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 2018 London Handel Festival drew to a close with this vibrant and youthful performance (the second of two) at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, of Handel’s Teseo - the composer’s third opera for London after Rinaldo (1711) and Il pastor fido (1712), which was performed at least thirteen times between January and May 1713.
I was rather surprised to read in the programme that this performance by David Bates’s La Nuova Musica and soloists from Royal Academy Opera aimed ‘to recreate the drama in the Perfection that would have been experienced by the audience in 1713 with scenes, decorations, flights and machines’. Okay, the columns, stained glass and reredos of St George’s are not without their architectural drama, but the idea that the sort of stage effects that Handel’s audiences enjoyed - Medea’s magic transforms a palace into a desert inhabited by horrid monsters, while she descends from a cloud in a chariot drawn by fire-breathing dragons - could be accommodated amid the narrow (and uncomfortable) oak pews and aisles would be stretching things somewhat.
I guess that this ambition was metaphorical and intended to be interpreted ‘in spirit’. Fortunately, no flames or thunderbolts flashed in the transepts, though the operations of Westminster Council Refuge Collection services and a few Harley Davidsons racing down St George’s Street towards Piccadilly Circus added some rumbles and reverberation to the proceedings.
However, there is sufficient fire in Handel’s setting of Nicola Francesca Haym’s libretto in five Acts - for the most part, as David Kimbell [1] was among the first to confirm, a translation of Philippe Quinault’s text for Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Thésée which was heard in Paris in 1675 - to keep the passions burning through the unfolding of a plot in which three couples ties themselves in romantic and political Gordian knots even more convoluted than the seria norm.
Let’s just say Medea has come to Athens as she expects King Egeo to fulfil his promise to marry her, so she is not best pleased when she learns that in fact he’d rather hitch up with Agilea, with whom he is obsessed, but who herself is not very enamoured of this proposition as she’d rather tie the knot with Teseo (Theseus, who returns her love, and who is the baby-son abandoned by Egeo in a far-off land - don’t fret about the reasoning or logic). Clizia and Arcane, confidants to Agilea and Teseo respectively, wish everyone would stop fussing so they can get wed, though Arcane is not averse to his own spot of jealous pique of his own, when he thinks Clizia has also fallen for Teseo’s charms. The plot is driven by Medea’s increasingly vengeful jealousy. When sorcery fails to serve up a satisfying resolution she stoops to an attempted poisoning of Teseo, but in the nick of time Egeo recognises his long-lost son and dashes the bitter chalice from his hand. The goddess Minerva intervenes to stop the enraged Medea from igniting a conflagration. All’s well that ends well.
My (minor) gripes first. The choreography of this performance was confusing. Though the da capo form predominates, many of the arias are quite short and there are an unusual number of duets. So, why place two individual members of a duo-number respectively in front of and behind the instrumental forces when they are supposed to be speaking/singing to each other? Why, for example, have Agilea tell Teseo that she longs for the day when she can ‘clasp you to my breast, O dearest!’ when she’d have to clamber over twenty instrumentalists to do so?
Then, tempi - which were, as is the way of things these days, fast. Now, no-one wants a three-hour-plus opera (not least when sitting in these back-breaking pews) to be dragged out to eternity, but there were moments here where Bates’s Tigger-ish impetuousness did not serve his soloists - a superb young cast - as well as more judicious (musical and dramatic) pacing might have done. And, as I commented in relation to La Nuova Musica’s performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Wigmore Hall a week ago, Bates’s obsession (not unworthy) with instrumental detail - at times, here I feared he might slide off the piano stool as he veered left and right, up and down, circling his hands to generate vigour (when things were already fizzing along), punching out bass points - risked making the instrumental parts relentless rather than rhetorically supportive. In general, it all felt rather bass heavy and effortful, whereas in fact Handel has done all the work and the music should simply speak for itself.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t some splendid playing: the strings were charmingly robust but impressively unified in matters of ensemble and articulation; oboes were pungent, and Leo Duarte’s duetting the Agilea in ‘M’adora l’idol mio’ (My beloved adores me) almost stole the show, threatening to outdo the operatic theatricality, as voice and reed chased each other through Handel’s curlicues, up and down the scales and round the cadential corners. And, the accompanied recitatives were as startling as, surely, Handel intended, Medea’s summoning of the ‘Shades’ pierced by flawlessly tumbling unison strings and heart-churning pointed stabbings.
The RAO soloists made the back-breaking endurance unequivocally worthwhile. When I heard Ilona Revolskaya assail the flight-paths of the Air Traffic Controller in Jonathan Dove’s Flight last month - a production which inaugurated the opening of the Royal Academy of Music’s beautifully proportioned, acoustically advantageous new Susie Sainsbury Theatre, designed by Ian Ritchie - I admired the way she prowled along her raised perch and soared through the stratospheric vocal lines with equal imperiousness (Opera, May 2018). Here she was a stunning Agilea, her soprano by turns slicing through the air with ominous power and precision, and touching the heart with the poignant tones of self-sacrifice. Revolskaya has the ability to shape a lyrical line more enchanting than Medea’s magic, and ‘Deh v’aprite, o luci belle’ (Ah, open, lovely eyes) was beautifully enriched by obbligato recorders (Leo Duarte, Bethan White) - a wonderful and much needed moment of space and stillness amid the frantic proceedings, a drop of sweetness to assuage envy’s poison. ‘Amarti sì vorrei’ (Yes, I want to love you) was similar enhanced by Alex McCartney’s expressive theorbo.
I have admired Hannah Poulsom’s performances on several recent occasions, not least in Surrey Opera’s The Life to Come and though we had to wait until Act 2 to hear Medea’s passionate wrath, it was worth waiting for. The gravity with which Poulsom injected her mezzo - complemented by secure centring in the recitatives - captured all of the vengeful Medea’s frustration and anger. The rapid changes of mood proved more problematic, though, and Poulsom was not always able to marry the top and bottom of her voice; but, she was undeniably and winningly courageous and deserving of praise. Medea’s most fiery outbursts may have affected the intonation, but Poulsom effectively carried the drama, flashing blindingly at the top, snarling at the bottom, as required. One couldn’t fault her commitment and if it occasionally felt a bit too premature for her voice, then perhaps that’s what one-off student performances are for …
As Clizia, Alexandra Oomens’ diction was less clear than her peers, but she made good use of the rich colours of her mezzo and was very engaging dramatically: ‘Rispendente, amiche stelle’ (Beam down, friendly stars) seemed aflame with celestial heat, and her duets with Alexander Simpson’s Arcane were unfailingly alert and dramatic - and impressively off-score. Indeed, the precision and coordination of the duo’s cadential trills threatened to upstage the principals! Simpson’s countertenor occasionally seemed to lack supporting weight, but his voice is agile and the coloratura was accurate, especially in ‘Benché tuoni, e l’etra avvampi’ (Although it may thunder, and the sky become red) in Act 4.
Handel wrote the three male roles for soprano castrato (Teseo), alto castrato (Egeo), and female alto (Arcane), but here Teseo was taken by mezzo soprano Olivia Warburton, who characterised the role skilfully, from her first entrance from the rear of the nave. I was impressed by the way that Warburton showed appreciation of the way the Handelian rhythms can lighten the voice and convey heroic optimism and brightness. Moreover, the busy runs of ‘S’armi il fato, s’armi armore (Let fate take up arms, let love take up arms) caused no problem; equally, the simple lyricism of ‘Tengo in pugno l’idol mio’ (I clasp my idol) - noteworthy for some lovely interplay between solo violin and vocal line - was beguiling.
As Egeo, mezzo soprano Frances Gregory used her firm, rich sound impressively - always responsive and expressive - to convey regality and indignation in equal measure (one should note also Rodolfo Richter’s lovely violin obbligato in Egeo’s aria ‘Ricordati o bella’ (Remember, O fair one)).
Given the ceaselessness of the high voices, it was something of a relief when baritone Darwin Prakesh’s Sacerdote entered the raised pulpit in the closing moments, to bring us all down to earth in such warm, consoling and commanding fashion.
Claire Seymour
Handel: Teseo (London Handel Festival)
La Nuova Musica : David Bates (conductor/harpsichord)
Teseo - Olivia Warburton, Egeo - Frances Gregory, Agilea - Ilona Revolskaya, Clizia - Alexandra Oomens, Arcane - Alexander Simpson, Medea - Hannah Poulsom, Sacerdote - Darwin Prakash.
St George’s, Hanover Square; Saturday 14th April 2018.
[1] See Kimbell, ‘The Libretto of Handel's Teseo’, Music & Letters, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 371-379.wa y