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.
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.
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.
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.’
‘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.’
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."
The doors at The Metropolitan Opera will not open to live audiences until 2021 at the earliest, and the likelihood of normal operatic life resuming in cities around the world looks but a distant dream at present. But, while we may not be invited from our homes into the opera house for some time yet, with its free daily screenings of past productions and its pay-per-view Met Stars Live in Concert series, the Met continues to bring opera into our homes.
Music-making at this year’s Grange Festival Opera may have fallen silent in June and July, but the country house and extensive grounds of The Grange provided an ideal setting for a weekend of twelve specially conceived ‘promenade’ performances encompassing music and dance.
There’s a “slide of harmony” and “all the bones leave your body at that moment and you collapse to the floor, it’s so extraordinary.”
“Music for a while, shall all your cares beguile.”
The hum of bees rising from myriad scented blooms; gentle strains of birdsong; the cheerful chatter of picnickers beside a still lake; decorous thwacks of leather on willow; song and music floating through the warm evening air.
![The Rising Stars Ensemble [Photo courtesy of Lyric Opera of Chicago]](http://www.operatoday.com/Rising_stars.png)
The spring concert of Rising Stars in Concert, sponsored by and featuring current members of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, showcased a number of talents that will no doubt continue to grace the stages of the world’s operatic theaters.
Excerpts performed by members of the Center had an emphasis on early nineteenth- and on twentieth-century repertoire. The Lyric Opera Orchestra was conducted by Michael Christie. Maureen Zoltek performed as the Ryan Opera Center pianist.
Among the first selections of the evening the aria “Ain’t it a pretty night” from Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah was sung by soprano Laura Wilde. Ms. Wilde’s interpretation showed excellent technique at appropriate emphatic moments. In describing the stars as they look “right down,” she placed pure high pitches on the text as a means of communion with celestial bodies. Her character’s wistful yearning “to be one of them folks myself,” who are beyond the mountains, was equally touching and led into softer passages at the close. Also from the American canon Anthony Clark Evans performed Billy Bigelow’s soliloquy from Carousel. Mr. Evans shows fine vocal projection and caused his voice to move with the rhythm of the piece, in which Billy expresses his thoughts on the news that he will become a father. The final note on “or die!” was held for an exciting end to the aria. The second act aria for soprano from Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, “Me voilà seule … Comme autrefois dans la nuit sombre,” was sung by Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi. In this piece, performed as a solo less often than Leïla’s aria from the first act, Ms. Mkhwanazi observed transitions skillfully and built interest at appropriate moments, including a ravishing final trill. Jesse Donner’s performance of the lead character’s Act II aria from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, “Se all’impero, amici Dei,” showed not only an instinctive sense of arching line but also excellent diction throughout the aria. His use of appoggiatura as well as a polished melisma on the extended “altro cor” was impressively free of effort. The final selection in the first half of the evening was the duet for Lucrezia and Don Alfonso from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia sung by Tracy Cantin and Richard Ollarsaba. As Lucrezia begs mercy for Gennaro, both Ms. Cantin and Mr. Ollarsaba were swept up in the emotional confrontation of this exciting duet. Cantin’s languorous variations on “Clemenza,” as she sought a hearing were rebuffed by Ollarsaba’s equally assertive “No, non posso.” When accused by Alfonso of an inappropriate attachment to the youth, Cantin’s protestations resounded on “guiro,” here and in the remaining exchange with clearly focused top notes. The concerted passage was especially effective for both singers: Ollarsaba’s accusatory “tu sei,” varied over several lines, reached impressive heights while Cantin’s decoration on the name “Borgia” proved to be every bit a spirited vocal match.
The second half of the evening began with Ms. Zoltek playing the piano part in the Eclogue for Piano and Strings by Gerald Finzi. Following this piece, a series of bel canto highlights provided consistent interest throughout the balance of the program. Two of these featured the tenor Jonathan Johnson in performances that demonstrated considerable promise. With Ms. Mkhwanazi he sang Nemorino’s part in the duet “Caro elisir, sei mio!” from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. Johnson has a marvelous sense of comic timing in a role to which he has clearly given considerable thought. His acting and facial expressions complemented a seamless line in the best tradition of lyrical vocalism. As Johnson’s Adina, Mkhwanazi was an impressive partner, her pointed notes and scales establishing a seductive charm for a lovelorn Nemorino. Johnson’s second offering was the florid aria for Ramiro, “Sie ritrovarla, io giuro,” from Act II of Rossini’s La cenerentola. This style of singing suits Johnson’s voice ideally, and his sense of Rossinian decoration was evident in an exciting performance. His overall approach is bright and open, top notes are secure and squarely on pitch. We can look forward to this singer assuming such a part as a featured artist in the future.
Similar reactions were garnered by Julie Miller in the excerpt “Se Romeo t’uccise un figlio … La tremenda ultrice spada” from Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi. Here the mezzo-soprano sang the Bellinian line as skillfully as the more rapid embellishments in the second part of the aria. Also by Bellini, the duet “Mira, o Norma” was performed by Laura Wilde and J’nai Bridges. Both women added sparks of color to the decorative continuity of this assured performance. Their voices remained distinctive yet contributed to a synthesis especially at those moments when they were interwoven by the vocal line.
The entire company of singers concluded a rewarding evening with the second act sextet, “Chi mi frena in tal momento?,” from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. It was an appropriate collective tribute to an evening of such promising individual as well as ensemble singing.
Salvatore Calomino