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."
![Paul La Rosa as the Congressman and Sebastien De La Cruz as his son, Daniel. [Photo © Todd Rosenberg]](http://www.operatoday.com/09_De_La_Cruz_La_Rosa_EL_PASADO_LYR150328_357_cTodd_Rosenberg-L.png)
On April 25, 2015, San Diego Opera presented it’s second Mariachi opera: El Pasado Nunca se Termina (The Past is Never Finished) by Jose “Pepe” Martinez, Leonard Foglia and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán.
Before and after the performance there were numerous groups of Mariachi musicians, playing on the plaza while vendors offered Mexican food to the listeners. Whenever Mariachi opera comes to San Diego the whole town seems to turn out to celebrate.
The new opera is based on some of the same themes that graced Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon), which we saw last year. The text underscored the importance of family and blood relationships in Mexican culture. The opera was performed without intermission in Spanish and much of its story was not written in the program. That would not have been a problem had the supertitles worked for even a part of the show, but they never appeared and English speakers were left to their own translation of the words as they enjoyed the beautifully rendered music.
Vanessa Alonzo as Juana and Abigail Santos Villalobos as Amorita
The story begins at a Morelos, Mexico, hacienda in 1910. When the owner's son, Luis, returns home from school abroad, he falls in love with a beautiful indigenous Mexican girl named Amorita whose family lives and works on the estate, so their relationship has to be kept secret. Set against the background of the Mexican revolution, the lovers’ passion influences the destinies of their families for generations to come.
Puerto Rican soprano Abigail Santos Villalobos sang the leading role of eighteen-year-old Amorita with resonant, honey-sweet tones that told of her emotional involvement with her lover. Tenor Daniel Montenegro, like Santos Villalobos a product of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, sang the part of her lover, Luis, with sonorous, robust sounds that established his character as the esteemed family heir. One of the most striking characters in the story was the mysterious elderly Mexican man Xihuitl, played by Octavio Moreno who used his character to show the ongoing influence of centuries of indigenous Mexican culture.
Cast of El Pasado Nunca se Termina in San Diego
Vanessa Alonzo, whom we remember from Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, was a warm-voiced Juana while Ricardo Rivera delivered his text with alacrity as Amorita’s brother, Acalán. As Hacienda owner Augustino, whose ancestry is purely Spanish, well known operatic baritone Luis Ledesma sang with brooding elegance. Mezzo-soprano Cassandra Zoé Velasco, a recent graduate of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera, captured the style and essence of his French-born trophy wife, Isabel. Paul La Rosa created an interesting character as Enrique, the Mexican-American Congressman, while young Sebastien De La Cruz, a 2012 semifinalist on NBC's America's Got Talent, made an auspicious debut as the Congressman’s son, Daniel.
Scott Marr’s costumes were always beautiful and appropriate. Elaine McCarthy’s projections set each scene so that the audience knew where the action was taking place. The violins, trumpets, harp, vihuela, guitar, and guitarron of the Mariachi Vargas Company were all on stage. Audience members could watch the instrumentalists play while other artists regaled onlookers with song and acted out their parts. It was a joy to have the orchestra on stage for a change. This Mariachi work will be seen at Arizona Opera as part of their 2015-2016 season and it will be interesting to see it for a second time.
Maria Nockin
Cast and production information:
Amorita, Abigail Santos Villalobos; Luis, Daniel Montenegro; Enrique, Paul La Rosa; Acálan, Ricardo Rivera; Juana, Vanessa Alonzo; Isabel. Cassandra Zoé Velasco; Augustino, Luis Ledesma; Xihuitl/Pepe, Octavio Moreno; Daniel, Sebastian De La Cruz; Miguel/Hotel Manager, Miguel Nuñez; Director, Leonard Foglia; Music Supervisor, David Hanlon; Orchestra, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán; Scenic and Projection Design, Elaine McCarthy; Lighting Design, Christopher Maravich; Costume Design, Scott Mar; Supertitles, Derek Matson.