Mayflower Theatre, Southampton 25 March 2015

In over fifty years of visiting, and later reviewing, performances by WNO, the chorus has always been its greatest strength. Productions may at times have been questionable and just occasionally singers not quite what had been expected but the chorus has never failed us. Something about the air in Wales I suppose!

It was therefore more than appropriate that they should be celebrated with a production all to themselves and one carefully crafted to show not only their vocal but their dramatic ability. Rather than a series of bleeding chunks, David Poutney has created a narrative line which links the individual choral items into a whole and gives us a sense of progression. The evening opens strongly with the first chorus from Prokofiev’s War & Peace. Here the sense of external attack is linked to the internal attack felt by the villagers in Peter Grimes, which in turn flows into work and finally to the army, where Lesley Garrett joined them for the Rataplan chorus from La Forza del Destino. A slight change of pace brought on the night but the dawn gave rise to decadence and corruption. The chorus were obviously enjoying themselves here in excerpts from The Rake’s Progress, Mahagonny and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Possibly the most entertaining sequence was linking the cigarette chorus from Carmen to the Policeman’s lot from Pirates- and all set in a locker room! The wedding scene from The Cunning Little Vixen brought the first half to a riotous close.

The second opened at almost the same level of enthusiasm with a Hollywood style first night setting for the opening of act 4 of Carmen. As if the decadence could go no further there was a sudden but fleetly handled change to a religious mood, with a splendidly choreographed Hallelujah Chorus and Panis angelicus. The heart of the second half came with an extended section from Khovanshchina which allowed the chorus to demonstrate a rapid change of mood and constant free-flowing movement. The fear of attack from outside brought us full circle, and the lowering of the barbed wire fence for Va pensiero was very moving. It was only at this point that David Poutney seemed to lose his nerve. It would have made good sense if To dream the impossible dream had been kept within the prison camp and the final glorious chorus from Candide allowed to show as hope overcoming adversity. In the event the Dream number reverted to Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Lesley Garrett in a red dress and a solo spot. It was unconvincing and an anti-climax after so much that had been so good.

Individuals from the chorus took the scattering of small solo parts and Howard Kirk was particularly impressive at the end as Candide. Alexander Martin had manoeuvred his way with skill through the many scores and at no time was there any sense of an uncomfortable jump from one genre to another.

One final point. Each scene was totally convincing within itself. The action and singing was more than sufficient to convey the intensity of the narrative. Perhaps we need to learn again what Wieland Wagner realised when penniless at the end of the war – you don’t necessarily need large or expensive sets for a production to be highly effective.

The Dome, Brighton, Sunday 22 March 2015

The final concert of the season saw the return of Barry Wordsworth from his antipodean journeys and the largest number of players on stage for a very long time.

Lord Berners is hardly a familiar name where twentieth century composers are concerned but his Fantasie Espagnole  is a delightful set of pieces which are aware of Ravel and Debussy in passing but always more tongue-in-cheek than romantically serious. The Fandango is wildly enthusiastic and the final Pasadoble fires off in all directions.

By contrast Walton’s cello concerto seemed heavily introspective even in the experienced hands of  Raphael Wallfisch. The opening movement tended to drift and it was not until the more expansive sections of the Allegro appassionato that the performance came more sharply into focus. The final movement brought us the two long solos from Raphael Wallfisch, much exquisite playing and a touching conclusion.

Holst’s The Planets is so regularly played in parts on the radio that it comes as quite a shock to encounter the sheer dynamic impact it makes in the concert hall. Mars is often uncomfortably loud and the heady enthusiasm of Jupiter intoxicating. It was obvious that the orchestra were really enjoying playing the work and relishing the many solo opportunities it gives them. The fiendishly difficult runs in Mercury did not seem to worry the woodwind, and the extended percussion provided bite and accuracy in their many exposed passages. The orchestra was joined in Neptune by the women’s voices of Brighton Festival Chorus singing from behind the stage. During the movement the blend was fine but the final fade did not quite happen and they appeared to be suddenly cut off rather than disappear. Maybe we are too used to electronic signals failing all of a sudden.

The new season starts on 11 October with works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Kalinnikov. All details from www.brightonphil.org.uk

Mote Hall, Maidstone, 21 March 2015

The Spring Equinox seemed to have encouraged a new level of risk taking for Maidstone Symphony Orchestra in a programme which may be familiar but is fraught with potential pit-falls. As Brian Wright noted in his genial introduction, In Elgar’s Violin Concerto even the corners have corners – not that this in any way inhibited the players.

The evening opened with a breezy account of Berlioz’ overture Le Corsaire, the strings skittish but under tight rhythmic control and the brass enjoying the choral fanfares of the conclusion.

It was good to welcome back Bartosz Woroch as the soloist in Elgar’s violin concerto. After the brash orchestral opening his first solo line was touchingly melancholic though with warmth and depth which promised a reading of great intimacy. In the first movement it was those intimate moments which made the most impact, at odds with the more frantic outbursts of the orchestra. I don’t recall realising how close these extrovert moments are to the Rondo in the Second Symphony, at times straining the very structure of the music. After such tension the second movement took time to relax but the flashes of nobilmente and the gradual influence of gentle reflection moved slowly towards a sense of peace. The final movement burst on us with passion, the various strands gradually coming together for a hushed and highly introvert semi-cadenza before the wistful conclusion. A splendid, if rightly challenging, performance from soloist and orchestra.

Brian Wright takes a dynamic and extrovert approach to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The tempi are fast and there are no pauses to take a breath. At times it seems almost reckless yet the players never lost confidence in their ability to meet the challenge. Solo playing was excellent and let me draw attention to bassoonist, Philip Le Bas. Beethoven writes wonderful solo lines for bassoon, too often overlooked, but not so here as they were all so mellifluously effective. Similarly Keith Price, using beaters with very small heads, created an original-instruments intensity from the tympani.  The crescendo opening the final movement was splendidly controlled before the extended passage in C major blazed around us – the brass once more wallowing in the joy of the moment.

The final concert this season is on Saturday 16 May with works by Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. Details are also available for next season. www.mso.org.uk

Birmingham Hippodrome, 6-7 March 2015

The mid-season productions may both be revivals but there was little sense of cost-cutting where the musical presentation was concerned. As with previous seasons, operas have been grouped around themes and this one is concerned with magic, though there were some far more serious overtones.

Dominic Cooke’s production of The Magic Flute draws on the surreal for all of the action which has the great benefit of helping us ignore the many incongruities and problems of the libretto. Where other directors tie themselves in knots to make the work relevant, here we are required simply to enjoy – and the audience certainly did. A packed house for a Friday night, with significant numbers of younger people, followed the English text with ease and responded with relish. Much of the credit must go to Musical Director Lothar Koenigs whose approach was brisk and extrovert throughout. There was little sense of high spiritual values here, more of people finding ways to deal with the inevitable rough and tumble of life. Benjamin Hulett’s honest, open Tamino has the clear top for the range without ever seeming too precious. His Pamina, Anita Watson, was affective in Ach, ich fuhl’s and strong minded when dealing with Monostatos. Jacques Imbrailo’s Papageno has a strong South African accent, which normally would not notice but in the longer spoken sections clashed rather with the cut glass English around him. His singing however could not be faulted and the final duet with Papagena was a delight. As the Queen of the Night, Samantha Hay took a little time to settle but Die Holle Rache was cleanly and precisely projected.  Scott Wilde certainly looked the part as Sarastro but the wobble in his voice was distracting when all around was so cleanly sung. Small parts were cast from strength and the small chorus projected easily within the single setting.

The following night brought a revival of Richard Jones’ Hansel and Gretel. Also sung in English, this is a dark account of the fairy tale, closer to the original Grimm than to a child’s story book. The sets are grey and claustrophobic throughout, the forest being a nightmare version of the children’s house and a precursor of the witch’s. The action is often uncomfortably naturalistic, and with missing children, child abuse and food-banks being such current issues the whole took on a far more sinister edge. The children dream of food at the end of Act One and the chef-angels bring a banquet for them. They stuff themselves when encouraged to do so in the witch’s kitchen from simple hunger.

Richard Jones highlights the Wagnerian overtones which are deep within the score. The children in the forest seem to reflect Siegmund and Sieglinde in Act Two of Die Walkure, and Adrian Thompson’s terrifying witch has much of Mime about it. This is also true of Lothar Koenigs conducting which reflects his approach to Die Meistersinger in its complexity and yet lightness of touch.

Singing is on a high level throughout with a magnificent mother from Miriam Murphy (when will we hear her as Brunnhilde?) and Ashley Holland convincingly warm as her husband. Ailish Tynan brings childlike glee to Gretel, combining comic flair with lyrical outbursts. She is never embarrassing and a convincing younger foil to her brother, a more ambivalent Jurgita Adamonyte who is never sure just how brave he actually wants to be. The final scene manages to use all the tricks of the kitchen scene from a pantomime yet keep the tension throughout, as we are only too aware of the lethal intentions of Adrian Thompson’s witch. He is a fine singer and actor but I doubt if he has ever done anything as convincing as this before. It was hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

Chorus – a chance for the fine WNO Chorus to show off their talents – will be reviewed in two weeks’ time when they are in Southampton.

London Coliseum, 4 March 2015

Purcell did not complete The Indian Queen and its history is complex with no really satisfactory version emerging. Add to this that it includes a considerable amount of dance and spoken text and the challenge facing any director might seem insurmountable. Peter Sellars takes a radical approach, moving away from any archaeological or musicological concept to make the work speak more directly to an audience bombarded on a daily basis with news of massacres and racism. He adds in other music by Purcell and text by a range of writers both 18^th century and modern.

Individual moments work very well. The four dancers, with choreography by Christopher Williams, are a delight, their movements always apt, engaging and joyous, even if at times incomprehensible.

The solo singers are emotionally convincing, with some very beautiful arias. Lucy Crowe’s O Solitude and Anthony Roth Costanzo’s Music for a while are stunning in their impact. Choral singing, together with the signing which is a familiar feature of most Peter Sellars’ productions, is bright and clear even when they are lying flat on their backs. The pit is raised so that the small baroque ensemble is in full view and carries with unexpected impact. Under Laurence Cummings the musical sections are a delight throughout, with fine playing from the three theorbos and a goodly range of percussion.

With all these elements working so well, why did the evening ultimately fail? Put simply, the individual parts, no matter how good, did not add up into a whole. Whereas a through composed opera maintains its dramatic intensity, and even the narrative line of a singspiel does not let the tension drop, here the changes in atmosphere were simply too abrupt. The evening opens with the sounds of the jungle, electronically amplified through the theatre’s speaker system. We jump cut to the orchestra and then, as quickly, back to the jungle. Rather than have the Indian Queen, warmly sung by Julia Bullock, speak for herself, an actress, Maritxell Carrero comes on to address the audience out of character and fully amplified. The constant change of oral impact is disconcerting and ultimately alienating. This is also true of the design panels which float in and out by Gronk. Rather than, as suggested, providing another world, they remain uncompromisingly flat and often irrelevant to any action taking place in front of them. They are paintings not stage sets.

Peter Sellars has done a great deal of good for ENO in the time he has been with them and nobody could doubt the technical and musical finesse of this production. It was just a pity it failed to move us in the way intended.

The Dome, Brighton, 1^st March 2015

It may have been St David’s Day but the music on offer was distinctly northern European in Stephen Bell’s deft handling. The programme opened with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, gently hushed at the start but quickly finding its voice with controlled crescendi building to a brisk and business-like conclusion.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen was the soloist in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1. So regularly is this the No1 favourite on ClassicFM that it is possibly surprising how rarely it is actually performed live. A pity really for it is a fine work which easily outlives the possible problems of over popularity. Tamsin Waley-Cohen plays a 1721 Stradavarius and her tone was warm and appealing throughout. The second movement was lovingly phrased without ever seeming indulgent. The finale was fast paced and exhilarating, with exceptional clarity from the soloist. A pity we did not get an encore.

We were in much cooler climes after the interval with Sibelius’ First Symphony. Though the influence of Tchaikovsky is ever present the Finnish elements which were to dominate the rest of his symphonic output are there in equal measure. The soulful clarinet opening, the shimmering strings and crystal clear harp notes are all elements the composer would return to later, while the lush melodies would fade away as compositions became more astringent and crisply defined. Stephen Bell drove the work hard, the third movement being particularly edgy, with very clean ensemble even in passages which can easily fall apart. The final movement, even allowing for the more romantic second subject, looks towards Lemminkainen and the conclusion – two plucked notes – is entirely Sibelius.

A fine afternoon and a full house with many younger members of the audience – all very encouraging.

The final concert of the season on 22^nd March sees the return of Barry Wordsworth with works by Lord Berners, Walton and Holst.