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 Amazons in the Fortunate Isles [Photo by Emily Anderson]](http://www.operatoday.com/The-Amazons-In-The-Fortunate-Isles_byEmilyAnderson-5712.png)
On May 21, 2016, Ars Minerva presented The Amazons in the Fortunate Isles (Le Amazzoni nelle Isole Fortunate), an opera consisting of a prologue and three acts by seventeenth century Venetian composer Carlo Pallavicino.
In 1679, the opera was staged at the Teatro delle Vergini outside of Venice and has not been given professionally since.
Amazon women were popular in seventeenth century Venetian opera and more than one hundred librettos of the time included them. According to some ancient writers, Amazon warriors originated in Turkey. Others preferred to cite different mythological backgrounds. The women were said to mate only once a year. After they gave birth, male children were discarded and only the females were raised to adulthood.
The plot of Pallavicino’s opera involves Numidio, a captain in the Sultan’s army sung by the tall, blonde, muscular tenor, Ryan Matos. The captain has been shipwrecked on the Amazon’s island, where Princess Pulcheria, sung with exquisite Baroque style by French soprano Aurélie Veruni, falls in love with him. He seems to prefer Florinda, portrayed by creamy-voiced mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, who proved to be both a lyrical lover and a dramatic powerhouse. Unfortunately, Numidio cannot make up his mind. Florinda has to deal with reconciling her vow of chastity with love. The only other male singer in this opera, bronze-voiced baritone Spencer Dodd, was the fearsome sultan who eventually invades the Amazon’s island.
Soprano Tonia D’Amelio as Auralba, who is also in love with Florinda and jealous of Numidio shows her strong dramatic ability when she appears to have more leadership qualities than the indecisive male. Soprano Cara Gabrielson sang Jocasta with notable vocal skills and mezzo Molly Mahoney was a fiery Cillene. Dancers Coral Martin and Casey Lee Thorne added to the graceful lines of choreographer Muriel Maffre’s stage pictures with their smooth, undulating gestures.
Stage director Céline Ricci made sure that the universal tales and of love, both straight and gay, were brought from seventeenth century directly to the twenty-first. Behind the action Patricia Nardi's thoughtful projections combined well with simple modern costuming topped by opulent colorful hairpieces and wigs that provided eye candy for the audience.
Conductor Derek Tam led Ars Minerva’s eight-piece orchestra, which consisted of theorbo, two violins, cello, two trumpets, harpsichord and percussion. The string players, especially the theorbist and harpsichordist, showed fabulous musical skills. Only the trumpets were a bit edgy at times. The problems brought about by humans falling in love with each other are not only of interest to those immediately concerned, some of its vagaries and situations are hysterically funny. The Amazons is a most amusing opera and I hope that Ars Minerva will soon make it available to a larger audience.
Maria Nockin
Cast and production details:
Il Genio, Tonia d'Amelio; La Difficoltà, Molly Mahoney; Il Timore, Spencer Dodd; Pulcheria, Principessa delle Amazzoni, Aurélie Veruni; Florinda sua Favorita, Kindra Scharich; Numidio, suo capitano, Ryan Matos; Auralba, amica di Florinda, Tonia d'Amelio; Jocasta, figlia adottiva di Pulcheria, Cara Gabrielson; Cillene, delirante per Amore, Molly Mahoney; Sultan Rè degli Egizzi, Spencer Dodd; Dancers: Casey Lee Thorne and Coral Martin; Stage Direction, Céline Ricci; Choreography, Muriel Maffre; Projection Design, Patricia Nardi; Lighting Design, Brian Poedy; Hair & Make-up, Metamorphosis Salon; English Translation, Joe McClinton; Conductor, Derek Tam; Harpsichord, Derek Tam; Theorbo, Adam Cockerham; Cello, Gretchen Claassen, Violin, Addi Liu and Laura Rubinstein-Salzedo; Timpani, Henry Reed; Trumpets, Amanda Cienfuegos and Jose Sanchez.