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.
![Scene from La Cenerentola [Photo by Klaus Lefebvre]](http://www.operatoday.com/Reunited.png)
Those poor opera lovers in Cologne have a never ending problem with the city’s opera house. Together with the rest of city, the construction of the new opera house is mired in political incompetence.
On the way back from a semi-staged production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola the driver told me it might not be until 2020 until the site is built. But with two auditoriums in the Staatenhaus, Oper Köln has a very lively production slate. You could easily spend several days here enjoying opera.
Alexander Soddy led the Gürzenich Orchester Köln with amicable enthusiasm. Among comedic timing from the woodwind instruments especially the bassoons popped. The conductor encouraged his strings into a sweeping momentum during Rossini’s frenzied passages. Most of the time he balanced his musicians, the men of the Chor Opera Köln, and soloists with great results. However, in several moments the stepsisters and even in a few instances Don Ramiro were barely audible.
Debuting in these roles and repulsive in full force, Judith Thielsen (Tisbe) and Dongmin Lee (Clorinde) perfectly irritated as the stepsisters: their voices deliberately unpleasant and annoying. They gave the audience plenty of reason to smirk at them. Add to that their nauseatingly pink and green gowns, and they convincingly filled their parts. Carlo Lepore as Don Magnifico belted out his passages with great indignation. Andrei Bondarenko charmed as Dandini, while he vocally impressed with his stamina and musicality in “Come un’ape ne’ giorni d’aprile”.
As he rolled in on a skateboard, sunglasses and all, Scala’s Don Ramiro was more charming than a Disney prince. His regal voice had moments of glory with his great range. Outside of his interactions with Angelina, his highpoint solo occurred in the second act in “Si, ritrovarla io giuro”, where he revealed the powerful reach and flexibility of his voice, as well as his softer side during the subdued passages.
His chemistry with Adriana Bastidas Gamboa could be felt deeply. Indeed they captivated with their duets. While she initially came across a bit stiff in her modesty as Angelina, she lit up in her interaction with Scala. Intense romance brewed between them, as the two looked each other in the eyes. So convincing, it almost felt a bit voyeuristic to watch. You just wanted to leave these two lovers!
While Bastidas Gamboa did not really persuade as Angelina in Act I, she enchanted in her elegant gown suggesting pure virtue in the second act. Was her singing meant to be so different before and after her metamorphosis? In any case, her passionate duets with Scala were the vocal highlights of the evening. Perhaps stimulated by her chemistry with Scala, but Bastidas Gamboa fearlessly produced Rossini’s vocal acrobatics in “Nacqui all’affanno ... Non piu mesta” and received quite the ovation.
There were some cleverly staged bits. The Staatenhaus’s unflattering stagehand uniforms foreshadow Angelina and Don Ramiro’s destiny when they meet in the first act. And the two singers still managed to look good in them. Later, the gowns added fairytale splendor to the scenes. The men in the choir actively made expressive faces in reaction to the minimal acting on stage. Their mimicry amplified the tone of each scene.
This La Cenerentola was a pleasing engagement with swooning romantic moments as well as laugh-at comedy from the stepsisters and stepfather. The audience enjoyed the evening with plenty of chuckles, encouraging with applause and intermittent bravas for the soloists. The sassy elderly dames next to me surprised me with their clear joy.
Green, purple, blue, and orange, Nicol Hungsberg’s atmospheric lighting with its rich colours complemented Rossini’s vibrant score. The enthusiastic audience response throughout also generated a very warm ambience. The encouragingly high number of young folks surprised and suggested the future of opera is far from dead.
While the Staatenhaus is far from inviting, even a bit chilling, this La Cenerentola in Köln certainly lit up the auditorium, especially for a mere concert.
David Pinedo