23 Mar 2011
Philip Glass’s Orphée
With voices of doom predicting the end of the CD format — supposedly to be replaced by downloading — the ancillary art of CD packaging also faces a grim future.
Recently in Recordings
Henry Purcell, Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Vol. III: The Sixteen/Harry Christophers
The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.
Anima Rara: Ermonela Jaho
In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
Requiem pour les temps futurs: An AI requiem for a post-modern society
Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.
Ádám Fischer’s 1991 MahlerFest Kassel ‘Resurrection’ issued for the first time
Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.
Max Lorenz: Tristan und Isolde, Hamburg 1949
If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.
Women's Voices: a sung celebration of six eloquent and confident voices
The voices of six women composers are celebrated by baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and soprano Yunah Lee on this characteristically ambitious and valuable release by Lontano Records Ltd (Lorelt).
Rosa mystica: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
As Paul Spicer, conductor of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, observes, the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as ‘old as Christianity itself’, and programmes devoted to settings of texts which venerate the Virgin Mary are commonplace.
The Prison: Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth’s last large-scale work, written in 1930 by the then 72-year-old composer who was increasingly afflicted and depressed by her worsening deafness, was The Prison – a ‘symphony’ for soprano and bass-baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Songs by Sir Hamilton Harty: Kathryn Rudge and Christopher Glynn
‘Hamilton Harty is Irish to the core, but he is not a musical nationalist.’
After Silence: VOCES8
‘After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.’ Aldous Huxley’s words have inspired VOCES8’s new disc, After Silence, a ‘double album in four chapters’ which marks the ensemble’s 15th anniversary.
Beethoven's Songs and Folksongs: Bostridge and Pappano
A song-cycle is a narrative, a journey, not necessarily literal or linear, but one which carries performer and listener through time and across an emotional terrain. Through complement and contrast, poetry and music crystallise diverse sentiments and somehow cohere variability into an aesthetic unity.
Flax and Fire: a terrific debut recital-disc from tenor Stuart Jackson
One of the nicest things about being lucky enough to enjoy opera, music and theatre, week in week out, in London’s fringe theatres, music conservatoires, and international concert halls and opera houses, is the opportunity to encounter striking performances by young talented musicians and then watch with pleasure as they fulfil those sparks of promise.
Carlisle Floyd's Prince of Players: a world premiere recording
“It’s forbidden, and where’s the art in that?”
John F. Larchet's Complete Songs and Airs: in conversation with Niall Kinsella
Dublin-born John F. Larchet (1884-1967) might well be described as the father of post-Independence Irish music, given the immense influenced that he had upon Irish musical life during the first half of the 20th century - as a composer, musician, administrator and teacher.
Haddon Hall: 'Sullivan sans Gilbert' does not disappoint thanks to the BBC Concert Orchestra and John Andrews
The English Civil War is raging. The daughter of a Puritan aristocrat has fallen in love with the son of a Royalist supporter of the House of Stuart. Will love triumph over political expediency and religious dogma?
Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Choral Fantasy from Harmonia Mundi
Beethoven Symphony no 9 (the Choral Symphony) in D minor, Op. 125, and the Choral Fantasy in C minor, Op. 80 with soloist Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado conducting the Freiburger Barockorchester, new from Harmonia Mundi.
Taking Risks with Barbara Hannigan
A Louise Brooks look-a-like, in bobbed black wig and floor-sweeping leather trench-coat, cheeks purple-rouged and eyes shadowed in black, Barbara Hannigan issues taut gestures which elicit fire-cracker punch from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Alfredo Piatti: The Operatic Fantasies (Vol.2) - in conversation with Adrian Bradbury
‘Signor Piatti in a fantasia on themes from Beatrice di Tenda had also his triumph. Difficulties, declared to be insuperable, were vanquished by him with consummate skill and precision. He certainly is amazing, his tone magnificent, and his style excellent. His resources appear to be inexhaustible; and altogether for variety, it is the greatest specimen of violoncello playing that has been heard in this country.’
Those Blue Remembered Hills: Roderick Williams sings Gurney and Howells
Baritone Roderick Williams seems to have been a pretty constant ‘companion’, on my laptop screen and through my stereo speakers, during the past few ‘lock-down’ months.
Bruno Ganz and Kirill Gerstein almost rescue Strauss’s Enoch Arden
Melodramas can be a difficult genre for composers. Before Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden the concept of the melodrama was its compact size – Weber’s Wolf’s Glen scene in Der Freischütz, Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea or even Leonore’s grave scene in Beethoven’s Fidelio.
OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »
Recordings
At first, as they replaced the wonderful world of 12-inch vinyl records and their sleeve art, CDs offered only cheap plastic cases, prone to breaking, with the art on the cover slips and booklets offering at its best some visual interest but in sadly reduced proportions. As time went on after the CD format’s debut, some companies learned how to create the CD case in other materials, with sleeves for booklets and textural appeal. But with the shrinking of the market, things seem to have devolved back to a rudimentary state — why put money into the packaging, when the market now is to sell as many copies at as low a price point as possible?
The above paragraph comes by way of saying that for your reviewer, the most impressive thing about the CD release of a 2009 Portland Opera performance of Philip Glass’s Orphée is the deluxe packaging. Brown-tinted photographs of the cast and sets are found on every face of the case, which opens up into a “four-fold” configuration. Inside there is a separate sleeve at each end, containing a booklet for each act, with libretto. The discs themselves match the color scheme of the packaging’s graphics, and for once they are easily removed and restored to their secure holding mechanism. Orange Mountain Music — which is, after all, the composer’s own label — has certainly created a beautiful keepsake for anyone who saw the performances and wants a permanent souvenir, as well as a lovely set for the composer’s many admirers — of whom, your reviewer cannot be counted.
Glass has adapted Jean Cocteau’s screenplay for that much greater artist’s updated film adaptation of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The production seen in Portland, as conveyed by the set’s many photographs, sets the scene in an upscale home, vaguely mid-20th century in appearance but with a late 20th century ironic twist to every spare detail. The libretto plays intriguing games with the well-known story, introducing other characters and settings to offer a prism-like view of the essential elements of reconciliation with death. The opera is not long — barely 100 minutes — but the tone of hip self-satisfaction with its own cleverness grows wearisome quickly.
As anyone with a passing familiarity with Glass’s music might expect, the score comes in sections, with a tempo and mood established initially that rarely varies much within a section, with any sense of development or variety coming from slight variations on the basic musical material or orchestration. One section ends, there’s a pause, and another section begins, until the last section is reached, and the whole thing slips into silence. Glass can come up with a catchy figure here and there, no doubt. With the libretto in French, some moments recall the languid mood found is some parts of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. The comparison does not flatter Mr. Glass.
Conductor Anne Manson must be a fan of the composer, however, because she does very well by the score. In the hands of anyone less in tune with Glass’s musical world, the music can come across as so relentlessly banal it can provoke anger. Here, it’s all rather pleasant, though insubstantial and unmemorable. In the title role, Philip Cutlip sings with curiously flat emotional tone but welcome agility. Lisa Saffer in the key role of The Princess sounds a bit stressed sometimes by some high tessitura, but her middle voice is quite attractive. The rest of the cast matches their professionalism.
A DVD might be a more appropriate document for this opera, as the soundtrack alone may not convey the score’s possible intent of making ironic contrast to the action. As a listening experience, it will make for some gentle earwash as one admires the beauty of the set’s packaging.
Chris Mullins