No other composer is referred to in terms of his connection with his librettist. We may speak of the Da Ponte operas of Mozart but we no more refer to Da Ponte and Mozart than we do to Boito and Verdi. Important as collaborations are, the reality of the situation is simply that, without the music, the works would not survive. How many of W S Gilbert’s plays or writings are common currency today? This is not because they are unimportant but that the overwhelming impact of the recognised work is carried by the music.

Though Sullivan may never have arrived at the grand opera he so cherished, his compositions deserve a better hearing than they regularly get. A semi-staged performance of The Yeomen of the Guard in the Royal Albert Hall went some way towards this but ultimately stumbled where so many productions do in putting more emphasis on the semi-staging than the music.

Though the singing was throughout of a high quality, the movement on stage often left voices adrift. Andrew Kennedy’s stirling Fairfax was at its best in his two solo arias which were done straight to the audience. At other times his voice got lost. This was equally true of Lisa Milne’s Elsie Maynard. Beautifully phrased throughout, even she lost impact in the final ensemble as she was facing sideways and singing into another character.

Thankfully the voices were strong enough to carry for most of the time, and Toby Stafford-Allen’s young Shadbolt, and Felicity Palmer’s seasoned but charged Dame Carruthers showed what could be done.

Mark Stone’s equally young Jack Point produced impeccable diction and clarity but found the transition to tragic anti-hero beyond him.

The real difficulty was the semi-staging which constantly worked against the music. There is a brooding selfishness at the heart of the work, a melancholy which is quite different from any other of the Savoy operas. Fairfax sings only of death and imprisonment. Phoebe – a highly positive performance from Heather Shipp – starts and ends in tears. Nobody is a free agent and the Tower itself is a symbol of the constant sense of imprisonment which traps all whom we encounter.  Strutting Tower Warders and mugging actors have no place within this sense of entrapment.

I suspect that the radio audience had a very different impression from those of us in the hall, and it will be interesting to see the way it comes across on television later this week.

The BBC Concert Orchestra and Singers under Jane Glover did their best with what were essentially Mozartian forces in a hall which requires Wagner for impact. The best of the music was certainly the small ensemble numbers – the Temptation trio, the madrigal – where the combined voices and direct contact with the audience led to positive outcomes.

Strangely, the evening might have been better as a concert performance with newly written spoken narration.  There is also a good case for using a full symphony orchestra. I recently heard the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra play Pineapple Poll and the impact was stunning when Sullivan is given the weight of orchestration his compositions can easily take. It was good to be reminded how fine a work Yeomen is, but I still yearn for a fully performed reading which takes the work at face value and sees it for what it is. BH

 Proms Photographs copyright – Chris Chrisodoulou

BBC National Chorus of Wales; Huddersfield Choral Society; London Symphony Chorus; BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Toby Spence, tenor; Thierry Fischer

Reading the programme notes, I realised I was at the first prom performance of Berlioz’ Grande messe des morts under John Pritchard back in 1960. It is no wonder I have an enduring love of the work. At that time we had no television, no gramophone, no telephone and only a small radio. The work left an indelible impression, and coming to it again last night was no less exciting.

Some purists might complain about Thierry Fischer’s decision to place the ‘off-stage’ bands behind the orchestra but the gain in aural impact is immense. This was not just true of the glory of Tuba mirum but later passages which draw on the extra brass and percussion. I had not realised that even in the final bars of the work the off-stage timps are still rolling.

The choral forces, particularly the men, were a match for this brass onslaught, but time and again it was the delicacy both of the individual solo players and the choral sections which impressed. The a cappella setting of Quaerens me became all the more effective in contrast to the majestic weight of Rex tremendae, which was taken at a furious pace.

The Offertorium was presented as a gentle sorbet between the pain of Lacrimosa and the sweetness of the Sanctus. Surprisingly, the only problem came from Toby Spence. His accomplished and lyrical tenor should be ideal for the work, and he has sung it a number of times before. However, from the start, it was obvious he was having difficulty and while some notes rang cleanly, others were foggy or ill-focussed. He got through without any series break in the voice but it was clear he was not at his best.  

The massive forces were not without the occasional slip but Thierry Fischer showed a clear command of the score and carried it forward with aplomb. It will be worth catching again on the iplayer to reconsider the impact of the total forces on air. BH

Halle Orchestra, Choir and Youth Choir; Sir Mark Elder

The Apostles has never been as popular as Elgar’s other major choral works but when one hears a performance as finely judged as this was it is difficult to understand why this has been so. The choral writing is as secure as any passages in The Kingdom or Gerontius and the characterisation is secure. Moreover, Elgar’s ability to move the narrative seamlessly between epic episodes is handled with utter security. On one level the work is a reworking of the passion story, but Elgar insists that we follow evens through the emotional experience of the Apostles themselves rather than as an outsider looking on at the passion. This is essential to an understanding of the work, as the composer wants us to feel, not simply to follow.

Mark Elder has a fine grasp on the structure of the oratorio and creates paragraphs of Wagnerian length, refusing to let individual moments of beauty break the continuity. And there were many moments of great beauty. Alice Coote is a very sympathetic Mary Magdalene and Rebecca Evans a warmly human Mary and Gabriel.

Jacques Imbrailo gives us a Jesus who is musically one with the Apostles, his voice blending effortlessly with those of David Kempster’s Peter and Paul Groves’ John. The one male voice which stood out from the rest was Clive Bayley’s imposing Judas. Even in the earlier choral writing the dark cynicism came through with great clarity.

Mark Elder followed Elgar’s later custom of forming a small male chorus to represent the other nine Apostles. While musically interesting it also draws attention to the fact that that are dramatically irrelevant to the story when compared to the named Apostles.

Choral and orchestral forces moved with dignity and power throughout, and the important organ part was in the sensitive hands of Darius Battiwalla. As an organist himself, Elgar knew only too well how the organ can add far more than extra power at key moments.

The programme notes that Mark Elder is giving Gerontius with the LPO later this year. It will be worth catching. BH

It is not often that we get the chance to hear 550 a cappella voices, so that even for the Proms this was something of a rare occasion. The BBC Singers and Bach Choir were joined by Children’s Choirs from London Boroughs, the National Youth Choir and the Great Baddow High School Signing Choir for performances of Flame by Ben Parry and the world premiere of Bob Chilcott’s The Angry Planet.

Flame is a setting of a poem by Garth Bardsley which takes up the Buddhist idea of a flame multiplying as it divides rather than growing weaker. The setting opens in almost plainchant mode and as the flame grows so does the intensity of the writing and the range of voices and vocal lines involved. The climax at so to light the world reminded me of the 40 part motet in its uplifting and swirling voices. It is a glorious outpouring and one which should be taken up by choral societies of any substance.

Bob Chilcott’s The Angry Planet tries, and for most of the time succeeds, in combining a wide range of styles to suit the wide range of available voices. The four sections follow similar patterns, opening with the denser and more complex writing for adult voices and then moving to a more approachable style with easy and highly memorable melodic lines. This structure is mirrored in the text by Charles Bennett which works in the opposite direction. The adults tend to have the more overt and obvious lines while the children’s text is frequently cryptic and puzzling.

The impact is impressive, and the text clear throughout. Gentle rocking rhythms support ideas of the sea and of destruction by water. The third movement includes a finely written solo for soprano – sung with ease and purity by Laurie Ashworth – and an effective use of the Latin requiem text as parts of the choir intone the list of recently extinct animals.

David Hill’s handling of the large forces was excellent throughout and both works conveyed a high level of professionalism from all involved.

Unfortunately this was more than can be said for the audience. A prom with children’s voices is not necessarily a children’s prom, and this one certainly wasn’t. Nobody appeared to have told the families in the audience. I had two babies close to me who vied with each other to see who could cause the most interruption and parents seemed to be allowed to wander in and out of the hall at will. It was all too obvious which families were related to those on stage as they chatted and passed food during the ‘adult’ sections of the score and only made any effort to listen when their children were singing. This might be acceptable for a school nativity but it is surely not so for an advertised Prom concert? I needed to listen to the recording on the radio of the third section once I returned, as most of the soprano solo was drowned out by crying from where I was sitting. We need young audiences, but we need young educated audiences, and this does not seem to me to be a good way to do it. BH

The Heath Quartet with Philip Higham, cello

St Andrew’s Church, Alfriston, 4 August 2012

The evening sunlight drifted through the west window onto the Heath Quartet just as they opened with Haydn’s Quartet Op 33 No4. It seemed apt, the warmth of the acoustic and the joy of the scoring mirrored in the softened glow of the nave.

This programme had a very different feel to it from that given at the start of the series in Brighton, which had been altogether more introspective. Even Gyorgy Kurtag’s 12 Microludes were easier to assimilate that the previous Moments Musicaux.

For the Haydn, the close proximity of the audience meant that the Largo could be played with the utmost delicacy and finesse, with no loss of impact. The Finale was strenuous without being over assertive.

Quite how the set of atonal pieces by Kurtag relate to specific semitones in the B to C scale was impossible to assess simply listening to the works, but they have a sense of integrity and power which the quartet conveyed with ease. The first and fourth pieces are almost non-existent dynamically in contrast to the outbursts of power and energy, however brief, in the sixth. Towards the end there is a very effective solo line for the viola, and before this there was a movement with some familiar Kurtag scittering energy.

After the interval we heard a sublime performance of a sublime work, Schubert’s String Quintet in C. This was perfect both for the culmination of the brief series and for a fine evening. If the trio section of the Scherzo seemed unexpectedly melancholic it was only because of the enthusiasm and joy which was to be found in the rest of the work.

These concerts were part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad but there are more events at St Andrew’s across the rest of the summer and they continue throughout the year. BH

The Royal Albert Hall is an ideal venue for Berlioz’ epic retelling of Dido & Aeneas, with its off stage bands and extrovert choruses. But the lack of a theatrical setting also allows us to concentrate more closely on the characters. Anna Caterina Antonacci not only understands the acute dichotomy which ultimately destroys Troy but also the human tragedy of a woman in love who is not believed. Her Cassandra carried the whole of the first two acts with a touching sense of vulnerability as well as increasing nobility in the face of death. Her Chorebus, Fabio Capitanucci may have an heroic baritone but the quality of his French pronunciation left much to be desired.

This proved to be a niggle across the whole evening. With no surtitles and a libretto on one’s lap with both texts immediately available, it was all too obvious when the sung French was being mangled.

Happily this seemed to improve when we moved to Carthage, with the lead pair, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Bryan Hymel not only in fine voice but able to ride the orchestra with ease and beauty. Act 4 was particularly impressive, with the orchestra electric during the Royal Hunt and Storm, though it was a tribute to Antonio Pappano’s overarching control that this flowed seamlessly into the septet and love duet which conclude act four.

In a large cast there were some other outstanding performances. Brindley Sherratt’s Narbal was both incisive and commanding, while Ji-Min Park brought us lyrical beauty with Iopas’ aria in.

The chorus, singing without scores, were bold of voice but too often the text got lost. No such problem with the orchestra where solo voices sang with ease and the off-stage bands were thrilling.

There are times when concert performances can bring clear benefits and this was one of them. BH

 The Heath Quartet

St Nicholas Church, Brighton, 21 July

The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad turns up in some unexpected places. This pleasant evening’s entertainment was – at one and the same time – the end of the CMP Festival, the start of the Summer Schubertiade and part of the Cultural Olympiade! This may have accounted for the unusually large audience – that and the fact that this was the first hint of summer we had had for more than a month.

If the works had a rather brooding quality to them it was certainly in keeping with the recent weather. The Heath Quartet opened with Mendelssohn’s Quartet No 1in E flat, its gentle introspection seeming almost domestic in the warm acoustic of St Nicholas. The light skittering of the Canzonetta brought some brightness while the unexpected tensions in the Andante seemed like a family quarrel. At the end of the final movement Mendelssohn returns to the final bars of the first movement but this is no simple repeat. We have come on a brief but poignant journey with him and the rounding is reflective rather than repetitive.

Gyorgy Kurtag is the featured composer for the series and on this occasion we heard an arrangement of his 6 Moments Musicaux Op44. Introduced by Oliver Heath the pieces grew on me as they progressed. It was difficult to believe that Kurtag was accepted as a student on the basis of Footfalls, but the final three brief movements had greater insight and impact. Rappel des oiseaux uses a wide range of harmonics and overtones which reflect the discomfort of bird song as well as its beauty. Les Adieux is as effective for what it hints at and fails to say as for the actual snatches of melody we do hear.

After a lengthy interval we heard Schubert’s Rosamunde Quartet in A minor. Despite the programme note insisting this is a depressive work the performance was anything but. The opening movement is certainly introspective, as the early works this evening had been, but the following movements glow with a warmth and sincerity which belies any pain which might lie behind the composition. After a hauntingly wistful Menuetto, the finale was almost playful.

A charming movement from Haydn’s Op50 No4 was a bonus to send us out into the summer night.  BH

The other two performances in the Schubertiade bring Marcus Farnsworth to Charleston Barn on 28 July and The Heath Quartet with Philip Higham to Alfriston on 4 August.  www.brightonfestival.org

 Birmingham Symphony Hall, 30 June 2012 

The second instalment of Opera North’s semi-staged Ring Cycle came to Birmingham to a rapturous ovation. It was well deserved. In over half a century of Walküre performances, I can’t recall a line up of Valkyries as effective as that which hit us at the start of Act 3. Not only were the individual singers exemplary, but their combined strength, within the Symphony Hall acoustic, was thrilling in a way that is rarely true of the opera house.

Part of their success was certainly down to conductor Richard Farnes who has a vision of the work which over-arches individual scenes to give a sense of narrative drive which takes us through to the final Magic-Fire music. He seems to be able to get his singers to give more and more as the evening progresses rather than fade from exhaustion as is too often the case. Bela Perencz as Wotan was outstanding in this. Starting act two rather lightly, almost conversationally, he built the voice to the point where the end of the act had shattering power – and an authority which carried all the way through to the end.

If this implies the earlier acts were weaker it is not so. Alwyn Mellor’s radiant Sieglinde and the heroic tones of Erik Nelson Werner’s Siegmund, were matched by the fierce blackness of Clive Bayley’s Hunding. It is a long time since I have heard a Hunding who had such sinister cynicism in his voice, and for whom the outcome was not self-evident.

Katarina Karneus persuaded us that Fricka really does have a case that needs answering and that, in real terms, Wotan does not address the issues – he simply subverts them, blaming all around him rather than accept his own responsibilities.

In the title role, Annalena Persson brought passion, youth and fire. Her voice is thrilling and her war-cry electrifying.

Dame Anne Evans acted as consultant for the staging which is stylised but effective. The triple screen does not deflect from the action, though there are times when the surtitles are out of kilter with the score. But this is a very minor point in an evening which was an unqualified success. Next year Siegfried! BH

Rumour has it that this new production might mark the start of a fuller Offenbach revival. If so – fantastic. Offenbach is lamentably underperformed in England given that his musical prowess is closer to Rossini than Sullivan. When this musicality is added to a vibrant new translation of La Périchole by Jeremy Sams, who also directs the piece, it could not fail.

One of the distinct benefits of the new Opera Pavilion at Wormsley is the closeness of the acoustic and the ease with which the text carries. If Naomi O’Connell’s rich Irish accent in the title role took a short while to get used to, all others rang clear as a bell, with every word from Simon Butteriss a gem. He not only sings with aplomb but knows the importance of carrying the text with equal weight.

It was easy to see why the work is not familiar on the amateur circuit. It requires a large cast, all of whom need to be excellent singers. When one considers that Diana Montague was one of the three cousins, all of whom were equally fine, the point is made.

Robert Murray was a lyrical Piquillo, who made his drunkenness amusing rather than off-putting, and created just the right level of tension with the aristocracy. Geoffrey Dolton’s Viceroy was only too aware of the knife-edge he trod in a banana-republic which could explode at any moment.

That the work, necessarily, has a happy ending does not ignore the social commentary along the way.

Jeremy Sams’ production and English version make for a delightful evening, and are buoyed up by David Parry’s warm support from the pit. Francis O’Connor provided a set which proves that naturalism can fit comfortably on an open stage, and the late evening sunlight on the first night was a welcome, and distinctly effective bonus.

Let us hope the Offenbach series proves as effective as the current Vivaldi has done. BH

After the naturalistic and highly credible approach of John Cox in his productions of Cosi and Figaro, Daniel Slater’s rethinking of Don Giovanni came as something of a shock. It is not just the re-writing of the action, including the survival of the Commendatore, but the frequent miss-match of action with text. In the days before surtitles it may have been more acceptable for the singer to act in a way that had little contact with the text, but the very presence of the text can cause unexpected difficulties. To take just one example. At the end of the opera the Don is given an injection to reduce him to a paraplegic. He is seen in the company of severely disturbed inmates at an asylum. The words we hear and see imply that this is what happens to those who are sinful. Are we to assume then that all who are mentally disabled are sinful? I doubt this was the intention but it was certainly there before us.

There were many other moments which were equally unsettling, and proved disconcerting when so much was carefully thought through. The TOWIE wedding for Massetto and Zerlina was totally convincing, and her gum-chewing acceptance of the Don both farcical and apt. However, the lack of class distinction meant that the Don had to use a knife to threaten Massetto – his mere presence could not do it.

All of this might have mattered less if the production had been poorly severed musically but the reverse was true. This was as fine a musical presentation as one could wish for, with the Bevan sisters impressing throughout. Sophie’s Elvira was the only woman on stage for whom we could have any sympathy, though her feelings for the Don seemed unreasonable. Mary’s Zerlina became more sympathetic as the evening progressed. It was typical of the production that when Masetto hit her quite forcefully the bruise was quickly apparent and remained for the rest of the performance, a reminder that violence can never be easily ignored.  

Joshua Bloom was a stalwart Leporello, glorying in the catalogue aria and obviously happy with his master’s depravity. Grant Doyle as the Don showed how easily personal corruption is accepted by a society that is itself corrupt. There was little to like about his character and it was difficult to see why women fell for him when he had so little to offer. One of the more interesting facets of the production was the growth of Jesus Leon’s Ottavio from wimp to controller, though the stages were not totally clearly indicated.

Natasha Jouhi as Anna was in the unfortunate position of trying to justify the impossible. Though she sang lustily it was difficult to see why she was so upset if she knew from the start who has attacked her father, and that he in turn is not actually dead.

Douglas Boyd conducted briskly and the orchestra sounded secure throughout, with pleasing continuo work from the forte-piano. BH