The Verdian Line

Verdi – Don Carlo

Don Carlo – Jonas Kaufmann

Tebaldo – Dušica Bijelić

Elisabetta – Anja Harteros

Conte di Lerma – Pablo Bemsch

Rodrigo – Mariusz Kwiecien

Filippo II – Ferruccio Furlanetto

Eboli – Béatrice Uria-Monzon

Carlo V – Robert Lloyd

Grande Inquisitore – Eric Halfvarson

Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano.

Stage Director – Nicholas Hytner (revived by Paul Higgins).

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. Saturday, May 4th, 2013

To cut a long story short, I ended up procuring a last-minute ticket for tonight’s opening of the revival of Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House.  I had already booked for later in the run but as a decent enough seat had become available and I wanted to see what Anja Harteros was about, then I took it.

This was an exceptional evening in the theatre and certainly one of the best evenings I have had in years at the Royal Opera House.  This was the first night in a revival of Nicholas Hytner’s 2008 production and it’s a show, while not being the kind of production I would actively seek out, that offers an engaging interpretation of Verdi and Schiller’s work.  It has also been quite magnificently cast.

Anja Harteros is a singer whom I have not previously heard live.  She comes with a reputation for being a great artist but also one who cancels frequently and who has helped many a soprano boost their career with late substitutions.  I can safely say having seen her live that I completely understand those people who book in the hope that she will actually sing.  She was unmistakably magnificent.  The voice is round, rich, even throughout the range with a glorious top and rich bottom.  It has wonderful amplitude and carries very easily through the theatre.  She also has a beautiful sense of line and an ability to phrase the music impeccably.  ‘Tu che le vanita’ was fabulously sung, every possible detail in place and she also offered some exquisite pianissimi.  A remarkable artist and one I would very much like to hear again if possible, especially in Verdi – she has a Trovatore Leonora coming up and this is a role that should fit her perfectly – and in Strauss (I would love to hear her do Chrysothemis).

Mariusz Kwiecien is a big favourite of mine and tonight he and Harteros very easily offered the best singing in an exceptional cast.  Again, he has it all – that golden, burnished baritone that just hits the senses and takes them hostage, a wonderful sense of line with the music phrased to perfection and seemingly endless breath control.  His singing is so elegant and aristocratic.  He is also an affecting actor, his final aria and death scene had me on the edge of my seat and completely dragged me into his performance.  I am so glad to see that he is back on exceptional form.  An outstanding artist.

Both Ferruccio Furlanetto and Eric Halfvarson were superb.  Furlanetto bringing a lifetime of experience to his role, his monologue again beautifully phrased and sung.  Halfvarson’s Inquistor, with an apology made for the remnants of a cold, was exceptionally sung, the evil encapsulated in his jet-black tone with a gloriously open lower register.

Jonas Kaufmann’s Carlo was also excellent.  He started off slightly hesitantly with the voice sounding quite constricted to my ears but as the evening developed it opened up beautifully and he produced singing that was both ardent and sensitive.  His interjections in the auto da fé scene were wonderfully open and he produced some quite exquisite pianissimi with Harteros in the final act.  This was actually the first time I had heard him in an opera and it struck me that the voice wasn’t quite as large as I remember it being from the recitals I had seen him in.

Béatrice Uria-Monzon’s Eboli had lots of spirit. The veil song was not as elegant as it could have been but she brought everything she had to ‘o don fatale’.  I found the voice to be a bit soft-grained and lacking the cutting power of the greatest Ebolis but on her own terms she sang very well.  The chorus sang well, the ladies a bit on the squally side at times but the men were excellent (especially in the tricky unaccompanied sections in act 2).  The orchestra played splendidly, some fabulous brass playing especially but there was also great warmth from the strings.

Antonio Pappano’s conducting was the only slight disappointment.  I have to say that the pacing of the first two acts didn’t quite work for me, it felt a bit disjointed and lacked the fluency that Nicola Luisotti’s Nabucco of a few weeks ago had.  Things certainly improved during the rest of the evening but I found that Pappano seemed to favour short-term effects rather than the long view.  The finale was absolutely stunning, that brass motif as Charles Quint reveals himself was thrilling.

Overall this was a highly memorable evening one that did real justice to Verdi’s work. It was exceptionally performed with a cast of the very highest level.  If there was one thing that struck me about the very best singing of the night it was the sense of line, of understanding the shape and the ebb and flow of Verdi’s melodies that stands out the most.  I am very much looking forward to seeing it again in a couple weeks’ time.

Flashes of brilliance

Bizet – Les pêcheurs de perles

Léila – Patrizia Ciofi
Nadir – Juan Diego Flórez
Zurga – Mariusz Kwiecien, Luca Grassi
Nourabad – Roberto Tagliavini

Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real de Madrid / Daniel Oren.
Concert performance.

Teatro Real, Madrid, Sunday, March 31st, 2013.

This was a show that carried a lot of expectation before it. One of the world’s leading tenors taking on a new role, one of the world’s finest baritones singing in a repertoire he doesn’t normally sing and a leading soprano singing a role that fits her perfectly. Perhaps it was the weight of these expectations that meant that the show did not quite fulfill them but there were times where it came very close.

Les pêcheurs de perles does not enjoy the exposure of Carmen but it is a remarkable score nonetheless. There is of course ‘that’ duet but also a number of memorable choruses and some beautiful writing for the soprano. This was the third of a series of concert performances and seeing it in concert allowed one to concentrate on the often glorious music without having to worry about the more dramatically implausible moments (setting fire to huts to imitate divine intervention for example).

Juan Diego Flórez was far better suited to the Nadir of the later acts than the first. He was overpowered in ‘that’ duet by Mariusz Kwiecien’s Zurga and there was a lack of amplitude to the voice that did not adapt well to this music. While Flórez is without doubt one of the (if not the) greatest Rossini tenors of today, I’m afraid that Nadir is not really his role. While ‘je crois entendre encore’ was sensitively sung and had great atmosphere, it was also painfully flat and the strain was audible. The public went wild yet for me, his narrow tenor – again so perfectly matched to bel canto – failed to dominate in the way that it should have. While I completely sympathize with Flórez’ wish to expand his repertoire, I hope that he drops this role, at least for the time being. Indeed, this made for an interesting comparison with Pavol Breslík’s recent Lensky at Covent Garden. Both are examples of singers taking on roles that are slightly larger but Breslík succeeded simply because he was able to match his resources perfectly to the music, never forcing to create the sound.

Mariusz Kwiecien seemed out of sorts at first (there were reports from the previous performance that he was sick) and it was clear that he was not at his best. Despite this, there was an aristocratic line, impeccable diction (his French was easily the best of the cast’s) and his stunningly burnished baritone showed real identification with the idiom. Sadly, he was unable to complete the performance, an announcement was made of an infection and he was replaced mid-show by Luca Grassi. While Grassi’s was a very good performance, I felt sorry that he had to take over from someone who had set the bar very high. I very much hope to have the opportunity to hear Kwiecien again as Zurga very soon and in full health.

Patrizia Ciofi was a delicious Léila. I realized that this was actually the first time I had heard her live having come across her as an irrepressible Susanna in René Jacobs epochal Figaro. Her dusky soprano with its pearly top is perfectly suited to Léila and she provided the best singing of the night, the voice apparently without limits, the top free and easy, trills beautifully executed and crystal-clear diction. If only she would stop waving her hands around like a windmill constantly.

I wish I could be complimentary about Daniel Oren’s conducting but I can’t. He had a habit of slowing down for the ‘big’ moments – ‘au fond du temple saint’ basically came to a halt and every big aria was taken as slowly as possible as if to stress its importance. The rhythms and ‘local’ colour so in-grained in the music went for nothing and the whole thing felt flat. The orchestra, so striking in Macbeth a couple of months ago, here sounded on auto-pilot. The chorus badly needed a language coach – ‘viens’ was pronounced as ‘vi-on’ for example and I had to keep referring to the Castilian surtitles to find out what it was they were singing. The sound was very nice but they were badly disciplined – visibly chatting during the arias for example. Not their best evening then.

Despite the issues, this was an enjoyable evening overall. I saw tantalizing flashes of brilliance in Kwiecien’s Zurga and Ciofi was an exceptional Léila. It allowed me to hear a wonderful score live and I am very much looking forward to Opera Holland Park’s production this summer

An Exceptional Boris

Mussorgsky – Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov – Alexander Tsymbalyuk

Grigori – Sergey Skorokhodov

Pimen – Anatoli Kotscherga

Vasili Shuyski – Gerhard Siegel

Varlaam –Vladímir Matorin

Misail – Ulrich Reß

Fool – Kevin Conners

Andrei Schelkalov – Markus Eiche

Hostess – Okka von der Damerau

Ksenia – Nakamura Eri

Governess – Heike Grötzinger

Fiodor – Yulia Sokolik

Chor und Extrachor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Bayerisches Staatsorchester / Kent Nagano. 

Stage director – Calixto Bieito. 

Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Saturday, March 2nd, 2013.

Those few people who read my blog often will know that I am a big fan of Calixto Bieito even to go so far as to say that he is probably the finest opera director out there today.  There are some directors I will go out of my way to avoid, while there are others whose work I will try and see  if I can.  Whereas with Bieito, if there is a new production and I can see it, I’ll do my best to make it possible.  This was my first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper.  The main reason I hadn’t visited before is because their ticketing process is somewhat opaque.  Effectively, one applies in advance and is allocated a seat according to a formula that they have.  Should one apply for a number of productions, they may grant one or none of the applications.  Once the initial applications are done, they open up sales on their website.  I was allocated a seat with a 90% view of the stage.  It was decent enough but at EUR65 I felt somewhat robbed and wish that I had been informed in advance that there was an obstruction because I may well have decided to try for a higher price category.

I was seated in the 2nd Rang in a balcony seat which did have an overhang from the level above.  I mention this because it may have affected my enjoyment of the performance and it is worth reading my thoughts with that in mind.  The previous production I had seen in València used what was effectively an amalgam of different versions.  Tonight, they used an 1868/9 version stripped down to the very basics.  This was problematic in that it failed to give a full impression of the people’s suffering and meant that the very good Bayerische Staatsopernchor didn’t really have much to do following the coronation scene.  Ultimately, I feel that the choice of editions left a big hole in the production, one that Bieito, despite his brilliance, didn’t quite manage to fill.  Having thought deeply about it, I don’t necessarily think it’s the fault of the production, more that the piece in this particular version, as it is stripped down to the very minimum, has several gaps that are not quite filled.

The production itself was certainly inoffensive – there was no nudity, no masturbation, nothing that would offend anyone but there certainly was insight and an ability to penetrate deeply into the souls of the characters.  Having seen the way he orchestrated the crowds so masterfully in his Carmen for example, I felt that Bieito’s direction of the crowd scenes was somewhat rudimentary.  To be honest, in any other director’s hands it would have seemed more than capable, but I was expecting something more, perhaps even more of a sense of the oppressive state that I didn’t quite feel (although that may well be blamed by the distance I was from the stage).  There were some fantastic moments though in the revolution scene for example with the chorus throwing Molotov cocktails at Boris’ palace.  The scene with the taunting of the fool was incredibly powerful and the finale was stunning – I won’t say what happened but it was perhaps only in those last two scenes that I really saw his brilliance.  His direction of individual singers though was wonderfully done, drawing fully-rounded characters from characters who can lack personality.  Ultimately though, I fear that I had set my expectations far too high.  I guess that in any other director’s hands I would have thought it an exceptional production – and it was.  For Bieito though, I didn’t leave the theatre thinking this is the way that I will always see the work as happened when I saw his Ballo, Freischütz, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Armida and Wozzeck for example.  Exceptional perhaps but not quite revelatory as a whole.

Kent Nagano’s conducting was a bit of a mixed bag.  The quieter moments were wonderfully done with playing of extreme delicacy from the Staatsorchester.  Pacing on the whole was fine although there were a number of longueurs, all of which directly attributable to Mussorgsky.  There were some incredibly ravishing sounds coming from the pit which makes it even more of a disappointment that the big moments, such as the coronation scene fell flat.  Coordination between stage and pit went a bit awry at that point (a few sopranos entering early) and the big moments lacked the sweep that they ideally needed.  Perhaps it was Nagano’s intention to create a more intimate, detached atmosphere but there are certainly moments in this score that demand big gestures, with the effect that the first two scenes were a lot more tentative than one might have hoped.

The cast on the whole was extremely good.  Nakamura Eri’s Ksenia was wonderfully done as was Yulia Sokolik’s very feminine Fiodr.  Sergey Skorokhodov’s Pretender Dmitry was the pick of the supporing cast a wonderful line, the tessitura beautifully handled.  Sadly, Anatoli Kotscherga’s Pimen and Gerhard Siegel’s Shiusky were not at their best.  Both had some serious disagreements with the notes (Kotscherga in particular was horribly flat at several points).

The real star of the evening was Alexander Tsymbalyuk’s Boris.  Do make a note of his name because he is heading for greatness.  I had heard him once before, last year in that exceptional Gurrelieder in Vienna.  He made a positive impression then but tonight he was quite simply astonishing.  There was a complete and total identification with the words there but also he completely inhabited the character.  There were so many moments that one could see that he just ‘was’ Boris, for example when he was shaking with fear at the start of part 3 or his incredibly affecting death scene where he seemed  to manage to make the entire auditorium hang on his every word.  The voice itself is exceptionally beautiful in tone but he also manages to display a wide range of emotions precisely without sacrificing that beauty of tone. He is definitely a singer to watch and I feel exceptionally privileged to have seen him in what is likely to become one of his signature roles.

In many ways this was an exceptional evening in the theatre – the staging was excellent, the singing and conducting in many ways superb.  The truth is that this was an amazing show and I recommend that anyone who has the chance to see it does.  There will be a live webcast in July and I will definitely be watching it.

Regrets

Tchaikovsky – Yevgeny Onegin.

Tatyana – Krassimira Stoyanova
Onegin – Simon Keenlyside
Lensky – Pavol Breslik
Olga – Yelena Maximova
Gremin – Peter Rose
Larina – Diana Montague
Filipyevna – Kathleen Wilkinson
Captain – Michel de Souza
Triquet – Christophe Mortagne

Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Robin Ticciati.
Stage director – Kasper Holten
Royal Opera House, London. Monday, February 4th, 2013.

With an outstanding cast comprising some of today’s leading exponents of their roles, an important directorial voice making his house debut and a promising young conductor in the pit, this Yevgeny Onegin promised much. Did it finally deliver? Well I’m afraid that I’m not sure that it did. There was certainly so much to admire but it was also somewhat frustrating, especially in the conducting and the staging. I don’t really want to ruin anyone’s enjoyment of the show if they haven’t already seen it, so I’ll leave the discussion of the staging to the end of this piece so that anyone who wishes to avoid spoilers can do so. That said, it has been widely discussed already and it looks like it has divided the audience.

Musically it was a superb evening as far as the singing was concerned. Simon Keenlyside has always been one of my favourite singers and he gave an excellent performance. It’s true, the voice didn’t quite have the freshness in the upper register that it used to but the middle is still glorious. What I also liked about his performance is how he used the language to project the line and while he is not a fluent Russian speaker (neither am I for that matter), it seemed that he was so completely at home in the language. His acting also showed the clear progression to the frustrated and bitter man of the finale. Krassimira Stoyanova is also a singer whom I greatly admire and I was very much looking forward to her Tatyana. Vocally she was extremely glamorous, her beautiful soprano fully at ease in the long lines and completely at home in the role. I hate to be churlish but I felt that at times some of the highest notes were not quite à point and that from where I was sitting (in the balcony), the voice came across as perhaps a size too small for this theatre. Ultimately, I felt that she was much more believable as Gremina than as Tatyana but that may well be an issue with the production rather than her performance.

Pavol Breslik’s Lensky was perhaps the best performance of the night. His voice is also somewhat small for the role but he gave a masterpiece in how to sing it without forcing the voice and sacrificing quality of tone. His ‘kuda, kuda?’ was heart-wrenchingly beautiful, the voice free and easy throughout the range. I also very much enjoyed Yelena Maximova’s Olga with her fruity contralto and Diana Montague’s glamorous Larina.

The chorus were perfectly decent the orchestra less so sadly. I found that there were far too many fluffed entries and some painfully sour intonation from the strings. In fact it is the worst performance I have heard from that normally excellent band. Part of the blame must lie with Robin Ticciati’s conducting. I don’t know whether it was lack of rehearsal but I found his conducting lacked imagination and was simply metronomic. There was no give and take, no sweep to it and no sense of inner pulse. He made this glorious score sound dull and lifeless and this is a score that is full of life and passion.

Kasper Holten has said that Onegin is one of his very favourite operas and one that he has held off directing for a long time. I feel that he has perhaps waited too long to do it and that the staging came across as somewhat confused. Part of the reason for that is that he established body-doubles to perform the roles of Tatyana and Onegin. While Tatyana sang the letter scene, her younger self wrote the letter. While Tatyana’s name day party was taking place, her younger self hid in the closet. There were some arresting individual stage pictures but also the presence of these actors took attention away from the singers and rapidly became distracting. There were some wonderful moments, for example with the chorus at the party physically intimidating Tatyana which created a perfect example of displaying Tatyana’s outcast status, yet I found the whole lacked clarity and ultimately felt like a work in progress. I found Daniel Slater’s production at Opera Holland Park much better encapsulated the feeling of the end of an era, especially that wonderful moment when Filipyevna extinguished the candles at the house. I would like to see more of Holten’s work and it would also be interesting to see whether he does develop this production more when it is revived later on.

Towering Achievement

Berlioz – Les Troyens.

Cassandre – Christine Niessen.

Énée – John Treleaven

Chorèbe – Armin Kolarczyk

Panthée – Lucas Harbour

Ascagne – Stefanie Schaefer

Didon – Heidi Melton

Anna – Ewa Wolak

Narbal – Konstantin Gorny

Iopas – Eleazar Rodríguez

Hylas – Sebastian Kohlhepp

Priam – Luiz Molz

L’Ombre d’Hector – Avtandil Kaspeli

Polyxène/Hécube – Veronika Pfaffenzeller

Hélénus – Sebastian Kohlhepp

Badische Staatsopernchor, Extrachor des Staatstheaters Karlsruhe, Badische Staatskapelle / Justin Brown. Stage director – David Hermann.

Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Sunday, January 13th, 2013.

This was possibly the greatest production of Les Troyens I have ever seen. Since being switched on to opera by Charles Dutoit’s concert performances of the work two decades ago, I have seen eight staged productions and one more concert performance of the work. Yet this one, at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, is really hors concours. David Hermann’s staging is imaginative yet always stays true to the sprit of the work. It does not go for simplistic obviousness (à la McVicar at Covent Garden) nor does it drown the work under the weight of its own visuals (as did la Fura dels baus in València), rather it offers a show that brings Berlioz’ chef d’oeuvre to life and makes it relevant for today.

Troy is set in a grey wasteland, where the ghosts of the past are a constant presence. These are characters who walk around in blue paint and as Cassandre and her ladies face death they daub themselves in this blue paint. Hermann also made full use of the auditorium. The chorus was established around the theatre, bringing the audience into the work and perfectly setting up the conflict between the public and the private inherent in the piece. When we met Didon for the first time, she sang from a balcony before descending to greet her people who were ranged around the front of the stalls. There was one omission though – the ballets. This was a shame because the quality of the whole production meant their presence was missed.

It also says a lot for Karlsruhe that they cast the show from their own ensemble. Christine Niessen’s Cassandre was not the raving crazy that one would cross the street to avoid of a certain Italian diva at Covent Garden last year. Rather, she offered a much more contained and effective character but one still racked with foreboding over her visions. Vocally it was perhaps not the best fit for her but she channelled her energy to produce singing of incredible commitment ranging from great vulnerability to sneering defiance. Armin Kolarczyk’s Chorèbe was superb – an easy legato combined with golden tone. Then there was Konstantin Gorny’s huge-voiced Narbal and Ewa Wolak’s beautifully raspy contralto as Anna. Eleazar Rodríguez gave us a ravishingly silver-voiced ‘o blonde Cérès’, the tessitura holding no terrors, beautifully phrased – one of the finest I’ve heard. Heidi Melton’s Didon was simply exceptional. She is a young singer but also a complete one. She has the amplitude to ensure that she never tired through act 5, she also has a glorious chest register but she also has the essential vulnerability the character requires. She also used the words wonderfully – her diction was crystal clear. Her ‘adieu fière cité’ was stunning, the legato even, the extremes between resolution and resignation beautifully present. The confrontation with John Treleaven’s Énée, a point at which most Didons start to flag was heart-wrenching. Indeed, her cry of ‘je maudis tes dieux’ is still ringing in my ears.

John Treleaven used his long experience to get him through the punishing role of Énée. There were times where he fought against the music and the music won but there were also times when he tamed it and produced some highly musical singing. It wasn’t always elegant – there was much Gwyneth Jones style swooping up to notes – but there was also real passion and spirit and he didn’t crack which is more than can be said of many exponents of the role. It was also sung in perfectly acceptable French. Indeed the diction of the vast majority of the cast was very good (with some exceptions) and it was a pleasure to attend a production of Troyens where the text was relatively easy to follow.

The Badische Staatsopernchor and Extrachor had been phenomenally prepared by Ulrich Wagner. They produced singing of power and commitment. Indeed they are one of the two finest choruses I have heard in the piece (the other was in València). Ensemble (with the exception of the opening chorus, which is always a tricky one) was tight, blend was very good and amplitude was certainly there. Justin Brown’s conducting brought out things that I had never heard before in the score and the orchestra played like heroes.

This was an exceptional performance of a work that tests an opera house to its limits. Yet it was more than that. It was a human one. Berlioz may have written about heroes but he never lost sight of the human aspect of his characters, especially his leading ladies. The greatest achievement of David Hermann’s production is to bring out the humanity of the work, the conflict between the public and the private. It is an exceptional piece of theatre and anyone who loves this work really should see it.

A world turned upside down

Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier.

Feldmarschallin – Johanni van Oostrum

Baron Ochs – Jens Larsen

Octavian – Karolina Gumos

Faninal – Tom Erik Lie

Sophie – Maureen McKay

Marianne Leitmetzerin – Mirka Wagner

Valzacchi – Christoph Späth

Annina – Caren van Oijen

Sänger – Timothy Richards

Chorsolisten und Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin / Henrik Nánási.

Stage director – Andreas Homoki

Komische Oper, Berlin. Saturday, January 12th, 2013.

This was my second show of 2013 and the second of this particular trip to Berlin. The previous evening I had attended a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Deutsche Oper. Despite a promising cast and a conductor who really impressed me the first time I had heard him, the show didn’t really take wing as it could have. The Rosenkavalier this evening was a revival of Andreas Homoki’s 2006 production and it is certainly the first hit of 2013. It has been thoroughly rehearsed and cast with a group of superb singer actors all of whom more than equal to the challenge of their roles.

Homoki took as his starting point the fact that for many, despite her appearance only in the 1st Act and the latter part of the 3rd, the Marschallin – rather than Octavian – is the central character of the opera. He sees the piece as representing the end of an era, her world – literally – turning upside down. We start the evening in a palace, we end it with the set upside down from the beginning and the Marschallin left alone, desperately trying to rip off the straightjacketing elaborate costumes she had been forced to wear. Indeed, the costumes (Gideon Davey) were also used to show the passage of time, with the characters introduced in each act wearing costumes of a different era. This was most striking at the start of Act 2, when Ochs and his men entered the room, they looked like primitive savages against the elegance of the Faninal household.

Musically, it was a fantastic evening with a cast, almost all of whom were new to me. South African soprano Johanni van Oostrum was a real discovery. She has a full-bodied, creamy lyric soprano capable of carrying over the orchestra. She is also a dignified and captivating stage presence. Karolina Gumos was an ardent, ruby-voiced Octavian, seemingly tireless from beginning to end. Maureen McKay’s Sophie was sweet and she tried some daringly quiet pianissimi. Jens Larsen’s Ochs was enormous – he’s a very tall gentleman and the voice is huge. He does lack some resonance in the very bottom of the range but that is part of the course with this role. He was a more handsome Ochs than we normally get although while we never quite felt sympathy for him, he did seem incredibly realistic rather than simply a caricature. Supporting roles were very well taken with Christoph Späth’s Valzacchi, Caren van Oijen’s Annina and Tom Erik Lie’s youthful Faninal the pick of the supporting cast.

Another revelation was Henrik Nánási’s conducting. I must admit never to have heard of him before – it transpires that he is the Komische’s new music director – but he led a reading of great distinction. He kept the piece flowing beautifully and was alert to all the quicksilver changes of mood that abound in the work. The final trio and duet certainly did not ground to a halt in the way that some other conductors make it. He also elicited some ravishing playing from the Komische orchestra who once again revealed themselves as an excellent band. The end of Act 1 in particular was wonderfully played. The brief choral interjections were very good and the children’s chorus in particular was very well trained by Dagmar Fiebach. It was especially wonderful to hear this work in a relatively small house (1200 seats).

This was an exquisite performance of a wonderful work, one that managed to perfectly encapsulate the end of an era.

Review of 2012

2012 has been an exceptional year for concert and opera-going.  I don’t write up reviews for everything I see simply because time doesn’t always allow me to and so some of the performances I mention here I won’t necessarily have written about.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t think them worthy of writing about, simply that real life just comes in the way.  I write partly because I enjoy it, partly also to be able to put into words the feelings that I have on seeing various shows.  One other thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes, I write something up in the heat of the moment only to reflect upon it and realize it was even greater that I originally thought.

The year didn’t start off too auspiciously with a dreary Forza at the Wiener Staatsoper.  This benefitted from the presence of La Urmana who gave a complete performance as Leonora but on the whole, it failed to capture the sheer drama inherent in the score.  This and the Figaro I saw in June led me– despite some terrific performances in individual roles – to conclude that the Wiener Staatsoper is perhaps the world’s most overrated house.  The other two disappointments of the year also happened to be things a lot of people enjoyed but left me relatively cold.  The biggest disappointment was les Troyens at the Royal Opera House – a simplistic, obvious production that failed to bring out the multifaceted glories of Berlioz’ magnum opus.  The singing was extremely variable and the show as a whole was not cast as well as it could have been.  The other disappointment was Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s performance of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Barbican Centre with the Concertgebouworkest and the Groot Omroepkoor.  Despite some wonderful orchestral playing and some terrific choral singing, Harnoncourt managed to make this most superhuman of works, dull and ordinary.  Some felt the performance had a ‘devotional’ quality, yet to this atheist, I felt that it failed to bring out the struggle and the pain inherent in this music.

So enough of the negatives, what about the positives.

This year I got to enjoy some superb performances from lady singers.  Rebecca Evans’ Figaro Countess for Welsh National Opera is the most beautiful rendition of that character’s music I have ever heard.  She sang the most perfectly beautiful ‘dove sono’ I have ever heard, the ornamentation perfectly done, the oaky tone filled out wonderfully.  It was, quite simply, perfection.  That production, along with a Beethoven 9 in Edinburgh, also introduced me to the irresistible soprano of Elizabeth Watts.  She is a captivating stage presence, sings wonderfully and I look forward to hearing her in more next year.  Another singer new to me and one to watch is Sophie Bevan.  I very much enjoyed her terrific rendition of the soprano arias in a Messiah with the Classical Opera Company at Wigmore Hall.  Everything was there, creamy tone, crystal-clear diction, agility and splendid ornamentation.  I’m equally looking forward to her Vixen, also with WNO, in early 2013.  A further revelation was Jennifer Larmore’s Lady Macbeth in Geneva.  This was a stunning interpretation of this fiendishly difficult music, the corners turned as only a Rossini singer can.  Finally, there was one singer I got to hear for the first time this year who really left a mark on me.  She was Sondra Radvanovsky who really is the real thing.  I saw her in a museum production of Aida at the Liceu.  Amplitude, a distinctive tone and sheer artistry – she really does have it all.  I would travel a long way to hear her again.  2012 also meant that I also caught up with some of my other favourite singers – Karina Gauvin in a wonderful recital with Angela Hewitt at Wigmore Hall, Joyce DiDonato, again at the Wigmore Hall, closing her recital with a thrilling ‘non piu mesta’ and La Urmana as Santuzza and Lady Macbeth.

After the disappointment of the Royal Opera’s Troyens, it was good to recall David Hermann’s production of the work at the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe.  This was one of the finest productions of this glorious work I have ever seen.  It really managed to bring the work to life, using the whole theatre to bring the audience into the heart of the action.  I am really looking forward to seeing it again in January, this time with a singer new to me of whom I have heard many wonderful things – Heidi Melton.

This year also gave me some truly, unforgettable moments that will stay with me for a very long time.  Hearing Schoenberg’s Gurrelider, in the hall where it was premiered in a superb performance led by Zubin Mehta, was incredible.  It was capped by a thrilling performance of Tove by La Urmana but also by the most glorious choral singing I have ever heard in that work.  The building resonated wonderfully to the piece and the singing of the combined Wiener Singverein, Kammerchor and Staatsopernchor was just breathtaking.  Another example of superlative choral singing was that of the Cape Town Opera Chorus, prepared by Albert Horne, in Porgy & Bess with the Berliner Philharmoniker.  I don’t think I have ever heard an opera chorus like it and I’m not sure I will again.  Blend and discipline were certainly present but what really struck me were the amplitude and the glorious golden tone they produced.  That performance also benefitted from Simon Rattle’s complete mastery of the score, Willard White’s peerless Porgy, thrilling playing from the orchestra and Latonia Moore’s wonderful Bess.

The Berliner Philharmoniker also gave me what was probably the finest orchestral performance of the year.  They played the most extreme Rite of Spring I have ever heard.  Rattle pushed them harder and harder to produce playing of the most mind-blowing power, accuracy and virtuosity.

Two performances by male singers round up my top experiences of 2012.  The first was Vincent Wolfsteiner as Max in Freischütz directed by Calixto Bieito at the Komische Oper.  This reinforced my opinion of Bieito as probably the finest opera director of today.  Wolfsteiner’s was an incredibly brave performance of a man who had gone to the edge of madness and not returned.  But it was more than that: vocally Wolfsteiner had it all – strong oaky tone, a great sense of line and clear diction.

Ultimately though, this year gave me one of the greatest experiences I have had in twenty years of opera going.  Mariusz Kwiecien’s performance of King Roger in Bilbao is one of the most incredible portrayals on the operatic stage today.  He fully inhabited the character bringing him from uptight leader to sexually confused soul to depressed drunk in the space of ninety minutes.  Naturally, much has to do with Szymanowski’s score which is also a revelation but despite the superb and imaginative staging and strong individual performances, this was Kwiecien’s night in a role which he has made his own.  The sight of him, alone on stage at the end, the music visibly possessing him, was something I will never forget.

So, 2012 has been one of the best years for music I have ever had.  Initial plans for next year include Lucia at the Deutsche Oper, Rosenkavalier at the Komische Oper, Troyens in Karlsruhe, a Mozart Requiem with Tafelmusik in Toronto, a Tchaikovsky concert with my hometown band the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Calixto Bieito’s Boris in Munich.

Theatrical tension

Verdi – Macbeth

Macbeth – Dimitris Tiliakos

Lady Macbeth – Violeta Urmana

Dama di Lady Macbeth – Marifé Nogales

Banco – Dmitry Ulyanov

Macduff – Stefano Secco

Malcolm – Alfredo Nigro

Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real de Madrid / Teodor Currentzis.  Stage director – Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Teatro Real, Madrid, December 2nd, 2012.

 

This was the Madrid premiere of a production that has already been seen in Paris and in Novosibirsk and which was subsequently released on DVD with pretty much the same cast.  There are many details that one does not actually notice on the DVD that one becomes aware of in the theatre, some good, other less so.  The one thing that distinguished this particular production was the direction of the singers.  Dmitri Tcherniakov (which I misspelt repeatedly in my twitter feed, my apologies for that) is very much a singers’ director and the action between the characters was very well set-up.  This was especially the case with the two principals, where the relationship between Macbeth and his Lady was vividly brought to life.  Tcherniakov also directed the chorus very well and they were clearly a group of individual characters who also, when required to, became a mass of humanity – both evil and good.  Yet it was also in the direction of the chorus that we came into one of the more serious issues of the production. Much of what Tcherniakov did in my opinion was unmusical – for example, in a number of ensembles (at the end of act 1 for example), he put the chorus in the pit with the principals and actors on stage.  The problem with this is that it completely compromised the balance and made it difficult to hear the principals, at least from where I was sitting.  At the very end Malcolm and Macduff were heard from offstage which considerably affected the impact of their lines, however, dramatically it was impressive to see Macbeth slumped on the floor with his house falling apart around him.  One final thing that I didn’t appreciate is that there were often moments, during pauses or rests, where some of the characters would sigh or scream loudly – this was just unnecessary and annoying.  The reaction to the staging was extremely mixed – there was a fair bit of booing but also a number of cheers for Tchernaikov.  Ultimately, for me, having also seen the DVD, I found it a decent enough production, well-executed with outstanding direction of the singers, yet also at times came in the way of the music rather than being at its service.

Musically, though it was a superb evening.  Lady Macbeth is a role that suits Violeta Urmana very well at this stage in her career.  ‘Vieni, t’affretta’ and ‘or tutti sorgete’ (only one verse of the cabaletta sadly) were not quite as elegantly done as they could have been but from there on in it was plain sailing.  She was absolutely magnificent, completely dominating the stage and fully inhabiting the character.  The banquet scene was particularly wonderful as she dispatched ‘si colmi il calice’ while doing magic tricks and not missing a single beat.  ‘La luce langue’ was also beautifully done as was the sleepwalking scene.    At first I found Dimitris Tiliakos’ Macbeth somewhat anonymous but he grew into the character and his final scene was extremely powerful.  What was even more powerful was Dmitry Ulyanov’s bass as Banquo.  He sang with a beautiful line and a massive sound – very impressive.  Stefano Secco’s Macduff was absolutely terrific – wonderful legato, sensitively shaded, fantastic attention to the text and sang completely, absolutely musically.  It’s the first time I have heard him live and I hope I’ll have the opportunity to hear him again very soon.  Smaller roles were absolutely fine.

The chorus at first was tentative and, as often happens on a first night, the opening chorus went a bit awry with coordination between stage and pit not quite unanimous but after that they warmed up and gave a heartfelt rendition of ‘patria oppressa’.  The orchestra played very well, the overall sound was a bit brass and percussion heavy but there was also a lot of delicacy there, especially in the string playing.  Theodor Currentzis’ conducting at first felt a bit stop-start and lacked flow but he soon got into his stride and gave a very good account of the piece.  It wasn’t quite as revelatory as Ingo Metzmacher in Geneva earlier this year but it was still worth hearing.

This was my second Macbeth of this year and certainly perhaps the most evenly-cast.  Strangely though, although at the time I didn’t quite appreciate Christof Loy’s production as much as I could have, I think on balance I preferred it to Tcherniakov’s, as looking back, now, I appreciate more the black and white, gothic movie esthetic that he was trying to create.  However, I wouldn’t want to forgo Tcherniakov’s outstanding direction of the singers.  That is perhaps the best thing about being able to see different productions of the same piece – one learns more about the piece but also gets to appreciate different viewpoints on the same masterpiece.

Following the Shepherd

Szymanowski – Król Roger

Roger – Mariusz Kwiecien

Roxana – Agnieszka Bochenek-Osiecka

Shepherd – José Luis Sola

Edrisi – Francisco Vas

Archbishop – Felipe Bou

Deaconess – Iryna Zhytynska

Leioa Kantika Korala, Córo de Ópera de Bilbao

Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa / Lukasz Borowicz. Stage director – Michał Znaniecki

Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao. Friday, November 30th, 2012.

This was an exceptional evening. It promised much – a singer who is the finest exponent of the title role today, an experienced conductor and producer and a strong cast and it certainly delivered. Unfortunately, I feel that I should start with a couple of negatives. One has sadly come to expect annoying audience behaviour in Spain and even in the Basque Country this was no exception. There was constant talking and restlessness. Another disappointment is that the seat that I had booked had a very limited view of the stage. That is fine if the opera company declares this at the time of booking so that one can make an informed decision but sadly on this occasion this was not the case. If Bilbao is eager to attract more international visitors, it needs to make very clear on its website the quality of the view from various areas. At the risk of sounding pompous, I will be making a formal complaint to the theatre as this was clearly unacceptable. Fortunately, I was able to ‘upgrade’ myself to better seats for the duration of the show.

But what of the show? Well, it was quite simply exceptional. The production itself was set in modern dress with acts 1 and 2 located in the king’s apartments. The people were located at the back of the stage behind screens dressed in black, watching the events in the apartment itself. Sadly, this had a negative effect at those wonderful choral moments at the start as the chorus didn’t quite have the impact it should have given they were so far back. Still, it certainly set up a very clear delineation between the public and private spheres so inherent in the piece. There was serious sexual tension between Mariusz Kwiecien’s Roger and José Luis Sola’s Shepherd from the very beginning. The constant flirtation and growing infatuation were beautifully done with Roger starting out as stiff and emotionally repressed and gradually unravelled during the course of the evening. The bacchanal was staged as quite a tame orgy (I think but can’t confirm as it wasn’t quite clear from where I was sitting) with dancers wearing the same clothes as Roxana gradually undressing to reveal themselves as men. Some might say it was a bit too obvious to bring out the gay subtext of the story but it felt absolutely right. The final act was staged in a bar where Roger and Edrisi (now the barman) drown their sorrows thinking of what might have been. Roger’s hymn to the sun apparently showed his vision of the afterlife with flashbacks to his life. There is a lot to capture but it really was an excellent show, one which brought the story to life in a clear way.

Vocally, it was very strong too. Roger has become Kwiecien’s signature role and it’s a role that suits him well dramatically. Vocally, he was superb – clearly at home in the language and the idiom. Agnieszka Bochenek-Osiecka’s Roxana was somewhat acidic in Act 1 but bloomed beautifully in Act 2 and gave a delicious account of her song. The Shepherd’s music is quite unforgiving and José Luis Sola sang it beautifully. It’s not a role I would like to hear him sing often as it is exceptionally punishing but he was a haunting dramatic presence. Smaller roles were well taken, especially Francisco Vas’ Edrisi. The children’s chorus was superb, the adult chorus good although they definitely needed more bodies to carry over the huge orchestra.

The orchestra itself played magnificently and threw themselves into Szymanowski’s soundworld fully. Lukasz Borowicz’s sensitive conducting gave the singers plenty of space but also didn’t hold back at the big moments. Tempi were very well-chosen.

This was a superb show and one I would very much like to see again. It is a coproduction with the Teatr Wielki in Poznán and certainly merits a visit to see it performed on its home turf. King Roger is a piece that has only really become a repertoire work over the last 10 years. It is an exceptionally beautiful score and one which perfectly encapsulates the conflict between public duty and personal desire. This was an exceptional performance of this wonderful piece.

UPDATE 2012/12/2: Two days on and I still can’t get King Roger out of my mind.  I don’t think my review actually did justice to Kwiecien’s performance – it was unquestionably one of the greatest performances I have seen on an opera stage in 20 years of opera-going.  Just the way that he encapsulated the gradual unravelling of this character from stiff leader to exhausted drunk, was just remarkable.  That sexual tension between him and the shepherd and the latent desire and the implicit knowing that what he was doing would lead to his world crumbling and the physical portrayal of it was just remarkable.  What also impressed me so much was the way that at the very end of the piece, you could see Kwiecien’s body shaking with the force of the sound produced by the orchestra.  If it hasn’t been filmed, can I please beg someone who can make it possible to record it for posterity?  There was so much detail in the production that it really needs a second viewing. Sadly, I won’t be able to go see it a second time in Bilbao but I’ll be keeping an eye on the theatre in Poznan to see if he will be doing it there. Mariusz Kwiecien’s King Roger is undoubtedly one of the greatest operatic portrayals of today.

 

In the forest, anything can happen…

Weber – Der Freischütz.

Max – Vincent Wolfsteiner

Agathe – Ina Kringelborn

Kaspar – Carsten Sabrowski

Ännchen – Julia Giebel

Hermit – Alexey Antonov

Ottokar – Günter Papendell

Kilian – Christoph Späth

Kuno – Hans-Peter Scheidegger

Mitglieder des Ernst Senff Chores Berlin, Chorsolisten und Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin / Mihkel Kütson. Stage director – Calixto Bieito.

Komische Oper, Berlin. Saturday, November 10th, 2012

This was my second Calixto Bieito production in a matter of days having seen his Shakespeare ‘mash-up’ Forests at the Barbican Centre two nights before. I am a great admirer of his work and Forests, quite frankly, was a disappointment. Since it was not based on any one particular text there was a lack of narrative as if he was trying to make something out of something that just couldn’t be. It also felt déjà vu since, with its treatment of the course of life, it covered similar ground to his production of Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. That was one of the finest and most moving opera productions I have seen in years and ultimately, the reason why I think it was more successful is because Bieito was working within a clear framework – that of the music itself. In his interview in the program for Forests he mentioned that in theatre, he can use the text as a starting point and alter it at will, whereas in opera, because of the shape of the music, he is obliged to keep within the limits set by the composer. Ultimately, this is why I think Bieito is one of the finest opera directors around today – he is willing to think differently about a work, yet as far as I am concerned what he does is certainly not unmusical, although I am fully aware that there are many who do not share this opinion.

In common with Forests, Der Freischütz deals with the forest and here it is a dangerous place where people lose sense of who they are. The production was set in a modern-day location where hunting and guns rule (is he referring to the central United States?) and violence is endemic. Indeed, the curtain opens on a celebration, complete with ‘national’ flag where a young woman is murdered and her blood shared around the community. Max starts the evening as an uptight outcast who is deeply in love with Agathe but who rapidly loses all of his senses once he gives himself up to evil. Indeed, that was one of the most harrowing scenes I have seen on an opera stage as Vincent Wolfsteiner’s Max descends rapidly into madness. Much has been written about the nakedness here and it is unquestionably an extremely brave performance. But it is so much more than that. Wolfsteiner has the measure of the music and sings the role superbly. The end of Act 2 in particular was harrowing. It was an extremely physical performance yet he never lost sight of the musical imperative of the work. I’m not sure whether Germany has an awards ceremony for opera but Wolfsteiner should certainly be in the running for an award on the strength of his performance. I would very much like to hear him again.

Indeed, the men on the whole were excellent. Carsten Sabrowski’s Kaspar was the epitome of evil – Bieito cut the character of Samiel and imagined Kaspar, addressing Samiel as addressing a part of himself. Günter Papendell’s Ottakar stood out as did Alexey Antonov’s Hermit. The ladies also did well on the whole. Julia Giebel’s Ännchen was a perfect foil to Ina Kringelborn’s Agathe. Kringelborn has an attractive voice and she is a beautiful presence on stage. She didn’t quite turn the corners in ‘Leise, leise’ as elegantly as she could have. Still, the voice is certainly there and I imagine that she is headed to even heavier rep – Elsa, Elisabeth and Senta can’t be far away.

The chorus was a bit rough and ready and certainly no worse as a result of that. Mihkel Kütson’s conducting was absolutely superb. Tempi were well chosen and the orchestra played like heroes.

This was a gripping and exceptional piece of theatre. There were a lot of boos at the end and it may well be that a number of people in the audience were upset by Bieito’s willingness to see the work in a new light. Yet for me, it was a superb evening because nothing he did was unmusical and at the same time, Bieito managed to create a show that perfectly encapsulated the violence inherent in society and the extremes that those who live on the fringes of society can occasionally be taken to.

The Riot of Spring

Rakhmaninov – Колокола (The Bells)

Stravinsky – Звездоликий  (Le Roi des étoiles)

Stravinsky – Le Sacre du printemps

 

Luba Orgonášová (sop) Dmytro Popov (ten), Mikhail Petrenko (bass)

Rundfunkchor Berlin (prepared by Simon Halsey)

Berliner Philharmoniker / Simon Rattle.

Philharmonie, Berlin.  Friday, November 9th, 2012.

First of all I’d like to get something off of my chest.  I find that audiences in Berlin rival those in Spain for annoying the hell out of me.  There was one guy, sitting behind the stage, who insisted on taking photos with flash and talking to his girlfriend.  Then there were the people behind me who found it necessarily to talk at every possible opportunity.  But the worst was the French woman who, on seeing the empty seat next to me, insisted on sitting in it even though the music was playing.  So rather than wait for the pause between movements, she just sat there and ruined my impression of that first reply of the chorus to the tenor solo in The Bells.

It was a real shame because I love that moment and it gives you a real sense of where the performance is headed.  It’s also a shame because Dmytro Popov’s tenor was really well matched to the music.  Otherwise, it was an enjoyable enough performance of a piece that sometimes seems to overstay its welcome to me. Tonight, I actually felt it too short and wished that Rakhmaninov had perhaps developed the last movement in particular a bit more.  The Rundfunkchor Berlin perhaps lacked the ultimate in Russian bass sound and at times, especially in the third movement, had some trouble being heard over the orchestra.  Still, the blend was outstanding, I just wish that there had been a few more of them.  Luba Orgonášová (remember her?) has lost nothing of her silvery tone and was perfectly cast as the soprano solo.  Finally, Mikhail Petrenko delivered the bass solo in a perfectly intoned ink-black tone fully alive to the text.  The orchestra played extremely well.

The King of the Stars showed the Rundfunkchor Berlin at its very best.  The orchestration being a little less dense allowed the gentlemen of the chorus to be heard perfectly and the almost impossible writing was perfectly done.

The real meat of this concert though came in an outstanding rendition of the Rite of Spring.  This is the second performance of this piece that I have heard in a month and it had everything the other performance was lacking.  When I heard Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, I was struck how he brought out the inner voices, the strange orchestration inherent in the piece, yet seemed unwilling to let his fabulous orchestra off the leash and allow them to exceed what they even thought possible. There were no such issues tonight.  Rattle just pushed his orchestra harder and harder and the effect was stunning.  It was sensationally played and brought out things I had never even noticed before.  Some might think it overly loud and brash – yet there was great subtlety there – the start of the second part for instance.  The entire string section seemed to live and breathe as one person and if I had to select one section for particular praise then it must be the horns who were superb.  Even then, the entire orchestra was firing on all cylinders and Rattle simply enabled them to exceed what they even thought possible.  The other thing that struck me is that Rattle really managed to emphasize the fact that this is dance music, albeit of incredible rhythmic complexity.  The music had a ‘swing’ to it that was really quite captivating.

This was a superb performance of a work that was once considered unplayable and now is a repertoire staple.  But it was something else – it was a performance by an orchestra at the peak of its powers, a body of people who live and breathe the music as one.  It’s available in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall and I recommend anyone who loves this work to look it up.  I am incredibly lucky to have seen two very memorable concerts of theirs in the last two months.

Home at Last

Haydn – Symphony No. 94 ‘Surprise’

Maxwell Davies – An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise

Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal / Kent Nagano.

Maison symphonique, Montréal. Sunday, October 7th, 2012.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is one of the world’s great orchestras and one that, until recently, did not have the concert hall it deserved to call home. Previously, the orchestra played in the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, a 1960s construction that certainly looked imposing from outside and had a attractive auditorium but also lacked the ideal acoustic for symphonic music having been designed as a multipurpose venue. Then, last year the OSM inaugurated their new home, the Maison symphonique, which is a beautiful venue with stunning views of the city skyline from the foyers and a handsome auditorium made mainly from wood. Acoustically, it works very well. The sound is resonant and warm with a strong bass line. Yet it also has exceptional clarity which allows every detail to be heard. I was delighted to be attending my first concert there today and seeing the orchestra that gave me my first musical experiences at the top of its game.

The program was a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. I don’t quite see the thematic thread going from the Haydn to the Maxwell Davies to the Stravinsky. The connection between the Maxwell Davies and Stravinsky was self-evident yet the Haydn felt a bit like an afterthought.

During his time in Montréal, Nagano has been trying to expand the orchestra’s repertoire by incorporating earlier music than the orchestra had previously specialized in. While our ears have become accustomed to hearing period orchestras playing Haydn, this does not mean that conventional symphony orchestras cannot play it just as well. The problem here was that even with a reduced complement of 8 first violins, the orchestra felt somewhat large and failed to quite do justice to the music in the way that they could have. Part of the problem was that the acoustic was unforgiving, making clear the fact that the string playing was not quite unanimous. The other problem was Nagano’s heavy-handed conducting. This is witty music that should swing yet Nagano’s heavy tread in the minuet for example meant that that the music remained entirely earthbound. It passed the time agreeably enough but I felt that a more adventurous choice might have been a better way to start the concert.

The Maxwell Davies on the other hand was superb. The orchestra relished the piece and completely inhabited it. It also showed off the wonderful acoustic of the hall. There was a real swing to the piece and Nagano fully realized the vision of the work. The contribution of Alan J Jones on the bagpipes set the seal on a great performance of a work that I would like to hear again. It was rapturously received by the audience.

With the Stravinsky we were in much more familiar Nagano territory. His 1990s recording (with the LSO?) was a revelation bringing out voices in the orchestration that were usually hidden. He succeeded in doing the same today. The orchestra was on top form in all of the sections with fantastically strong string playing and superb brass and woodwind. If there was one thing that I could find fault with it was that Nagano seemed to be holding the orchestra back far too much rather than pushing them to give more. It felt somewhat ‘control-freaky’ and I wish that he had let this magnificent orchestra off the leash a little more often. They played fabulously and I would love to hear what they can do with someone like Nelsons or Jurowski for example. Still, it was a superb reading, one that presented the work as new. Again, it was rapturously received by the audience who are extremely well-behaved incidentally.

This was a great afternoon of music making from one of the world’s greatest orchestra. I am so happy to hear them flourishing in their new hall, it is an institution that the city of Montréal can be really proud of.

Revelatory performance of a modern masterpiece

Gershwin – Porgy and Bess.

 

Porgy – Willard White

Bess – Latonia Moore

Sporting Life – Howard Haskin

Crown – Lester Lynch

Jake – Rodney Clarke

Clara – Angel Blue

Robbins – John Fulton

Serena – Andrea Baker

Maria – Tichina Vaughn

Jim – Michael Redding

 

Cape Town Opera Voice of the Nation Chorus (prepared by Albert Horne)

Berliner Philharmoniker / Simon Rattle.

 

Philharmonie, Berlin.  Saturday, September 15th, 2012.

 

This was one of those concerts that will live for a very long time in the memory.  Rattle has a strong reputation in Gerswhin and his Glyndebourne recording remains a benchmark for recordings of this work.  Willard White was the Porgy of that recording and he remains a superb singer.  With a strong cast and a chorus that is very experienced in the work, hopes were high for an outstanding evening – and they were certainly realized.

 

It was a very well cast show.  Latonia Moore was a late replacement for new mother Measha Brueggergosman and she is an excellent singer.  I have heard very good things about Moore and so it proved tonight.  She has a wonderful instrument, even throughout the range and a fabulous technique that allows her to do anything she wants with it.  She is also a beautiful lady.  I see that her website essentially lists her engagements for the next year as Bess and Aida.  It would be a real shame if she were typecast in those roles.  I really hope that Moore gets picked up very soon by the leading houses – she is an outstanding Verdi soprano and I think would also make a magnificent Tosca too. 

 

Willard White sounded fresher in this music than he did in his recording of 20 years ago.  The guy is a legend.  He must have been singing for over 40 years now but the voice has lost nothing of its power nor of its stability.  Howard Haskin gave us a wonderfully extrovert rendition singing ‘it ain’t necessarily so’ with the fervour of a gospel preacher and answered quite magnificently by the chorus.  I found the voice lacked a little suppleness – he sings much heavier music than this normally – but overall it was a great performance.  Angel Blue’s Clara gave us a delicious ‘summertime’ and she has a wonderfully individual tone to her voice.  Rodney Clarke’s Jake also distinguished himself by his silver tone and clear diction.  Andrea Baker’s Serena was a little out of her comfort zone – this is a soprano role after all – and ‘my man’s gone now’ stretched her to her limits.  Finally, Tichina Vaughn’s Maria was a no-nonsense lady who nobody would mess with.  Her Klytemnästra-like delivery worked wonderfully.  The voice does lack some integration between the registers but she’s a terrific stage presence and almost stopped the show at several points. 

 

Rattle has been living with this music for decades and it shows.  The hours flew by and there were none of those longueurs that sometimes become apparent in his studio recording.  The Berliner Philharmoniker yet again cemented their reputation as one of the finest orchestras around.  The playing was highly idiomatic and absolutely superb.  The sheer weight of sound with a strong and warm bass line was astounding.  Rhythmically too they were spot on.  There were so many wonderful moments, it’s difficult to single one out but if I had to, it would be the brass playing at the moment when Sportin’ Life takes Bess off to New York.  That sexy big band sound soared completely at that point. 

 

If the playing was exceptional then words fail me when it comes to the chorus. I don’t think I have ever heard an opera chorus like it.  The Cape Town Voice of the Nation Opera Chorus was absolutely, phenomenally incredible.  Often, opera choruses can sound like a blend of competing vibratos that makes the pitch waver terribly.  Here, the blend was superb but it was combined with incredible amplitude that filled the hall with golden sound.  There were only about 50 of them but it sounded like there were 250.  If I could live any moment of that show again it would be the final ‘Oh Lord I’m on my way’ which was absolutely stunning.  I don’t know how well it came over on the Digital Concert Hall but in the hall itself, the sound was absolutely glorious.  It seems that the chorus is made up of some outstanding singers individually but they also know how to sing collectively and they lived this music in a way that only long experience with this score allows.  I would love to hear them in another opera – maybe Turandot, Boris Godunov or perhaps even Les Troyens.

 

This was an exceptional performance of a modern masterpiece.  I’m not always convinced of the strength of this work when listening to it but then a performance such as this shook away any doubts and presented the work with love and affection.  It was blessed with an outstanding cast, superb orchestral playing but also with a chorus that will live in the memory as an example of one of the finest choral performances I have ever heard.  I really hope that EMI can release this performance on disc.  Otherwise, I hope that the Digital Concert Hall recording will be released on DVD.  This was an exceptional show.

Work in progress

Berlioz – Grande messe des morts.

Toby Spence (tenor)

BBC National Chorus of Wales (prepared by Adrian Partington)

Huddersfield Choral Society (prepared by Joseph Cullen)

London Symphony Chorus (prepared by Matthew Hamilton)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Thierry Fischer

BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London.  Saturday, August 11th, 2012.

One of the main issues with having such good quality music available instantly in great sound is that one immediately compares any live performance to the recording.  As I mentioned in my previous review of Colin Davis’ conducting of the Berlioz Grande messe des morts back in June, Paul McCreesh’s recording of the piece has set an impossibly high benchmark.  It’s not perfect, but it’s as close to perfection as one can imagine.  But then, staying at home in one’s living room is no substitute for experiencing the real thing and I am extremely privileged to live in a city where incredible artistic experiences can sometimes be taken for granted.  At the same time, in the concert hall one can be distracted by talkers, coughers and various other annoyances.  Ultimately, however, going to a live performance can never be replaced by a recording – simply because seeing an incredible singer in full flow, or an orchestra exceed what they even believe possible, these are what make live performances what they are.

On a superficial level, I found this evening’s performance of the Grande messe des morts to be one of the most ‘enjoyable’ I have experienced in a while.  There was nothing that seemed to go against the grain of the music, it was more than decently sung and competently played and the conducting was unobtrusive.  It certainly wasn’t a life-changing experience in the way that the Vienna Gurrelieder was but it was a very good evening overall.

The main difference between this performance and that of Colin Davis in June was that in a way, expectations were somewhat lower.  That is not to dismiss the excellence of the forces involved here, more that Davis’ reputation as one of the greatest of Berlioz’ interpreters meant that expectations were extremely high.  In the end, for me, they were disappointed.  Here tonight, I felt the sense of an interpretation in progress, one that hadn’t quite bedded in yet but that given a few years would be a very good one.  There was much that I hadn’t noticed in the work before and Fischer did a lot to bring out the internal balances in a way that Davis didn’t.  I very much regret that Fischer didn’t make full use of the magnificent hall by placing the brass bands ‘aux quatre points cardinaux’ – they were all crammed on stage with everyone else, that said, the sound when they did play was glorious and certainly made the floor shake.

The choral singing was generally very fine, the men especially.  Yes, there were a few moments when intonation went awry but they had the power and delicacy for the extremes of the work. I very much appreciated the semi-chorus ‘quaerens me’ which was beautifully done.  I really don’t want to dwell too much on Toby Spence’s tenor solo.  The guy is just recovering from a life-threatening illness and the fact that he is singing at all is remarkable.  The notes were there even though the voice didn’t quite do everything he wanted it to and I very much hope that he can make a full recovery.

The orchestral playing was not quite in the same league as the singing.  There was some quite raw intonation at various points and ensemble at times was shaky.  The brass was magnificent though.

Thierry Fischer’s conducting served the work well overall.  His tempi were relatively swift although he allowed the slower sections to register well.  Some of the same things that annoyed me with Davis were present here – the lacrymosa dragged too much (leading to one point where it all threatened to fall apart) and the tuba mirum lacked the reckless abandon that it should have had, especially since with the brass on stage, he didn’t need to worry about coordination.  He did encourage his massed forces to play with exceptional delicacy and the opening was wonderfully quiet. At times he also encouraged the strings to play without vibrato which had a wonderful effect, I just wished he’d asked them to play the whole piece like that.  Ultimately, it felt like a work in progress but a very impressive one none the less.

This was a mixed experience but one that I am glad that I attended.  I realized at the end of the evening that while this work is famous for the massed brass bands and drums, the real glory of this work lies in those closing pages, in the ‘amens’ that seem to link Berlioz’ image of this world and the hereafter and the muffled drums of the closing pages.

Immune to the spell

Wagner – Die Walküre.

Sieglinde – Alwyn Mellor
Siegfried – Erik Nelson Werner
Hunding – Clive Bayley
Wotan – Béla Perencz
Brünnhilde – Annalena Persson
Fricka – Katarina Karnéus
Helmwige – Katherine Broderick
Ortlinde – Meeta Raval
Gerhilde – Miriam Murphy
Waltraute – Jennifer Johnston
Siegrune – Madeleine Shaw
Rossweisse – Catherine Hopper
Grimgerde – Antonia Sotgiu
Schwertleite – Emma Carrington

Orchestra of Opera North / Richard Farnes
Staging and visuals – Peter Mumford

The Lowry, Salford Quays. Saturday, July 14th, 2012.

I guess what I am trying to achieve here is less write a review more give my thoughts on this performance and Wagner’s music in general. Most of my musical interests were set when I was a teenager and as a student in my early twenties when, paradoxically, I seemed to have more disposable income to spend on music than I do now. The first composer I really got into was Beethoven, followed by Mahler, then Berlioz which then spread to everything from Bach to Mozart to Britten to Schoenberg and many more. Yet, Wagner was never really a figure I got to know. Partly, it was one of politics – yet I have recenrtly come to realize that listening to Strauss is perhaps just as politically questionable as listening to Wagner. High school music class introduced me to the prelude and Liebestod (which is one of the greatest soprano arias ever written) but the rest just failed to capture my imagination.

For that reason, I have very little experience of listening to Wagner’s music in its entirety. I attended Salonen’s Tristan a couple of years back but that was mainly to hear La Urmana. I found it a thrilling experience – the combination of the visuals and the superb singing made for a very special evening, but I’m not sure that it would convince me in a conventional production. Naturally, I have heard other works but on the whole, Wagner leaves me cold.

Having read the really positive reviews of Opera North’s Walküre, and given that the price of the train, overnight accommodations and the ticket combined cost the same as a poor seat with hardly any view at Covent Garden, I decided to give it a go.

I was originally expecting something similar to the Salonen/Peter Sellars Tristan for this concert but in the event the visuals were not as comprehensive. Essentially, they were relatively static projections on to screens above the stage. There was some movement but overall they provided images to match in with the action or the text being sung. The surtitles and a brief summary of the action were projected on to these images. This wasn’t an ideal solution since white text on a grey background meant that they were frequently illegible. Fortunately, the diction on the whole was crystal-clear meaning that the text was relatively easy to follow.

The main strength of this performance was the playing of the Opera North orchestra which was tireless throughout a very long evening. They played with great spirit and commitment. In the Lowry’s dry acoustic the large number of strings seemed to lack body, but the woodwind playing was characterful and the brass splendidly powerful. I found Richard Farnes’ conducting didn’t quite manage to paper over the fact that there are a lot of longueurs in this piece. The second half of Act 2 for example dragged horrifically.

Vocally, it was a decent if not outstanding evening. I found that the casting of the two main female leads should have been reversed. Alwyn Mellor sang a feminine, richly-voiced Sieglinde. She lacked some weight in the lower register but bloomed beautifully on the top. Annalena Persson’s Brünnhilde on the other hand was squally on top but had a rich lower register. I really wish that Mellor had sung Brünnhilde. I found Erik Nelson Werner’s Siegmund to be somewhat underpowered although Clive Bayley’s Hunding was much stronger. Béla Perencz’s Wotan was quite interesting. He certainly has the voice for the role and his Magyar German was quite endearing. He had a tendency to push the voice too much meaning that the end of Act 3 was all over the place pitch-wise.

The Valkyries on the other hand were a splendid bunch. Katherine Broderick and Meeta Raval stood out. Both are due to sing Donna Anna with ENO and Opera North respectively and I would certainly make the journey to see Raval in the role. Miriam Murphy also stood out, the voice reminding me of a young Jane Eaglen and I hope that Murphy can avoid the burnout that Eaglen suffered.

One of the reviews of the recent Royal Opera production of Les Troyens mentioned that Berlioz did not have the sense of pacing that Wagner does. On this showing, I am inclined to completely disagree. I found Walküre to be an interesting work but certainly not a life-changing one and now I have experienced it live, I would not hurry to hear it again. I would certainly be interested in attending their Siegfried planned for next summer but for me, Wagner’s music on the whole leaves me completely cold.

Overwhelming Britten

Britten – Billy Budd.

Captain Vere – Kim Begley

First Mate – Oliver Dunn

Second Mate – Gerard Collett

Mr Flint – Darren Jeffery

Bosun – Andre Rupp

Donald – Duncan Rock

Maintop – Jonathan Stoughton

Novice – Nicky Spence

Squeak – Daniel Norman

Mr Redburn – Jonathan Summers

Lieutenant Ratcliffe – Henry Waddington

John Claggart – Matthew Rose

Red Whiskers – Michael Colvin

Arthur Jones – Philip Daggett

Billy Budd – Benedict Nelson

Dansker – Gwynne Howell

Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera / Edward Gardner.

Stage Director – David Alden

Coliseum, London.  Sunday, July 8th, 2012.

Much has been written about the production of Les Troyens at Covent Garden over the past few weeks but relatively little has been written about Billy Budd at ENO.  When all is said and done, I know which one for me was the most emotionally moving.  Indeed, this was one of the most heart-wrenchingly moving performances I have seen in an opera house in a very long time.  While this is not a work I love as much as Les Troyens, when done properly, it can still pack a punch.

The truth is, that up until the middle of Act 2, I had the impression of watching a competent performance.  This was the two act version, incidentally.  Yet, once we reached Billy’s famous aria something happened, the performance just entered a completely different league.  I left the theatre completely numb and unable to speak.

The production was set in a ship that could have been anywhere and costumes (Constance Hoffman) were military and could have been from any time over the last 50 years.  The sets were relatively basic and the atmosphere somewhat claustrophobic, to me it felt like more of a submarine than a ship.  The opening chorus saw the sailors cleaning the floor rather than pulling.  It was also a brutal regime, with henchmen with batons constantly looking to discipline the sailors.

Kim Begley’s voice is not as fresh as it once was.  He was all too easily believable as the old man of the prologue.   Yet, he was able to manage his resources well to give an effective performance.  It wasn’t always vocally elegant but it did give a strong impression of a man wracked with guilt.  Matthew Rose’s Claggart was extremely physical – I really liked the way he portrayed a fate worse than flogging – and the latent homoerotic desires he harboured for Billy were well brought out.  Vocally he was also strong and this role suited him extremely well.

The rest of the cast were very strong – Gwynne Howell’s Dansker and Duncan Rock’s Donald were the pick of the supporting cast.  I would certainly like to see Duncan Rock as Billy one day.  Francine Merry’s chorus were on superb form.  Blend and amplitude were superb and the big climaxes were wonderfully done.

I found Edward Gardner’s conducting initially somewhat unwilling to press ahead with the drama – the softer moments (such as the prologue and epilogue) were wonderfully done but later on, towards the end of the first act the orchestra opened up wonderfully and showed off some terrific brass playing.  The start of Act 2 was superb.

Where this performance really took off though was toward the end of Act 2.  Up until that point I had found Benedict Nelson’s Billy to be somewhat anonymous.  I found that he didn’t quite dominate the stage in the way the he should have.  However, once he reached his wonderful aria, I was completely overcome by emotion.  I imagine it was his use of words, the easy legato, the perfect diction that did it.  Yet I have never heard a performance of that aria so devastating in its portrayal of a man facing certain death and knowing exactly what was going to happen to him.  The execution scene was unbearably moving and Begley’s performance of the epilogue was beautifully done.

This was a superb afternoon at the opera and reminded me of the power that this art form can have at its very best.  Unfortunately, the auditorium was only about half-full for this final performance of the run while Les Troyens was completely sold out.  Even though Berlioz’ magnum opus is a passion of mine, it is clear that the more overwhelming operatic experience of the two was at ENO.

More is on occasion less….

Berlioz – Les Troyens.

Cassandre – Anna Caterina Antonacci

Chorèbe – Fabio Capitanucci

Panthée – Ashley Holland

Hélénus – Kim Ji Hyun

Ascagne – Barbara Senator

Hécube – Pamela Helen Stephen

Priam – Robert Lloyd

Énée – Bryan Hymel

Hector – Kim Jihoon

Didon – Eva-Maria Westbroek

Anna – Hanna Hipp

Iopas – Park Ji-Min

Narbal – Brindley Sherrat

Hylas – Ed Lyon

Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano.

Stage director – David McVicar

Royal Opera House, London.  Thursday, July 5th, 2012.

I have probably mentioned several times in this blog about how much I love this work.  In fact, this is the third production that I have reviewed since starting this blog and it certainly looked like the one with the biggest budget.  Stagings of Les Troyens are always seen as an ‘event’ and in this Olympic year, this was the Royal Opera’s way of offering something seriously big.  Yet, big isn’t always better and it is sometimes possible to throw massive amounts of money at a production yet achieve so much more with relative economy.  David Herrmann’s production in Karlsruhe was a perfect example of this and on the whole, I felt that that production more than any others I have seen, with the exception of Richard Jones at ENO, did more to penetrate into the spirit of the work than many others.

I left the theatre this evening with a renewed sense of the fact that Berlioz’ magnum opus really is a masterpiece.  Experiencing it uncut certainly reinforced that.  It’s a piece that with the best will in the world can drag somewhat, especially in Act IV but tonight I felt that Pappano did a very good job of keeping things moving.  There are a couple of exceptions though – Cassandre’s first aria and duet with Chorèbe were taken at a funereal pace (listen to Christophe Rousset’s tempo on Véronique Gens’ Tragédiennes 2 album for an example of how it surely should go).  I also felt that sadly he let the tension drop far too much in Act V.  This is the end of a long evening and I missed a sense of a force powering the drama to its inevitable conclusion.  Otherwise, tempi were well chosen and Act IV in particular was a big success.  The orchestra played like heroes but I felt that Pappano could have done more to bring out those subtleties in the scoring and the quirky, unusual aspects of Berlioz’ orchestration.  Still it was a great achievement.  Renato Balsadonna’s chorus gave everything to the piece and the men in particular were excellent.  The ladies, I felt, lacked blend – far too many individual voices sticking out – and the excessive vibratos meant that tuning wasn’t always impeccable.  I haven’t yet heard a chorus to match the Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana (which can be heard on the Gergiev DVD) in terms of blend and amplitude, although based on their recent Macbeth, I think the Geneva chorus could do a pretty good job.

For me the main limitation to this production came with the staging.  It was far too obvious, lacked subtlety and brought nothing new to the work.  As a west end musical it would be great value and it certainly told the story in an accessible way to anyone seeing the piece for the first time.  Cassandre was perhaps the worst treated of the principals.  The whole point is that she is cursed so that nobody would believe her.  Here she was a raving lunatic who most people would cross the street to avoid.  Anna Caterina Antonacci certainly entered into the sprit of the production but I felt that watching someone who looked like she was suffering from kidney stones failed to capture the essence of the personality – it was just a cheap, unsubtle shot at a very complex character.  I really missed that sensible lady in a blue suit of Richard Jones’ ENO production.  Vocally Antonacci to me felt far too small in scale for such a large house and she sacrificed vocal production and beauty to her need to portray as crazy a person as possible.  She is a well-appreciated and acclaimed artist but anyone watching her for the first time tonight may well have not left the theatre with that impression.

Eva-Maria Westbroek’s Didon on the other hand was a complete triumph.  Her diction was impeccable – she sang it better than most native francophones – and she was completely at home in the style.  She came across well as a young queen who could inspire her people and she was a sincere stage presence.  ‘Adieu fière cité’ was a real highlight (although it was lazily staged, stage front in front of a black curtain).  Bryan Hymel’s Énée was decent enough and on occasion even better than that.  His French needs some work though (words were not always clear) but he’s still young.  He can pull out some electrifying top notes but my impression in the theatre was that tuning in ‘inutiles regrets’ went a bit awry as it felt he was forcing the tone.  It’s a great achievement for someone with a medium-weight tenor but I really felt the presence of Jon Vickers in the house – I don’t know why, I could just imagine him singing the part in that particular theatre.

The rest of the cast was decent enough.  Hanna Hipp’s Anna impressed as did Brindley Sherrat’s Narbal, Ashley Holland’s, Panthée and the veteran Robert Lloyd’s Priam.  Fabio Capitanucci was a decent enough Chorèbe.  Diction on the whole ranged from poor (Jihoon Kim’s Hector) to outstanding (Westbroek and Antonacci).  There was a complete absence of francophone singers in the cast and while Westbroek proved that one needn’t necessarily need to have French as a first language to sing the work well, I really missed the attention to words native speakers could bring to the text.  I can certainly think of at least three québécois singers who could have been cast in supporting roles and perhaps been even more impressive.

What let the evening down above all was the staging.  It was unoriginal (Cassandre in a black shift – where have I seen that before?), obvious (Cassandre’s mania) and poorly choreographed (the ballets were appalling).  There really seemed no point in updating the story to the time of the opera’s composition (other than to confuse audience members who thought they were watching Les Mis).  Costumes were good (Moritz Junge) and it was certainly a handsome set (Es Devlin).  Overall, it felt like a missed opportunity.  It was well-conducted, decently cast and performed complete but let down by the staging.  I sincerely hope that ENO has not scrapped the Richard Jones production and that they will one day revive it.  I have seen more than a half-dozen productions of this work now and none of them (with the exception of Herrmann’s) have come close.

I left the theatre with a renewed sense of the glory of this piece and that it truly is one of the great operatic masterpieces.  I enjoyed the show over all – I just feel that it could have been so much more.

Berlioz, Davis and St Paul’s

Berlioz – Grande Messe des morts.

Barry Banks (tenor)

London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus

London Symphony Orchestra /  Colin Davis.

St Paul’s Cathedral, London.  Tuesday, June 26th, 2012.

I first came across the music of Berlioz as a teenager growing up in Montréal.  I was lucky to be living in a city where we had the presence of the greatest ‘French’ orchestra in the world and where Charles Dutoit’s revelatory performances introduced many to the wonders of his music.  The first piece I came across was Les Troyens and I was hooked.  I then came to know the Grande messe des morts and this I listened to on a loop for months.  While I write this blog in English, I grew up bilingually and I always feel that Berlioz is a French composer and as a prolific writer, Berlioz’ vocal music always seems to be completely married to the text that he is setting.

Fast forward a few years and last month I found myself in Vienna.  At Stephansplatz, I could see that they were restoring the cathedral.  They are removing years of grime and dirt and several of the facades are brand new and look like they were always supposed to look.  Last year, I heard Paul McCreesh’s version of the Grande messe and I had exactly the same feeling as I did looking at that cathedral.  I finally got to hear a masterpiece exactly as it should be heard.  The tempi are well chosen, he brings out internal voices and influences that are normally hidden but most of all the singers use pronunciation close to what Berlioz would have expected.  It’s not perfect – but it’s close.

The whole point of this long introduction is that this piece is one that I love and have known for years.  It has seen me through many difficult moments but it also means that I have very high expectations for performances.  Contrary to Les Troyens, I have been to very few live performances of this work. There was Dutoit in Montréal of course, Davis at the Proms a decade ago, Gergiev and the CBSO in 2009(?) and a dreary performance conducted by Runnicles in Berlin in 2008.  Colin Davis has done more than any other living musician to revive interest in Berlioz’ music and in many ways, despite the acoustical problems, St Paul’s is an ideal venue for this piece.  So hopes were certainly high for this performance.

I was very lucky in my seat as I was seated in the front nave and the sound was excellent.  This may cloud my judgment as those who were seated further back might have experienced a different performance.  The first thing that became clear was that Davis knew exactly how to work the building – pauses were judged perfectly in order to allow the echo to resonate around the building.  What I felt was that tempi were not quite as well judged.  The opening dragged horribly – there was no inner energy pushing it onwards.  The orchestra played well but the chorus was initially tentative and some entries were not unanimous.  The tuba mirum sounded fantastic, the brass glorious and the effect of the percussion was earth shattering.  Yet it felt flat – this is music that needs to be pushed forward, it’s excessive music – there are four brass bands and 16 timps, yet Davis’ calm restraint just failed to do it justice.  I feel that had the tempo just been picked up a notch or two it would have been incredible and it wouldn’t have turned into aural mush.  The same for the lacrymosa – it just sagged horribly with a complete lack of an inner pulse or rhythmic impetus to push the music forward.

Where the performance succeeded though was in the quieter more reflective moments.  The domine was beautifully done as was the hostias. The sanctus benefitted from the wonderful Rossini tenor of Barry Banks.  He was perfect casting in the part, the voice free and easy.  I just wish that Davis had placed him high up in the gallery.  What really worked though was the closing pages – the choral tone hanging on the air and the sound of those timpani echoing through the dome, Berlioz’ image of the hereafter hovering through the building.  That is my abiding memory of the concert and will stay with me for a long time.

The chorus sang heroically. Yes they could have done with more tenors and some entries were not quite unanimous at first but once they got into their stride they gave everything to the piece. I wish Davis had done more to bring out those inner voices in the way that McCreesh does (for example the tenor line in the dies irae as it builds up towards the tuba mirum).  The orchestra played well – the brass were fantastic – and the strings also distinguished themselves in those sustained passages towards the end.

Overall for me, this was an interesting performance.  By the end I was fulfilled but the journey getting there was not quite completely satisfying.  Davis recently ranted about period performance practices but if he had used some of them in this performance (the French Latin for example) this may well have been even more engaging.

Verdian magic

Verdi – Macbeth

Macbeth – Franco Vassallo

Lady Macbeth – Jennifer Larmore

Dama di Lady Macbeth – Natalia Gavrilan

Banco – Christian Van Horn

Macduff – Andrea Carè

Malcolm – Emilio Pons　

Choeur du Grand Théâtre de Genève

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande / Ingo Metzmacher.  Stage Director – Christof Loy.　

Grand Théâtre, Geneva.  Sunday, June 24th, 2012.

Geneva is an interesting city and one I don’t visit very often. Given how expensive Switzerland is in general, I chose to fly in for a matinee and fly out the same day. After enjoying a very nice lunch by the lake I headed over to the Grand théâtre to see Christof Loy’s production of Macbeth. There was a temperature of 25 degrees in Geneva and inside the theatre it was much hotter. They badly need air conditioning in there.

Fortunately what was happening on stage was equally hot and this was a thrilling afternoon of terrific singing, conducting and playing. Ingo Metzmacher was a real surprise. He has won plaudits in later repertoire but here it was brilliant. Tempi were nice and swift and the opening chorus was taken at a terrific lick. What was more impressive was that the ladies of the Grand théâtre’s chorus were in no way fazed by this and stayed exactly on the beat. He also coaxed some wonderfully full-bodied playing from the OSR. All in all it was an impressive reading.

Chief vocal honours must go to Jennifer Larmore’s Lady. She sang the piece as only a Rossini specialist can. Coloratura was nimble and she even ornamented her Act 1 cabaletta. The range of the part held no terrors for her and she crowned it all with a perfectly placed top D flat in the sleepwalking scene. Her tone has loosened somewhat with the years – the vibrato much wider than it used to be and the registers not always perfectly integrated but it was an impressive performance and stylistically spot on.

The rest of the cast met that exalted level. Franco Vassallo sang Macbeth with great depth of tone and easy legato and impeccable diction. He was a late addition to the cast but he still seemed perfectly at home in the production. Andrea Carè was a student of Pavarotti and he shares with his mentor a golden tone with good legato and clear diction. It isn’t perhaps an instantly recognizable voice but is very impressive and I would like to hear him again. In the smaller roles there was a very impressive Banquo from Christian Van Horn, a clear and promising Malcolm from Emilio Pons and a vocally distinctive lady in waiting from Natalia Gavrilan.

As I mentioned at the start, Ching-Lien Wu’s chorus covered themselves in glory. It’s actually one of the best opera choruses I have heard in a while. Blend was excellent, there was great amplitude, tuning was spot-on and they kept up wonderfully with Metzmacher’s swift tempi.

I don’t have a lot to say about the production. It was set in what seemed to be a Scottish country house in the 50s. There was a single set with a large staircase at the back and a large fireplace at the side. The witches appeared to be the palace servants and there was little difference in dress between the characters. It was barely lit. To be honest it all felt a bit lazy with apparently very little thought having gone into creating a coherent narrative. The ballets seemed to belong in a very different show although there was some pleasant enough male nudity. I was expecting much better from Loy.

Overall this was a musically distinctive performance with two superb performances in the leaning roles, choral singing and conducting. The Grand théâtre is certainly a house worth visiting – the sight lines are excellent but they really do need to install air conditioning.

Mozartian missed opportunities

Mozart – Le Nozze di Figaro

Figaro – Luca Pisaroni
Susanna – Aleksandra Kurzak
Conte – Gerald Finley
Contessa – Maija Kovalevska
Cherubino – Serena Malfi
Marcellina – Donna Ellen
Basilio – Norbert Ernst
Don Curzio – Benedikt Kobel
Bartolo – Sorin Coliban
Antonio – Hans Peter Kammerer
Barbarina – Valentina Nafornita

Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper / Louis Langrée. Stage director – Jean-Louis Martinoty.

Staatsoper, Vienna. Sunday, June 3rd, 2012.

Let’s get this out of the way straight away. The Wiener Staatsoper is a magnificent theatre with a long and great tradition. But it is also one that that could do more to serve its customers better. For example, they really do need to notify ticket buyers as to whether the seat that they are purchasing actually has a full view of the stage. I ended up tonight sitting in a seat that had around 60% visibility. Had I know this, I would have chosen a different seat. As it was, I booked that particular seat in good faith and ended up not being able to see the stage clearly. Unfortunately, also the Staatsoper needs to do more to ensure that its clientele knows that flash photography disturbs the performance for everyone. They really should do a camera check on entry and ask all clients with cameras to check them. Should people wish to take a photo of the auditorium, they can do so at the end. Far too often tonight, there were flashes going off through the whole auditorium.

Anyway, what about the music? Well musically this was a first-class performance in many respects. The WNO Figaro I saw in March was blessed by two world-beating performances in the two main female roles. The one this evening was blessed with a superb Figaro and Count. Luca Pisaroni and Gerald Finley are the Figaro and Count of one’s dreams. Vocally they were outstanding and they had a complete mastery of the text. All of Figaro’s arias were highlights and Finley gave a thrilling ‘hai gia vinto la causa’.

Aleksandra Kurzak was a sparky Susanna. She had a slight tendency to overact occasionally with the voice but she did give us an exquisite ‘deh vieni’. She’s definitely a soprano to watch. Serena Malfi was also a wonderfully orange-toned Cherubino and sang the role as only an Italian can. The supporting roles were all well taken with the exception of Donna Ellen’s paintstripping Marcellina who fortunately was denied her aria.

Maija Kovalevska’s Countess was sadly a disappointment. Having gone from hearing today’s finest Countess in Rebecca Evans in a regional theatre to what the Staatsoper has to offer was a real let down. Kovalevska was simply not up to the job. Her intonation in ‘porgi amor’ was consistently under the note and she failed to sustain the line in ‘dove sono’ constantly running out of breath. How she is singing this role in one of the world’s leading houses is beyond me. She has an attractive, peaches and cream tone but I think that she really needs to look at her technique seriously before she burns out.

Louis Langrée’s conducting was terrific. The overture just burst into life – the orchestra finding it hard to keep up at first – and from there on in the hours just flew by. Tempi were well chosen and everything flowed along perfectly. Orchestrally, it was a bit scrappy but they settled in nicely enough and there were some nice portamenti later on. Sadly there was a major lack of ornamentation (there was none of it actually) and that was the only blot on an otherwise musically impeccable evening.

I would love to say something about the production but as I couldn’t really see most of the stage I don’t think it’s entirely fair. What I did see was ok but nothing groundbreaking.

This could have been an outstanding evening but it was ruined by three things – the poor Countess, the lack of information on the Staatsoper’s website about the seating quality and the people constantly taking photos. Otherwise, it was a musically distinguished evening with superb performances in the two main male roles.