Recently in Reviews
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."
Reviews
08 Apr 2017
The Royal Opera House announces its 2017/18 season
Details of the Royal Opera House's 2017/18 Season have been announced. Oliver Mears, who will begin his tenure as Director of Opera, comments:
“I am delighted to introduce my first Season as Director of Opera for The Royal Opera House. As I begin this role, and as the world continues to reel from social and political tumult, it is reassuring to contemplate the talent and traditions that underpin this great building’s history. For centuries, a theatre on this site has welcomed all classes - even in times of revolution and war - to enjoy the most extraordinary combination of music and drama ever devised. Since the time of Handel, Covent Garden has been home to the most outstanding performers, composers and artists of every era. And for centuries, the joyous and often tragic art form of opera has offered a means by which we can be transported to another world, in all its wonderful excess and beauty.”
New productions:
The Royal Opera’s Season includes six new productions at
the Royal Opera House.
A new production of
La bohème
will be directed by Richard Jones. David Alden will direct
Semiramide
and
Lohengrin
: the latter, which will be conducted by Andris Nelsons - returning to the
House after his outstanding performances of Der Rosenkavalier
earlier this season - is the first staging of the opera at the
Royal Opera House since 1977. Barrie Kosky, returning to the House
after his critically acclaimed 2016 production of The Nose will
direct
Carmen
. One of the Season’s highlights’ will surely be
From the House of the Dead
directed by Polish theatre director Krzysztof Warlikowsi, making his UK
debut - a production which will initiate a complete survey of Janáček’s
operatic oeuvre during the next six years. The Season will also see the
world premieres of George Benjamin
’s new opera,
Lessons in Love and Violence
directed by Katie Mitchell and Donizetti’s
L’ange de Nisida
, conducted by Mark Elder 179 years after it was completed.
Antonio Pappano will conduct two new productions as well as revivals of Macbeth (starring Serbian baritone Željko Lučić in the title role
and Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as his ambitious, scheming wife) and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
In La Bohème, Australian soprano Nicole Car and former
Jette Parker Young Artist Romanian soprano Simona Mihai will share the role
of Mimì, and American tenor Michael Fabiano will tackle the role of Rodolfo
for the first time at Covent Garden, following his debut as Lensky in 2015.
Joyce DiDonato will take the title role in Semiramide, which she
created for Alden’s production when it was given its premiere by the
Bavarian State Opera in February 2017. Semiramide was last seen at
Covent Garden in 1885 when Adelina Patti sang the title role; a concert
performance of the opera was given by the Royal Opera House in 1986.
Pappano, now in his 16th season with The Royal Opera, will also
conduct the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in a concert performance
with baritone Christian Gerhaher, and give a recital with Joyce DiDonato.
Revivals:
The Season’s programme also includes first revivals of Olivier
Award-winning
Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci
(Simon Keenlyside sings his first Tonio), the much-discussed
Lucia di Lammermoor
(Michele Mariotti conducts, American-Cuban soprano Lisette Oropesa debuts
as Lucia),
Les Vêpres siciliennes
and Philip Venables’
UK Theatre Award-winning
4.48 Psychosis
.
The Season will also see revivals of Rigoletto, Falstaff, Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni (as directed by
Kaspar Holten, and featuring Mariusz Kwiecień in the title role, which he
created in this production in 2014).
Outside the House:
The Season also includes four premieres away from the Royal Opera House in
collaboration with a range of partners, co-producers and co-commissioners:
the world premieres of
Mark-Anthony Turnage
’s new opera Coraline at the Barbican Centre; Mamzer Bastard by Guildhall School of Music & Drama/Royal
Opera Composer in Residence Na’ama Zisser;
and a new work by Tansy Davies produced by London Sinfonietta in
association with The Royal Opera.
The Return of Ulysses
will be performed at theRoundhouse, andLa tragédie de Carmen will be performed at Wilton’s Music Hall by members of
the
Jette Parker Young Artist
programme.
The Royal Opera will collaborate with the V&A for an exhibition covering
almost 400 years of operatic history:
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics
, which opens in September 2017.
Looking ahead to the 2018/19 Season, four full cycles of Keith Warner’s
production of
Der Ring des Nibelungen
will be performed between September and November 2018; booking details will
be available in autumn 2017.
During the 2017/18 Season, 12 productions — six from The Royal Opera and
six from The Royal Ballet — will be relayed live from Covent Garden to
cinemas around the world. The programme features a mixture of new
productions and classic works. Find your nearest cinema.