The first thing that struck me in this Wigmore Hall recital was the palpable sincerity of Ilker Arcayürek’s artistry. Sincerity is not everything, of course; what we think of as such may even be carefully constructed artifice, although not, I think, here.
Author: Gary Hoffman
Brent Opera: Nabucco
Brent Opera’s Nabucco was a triumph in that it worked as a piece of music theatre against some odds, and was a good evening out.
LPO: Das Rheingold
It is, of course, quite an achievement in itself for a symphony orchestra to perform Das Rheingold or indeed any of the Ring dramas. It does not happen very often, not nearly so often as it should; for given Wagner’s crucial musico-historical position, this is music that should stand at the very centre of their repertoires – just as Beethoven should at the centre of opera orchestras’.
Jonathan Miller’s “Così” strikes gold again
When did “concept” become a dirty word? In the world of opera, the rot set in innocently, gradually.
Maybe the Best L’heure espagnole Yet
The new recording, from Munich, has features in common with one from Stuttgart that I greatly enjoyed and reviewed here: the singers are all native French-speakers, the orchestra is associated with a German radio channel, we are hearing an actual performance (or in this case an edited version from several performances, in April 2016), and the recording is released by the orchestra itself or its institutional parent.
Stéphanie d’Oustrac in Two Exotic Masterpieces by Maurice Ravel
The two works on this CD make an apt and welcome pair. First we have Ravel’s sumptuous three-song cycle about the mysteries of love and fantasies of exotic lands. Then we have his one-act opera that takes place in a land that, to French people at the time, was beckoningly exotic, and whose title might be freely translated “The Nutty and Delightful Things That Can Happen in Spain in Just One Hour”.
Stefano Secco: Crescendo
I had never heard of Stefano Secco before receiving this CD. But I see that, at age 34, he already has had a substantial career, singing major roles at important houses throughout Europe and, while I was not paying attention, occasionally in the US.
The Golden Cockerel Bedazzles in Amsterdam
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s fairy tale The Golden Cockerel was this
holiday season’s ZaterdagMatinee operatic treat at the Concertgebouw. There
was real magic to this concert performance, chiefly thanks to Vasily
Petrenko’s dazzling conducting and the enchanting soprano Venera Gimadieva.
Manitoba Opera: Madama Butterfly
Manitoba Opera opened its 45th season with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly proving that the aching heart as expressed through art knows no racial or cultural divide, with the Italian composer’s self-avowed favourite opera still able to spread its poetic wings across time and space since its Milan premiere in 1904.
Bettina Smith, Norwegian Mezzo, in Songs by Fauré and Debussy
Here are five complete song sets by two of the greatest masters of French song. The performers are highly competent. I should have known, given the rave reviews that their 2015 recording of modern Norwegian songs received.