Opera Music

I confess I have been following Cecilia Bartoli's foray into Bellini's Norma like a deer caught in the headlights. Even the very idea of it is fascinating.I read everything in the English and German press, the vast majority positive, about both the new recording and the performances in Salzburg.We know that Cecilia is self-identified with the greatest of all divas--Maria Malibran, a woman whose legend was amplified out of all human proportion by her early death.She also carries another less positive obsession with another transcendent diva--Maria Callas. In Cecilia's native Italy time seems to have stopped with Callas. The style of performance most represented by Callas is the only one the average opera-devoted Italian cares to hear. Cecilia's countrymen are to this day completely fascinated with Callas and care not at all for her. When Cecilia sings at La Scala, they boo.Both of Cecilia's obsession divas scored triumphs in the role of Norma. Callas was particularly known for her portrayal, recording it 5 times. I am personally astounded that La Bartoli would take this on, but should I be? It begins to seem inevitable.Cecilia Bartoli is an awesome individual. (If there were any way to invest in her, I would. Could she please incorporate herself.) You only imagined that she doesn't have the right voice for Norma. She bends reality to her will. I can't stop watching. And listening.

Nmon FordWhen one thinks of the operatic version of Macbeth, one immediately thinks of Giuseppe Verdi. However, the Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch wrote a highly dramatic version in 1906, which has only been performed once in the U.S., at the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1973.The opera is about to double the number of U.S. performances it has received, with performances at the Long Beach Opera from June 15-23, 2013 and again at the Chicago Opera Theater from September 13-21, 2014. The Long Beach performances will feature Panamanian-American barihunk Nmon Ford in the title role and Suzan Hanson as his scheming wife Lady Macbeth. Adding to the dramatic effect will be the location of the performance, which will be in a vast industrial space at the Port of Los Angeles. The Chicago Opera Theater has not confirmed casting. The great Inge Borkh sings Bloch's Macbeth: Bloch’s opera reveals the influence of Wagner's music dramas and Claude Debussy's symbolist opera "Pelleas et Melisande." Bloch's probing and dramatic score powerfully illuminates the central couple, and deeply examines the temptation of promised power and its influence over our actions. but it did not receive its first performance until November 30, 1910 by the Opéra-Comique Paris. After the premiere production, the opera was staged in 1938 in Naples, but was then banned on orders of the Fascist government. Subsequently, the opera was produced in Rome in 1953, and in Trieste.

Admit it: You thought we were gonna say Solti or von Karajan, right? Girls, girls, tuck your brass knuckles back...

Royal Festival Hall Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Prelude to Act One Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act One and ‘Liebestod’ Die Walküre: Act Three Isolde, Brünnhilde – Susan Bullock Sieglinde – Giselle Allen Wotan – James Rutherford Helmwige – Katherine Broderick Gerhilde – Mariya Krywaniuk Siegrune – Magdalen Ashman Grimgerde – Antonia Sotgiu Ortlinde – Elaine McKrill Waltraute – Jennifer Johnston Rossweisse – Maria Jones Schwertleite – Miriam Sharrad David Edwards (director) David Holmes (lighting) Philharmonia Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis (director) London’s two principal opera companies have offered a baffling near-silence as their response to Wagner’s two-hundredth anniversary. With ENO, once home to Reginald Goodall, one may delete the ‘near’; the Royal Opera has opted for a single production, in November, of Parsifal, whose casting does not exactly lift the spirits. There is certainly nothing anywhere near the composer’s birthday itself. The BBC Proms have valiantly stepped into the gap, offering concert performances of the Ring (Barenboim), Tristan und Isolde (Bychkov), Parsifal (Elder) and Tannhäuser (Runnicles). Those concerts, however, will not take place until July and August. For 22 May, London’s offering was a Philharmonia concert conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Doubtless there was stiff competition for Wagner conductors on the day, and Chirstian Thielemann was otherwise occupied in Bayreuth, but it was difficult not to feel that someone with greater Wagerian credentials might at least have been a possibility. Bernard Haitink, for instance? Most of us would readily have swapped the aforementioned Parsifal to hear the Royal Opera’s erstwhile music director once again in Wagner. Was I being unfair? The proof of the aural pudding would, as always, be in the hearing. Sadly, the Prelude to the first act of Die Meistersinger – not its ‘Overture’, as the programme insert had it – received an account, which, if undoubtedly preferable to the straightforward incomprehension Antonio Pappano had shown conducting the entire opera at Covent Garden, proved no more than Kapellmeister-ish. Timings as such tell one nothing, but it felt rushed, often more martial than celebratory. There was certainly no sense of midsummer blaze or indeed embers. The Philharmonia strings, though many in number, sometimes tended towards wiriness. Detail was either skated or fussed over. Though there was more fire towards the close, it was really too late by then. It doubtless had not helped that, earlier in the day, I had listened to Furtwängler conducting the same music in 1931, but even taking that into account, it was an undistinguished performance. Rather to my surprise, the Tristan excerpts worked better. I remain sceptical, to put it mildly, about the wisdom of pairing the first act Prelude and the so-called ‘Liebestod’ (Liszt’s wretched description of Isolde’s Transfiguration). Though I am well aware of the distinguished precedents – even Furtwängler and Boulez have followed the practice – to my ears it jars. That said, both conductor and orchestra were on better form. Not only was their a fuller string sound but Davis now seemed to understand, certainly to communicate, that something was at stake. He struck a good balance between forward impulse and a more analytical approach to the score. Though certainly not plumbing any Furtwänglerian metaphysical depths, it was a satisfying enough musical experience. Susan Bullock, joining for the ‘Liebestod’, held her line well enough. At some times, she shaded sensitively; at others, she proved rather squally. The Philharmonia, however, offered beautifully shimmering and pulsating support. Whoever interposed immediately with a boorish ‘Bravo!’ should be condemned to listen to Verdi for the rest of Wagner’s anniversary year. The second half was devoted to the third act of Die Walküre. It is

La Scala formally announced its 2013-14 season today, confirming last month's leak. A full calendar and cast details are now available on the La Scala website. Another important announcement may be made by La Scala later today.

The great Mario del Monaco sang his first Otello in Buenos Aires in 1952.The conductor is Antonino Votto. The late Delia Rigal sings Desdemona, and the role of Iago (who became an Otello years later) is sung by Carlos Guichandut. The Cassio is Eugenio Valori and the Emilia is Emma Brizzio. (71 min.)

A small catalogue, and a huge impact. by Paul J. Pelkonen Composer Henri Dutilleux died May 22, 2013 in Paris, France. The great French composer Henri Dutilleux has died in Paris. He was 97. Dutilleux helped guide the path of concert music in the 20th century away from the serial techniques first practiced by Schoenberg and Webern. His two Symphonies and Cello Concerto are among his most important works, complex pieces that challenged the ear while fearlessly breaking ground in the use of modes and atonality. A fierce self-critic, Dutilleux published a small catalogue of pieces over a long compositional career. Henri Dutilleux was born in Algiers in 1916. Although he studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire and won the 1938 Prix de Rome, the outbreak of World War II put his music career on hold. The composer served a year as a medical orderly in the French Army, and then taught music, managed the chorus at the Paris Opera and worked at Radio France until 1963. He later taught at the Conservatoire. As the war continued, Dutilleux began to gain a reputation as a significant compositional voice with chamber music and songs. His 1950s output included the First Symphony (1951) which drew fiery criticism from a young French composer named Pierre Boulez. “He was very brutal," Dutilleux told an interviewer once, (as reported in an obituary published earlier today in the Daily Telegraph.) "When he was young, he didn’t like what I wrote, and I didn’t agree with his aesthetics at all. The problem was he had a lot more power than me." Listen to a performance of Dutilleux' Métaboles. Later works included the Symphony No. 2 (Le Double) and the Cello Concerto 'Tout un monde lointain...' inspired by the poetry of Charles Baudelaire (and the composer's favorite work among his output) were commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Slowly, Dutilleux began to make his reputation overseas. In 1985, Isaac Stern premiered L'arbre des songes, a violin concerto that he himself commissioned. Other works in his sparse catalogue were inspired by literature and art. Notable among these were The Shadows of Time which is dedicated to the memory of Anne Frank, and Timbres, espace, mouvement, a musical evocation of the Van Gogh painting Starry Night. In 2012, the New York Philharmonic held a special all-Dutilleux concert to commemorate the composer being awarded the first Marie-Josée Prize for New Music. That concert featured the composer's orchestral work Métaboles and the Míro String Quartet playing Ainsi la nuit, one of his few chamber pieces. The concert ended with Yo-Yo Ma playing the aforementioned Cello Concerto. A review appeared on Superconductor.

I will make every effort to stop reading like a Cecilia Bartoli fanzine now that the Whitsun Festival is over. Cecilia's contract has been renewed until 2016, because she has been wildly successful. A quote from the Salzburg Times:The Whitsun Festival in Salzburg has set a new record of visitors and revenue. Cecilia Bartoli, a popular soloist and the artistic director of the festival, was particularly popular.13,450 visitors from 43 countries attended the concerts and performances in Salzburg and bought tickets for 1.3 million Euros. The contract with the artistic director for the Whitsun Festival, Cecilia Bartoli, has been extended until 2016.“I am very happy to be able to bring music and pleasure to Salzburg until 2016”, Ms Bartoli said. She has been artistic director as well as soloist of opera and concert in the four-day festival.“I look forward to carry out many ideas at the Whitsun Festival, of which I have dreamt of for years. I am very thankful that such a huge and interested audience is so enthusiastic about us being adventurous”, Ms Bartoli said.In 2012 the attendance was 10,520, and in 2011, before Cecilia took over, it was 7,600. Next year it will be June 5 to 9, and will celebrate Rossini, including Otello and La Cenerentola. Cecilia sang Otello just last year, but I don't think she's done Cenerentola for quite a while, or at least since I began blogging. I don't know when the tickets go on sale.

In the shower or in the car — with the windows rolled up — weren't the only places amateur Seattle opera singers could perform Wednesday night. More than 200 Seattle opera fans belted out classic Wagner pieces at the Seattle Center Armory. The Seattle Opera's Wagner singalong celebrated the composer's 200th birthday and the opera's upcoming August performances of the Ring Cycle.

The phenomenon of women being personally responsible for giving away billions is really new. Currently women hold almost three-fourths of all jobs, and almost half of all CEO positions, in the nonprofit sector. But they are much more underrepresented at the board and executive level at the really big large charities, the ones with more than $25 million in the bank.