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."
The second of Philip Glass’s so-called 'profile' operas, Satyagraha is magnificent in ENO’s acclaimed staging, with a largely new cast and conductor bringing something very special to this seminal work.
In recent years, there has been a tendency with many of Glass’s scores (one thinks of the First Violin Concerto, for example) to revisit his tempos and this was very notable in the pacing of the opera this time round. It made for a very long evening, but the upside was a transformation in the music that added much needed depth and emotional integrity to a work that sometimes seems to be missing both. A downside, of course, is that in an opera that really has such minimal narrative to keep it moving one’s concentration and endurance is tested to the limits. This sometimes felt like Parsifal on benzodiazepine, or an over-dramatized Bach oratorio - but it is to the credit of a splendid cast and a brilliantly engaged conductor that this performance was so spellbinding. For a first night, which so often isn’t perfect, this was as close to ideal as I’ve heard in many years.
If Satyagraha is the best of the three profile operas it is largely because it has neither the astringency ofEinstein on the Beach nor the monotonal repetitiveness of Akhnaten. Minimalism can sometimes sound very temporal and hollow, but here at such a broad tempo (take, for example, the scene in Act II with the burning of the passes which could have almost been lifted from the pages of re-orchestrated Bach) and the effect was transcendental. That is not to say that the score doesn’t motor onwards like a typewriter - the male chorus, with their taunts of “Ha! Ha! Ha!” were acidic against the ENO woodwind - not always exactly synchronised - but this is a long scene and hugely demanding. The closing pages of Act III, where Gandhi stands beneath the plinth of Martin Luther King against darkening clouds that foreshadow the assassinations of both men, was devastating, yet taken at this chosen speed you felt it was never-ending. The music felt as oppressive as the bleakness of the imagery on stage; chromatic shifts in key from the orchestra were like changing projected film slides on a permanent loop.
For a composer so heavily involved in composing for film, it’s perhaps not surprising that ENO’s production of Satyagraha should acknowledge that debt, however tangentially. Whether it’s a steamship rolling slowly across the corrugated steel that remains the constant backdrop for this staging, or film of civil rights marches in support of King’s speech, the camera is both a means of projection and a means of communication. Before film, there was newspaper and here it is reimagined in every possible way. It is used as a means of peaceful protest, it is used as a means of violence, where the male chorus “stone” Gandhi into submission. It is used as a backdrop against which Sanskrit words are projected, it is used to cultivate fear and terror, where unspeakable violence is carried out behind curtains of newspaper in the darkness of the shadows. Before newspapers, there was just the word. Great tablets inscribed with single Sanskrit letters descend like monolithic slabs that recall the Ten Commandments.
ENO, Satyagraha Photo credit: Douglas Cooper.
Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, the director and designer of this production, have made this opera as theatrical as possible to stem the awkwardness of its lack of narrative. There is an overwhelming sense of austerity, poverty and hardship to the corrugated township of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century South Africa here - and it even extends to the muddied, frayed bottoms of the women’s long dresses as they are dragged through the dirt. The attention to detail misses very little. This is a recycled staging, where the wicker baskets of Tolstoy Farm are magically transformed into giant fish, where torn and scrunched up newspapers are turned into huge monsters and disfigured puppets and where endless streams of sticky tape that served firstly as a fence are then torn down and folded like origami into a giant stick figure of a hangman. You are often awestruck by the acrobatics of Skills Ensemble. Not everything was perfect, but when it worked you couldn’t take your eyes off it. A scene where an image of the earth, spinning like a globe, appeared on a round table, for it and one of the performers, to slowly be lifted towards the roof of the stage was stunning.
Despite these sweepingly dramatic moments, so much of Satyagraha remains static. This production doesn’t wear its philosophy lightly. Excerpts from the Gita, or the principles of ‘truth force’ pepper the walls, like religious graffiti. Reading them is a form of stasis in itself. The arrest of the protestors in Act III is symptomatic of the opera’s glacial pacing. The armed soldiers could have been wading through treacle, yet it was oddly balletic to watch. For much of Act II Gandhi doesn’t actually sing a note of music - he wanders the stage like a prophet, and yet it was compelling to watch. The Act II burning of the passes seemed interminable, and would have been had it not been for the absolutely superb playing of the ENO orchestra who brought such intensity to the whole scene. King’s transformation at the end of Act III into a great orator was entirely mimed, and yet for almost twenty minutes you were transfixed as if you were watching a silent movie.
Toby Spence. Photo credit: Douglas Cooper.
So to the singing, which I found to be first rate. Toby Spence, singing the role of Gandhi for the first time, was compelling in the title role. The part of Gandhi is difficult because for large sections of the opera the tenor isn’t singing - though he is on stage. Spence is undeniably impressive - he transforms from young lawyer in Act I to philosopher and emerging prophet in the rest of the opera with convincing believability. The voice isn’t stentorian (I don’t think this role really requires that kind of singing), but there is pathos, humanity and deep insight to his interpretation. He is also a formidable stage actor, which isn’t something one should take for granted with an opera singer.
Nicholas Folwell, Charlotte Beament, Toby Spence, Anna-Clare Monk, Stephanie Marshall, Clive Bayley. Photo credit: Douglas Cooper.
Commanding as Kasturbai was the Canadian mezzo, Stephanie Marshall. The voice is both huge and rich, and this was a powerful assumption of the role of Gandhi’s wife. Charlotte Beament, as Miss Schlesen, Gandhi’s secretary, sounded a touch tentative at first but her brilliant and bright soprano was able to cut through the orchestra like glass. The composer is rather merciless in his demands for this particular role, since so much of it lies in the upper registers of the voice, but Ms Beament was often breath-taking, and her soprano is fresh enough to hold those high notes without the notes cutting short. By any standards, this was outstanding singing. Andri Björn Róbertsson, as Lord Krishna, sang magnificently, but was less compelling to watch I’m afraid. Nicholas Folwell as Mr Kallenbach seemed less secure when singing solo, where the voice appeared small, than he did when singing as part of an ensemble, where he largely excelled.
Karen Kamensek, the conductor, is something of a Philip Glass specialist, and it showed. Her command of the score was almost absolute, and she obtained from the Orchestra of English National Opera playing that was meticulous, sumptuous and impressively coherent. It’s one thing to get the notes in something like the right order; it’s quite another to make this score sound as deeply involving and as profound as Ms Kamensek achieved here. This was a major achievement for her and the ENO orchestra, who should probably now be considered one of the leading opera orchestras for Glass’s major works.
ENO’s Satyagraha was a major operatic landmark when it was first performed over a decade ago. It is still that - and absolutely unmissable.
Marc Bridle
Philip Glass: Satyagraha
Toby Spence - M. K. Gandhi, Charlotte Beament - Miss Schlesen, Anna-Clare Monk - Mrs Naidoo, Stephanie Marshall - Kasturbai, Nicholas Folwell - Mr Kallenbach, Sarah Pring - Mrs Alexander, Eddie Wade - Prince Arjuna, Clive Bayley - Parsi Rustomji, Andri Björn Róbertsson - Lord Krishna, Skills Ensemble; Production: Director - Phelim McDermott, Associate Director & Set Designer - Julian Crouch, Revival Producer - Peter Relton, Costumes - Kevin Pollard, Lighting - Paule Constable, Video - Leo Warner, Mark Grimmer (Fifty Nine Productions),English National Opera Orchestra & Chorus, Karen Kamensek (conductor)
ENO, The Coliseum, London; 1st February 2018.