‘A brief history of song’ is the subtitle of the 2020 Oxford Lieder Festival (10th-17th October), which will present an ambitious, diverse and imaginative programme of 40 performances and events.
‘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.’
Eboracum Baroque is a flexible period instrument ensemble, comprising singers and instrumentalists, which was founded in York - as its name suggests, Eboracum being the name of the Roman fort on the site of present-day York - while artistic director Chris Parsons was at York University.
‘There could be no happier existence. Each morning he composed something beautiful and each evening he found the most enthusiastic admirers. We gathered in his room - he played and sang to us - we were enthusiastic and afterwards we went to the tavern. We hadn’t a penny but were blissfully happy.’
When soprano Eleanor Dennis was asked - by Ashok Klouda, one of the founders and co-directors of the Highgate International Chamber Music Festival - to perform some of Beethoven’s Scottish Songs Op.108 at this year’s Festival, as she leafed through the score to make her selection the first thing that struck her was the beauty of the poetry.
“At the start, one knows ‘bits’ of it,” says tenor Mark Padmore, somewhat wryly, when I meet him at the Stage Door of the Royal Opera House where the tenor has just begun rehearsals for David McVicar’s new production of Death in Venice, which in November will return Britten’s opera to the ROH stage for the first time since 1992.
“Trust me, I’m telling you stories …”
When British opera director Nina Brazier tries to telephone me from Frankfurt, where she is in the middle of rehearsals for a revival of Florentine Klepper’s 2015 production of Martinů’s Julietta, she finds herself - to my embarrassment - ‘blocked’ by my telephone preference settings. The technical hitch is soon solved; but doors, in the UK and Europe, are certainly very much wide open for Nina, who has been described by The Observer as ‘one of Britain’s leading young directors of opera’.
“We need to stop talking about ‘diversity’ and think instead about ‘inclusivity’,” says Bill Bankes-Jones, when we meet to talk about the forthcoming twelfth Tête à Tête Opera Festival which runs from 24th July to 10th August.
The young Hong Kong-born British composer Dani Howard is having quite a busy year.
For Peter Sellars, Mozart’s Idomeneo is a ‘visionary’ work, a utopian opera centred on a classic struggle between a father and a son written by an angry 25-year-old composer who wanted to show the musical establishment what a new generation could do.
“Physiognomy, psychology and technique.” These are the three things that determine the way a singer’s sound is produced, so Ken Querns-Langley explains when we meet in the genteel surroundings of the National Liberal Club, where the training programmes, open masterclasses and performances which will form part the third London Bel Canto Festival will be held from 5th-24th August.
“Sop. Page, attendant on the King.” So, reads a typical character description of the loyal page Oscar, whose actions, in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, unintentionally lead to his monarch’s death. He reveals the costume that King Gustavo is wearing at the masked ball, thus enabling the monarch’s secretary, Anckarstroem, to shoot him. The dying King falls into the faithful Oscar’s arms.
A mournful Princess forced by her father into an arranged marriage. A Prince who laments that no-one loves him for himself, and so exchanges places with his aide-de-camp. A melancholy dreamer who dons a deceased jester’s motley and finds himself imprisoned for impertinence.
‘Aloneness’ does not immediately seem a likely or fruitful subject for an opera. But, loneliness and isolation - an individual’s inner sphere, which no other human can truly know or enter - are at the core of Yasushi Inoue’s creative expression.
What links Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cavalli’s La Calisto? It sounds like the sort of question Paul Gambaccini might pose to contestants on BBC Radio 4’s music quiz, Counterpoint.
Though she won praise from the literary greats of her day, including Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound and Siegfried Sassoon, the Victorian poet Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was little-known among the contemporary reading public. When she visited the Poetry Bookshop of Harold Monro, the publisher of her first and only collection, The Farmer’s Bride (1916), she was asked, “Are you Charlotte Mew?” Her reply was characteristically diffident and self-deprecatory: “I’m sorry to say I am.”
“It lives!” So cries Victor Frankenstein in Richard Brinsley Peake’s Presumption: or the Fate of Frankenstein on beholding the animation of his creature for the first time. Peake might equally have been describing the novel upon which he had based his 1823 play which, staged at the English Opera House, had such a successful first run that it gave rise to fourteen further adaptations of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novella in the following three years.
It sounds like a question from a BBC Radio 4 quiz show: what links Handel’s cantata for solo contralto, La Lucrezia, Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, and the post-punk band Joy Division?
The first two instalments of the Academy of Ancient Music’s ‘Purcell trilogy’ at the Barbican Hall have posed plentiful questions - creative, cultural and political.
![Patricia Racette [Photo by Devon Cass]](http://www.operatoday.com/PR-Devon%20Cass-5.png)
On a personal level, I feel that Dolores is almost like Emmeline grown up. Their circumstances are not exactly parallel, but they are both women at very different points in their lives whose stories involve dilemmas with life-changing outcomes.
As Tobias has aptly stated, both of these women have made decisions that go against the conventions of societal propriety and acceptability, both to the peril of their own quality of life.
On Monday, August 26, 2013, San Francisco Opera announced a major change in cast for the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne which will take place on September 18, 2013. The title role will be sung by world-renowned American soprano Patricia Racette.
MN: When did you learn that you would be singing the role of Dolores Claiborne?
PR: I got official word sometime last weekend! It has been a real blur, as you can well imagine! The short answer is: NOT long ago!
MN: What is your concept of the character of Dolores? Is she more of a heroine or more of a villain?
PR: Definitely a heroine, of course! All joking aside, we all live as citizens of the world who face devastatingly difficult dilemmas. I have never personally experienced Dolores Claiborne's hardship, but I do find it relevant to address her conundrum. She DOES love her daughter; she does struggle with trying to make ends meet without the cushion that provides someone like her employer, Vera, with financial freedom. Dolores IS a victim of domestic violence, and her daughter HAS been molested by her father. Do we judge her for her actions or do we understand her reason for reacting?
MN: How does the tessitura of the role lie for you? Do many changes have to be made from the original mezzo version?
PR: This question seems to garner more response than I feel necessary! Tessitura is always a question for any role, whether for contemporary music, or for long-lived, tried, and hopefully true standard repertory as we know or perceive it. The original mezzo version is actually not definitively a mezzo role at all! It sits quite high in range with a frequent visit to the lower register, something with which I am frankly VERY comfortable. It is not unusual for a lyrico spinto soprano to enjoy great comfort with not only the upper range but also the lower extremities. Furthermore, it is typical as well as necessary for a world premiere, of which I have performed several, to involve collaboration between the LIVING composer and participating artists.
Perhaps the most exhilarating aspect of preparing (at lightning speed in my case right now!) a new work is the conversation. It's not about voice type per se, but it IS about voice and making the story tell-able. That is what any great composer does, whether in the nineteenth century or the twenty-first. The composer ultimately wants to make HIS/HER voice heard! This concept does not subscribe to the conventional categorization of what we consider vocal classification. So, to answer the question: the role of Dolores Claiborne written by Tobias Picker does not actually pose any big challenges for my voice that cannot simply be addressed with some minor tweaking to accommodate both Tobias's and my view of how to make this character come to life. Those kinds of changes were, are, and would have been relevant no matter who was tackling the title role. One might be surprised about how minimal these adjustments are. They are perhaps contrary to what you might expect!
MN: How long have you known Maestro Picker?
PR: Tobias and I go back to the genesis of his first opera Emmeline, the title role of which I originated in 1996. So what's the math on that? Seventeen years? A LONG TIME. And I, of course, also originated the role of Roberta Alden in his An American Tragedy for the Met in 2004. Apparently the first relationship lasted, which is always a positive sign in our industry!
MN: Was the role of Emmeline actually written for you? Are there parallels between Dolores and Emmeline?
PR: No, as far as I know, Emmeline was not written in its 'brainchild state' for me, but ultimately I believe it WAS written for me! My connection with that project and that part was huge for me personally and professionally. On a personal level, I feel that Dolores is almost like Emmeline grown up. Their circumstances are not exactly parallel (aside from their Northeastern U.S. settings and MINE, for that matter!), but they are both women at very different points in their lives whose stories involve dilemmas with life-changing outcomes. As Tobias has aptly stated, both of these women have made decisions that go against the conventions of societal propriety and acceptability, both to the peril of their own quality of life.
Maria Nockin