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.
![Sir Bryn Terfel [Photo courtesy of Harlequin Agency Limited]](http://www.operatoday.com/terfel.png)
It had been a while since Bryn Terfel sang a complete opera role in Amsterdam. Back in 2002 his larger-than-life Doctor Dulcamara hijacked the stage of what was then De Nederlandse Opera, now Dutch National Opera.
So it was something of an occasion when he returned this week for a concert version of La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz at the Concertgebouw. Terfel was certainly worth the wait, but there was more to enjoy.
La Damnation de Faust is based on Part One of Goethe's Faust, but is not completely faithful to it. For one thing, as betrayed by the title, Faust is damned in the end. He signs off his soul to Méphistophélès, not in exchange for youth and earthly pleasures, but to save Marguerite's soul. She is condemned to death after accidentally killing her mother by giving her too much sleeping draught. Why is Faust damned when he signs off his soul for such an altruistic reason? One could devote hours pondering this eschatological conundrum, time which would be better spent listening to Berlioz, who paints magnificent frescos of heaven and hell, with big slices of human futility and misery in-between. The composer called his creation a "légende dramatique", a vague enough description to cover the different forms it takes: opera, oratorio, symphonic poem. It's a masterpiece of incredible versatility with prominent roles for the orchestra and chorus.
Under their chief conductor Marc Soustrot, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra beautifully brought out the various facets of the score, from the gossamer texture of the ballet music to the blood-curdling tumult of the Ride to the Abyss. There were some slippery pitches during Faust's opening aria, "Le vieil hiver", and some drooping in the sustained accompaniment of his Invocation to Nature. Overall, the playing was more precise in the purely orchestral passages, such as the opera's megahit, the Hungarian March. Perhaps more rehearsal time was needed with the singers for that last bit of polish. Nearer perfection was the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir. A youthful sounding alto section gave an attractive lightness to the mixed choruses. After deftly cavorting through the carousing songs, the men sang a splendid Pandemonium. And in the final scene the women welcomed Marguerite in heaven with soft radiance, tapering their vibrato to make up for the absence of a children's choir. Deservedly, the choir stole a big chunk of the final applause.
Besides the return of Bryn Terfel to Amsterdam, this performance also marked the overdue debut of mezzo-soprano Sophie Koch at the Concertgebouw. She was in great form as Marguerite, her voice warm and graceful and with a lovely sheen to the upper register. The King of Thule aria had poise and simplicity. Taken at a deliberate pace, "D'amour l'ardente flamme" was a poignant duet with the fantastic cor anglais solo. Koch returns to Amsterdam later this year to appear at Dutch National Opera for the first time, singing Jocaste in George Enescu's Oedipe. Paul Groves gave a mixed performance as Faust. The tenor had the necessary heft for the role, but his ascents to the high notes were bumpy, causing strain in the love duet. He seemed most comfortable when singing fairly loudly and sounded best in "Nature immense", which requires broad phrasing and doesn't go above high A. Bass-baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer was rock solid of pitch and comely of tone as Brander. The student only shows up at the inn to sing the Song of the Rat and the role is far too paltry when it's so well cast.
Berlioz's Méphistophélès makes no studied attempts to insinuate himself into Faust's life. He merely shows up and takes charge; Faust is too exhausted from his ennui to protest. The devil's persona remains the same throughout, but Terfel cannily contoured the character with subtle shifts in temperament. He started off blasé, with an offhand rendition of the absurd Song of the Flea. Then he summoned a vision of Marguerite for the sleeping Faust with a benign, balmy "Voici des roses". While orchestrating Marguerite's seduction, he smirked his way through the mocking serenade "Devant la maison". Mission accomplished, his booming voice took on a menacing edge. By the time Mephisto summons his two horses for the ride to hell, Terfel was a vocal cyclone. Naturally, the voice has lost some of its previous gloss, but the distinctive timbre, dynamic facility and commanding sonority are all still there. Then there were the priceless Terfel touches: meaningfully rolled Rs, suggestive pianos, nasal resonance for dramatic effect. Faced with such force of personality and voice, anyone would sign a pact with the devil without reading the small print.
Jenny Camilleri
Cast and production information:
Faust - Paul Groves, tenor; Marguerite - Sophie Koch, mezzo-soprano; Méphistophélès - Sir Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone; Brander - Edwin Crossley-Mercer, bass-baritone. Conductor - Marc Soustrot. MDR Leipzig Radio Choir. Malmö Symphony Orchestra. Heard at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, on Monday, 4th of June, 2018.