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.
The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.
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.
In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
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.
Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.
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.’
Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.
‘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.’
If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.
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."
Director Annabel Arden believes that Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia is ‘all about playfulness, theatricality, light and movement’. It’s certainly ‘about’ those things and they are, as Arden suggests, ‘based in the music’.
But, the opera’s comedy derives not from the abstract but from the human: specifically, the reality of human interactions and relationships in everyday situations. Comedy must be rooted in the ‘real’ so that it does not descend into farce or irrelevance. Arden’s production for Glyndebourne - the Festival’s first new production of the opera for 35 years - is less concerned with exploring these human situations from within and more focused on imposing motifs and images from without.
The set is stylised and non-naturalistic but the Spanish locale is indicated by the painterly Moorish blue and white decorative azulejos, their hexagonal geometrics picked out by James Farncombe’s magical lighting, and by the flamenco guitars and frocks. The period is non-specific but Almaviva’s Elvis quiff and Rosina’s Balenciaga-inspired dress allude to the 1940s and ’50s. Rosina’s bedroom is a carelessly strewn pile of plump pillows. A decorative bureau and some anaemic bookcases, one shelf supporting a snoozing servant, hint at specific locations within Dr Bartolo’s house, but it is not a ‘home’ in which real people might dwell.
Act I finale
Indeed, it seems as if Bartolo is only just moving it, for in Act 2 we find him enjoying a boozy picnic on the floor of his own library. Furniture removers trundle back and forth with a harpsichord - an aimless conveyance which is greatly distracting during Bartolo’s ‘A un dottor della mia sorte’, and a real pity when that aria is being sung by one of the best exponents of the role. And, the Act 1 finale descends into a visual charade of surreal images: ‘Fredda ed immobile, come una statua’ is accompanied by the arrhythmic, ‘Keystone-Cops’ jerks and salutes of the Officers of the Watch, as upside-down harpsichords descend from the ceiling. We might have wandered into a painting by Magritte or Dali. Arden has experience of physical theatre with Complicite, which may account for the emphasis that she puts on ‘movement’. And, she admits, ‘This kind of music I find very visual, with a sort of extraordinary rhythmic painting’ - but the images that she conjures at times have little to do with what is going on in the drama.
Act 1 starts promisingly, though. A beautiful trellised balcony hangs mid-set, a square pendant, garlanded with red roses which tumble down like the tresses of a fairy-tale princess. Fiorello (a personable Huw Montague Rendall) settles his guitar-bearing band of would-be serenaders beneath Rosina’s balcony, to wait for the arrival of the love-struck Almaviva. When the silver-cloaked Count does appear, some supernumeraries - who seem to have been borrowed from the commedia dell’arte - provide fun and games, re-enacting a bull-fight and conjuring some sleight of hand to create a conveyor-belt of chairs to transport Almaviva to the foot of the balcony. And, there’s a neat joke when conductor Enrique Mazzola ‘auditions’ the guitarists for the role of accompanist to ‘Ecco ridente’.
But, by Scene 2 the momentum has waned. Danielle de Niese may have charged about like a hyperactive teenager, arms horizontal like a zooming airplane, but for all Arden’s professed concern with movement - ‘When you find the movement of a thing, a tree or stone or whatever, it expresses something about its essence’ - for the most part the characters are seriously under-directed and resort to standing stock still at the front of the stage and singing directly to the audience. Lindoro’s ‘disguise-scenes’, usually the core of the comic capers, were woefully underplayed.
There is some witty banter between stage and pit, and a few knowing winks, as when Bartolo is jolted from sleep by our applause for ‘Contro un cor’, and leaps conceitedly to his feet to accept our adulation for himself. But, such tongue-in-cheek breaking through the fourth wall only deepens the artificiality and diminishes the opera’s ability to convey human insights still further. Act 2 regains some of the opening’s tautness - though the storm in Act 2 was rather a damp squib, especially when compared to the monsoon that deluged picnickers during the long dinner interval! - but the production never quite recovers from this lull in the centre.
Fortunately, the talents of the cast distract us when the drama loses its way. Björn Bürger’s ebullient Figaro is a man who pops up everywhere, and when you least expect - springing up in the pit before a confident, bright ‘Largo al factotum’; startling the prone Rosina by emerging through a trapdoor beneath her heaps of cushions; sneaking out from behind the bureau or climbing over the bookcase. Confident rather than swaggering, Bürger’s Figaro is an appealing blend of mischief and magnanimity: a jack-of-all-trades - barber, hairdresser, surgeon, herbalist, apothecary, veterinarian, he is happy to help, especially if his services are well-rewarded, and cheeky enough to steal a kiss from Rosina and earn nothing harsher than an indulgent smile.
As the Count, Taylor Stayton has a tendency to push a bit hard at the phrase-ends and melodic peaks, but his tenor has a lovely ring and if his coloratura is less than precise at times, then he negotiates the role’s demands with style. Stayton loses the virtuosic ‘Cessa di più resistere’ but Danielle de Niese’s Rosina is granted ‘Ah, s’è ver, in tal momento’ before the storm scene, which she sings rather indifferently and which slows down the action. That number aside, de Niese exhibits a lovely, natural ease in the lower register and crystal-clear diction, though at the top there’s a hard-edge to the tone. She throws herself into the part with physical exuberance, somersaulting onto her cushions, striding over the harpsichord and sparkling dramatically as well as vocally.
For Alessandro Corbelli, performing the role of Dr Bartolo must feel as effortless as putting on his slippers and sipping a night-cap: but, however familiar it all feels, the baritone doesn’t let a detail pass him by, and - as far as Arden’s direction allows - gives a masterclass in comic nuance, balancing understatement with hyperbole, with spot-on timing.
His Act 1 scene with Basilio made less impact than usual, though, largely because - despite revealing a lovely smooth bass - Christophoros Stamboglis under-characterised the role and passed by opportunities for pointed irony. The only ‘memorable’ feature of ‘La Calunnia’ was the smoke that wafted from the music-master’s cassock, which presumably was designed to signify the earthquake or storm that would arise from Bartolo’s rumour-mongering and which would hound the Count out of town. Stamboglis was more secure, musically and dramatically, in Act 2, happy to trade constancy for currency when offered the plenitudes of Almaviva’s pocket.
Janis Kelly showed that her Miss Marple-spinster’s outfit hid a rampant vivaciousness, and stole the show with Berta’s lament for missed romantic chances, ‘Il Vecchiotto Cerca Moglie’.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra fizzed and dazzled under conductor Enrique Mazzola. All in all, this is an enjoyable production with rich pickings both visually and vocally. If only the beautiful designs served the rich, human comedy.
Claire Seymour
This production will be broadcast live in cinemas across the UK on Tuesday 21 June: Il barbiere di Siviglia at Glyndebourne Opera Festival
Further information about the season’s Glyndebourne productions can be found at:
www.Glyndebourne.com
Casts and production information:
Fiorello: Huw Montague Rendall; Count Almaviva: Taylor Stayton; Figaro: Björn Bürger; Rosina: Danielle de Niese; Dr Bartolo: Alessandro Corbelli; Berta: Janis Kelly; Basilio: Christophoros Stamboglis; Officer: Adam Marsden; Actors: Tommy Luther, Maxime Nourissat, Jofre Caraben van der Meer. London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Glyndebourne Chorus. Conductor: Enrique Mazzola; Stage Director: Annabel Arden; Designer: Joanna Parker; Director of Movement: Toby Sedgwick; Lighting Designer: James Farncombe. Sunday 22nd May 2016, Glyndebourne Festival Opera.