On 24th May 1594 just a few weeks before his death on 14 June, the elderly Orlando di Lasso signed the dedication of his Lagrime di San Pietro – an expansive cycle of seven-voice penitential madrigale spirituali, setting vernacular poetry on the theme of Peter’s threefold denial of Christ – to Pope Clement VIII.
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Donnerstag aus Licht
Stockhausen was one of the most visionary of composers, and no more so than in his Licht operas, but what you see can often get in the way of what you hear. I’ve often found fully staged productions of his operas a distraction to the major revelation in them – notably the sonorities he explores, of the blossoming, almost magical acoustical chrysalis, between voices and instruments.
David McVicar’s Andrea ChÈnier returns to Covent Garden
Is Umberto’s Giordano’s Andrea Chenier a verismo opera? Certainly, he is often grouped with Mascagni, Cilea, Leoncavallo and Puccini as a representative of this ‘school’. And, the composer described his 1876 opera as a dramma de ambiente storico.
Glyndebourne presents Richard Jones’s new staging of La damnation de Faust
Oratorio? Opera? Cantata? A debate about the genre to which Berlioz’s ‘dramatic legend’, La damnation de Faust, should be assigned could never be ‘resolved’.
Jean Sibelius: Kullervo
Why did Jean Sibelius suppress Kullervo (Op. 7, 1892)? There are many theories why he didn’t allow it to be heard after its initial performances, though he referred to it fondly in private. This new recording, from Hyperion with Thomas Dausgaard conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, soloists Helena Juntunen and Benjamin Appl and the Lund Male Chorus, is a good new addition to the ever-growing awareness of Kullervo, on recording and in live performance.
Hampstead Garden Opera presents Partenope-on-sea
“Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!
I do like to be beside the sea!”
And, it was off to the Victorian seaside that we went for Hampstead Garden Opera’s production of Handel’s Partenope – not so much for a stroll along the prom, rather for boisterous battles on the beach and skirmishes by the shore.
The Operas of Benjamin Britten – Expression and Evasion by Claire Seymour
https://boydellandbrewer.com/the-operas-of-benjamin-britten.html
Henze’s Phaedra: Linbury Theatre, ROH
A song of love and death, loss and renewal. Opera was born from the ambition of Renaissance humanists to recreate the oratorical and cathartic power of Greek tragedy, so it is no surprise that Greek myths have captivated composers of opera, past and present, offering as they do an opportunity to engage with the essential human questions in contexts removed from both the sacred and the mundane.
Un ballo in maschera at Investec Opera Holland Park: in conversation with Alison Langer
“Sop. Page, attendant on the King.” So, reads a typical character description of the loyal page Oscar, whose actions, in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, unintentionally lead to his monarch’s death. He reveals the costume that King Gustavo is wearing at the masked ball, thus enabling the monarch’s secretary, Anckarstroem, to shoot him. The dying King falls into the faithful Oscar’s arms.
Garsington Opera Announces 2020 season and 2019 Paris Performance
Garsington Opera is delighted to announce the 2020 season that will open on 28 May, featuring three new productions – Verdi’s Un giorno di regno, Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto, Dvo?·k’s Rusalka and a revival of John Cox’s legendary production of Beethoven’s Fidelio.