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.
Headed by General Director Luana DeVol, a world-renowned dramatic soprano, Opera Las Vegas is a relatively new company that presents opera with first-rate casts at the University of Las Vegas’s Judy Bayley Theater. In 2014 they presented Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and in 2015, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. This year they offered a blazing rendition of Georges Bizet’s Carmen.
Lately, some directors have been updating this work, so Henry Price’s traditional version was most welcome. Many members of the Nevada audience are new to opera, so it was important to give them what they expected to see. Price is a former tenor best known for his performances at the New York City Opera opposite Beverly Sills. He is now Professor of Music at Pepperdine University and he has directed several excellent Italian opera productions.
Hannah D’Elia’s sets were constructed of expertly painted canvas that created the ambience of old Spain where sunlit upper surfaces contrasted with deep darks below. The attractive, detailed costumes that Jennifer McKee designed put the time of the action firmly in the romantic past.
Maya Lahyani is a born Carmen. The demands of the role lie smoothly on her voice and she has strong resonance all across its range. Most of all, she created a charismatic figure that held the attention of every member of the audience. For a young singer who had only performed the title role of Carmen in two previous productions, her grasp of its intricacies was amazing.
Last year, dramatic tenor Viktor Antipenko’s portrayal of the scoundrel, Pinkerton, in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly was a major hit. As Don José on Friday night, he was equally triumphant. The tenor role opposite Carmen is difficult because it requires a great deal of dramatic singing in each of its four acts but has a major aria in the second act with an exposed pianissimo high note. Antipenko succeeded on both counts.
As Michaela, Susanne Vinnik was somewhat less successful. Her role also has dramatic singing, which she accomplished well, but she sang her lyric phrases with an excess of vibrato. As Escamillo, Trevor Scheunemann was a true grit torero who looked as though he could stare down the most ferocious of bulls. He sang his memorable aria with burnished bronze tones.
Carmen’s women friends, soprano Emily Botts as Frasquita and mezzo Kylee Slee as Mercèdes, made some fine additions to the singing. Botts, in particular, added blooming high notes to the mix. Bass-baritone Peter Johnson was a commanding Zuniga and baritone Eugene Richardson a straight laced Moralès. As Le Dancaïre Brian James Myer was an adept scout while his partner-in-crime, Aldo Perrelli as Le Remendado, took life a little less seriously.
With the help of conductor Gregory Buchalter and Lahyani, these singers gave a fast rendition of the challenging quintet. Much of Bizet’s Carmen is dance music and Buchalter gave us a catchy and rhythmic reading of the score that invited its characters to dance. It invited the audience to mentally tap their toes, too, but the house was full and that precluded dancing in the aisles! It was a wonderful evening in Las Vegas and I, for one, hope we will have another show from Opera Las Vegas before the year is out.
Maria Nockin
Cast and production details:
Conductor, Gregory Buchalter; Stage Director, Henry Price; Carmen, Maya Lahyani; Don José, Viktor Antipenko; Escamillo, Trevor Scheunemann; Micaëla, Suzanne Vinnik; Zuniga, Peter Johnson; Moralès, Eugene Richards; Frasquita, Emily Botts; Mercedès, Kylee Slee; Le Dancaïre, Brian James Myer; Le Remendado, Aldo Perrelli; Lillas Pastia, John Wennstrom; The Waif, Marc Leggat; Fight Coordinator, Sean Critchfield; Technical Director, Hannah D'Elia; Lighting Design, Ginny Adams; Costume Design, Jennifer McKee; Chorus Preparation, Megan Franke; Choreographer, Bernard Gaddis; Dancers: Justin Daniels, Barrington Lohr, Mary LaCroix Lohr, Maria Vicuna McGovern, Opera Las Vegas Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus.