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.
![Heath Saunders [Photo © Todd Rosenberg]](http://www.operatoday.com/Heath%20Saunders_JESUS%20CHRIST%20SUPERSTAR_LYR180426_392_c.Todd%20Rosenberg.png)
Lyric Opera of Chicago is now featuring as its spring musical Jesus Christ Superstar with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The production originated with the Regent’s Park Theatre, London with additional scenery by Bay Productions, U.K. and Commercial Silk International.
For Lyric Opera’s production the principal roles of Jesus, Judas, Mary, Caiaphas, Annas, Simon Zealotes, Pilate, Peter, and Herod are sung by Heath Saunders, Ryan Shaw, Jo Lampert, Calvin Cornwall, Joseph Anthony Byrd, Mykal Kilgore, Michael Cunio, Andrew Mueller, and Shaun Fleming. The performances are conducted by Tom Deering and directed by Timothy Sheader. Sets and costumes are designed by Tom Scutt with lighting and sound design by Lee Curran and Nick Lidster. Choreography is under the direction of Drew McOnie. The Chorus is prepared by Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Chorus Master Michael Black.
The essence of the New Testament story, as evoked in the Rice / Lloyd Webber version by both music and text, is supported in this production by strong vocal and dramatic performances. Tensions existing over perceptions of Christ are emphasized from the start. The crowds of adherents stream down the theater’s aisles near the start of this production, when they surround and kneel before the central figure. This adulation is questioned immediately in Mr. Shaw’s first solo, “Heaven on Their Minds,” which summarizes effectively the recent differences noted by Judas as “your right hand man.” The familiarity and struggles captured by Ryan’s dramatic portrayal signal, at once, admiration and resentment. The apostles chorus, “What’s the Buzz,” has here the effect of a zealous inquiry despite the admonitions of Christ to focus on the immediate. In his depiction of Christ Mr. Saunders embodies the dichotomy of humanness with an anxious awareness of the coming sacrifice. As such, his disagreements with Judas provide a cautionary reminder, “If your slate is clean,” while hinting at the inevitable dangers about to surface. Into this swirl of conflicts the Mary Magdalene of Ms. Lampert injects a musical and dramatic balm. Her lyrical repetitions in “Everything’s alright” are delivered with a folk-like ease and beauty. Although she addresses primarily Christ in confronting his humanity with lines such as “Try not to get worried,” Lampert’s message of peace is still at this point communicated to Judas as well.
The council of elders, led by Caiaphas and Annas positioned stage front, ponders the danger represented by Christ and a potential following. Lines sung here with a remarkable bass resonance, such as “We’ve not much time,” render Mr. Cornwall’s interpretation an ideal Caiaphas. The choral echoing of the mob, combined with Saunders’ voice opposing the relentless elders during the Hosanna, moves to a crescendo staged as an exciting public ensemble. As a prefiguration of the musical’s conclusion Saunders is hoisted and carryed lying flat before the interaction with Simon Zealotes and the assurances by Christ that “To conquer death you only have to die.” Despite the intensity of the scene in the Temple and the energetic dismissal of the Moneylenders, Mary’s gentle reprise of “Everything’s alright” seeks to mollify the danger in reverberating purification. Mary’s extended solo number, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” as performed by Lampert, is here a poignant admission of the questioning effect of Christ’s message on the individual. Lampert’s rendition of the iconic lines, “I’ve been changed” and “what’s it all about” echo on a personal level the sentiments of the Apostles from the start of the act. At the close of the first part Caiaphas and Annas have clearly exerted pressure on Judas to yield information, even if Shaw’s Judas declares with repeated vehemence, “I don’t need / want your blood money!”
The second part of the musical begins with an imaginative and cleverly staged scene depicting the atmosphere of the Last Supper. As a choral response to the gravity of Christ’s position, the staging of the Apostles singing repeatedly “Look at all my trials and tribulations” speaks to the well-meaning yet uncomprehending naiveté of their thoughts for the future. Tensions between Christ and Judas lead to emotional accusations and the preparations for betrayal in Gethsemane. Interspersed in their dialogue is the unchanged refrain from the Apostles, until the choral repetition becomes comic, yet also sad. A return to the seriousness of this Christ’s mission and sacrifice is signaled by Saunders’ powerful recitation of “I only want to say” in Gethsemane. Even here the humanness of the protagonist emerges in the final line, “Take me now - before I change my mind.” After the capture, the trial before Pilate and thirty-nine lashes are staged with glittering effect, just as the theatrical bombast of Herod’s song - performed with true flair by Mr. Fleming - fits into the hyperbole of the second part of the musical. The final scenes and chorus singing the title song remind the audience of the ultimate origins of Jesus Christ Superstar in music. This stage representation of the music and text emerges as one, and indeed a very strong, possibility.
Salvatore Calomino