Intermezzo

how much is Andris Nelsons worth?

£7,100 according to Ebay. That was the winning bid for an auction package which included a masterclass with the maestro and the opportunity to conduct the CBSO.

CBSO auction off Andris Nelsons

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra have worked out a way to grab the headlines in the Birmingham Post and pick up a bit of cash for charity along the way too.

They're auctioning off an Ebay package which includes a precious hour alone with their cuddly conductor Andris Nelsons, during which he will impart all his secret skillz to the lucky winner *plus* an hour conducting his personal orchestra the CBSO *plus* a dinner with 'select players' (Grade 8 knife and fork use minimum) afterwards.

For anyone who'd rather fiddle with the CBSO string section, there are similar learn, play and dine opportunities for violin, viola, cello and double bass players too.

Start the bidding now and start it high!

Turandot at the Met - Lise Lindstrom goes chopping

Turandot - Metropolitan Opera New York, 28 October 2009

I caught Lise Lindstrom's Met debut and you didn't. With the house's resident screamer Maria Guleghina out with a cold, 'B' cast Lindstrom was brought in to make her first Met appearance a few days earlier than scheduled. She's played Turandot to great acclaim around Europe recently; this was New York's chance to see what all the fuss was about.

Did she nail it - yes she did! One could quibble whether her voice is the biggest or the best or the most beautiful, but its silvered laser is perfect for the role. And it's accurately pitched without a hint of wobble, indecently flexible and never showed any sign of strain. Within the limits of the ancient Zeffirelli production, which seems to have been choreographed rather than directed, she gave a more than acceptable dramatic performance too, cold and brittle to begin with, melting at the end.

Points must be deducted for her reaction to the warm applause she received at the second act curtain call. In conduct unbecoming a diva, she acted like she'd gone through to the next round of American Idol.

The audience seemed to enjoy the gushing and arm-waving. But then they'd not only applauded the Act 2 scenery (like a gladiator bathhouse from a gay p0rno) but also prematurely ovated on several occasions, ejaculating all over bars and bars of Maestro Nelsons' lovingly detailed score. There was even one knob who yelled out "Viva Puccini" before the Alfano completion started up

What a change from Ed Gardner's rampant decibels at the ENO last week. Nelsons - another Met debutant tonight - never took an extreme path, but subtly highlighted the music's complex layering, teasing out lines I'd never really heard before. And he paced it beautifully, never losing momentum, but not tempted to race either. No conductor is ever remembered for the greatness of their Turandot, but still, it's a tough test. I could see his score from where I was sitting - carefully marked up, and heavily rumpled, as if it had been dropped in the bath then left to dry. Clearly he's been doing his homework.

Vulnerability and determination were convincingly combined in Marina Poplavskaya's Liù. Not easy to pull off but she did it. Pitching issues (worse than usual tonight) and a desperately thin top detract, but not as much as they might with some other singers. Her musicality and conviction and sheer charisma carry her a long way.

Good old reliable Marcello Giordani was the unexciting Calaf. Moving lumpishly as if he'd had no rehearsals whatsoever (which may of course be the case) and mumbling through his lower register, he nevertheless managed to pull together some impressively ringing top notes. Nessun dorma of course brought the house down - some classy Bs the trigger. But for me the effect was diminished by having heard Pavarotti tackle it in the Met shop before the show. There's efficiency and then there's magic.

 

more photos tomorrow...........maybe.......if I can be........zzzzzzz........

Royal Opera House - the Winter Season

Booking for Covent Garden's Winter Season (December to March) starts today for Friends, and 20 October for all you other people.

Not much is massively tempting, though the first of Plácido Domingo's appearances this season is a must-see. He's already sung in Madrid - and been immortalised on DVD - in this striking Graham Vick production of Handel's Tamerlano, conducted for the Royal Opera House by Handel specialist Ivor Bolton. 

Also worth catching - if there are any tickets left - is Plácido 'In Conversation' in the Linbury Studio on 26 February.

Kirill Petrenko is the conductor for Der Rosenkavalier, a dust down for the 1984 John Schlesinger production.  A promising cast is headed by Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Lucy Crowe and Thomas Allen.

Andris Nelsons makes his Royal Opera House debut in December conducting an even more ancient production, John Copley's 1974 La bohème, with Maurizio Benini and Paul Wynne Griffiths substituting in January. Though once should be enough for anyone. Mix'n'match casting includes Piotr Beczala, Hibla Gerzmava and Christopher Maltman. Yards of curtain fabric, acres of creaking boards, smocks akimbo, and even a spot of artistic nudity not mentioned on the ticket (in case you're taking granny).

Last year's disappointing Robert Lepage production of The Rake's Progress makes a swift and brilliantly-cast return. Toby Spence (the best Tom Rakewell in town - he was made for this role) is joined by Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen, and Stephanie Blythe as Baba the Turk.  Lovely Ingo Metzmacher conducts and tickets are a bit cheaper than usual, with a top price of £110.

Even cheaper, with a top price of £50, is Prokofiev's The Gambler. Covent Garden take a step into ENO territory with a new English language production by Richard Jones. The cast includes Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson, Jurgita Adamonyte and Kurt Streit, and Pappano conducts. No doubt intended to draw in a new audience, as is a half day education event An Introduction to Opera on 20 February.

It's hard to make Mozart dull, but Jonathan Miller's painfully misguided assault on Così Fan Tutte does the trick. Not half as happening as it thinks it is, and it's doubtful if Charles Castronovo, Troy Cook, Sally Matthews and Nino Surgaladze can salvage it. Julia Jones waves the baton for female conductors.

CBSO do it for free

 

Just announced - the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are playing two FREE concerts this weekend.

The first and most promising is on Friday at 1.15pm - Andris Nelsons conducts Turnage and Shostakovich in the Symphony Hall. The Nelsons magic is not to be missed, especially at the bargain price of zero.

And there's an outdoor show on Saturday at 8pm in Centenary Square - no programme announced (always suspicious) but there's a firework show afterwards so no-one goes home disappointed.

Wagner - buy now while stocks last

Britain's demand for Wagner is seemingly insatiable - I somehow doubt if last weekend's Mariinsky farrago will have put many off. A couple of operas next summer are already selling fast - best not to leave ticket-buying too long.

Welsh National Opera stage a new Richard Jones production of Die Meistersinger in June 2010, with performances in Cardiff and Birmingham. Bryn Terfel, making his role debut as Hans Sachs, is joined by Amanda Roocroft, Christopher Purves, Brindley Sherratt and conductor Lothar Koenigs. More details and booking here.

Andris Nelsons conducts the CBSO in a concert performance of Lohengrin on 12 June 2010 at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. The cast includes the up-and-coming Lance Ryan and Edith Haller (as seen in Covent Garden's recent Lohengrin) plus veterans Lioba Braun and Eike Wilm Schulte. More details and booking here.

And on a related note, Wagneropera.net is running a competition - write about your Bayreuth experience to win Enrico Nawrath's book Bayreuth Backstage. Details here.

Royal Opera House 2009/10 season - all the details

Here first! - a full list of all the Royal Opera House's main stage productions for the 2009/10 season.

The 2009/10 Covent Garden season opens with neither bang nor whimper but with a credit-crunching concert performance on 7 September (repeated on 14 September). Makes a change from last year's Sun readers' special I suppose.

The opera in question is Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, and the conductor is bel canto genius Mark Elder. The cast includes potential Next Big Things Stephen Costello, Eglise Gutierrez and Luciano Botelho, plus the incomparable Alessandro Corbelli, the first of several welcome appearances this season.

The first staged opera of the season is Nicholas Hytner's lego-loving Don Carlo, with - OMG!- Jonas Kaufmann !!! in the title role. John Tomlinson joins him as the Grand Inquisitor, and the rest of the cast is lifted straight from the first run - Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, fans' favourite Ferruccio Furlanetto, Sonia Ganassi and Pumeza Matshikiza.The conductor is Semyon Bychkov.

This season's contribution to the 2013 Wagnerversary is a new Christof Loy production of Tristan und Isolde. Antonio Pappano conducts Ben Heppner, Nina Stemme, Matti Salminen, Michael Volle and Sophie Koch.

Neigh! Francesco Zambello's ghastly Carmen returns in October, with the latest Covent Garden favourite Elina Garanca back for the title role, fighting off Roberto Alagna, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, and a farmyard full of furry friends. Bertrand de Billy conducts. It's resuscitated again in June 2010 with a distinctly 'B' cast.

October also sees one of Richard Jones's more subtle and effective efforts back on stage - and attractively cast. The shouldn't-work-but-it-does double bill of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (Christine Rice, Yann Beuron, Christopher Maltman, Andrew Shore and Bonaventura Bottone) and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (Thomas Allen, Maria Bengtsson and Stephen Costello) is conducted by Pappano.

Francesco Zambello steps into Tchaikovsky's The Slippers in November. The new production will be conducted by Alexander Polianichko and features some serious talent fresh from the Mariinsky - Olga Guryakova, Vsevolod Grivnov, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Matorin and Maxim Mikhailov.

John Schlesinger's elderly Der Rosenkavalier is dusted off in December. Kirill Petrenko conducts and the cast includes Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Thomas Allen and Lucy Crowe.

Littering the December and January schedules is the inevitable La Bohème. This time Andris Nelsons conducts most of the double-cast performances, which begin with Piotr Beczala and Hibla Gerzmava and end with not a few tbc's.

Robert Lepage's intermittently effective Rake's Progress returns in January 2010. Ingo Metzmacher, Toby Spence (a Tom Rakewell tdf), Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen and Stephanie Blythe promise much on the musical side.

Female conductor alert! Top Lisboan Julia Jones wields the baton over Jonathan Miller's Cosi fan Tutte in January. The cast includes Charles Castronovo and Sally Matthews.

A new Richard Jones production of Prokofiev's The Gambler in February is conducted by Pappano, with a cast including Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson and Jurgita Adamonyte.

Plácido Domingo's first appearance of the season is as a tenor. Graham Vick's acclaimed production of Handel's Tamerlano (recorded in Madrid and available on DVD con Plácido) makes its first visit to Covent Garden in March with Christianne Stoijn, Sara Mingardo and Christine Schäfer. Baroque specialist Ivor Bolton conducts.

Bill Bryden's family-friendly The Cunning Little Vixen returns in March with Emma Matthews, Christopher Maltman and Emma Bell, though the presence of Charles Mackerras on the podium has to be the main draw.

Caurier and Leiser's lovely Il Turco in Italia is back in April, with Maurizio Benini conducting, and Aleksandra Kursak, Colin Lee, Alessandro Corbelli, Thomas Allen and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the cast.

Aida is subjected to the David McVicar magic in April. His new production is conducted by Nicola Luisotti and features Micaela Carosi, Marcelo Alvarez and Luciana D'Intino. Bare naked elephants?

The last of the Big Three, Richard Eyre's subtly intelligent La Traviata, makes its annual appearance in May and July. This time her name's in the programme - Our first Lady of the Camellias is the fabulous former Netrebko sub Ermonela Jaho. Joining her in her long-awaited return to Covent Garden in May are Saimir Pirgu and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. July's 'B' Violetta is Angela Gheorghiu, who makes do with James Valenti and Zeljko Lucic. Yves Abel conducts.

Laurent Pelly's now-legendary La Fille du Régiment returns in May with the unbeatable original cast of Juan Diego Flórez, Natalie Dessay, Alessandro Corbelli and Felicity Palmer back in place. Bruno Campanella conducts.

What would tempt Sir Colin Davis back into the pit? How about David McVicar's Le Nozze di Figaro? Erwin Schrott, Camilla Tilling, Maruisz Kwiecen. Annette Dasch, Soile Isokoski and Christine Schäfer head the strong cast.

Antonio Pappano conducts Laurent Pelly's new Manon, coming to Covent Garden in June with the announced cast including Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Anyone fancy a bet?

In one of those rare operatic fairy stories, June sees a baritone with less than a year's experience thrust into a leading role at Covent Garden. Yes, it's Plácido Domingo again, and this time he's Simon Boccanegra. Antonio Pappano conducts a strong cast including Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Joseph Calleja. It's the 1991 Elijah Moshinsky production by the way, not the Ian Judge one seen last year.

The season ends in July 2010 with the first revival of David McVicar's controversial Salome. Angela Denoke takes the central role, with Johan Reuter as Jokanaan. Hartmut Haenchen conducts.

No link yet, but more details expected on the Royal Opera House website sometime next week.

****************

*******UPDATE 22/4*******

The Royal Opera House's press releases are now available on their website. Go here for the summary, here for the opera details and here for the ballet.

Andris Nelsons shows Birmingham his Wagner-power

CBSO / Nelsons / Irène Théorin - Symphony Hall Birmingham, 28 January 2009

Birmingham on a dull January afternoon earlier this week. Contrary to received wisdom it was both warmer and drier than London but despite that not exactly a cheering sight. Tucked away behind the tree at the back is Birmingham Symphony Hall.

One dodgy underpass later, et voilà:

The entrance is the mirrored bit on the right of the photo above. And inside - the world's longest programme queue:

The public areas may be a bit mall-like for comfort, but the hall itself is a mighty art deco spaceship of chrome and panelling. On the right and left of the organ are special acoustic chambers that are opened or closed depending on the music performed. For today's loud programme they were fully open:

It's the home of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, who recently appointed the phenomenal Andris Nelsons as their Music Director.  Nelsons is Bayreuth-bound this summer, and his first concert of 2009 with the CBSO promised a glimpse of his Wagnerian goodies.

The 2000+ hall was three quarters full - a pretty impressive achievement for a midweek afternoon. Mostly greysters, of course - who else has the time during the day? - though I did spot a few schoolboys and even an Ilan Volkov lookalike.

So Nelsons wasn't quite the youngest person in the house, but it was a close run thing. He began the show with a story. So overwhelming was his first operatic experience at the age of five that he wept and couldn't sleep all night. The opera was Tannhäuser, and he chose the Overture and Venusberg Music to open this concert.

Springing around the podium like a cat on bonfire night, his five year old self threatened to burst out from his tail suit, galvanising the orchestra to play with a passion and energy you just wouldn't believe was possible on a cold Birmingham afternoon. To say he's bonded with his orchestra would be the understatement of the century - these players were glued to his every glance.

But a great performance takes more than just enthusiasm, and his structuring was masterful. He conjured that sense of something beyond a self-contained concert piece, genuine 'bleeding chunks' hewn from a greater whole. It made me want to listen to the whole thing straight away.

Despite conducting from a pocket score that just would not stay open, he captured the essence of the Prelude from Tristan und Isolde, more introduction than summation, drifting with doomed inevitability into the Liebestod. Irène Théorin, majestic in shimmering black gown and bleached electro-Pob, sounded tentative, not quite in charge, and the orchestra supplied most of the rapture and poignancy.

But she convinced totally as Brünnhilde, with a scorching Immolation scene ending the second half's Götterdämmerung extracts. Nelsons amped up the power, and Théorin floated brightly and clearly over the orchestra, her top notes radiating brilliantly and thrillingly around the hall.

Worth the trip.

 

 

It's ov-ah:

 

Another dodgy underpass. In this one it's still Xmas: