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.
![Mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock (Maria) and baritone Paul La Rosa (El Payador) [Photo by Karli Cadel]](http://www.operatoday.com/KarliCadel-SDOpera-MariaBuenosAires-8396.png)
As part of its continuing, adventurous “Detour” series, San Diego Opera mounted a deliciously moody, proudly pulsating, wholly evocative presentation of Astor Piazzolla’s “nuevo tango” opera, Maria de Buenos Aires.
This dramatically intense production fairly exploded off the intimate stage of the Lyceum Theatre, and its slight thrust proved a congenial playing space for this highly personal character study.
The titular character of Maria is a streetwalker, born to public squalor (as the script says) “one day when God was drunk … with a curse in her voice.” She embraces the alluring beat and sinuous melody of the tango, however her “fatal passion” prompts the ire of other street denizens who kill her. Maria, now pregnant after death, descends into a murky Purgatory where she is challenged by spectral visitors who torment her soul. Eventually, she returns to the haunt the sordid streets of Buenos Aires as a spirit (Shadow Maria) and give birth to a new young Maria (which may be her own self).
If the libretto sounds more knotty than naughty, director-choreographer John de los Santos has embraced the macabre imagery and dramatic non-sequiturs and devised a richly varied, vividly theatrical, high energy staging that swept us along in willing abandon. His total belief in the scattering of images and intertwining of subplots allowed us to suspend our disbelief, making satisfying order out of the chaotic jumble of religious artifacts, rituals, skulls, masks and metaphors.
(L-R) Baritone Bernardo Bermuda, bass Walter DuMelle, and tenor Rodolfo Ruiz-Velasco (male ensemble)
Mr. de los Santos is ably supported by his accomplished design team. Liliana Duque Piñeiro has crafted multi-purpose scenery, replete with gritty texturing, that can be turned, moved and unfolded like a morbid oversized retabla. Lighting designer Jason Bieber has effectively lit the proceedings with brooding, sultry illumination that achieves the dual effect of being by turns gaily colorful and soberly suffocating. Ingrid Helton’s inspired costumes ran the gamut from homely peasant wear to fantastical tribal wear, making full use of an orgy of color and patterns
The overwhelming element that makes all of this disjointed story-telling not just comprehensible but ingratiating is the masterful score. Conductor Bruce Stasyna led an assured reading, full of color and undulating fire. He not only coaxed beautifully authentic ensemble playing from his accomplished ensemble, but also allowed the skilled bandoneon, piano, and guitar soloists all the room they needed to perfume the instrumentation with a heady individuality.
Having seen this piece in two different incarnations, I have come to the belief that it does not really take a trained opera singer to succeed in the title role. The lovely Audrey Babcock immersed herself in the part, proving to be dramatically compelling. Her list of credits in the program documents that she has had national success in major traditional singing roles. The range of Maria seems to lie mostly in chest voice, and Ms. Babcock certainly sings with polish and assurance. The other interpreter I saw did the same. But I wonder if a young, unabashed outright belter might not bring even more zing to the mix. That said, Audrey was a riveting stage presence and anchored the show.
(L-R) Soprano Sarabeth Belon (ensemble), mezzo-soprano Sandra Camarena (ensemble), actor Celeste Lanuza (seated, El Duende), and mezzo-soprano Laura Bueno (ensemble)
As her sometime lover, El Payador, strapping and handsome Paul La Rosa sings with a burnished, throbbing tone of considerable beauty, and earns his Barihunk credentials in a steamy bedroom encounter with Maria. El Duende is an impish character that drives the narrative. Diminutive actress Celeste Lanuza gives quite a tour de force traversal of the role, morphing easily from one mischievous, meddling, scolding personage to another.
The excellent chorus meticulously executed some of the score’s trickiest passages, chanting in irregular rhythms, coloring vocal solos with dramatic variety, and switching back and forth effortlessly to portray a panoply of characters of wildly differing stations. The ensemble included Laura Bueno, Sarabeth Belon, Bernardo Bermudez, Sandra Camarena; Walter DuMelle, and Rodolfo Ruiz-Velasco. The appealing twin dancers Laurence Gonzalez and Lester Gonzalez (of California Ballet) added immeasurably to the evening, especially in their featured turn as tango-dancing skeletons (I am not making this up!).
I heartily commend San Diego Opera for such a daring and artistically satisfying fresh new production, which, if the sold-out houses are any indication, is generating new audiences for the operatic art form.
James Sohre
Cast and production information:
Maria: Audrey Babcock; El Payador: Paul La Rosa; El Duende: Celeste Lanuza; Ensemble: Laura Bueno, Sarabeth Belon, Bernardo Bermudez, Sandra Camarena; Walter DuMelle, Rodolfo Ruiz-Velasco; Dancers: Laurence Gonzalez, Lester Gonzalez; Conductor: Bruce Stasyna; Director: John de los Santos. Set Design: Liliana Duque Piñeiro; Costume Design: Ingrid Helton; Lighting Design: Jason Bieber.