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."
As the cheerfully optimistic opening bars of the overture to Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (here The Seraglio) sailed buoyantly from the Hackney Empire pit, it was clear that this would be a youthful, fresh-spirited Ottoman escapade - charming, elegant and stylishly exuberant, if not always plumbing the humanist depths of the opera.
Stephen Medcalf’s production opened English Touring Opera Autumn 2019 tour of three Singspiels in well-drilled and satisfying style, aided in no small measure by conductor John Andrews’ easy manner and no-nonsense approach which ensured that sustained Mozartian clarity complemented sure dramatic direction throughout.
The instrumental colours were vibrant, the textures clear and crisp; the transparency allowed us to appreciate the inventiveness, and dramatic expressiveness, of Mozart’s contrapuntal writing. Rushing string scales flew with a flourish, martial motifs danced merrily, and the prevailing animation and blithe spirit was tempered by judicious grace and sincerity. This was some of the best playing I’ve heard from the ETO Orchestra characterised by excellent intonation, uniform string style and plentiful lovely woodwind colouring.
Andrews was faithful to the invention and variety of the score. Blonde’s authoritative chastising of Osmin at the start of Act 2, as she pummelled him on his table-turned-massage bench - tender coaxing may conquer a gentle maid’s heart, but surly commands will get him nowhere - was made wry by the beautiful softness of the strings’ accompaniment, and still more piquant by the dry staccato of their subsequent duet. The gentle sincerity of the final quartet, in which the forgiven escapees honour Pasha Selim’s benevolence, dwelled sensitively then swelled heart-warmingly. Andrews made no small contribution to the really lovely Mozartian style that we enjoyed.
Designer Adam Wiltshire offers an economical but effective Moorish milieu, ideal for touring: Turkish candle-lamps, elegant arches and columns, a prevailing cream and indigo architectural palette, with costumes of rich blue, magenta, crimson, emerald, serve to conjure a sumptuous luxury.
Nazan Fikret (Blonde), Matthew Stiff (Osmin). Photo credit: Jane Hobson.
Act 1 opens in Osmin’s estate-manager office in Act 1, set against a starry night-sky backdrop. Ottoman learning makes its presence lightly felt, via the trunks, piles of books, telescopes, tapestries and tools that line Osmin’s walls. He is no mere harem-keeper or rough boor: rather, he is the overseer of the Pasha’s property, a man of clout, cleverness and status. Wiltshire’s set swivels to reveal the Pasha’s harem: a glittering aviary of gilded arches for his cantabile concubines. One further twist, in Act 3, takes us to the pristine heart of the Pasha’s palace.
Medcalf’s energetic direction is not overly fussy: the characters are always on the move, looking through doorways and windows, circling and swapping places, but this seems a natural physical manifestation of Mozart’s busy counterpoint. Moreover, the cast’s choreography is perfectly timed: if there is little room for spontaneity then the rigorous rehearsal will serve them well on tour. The extended quartet at the close of Act 2 is a perfect example of their accurate agility: the two angry women, accused of infidelity by their ungallant beaux, switch back and forth with the grace of a pair of doves, indignation and accusations swirling. If the scene does not quite equal the dramatic transition effected when the Count begs forgiveness of his maligned Countess in the final Act of Figaro, then the number is discerningly executed. Andrew Porter’s English translation is very clearly sung and spoken, amusing with its deft rhyming couplets and occasional blunt colloquialisms.
Die Entführung was Mozart’s first great public success in Vienna, first performed at the city’s Burgtheater on 16 July 1782. The vocal virtuosity it demands of its cast is a result of the stellar singers at Mozart’s disposal at the National Singspiel, including Johann Ludwig Fischer (the first Osmin) and Catarina Cavalieri (the first Constanze) - whose ‘flexible throat’ Mozart had admired in a letter to his father of 26th September 1781.
John-Colyn Gyeantey (Belmonte). Photo credit: Jane Hobson.
The ETO cast were equal to the challenges. Indeed, the role of Osmin seemed tailor-made for bass Matthew Stiff, who managed to be simultaneously imposing and foolish, nasty and pitiful. Even when insulting the hapless Belmonte in Act 1, this Osmin’s elegance of line and beauty of tone intimated a dignity beneath the derogatory rudeness. It didn’t matter how high or how low Stiff’s bass was asked to venture, his tone was attractive and expressive, agility complementing basso profundity. Perhaps alone among the cast, Stiff transcended character stereotype: we could sense a real, human dilemma, as desire battle with duty, and an innate misanthropy resulted in personal misery. Stiff’s Osmin was certainly menacing and brusquely short-tempered - slipping with delicious ease into a roll call of the panoply of punishments he wishes to inflict on his foes, whom he dreams of slaughtering and quartering. But, he also had a heart that he, perhaps unwillingly, exposed and with which we empathised.
I haven’t always found John-Colyn Gyeantey’s tenor to be firm and focused, and he’s no natural stage animal; but Gyeantey has a surer feel for comedy than for the tragic tone and was well-directed here by Medcalf. Indeed, Belmonte is not an easy role, and somewhat passive: as Blonde, Pedrillo and Osmin ‘act’, so he hangs about waiting for a rescue-bid that others organise for their ‘conquering hero’. Gyeantey was a slightly cautious Belmonte, but his stage capers with Osmin and Pedrillo were niftily executed. His diction was clear, though his divisions were not always clean and at times he fell behind Andrews’ nimble beat. If his romantic effusions were not always suave then the tenor conveyed the sincerity of his love for Constanze most touchingly at times. Occasionally there was a tendency to try to make too much of the words, thereby disrupting the lyrical flow of the line: Gyeantey could just let Mozart’s phrasing do the work and more effortlessly achieve a shapely legato line. But, he offered some attractive singing and well-centred characterisation.
Alex Andreou (Pasha Selim), Lucy Hall (Konstanze). Photo credit: Jane Hobson.
Constanze is probably one of most challenging soprano roles in the standard repertoire, and Lucy Hall’s essay of the musical mountains was admirable. Although she leapt with impressive accuracy to the peaks of her Act 1 aria, in which she reiterates the strength of her love for Belmonte, there was a little tightness as she ventured upwards, but subsequently she demonstrated stoical grace, vocal stamina, and by Act 3 the translucent shine was certainly glowing.
Nazan Fikret’s Blonde was not a maiden one would want to mess with: confident, subtly comic, she reached to the extremes of the role’s extended vocal expanse with ease. As Pedrillo, Richard Pinkstone was appealingly chirpy of manner and spirited of vocal tone; his lovely romance, sung while balancing on the rescuers’ ladder, was a masterclass in less-is-more communicativeness. Alex Andreou was a firm, fierce but fair Pasha: his latent majesty and menace would certainly have worried Belmonte, but he demonstrated reflectiveness and a truly regal beneficence. The four-strong ensemble were well-drilled, dramatically and vocally, and their gracious decorum - as guardsmen and concubines - contributed to the consistent tenor of the whole.
Matthew Stiff (Osmin), Richard Pinkstone (Pedrillo). Photo credit: Jane Hobson.
Poor old Osmin receives much (unwelcome) moral guidance in the closing moments: having been admonished by Pasha Selim that it is better to show justice and forgiveness than to punish one crime with another, he is then reminded by the forgiving quartet that a noble heart does not concern itself with vengeance. Medcalf largely avoids acknowledging the intrinsic, and undeniable, European triumphalism of the Singspiel, in which enlightened Western values conquer a degenerate and demonised Orient. And in this regard it’s worth remembering that Pasha Selim is not ‘converted’ to Western liberalism: he is a renegade Westerner who has taken refuge in Turkey, taken up the Islamic faith and risen by merit: were he of Oriental origin - as Osmin’s example illustrates - he would, according to eighteenth-century opinion, be immune to the forces of Enlightenment.
Medcalf doesn’t really show us the way that Mozart’s music humanises the libretto’s stereotypes. This is a light and lively Seraglio, rather than a philosophically profound exploration. But, perhaps there is rather too much to ponder and worry about in the world at the moment, and Medcalf is wise to encourage us just to sit back and enjoy Mozart’s musical tale of love lost and found.
Claire Seymour
Mozart: The Seraglio
Konstanze - Lucy Hall, Blonde - Nazan Fikret, Belmonte - John-Colyn Gyeantey, Pedrillo - Richard Pinkstone, Osmin - Matthew Stiff, Pasha - Alexander Andreou, Ensemble (Rosanna Harris, David Horton, Bradley Travis, Hollie-Anne Bangham); Director - Stephen Medcalf, Conductor - John Andrews, Designer - Adam Wiltshire, Lighting Designer - David W Kidd, Orchestra of English Touring Opera.
Hackney Empire, London; Friday 4th October 2019.