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."
Of the San Francisco Opera Manon Lescauts (in past seasons Leontyne Price, Mirella Freni, Karita Mattila among others, all in their full maturity) the latest is Armenian born Parisian finished soprano Lianna Haroutounian in her role debut. And Mme. Haroutounian is surely the finest of them all.
If for nothing else her relative youth becomes the Abbe Prévost’s teenage heroine, plus this young soprano is in her vocal prime, may it endure for years to come.
The driving force of this splendid (in part) evening was conductor Nicola Luisotti who attacked an excited piazza in Amiens with such energy that I feared for the tenor of Puccini’s delicate (well maybe not-so-delicate) love scenes to come. But the maestro made the moment Manon falls in love with des Grieux so delicate that it almost seemed real, the subtly discovered emotions flowing in beautifully colored orchestral chords. The maestro, with Puccini, let us know that love itself was to be the unquestioned muse of the evening.
The second act resolutely explored the intimacy of Manon’s feelings, the maestro in total sympathy with Mme. Haroutounian’s exquisitely intoned “in quelle trine morbide,” the soprano locked totally within herself. And then came the impassioned duet with des Grieux “Tu, tu, amore, tu, ah! mio immenso amore,” the maestro riding the emotional crests of love with orchestral harmonies and phrasing of sweetly charged color. And finally in the last act Manon’s wrenching “Sola, perduta, abbandonata” sung, initially supine, the soprano lost within herself, the maestro offering only the woodwind desolation of love lost in the Louisiana desert.
The evening at its best was this elegant duet of the maestro with the soprano.
Geronte de Revoir (Philip Skinner) relishes the arrest of Manon (Lianna Haroutounian)
Lianna Haroutounian is one of the rare artists who communicates every word she sings. She possesses a very beautiful, clear, youthful voice of full lyric strength. Coupling voice with small physical stature and extraordinary communicative powers has made Butterfly la Haroutounian’s rôle fétiche, as seen on many of the world’s major stages. It is likely her Manon will now find very great appreciation as well.
The role of the Chevalier des Grieux was delegated to tenor Brian Jagde who has already sung 13 other roles at San Francisco Opera. Mr. Jagde is a fine singer and enjoys a deservedly successful career. There are however, and fortunately for Puccini, many other tenors in the world who might actually have discovered the poetry of this Romantic hero’s hopeless love for a sympathetic if neurotically narcissistic heroine. As it was Mr. Jagde remained first and foremost a tenor and never a lover. If at first we were impressed with the glories of his vocal maturity, they wore thin by the time we reached Louisiana where there was a hint that maybe something more might occur, but that was very late in the evening.
Baritone Anthony Clark Evans made Manon’s brother called simply Lescaut everything he needed to be — first of all of fine voice and then of suave presence. Mr. Evans found as well the avidity of provincial nobility and a touching fraternal sympathy for his sister that hugely complemented the Haroutounian performance.
The myriad of small roles were relegated to current Adler Fellows (the “Adlers” are the participants in San Francisco Opera’s operatic finishing school) who were cool performers (“cool” in its highly complimentary use meaning stylishly by the book). Of note was the Edmondo of tenor Christopher Oglesby. Four members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus created an impressive madrigal!
Manon and des Grieux in Lousiana
Conductor Luisotti revealed the beauties of love that we learned lay hidden within Puccini’s score, and he discovered an elegance of subtle emotions that is unusual in Manon Lescaut readings. More often conductors and productions focus on the verismo in Manon Lescaut — its brutalities. Each of its four brutal episodes (acts) do in fact resolve in an enormous emotional rush. In the Luisotti Manon Lescaut there was instead the overwhelming revelation of love. In the end there was even the sense that one might shed a tear.
What the 2005 Olivier Tambose production from the Lyric Opera of Chicago had to do with any of this is a mystery. It was in its own world and I'm not sure what world that is. In the first act there was precise detail in the setting but often highly stylized, choreographed and symmetrical staging, like operetta. This in contrast to a basic naturalism of blocking in the second act (except when Lescaut leaped foolishly onto Manon’s sumptuous bed to praise her beauty). Mr. Tambosi did offer a gratuitous dose of realism in the third act with the shocking brutality of the flinging to the ground and branding of the women prisoners as they were to shipped off to Louisiana.
There was the inexplicable casting of bass Philip Skinner as Geronte de Revoir (Manon’s rich lover) that added a peculiar, out of place, rough caricature in the otherwise careful Second Empire elegance of the setting and costuming. Mr. Skinner is an excellent character singer and a wonderful San Francisco Opera resource when appropriately cast.
Conductor Nicola Luisotti was the San Francisco Opera music director from 2009 to 2018. He elicited a superb performance from the orchestra he honed into one of the world’s finest. It could be a revelation if this maestro were ever given a production that approaches the conceptual level he brings musically to the operas he conducts.
Michael Milenski
Cast and production information:
Manon Lescaut: Lianna Haroutounian; Chevalier des Grieux: Brian Jagde; Lescaut: Anthony Clark Evans; Geronte: Philip Skinner; Edmondo: Christopher Oglesby; Singer: Ashley Dixon; Dancing Master/Lamplighter: Zhengyi Bai; Innkeeper/Naval Captain: SeokJong Baek; Sergeant of Archers: Christian Pursell; Madrigal Singers: Angela Eden Moser, Jesslyn Thomas, Laurel Cameron Porter, Sally Mouzon. San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra. Conductor: Nicola Luisotti; Stage Director: Olivier Tambosi; Production Designer: Frank Philipp Schlössmann; Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler; Choreographer: Lawrence Pech. War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, November 13, 2019.