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.
Having performed two contemporary operas (including commissioning Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) as part of their family friendly strand, Opera Holland Park ventured into contemporary opera on their main stage last night (6 June 2015) when, rather amazingly, they gave the first professional London performance of Jonathan Dove and April de Angelis’s 1998 opera Flight.
At Opera Holland Park, the work was directed by Stephen Barlow withBrad Cohen conducting theCity of London Sinfonia.James Laing sang the Refugee, withJennifer France as the Controller,Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as Bill,Ellie Laugharne as Tina,Lucy Schaufer as the Older Woman,Kitty Whately as the Stewardess,George von Bergen as the Steward,Nicholas Garrett as Minksman,Victoria Simmonds as Minkswoman and John Savournin as Immigration Office, with lighting by Richard Howell, movement by Sam Spencer-Lane and video design by Jack Henry James.
Flight was commissioned by Glyndebourne, and premiered by Glyndebourne on Tour in 1998 with it going on to receive a main stage production in 1999. Glyndebourne revived the work in 2005 and British Youth Opera performed it in 2008 (in a production by Martin Lloyd Evans with Andrew Radley as the Refugee, Nicky Spence as Bill and Duncan Rock as the Steward). But rather amazingly this was the first time that a professional company had staged the work in London; a long overdue debut.
One of the beauties of Flight is that April de Angelis’s witty libretto is quite traditionally structured and is unashamedly an opera (rather than trying to pretend it is play where the characters happen to sing). So it is in three acts, with entrance arias for each of the characters, and a great use of ensemble. Reading a summary the piece could almost be a libretto for one of Rossini’s comedies. But within this Jonathan Dove’s music brings an accessible, yet contemporary resonance to everything. And though April de Angelis’s characters are simply archetypes, Jonathan Dove’s music fleshes them out and gives them humanity.
One of the strengths of Stephen Barlow’s production was that it took the whole piece seriously, so that each member of the cast created a naturally believable and real person. Yes, some parts were funny. Achingly so in the case of Kitty Whately and George von Bergen (Stewardess and Steward) with their tryst in the lift, with the lift doors repeatedly flashing open to reveal yet more flesh (this was definitely NSFW) and a more exotic pose; poignantly so in the case of the bickering of Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Ellie Laugharne (Bill and Tina), a couple whose marriage is going on the rocks. But clearly the whole cast had great fun and the other strength of the production was that this was a real strong and balanced ensemble.
The plot is quite simple. Set in an airport terminal overseen by the Controller (Jennifer France) in her eerie high above the concourse, the Refugee (James Laing) is marooned there unable to enter or leave because of lack of papers (the plot was based on a real life case), constantly waiting for his brother who has his papers. Around him people come and go, and he scrounges bits and pieces to eat. We meet Bill and Tina (Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Ellie Laugharne), hoping a holiday will bring back the sparkle in their relationship, and very dependent on a self-help book for relationship advice. The Older Woman (Lucy Schaufer) has come to meet her younger lover from Spain where she met him in holiday, he is 30 years younger than her and all she has is a postcard from him. Minksman and Minkswoman (Nicholas Garrett and Victoria Simmonds) are travelling to Minsk as he is a diplomat. She is heavily pregnant and at the last minute refuses to go, he goes alone. The Steward and Stewardess (Kitty Whately and George von Bergen) are both travelling to different destinations and grab their 17 minutes together for that quick tryst. The final piece in this jigsaw is the Immigration Officer (John Savournin) who appears periodically and forces the Refugee to hide.
An electrical storm cancels all flights and forces to them all to spend the night. The Refugee gives each of the women a magic stone to help them, in return for them helping him when the time comes. Feelings intensify in the confinement, the Steward and Stewardess find that their relationship only works when they are pressured for time, Tina and Bill bicker constantly with her saying that he is boring, the Older Woman loses confidence that her fiance is coming, the Controller gets jealous that the Refugee no longer focuses his attention on her, but concentrates on the other people. Strange things happen, going off on a wander to find the Stewardess, Bill finds the Steward and the two go off to drink and smoke dope, resulting in another hilarious tryst. The women all find out that the Refugee has given each of them a stone, they attack him and bundle him into the lift.
The last act sees flights resumed and relationships settled. Bill is no longer boring, and a bump on the head means he and Tina start their holiday with clean slate. The Older Woman decides she is going to go on another holiday. The Steward and Stewardess return to their status quo of quick trysts. Minskman returns and Minskwoman is delivered of her baby. The Immigration Officer returns and finally we hear the Refugee’s poignant story.
Andrew Riley’s set was simple yet elegant in shades of grey, Stephen Barlow made wonderful use of the three lifts which punctuated the stage. Onto the grey back-drop were projected Jack Henry James video designs to evoke the storm and other moments.
Though the Refugee is at the heart of the story, he is absent for much of Act 2 but in Act 3 with his recounting his tale the character is placed at the heart of the opera, turning it from an amiable comedy into something far deeper. James Laing sang with a gorgeously even and creamy tone throughout, and in the opening acts brought a lovely seedy, melancholy down at heel feel to the character. Then in his final recitation he was spellbinding in the way he wove story, text and music into a compelling tragic whole. This was singing of great poise and of real heart, and made a lovely change from seeing counter-tenors as eerie non-human beings or swaggering baroque heroes.
Jennifer France’s Controller was not only physically above everyone else, her vocal line was similarly stratospheric. There were times when the steely control and beauty if Jennifer France’s line threatened to veer into harshness, but she brought a wonderful glitter and a superb evenness of tone to all the higher register in a role which has lots of long high lying lyrical phrases. But she also brought real sense of character too, especially in the Controller’s Act 2 breakdown, and we left the opera at the end with a real sense of possibility of something between her and the Refugee. Jennifer France graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2013 in and is about to become a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, and this role was a very notable assumption for her.
Kitty Whately and George von Bergen were a complete delight as the Steward and Stewardess, clearly having the time of their life and chaneling the TV series The High Life, but there was never a sense of send-up and each singer combined a nice musicality with a feeling of the personality beneath. Ellie Laugharne and Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts were funny in a more Woody Allen-ish way as we laughed to hide our embarrassment at recognising traits in their relationship. Ellie Laugharne brought just the right sense of brittleness to her bright lyric voice, whilst Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts used his dramatic tenor to great comic/tragic effect as well as bravely using his size too. Lucy Schaufer made the Older Woman both funny and touching, obviating the clear danger of finding her funny for the wrong reasons by the sheer poignancy of her performance. Nicholas Garrett’s role as Minksman was relatively concise, but he too gave a strongly believable performance. Whilst Victoria Simmonds as his wife was profoundly moving as a woman at the mercy of her body and her hormones, having her own moment of transition at the end with the birth. John Savournin had rather less to do as the Immigration Officer, and as a seasoned performer in G&S with his own Charles Court Opera it must have been tempting to send the role up. Wisely he did not, and it was all the stronger for it.
The opera uses quite a large orchestra with significant percussion and Jonathan Dove’s John Adams-like repetitive motifs mean that the piece works best if the orchestra is in a pit. Without a piece, Brad Cohen and the City of London Sinfonia gave a superb performance and kept balance problems to a minimum. True, there were often places where diction was occluded but the voices always remained paramount. Yet the orchestral contribution really told, and it makes a strong commentary throughout the action with some dramatic, magical and glittery moments, reflecting the emotional timbre of action. Throughout the City of London Sinfonia gave a beautifully poised and controlled performance and rightly received strong applause at the interval and at the end.
This was a notable achievement for Opera Holland Park, a production in which staging, performance, singing and playing all came together in a satisfyingly balanced whole without a weak link. Performances continue through June, but there are only four more (10, 12, 17 and 19 June), so catch it! But this is one of those productions which certainly deserves continuing life.
Robert Hugill
Cast and production information:
Refugee: James Laing, Controller: Jennifer France, Bill: Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Tina: Ellie Laugharne, Older Woman: Lucy Schaufer, Stewardess: Kitty Whately, Steward: George von Bergen, Minksman: Nicholas Garrett, Minkswoman: Victoria Simmonds, Immigration Officer: John Savournin. Director: Stephen Barlow, conductor: Brad Cohen, design: Andrew Riley, lighting: Richard Howell, movement: Sam Spencer-Lane, video: Jack Henry James. City of London Sinfonia. Opera Holland Park, 6 June 2015.