Monthly Archives: September 2019

ENO UNVEILS INAUGURAL JONATHAN MILLER SAFETY CURTAIN

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30 September: English National Opera (ENO) has unveiled a new annual project to redesign the safety curtain in the world-famous London Coliseum’s auditorium.

Named in honour of long-standing and beloved ENO collaborator Sir Jonathan Miller, the new Jonathan Miller Safety Curtain will be commissioned each season, giving the London Coliseum a canvas to showcase new and innovative design. Each year a new artist will be invited to design the curtain.

Luke Edward Hall is the first artist to undertake this project, having kindly volunteered his time to create the new curtain artwork. Luke’s new curtain was unveiled in the Coliseum’s auditorium today (Monday 30 September) and will take centre stage throughout ENO’s 19/20 season.

Described by Vogue as interior design’s ‘wunderkind’, the London-based artist, designer and writer established his studio in 2015. His love of history and the classics inspire his playfully colourful works and he acknowledges the influence of ENO’s upcoming Orpheus series in the curtain’s final design:

‘I’m delighted to have worked on a new design for the safety curtain at the Coliseum, and to be the first artist involved in ENO’s exciting new scheme. My inspiration for the design came from the Coliseum itself and the Roman grandeur of its richly decorated interior. I drew upon my love of the mythology of Ancient Greece and Rome and created a scene in which Orpheus, the legendary poet and musician, is seen playing his violin beside the lyre-playing Apollo, god of music and dance. I wanted the atmosphere to feel magical, mysterious and dreamlike. I believe opera and theatre should transport viewers from their ordinary everyday existences to a place of fantasy – I hope my design will help to prepare them for the adventure.’

The curtain’s namesake, the director Sir Jonathan Miller, has worked with ENO for over 4 decades, directing 15 productions that have become the heart of ENO’s repertoire. Sir Jonathan was celebrated in 2016 with Marvellous Miller, an evening-length tribute at London Coliseum. Having trained as a doctor, Sir Jonathan went on to build an international career as a writer, presenter and theatre director. He directed his first opera in 1974 before working with ENO for The Marriage of Figaro in 1978. Sir Jonathan was knighted in 2002 for services to music and the arts. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. His inventive staging of The Mikado will take over London Coliseum once again this season, transporting Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta to an English seaside hotel.

Sir Jonathan believes it is best to: ‘Be safe with your audiences so you can be wild and original with your work’, making the new safety curtain a fitting tribute to the bold director with his audience at the heart of every vision.

ENO Chairman Dr Harry Brünjes says: ‘Sir Jonathan Miller’s operas have become some of our best loved productions. It seemed only right that we name the new curtain after him, in honour of his work’s continued presence on our stage. All at ENO would also like to extend our gratitude to Luke Edward Hall, for the fantastic new artwork that he has kindly gifted to the project.’ The curtain will continue London Coliseum’s reputation as a home to creativity, through opera, ballet, musicals, comedy and now art.

The traditional safety curtain typically guards the audience in a theatre auditorium. It is lowered during intervals and when the stage is not in use, as a precaution in case of fire backstage. The current curtain has been in place since the Coliseum’s auditorium was renovated in 2004.

ENO: The Mask of Orpheus

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The Mask of Orpheus
Sir Harrison Birtwistle (1934 – present)
Libretto by Peter Zinovieff (1933 – present)
 
Director, Daniel Kramer
Conductor, Martyn Brabbins
Second conductor, James Henshaw

 

Birtwistle returns to English National Opera as The Mask of Orpheus receives first full London staging since its premiere

Opens Friday 18 October at 19:00 (5 performances)

‘The finest British opera of the last half-century’ (the Guardian) receives its first major staging in London since its premiere at English National Opera (ENO) in 1986.

Marking the composer’s 85th birthday, Harrison Birtwistle’s remarkable work – with a libretto by Peter Zinovieff – mixes music, drama and myth. Scored for massive orchestral forces, the ENO orchestra is led by ENO Music Director Martyn Brabbins, a dedicated exponent of the music of Birtwistle. Noted for conducting the definitive recording of the piece with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2009, Martyn is truly honoured to be leading this new production, 33 years after the ENO premiere.

Daniel Kramer directs the Birtwistle masterpiece, which forms part of ENO’s Orpheus Series he has curated with Martyn for autumn 2019, following their collaborations for last season’s War Requiem and Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel. ENO’s Orpheus Series reimagines four operas exploring the Orpheus myth, each interpreted by four directors from diverse theatrical disciplines, all in sets by renowned British designer Lizzie Clachan.

Daniel Kramer began his opera career at ENO a decade ago with Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy in 2008, which won the South Bank Show Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, and this production promises to continue that total theatre approach to Birtwistle’s work.

Costumes are by artist, campaigner and designer Daniel Lismore, described by Vogue as ‘England’s most outrageous dresser’. To inspire and support Lismore in creating his first ever set of costumes for the stage, Swarovski has exclusively provided the opera production with 400,000 crystals.

The Mask of Orpheus retells the Orpheus myth in a non-linear narrative, and examines the various manifestations of grief and loss, love and rage. Birtwistle’s complex retelling explores the Orpheus myth from different perspectives. The opera’s leading characters appear in three distinct guises, representing their human, heroic and mythical form, while different areas of the stage symbolise the different depictions of the ancient story.

Birtwistle, one of Europe’s leading figures in contemporary music, extends beyond the conventional operatic resources by integrating electronic music (realised by the late Barry Anderson) into the complex score, in addition to the massive orchestra of wind, brass, harps, guitars, and a huge battery of percussion.

Tenor Peter Hoare sings Orpheus the Man, in his fifth performance at ENO while tenor Daniel Norman sings Orpheus the Myth, after his ‘persuasive’ (The Times) performance as Monostatos in ENO’s production of The Magic Flute earlier this year.

Praised for her ‘warm mezzo’ and ‘velvet-voice’ (The Telegraph), British-Spanish mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons makes her ENO debut as Eurydice the Woman, having recently made critically acclaimed house and role debuts at the Royal Opera House as Siébel in David McVicar’s production of Faust and as Hel in the premiere of Gavin Higgins’s The Monstrous Child (Linbury Theatre).

Mezzo soprano Claire Barnett-Jones, hailed as ‘a young singer to watch’ (Opera Today) makes her ENO Harewood Artist’s debut, taking on the roles of Eurydice The Myth and Persephone. Claire has performed as Soloist on the Last Night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, for Opéra National de Bordeaux, with the Orchestra of Valencia, CBSO and at Wigmore Hall.

Claire is joined by four other Harewood Artists and the cast is completed with James Cleverton as Aristaeus The Man, Simon Bailey as Aristaeus the Myth/Charon and Robert Hayward as The Caller. James Henshaw joins as the second conductor.

Lighting and video design is by Peter Mumford, sound design by Sound Intermedia and choreography by Barnaby Booth.

The Mask of Orpheus opens on Friday 18 October at 19:00 at the London Coliseum for 5 performances: Oct 18, 25 & Nov 7, 13 at 19:00 and Oct 29 at 18:00.

Tippett: A Child of Our Time

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CBSO: anniversary season 2019-20
Birmingham Symphony Hall, Thursday 26th September 2019

It seemed fitting, with the present political convulsions across the world, that the CBSO should choose Tippett’s deeply felt masterpiece as the major choral work to open two years of celebration for its centenary. Elijah and Gerontius will follow later but for now the stark beauty of Tippett’s own text and score seemed even more appropriate and intensely moving. There was one, poignant, difference on this occasion. As we entered the hall we were given the score for the chorus of Deep River and Steal Away. Before the performance started, conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla explained that Tippett had wanted the spirituals to act like the chorales had done for Bach – a link between the performers and the audience. Consequently we were being invited to join in with these. This proved to be a very moving experience, particularly as Deep River ends the work, and so everyone in the hall was involved in the final bars.

If this added to the impact of the performance there was certainly nothing amiss with the music-making. The CBSO Chorus were in thrilling form, finding the balance between emotional weight and clean muscular lines, plus the clarity of text which the acoustic in the hall allows.

The soloists were well matched with Joshua Stewart as impassioned and heroically voiced tenor lead. Brindley Sherratt brought warmth and gravity to the bass part, while Talise Trevigne provided the high-soaring lines of the soprano writing with great beauty. Perhaps the most humane writing is for the mezzo-soprano and here Felicity Palmer was at her subtle best, enfolding us with the comfort of her presence.

Though the playing of the CBSO for the Tippett was as committed as we have come to expect, they had already demonstrated this in their own right in Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem which opened the evening. Not an easy work, it made a convincing partner to the oratorio. The yearning intensity of the Lacrymosa giving way to the onslaught of the Dies irae, not a sudden plunge into hell so much as an endless, almost eternal, bombardment of pain. If the final Requiem aeternam is more reflective it is none the less stark and demanding. There was no need to point out that both composers were pacifist, the music spoke for itself.

Throughout, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla galvanised her forces with a mixture of graceful fluency and absolute accuracy, which communicates itself as much to those of us in the audience as, surely, to the performers.

Rhythmie Wong

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Chapel Royal Brighton 17 September and Haywards Heath Music Society at St Wilfrid’s Church September.

We Sussex audiences don’t know our Spanish piano music, do we? German, Austrian, French – fine. But unless we hear a guitar playing, other Spanish music evades us. We know composers from other countries create pictures of Spanish scenes, even set operas there.

Even de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain remains unfamiliar to most of us because although it might be seen as one, it is not named as a piano concerto and so we British don’t have a track record of rushing out to hear it performed.

We can think of at least one of de Falla’s two ballets, likelier The Three Cornered Hat. But, famous guitar soloist Joaquin Rodrigo apart, how many other actual Spanish composers can we even name against the clock?  One great pianistic Spaniard, not an Armada naval sailor but a civilian wartime passenger during 1916, drowned with his wife off the Sussex coast after a Nazi torpedo struck. That was Enrique Granados.

The two Sussex audiences last week were listening to his music without even knowing this grim fact. We need help from pianists such as Hong Kong-born Rhythmie Wong to drop in from her Cologne base to open our ears to hidden Spanish delights.

As one of the three prize-winners at Worthing in the 2018 Sussex International Piano Competition, she returned there in November to begin excitingly this process in her International Interview Concert with Book I of Albeniz’ vividly evocative Iberia. I notice as seasoned a British artiste as Imogen Cooper, four decades into her career, has just arrived at recording this piece. Last week, Wong brought Granados to Brighton and Haywards Heath.

We might quickly be tempted to view Spanish piano music as mainly tapas dishes – suites and single-movement pieces. No harm done early on, provided this is not discriminating.

Wong drew from Granados’ Goyescas set his narrative tone poem, The Maiden and the Nightingale, also the sinuously bracing and evocative Allegro de Concierto, and his delightful octet of Valses Poeticos – Melodic, Passionate, Slow, Humorous, Brilliant, Sentimental, Butterfly and Ideal. Much great Spanish piano music is dished up with such accessible non-abstract titles.

Wong appears from the dressing room a neat, graceful, small figure with a self-effacing gait and demeanour, but from the piano stool she disproportionately unleashes a frequently towering arsenal of virtuosic and poetic ammunition, delivered by a romantic heart – not by clinical weaponry.

Allegro de Concierto hit Brighton between the eyes but before all three Granados pieces at Haywards Heath she used a Trojan Horse: a Haydn’s final Piano Sonata, sharply and cheekily offered as a fascinatingly engaging and anything but throwaway starter.

At both recitals she brought Ravel to set our imaginative and cardiac pulses racing with the three-part Gaspard de la Nuit and – these current years her signature work – La Valse. And she performed both, would you believe, back to back with just a short pause for breath. This was not a circus act but a deliberate placing of four canvases close together on the same wall to test the aural effect and artistic impact.

The result was as spectacular as it was arresting. At Brighton her performance was breath-taking; at Haywards Heath it was masterly.

I was fortunate to be the only person at both concerts, and able to appreciate their different seasonings. On the modern Kawai piano at the small lively-walled Brighton chapel, bright and brassy, Wong was able to give the audience less dynamic range, contrast and nuance than the veteran Broadwood enabled her at Haywards Heath, in its larger, less regular space.

The Brighton lunchtime audience reacted to the concluding, climactic La Valse in shocked delight. The knowledgeable elderly Haywards Heath Club, served well by the warmer instrument and acoustic, were deeply thrilled and exploded with noisy acclaim. Their reward was, as a special intimate encore, an arrangement of the traditional Chinese song, Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon.

The Basque-born and raised Ravel’s creative spirit was far closer to Spain than his Parisian residence. Wong, with insightful logic, successfully teams him with these Spanish brothers in a richly rewarding combination.

Richard Amey

 

 

Even More Even Stephens

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St John’s Hollington, 21st September 2019

Even if it was Even More Even Stephens, it was a very entertaining evening and it certainly didn’t suffer from repetition. This, their third performance, at St  John’s, was supported by a large appreciative audience.   Their appeal and fan club is obviously growing.

Steve Corke and Stephen Page presented a wide variety of music and song, which not only showed off their talents, but entertained all.  We had music and songs from Bach to Flanders and Swann; songs from musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, Jekyll and Hyde and Jesus Christ Super Star, and Steve Corke’s rich but gentle baritone paid great tribute to Matt Munro.  Stephen Page played piano and organ with great virtuosity and expertise. He announced that he wanted to ‘present the different sides to an organ’, and so he did. We heard  Bachs,’Fantasy in G minor’ and ‘Blaze Away’ and much more played expertly.  He did great justice to the piano also. His playing of ‘Autumn’, a reflective and melodic piece was quite haunting.

Many items were humorous particularly Steve’s organ accompaniment to Stephens’ piano, several of their duets, and Stephen’s piano playing of Dance of Three Old Ladies.

It was a richly varied and highly imaginative programme.

Part of the evening’s entertainment, and such is the attraction of this duo, was to have the programme cryptic; thus an item entitled Organ with a Twist was an Oliver medley and A filthy Number  was Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud. It was a delightful mixture of popular and lesser known pieces presented in a relaxed and friendly style.  It was all very good. Thank You! Please, let’s have even, even more!

Rev Bernard Crosby

 

A Rollicking Romp – Opera South East

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Manor Barn, Bexhill, 22nd September 2019

Opera South East had something of a whirlwind weekend with three concerts on successive days in very disparate venues. They came to a highly successful end at the Manor Barn, packed to standing-room-only by a capacity audience, enhanced by German exchange visitors. Quite what they must have made of Gilbert’s lyrics is another matter, but the continuing relevance of his satire on English society is not in doubt.

The programme brought us an overview of all the major G&S works and included excerpts at the end from Utopia Ltd – a fine a cappella chorus – and a somewhat unusual drinking song from The Grand Duke. Before that, the many solo items gave a chance for a wide range of singers to demonstrate their vocal prowess and there were particularly impressive contributions from David Woloszko as both Judge and Mikado, Gary Marriott as Frederick and Marco, Ruth Parsons as Mabel and Maya Godlonton-White as Yum-Yum. Karen McInally, who had organised the semi-staging of the event, chilled us as the Fairy Queen but delighted with the praise for free booze! Oscar Smith introduced each of the selections and made his own fine contribution with the Nightmare Song from Iolanthe, and an Oscar Wilde would-be from Patience.

Kenneth Roberts directed from the keyboard at the back of the hall, managing to keep his often disparate forces well in check even when they were moving swiftly between the rows of chairs and dancing.

Opera South East return with Amahl and the Night Visitors in November and The Mikado will follow next April.

A Rollicking Romp – Opera South East

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Manor Barn, Bexhill, 22nd September 2019

Opera South East had something of a whirlwind weekend with three concerts on successive days in very disparate venues. They came to a highly successful end at the Manor Barn, packed to standing-room-only by a capacity audience, enhanced by German exchange visitors. Quite what they must have made of Gilbert’s lyrics is another matter, but the continuing relevance of his satire on English society is not in doubt.

The programme brought us an overview of all the major G&S works and included excerpts at the end from Utopia Ltd – a fine a cappella chorus – and a somewhat unusual drinking song from The Grand Duke. Before that, the many solo items gave a chance for a wide range of singers to demonstrate their vocal prowess and there were particularly impressive contributions from David Woloszko as both Judge and Mikado, Gary Marriott as Frederick and Marco, Ruth Parsons as Mabel and Maya Godlonton-White as Yum-Yum. Karen McInally, who had organised the semi-staging of the event, chilled us as the Fairy Queen but delighted with the praise for free booze! Oscar Smith introduced each of the selections and made his own fine contribution with the Nightmare Song from Iolanthe, and an Oscar Wilde would-be from Patience.

Kenneth Roberts directed from the keyboard at the back of the hall, managing to keep his often disparate forces well in check even when they were moving swiftly between the rows of chairs and dancing.

Opera South East return with Amahl and the Night Visitors in November and The Mikado will follow next April.

Sussex Concert Orchestra

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St Peter’s Church, Bexhill, 22nd September 2019

Sussex Concert Orchestra presented a matinee of Baroque works at St Peter’s under their regular conductor Kenneth Roberts. Opening with William Boyce’s early First Symphony they moved rapidly on to Handel’s Organ Concerto in F major more familiarly known as the Cuckoo and the Nightingale. Organist Anthony Wilson provided clean high registration for the Allegro with its bird song, and a more profound tone for the melancholic central fugue.

The orchestra was then joined by Hastings Bach Choir for two brief but effective movements from Bach cantatas before the afternoon concluded with Bach’s 2nd Brandenburg Concerto. This proved to be the highlight of the day with its fine balance of solo instruments and superb playing from Andy Gill’s high, bright piccolo trumpet and the warmth of Thomas Pickering’s recorder.

 

Merry Opera: The Pirates of Penzance

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Opus Theatre, Saturday 21st September 2019

In was inevitable that the town famed for its pirates should attract the joyous romp which is Merry Opera’s approach to The Pirates of Penzance. I doubt if in the last fifty years I have ever experienced – including early Doyle Carte and the more recent ENO productions – a presentation so hugely enjoyable and yet amazingly faithful to the original. The comedy, and the many laughs along the way, derives entirely from Gilbert’s text. There are no additional gags to try to make it more relevant. There are no knowing nods towards modernity. Yet the premise of the story still makes as much, or as little, sense as it did then. At the heart of the tale is the question of DUTY, a fact made absolutely clear by the placard which is held up every time the word is mentioned. I need not draw any close contemporary political parallels to state that the concept of duty is just as problematic today as it was then.

At the heart of the approach are two salient ideas. The text is spoken with great clarity and in Queen’s English – a refreshing change for those of us of a certain age – and the choreography is wild and ever present. The pirates can’t quite forget that they are all noblemen who have gone wrong and thus tend to overplay their hands as blood-curdling rebels. Christopher Faulkner’s Samuel is particularly impressive here with a large amount of extraneous arghs and ers. Ashley Mercer’s Pirate King is somewhat more civilized and in many ways seems the most level headed of the crew. Gareth Edmunds’ Frederick displays a charming naivety of manner as well an heroic tenor voice. This is superbly matched by Rosie Lomas’ Mabel for whom the Donizetti-like coloratura has no terrors. Her Poor wandering one was everything bel-canto could desire. Phil Whilcox’ Major General gave us a good humoured old cove with the lighting articulation in the patter song worthy of the best of Rossini. By contrast Matthew Quirk’s lugubrious Sergeant of Police was warm and almost cuddly.

Rosemary Clifford’s Ruth may have, unconventionally, actually looked younger than her 47 years but the accent and slightly raunchy approach were absolutely appropriate.

The clarity of diction from Major Stanley’s daughters was impeccable and the other pirates/lords swaggered with aplomb.

The instrumental arrangement for solo violin, wind and piano by Gabriel Chernick was impressively effective and, within the confines of a close acoustic, more than sufficient to represent Sullivan’s often basic harmonies. Pianist Alexander Maynard, violin Eloise Macdonald and wind player Georgina van Hien did a sterling job and often added surreptitiously to the humour of the evening.

A return to Hastings from Merry Opera can’t come too soon.