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.
![Dina Kuznetsova [Photo courtesy of Harrison Parrott]](http://www.operatoday.com/dina_kuznetsova_4.png)
The New York Festival of Song, founded in 1988 by Michael Barrett and Steven Blier, offers unique evenings of songs rarely heard, or songs rarely heard in conjunction with one another.
Unlike many traditional song concerts, Barrett and Blier program concerts with a story arc or theme, engaging the audience in meaningful music-listening and story synthesis. Their upcoming concert, simply called Schubert/Beatles, will feature compositions from both Franz Schubert as well as the Beatles, illustrating the different ways in which these two musical periods were very much their very own “smash hits” during their own respective time periods.
The New York Festival of Song opened their season this past November 10th with From Russia to Riverside Drive: Rachmaninoff and Friends, a warm, intelligent evening of chamber music featuring the works of Rachmaninoff but also some of his contemporaries with jazz leanings, such as George Gershwin and Duke Ellington. Held in Merkin Hall, artistic director Michael Barrett brought a friendly intimacy to the evening that made it difficult not to leave the concert smiling.
Featuring soprano Dina Kuznetsova and baritone Shea Owens, the program began by alternating various Rachmaninoff songs, many of which are rarely performed and thus all the more pleasurable to hear. Kuznetsova has a magnetic charisma and ease onstage that allowed her to express the full range of emotions of each of her songs. Her vocal ability was equally matched, her voice a lustrously dark timbre. She made great use of dynamic contrast to illustrate the highs and lows of the music, her voice at its most thrilling in moments of fuller volume. At times, she erred on the side of too pianissimo for a voice of her size, causing uncharacteristic breaks in her tone. However, these moments were fleeting and didn’t distract from what was an excellent and impassioned performance.
Shea Owens [Photo courtesy of IMG Artists
Shea Owens’ interpretations feel slightly academic at times, but he gains energy as the evening goes on, especially in his more comedic moments. His vocal quality is stunning, with all the richness of a well-rounded baritone voice but with a striking brightness that thrills, particularly in his upper range. The Russian repertoire sits well in his voice, and he has an easy quality to his vocalization, yet he possesses a sound that’s not without gravitas and substance.
Barrett and Blier accompany on piano with joy and gusto, appearing to deeply enjoy their music making with an enthusiasm so genuine it was impossible not to become absorbed in their warm-toned playing. Blier paused between songs to give an affectionate and humorous play-by-play of Rachmaninoff’s personal and compositional history, which deeply enriched the listening experience. Blier managed to make the evening akin to a casual evening listening to music in one’s living room with friends, while never allowing the excellence of the musical quality to waver.
Dalit Warshaw joined in on several songs on the thereminist, an instrument Blier explained never quite took off in popularity as expected in Rachmaninoff’s time. Warshaw plays this fascinating instrument with tenderness and sensitivity, her precision and focus mesmerizing.
The feeling that the entirety of a cast of artists is enjoying their craft all at once in concert collaboration seems an increasingly rare experience in recital attendance. The New York Festival of Song manages to highlight the joy in this series of rare songs from Rachmaninoff and beyond, providing an evening of delightful musical excellence and true artistic pleasure.
Alexis Rodda