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.
Tchaikovsky’s grand opera The Queen of Spades might seem an unlikely fit for the multi-purpose room of the Pavilion on the Glimmerglass campus but that qualm would fail to reckon with the superior creative gifts of the production team at this prestigious festival.
First, Kelley Rourke has effectively condensed Pushkin’s story by taking the most indispensible musical highlights in the tuneful score, shedding the chorus and extraneous plot twists, and distilling the whole into 70 cogent minutes of considerable pleasure. Ms. Rourke has also crafted a quite poetic, very singable translation of utmost clarity and has been ably abetted in this pursuit by composer Nicolas Lell Benavides who has imaginatively re-scored the lush orchestration for just five players.
But what players they are! Although not credited in the program book, the violinist, cellist, bassist, pianist, and clarinetist (doubling on bass clarinet) performed superbly under the baton of Apprentice Conductor Michelle Rofrano. Maestra Rofrano elicited thrilling, evocative results from her exquisite chamber players and she ably supported her singers in relating the drama. And what singers they were!
The seasoned soprano Patricia Schuman’s Countess was a Masters Class in refined singing and concentrated stage comportment. Ms. Schuman can merely raise an eyebrow and communicate volumes in her laser focused characterization. Moreover, many years into a successful international career, she is singing wonderfully, her substantial instrument still fresh and powerful. That this treasurable artist was matched in quality by the remaining cast of Apprentice Singers is a testament to that training program, helmed by Allen Perriello.
The demanding roles of Hermann and Lise challenge even the starriest of singers in the operatic firmament. On the basis of their performances here, I can predict you will hear much much more of tenor Maxwell Levy and soprano Julia Wolcott.
Mr. Levy is that rare, somewhat dark voiced tenor who not only has the stentorian delivery needed to fill any hall, but also the ability to scale it back with gorgeous results, as he imbues his vocalization with immense heart and feeling. He meticulously communicates Hermann’s ambition as well as his secondary passion for Lise. Ms. Wolcott‘s generous, warm soprano is deployed in utter service to the heroine’s plight, intrigued by Hermann, but knowing that Prince Yeletsky is the better choice. Her luminous reading of the deeply conflicted emotions that lead to her suicide was enormously touching in its wrenching delivery.
Ben Schaefer, who had been such a nonpareil Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles two nights prior, proved an exceptional Prince Yeletsky on this occasion. Mr. Schaefer’s debonair appearance was matched by a resonant baritone that limned his famous aria with awesome legato phrases dripping with easy elegance.
Nicholas Davis was a commendable Tomsky, his rolling baritone packing theatrical bite and punch. The role of Narumov was skillfully impersonated by Christopher Carbin, whose agreeable bass had sheen and amplitude. In the triple roles of Chekalinsky, Surin, and the Servant, Spencer Hamlin’s steady tenor had a pleasant hint of shining steel.
The clever set design by James F. Rotondo III capitalized on the Pavilion space with a thrust configuration. A platform with the Countess’ imposing, imperious chair is against one side backed by fragmented, cockeyed flats with ornate trim and crimson damask wall covering, suggesting both Hermann’s instability and the opulent premises. A narrow central stage juts out into the room, with an elegant faux inlaid wooden floor painted on it. The chamber players are accommodated on the house left corner of the platform, with performers being able to enter on to the thrust through the audience, which surrounded the playing space.
Loren Shaw’s spot-on costume design gave every character just the right look to communicate their station. She also conveyed the irascibility and volatility of the old Countess with several clever looks and changes. S. Stoli Stolnack’s lighting design was of necessity simple, even, and effective, and it was no small feat to illuminate the “stage” while avoiding shining lights in the eyes of the audience that was mere feet away.
Perhaps best of all, tying the bow on the gift package was director Francesca Zambello, whose staging was a miracle of invention. Ms. Zambello excels at creating focused character relationships and the interaction of the performers was consistently credible and informed. Too, she moved the characters around the small space with the skill of a chess master, always repositioning them to favor all lines of vision, and unfolding the tale with spontaneity and inevitability. The effect of the piece relied on a well-controlled, inexorable build of tension until the big payoff, which was so well managed it electrified the room.
This reduced version of The Queen of Spades was spoken of as something of an experiment. If the sold out, cheering houses are any indication, I think the response is: More, please.
James Sohre
The Queen of Spades
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Based on a short story by Alexander Pushkin
Musical arrangement by Nicolas Lell Benavides
New translation and adaptation by Kelley Rourke
Lise: Julia Wolcott; Hermann: Maxwell Levy; Countess: Patricia Schuman; Paul Tomsky: Nicholas Davis; Narumov: Christopher Carbin; Chekalinsky/Surin/Servant: Spencer Hamlin; Prince Yeletsky: Ben Schaefer; Conductor: Michelle Rofrano; Director: Francesca Zambello; Set Design: James F. Rotondo III; Costume Design: Loren Shaw; Lighting Design: S. Stoli Stolnack