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."
For the centenary of Finland’s Independence, the Savonlinna Opera Festival brought back Kari Heiskanen’s spectacular 1992 production of Aulis Salinen’s Kullervo. The excellent Finnish soloists and glorious choir unflinchingly offered this opera of vocal blood and guts. Conductor Hannu Lintu fired up the Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra in Sallinen’s thrilling music.
Hate breeds hate. What happens to a person when his family is killed, he is turned into a slave, manipulated and forced to suffer in isolation? You become a vengeful madman. Not so different from disenfranchised young men and women in our modern world.
Part of the 19th Century epic poem “Kalevala”, assembled from Finnish mythology and folklore, the legend of Kullervo recounts the life of this young man, whose uncle Unto kills his father and his family. Kullervo survives, is sold as a slave to a herd’s man. Discovers his family survived somehow, but realizes now he slept with his sister. Greek tragedy, Finnish style.
Due to delay of construction of the new Helsinki Opera House, this Finnish commission premiered instead in L.A. It opened a year later in Finland. Heiskanen's barebones production doesn’t constrict the opera to any time or place and gives it a sense of immediate relevance. His stage direction emphasised the dramatic action between the performers.
He used the choir’s presence to full effect: from the moment the opera opens with the choir, blasting at the audience, in a narrating function similar to the ones in Greek Tragedies. It reminded me of the dramatic resonance of Pierre Audi’s abstract productions in Amsterdam. Though, Sallinen throws in several twists and turns that totally threw me off.
The Choir as Unto's tribe during Kullervo's slaughtering spree
Antti Mattila’s simple set design with four houses, three merely frames, and one black cabin inside golden, where Kullervo's dramatic family moments took place. A captivating energy flowed between the actors across the stage generating a thrilling momentum. The staccato rhythm of the Finnish language added to the violence of the drama. Completely unfamiliar with Kullervo, I read the libretto, so when I got caught up in the engrossing drama, I would forget to read the surtitles!
Ville Susanan carried the role of Kullervo with a glamorous star quality and gritty vocals. Full of brutal impatience, his voice filled with a fatalistic despair, yet with a concealed receding sensitivity beating underneath his outer shell.
Daniel Karlström provided the voice hope. With his boyish innocence, he compensated the violence and hatred in the air between other characters. As Kimmo the slave boy, who cares only for Kullervo’s happiness, he provided a sense of humanity to the goings-on. His failure to protect Kullervo results in his own madness. In the epilogue, right before Kullervo jumps into a fire (in Heiskanen's staging a doorway opens, possibly to the underworld), Karlström gives an eerie goodbye as Kimmo.
Karlström as the voice of hope in the end gone mad
The libretto filled with sexual tension to Sallinen’s feverish music during Kullervo’s scene with the herd man’s young wife. Nina Keitel brought seductive tones in her manipulative role. She seduces and ultimately betrays Kullervo: “the moon shined down, round and beaming/and full of warm anticipation/But now the moon is lean, like a sickle/Yes you are coming, coming alone”.
Then Kullervo sings of her betrayal. She has baked a loaf of bread with a stone inside. Kullervo blasts her action: “Look! Look what you’ve ruined. Look at my/father’s knife/it’s been broken in pieces/It has been castrated by a single stone.”
All this led up to one of the many climaxes. First, an unplanned moment occurred when one of the gulls that swarmed outside the castle, had positioned itself in a portal high above the stage. Right before Kullervo kills the wife, and Keitel sings with the mightiest vibrato blasting through the castle, the bird flew down over her across the audience, as if even this loudly squawking creature could not endure Sallinen's musical violence.
The rest of the Finnish supporting cast also proved indispensable. Sallinen has a dark sense of humor. The role of the foolish hunter was conveyed annoyingly well by Petri Bäcktröm. Niklas Spångberg and Tiina Penttinen as Unto and his wife, fuelled by alcohol, made for an angry and embittered couple.
Sallinen’s surprise came at the beginning of the second act, during Kullervo’s dream sequence reveals he slept with his sister and had a child. Sallinen just threw me off. Did this really happy? And...Jazz? Birthe Wingren athletic singing and dancing as the Blind Singer revealed her impressive stamina through Sallinen’s bewildering and grotesque Cabaret sequence. Yet after the dream, or rather nightmare, Sallinen’s opera returned as if nothing has happened, seamlessly continuing the earlier musical suspense of Kullervo’s narrative.
Powerhouse Rusanen-Kartiano sings of mourning her son Kullervo
The showstopper of the evening belonged to Johanna Rusanen-Kartiano. She already had delivered some exquisite vocals earlier entwined with Kullervo’s sister together with the grand sound of Sanna Matinniemi's voice. After he confesses of sleeping with his sister and his father banishes him, it was her uncompromising love that resonanted. This made for the poetic passage in the libretto. When Kullervo ask his mother if she will mourn his death:
I will weep the whole verdant Spring.
If I cannot keep on weeping
in the presence of other people,
In the sauna I will hide,
weeping till salt tears shall flood it,
and my tears have washed its floor.
Myself and the audience was crushed by the unconditional maternal love delivered by Rusanen-Kartiano as Kullervo’s Aiti. The applause for her was explosive.
It’s not strange that Heiskanen’s staging still resonates twenty five years later. It withstands the test of time. As somebody in Savonlinna told me, this legend is in the DNA of every Fin, and so is the opera. I can see why. When it's staged again, I will be there to see it for sure!
David Pinedo
Cast and production information:
Kullervo: Ville Rusanen; Kimmo: Dan Karlström; Mother: Johanna Rusanen-Kartano; Kalervo: Hannu Forsberg; Sister: Sanna Matinniemi; Smith´s young wife: Niina Keitel, Hunter: Petri Bäckström; Unto: Niklas Spångberg; Unto’s wife: Tiina Penttinen, Blind Singer: Birthe Wingren; Tiera: Johann Tilli; 1st man: Lasse Penttinen; 2nd man: Markus Suihkonen; Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra; Conductor: Hannu Lintu; Stage director: Kari Heiskanen; Stage designer: Antti Mattila; Costume designer: Riitta Anttonen-Palo; Lighting designer: Ilkka Paloniemi; Chorus master: Matti Hyökki; Olavonlinna, Savonlinna Opera Festival, July 8, 2017