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.
![Amanda Majeski (Donna Elvira) and Lucas Meachem (Don Giovanni) [Photo courtesy of Lyric Opera of Chicago]](http://www.operatoday.com/don-giovanni_chicago.png)
Mozart’s Don Giovanni returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago in the Robert Falls updating of the opera to the 1930s. The universality of Mozart’s score proves its adaptability to manifold settings, and this production featured several outstanding, individual performances.
Don Giovanni and Leporello were performed by Lucas Meachem and Matthew Rose. Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Don Ottavio were sung by Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Amanda Majeski, and Ben Bliss. Zerlina and Masetto were Ying Fang and Brandon Cedel. The Commendatore was Mika Kares. The Lyric Opera Orchestra was conducted by James Gaffigan, and the Lyric Opera Chorus prepared by its Chirus Master Michael Black. Sets and costumes for this production are by Walt Spangler and Ana Kuzmanic respectively. The lighting designer is Duane Schuler, wigs and makeup are by Sarah Hatten. Making debuts at Lyric Opera in this production were Mmes. Willis-Sorensen and Fang along with Messrs. Bliss, Cedel, and Kares.
From the opening chords of the overture Mr. Gaffigan kept a firm, shaping hand over the orchestral colors while affording due support to the soloists on stage. Leporello’s opening lines are delivered by Mr. Rose with a characteristic mix of declamation and melodic fervor, to which the bass-baritone returns at key moments in both solo and ensemble passages. His complaints about the master Don Giovanni lead abruptly into the scene between Donna Anna and Don Giovanni as they are confronted by Anna’s father, the Commendatore. As Donna Anna, Ms. Willis-Sorensen creates a believable character given to flights of emotion expressed in vocal embellishments. Once Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore Mr. Meachem’s interaction with his servant exemplifies the tension in recitative and dialogue that keeps this pair united. The contrast of Meachem’s baritone with the lower vocal type of Rose’s Leporello creates interest in the passages of mutual comment and strategy. Since these exchanges essentially advance the action of the opera, their significance here takes on added importance. Upon the return of Donna Anna with her suitor Don Ottavio the horror of Giovanni’s actions and the need for retribution fills the young pair’s duet. Both Willis-Sorensen and Bliss show an ardent commitment in their conjoined singing, while each retains the personality of individual character in vocal identity. Donna Anna’s bursts of impassioned grief are tempered by Bliss’s steadying projection of Don Ottavio’s attempts to comfort and to encourage his beloved in her loss. With a nod to the future, they exit and allow Don Giovanni to ponder further conquests. His unexpected encounter with Donna Elvira provides Ms. Majeski the space to delineate her character with spirit and exquisite lyrical projection. In her aria, “Ah chi mi dice mai” [“Ah, who is there who will tell me…”], Majeski sings with tasteful Classical line indicative of Elvira’s noble demeanor, yet incorporating a side that has also experienced emotional betrayal. The admirable range of Majeski’s voice is here fraught with angry resentment but also bound by the discipline of melodic structure. From polished top notes expressing her love on “l’amai” descending to the deeply intoned chest tones of ’l’empio” [“the villain”], Majeski communicates the competing emotions that define Elvira’s complex personality now and later in the opera. This musically expressed ambivalence is nurtured by Rose’s frank ad amusingly punctuated performance of Leporello’s “Catalogue” aria detailing his master’s multiple seductions.
The neatly pastoral setting of a villagers’ gathering in this production highlights both an intrusion and subsequent restoration of simplicity. Ying Fang and Cedel depict an ideal rustic couple, their voices melding into the greenery of their outdoor celebration. Tempos suggest a tense encounter at the entrance of the Don and servant, but they relax appropriately at the start of Giovanni’s attempt to win over Zerlina. The duet “Là ci darem la mano” [“There you will give me your hand”] is sung with care and poignancy, indeed allowing Ying Fang’s floating tones to suggest a momentary, emotional attraction to the Don. Donna Elvira’s abrupt intrusion has here the twofold purpose of saving Zerlina and also preparing for her accusations in the following ensenble with Donna Anna and Don Ottavio. Majeski makes the most of this pivotal scene by injecting rising melismas into her aria supporting the maiden and denouncing with declarative force “il traditor!” [“the betrayer!”]. Such persistence continued in the ensemble helps to awaken in Donna Anna the realization of her father’s killer and her seducer. Willis-Sorensen’s address to Don Ottavio in the aria “Or sai, chi l’onore rapire a me volse” [“Now you know who tried to steal my honor from me”] is replete with urgent intonation, seamless breath control, and an unexpected yet effective decorative flourish at the close. In response to Anna’s appeals for vengeance Bliss’s Don Ottavio sings a meltingly lyrical performance of “Dalla sua pace la mia dipende” [“Upon her peace of mind mine also rests”]. In his transitions between phrases Bliss achieves an unbroken spirit of emotional commitment to his beloved, perhaps most achingly communicated with rising pitches sung on “morte mi da” [“(her trouble) is equal to my death”]. Despite this unity of noble determination, conjoined with Donna Elvira’s resentment, the threesome is nevertheless here amusingly outwitted so that Don Giovanni’s escapades may continue in the following act.
The convivial banter between master and servant proceeds in the next act with clever motion and idiomatic sensitivity by Meachem and Rose. The serenade performed beneath Donna Elvira’s window captures Meachem’s portrayal of Don Giovanni in an ardent, softly touching performance suggesting at least the mask of vulnerability in this inveterate rake. In the trio of set pieces that follow as highlights in this act the characters’ personalities are intensified here through vocal expressiveness. When Bliss sings “Il mio tresoro” [“My beloved treasure”] his command of legato and ease of phrasing incorporating appoggiatura render his message that he will summon the authorities believably urgent. In much the same way, Majeski’s performance of “Mi tradi” [“He betrayed me”] reiterates Donna Elvira’s initial attraction while the beauty of lyrical phrase and ascent to top notes emphasizes her subsequent resolve. Don Giovanni’s final descent from an inverted banquet-table into the brimstone of hell is motivated as much by the dramatic as by the vocal strengths of this performance.
Salvatore Calomino