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."
David McVicar's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has been a remarkable success since it debuted in 2006. Set with the Count of Almaviva's fearfully grand household in 1830, McVicar's trick is to surround the principals by servants in a supra-naturalistic production which emphasises how privacy is at a premium.
For the production's sixth revival on 29 June 2019, Thomas Guthrie was the revival director with a strong cast led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner in the pit. Christian Gerhaher was Figaro with Joélle Harvey as Susanna, Julia Kleiter as Countess Almaviva, Sir Simon Keenlyside as Count Almaviva and counter-tenor Kangmin Justin Kim as Cherubino. There were a number of notable debuts, Christan Gerhaher's role debut as Figaro, Julia Kleiter and Kangmin Justin Kim's Royal Opera House debuts, Joélle Harvey's main stage Royal Opera House debut plus Diana Montague (singing Marcellina) celebrating the 40th anniversary of her company debut.
John Eliot Gardiner and the orchestra started things with a lithe and lively account of the overture, here a counterpoint to the preparations for the start of 'la folle journée'. Throughout Gardiner kept the piece flowing, the fast was fast without being driven and the slower speeds were well calibrated to the lighter voices in the cast. Gardiner seemed to be urging us not to over dwell on the score's plums but on the wider drama. Gardiner has great expertise with modern instrument orchestras, and long gone are the days when the Royal Opera House orchestra fought with period performance specialists, so this was an intelligently styled evening.
Making his role debut surprisingly late in his career, Christian Gerhaher proved a wonderfully characterful Figaro. He brought a lieder singer's responsiveness to the detail of the role, the way Figaro's public and private personae flashed before our eyes (the delineation of the public and the private is one of the production's strengths), the intense seriousness the hints of the role's politics, the sense of great glee and sheer joy in his relationship with Joélle Harvey's Susanna.
Harvey was a poised and stylish Susanna, delightfully light voiced and very characterful. There was a lovely detail in her relationship with Christian Gerhaher's Figaro, and immense sympathy in her relationship with Kleiter's Countess, but were always aware of public and private, master and servant. The way she fined her voice right down for her Act Four serenade was completely magical.
Julia Kleiter is a lyric soprano moving into jugend-dramatisch roles (Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger and the Marschallin in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier) and she brought a nice depth of tone and flexibility to the countess' arias, there was a lightness of touch but moments of intensity too. This was a very serious and dignified Countess, strong in her relationship with Simon Keenlyside's Count, yet alive to moments of humour with Harvey's Susanna.
Simon Keenlyside's Count was something of a stickler, yet taking his own desires for granted, giving rise to anger when frustrated, rather than being a natural bully. There was something comic and sympathetic about the way his obsessiveness led him to be constantly frustrated.
Counter-tenor Kangmin Justin Kim brought a slim, elegant and lithe-toned voice to Cherubino (a role he has sung for Theater Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany). His Cherubino was an engaging naif, yet having an adult man playing this teenager also re-focused the role somewhat, and there was a charmingly fey fecklessness to Kim's portrayal. I enjoyed the elegance of his performance, but sometimes wanted a greater expressive amplitude in the upper register.
As Barbarina, Yaritza Véliz sang her Act 4 aria expressively, but did not fully characterise the remainder of the role. The smaller roles were all strongly and characterfully taken. Maurizio Muraro was a pompous and self-important Bartolo who made his Act 1 aria fare more than just bluster, with Diana Montague as a warm and complex Marcellina with a spitfire temperament; the fight between her and Harvey's Susanna in Act 1 was a delight. Jean-Paul Fouchécourt was a stylish Don Basilio, a lovely comic performance. Jeremy White made the most of Antonio whilst Alasdair Elliott had the small but important role of Don Curzio. Rebecca Hardwick and Angharad Rowlands were the bashful bridesmaids in Act 3.
Continuo was provided by James Hendry (fortepiano) and Christopher Vanderspar (cello), and the recitatives zipped along with the requisite pace and drama.
Under Thomas Guthrie's lively eye the production is in fine health, with lots of crisp detail. I did wonder whether some of the humour has got a little broader, but one of the strengths of this production is that the background detail never pulls focus, you always know where the centre of attention is.
Robert Hugill
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
Figaro - Christian Gerhaher, Susanna - Joélle Harvey, Count Almaviva - Simon Keenlyside, Countess Almaviva - Julia Kleiter, Cherubino - Kangmin Justin Kim, Bartolo - Maurizio Muraro, Marcellina - Diana Montague, Don Basilio - Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Antonio - Jeremy White, Don Curzio - Alasdair Elliott, Barbarina - Yaritza Véliz, Bridesmaids - Rebecca Hardwick & Angharad Rowlands; Director - David McVicar, Revival Director - Thomas Guthrie, Conductor - John Eliot Gardiner, Designer - Tanya McCallin, Lighting Designer - Paule Constable, Movement Director - Leah Hausman, Revival Movement Director - Angelo Smimmo, Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House.
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Saturday 29th June 2019.