Intermezzo

Thought it would be bigger than that

*SIR* Antonio Pappano poses with the small but perfectly formed medal he received from Prince Charles at his Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace yesterday.

Who's Pappano's #1 fan?

It's his mom! As the little shrine in her Connecticut home proves. As she prepared to travel to London for Sir Antonio's investiture ceremony, she spoke to the local paper about his Bridgeport roots.

Figaro's back

Le nozze di Figaro - Royal Opera House, 14 February 2012 

Oops. David McVicar's finest production isn't as bulletproof as it once seemed. This time round, coarse revival direction and subpar casting have diminished its subtlety and psychological insight.

Pappano draws back curtain on future seasons

Król Roger, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Guillaume Tell, Manon Lescaut, Andrea Chénier and Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci are a few of the operas we can expect to see at Covent Garden in future seasons.

The impeccable source? Sir Antonio Pappano, who clearly surprised interviewer Tom Service on Radio 3 by answering the standard upcoming productions question with actual names. You can listen to the full interview, which includes a tirade against 'petulant' singers who don't turn up, on the iPlayer.

Musica inglese

The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia welcomed their Musical Director back last week with a jolly good bit of Elgar.

Personally I think he should be worried how well the orchestra play without him.....

Arise Sir Tony!

Congratulations to Classic Brit Antonio Pappano, who has been knighted in the New Year Honours List for services to Music.

Die Meistersinger at the Royal Opera House - with photos

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Royal Opera House, 19 December 2011 (first night)

The scene above is the most imaginative one in a production that otherwise sticks doggedly to the letter of the text.  As midsummer madness or Wahn grips the Nuremburgers at the end of Act II, the featureless walls are suddenly pocked with openings. Bodies froth out from high, low, and even above the stage. The boundaries are breached; the city can no longer contain the human activity within. It's subtler than it looks.

Il trittico at the Royal Opera House

Il trittico - Royal Opera House, 14 September 2011

How do you handle a death in the family? Try to blot it out in sex without love (Giorgetta in Il tabarro)? Seek solace in religion without faith (Suor Angelica)? Or do you just treat it as a business opportunity, money without scruples (Gianni Schicchi)?

Pappano takes a budget cut

The Royal Opera House's 2010 accounts are out. (A bit tardy, but that's accounts for you).

And just look who's saving the ROH a few quid. While CEO Tony Hall continues to extract over £390,000 a year for a job that leaves him enough time to chair an Olympics committee and float around the House of Lords, Tony Pappano has taken a pay cut.

Vittoria! for Royal Opera House Tosca

Tosca - Royal Opera House, 17 July 2011

 

There was something missing from tonight's Tosca - the Maestro's vocal accompaniment. Has he bowed to public pressure and resolved to conduct in silence?

Copulating Warthogs

 
A number of comments on my post about Thursday's Tosca mention the distraction of Tony Pappano's extremely audible huffing, puffing and grunting. For those who have yet to experience the phenomenon first-hand, imagine a lady tennis champion being taken from the rear whilst simultaneously executing a series of tricky backhands. On this occasion it could, as one reader mentioned, be heard from the back of the stalls. He's not the only conductor to join in of course - Sir Colin Davis's iPod-style humalongs are well known. But he is possibly the noisiest.

It cannot be denied though that the louder the racket, the better the orchestra seem to play. The less vigorously accompanied performances have generally not been the best ones. Whether it encourages the band, or just helps him focus in on the conducting, is hard to say.

I pity the poor sound engineer who has to magic it off Thursday's DVD recording though.

Taking a stab at Tosca - Gheorghiu, Kaufmann and Terfel

Tosca - Royal Opera House, 14 July 2011

Talk about a hot ticket. Queuing for the 67 day seats for this Tosca started the night before. But after a season short on star power, the lure of Gheorghiu, Kaufmann and Terfel (for just two shows) is hard to resist. Even if the staging is well-worn, and frankly not that exciting in the first place.

Lady Loudmyla begins her reign

Macbeth - Royal Opera House, 24 May 2011 (first night)

Liudmyla Monastyrska met all the hopes raised by the YouTube evidence and her recent Aida when she made her debut as Lady Macbeth at Covent Garden earlier tonight. It's all about the voice - and what a battle tank of a voice - dark, powerful, solid top-to-bottom, and huuuuuge. At full throttle, it blasts through the theatre, yet she manoeuvres it precisely around the fiddliest coloratura, and can wind it down to a whisper without losing its shape. I can think of no current soprano who could meet the demands of the role quite so perfectly, and the rest of the audience recognised it too - her every aria roundly applauded. In short, a miracle.

Rolando Redux

Werther - Royal Opera House, 11 May 2011

Wednesday's Werther, the third night of the run, found Rolando Villazon more relaxed than he was on opening night, and singing a lot better as a result. Next to the big, easy voice of Sophie Koch he still sounded underpowered, but he found a better balance between control and tension. 

The orchestra again played brilliantly. Pappano kept them on a tighter leash this time, which helped Rolando - and the splashing fountain was banished, hopefully never to return.

I found the view from the right hand side of the auditorium more expansive than the left, where I sat on the first night (both restricted view). Not much of a bonus with sets this bland, though.

more photos >>>>>>>>>>>>

Rolando Villazon IS Werther at the Royal Opera House

Werther - Royal Opera House, 5 May 2011

Rolando Villazon made what I think it's fair to call a triumphant post-surgery return to Covent Garden tonight. In the title role of Werther, he displayed no worrying strain or cracks. He once described his voice as a horse that wanted to be ridden by a man - well tonight it was a perfectly-schooled prize dressage pony, with a glossy sheen.

from Mexia to Roma

With Anna Nicole's bewbs safely back in their box until the next run, Antonio Pappano has turned temporarily to his back up job as music director of the equally well-endowed Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Later in the month they visit Manchester, Birmingham and Basingstoke, but you can check them out on the web first. One concert was streamed live last night (and is still available for viewing). There's another tomorrow, at 8.30pm CET, 7.30pm in the UK. Programmes, interviews and other stuff too if you speak the italiano.

Orchestra evacuate Royal Opera House

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano / Thomas Hampson / Klaus Florian Vogt - Cadogan Hall, 27 February 2011

It's not often the worker bees of the Royal Opera House orchestra are released from their Covent Garden nest. It's not often either that the Cadogan Hall, despite its fine acoustic, hosts much worth listening to. But after Andres Orozco-Estrada's splendid Tonkünstler Orchestra they managed to pull a second terrific evening out of the bag.

Thielemann trumps Pappano

 

Tony Pappano's widely-criticised £630,000 Royal Opera House salary looks a bit of a bargain compared with Christian Thielemann's pay as Music Director of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Recently released statistics reveal Thielemann earns €800,000 (~£680,000). This makes him Munich's highest-paid public servant, easily trumping Munich's mayor (€153,921).

What does Munich get for its massive outlay? For a start, Thielemann conducts around 10 separate programmes a year in around 40 concerts, including touring. Programmes have to be repeated three or four times to cope with demand. Plus there's all the usual music director stuff - programming, marketing and so on. That all adds up to a significant workload  - but not quite a full time job. He still manages to fit in conducting slots with the Vienna Philharmonic and of course Bayreuth.

Pappano's workload is roughly 4 operas over 30 or so performances, which sounds less onerous until you factor in rehearsal time and the greater length of an opera programme. On top of that, as de facto artistic director of Covent Garden, he bears a greater non-conducting burden than many music directors. Pappano too finds time for the odd guest conducting slot, TV series, etc - not to mention heading the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia orchestra.

But at this level, it's not about the hours spent at the rockface. It's about quality - natural talent, sweat-honed skill and most of all, inspiration. Bureaucrats are interchangeable. Abundantly gifted conductors are few and far between.

Pappano fishes for pearls

Les pêcheurs de perles - Royal Opera House, 4 October 2010

 

Even though the orchestra was on the stage instead of in the pit, Covent Garden felt like a righted ship last night. Following a lacklustre opening month in London with the best part of the ROH touring Japan, there returned a deeply satisfying sense of business as usual. Even though this was only a concert performance, and a less than perfect one at that, Pappano’s hand on the tiller lent an energy and sense of purpose so far absent.

Simon Boccanegra from the best seat in the house

Prom 3: Simon Boccanegra (semi-staged) - Royal Albert Hall, 18 July 2010

One of the things I've never liked about the Proms booking system is that you can't choose your seat. I've never complained though because I always seemed to end up with pretty good seats. But I knew my luck would change one day. And so it was that I ended up at the very end of the side stalls for Simon Boccanegra - not just an angled view, but actually behind the orchestra. And costing more than I pay at Covent Garden too. (That's another dirty little Proms secret - the standing tickets may be cheap, but the seats cost more than any other classical venue in London bar the opera houses).