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."
Thanks to the enterprise and vision of Lynton Atkinson - Artistic Director of Dorset-based Hurn Court Opera - two promising young singers on the threshold of glittering careers gave an outstanding recital at Salisbury’s prestigious Art Centre.
Established in 2017, Hurn Court Opera was founded to give performance opportunities and showcase emerging young soloists at the start of their professional careers. Achievements so far include critically acclaimed productions of Die Zauberflöte and Acis and Galatea, along with two influential competitions that have produced a wealth of talented singers, some of whom are already making their mark on the operatic stage.
Siân Dicker (soprano) and Michael Lafferty (baritone), both former prize winners of the scheme, devised a tour d’horizon of English song, lieder and operatic excerpts under the banner ‘A Shropshire Lad and a Wiltshire Lass’, the whole accompanied by rising pianist and conductor Ashley Beauchamp. Familiar and seldom-performed songs framed an intriguing cocktail of comic, poignant and whimsical offerings to form a compelling evening that could have found an equally attentive audience in London’s Wigmore Hall.
Both singers, already equipped with considerable experience in opera, oratorio and recital work conveyed admirable poise, intelligent musicianship and flawless techniques. They also possessed an easy rapport with the audience in spoken introductions claiming rapt attention while clearly inhabiting differing musical personalities. This last was most evident in the two Mozart duets where Siân Dicker was a feisty Pamina and Michael Lafferty an earnest Papageno in ‘Bei Männern’ ( Die Zauberflöte). It was handsomely sung, as was ‘Là ci darem la mano’ (Don Giovanni), the latter convincing for the not-so innocent protests of Dicker as Zerlina to Lafferty’s seductive Giovanni.
Michael Lafferty. Photo credit: Sebastian Charlesworth.
There was no doubt about Dicker’s full throttle engagement, with each song oozing characterful expression, vividly so in Libby Larsen’s witty ‘Pregnant’, Mendelssohn’s ‘Hexenlied’ and Walton’s jazzy ‘Old Sir Faulk’, all dashed off with dramatic flair that bodes well for future operatic projects. She was in her element for Jonathan Dove’s ‘Adelaide’s Wedding’ (The Enchanted Pig) where she managed to combine a haughty grandeur somewhere between Mozart’s Queen of the Night and Hyacinth Bouquet. The song could almost have been written for Dicker. But despite ample tones, gorgeously rich in the middle and fruity at the bottom, I would have liked to have heard something less ‘produced’ for Lisa Lehman’s whimsical ‘There are fairies at the bottom of our garden’.
Where Michael Lafferty began warmly yet somewhat diffidently, his well-upholstered baritone found expressive outlet in songs by Otto Nicolai, Duparc and Schubert. But it was in George Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad (the most substantial group of songs in the programme) where he found his form. There was melting warmth in ‘Loveliest of trees’, swagger in ‘The lads in their hundreds’ and sepulchral tone for ‘Is my team ploughing?’ Best of all was the wonderfully evocative ‘Sicilienne’ by Giacomo Meyerbeer, sung with demonstrable affection and involvement.
Throughout the evening, accompanist Ashley Beauchamp was a sensitive collaborator with a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the numerous musical styles crowding this generously conceived programme.
David Truslove
Siân Dicker (soprano), Michael Lafferty (baritone), Ashley Beauchamp (piano)
Salisbury Arts Centre; Thursday 21st November 2019.