppe	Tenor
Silvio, a villager	Baritone
Two Villagers	Tenor, Baritone

Setting: In Calabria near Montalto during the Feast of the Assumption between 1865-1870.

Synopsis:

Prologue

During the overture, the curtain rises. From behind a second curtain, Tonio, dressed as his commedia character Taddeo, addresses the audience. (Si può?... Si può?... Signore! Signori!) He reminds the audience that actors have feelings too, and that the show is about real humans.

Act I

At three o’clock in the afternoon, the commedia troupe enters the village, and the villagers cheer. Canio describes the night’s performance: The troubles of Pagliaccio. As Nedda steps down from the cart, Tonio offers his hand, but Canio pushes him aside and helps her down himself. The villagers suggest drinking at the tavern. Canio and Beppe accept, but Tonio stays behind. The villagers tease Canio that Tonio is planning an affair with Nedda. Canio warns everyone that while he may act the foolish husband in the play, in real life he will not tolerate other men making advances to Nedda. Shocked, a villager asks if Canio really suspects her. He says no, and sweetly kisses her on the forehead. As the church bells ring vespers, he and Beppe leave for the tavern, and Nedda is left alone.

Nedda, who is cheating on Canio, is frightened by Canio’s vehemence, but the birdsong comforts her. Tonio returns and confesses his love for her, but she laughs. Enraged, Tonio begins to grab her, but she takes a whip, strikes him, and drives him off. Silvio, who is Nedda’s lover, comes from the tavern, where he has left Canio and Beppe drinking. He asks Nedda to elope with him after the performance, and though she is afraid, she agrees. Tonio, who has been eavesdropping, leaves to get Canio. They return, and as Silvio escapes, Nedda calls after him, “I will always be yours!”

Canio chases Silvio but does not catch him and does not see his face. He demands that Nedda tell him the name of her lover, but she refuses. He threatens her with a knife, but Beppe disarms him. Beppe insists that they prepare for the performance. Tonio tells Canio that her lover will surely give himself away at the play. Canio is left alone to put on his costume and prepare to laugh. (Vesti la giubba)

Act II

As the crowd arrives, Nedda, costumed as Colombina, collects their money. She whispers a warning to Silvio, and the crowd cheers as the play begins.

Colombina’s husband Pagliaccio has gone away until morning, and Taddeo is at the market. She anxiously awaits her lover Arlecchino, who soon serenades her from beneath her window. Taddeo returns and confesses his love, but she mocks him and lets in Arlecchino through the window. He boxes Taddeo’s ears and kicks him out of the room, and the audience laughs.

Arlecchino and Colombina dine, and he delivers a sleeping potion. When Pagliaccio returns, she plans to drug him and elope with Arlecchino. Taddeo bursts in, warning that Pagliaccio is suspicious of his wife and is about to return. As Arlecchino escapes through the window, Colombina tells him, “I will always be yours!”

As Canio enters, he hears Nedda and exclaims, “Name of God! Those same words!” He tries to continue the play but loses control and demands to know her lover’s name. Nedda, hoping to continue the play, tells him it is Pagliaccio, but he proclaims that he is no clown and he loves her dearly. (No! Pagliaccio non son!) The crowd, impressed by his emotional performance, cheers him.

Nedda, trying again to continue the play, admits that her lover is Arlecchino. Canio, furious, demands the name or her life, but she swears she will never tell him, and the crowd realizes they are not acting. Silvio begins to fight his way toward the stage. Canio, grabbing a knife from the table, stabs Nedda. As she dies she calls, “Help! Silvio!” Canio stabs Silvio and declares, “The commedia is over!”

[Synopsis Source: Wikipedia]

Click here for the complete libretto.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/pagliacci2.png image_description=Pagliacci (Larry Moore, elmodraws@cfl.rr.com) audio=yes first_audio_name=Ruggiero Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci
Windows Media Player first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/pag.wax second_audio_name=Ruggiero Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci
WinAMP, VLC or iTunes second_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/pag.m3u product=yes product_title=Ruggiero Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci product_by=Alessandro Valente (Canio), Adelaide Saraceni (Nedda), Apollo Granforte (Tonio), Leonildo Basi (Silvio), Nello Palai (Beppe), Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, Carlo Sagajno (cond.)
Recorded 1929-1930

HANDEL: Agrippina

It promised many of McVicar’s trademarks — stark colour, gothic imagery and theatricality.

But despite an emphasis on history and myth, this modern-dress staging of Handel’s tale of politico-sexual manipulation was very much a study of the relationship between women and power in our own time. Between them, Agrippina and Poppea have half of Rome in love with them, and they exploit it with equal deviousness — and yet their relationship with one another is one of superficial friendliness and glacial suspicion.

In the title role — a strange one, given that the supporting characters seem to be given most of the best arias — Sarah Connolly’s reliably impeccable musicianship did not disappoint. Her stage presence was a revelation; used to being cast as men, Connolly projected a regal femininity which was complemented to best effect by John McFarlane’s glamorous costume designs. She was partnered by the marvelous Christine Rice as the feckless teenage Nerone, the son who is destined for the Imperial throne. Rice’s voice and repertoire have expanded hugely in recent years and I am pleased to note that her grasp of quickfire Handelian coloratura is even more astonishing now than it was when she sang Bradamante in McVicar’s staging of Alcina seven years ago.

The other shining light in this production was the rising star Lucy Crowe, a relatively late addition to the cast as Poppea, who combined absolute vocal security and assurance with an alluring presence and fine comic timing, especially in the staging’s best judged and most memorable set-piece in which Crowe was joined onstage by harpsichordist Stephen Higgins for a virtuoso “piano-bar” performance.

Making his company début as Ottone, the young countertenor Reno Troilus grew in vocal security and confidence as the performance went on; he gave a touching vocal portrayal of the wronged man’s bewilderment in his aria at the close of the first act. The “character” roles of Pallante and Narciso (Agrippina’s suitors and political pawns) were ably assumed by bass Henry Waddington and countertenor Stephen Wallace.

Despite a few moments of musical untidiness, Daniel Reuss’s conducting was for the most part buoyant and well-balanced.

Unfortunately the concept of the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll opera production is now something of a cliché. Despite the considerable comic gifts of McVicar and his cast, the staging exhibited a pervading hint of crassness which I hope is not a sign of things to come for this popular director. Four-letter words littered Amanda Holden’s translation. Much advantage was taken of Crowe’s physique du role; Poppea stripped down to sexy lingerie twice in the space of two scenes, in spite of only one of the occasions making any dramatic sense. Poppea understandably rolled in drunk after her traumatic split from Ottone, but what was the point of Agrippina turning up similarly inebriated a couple of scenes earlier? The opera is all about the relationship between sex and power, but it all seemed a little overdone. Another worrying thing, and surely not the fault of McVicar or the near-perfect cast, was the plentiful supply of empty seats on this opening night of what is surely ENO’s most important new production of the current season.

Ruth Elleson

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Agrippina_ENO.png image_description=Agrippina at ENO product=yes product_title=G. F. Handel: Agrippina product_by=English National Opera, 5 February 2007

The Devil’s Dream

Their most recent disc continues the infernal theme, and focuses on a repertoire which I find absolutely irresistible — Elizabethan and early Jacobean instrumental music. The recording has several quirks which set it apart. To begin with, though this is a duo of one gambist and one lutenist, the repertoire includes, through the miracle of overdubbing, works for two lutes, or two viols. Next, the interpretive choices on various occasions draw on the modern practices of traditional Celtic music (very convincing, and hardly out of place, though I must confess I am already a fan of jigs and reels). Soprano Graciela Gibelli’s thin, reedy, new-Agey sound and her pronunciation continue in this vein (like almost any singer who is not a native speaker of English, she is unable to rid herself of the habits of her own tongue, but rather than take RP as a model, she has chosen an Irish accent. And why not? RP is certainly far from the speech of Dowland). And finally, Ghielmi and Pianca both contribute original compositions in the Celtic style.

As I said above, I am a sucker for this stuff, the duo plays it with panache and brio, and the sound is beautiful. What’s not to like? If this music is your bag, this belongs on your shelf, and I bet it will have a frequent place in your CD player.

Tom Moore

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Devil_Dream.png image_description=The Devil’s Dream product=yes product_title=The Devil’s Dream product_by=Vittorio Ghielmi, viols; Luca Pianca, lute, chitarrone, baroque guitar; Graciela S. Gibelli, soprano. product_id=Harmonia Mundi Iberia HMI 987066 [CD] price=$16.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=148107

ARNE: Six cantatas for a voice and instruments; Advice to Cloe

The later eighteenth century was a period in which the wealth of London attracted composers and performers too numerous to mention from all over Europe. The stature of Haydn and Mozart has tended to obscure the great variety of vocal and instrumental music enjoyed at the time, more conservative in idiom, less virtuoso, but nonetheless enjoyable.

English music for the stage has always tended more to the comic, the witty song delivered with an actor’s panache rather than a singer's bravura. The most durable productions of the musical theater, the operettas of librettist Gilbert and composer Sullivan, are memorable not because of the elevated heights they reach, but because of the completely English good humor they transmit. It will take a Savoyard approach to revive the neglected works from the age of Thomas Arne, and the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh.

This disc, from American tenor Timothy Bentch and Hungarian soprano Mária Zadori, is a premiere recording of a charming set of cantatas by Thomas Augustine Arne published by Walsh in 1755, and fully scored for voice accompanied by strings and winds. The texts evoke the world of the wealthy rake of the period, who believes in women and wine (School of Anacreon), gathering rosebuds while ye may (Delia), winning a women's heart by plying her with wine (Bacchus and Ariadne), revenging himself on a faithless lover by being faithless himself with another (Lydia), and sleeping only after he is incapable of drinking more (Frolick and Free). Indeed, this rake is a complete hellraiser and rapscallion — one might almost title these Six immoral cantatas.

Tenor Timothy Bentch does an excellent job of evoking the license and liberty of the wealthy Londoner. His attractive tone is always in the service of the expression of the text, changing in color and force as the poetry requires, reflecting the shifting moods of the speaker. Bentch is a compellingly persuasive performer. I was less taken by soprano Mária Zadori, who has had a long career with many recordings for Hungaroton. Her light soprano is verging on the fluttery, and her English diction is flawed. The contributions of the Hungarian period-instrument band are first rate, and the sound is fine.

A valuable disc, presenting important and little-known repertoire, with a tenor we will certainly be hearing more from. Warmly recommended.

Tom Moore

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Arne.png image_description=Thomas A. Arne: Solo Cantatas product=yes product_title=Thomas A. Arne: Solo Cantatas product_by=Maria Zadori, soprano; Timothy Bentch, tenor; Capella Savaria, Mary Terey-Smith, conductor product_id=Centaur CRC 2815 [CD] price=$14.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=106603&name_role1=1&bcorder=1&comp_id=236099

Orfeo, Banqueting House, London

By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 8 February 2007]

Exactly 400 years ago, give or take a couple of weeks, Monteverdi’s Orfeo received its first performance in Mantua. A few years later the new Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall hosted the first Stuart masques. It was impossible to miss the historical resonance of those two events on Wednesday, when the English Bach Festival performed Orfeo in the Banqueting House, still resplendent in sight and sound after four centuries.

VERDI: Rigoletto

It is synchronized and though the singers do very well and open their mouths at the appropriate moment you still pay attention to it and you are unable to forget it during the whole performance as you see the physical challenge of singing is absent. It’s not that I throw away all and everything operatic that is synchronized. I regret it but I’ve still looked spell-bound at Franco Corelli’s Canio of 1954 or Moffo’s Butterfly of a few years later but in those days it was actually quite impossible to broadcast a big opera from small cramped TV studio — though a RAI colleague once told me the real reason for synchronizing was the fact nobody in an Italian TV studio could ever keep his/her mouth shut. By 1982 when this Rigoletto was filmed, camera sensitivity and lighting had proceeded so much that synchronizing was no longer necessary and house broadcasting was the rule. Therefore the real reason of this outmoded operatic TV-movie is the intricate and opulent production by Ponelle. If one didn’t know better one would swear it was by Zeffirelli due to the number of courtiers and the orgy taking place in the first act. Ponelle preferred to take his Piave/Verdi libretto literally. He uses the Gonzaga palace and the city of Mantova as a real life set and designs a very realistic production. It makes for some magnificent sights at first but in the end it is somewhat unsatisfactory as this is the Gonzaga place I and million of tourists know it nowadays; stripped of its pictures by young Pieter Paul Rubens, its tapestries and its murals. The contrast between the fine costumes and the bare walls doesn’t make the sets believable. As always Ponelle had some brilliant ideas like the duke paying off the maid. Photography and camera handling is exemplary and rarely I have watched such a judicious mix of close-ups, medium and panoramic shots. Realism however has a price; one has to do it consequently as otherwise everything results in make-believe and this is what one gets here. During the abduction there is more than light enough for Rigoletto to read a book, even blind-folded. Gualtier Maldé, Gilda’s poor student, looks exactly what he is: the rich duke in one of his less exuberant outfits but still the duke. And Sparafucile succeeds in stabbing Gilda without spilling a drop of blood.

The singers too are not always very believable as actors. Not Pavarotti, who acts very convincingly and whose clothes are a masterpiece of camouflage. But Gruberova doesn’t look very virginal (rather difficult when one has twice the age of an 18-year old girl) or sexy. In a live broadcast in the house every opera fan has no problems when the soprano is a bit too ripe but in a grandiose film one has other expectations and the conventions are different. The vocalizing too has some ripeness problems. Here Gruberova is the best with an exemplary sung Gilda, displaying her formidable technique. Ingvar Wixell however is not suited to the role. The voice lies too high and has no heft in the big outbursts. His is a very lyric baritone, apt for introspection in ‘Pari siamo’ or the first act duet but in ‘Cortigiani, vil razza’ and in the vendetta duet his voice lacks power and rage.

The ‘raison d’être’ of the movie can be deduced from the sleeve portrait: no Rigoletto or Gilda but the duke as the opera is regarded as a vehicle for the star tenor. I think this is for Pavarotti-die-hards only who want to see their hero. He had a career of twenty years behind him when he recorded the sound track and the mellifluousness was slowly going away, leaving us with the rather monochromatic sound of his later days. He is often straining and his top note in ‘Possente amor’ is no longer a thing of beauty and strengt. For the great Pavarotti one has to purchase his famous RAI performance of 1966 (Scotto, Paskalis) or the official Decca recording of 1971. Of course, one would be happy with such a vocal display in any performance one goes to; but Pavarotti here is his own biggest competitor and he loses out to his younger self. Riccardo Chailly and his Vienna Philharmonic assist the singers (recorded prominently) ably though I cannot say he throws a new or very revealing light on the score.

Jan Neckers

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Rigoletto_Pavarotti.png image_description=Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto product=yes product_title=Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto product_by=Ingvar Wixell, Edita Gruberova, Luciano Pavarotti, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Wiener Philharmoniker, Riccardo Chailly (cond.). Directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. product_id=DG 073 416-6 [DVD] price=$24.98 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=139124

HGO announces season

Wes Blomster [Opera Today, 8 February 2007]

Two Mozart operas — “Magic Flute” and “Abduction from the Serail” — head the list of works to be performed by the Houston Grand Opera in its 2007- 08 season that opens with Verdi’s “Masked Ball” on October 19.

HGO announces season

The season was announced by HGO general director Anthony Freud on January 25.

A new work by Jake Heggie, “Last Acts,” will be given its world premiere on February 29, 2008. A chamber opera written for Frederica von Stade, the composer’s friend of many years, will be accompanied by Heggie and HGO music director Patrick Summers on two pianos.

Also new is “Song of Houston,” a unique celebration of Houston’s many ethnic components by Christopher Theofanidis. With a libretto by Leah Lax, this project of the newly created HGOCo is designed to connect the company with its community. It is slated for a single performance on November 10.

Neil Armfield’s production of “Billy Budd,” seen at the Welsh National Opera and Opera Australia, is the first in a series of operas by Benjamin Britten to be staged by the HGO that will continue through the 2012-13 season.

Puccini’s “La Bohème” and Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment” complete the season of 46 performances.

Along with von Stade, Laura Claycomb, Ana Maria Martinez and Paul Groves return in 2007-08. Eva Podleś, Gwynne Howell and Phillip Ens are on the list of vocalists who make company debuts.

For complete information, visit www.houstongrandopera.org.

Wes Blomster

image=http://www.operatoday.com/HGO2.png image_description=Houston Grand Opera

Houston stages a provocative “Faust”

Yet, although the long-lived author’s “Faust” is without question one of the great works of world literature, the drama — near-impossible to render in verse in another language — is also among the most unread.

Indeed, most non-Germans who know the Faust story today are familiar with it through the re-telling of the horrors resulting from an aged professor’s pact with the Devil through Charles Gounod’s 1859 opera, billed in Germany for its focus on the Faust-Gretchen relationship as “Marguerite.”

Clearly a chestnut of the repertory, “Faust” is on stage this season for some 200 performances by 18 opera companies around the world. It is viewed, however, with feelings ranging from amusement to scorn by those who know the original; for them the opera offers at best an echo of Goethe’s protein-rich profundity.

The production of Gounod’s score currently on stage at the Houston Grand Opera contradicts them sharply. This is due in large part to the superlative conducting of Germany’s youthful Sebastian Lang-Lessing, now top maestro in both Nancy and Tasmania. He lays bare in this music a gravity and an undertow of sadness usually inaudible behind the glitter of the score and the many “hits” that explain its popularity.

Lang-Lessing, a frequent Houston guest, evokes superb playing from the ensemble that HGO music director Patrick Summers has so carefully built over the past several seasons. He makes a meaningful whole of Gounod’s somewhat disparate scenes, bringing both cohesion and dramatic intensity to the work.

The well-traveled production, when new here in 1985, was directed by Francesca Zambello; it has been revived by Elizabeth Bachman, who underscores the correctness of the conductor’s approach.

Drawing card of its return to the Brown Theater in the Wortham Center is Samuel Ramey as Mephistopheles, only one of the darkly Satanic figures among his signature roles.

Aside from an occasional wobble in the lowest notes, Ramey, well into his 60s, remains in his prime and accounts for much of the energy that drives the staging, seen on 26 January and again on January 28. There is no sign of wear in the voice, and the joy that he brings to his work infects all in the cast. The world’s reigning Don Giovanni for decades, Ramey remains a dashing presence.

The first act with Mephistopheles’ celebration of the Golden Calf is, of course, Ramey’s. He knows, however, that it is the love story that is the heart of “Faust” and takes care in Acts Two and Three not to steal the show..

Indeed, the scholars who interpret Goethe’s text have often suggested that Mephistopheles is not a separate being, but rather that “other soul” in the Faustian breast — that daemonic force that so often proves destructive both to its owner and those who fall to his force.

On January 26 an indisposed William Burden, a trifle sophomoric after his rejuvenation, surrendered the title role to veteran American tenor Gregory Kunde, last heard at the HGO as Pinkerton in 1983. Kunde, a gentle and sensitive Faust, took over the role completely for the matinee on January 29.

Tamasr Iveri from once-Soviet Georgia, is an un-Germanic Marguerite, happily freed from the blond braids and dirndl that — for those old enough to remember that era — often make her seem a survivor of the Hitler Youth. Overflowing with youthful elan as the work opens, Iveri is deeply feminine and movingly vulnerable as she moves through love to tragedy.

She explores the wonder of passion touchingly in the ballad “King in Thule.” Her “Jewel Song” is both jubilant and pensive, and she portrays Marguerite’s Ophelia-inspired derangement in the prison scene with Shakespearean pathos.

As Valentine Earle Patriarco avoids the tin-soldier trappings once thought essential to the role and sings the famous “Prayer” with melting warmth.

And in the mass military scene surrounding his return from battle it was a contemporary “bring-the-troops-home-now” touch to haul a badly wounded returnee on stage on a stretcher.

Gounod’s first made his mark as a composer for the church, and one might wish that he had concluded “Faust” with the powerful “Dies irae” from the Requiem for brother Valentine.

This is haunting music, obviously the work of a man of faith, and Earl Staley did well to break with the opulent naturalism of the staging to set it on a bleak and darkened stage dominated by an immense cross..

“Faust,” even when performed — as it is here — without the apocryphal “Walp;urgis Night.” is a long opera, and would be effective without the final Prison scene, although it is, of course, taken directly from Goethe.

In conclusion, a reminiscence: the music of “Faust” first came my way in my South Dakota childhood during the Great Depression. An early-morning Minneapolis disc jockey, sponsored by Dayton’s, played this final scene with a frequency that I found uncalled for.

The recording was in English and the claim that marguerite was “saved” versus the certainty that she was “damned” recalled Salvation Army Saturday night curb-side musicales, a further source of music in that distant, dismal day.

Perhaps it is for that reason that I still feel today that Gounod bathed somewhat excessively in the Blood of the Lamb.

And, finally, a moment of happy recall.

Sam Ramey, then just a kid from Colby, Kansas, first stood on an opera stage as an apprentice at the Central City Opera in 1963. He was in the chorus of a fine “Don Giovanni.”

Not surprising, perhaps, that he was to rule the Mozart world in that role for decades of his long career.

Wes Blomster

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Faust_HGO.png image_description=Faust at HGO

Houston takes fresh approach to Cenerentola

Indeed, this is Rossini of a higher order, no doubt the highlight of the season here and a triumph for Anthony Freud in his first full year as HGO general director.

The unusually engaging production is the work of Comediants, a Barcelona-based collective of actors, musicians and artists who draw inspiration from symbols, myths and rituals. And Joan Font, who founded the troupe in 1971, defines the HGO staging as “a comic book of colored cartoons that captures the happiness in Rossini’s music.

As director he has been assisted by colleagues Joan J. Guillén, set and costume design, Xevi Dorca, choreography, and Albert Faura, lighting.

And it is Faura who is responsible for much of the magic of the production, for it is on his lighting that everything depends. Props are minimal, while a single back wall changes color continually to complement — and underscore — the action before it.

To call this staging “colorful” is an understatement.

Nasty stepsisters Clorinda (Tamara Wilson) and Tisbe (Catherine Cook) appear first in their underwear, augmented by large bolsters around hips which, when they dress for the ball, hold up the wide skirts of their period court dresses. Their wigs are — like their multi-colored costumes - outrageous mimics of the most frivolous late 18th century royal hairstyles — vertical mounds of pink and blond, topped with minuscule feathered hats. The members of the large male chorus - their wigs are appropriately “royal” blue — wear flared pimento- colored jackets with swags of orange and light colors that make a frolic of their cleverly choreographed movements.

A stroke of special genius is the silent “chorus” of six man-size mice on stage throughout the performance. Amusingly choreographed by Dorca, they are often heart breaking in their sympathy for Angelina. They further serve as stage hands.

This creative team faces up fully to the strange set of contradictions that “Cenerentola” is. For it is indeed a comic opera, the classic perhaps of the genre, Four of its seven characters are caricatures, good for laughs in everything they do. But does this make the work first and foremost comic?

Valet Dandini (Earle Petriarcha) has his lighter side, but — wise in the ways of the world — he is the devoted servant of his prince and dedicated to a no-nonsense search for the right woman.

And at the very heart of the work is Alidoro (Nikolai Didenko), the aged tutor who has instilled values good as gold in his student Don Ramiro (Lawrence Brownlee). Like the wandering Wotan in “Siegfried,” he enters in disguise to gain a valid assessment of Don Magnifico’s family. He is horrified at what he sees, and yet — like Sarastro in “The Magic Flute” — he must let matters run their course; he can guide — but not force — the prince toward his goals.

Alidoro — especially when dressed, as he is here, as a man in tune with the planets — is the magus, the Prospero, if one will, who above and beyond the delightful fluff of “Cinderella” affirms that Rossini — like Mozart — was a child of the Enlightenment, aware of injustice and determined to overcome it. He — when sung so superbly as he is by Russian bass Nikolai Didenko — gives the opera an uncanny weight, and his parting summary of what is gold and what is dross in life touches the heart and makes this staging — in addition to the unabashed fun that it is — deeply moving.

In the title role Houston has brought back one of its very own, Joyce DiDonato, a studio alumna who has made Angelina her signature role.

The soprano is loveliness and grace incarnate, beautiful both in voice and appearance. She handles Rossini’s acrobatics without effort and plays the abused young woman with dignity.

“It’s a role that’s been very good to me,” DiDonato said of Angelina in a telephone interview shortly before opening night of the production. “I first sang it while in the Merola studio program at the San Francisco Opera.

 “It’s dear to my heart and fits my voice like the proverbial glove.”

An alumni also of the HGO studio, where she created Meg in Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” in 1998, she has sung Angelina it both at Milan’s La Scala and the Garnier in Paris.

“It not just about patter, and it’s more than fireworks,” the Kansas-born soprano says. “Angelina is a real woman with a real heartbeat and a strong dose of humanity.”

Turning to the affinity that she feels for the role, she focuses on her opening duet with the disguised prince.

“It’s not exactly a love duet,” she says, “but it’s very touching. “In it she expresses everything she has been through.

“It’s a magical moment.”

Last summer at the Santa Fe Opera DiDonato donned trousers to sing Prince Charming in “Cendrillon,” Massenet’s version of the Cinderella story, an enriching experience that leaves her with the feelings of a vocalist who has sung both Tristan and Isolde.

“That opera was a bit of a surprise for me,” she says. “But it was a real treat to discover it. I enjoyed Massenet’s approach to the story, and the score contains some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever sung.”

DiDonato is delighted with what the Comediants have wrought in Houston.

“It’s unique,” she says of the staging. “It’s completely fresh, colorful and clean, yet the story is told in a traditional way.

“This creative team is theater based, but they know their music. Their instincts are astonishing.”

And DiDonato is impressed by the ease with which Comediants bring the light and dark sides of the story together.

“They make is all happen so naturally,” she says.

This same naturalness comes through in the conducting of senior Italian master Edoardo Müller, who understand that Rossini was writing champagne music long before Lawrence Welk turned on the bubble machine.

`He makes the score crisp and clear, transparent and effervescent.

The Houston cast is without a weak link. The singers too — following the example of the stellar production team — have made this a collective collaboration.

And they’re obviously having the time of their lives. On January 27 — opening night — their joy carried over to the audience, whose “bravos” were as spontaneous as enthusiastic.

In June Joyce DiDonato is back in trousers for her role debut as Octavian in Richard Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier” at the San Francisco Opera.

Wes Blomster

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Cinderella_DiDonato.png image_description=Joyce DiDonato at HGO

Jaume Aragall en Vivo

That’s where the audience automatically remembers the younger singer and his recordings and that’s when one grudgingly has to admit the star has aged after all. I remember Nicolai Gedda at De Munt sounding very fresh in a lot of songs and then all at once labouring his way through a Mignon aria he didn’t dare to transpose. That’s where the many older Bergonzi recitals catch the tenor flattening. And that’s where Jaume (his Catalan name) Aragall has to throw in the towel as well in this recital. Suddenly one hears he is somewhat short of breath and he doesn’t phrase adequately. Not so surprising as by the time he gave this recital he already sang 37 years professionally; so think of Beniamino Gigli in 1951.

The middle voice is still audibly Aragall though some harshness has crept into it but it is a fine lyric sound. Do not forget that in the early sixties he was hailed as the greatest promise in opera and it was no co-incidence that in Bologna and at La Scala he got the title role in I Capuleti ed I Montecchi with Luciano Pavarotti taking the second tenor role. What disturbs me more is the unremitting forte without the relief of a piano or a pianissimo. A song like ‘Ay, ay, ay’ so well spun out by Miguel Fleta, loses all its charm and the same goes for ‘A vuchella’. The arie antiche sung in this way serve only to warm up the voice. Aragall is at his best in some canzone napoletane like ‘Pecché’ and ‘Tu ca nun chiagne’ where a full voice is apt. And I offer a reward to the first Spanish company that succeeds in spelling correctly titles in a foreign language on the sleeve. This time we get ‘e lucevan l’estelle’ and ‘tu can nun chiagne’. Aragall-fans will be glad with the issue though lovers of fine tenor singing won’t need the record in their collection.

Jan Neckers

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Aragall.png image_description=Jaume Aragall en Vivo product=yes product_title=Jaume Aragall en Vivo: Songs and arias by Bassani, Durante, Tosti,Cardillo, Bellini, Puccini, De Curtis,Sorozabal, Pérez Freire, Di Capua, Pennino. product_by=Jaume Aragall, tenor, Amparo Garcia Cruells, piano. product_id=Columna Musica 1CM0084 [CD] price=$15.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=147697

Conservatory Tries to Raise Its Profile

By DANIEL J. WAKIN [NY Times, 7 February 2007]

The views are stunning from this 1,500-square-foot terrace.

Ahead, an aerial view of Grant’s Tomb squatting before the majestic Hudson River. To the left, the spirelike tower of Riverside Church. To the right, the ribbon of the elevated subway heading up Broadway (well, not so stunning).

PURCELL: Dido and Aeneas

Until now my favorite reading of this important, and more to the point, captivating work, had been that led by René Jacobs, also for Harmonia Mundi (recorded 1998), with the same choir, but different soloists and band. Here the conductor (and one of the vocalists) is English, but the band and the other soloists are all American.

I must confess that for me, what is most attractive about the work is not the framing tragedy of the abandoned Dido, or the conflict of the noble Aeneas, but the spirited and characteristic music for the minor characters, and the rousing choruses, which is where Purcell really shines. The English stage generally left the leading figures of the drama as speaking roles, and so most of Purcell's theatre music is for secondary roles heightened by song. McGegan's tempos are fleet (always quicker than those of Jacobs — the whole opera comes in at almost ten minutes less), but they are lively, never rushed.

The singers are of uniformly high quality, well-matched to their roles, and the diction seems natural to my ears, neither artificially RP (Received Pronunciation) nor obviously American. Lorraine Hunt is richly emotional as the Queen, and Michael Dean makes a manly and heroic impression with his warm baritone. Lisa Saffer is an attractive and sympathetic Belinda.

The only misfire is Ellen Rabiner as the Sorceress, with a fruity, over-vibrated sound more appropriate for Katisha. Jacobs’ Sorceress, Susan Bickley, in contrast, is truly threatening, delivering her menacing lines with razor-sharp diction and a laser-beam tone that makes her the most memorable figure on the CD. On the other hand, the two witches here (Christine Brandes and Ruth Rainero) are far superior to the campy countertenors on the Jacobs disc. The only Englishman in the cast, Paul Elliott, delivers his Sailor’s song (sailors have always had a woman in every port) with a delicious regional accent (which?). I would be remiss if I did not mention the excellent playing by the Philarmonia under McGegan’s baton.

All in all, a very palpable hit.

Tom Moore

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Dido_McGegan.png image_description=Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas product=yes product_title=Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas product_by=The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Lisa Saffer, Donna Deam, Ellen Rabiner, Cristine Brandes, Ruth Rainero, Paul Elliott, Michael Dean, Nicholas McGegan (dir.). product_id=Harmonia Mundi HMU 907110 [CD] price=$18.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=9777&name_role1=1&comp_id=2360&label_id=1076&bcorder=156&name_id=21272&name_role=3

A Conductor with panache: José Serebrier speaks to Anne Ozorio

Anne Ozorio [Seen and Heard]

With more than one hundred recordings to his name, and eight Grammy nominations, José Serebrier is one of the busiest conductors around. His career has been cosmopolitan, even by the colourful standards of his profession.

PROKOFIEV: Peter and the Wolf

I’m sure you won’t mind the heavy hiss of the acetate recordings and you won’t have problems with the sagging pitch of the orchestra at the beginning due to the worn out recording. You will definitely enjoy every inflection by Mr. Melchior who clearly enjoys himself while trying to imitate a cat, a duck, a bird etc. in the well-known clownish style of some of his radio-shows in the fifties. Mr. Melchor’s admirers will be glad to note that the tenor had at least one thing in common with his archenemy Rudolf Bing of the Met who fired him: their identical Germanic pronunciation. Mr. Reiner’s admirers maybe will somewhat less happy due to the sound though it is clear he was very inspired by the great narrator.

Nevertheless I have a small question for the label. Mr. Melchior’s detailed chronology doesn’t mention a single performance of this piece in 1951 (Myto doesn’t give an exact date). His discography tells us there is indeed an unpublished commercial recording with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, but even 56 years ago recording engineers were able to record without a distorting hiss. There is, however, a performance of Peter and the Wolf by Melchior and Reiner in June 1949. This was a radio performance, which probably was recorded unto acetates. The orchestra is not the Chicago Symphony but the NBC. I have more than an inkling that this Myto is that radio performance.

The interesting tracks on this Cd are the parts of Tannhäuser, Tristan, Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, commercially recorded during the tenor’s heyday. But I’m sure that every Wagnerian, Melchiorian or lover of great singing acquired these arias long time ago.

Jan Neckers

image=http://www.operatoday.com/peter_wolf_melchior.png image_description=Sergei Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf product=yes product_title=Sergei Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf product_by=Narrator Lauritz Melchior. Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner. Recorded live 1951. product_id=Myto 061.H109 [CD] price=$11.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=9744&name_role1=1&comp_id=2279&bcorder=15&label_id=433

Madama Butterfly, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

Neil Fisher [Times Online, 6 February 2007]

How much you get out of Welsh National Opera’s indestructible production of Madama Butterfly slightly depends on your political inclinations. Do you burn with shame for Pinkerton’s colonialist treatment of his innocent victim as much as you feel for her plight? Then Joachim Herz’s vitriolic 1978 production is definitely for you. The sets might be that timeless Seventies beige, but the moral battle here is definitely black and white.

Agrippina, Coliseum, London

By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 6 February 2007]

It is salutary to be reminded, in the context of English National Opera’s Agrippina, that Handel completed it in three weeks and based all but five of almost 50 vocal movements on earlier material. Three centuries ago composers were not so fussy. After doing the rounds of Italy – Agrippina was the second and last opera he wrote there – Handel never revived it. And yet to hear the music on Monday, especially the introspective arias and vocal fireworks, was to be confronted with genius.

SHOSTAKOVICH: Lady Macbeth of Mtensk District (Kirov Opera)

Even unstaged, this powerful and disturbing work filled with scenes of rape, humiliation, corruption, and murder felt almost too overwhelming to sit through. Speculations of political pressure aside, it was not difficult to imagine, after being a member of the audience, why the middle-aged composer would have felt compelled to rewrite the work, curbing the raw violence of his X-rated early masterpiece down to at least a PG-13 rating (the new version, renamed Katerina Ismailova after the main character and premiered in 1963, was reportedly the composer’s favorite).

Conducted with savage intensity by maestro Gergiev, the Kirov Orchestra proved itself once again one of the premiere ensembles in the world today, operatic or otherwise. Even the premium-seat dwellers, well-schooled in the social etiquette that forbids applause until the end of the piece (or in this case, until the intermission), erupted spontaneously into an ovation after the breathtaking rendition of the 2nd tableau interlude. The conductor simply refused to hold his orchestra back to accommodate the singers, and the power of volume alone was truly earth-shattering – exactly the kind of effect Shostakovich’s uncompromising music demands. To their credit, both the excellent chorus and most of the soloists withstood the competition admirably. Unlike the previously reviewed Il Viaggio a Reims, which was a vehicle for the relative novices at the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers, this production involved the premiere forces of the venerable Kirov stage. Larisa Gogolevskaya was spectacular as Katerina the kupchikha (merchant’s wife), the only character in a cartoonish parade of degenerates for whom, despite three murders in a space of four acts, the composer allows his listener to feel any sympathy. Her gut-wrenching rendition of the Act 4 arioso is worth a special mention, as are her confrontation scenes with her bully of a father-in-law Boris Timofeevich. Unfortunately, Alexei Tanovitski in the latter role was not perhaps the best partner for Gogolevskaya: despite an attractive sound and some good acting that won him approval of the audience, his voice lacked the sheer strength necessary to match (and often overpower) Katerina and, in this particular case, also to hold his own against the orchestra. Among secondary characters, Liubov Sokolova was a gorgeously trashy Sonyetka, while an operatic veteran Gennady Bezzubenkov deserved his applause as both a thoughtful Old Convict, and as a lecherous Priest whose profundo register drew gasps from the hall.

Indeed, quite a few characters created by the singers made one long to see the opera staged, but none more so than the two leading tenors of the production, Evgeny Akimov as Katerina’s husband, Zinovy Borisovich, and Viktor Lutsiuk as her lover, Sergei. At the beginning, it made little sense to me that Lutsiuk would be given the role of Sergei, who as a mock operatic lover does a lot of powerful singing throughout the opera, while Akimov, an obviously stronger singer, would be cast as Zinovy, a weakling who barely gets two scenes in before being dispatched into the next world (and down into the cellar) by his wife. As the production progressed, however, I came to appreciate this brilliant piece of operatic casting. Lutsiuk’s Sergei was deliciously disgusting; his voice, figure, gestures, and facial expressions virtually oozed slime. Meanwhile, having Akimov, a powerhouse tenor with a ringing metallic timbre, portray an insecure, impotent, pathetic little man brought forth an equally delicious irony of all style and no substance.

The performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District closed a rather unusual tour for the Kirov this year: the company eschewed heavy Russian drama for two Italian comedies, Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims and Verdi’s Falstaff. While the Shostakovich provided a taste of the former, the tour as a whole reminds us once again that the Kirov is capable of much more than the Philips Russian opera recordings, great as they are. Indeed, Gergiev’s troupe seems determined lately to defy any possibility of being viewed as an example of parochial exotica, and wants to be seen instead as the first-class European opera theater that it is. Whether or not one loves their Italian (or their German, for that matter – speaking of the Cardiff production of the Ring Cycle reviewed recently on this site), the Kirov is no longer just a “Russian theater.” As a new resident of the Washington DC area, I look forward to whatever the next five years of the company’s residency here bring. And of course, I will keep you posted!

Olga Haldey

image=http://www.operatoday.com/gogolevskaya.png
image_description=Larissa Gogolevskaya

product=yes
product_title=Dmitri Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District
product_by=Kirov Opera, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, 4 February 2007

CHARPENTIER: Judicium Salomonis, H. 422; Motet pour une longue offrande, H. 434

Thus the incentive for the buyer is not simply the chance to hear unknown repertoire, but must be the innate quality of the performance. And here, surprisingly, because one would think that Christie would be supremely at home in this repertoire, the disc is not compelling. In part, this may be because the works themselves sound somewhat bureaucratic, and indeed they were commissioned to flatter the members of the Parlement, provincial magistrates, meeting in Paris at the Palais de Justice. The focus in the former is not on the intense human drama (stolen children are a perennial subject for soap operas, and the prime focus of a novela in Brazil based on an actual recent case), but on the brilliance of Solomon's solution, and, by extension, the exalted intellect of the gathered magistrates. And so there is a unexpected emphasis on the excellent government of the king, the rejoicing of the people, songs of praise with harps, cymbals, organs, etc. Charpentier makes Solomon an haute-contre, since he must reserve the bass voice, always the sound of mature and reasonable thought, for God. Paul Agnew seems unwarrantedly emotional as Solomon, with ever-present vibrato which detracts rather than adds to his impact. Christie goes badly wrong in allotting the part of the False Mother to a male haute-contre, something which verges on Monty-Pythonian draggery. Surely if Solomon could tell that she were bad simply by listening to her sing, he would not have needed his wisdom to frame a question which would identify the true mother. The motet which fills out the disc has occasional moments (the orchestral prelude depicting the slings and arrows raining down on the heads of sinners) but as a whole this long offertory is simply too long, without enough invention to hold the listener's interest to the end. The sound recording does not help matters, with the solo voices considerably and unnaturally to the front of the orchestra (in the moments when Charpentier contrasts the winds – flutes and bassoon – with the full string band the flutes are almost inaudible). A disc I wish I could like more.

Tom Moore

image=http://www.operatoday.com/charpentier_judgment.png image_description=Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Judicium Salomonis H. 422; Motet pour une longue offrande, H. 434 product=yes product_title=Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Judicium Salomonis H. 422; Motet pour une longue offrande, H. 434 product_by=William Christie, Les Arts Florissants product_id=Virgin Classics 0094635929423 [CD] price=$13.99 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=2142&name_role1=1&bcorder=1&comp_id=203064

Walewska i przjaciele: Najpiękniejsze pieśnie, arie i. piosenki

Intended, as indicated in the liner notes, to demonstrate the connections between popular song and art music, the recording also serves as a showcase for a number of notable voices from Eastern Europe. The juxtaposition of the arguably subjective distinctions of musical style is mitigated through the fine performances that unite the thirty-seven selections that comprise this recording.

Some of the folk songs included in this recording are probably less well-known in the West, and hearing them helps to dispel the stereotypical image of Polish culture that focuses too keenly on polkas, mazurkas, and other dance forms. The bonus track on the second CD of “Laura i Filon” (“Laura and Filon”) is a fine example of the kind the more conventional folk music found here.

Yet selections include a number of familiar pieces, including traditional opera arias like the “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s Otello and similar pieces. The Polish-language version of “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific reflects, perhaps, the more popular side of the recording, but most of the works are art songs that reside between the musical theater and opera. The pieces by Rodrigo, Canteloube, and others are certainly familiar. As such, they are fine choices to exhibit the skill of this generation of Polish singers, but when sung in Polish, the pieces can be somewhat jarring to those familiar with the original languages. The opening of the first CD, Rodrigo’s “Czekalam wieczność” is well sung by Walewska herself, yet it is difficult not to hear the Spanish lyrics. Unfortunately the recording does not include the texts, both in the original language and in Polish translation, to assist the listener. At times, language does not seem to matter, as in the fine performance of one of Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, the “Bailero,” as sung here by Anna Bajor.

As to the other performances, the recording has music to offer. In addition to Walewska, the performers include the classically trained singers Zbigniew Macias (baritone), Dariusz Stachura (tenor), Ewa Gawrońska (soprano), Wiesław Ochman (tenor), Artur Ruciński (baritone), Anna Bajor (soprano) Bogusław Morka (tenor), Adam Zdunikowski (tenor), Jolanta Radek (soprano), as well as Stanisław Jopek, a popular member of the internationally recognized Mazowsze group that brings Polish culture to various places around the world. In fact, this recording seems to serve a similar mission as that of Mazowsze in sharing Polish culture to an international audience.

For those unfamiliar with modern Polish singers, this recording is an excellent introduction. While the balance is tipped, perhaps, more toward male voices, the selections given to the women are quite effective, especially those sung by Walewska herself. Those familiar with some of the recent selections from the Naxos label may have heard some of his soloists, and the musicians represented on this Dux recording supplement the sonic image of modern Polish culture. The voices may be unfamiliar in the West, and they are certainly deserving of more attention.

James L. Zychowicz

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Walewska.png image_description=Walewska i przjaciele: Najpiękniejsze pieśnie, arie i. piosenki product=yes product_title=Walewska i przjaciele: Najpiękniejsze pieśnie, arie i. piosenki (The Best Polish Singers Singer Arias & Songs) product_by=Anna Bajor, Ewa Gawrońska, Stanisław Jopek, Zbigniew Macias, Bogusław Morka, Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, Wiesław Ochman, Dariusz Stachura, Jolanta Radek, Artur Ruciński, Małgorzata Walewska, Adam Zdunikowski product_id=Dux 0500/0501 [2CDs] price=39,99 zł product_url=http://www.kmt.pl/pozycja.asp?DZ=&KsID=9973&kstr=1

The Hunt of King Charles, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki

By George Loomis [Financial Times, 5 February 2007]

Thanks to contemporary composers such as Kaija Saarijao, Einojuani Rautaavara and Aulis Sallinen, Finland’s per capita contribution to the continued vitality of opera is second to none. But is misplaced pride behind the Finnish National Opera’s exhumation of “the first Finnish opera” – Fredrik Pacius’s The Hunt of King Charles, a rarity even in Finland?

MASCAGNI: Cavalleria Rusticana

Music composed by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945). Libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci after Giovanni Verga’s play.

First Performance: 17 May 1890, Teatro Costanzi, Rome.

Principal Characters:
Santuzza, a young peasant woman	Soprano
Turiddu, a young peasant	Tenor
Mamma Lucia, his mother an innkeeper	Contralto
Alfio, a carrier	Baritone
Lola, Alfio’s wife	Mezzo-Soprano

Setting: A village in Sicily on Easter Sunday 1880

Synopsis:

While the curtain is down, Turiddu sings. (Siciliana: “O Lola, lovely as the spring’s bright blooms.”) The action takes place before the church. Devout pantomime by the church-goers; behind the scene, chorus of peasants. (“Queen of Heaven.”) At last Santuzza and Lucia appear from opposite sides of the stage. (Santuzza: “Tell me, mamma Lucia.”) Turiddu is the lover of Santuzza and she believes he has discarded her for Lola; she has seen him entering the young woman’s house. The carrier Alfio, the husband of Lola, appears with the chorus and also says that he has seen Turiddu, but thinks nothing wrong of it. When Lucia, who has sent her son to Francofonte for wine, inquires further into the matter, she is asked to be silent by Santuzza. (Romanza: “Well do you know, good mamma.”)

After the chorus with Alfio has departed, Santuzza recites her wrongs. Turiddu loved Lola, but after his service in the army found her married to Alfio. He then entered into relations with Santuzza, and is now turn­ing back to his former love. The alarmed Lucia enters the church with the peasants. Santuzza awaits Turiddu (Scene: “You, Santuzza”), who, however, treats her coldly and drives her to despair by leaving her and entering the church with Lola. (Duet: “Ah what folly”; Lola: “My king of roses.”) “You shall suffer in blood for this,” Santuzza exclaims, and discovers to the returning Alfio the unfaithfulness of Lola. (Duet: “God has sent you, neighbour Alfio.”) Breathing vengeance, the carrier resolves to kill Turiddu and departs with Santuzza. During the following orchestral music (Intermezzo) the stage remains empty.

Turiddu, Lola and the chorus emerge from the church; Turiddu sings a drinking song (“Hail the red wine, richly flowing”) and is then challenged by Alfio to a duel with knives after the manner of the Sicilians. Promising to follow Alfio he takes a moving farewell of his mother, and asks her to care for the unhappy Santuzza, whom he has so deeply wronged. After a short pause, Santuzza, followed by a crowd of women, rushes upon the stage, and with the stark cry of “Turiddu is dead," the opera ends abruptly.

Cavalleria rusticana, though it appears melodramatic even by modern operatic standards, is one of the few verismo operas that have consistently remained in the repertory.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Click here for the complete libretto.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/mascagni.png image_description=Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) audio=yes first_audio_name=Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/cav.m3u product=yes product_title=Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana product_by=Delia Sanzio (Santuzza), Govanni Breviario (Turiddu), Piero Biasini (Alfio), Olga de Franco (Mamma Lucia), Mimma Pantaleoni (Lola), Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Carlo Sabajno (cond.)
Recorded 1929-1930.

BERLIOZ: La damnation de Faust

Often luck and relationships play a more important role than talent. Lille (Rijssel in Dutch) is a magnificent city in the North of France and its architecture betrays the fact that for almost 800 years it was one of the four big cities of the county of Flanders till Louis XIV conquered it. The city had a fine opera house though until recently the company was in a bad patch and there was no season for several years. It is now slowly on its way back. In 1976 Jean-Claude Casadesus became the principal conductor of the newly formed Orchestre National de Lille to which ensemble he devoted a big part of his career. Of course he took conducting assignments elsewhere and I heard him conduct at the Flanders and the Walloon Opera. He struck me as exceptionally able in the French repertoire; having a lightness of touch without becoming superficial and I always thought he never got the career he deserved. He once more proves his mastering of such a score on this recording and one almost forgets that his orchestra is only second rate. The song of the flea gets the appropriate lightness while ‘L’amour, d’ardente flamme’ receives its portion of tragedy. Casadesus leads orchestra and singers in a way that makes ‘Damnation’ an opera, inevitably leading up to its redeeming end, instead of the somewhat unequal collection of arias, marches and ballet it can be in a lesser maestro’s hands.

It is a joy to finally meet Alain Vernhes in a big part on records. The French bass-baritone (and not a baritone as noted on the sleeve) had an unusual career. He became an opera singer but left the profession due to lack of engagements (not unusual in France for many years where ‘imports’ by definition were almost always considered to be better singers and where good French singers were often literally on the dole). After several years Vernhes tried again and this time he succeeded though as with Casadesus he didn’t get the big career. Although he is no longer young his rolling voice and tremendous acting capacities can still make quite an impression as I gladly noted last year when I heard him as Gounod’s Méphistophèles. Granted, the voice is somewhat rougher than José van Dam’s and his lower notes are, as proven on this recording, not his best ones. But he has the French style in his blood and masterfully characterizes each of his solos (sardonic in his flea song; threatening in his ‘devant la maison’) and he easily surpasses such exotic birds as Fischer-Dieskau, Lloyd or Pertusi. Moreover the voice is fuller than Cachemaille’s or Bastin’s and for those who don’t know him his interpretation will come as a nice surprise.

Michael Myers’ Faust is well-known as he already recorded the role in 1987 for Philips. The voice has become more manly and for a moment one confuses him with Gedda but the chinks in the vocal armour ( the voice becoming smaller above the stave; not always a firm line) soon tell the listener that Myers is somewhat of a poor man’s Gedda; especially if one compares with the early sixties highlights recording with Gedda and Rita Gorr.

Marie-Ange Todorovitch didn’t convince me. Yes, she is French and maybe a dugazon (a high mezzo like Von Stade or Von Otter) suits Marguerite better than a powerhouse like Gorr or Crespin but the voice has not enough beauty in it and sounds often somewhat slack. Her ‘Autrefois un roi de Thulé’ is unremarkable though she is more convincing in ‘D’amour l’ardente flamme’. Nevertheless I regret Naxos didn’t engage the formidable Béatrice Uria-Monzon whose performance in the house some years ago led me to believe here was Gorr’s successor. Sadly the lady is not much interested in recording as she told me herself.

Jan Neckers

image=http://www.operatoday.com/660116.png image_description=Hector Berlioz: La damnation de Faust product=yes product_title=Hector Berlioz: La damnation de Faust product_by=Marie-Ange Todorovitch (Marguerite), Michael Myers (Faust), Alain Vernhes (Méphistophélès), René Schirrer (Brander). Orchestre de Lille/Région Nord-Pas de Calais conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus. product_id=Naxos 8.660116-17 [2CDs] price=$15.98 product_url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=1007&name_role1=1&comp_id=5054&bcorder=15&label_id=19