Daily Archives: 14 May, 2014

Brighton Festival

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Francois-Green Piano Duo at the Dome Studio, 14 May 2014

The lunch-time recital brought a packed audience to the Studio Theatre for a programme which was both beautiful and challenging. Combining Mozart and Schubert with Berg was potentially risky but in the event completely justified.

The duo opened with Mozart’s F major sonata K497 and brought to it overtones of Beethoven as well as a lighter touch which harked back to the early 18th century. The opening movement’s development section constantly strains at the limits of baroque form and seems to yearn for greater flexibility. As if this was all too much for the composer, the Finale seems tongue-in-cheek in its lightness. 

Wozzeck is not a work one would automatically associate with the piano, and extracting the interludes and moulding them into a single movement may seem an unlikely task. That it proved so successful was as much to the credit of the composer as to the subtlety of the arrangement. Berg’s writing is so lyrical that it sweeps all before it. There were strong hints of Rosenkavalier in the opening sections, a point I can’t recall when in the opera house, and throughout the lyrical beauty out-ways any potential difficulties with the notation. The duo obviously delighted in the work and we can only hope it may be taken up by others.

The final work was Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor D940. The contrast was almost too great. Here was lyrical beauty combined with sublime melodic creation. It came close to wallowing at times, but never tipped over the edge.

For a worthy encore they played a brief contemporary Hungarian work where gentle flutterings helped an otherwise indeterminate structure. But the best was left to last with a magnificently sensitive and very gentle rendition of a Bach chorale prelude arranged for four hands. Its simplicity of approach was masterly.

May DVDs

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Richard Strauss: Salome

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Nicola Luisotti

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Over the years there has always been a continuing concern about the stage presentation of Salome. The music is lush, romantic and carries us away on its tides of emotion, while at the same time the overtones of necrophilia and masochism can be very disturbing. Director Gabriele Lavia neatly subverts this by raising the Baptist’s head as an enormous carving which acts as a day bed for Salome to act out her fantasies. The idea works well and forces us to pay more attention to both text and music rather than being revolted at the act.

The production is very strongly sung with an outstanding Herod from Robert Brubaker and darkly impressive Jochanaan from Mark D Doss.

Erika Sunnegardh creates a complex Salome, her lightning changes of mood and body language reflecting her unstable mental state. The voice is more than ample for the part though at times can be a little tight and hard-edged.

Orchestral sound is fine and balance still allows the singers to be heard – not always true in the opera house.

orfeoGluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

A film by Ondrej Havelka

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Filmed in the baroque theatre in Cesky Krumlov Castle, the film draws on the resources of the whole building, using the passages and under-stage areas to fine effect in the second act. The approach is not a simplistic baroque restaging. The director uses the baroque scenery and movement as a dream image for Orpheus who is seen in the dressing room and, most effectively in the final moments, where he views Euridice from the empty auditorium – the baroque image being merely a memory of his dead wife.

Musically this is a fine performance but the use of the 1762 Vienna version means it is very short. Bejun Mehta is a fine male-soprano in the title role with Eva Liebau an attractive Euridice. Regula Muhlemann’s Amor is allowed an unusual amount of comedy and the chorus sing and dance with enthusiasm.

The small pit band is in 18th costume, and conducted from the side while they sit along either side of one long music stand.

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Gershwin: Porgy and Bess

San Francisco Opera

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Since Glyndebourne famously brought Porgy and Bess back into the opera house there have been a number of very fine productions and this new one by Francesca Zambello is very much in that tradition. A naturalistic approach within a claustrophobic setting which draws on container storehouses as its basis, the emphasis is on a community within which events are worked out. The choral singing and acting is of a very high order, and the stage is filled with credible activity without ever losing focus.

Singing is genuinely operatic with Eric Owens a totally convincing Porgy and Laquita Mitchell a slippery and sexy Bess. Chauncey Packer  understands the jazz potential of Sporting Life – but there are no weaknesses in the large cast.

Kay Stern manages the large forces with ease and creates many exciting and moving moments.

Don PasqualeDonizetti: Don Pasquale

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

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Mariam Clement creates a highly credible world for Glyndebourne which is lively and often very funny. The strong cast is led by Danielle de Niese, who may not be to everyone’s taste as a performer but certainly has a gift for comic works. Alessandro Corbelli is a fine Pasquale. Enrique Mazzola drives his forces with panache and the whole is highly enjoyable.

 

WEEKEND OF MUSIC AND POETRY MARKING THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

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A special Beethoven weekend (5/6 July) of music and poetry exploring the themes of tyranny, justice and freedom from oppression is planned to mark  the 100th anniversary of  the First World War. Opening with a conversation, hosted by James Naughtie with Oxford historian Professor Margaret MacMillan, writer Miranda Carter and Jeremy Paxman, it will be followed by a performance of Fidelio.

World famous cellist Steven Isserlis gives a recital of cello sonatas by Beethoven and  Frank Bridge (written in 1916) that will be interspersed by readings of war poetry, read by Samuel West, including recently discovered unpublished poems by Siegfried Sassoon ( including one addressed to Beethoven).  Renowned singer Ann Murray gives a masterclass with young Garsington Opera singers and the weekend also features tours of the Getty Library and a special cricket match with England Women’s X1 vs an international celebrity team.

The weekend’s highlight is the first ever symphony concert in the Opera Pavilion and will feature Beethoven’s incidental music to Goethe’s tragedy Egmont and Schoenberg’s  visceral A Survivor from Warsaw.  Both works will be narrated by Samuel West.  The evening culminates with Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 in D minor.  Douglas Boyd conducts the Garsington Opera Orchestra and Chorus with Natalya Romaniw, Victoria Simmonds, Paul Nilon and Matthew Rose as soloists..

Douglas Boyd, Artistic Director of Garsington Opera  said:  Beethoven has the power to express every emotion of the human spirit. I feel that as well as the overwhelming emotional appeal of his music, there are underlying messages of freedom, justice and, ultimately, love that permeate his work.  The ending of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Its universal message of hope for a better world is very relevant to the centenary of the First World War.  

Garsington Opera’s 25th anniversary season opens on 6 June with three productions – the British premiere of Offenbach’s sparkling comedy Vert-Vert, Janá?ek’s 20th century masterpiece The Cunning Little Vixen and Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio.

Tickets from www.garsingtonopera.org  telephone 01865 361636

WNO win Royal Philharmonic Society Opera and Music Theatre Award

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Welsh National Opera have won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society [RPS] Opera and Music Theatre Award for their productions of Lulu, Lohengrin and Paul Bunyan in 2013. The criteria for RPS Opera and Music Theatre Award is for musical and artistic excellence of a production, company (large or small-scale) or individual.

The RPS Music Awards, presented in association with BBC Radio 3, are the highest recognition for live classical music and musical excellence in the United Kingdom.   Winners in 13 categories, chosen by independent juries, were announced at a glittering ceremony at London’s Dorchester Hotel (evening – 13 May) hosted by BBC Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny and Sara Mohr-Pietsch, with silver lyre RPS trophies presented by pianist Graham Johnson.

David Pountney, WNO Chief Executive & Artistic Director says, “WNO is incredibly proud to receive this, the most prestigious of all the music awards. It is especially gratifying for us because it acknowledges the breadth and reach of our work, from the ambitious and relatively rarefied in the case of Lulu, the classical in the case of Lohengrin, and finally encompassing our highly skilled and innovative Youth and Community programme with Paul Bunyan. This award is a true badge of quality, and we hope it will inspire all those who support WNO and culture generally to redouble their efforts to ensure that we remain a civilised, cultivated community with access to the great traditions of European culture.”

Berg’s Lulu opened WNO’s Spring season in 2013 and marked David Pountney’s first new production in his role as Chief Executive & Artistic Director of WNO. The production, which was conducted by WNO Music Director Lothar Koenigs, received rave reviews from press and was nominated for the 2014 Opera Awards in the category of ‘New Production’. The role of Lulu was sung by Marie Arnet.

Antony McDonald’s new production of Lohengrin, which was staged by WNO in Summer 2013, marked the bicentenary of Wagner’s birth and the opening performance was performed in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Patron of Welsh National Opera at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. The production was conducted by Lothar Koenigs, with Peter Wedd singing the role of Lohengrin and soprano Emma Bell singing Elsa von Brabant.  Fiona Maddocks from The Observer described the production as a ‘tour de force’ and it earned a 5* review from the Financial Times.

Lothar Koenigs says: “I feel very privileged to be Music Director of WNO and I want to thank all my colleagues for their commitment and passion for opera. Everyone at WNO should be proud that all their hard work has been recognized by this most prestigious award.”

Paul Bunyan was a production by WNO Youth Opera, which was performed in August 2013 and featured more than 100 singers, orchestral players, technical students, costume makers, dressers and wigs & make up students all aged between 16 & 25. Amongst the cast were Only Boys Aloud as The Lumberjack Chorus and Stephen Fry as the voice of Paul Bunyan. The production also marked the centenary of Britten’s birth last year in 2013 and was shortlisted in the Opera category of the South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

On presenting the award the RPS Jury said:  “Lulu, Lohengrin and Paul Bunyan were three bold, contrasting productions, each of the very highest musical and theatrical standard. A showcase for Welsh National Opera’s world-class ensemble, orchestra and chorus. And forPaul Bunyan they were joined by Welsh National Youth Opera, whose collaboration with boys’ choir, Only Boys Aloud, gave a fresh and powerful insight into Britten’s first opera.”

A special programme devoted to the RPS Music Awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 18 May at 10pm.

The RPS Music Awards are unique in the breadth of musical achievement they span – from performers, composers and inspirational arts organisations to learning, participation and engagement.  The list of winners since 1989 reads as a roll call of the finest living musicians.    www.rpsmusicawards.com