English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.
This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).
Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.
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.
Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.
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.
Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.
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.
For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.
'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’
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.
‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’
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.
There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.
‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.
The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.
With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.
Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.
"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."
![Christine Goerke [Photo courtesy of christinegoerke.com]](http://www.operatoday.com/Christine_Goerke.gif)
The second day of the Richard Strauss weekend at the BBC Proms saw Richard Strauss's Elektra performed at the Royal Albert Hall on 31 August 2014 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, with Christine Goerke in the title role.
Felicity Palmer was Clytemnestra, Gun-Brit Barkmin was Chrysothemis, Robert Kunzli was Aegisthus and Johan Reuter was Orestes. The concert staging was by Justin Way.
Another day, another Strauss opera; it made fascinating an illuminating listening and watching to be able to hear two remarkable performances of Salome (performed at the Proms on 30 August, see my review) and Elektra. Both have highly dramatic name parts, testing a soprano to the limits, both use large orchestras, but all to such very different effect. Whilst in Salome, Strauss takes eroticism and pushes it to limits which are intensely Freudian, if not positively pathological, in Elektra he makes grisly revenge the subject for a gloriously redemptive ending. In concert, with the orchestra to the fore, the ending of Elektra took on a new light and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra's playing under Bychkov the ending took on a remarkable positive and transfigurative radiance.
Writing the opera Strauss was building, in more ways than one, on the work of Richard Wagner. Not just in the way that the piece is constructed musically, but in the size of the orchestra and range of instruments (over 110 players with instruments including Wagner tubas, a heckelphone, basset horns, bass trumpet and contra-bass trombone), and in his use of voices. Writing the title role Strauss was relying on the development of a cadre of sopranos capable of singing the dramatic roles in Wagner's operas. But the role of Elektra pushes this voice to its ultimate limit and the opera is routinely cut. One of the small niggles about this glorious Proms performance was that, being a one-off festival occasion a way could not have been found to have opened up some of the cuts.
The performance was staged by Justin Way and unlike the Salome of the previous day, all the cast were off the book and we had a coherent yet simple production which rendered the performance highly effective and helped showcased the remarkable Elektra from Christine Goerke.
The American dramatic soprano, Christine Goerke sang the role of Elektra at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2013. I missed these performances so I was pleased to be able to catch up with Goerke's interpretation. Goerke has only started singing Elektra relatively recently (2011) and she is still relatively young for a dramatic soprano in this repertoire (born 1969 according to Wikipedia). All this contributes to an Elektra which is remarkable for its youth and radiance. She is not one of those Elektras who start the opera as demented and raddled. From the opening she projected youth and a certain rapture in the vocal line. Only gradually did you come to realise that this young woman was unhinged. Goerke had a way of smiling to herself which told volumes. What was refreshing about her performance was that, though certainly a very big sing, she did not seem to need to attack every single phrase. There was some profoundly poignant moments and this was one of the most sympathetic Elektras I have heard in a long time. If I have a worry, it was that her German seemed to lack the crispness I would have liked.
The recognition scene, with Johan Reuter's Orestes, was very touching and Goerke was just right in the way she suggested that even here, Elektra was still self absorbed. Not so much interacting with Orestes, but remembering him. Given the fine quality, it was a shame that we did not have the scene complete for once. In the final scenes, Goerke was not so much demented but transfigured. Her performance taking on a remarkable glow which reflected the glorious accompaniment from Bychkov and the orchestra.
Felicity Palmer has been a remarkable Clytemnestra for many years and it was lovely to make he acquaintance again of her vivid characterisation. This was a traditional interpretation of Clytemnestra as neurotic and raddled old woman, wracked by dreams and desperate (the first Clytemnestra, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, was only 48 when she played the role). The way that Goerke's Elektra taunted Palmer's Clytemnestra was masterly and the scene between them fairly crackled. This scene is a gift to two strong singing actresses, and here Goerke and Palmer ran with it in spectacular fashion. We had no glitzy staging to get in the way, just a pair of musically dramatic performances.
The young German jugenddramatisch soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin made a stylish and elegant Chrysothemis. She sang with bright clear tones, and a strong sense of line. Whilst she was touching in the first scene, in the way that she talked about wanting children, she too seemed as touched as the rest of her family. The closing scenes pushed Barkmin's voice to its limits, but she threw herself into the role in an intensely physical way and matched Goerke in creating the scene of transfigured radiance as the closing scenes progressed.
Johan Reuter made a dignified, notable Orestes, his virile baritone giving a sense of the character's nobility and resolve. This was very much an action-man Orestes, silently incapable of understanding the neurotic world in which his sister lived.
The remainder of the cast were all very strong, and contributed to the highly characterful backdrop to the main action of the opera. Robert Kunzli was a suitably old-maid-ish Aegisthus. Miranda Keys was a fearsomely impressive Overseer, physically dominating the chattering Maids of Katarina Bradic, Zoryana Kushpler, Hanna Hipp, Marie-Eve Munger and Iris Kupke. Ivan Tursic was the Young Servant and Jongmin Park was Orestes tutor, whilst the Old Servant and six Maidservants were taken from the BBC Singers who also contributed the off-stage chorus at the end.
Under Semyon Bychkov the BBC Symphony Orchestra showed itself to be in peak form, bringing a sense of fluidity and flexibility to Strauss's mammoth score. There were some powerful moments, how could there not be, and there was a sense that this was an orchestral tone-poem with voices, so riveting and mesmerising did Bychkov and his players make the orchestral argument. With the orchestra ranged behind the singers, balance was always going to be a problem but the results worked surprisingly well and there was never a danger that the voices would be completely covered, despite the fact that at times there felt like a wall of sound coming from the stage; a tribute to the skills both of Strauss as an orchestrator and Bychkov and his players. You kept noticing, that despite the complexities Strauss was essentially a lyric composer and Bychkov's ear for the details was masterly. The ending, as I have said, had a radiance and also a sense of dance, something the Bychkov brought at various points of the score.
This was a radiant and unforgettable evening, the neuroses of the drama were modified by the transfigured performance from Goerke and the warm glow which Bychkov and his players cast on the score, supporting a very fine cast indeed.
Robert Hugill
Cast and production information:
Christine Goerke: Electra, Gun-Brit Barkmin: Chrysothemis, Dame Felicity Palmer: Clytemnestra, Robert Künzli tenor: Aegisthus, JohanReuter baritone: Orestes, Katarina Bradić : 1st Maid, Zoryana Kushpler : 2nd Maid, Hanna Hipp : 3rd Maid, Marie-Eve Munger: 4th Maid, Iris Kupke: 5th Maid, Miranda Keys: Overseer, Ivan Turšić tenor: Young Servant, Jongmin Park bass: Orestes' Tutor. BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Semyon Bychkov: conductor. Justin Way: stage director. Sunday 31 August 2014, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.