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.
![Vittorio Grigolo as Hoffmann and Christophe Mortagne as Frantz [Photo by Ken Howard / LA Opera]](http://www.operatoday.com/hoff_0644.png)
On March 24, 2017, Los Angeles Opera revived its co-production of Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann which has also been seen at the Mariinsky Opera in Leningrad and the Washington National Opera in the District of Columbia.
The performing version of the work was conceived and directed by Marta Domingo based on the integral edition of the opera edited by Michael Kaye and Jean-Christophe Keck. There are different versions of this opera because Offenbach died several months before its premiere and some work had to be completed by others.
Giovanni Agostinucci’s heavily detailed set and costumes placed the stories in their original locales and gave the audience a fascinating stage picture to contemplate. Alan Burrett’s lighting design pointed out pictures on the walls, one of which looked like Mozart. An operagoer might have to see this production more than once to get all the meaning out of it.
Nicolas Teste as Dr. Miracle
Marta Domingo’s direction gave each character both motivations and expressive activities and she showed that her artistic ability has grown considerably over the last decade. Having sung the title role all over the world, Placido Domingo now leads this opera with a knowledge few conductors can approximate. His tempi were inviting and despite dealing with a singer in the orchestra pit as well as a full cat onstage, the result was a unified whole.
Vittorio Grigòlo sang the title role of Hoffmann with a great deal of panache, creating different aspects of the character in each scene. In the prologue he gives an amusing imitation of the fictional Kleinzach. In Act I he dons rose colored glasses that make him think Olympia is a young girl instead of a roughly assembled automaton as he sings the romance “Ah! vivre deux!” (“Ah! To live together!”) with inviting lyrical tones. With each new love his desire seemed more intense, and it was more difficult for him to deal with rejection, so by the Epilogue, he has lost his grip on reality. Only then did his muse remind him that poetry is empowered by tears, not contentment.
Kate Aldrich as Giulietta and Kate Lindsey as Nicklausse
Offenbach expected all Hoffmann’s love interests, Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia, and Stella, all to be sung by one soprano. Diana Damrau intended to do that, but for health reasons, she eventually relinquished Olympia, the doll, to So Young Park and Giulietta, the Venetian courtesan, to Kate Aldrich. Park was an incredibly energetic magic doll who sang about "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" (“The Birds in the Arbor”) with sweet, stratospheric notes. Aldrich sang the courtesan with a creamy sound but her acting was anything but subtle. Damrau’s Antonia was both technically exquisite and visually heartrending. Even her dying breath was a perfect trill. Stella does not have much to sing, but her demeanor told us that she would never again embrace Hoffmann. I hope someday Damrau will return to Los Angeles and sing all four heroines. When her health is good, she is most certainly capable of showing Angelinos various facets of characterization with these roles.
So Young Park as Olympia
French bass-baritone Nicholas Testé was to sing all four villains, but became ill the last minute. Thus, an American counterpart, Wayne Tigges, flew in to sing the roles from the orchestra pit while Testé acted them onstage. Most amazing was Tigges’s ability to blend into the ensembles when he could not see the other singers. He is most certainly an incredibly able artist.
Kate Lindsey has sung The Muse/Nicklausse all over the world but last night she outdid herself. Not only was her character the voice of reason, she did an imitation of Olympia that had the audience laughing out loud. Lindsey is a subtle artist but there is deep thought behind her characterizations. French buffo tenor Christophe Mortagne also brought out peals of laughter when Frantz, one of his four servants, attempts serious dance. As tavern owner Luther, Korean baritone Kihun Yoon sang with robust tones that easily filled the hall. Rodell Rosel was a self-important Spalanzani who looked much like one of Offenbach’s contemporaries, Richard Wagner.
Diana Damrau as Stella (with, at rear left, Kihun Yoon as Luther and Christophe Mortagne as Andres)
If there was a slight weak link, it was the chorus, which seemed to be slightly off the beat when they entered. Hopefully that, and the other problems mentioned here will be fixed by the second performance.
Maria Nockin
Cast and production information:
Conductor, Placido Domingo; Director, Marta Domingo; Scenery and Costume Designer, Giovanni Agostinucci; Lighting Designer, Alan Burrett; Chorus Director, Grant Gershon; Choreographer, Kitty McNamee; Fight Director, Ed Douglas; Prompter, Nino Sanikidze; Hoffmann, Vittorio Grigòlo; Nicklause/ Muse of Poetry, Kate Lindsey; Lindorf/Coppelius/Dapertutto/Dr. Miracle, Nicholas Testé/Wayne Tigges; Olympia, So Young Park; Giulietta, Kate Aldrich; Antonia/Stella, Diana Damrau; Andres/Cochinille/ Pitichinaccio/Frantz, Christophe Mortagne; Luther, Kihun Yoon; Hermann, Theo Hoffmann; Nathanael, Brian Michael Moore; Spalanzani, Rodell Rosel; Bass Voice, Reid Bruton; Schlémil, Daniel Armstrong; Crespel, Nicholas Brownlee; Voice of Antonia’s Mother, Sharmay Musacchio.