Opera Music

Arena di Verona inaugurated its 100th anniversary season last night to a packed house of 15k spectators, set to a...

Hall One, Kings Place Cantata: ‘Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten,’ BWV 202 Concerto for oboe and violin, BWV 1060R Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 Cantata: ‘O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit,’ BWV 210 Carolyn Sampson (soprano) Christopher Cowie (oboe) Academy of St Martin in the Fields Tomo Keller (violin/director) A string section of the size 4.4.3.2.1 is small by reasonable standards, though doubtless counts as positively – or rather negatively – Furtwänglerian by the mullahs of ‘authenticity’. Nevertheless, there was no sense that the Academy of St Martin in the Fields was undernourished, and in any case its ‘orchestral’ contribution was intermittent. Carolyn Sampson and obbligato oboist Christopher Cowie took the first movement of the wedding cantata, Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten, as equal ‘soloists’ in something that fell midway between an instrumental concerto and a vocal duet. That aria emerged clear and clean, but not without warmth. Sampson’s tone remains somewhat ‘English’ in quality; provided one does not mind that, there is much to enjoy, even though a touch more vibrato would not have gone amiss. Breath control and phrasing were exemplary from both ‘soloists’. The arioso-like quality of some of the recitative writing was well handled by Sampson. There was a nimble rendition of the cello part to the second aria, though intonation was not always beyond reproach. In the third aria, ‘Wenn die Frühlingslüfte streichen,’ Sampson was fluently complemented by violinist, Tomo Keller. This cantata may not represent Bach at his most profound, but there is considerable pleasure nevertheless to be had in his effortless mastery of melody, harmony, and counterpoint. Instrumentalists such as the cellist in the final recitative took their opportunities for word-painting. Despite the small forces, there was a welcome courtly sturdiness to the closing gavotte-aria, in which the full orchestra returns. The concerto for oboe and violin opened well, its first movement harmonically grounded, and with a well-chosen tempo that permitted the music to speak. There was splendid give and take between the soloists, Cowie and Keller. Above all, Bach’s score was played as music; the issue of the score’s reconstruction melted away, or rather simply did not arise. The slow movement was on the swift side for an Adagio, though it generally worked. There were, however, occasions on which one wished the performance would prove more yielding, more in the case of the violin than the oboe. There was exemplary pizzicato support from the ASMF. The finale would have benefited from a slightly more moderate tempo, Keller’s performance veering uncomfortably close to the world of Vivaldi. Bach does not need to sound aggressive. It was a relief, then, after the interval, to have the A minor violin concerto performed in less harried fashion. Again, the tempo for the first movement was well chosen; it certainly was not slow, but nor was it relentless. Phrases were nicely turned. Dynamic contrasts and gradations made musical sense throughout. The slow movement was arguably a little brisk, somewhat no-nonsense in the orchestral approach. There were, however, moments when it yielded. Moreover, there was none of the non vibrato nonsense one fears in present-day Bach performance; the violin was permitted to sing throughout. Playing was clean, strong, and sweet-toned in the finale, which benefited from a well-judged tempo. It excited through musical means rather than through exhibitionism, which has no place whatsoever in Bach. The relative neglect of the wedding cantata, O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit, is puzzling; to my eyes and ears, it is a superior work to Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, though I should not wish to be without either. Cowie returned to the orchestra, this time on oboe d’amore, and was joined by ano

UPDATES WILL BE POSTED DAILY Photos will be posted when available Here is a recording from BBC Wales with some chat about the competition & some excerpts from Song Prize recital 1 Download: radio-wales.m4a This competition can be overlooked and neglected by the BBC programmers who concentrate more on the main prize event. You will find less information and far less media coverage but here is a helping hand to those who are interested – particularly those who are geo-blocked from the TV coverage. The song prize recitals run from Sunday 16th to Tuesday 18th when the finalists are announced. Sunday 16 June - Song Prize recital one - 2.30pm, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff Katherine Broderick - England  Marco Mimica - Croatia Jamie Barton - USA  Susana Gaspar - Portugal Official accompanists: Simon Lepper, Ll?r Williams Highlights of this recital on BBC radio3 at 13.00 BST on Tuesday 18 June link ~~ Song Prize recital two - 7.30pm, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Alexey Bogdanchikov - Russia  Gala El Hadidi - Egypt Luthando Qave - South Africa  Mária Celeng - Hungary Loriana Castellano - Italy Official accompanists: Simon Lepper, Ll?r Williams Highlights of this recital on BBC radio 3 on Wednesday 19 June at 13.00 BST link ~~ Monday 17 June - Song Prize recital three - 2.30pm Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Olena Tokar - Ukraine  Gary Griffiths - Wales Yuri Gorodetski - Belarus  Egl? Šidlauskait? - Lithuania Official accompanists: Simon Lepper, Ll?r Williams Highlights of this recital on BBC radio 3 on Thursday 20 June at 13.00 BST link ~~ Tuesday 18 June - Song Prize recital four (followed by announcement of Song Prize finalists) 2.30pm, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Jeongcheol Cha - South Korea  Ben Johnson - England Daniela Mack - Argentina  Micha? Partyka - Poland Official accompanists: Simon Lepper, Ll?r Williams Highlights of this recital on BBC radio 3 on Friday 21 June at 13.00 link ~~ Friday 21 June   Song Prize Final ~~ SATURDAY 22 JUNE at 19.30 on BBC 4 television THE SONG PRIZE FINAL  link Petroc Trelawny presents the first of BBC Cardiff Singer’s two finals, the Song Prize, a demanding discipline where singers perform art song and lieder accompanied only by the piano. Joining Petroc is the acclaimed young opera singer Danielle de Niese, while on hand to analyse the performances are two experts at the genre – leading Irish soprano Ailish Tynan, who won the title in 2003, and internationally-renowned mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink. ~~ Filed under: BBC, Cardiff

La Cieca supposes she shouldn’t complain: the more time Lorin Maazel spends on Facebook, the less time he has to wreck Don Carlo.

Barbican Hall Strauss – Festmusik der Stadt Wien Berlioz – Overture: Le corsaire, op.21 Mozart – Violin Concerto no.3 in G major, KV 216 Beethoven – Symphony no.8 in F major, op.93 Brahms – Nänie, op.82 Students from the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School London Symphony Chorus London Symphony Orchestra Patrick Harrild, Joseph Wolfe (conductors) Nikolaj Znaider (violin/director/conductor) Gordan Nikolitch (director) And so, the London Symphony Orchestra gathered tribute to the late Sir Colin Davis. Arguably it was with this orchestra, still more so than with the Royal Opera, that Sir Colin was most at home; certainly the greater number of his appearances in recent years were here at the Barbican. But until the very end, he remained committed to music-making with the young, so it was meet and right that the concert should open with student musicians from the Royal Academy (where, as recently as 2011, I heard him conduct Béatrice et Bénédict) and the Guildhall. As Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Principal of the RAM put it in one of a host of programme tributes, ‘Of the many distinguished conductors in British music over the last century, I cannot believe there has been anyone more committed to nurturing young musicians than Sir Colin. (I hope that these wonderful tributes will be made available online for all to read, if indeed they are not already.) Strauss’s 1943 Festmusik der Stadt Wien might then have seemed on paper an odd choice with which to open, but it allowed a goodly number of young musicians to assemble, and to offer a decidedly superior, eminently musical, fanfare to what was a celebration as much as a memorial. Joseph Wolfe, Sir Colin’s son, then conducted Le Corsaire. It is doubtless unnecessary to remind anyone that Sir Colin did more than anyone for Berlioz either during or after the composer’s life. To ‘review’ these performance as if this were a ‘normal’ concert would be not so much to do something wrong as completely to miss the point. Wolfe may have taken the opening more hurriedly, and the following section more leisurely, than his father might have been expected to do – though, who knows, for this was not a musician to rest on his laurels? – but the last thing Sir Colin was was a megalomaniac, insisting that there was one ‘correct’ way to perform anything. (His courtesy and humanity proved far more lethal weapons against the monstrous regiments of ‘authenticity’ than any number of angry Adornian attacks from the likes of me.) Berlioz was honoured, as he was in Sir Colin’s final performance with the LSO and the London Symphony Chorus, a truly unforgettable performance of the Requiem. Palpable throughout was the electricity of commitment from an orchestra that had clearly loved a father-figure and above all a fellow musician. Nikolaj Znaider, author of another moving programme tribute, joined the orchestra for Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto. He and Sir Colin had various concerts planned together; indeed, this evening was due to have offered a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto and Schubert’s ‘Great’ C major Symphony. Amongst those plans had been exploration of Mozart. There were a few occasions when one might have sighed longingly, knowing that a tricky corner would have been deftly negotiated by the greatest Mozartian since at least Karl Böhm. But again, the point here was to rejoice in fresh musicianship. Znaider drew from the LSO a crisp and often affectionate response to Mozart’s vernal score, especially during an adorably sweet account of the slow movement, and his sensitivity as soloist was beyond reproach. The performance, however, was not without melancholy, at least in terms of response, for if we shall miss Sir Colin in Berlioz, we shall miss him even more in Mozart. Who, after all, now is left, fit to perform that most difficult and yet most crucial of musical tasks? N

The duet may seem to be a pretty simple musical form featured in opera that really doesn't need any explanation, right? But there's a little more to it than just "this person sings, then that person sings, then they sing together!" Dr. Nic Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education & Outreach for San Diego Opera, lets you in on what kinds of duets exist in opera and how they communicate the

Congratulations to Jamie Barton who won the first round of the #CardiffSinger Competition! @jbartonmezzo #HGOPride

When a legendary conductor like Lorin Maazel takes to his Facebook page and publishes statuses that take on what is going wrong in opera today, Yours Truly can't help but listen ... and take copious notes. Opera Staging Madness (Part One) June 14, 2013 A great number of opera lovers are becoming increasingly alienated from an art form that has nourished the spirits and minds generations of people... opera: the ultimate fusion of song and sound, of word and fancy, a visceral corporal soul language second to none in breadth and depth of thought and emotion. At the risk of stating the obvious, of postulating the pedestrian, may I approach the subject of the staging and musical interpretation of an opera applying logic and common sense? An opera is a Gesamtkunstwerk, i.e. a "total art work; an artistic creation, that synthesizes the elements of music, drama, spectacle, dance, language, social mores, dress, body language" and all other aspects at any given moment of the recounted story as it is set to music. The librettist tells the story, sets it in a time period, in a cultural and social context. The composer finds the appropriate sounds, turn of phrase, thematic material to project his/her interpretation of the emotions engendered by the story. The stage director's task to flesh out in a convincing manner the essential thrust of the story as interpreted by the composer. The conductor's task is to bring to life the implications of the music in a meaningful and vibrant way. The roles of both stage director and conductor are essentially custodial, bringing into play only those actions which heighten and make clearer the intentions of librettist and composer, actions which at every turn must respect and honor the librettist and the composer. To do otherwise is to pervert and despoil the work of masters. The egos of stage director and conductor (and his/her psychological problems) are never ever to come into play. An opera stage is not a psychiatrist's couch. - Lorin MaazelAnd, he didn't stop there. The Maestro continued: Opera Staging Madness (Part Two) June 16, 2013 In Part One of my comment regarding the Philistinism of some present day opera staging concepts, I wrote: 'The roles of both stage director and conductor are essentially custodial.' 'Custodial' challenges, does not restrict, the fantasy of Stage and Music Director. Two examples: the first, Giorgio Strehler's 1980 production at La Scala of Verdi's Falstaff...end of Scene Four when a gigantic laundry basket, presumably containing Falstaff hiding and suffocating inside, is dumped over a restraining barrier into the river Thames. In a whimsical stroke of staging genius, Giorgio had a huge wave wash over the stage three seconds after the laundry basket "hit" the river! (Never mind that at least one performance, the water flowed over the raked stage into the orchestra pit!). Sheer staging heaven, this! No need to turn Shakespeare's jocund reveler Falstaff into a retired sumo wrestler at a Caracas brothel. The second example: Keita Asari's now legendary staging in 1986 at La Scala of Madame Butterfly. About an hour before the opera began, a Japanese country-style house could be seen being 'constructed" authentically block by block, rock garden and all. At precisely 7pm, the lights dimmed, the conductor (me at the time) walked out, bowed and gave the down beat. The audience has been imperceptibly drawn into the timelessness of an ancient culture. Cio-Cio San's suicide was staged with a delicacy that brought tears to my eyes at every performance: no disembowelment, simply a gentle poke of her fan, which seemed to release a vermilion carpet that slowly unravelled over twenty feet of stage....her life's blood. Now THAT'S staging genius. No need to desecrate the refinement of a tender soul in a fragile ancient culture and given soul-life by Puccini by casting Butterfly as a hash-slinger in a San Diego diner. - Lorin MaazelSpe

To honor my dear Maria Galvany on her June 19th birthday, I present an Attila from 1979 featuring Justino Diaz, Enrico Di Giuseppe, and Cornelius Opthof from Cincinatti, conducted by Anton Coppola. This is a thrilling performance and we all wish Mme.Galvany a very happy birthday!! (68 min.)

In Sumi Jo Cecilia Bartoli has chosen a partner in the famous duets who shares her leggiero technique. The effect is pleasing. The duet singing is quite romantic and not at all the showing off that normally characterizes just about everything in this opera. Sumi Jo as Adalgisa also restores the traditional voicing of opera: the older woman, Norma, has the darker voice.The entire opera seems to be about the opera. This is why I want to see it for myself in Salzburg. The plot of Norma is very intense and emotional, but this intensity is always blunted by the almost absolute focus on vocal technique that it usually receives. With the heavy orchestra and focus on divas Norma is just too hard.I like the thin blunt sound of the orchestra. The emotions come through with so much clarity.The Bartoli colors are present in abundance. My infatuation with her is approaching 20 years (apologies) and she never ceases to surprise and amaze. This is her Norma, the one she wanted, a joy from start to finish. Critics of her "Casta diva" complain that she doesn't find the long phrase. The problem with her long phrase is that it covers the entire song. Listen again.It is simply a complete reimagining of the opera.