Intermezzo

Bryn Terfel's old flame

Bryn Terfel's Valhalla experience may come in handy when he carries the Olympic torch to Bangor later today.

Koch in for Terfel?

Houston, we have a rumour.

Is Bryn Terfel about to pull out of the Royal Opera's Meistersinger date in Birmingham on 11 January?

UPDATE 5.1.12 - Yes he is. It's now official - he apparently has a chest infection.

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?

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.

Royal Opera House summer forecast - dry with hot patches

The hot ticket for the Royal Opera House's summer season is undoubtedly the will-she/won't-she booking of Angela Gheorghiu as Tosca. Even if she does deign to grace London with her presence, it will be for two nights only, 14 and 17 July, when she is joined by Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel and immortalised on DVD. Be warned Kaufmann's recent cancellation record is beginning to resemble Gheorghiu's, though at least in his case there's been audible evidence of genuine medical issues. If you're entering the Friends booking scrum tomorrow, grab these first (the second date has more availability) or you may find nothing left.  

A respectable cast featuring Martina Serafin, Marcello Giordani and Juha Uusitalo fleshes out earlier dates in the run, and Pappano conducts all but one show.

Running alongside it is Massenet's Cendrillon, from 5 July 2011. This Laurent Pelly mezzofest is new to Covent Garden and is worth taking in for the legendary Ewa Podles alone. Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote and token soprano Eglise Gutiérrez aren't shabby either.

Willy Decker's Peter Grimes returns on 21 June 2011. Ben Heppner is booked for the title role, though given his recent form I'd be surprised if he makes all dates. Amanda Roocroft, so impressive in the recent ENO production, is Ellen Orford. Andrew Davis conducts.

Leiser and Caurier's Madama Butterfly returns on 25 June 2011 with the serviceable Patricia Racette, James Valenti and Anthony Michaels-Moore, but more excitingly, Andris Nelsons in the pit. 

What I'm looking forward to most though is Luke Bedford's opera Seven Angels which makes its London debut in the Linbury Studio on 12 July after premiering in Birmingham on 17 June. No cast details yet.

Die Meistersinger at die Proms

Prom 2: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (concert staging) - Royal Albert Hall, 17 July 2010

I''m not sure why the BBC went for an English title seeing as this performance was sung in the original German. Perhaps they were worried people might pronounce Die Meistersinger as in "die, Mr Bond".

With no props and only a narrow strip of empty stage, the scope for acting was limited. The soloists were probably glad to sport the same democratic all-black uniform as the orchestra just inches behind them. Their heavy stage costumes would have been torture in the sweltering (as usual) Royal Albert Hall.  The revelation that without their cunning disguises nearly all the cast were the same age is testament to WNO's wig and makeup artistry in the earlier staged shows. 

Welsh National Opera's Meistersinger on the road

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - WNO at Birmingham Hippodrome, 6 July 2010 

 
The reviews for Richard Jones’s new WNO Meistersinger have been overwhelmingly positive, and rightly so. It opened in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago, but I caught it on its mini-tour to the Birmingham Hippodrome (two nights, the second this Saturday).

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a platter of assorted cheese - the Classical Brits from behind the trenches

Sporting a flattering pale blonde do, chatting to her table-mate Immodesty Blaize, and chugging her bodyweight in unidentified liquids, Natalie Dessay was one of the lower-profile guests at the annual cheesefest that is the Classical Brits, held on Thursday night at the Royal Albert Hall.

it's Rolando and Bryn for the Classical Brits

So the Evening Standard's stab at the Classical Brits line-up was half-right. Bryn Terfel is on the list as they predicted - but Anna Netrebko isn't. Bryn will be joined instead by Rolando Villazón. There's a slim possibility their boozing partner Angela Gheorghiu might be in the audience (she's up for an award), but she's not scheduled to perform.

Other performers include Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Rhydian (uniquely, a crossover artist who can actually sing). The rest you don't need to know about.

Anna Netrebko and Bryn Terfel for Classical Brits?

Although there's nothing as yet on the official website, the Evening Standard claims that both Anna Netrebko and Bryn Terfel will be appearing at this year's Classical Brits award ceremony, which takes place at the Royal Albert Hall on 13 May.

The Evening Standard is never wrong!

Tickets are still available, priced from £20 upwards, though whether it's worth sitting through the also-threatened Andre Rieu and Faryl Smith for a few heavily-amplified morsels is debatable.

Bryn Terfel is not so bad

Bryn Terfel - Royal Festival Hall, 11 November 2009

For marketing purposes only, cuddly Bryn Terfel is currently posing as a Bad Boy. But as CD-pimping, Gubbay-promoted, extravagantly-priced celebrity recitals go, this one was actually pretty good.

Not only did Bryn get in twice as much singing as Renee Fleming did last week - a full ten numbers - he also managed more costume changes. Method acting in a cloak for Dulcamara's Udite, udite from L'Elisir d'Amore, a hunting jacket for Kaspar's Schweig, Schweig from Der Freischütz, and more droopy scarves than a retired ballerina, he slipped easily from character to character as he ran through his list of operatic and musical villains, supplying a little introductory comment for each one. He even engineered a bit of audience participation, with a Happy Birthday sung to celebrate his 44th earlier this week.

The young (and presumably Gubbay-cheap) Sinfonia Cymru backed him energetically if not idiomatically, with Gareth Jones steering them competently enough through crowd-pleaser interludes like Danse Macabre and Night on a Bare Mountain.

But Bryn was the main attraction, and the Te Deum from Tosca was a reminder that his poisonously sinister Scarpia is probably the best around right now. A couple of devils, Gounod's from Faust and Boito's from Mefistofele, crackled with menace. The razor-accessorised Ballad of Sweeney Todd was a too-brief demonstration of a role he seems born to play. An extraordinarily poised Mackie Messer avoided cabaret caricature, though I detected a faint Welsh whiff around a few of Bryn's usually immaculate German vowels.

Wonderful textual colouring in When the Night Wind Howls from Ruddigore demonstrated a surprise affinity for Gilbert and Sullivan. A slightly less successful surprise was It Ain't Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess. The transposition from tenor to baritone wasn't a problem, but the wavering inter-continental accent, sometimes South Carolina sometimes South Kensington, suggested a little more work was necessary. A Misérable encore by The Other Schönberg was the least successful item of the night. Though Bryn gave it everything he'd got, it simply sounded second-rate after everything that had gone before.

Bryn Terfel explains the difference between opera and musical theatre

Speaking to Adam Sweeting in the Daily Telegraph, the world's greatest Sweeney Todd clarifies the all-important distinction from his opera work:

 "A musical theatre singer can stay in one city for years, so he can be at home. Singing-wise, there's no difference at all."

Bryn Terfel's underpants for hire

At least I assume they are. As Welsh National Opera open their costume archive for public hire, they tell Wales Online “The only thing we’re not planning on doing is boots. They’re not quite as easy to clean".

One of the most prized items is sure to be Bryn Terfel's costume from 1990’s Così fan tutte. The then-svelte 24 year old who has "always been very good humoured even when there are two women undressing and redressing him" made his operatic debut as Guglielmo in a toga-style costume.

More at Wales Online.

And more about sheep, leeks, opera west of Bristol - and underpants - in a new blog from occasional Intermezzo contributor HairMan - Hair Man at the Opera.

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.

Don Giovanni from Verbier with Terfel and Pape - FREE streaming

 

The 20 July Verbier Festival concert performance of Don Giovanni is available in full online FREE for one month (thanks to reader Dolcevita for the tip). It's luxuriously-cast and beautifully-sung top to bottom, and marks the last opportunity to catch Bryn Terfel in the title role before he switches permanently to Leporello.

Manfred Honeck conducted the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and the full cast is René Pape (Leporello) Anna Samuil (Donna Anna), Bryn Terfel (Don Giovanni), Thomas Quasthoff (Commendatore), Michael Schade (Don Ottavio), Annette Dasch (Donna Elvira), Sylvia Schwartz (Zerlina) and Robert Gleadow(Masetto).

There are two sources - arte.tv and medici.tv. I found the Medici streaming was slightly better quality - but you need to sign up for a (free) account to watch beyond a brief preview. 

The festival runs from 17 July to 2 August, and as last year, both channels are are also streaming other festival performances - in some cases live. The full programme is here.

 

 

Tosca at the Royal Opera House - Angela returns

Tosca - Royal Opera House, 9 July 2009 (first night)

Angela Gheorghiu is of course better known for dropping out at the last minute than dropping in, but then Deborah Voigt unexpectedly withdrew from this Tosca mere days before opening night. Just when it seemed Bryn Terfel might be obliged to fake five nights of uncontrollable passion for the plucky but frankly 'autumnal' Nelly Miricioiu, the surprise announcement was made that la Gheorghiu would be returning to Covent Garden in the production created for her in 2006. 

Gheorghiu has her knockers, but while her voice and her (un)professionalism are open to criticism, her presence is undeniably electrifying. The stage wasn't set on fire when she stepped on it (something of a surprise given the number of burning candles and the repeatedly-demonstrated clumsiness of the cast) but the temperature certainly rose a few degrees. Despite the teasing playfulness of her jealous outburst, she displayed a compelling nervy intensity - some compensation for puny and even tremulous singing that didn't firm up until the second act.

Her performance was gripping, but it simply wasn't moving. Even when she span out Vissi d'arte quite exquisitely in her tiny porcelain voice, it left me cold.

She's a generous performer though, and there was a real frisson to her interaction with Marcello Giordani, who never let his enormous voice overwhelm her tiny instrument. His physical rigidity (a health issue?) didn't convince. But he sang Cavaradossi with textbook precision, if like Gheorghiu he was ultimately uninvolving.

And I can't help thinking there's something wrong with a production where Tosca has more secksy-chemistry with Scarpia than Cavaradossi.  There's a disturbing hint of complicity with Bryn Terfel's poison-hearted psychopath, a man who casually terrorises even his own staff. But then who wouldn't be drawn to him? - this is a magisterially compelling performance from Bryn, and immaculately sung, with penetrating attention to every syllable. Hiding his torture chamber behind a Bond-style secret bookcase door in his house is a clever touch - only the truly committed bring their work home.

Amongst the smaller roles, Kostas Smoriginas as Angelotti and Jeremy White as the Sacristan stood out as well-rounded and well-sung.

Jonathan Kent's traditional production has awkward, ugly sets, and the singers seem subservient to the scenery, forever negotiating a minefield of unduly fussy touches - bread drops from ladders, cheese rolls down stairs, windows open when they shouldn't, doors don't want to open when they should, singers walk into the furniture. If I'd bet a week ago on which show a singer would break a leg in, it would be this one. But it tells the story, straight.

Unlike Jacques Lacombe's efficient but prosaic conducting. Plain loudness substituted for real excitement, and dynamics shrunk in response to the size of the voices rather than dramatic necessity. Unlike the scenery, it never came close to catching fire.

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Bryn Terfel - open to offers

 

Bryn Terfel was interviewed on Radio 3's In Tune this week, where he talked about his career plans.  This month's concert performance in Verbier will be his last appearance in the role of Don Giovanni. Apparently the preposterous costumery of the Vienna Staatsoper production convinced him he's safer as Leporello .....

He's firmly booked at La Scala for a new Flying Dutchman in a couple of years time (a change he said from their normal notice period, which is about a month).

And just in case Covent Garden still need a Mephistopheles for their forthcoming Faust, he kindly offered his services.

Listen here.

you might as well jump

 

We all know Angela Gheorghiu doesn't 'do' rehearsals - her superior operatic skillz of course render them entirely superfluous.

So it was no surprise that today's dress rehearsal of Tosca at Covent Garden featured instead Nelly Miricioiu, who is sharing the title role. Nelly is no spring chicken, but an artful combination of gliding, sliding, swooping and scooping conceals the worst of the wear and tear. The history-book sets and  frocks invite an old-skool semaphore display which Nelly, ever the diva, was only too happy to provide.

By her side, though with even less chemistry than Renee'n'Joe, Marcello Giordani rattled the chandeliers with his Met-sized voice. He seemed to be going through the motions, but perhaps he'll warm up for the proper shows.

Jacques Lacombe kept the orchestra together neatly in a well-paced reading, but I wanted more light and shade, more drama.

The glacial, composed menace of Bryn Terfel's Scarpia - could this be the definitive portrayal? - seems at this stage the only reason to catch this revival. But who knows, things could change between now and Thursday's opening night - which will also throw la Gheorghiu into the mix.

Bryn Terfel's credit is crunched

Bryn Terfel's annual Faenol Festival has been cancelled due to lack of financing, reports BBC News.

Acts as varied as Johan Botha and John Barrowman were apparently not enough to prevent "very disappointing audience attendance figures" at last year's festival. 

"Artists like Dame Shirley Bassey, Westlife, and Girls Aloud" may not be everyone's cup of tea. And Katherine Jenkins hardly needs another field to caterwaul in. But north-west Wales doesn't get much in the way of live music, so a new deal with promoters which should allow the festival to resume in 2010 is welcome news.

Bryn Terfel loses his trousers

 

Bryn Terfel had to borrow a pair of trousers from an audience member when he arrived at a recent South Korean concert in the shorts he'd been wearing all day.

'"One can be a bit forgetful on the day of a concert - and I forgot my trousers at the hotel," Terfel said.

"But what could I do? Tell the audience 'I'm sorry, but I have to wear my shorts? There was one person there who happened to be the same height as me. And if there was ever a pair of trousers that fits like a glove - that's the one."

Bryn returned the borrowed trousers after the show, which, presumably, the generous fan enjoyed in his underpants. Hope he got an autograph.