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."
On Saturday evening October 29, 2016, Opera Las Vegas held a concert in a most elegant private home. After a glass of wine and some delicious hors d’oeuvres, members of the audience, most of whom were in costume, retreated to a salon that held some seventy chairs. With a grand piano in front and an “off stage” area to the side, the salon was as close to a concert hall as could be found in a private home.
On Saturday evening October 29, 2016, Opera Las Vegas held a concert in a most elegant private home. After a glass of wine and some delicious hors d’oeuvres, members of the audience, most of whom were in costume, retreated to a salon that held some seventy chairs. With a grand piano in front and an “off stage” area to the side, the salon was as close to a concert hall as could be found in a private home. Artistic Director James Sohre, dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, introduced the artists and their selections, which began and ended with the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical theater work.
Artists from the Opera Las Vegas Young Artist Program were lyric soprano Emily Botts, dramatic soprano Karin Hochman, tenor Aldo Perelli, and baritone Michael Parham. Their collaborative pianist was Voltaire Verzosa. Since Verzosa also sings as a countertenor, he is a most sympathetic accompanist.
After the opening number from Broadway’s longest running musical, Botts emerged singing a radiant rendition of “Mesiku na nebi hlubokem” (“O moon, so high in the sky”) from Antonin Dvořák’s fairy tale opera Russalka. Aldo Berelli and Karin Hochman then sang two of the plaintive arias that Giacomo Puccini provided for the victims of Baron Vitellio Scarpia in his scorchingly dramatic opera Tosca. Berelli sang “E lucevan le stelle” (“the stars are shining”) and Hochman “Vissi d’arte” (“I have lived for art”). Perelli made his character's life seem ever so much more important because he knew he had so little time left, whereas Hochman added great drama to the contrast between her life in the arts and Scarpia’s devilish machinations.
Then it was time for a bit of comic relief and baritone Michael Parham provided it with his light-hearted and charming impersonation of Papageno, the happy-go-lucky bird catcher in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Although his intonation was not always perfect, his charisma made up for it. Botts returned with an evocative performance of Liu’s tragic aria from Puccini’s Turandot, “Tu che di gel sei cinta” (“You who are wrapped in ice”).
Hochman’s next selection was the rousing drinking song, “Si, colme il calice di vino eletto” (“Lift the cup with your favorite wine”) from Giuseppe Verdi’s first Shakespearean opera, Macbeth. Unlike this composer’s later works, Macbeth demands coloratura as well as dramatic stamina from the soprano. Perelli had an easier time with the lyric aria, “Ah, la paterna mano non vi fu scudo” (“Ah, the paternal hand did not defend you”).
Parham’s dramatic selection was a scene from Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet. The title character calls out to the ghost of his father in “Spectre infernal” (“Spectre from the underworld”). In Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, Monica sings of the sun, the moon, and a black swan. “The sun has fallen and it lies in blood”. She goes on to speak of the moon weaving bandage of gold. Botts sang this emotionally engaging but little known aria with a delightful tapestry of vocal color.
Hochman showed her dramatic vocal ability when she sang one of Amelia’s arias from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. Amelia has been told she must pick an herb from the ground under the gallows, and she sings, “Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa” (“But when that leaf has been torn from its dry stem”). This kind of drama is Hochman’s "meat" and she sang it with relish and great strength, both vocal and emotional. I have great hopes for the future of this young singer from Israel.
Parham returned with a number from Frank Wildhorn’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the charming invocation of time, “This is the Moment.” It was the moment when, with the return to The music of The Phantom of the Opera, this memorable evening came to an end. Let’s hope Opera Las Vegas has another Halloween concert next year. I can think of a number of fitting selections for it that have not often been heard.
Maria Nockin
Cast and production information:
Cast and Selections:
Emily Botts: Hymn to the Moon, Russalka; Liu’s Aria, Turandot; “The Sun is Fallen”, The Medium. Aldo Perelli: “E lucevan le stelle”, Tosca; MacDuff’s Aria, Macbeth; “Music of the Night”, The Phantom of the Opera; Karin Hochman: “Vissi d’arte”, Tosca; Drinking Song, Macbeth; “Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa”, Un Ballo in Maschera; Michael Parham: “Der Vogelfänger bin ich, ja”, The Magic Flute; Spectre infernal, Hamlet; “This is the Moment”, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. All sang a finale from The Phantom of the Opera.