Intermezzo

Sir Charles Mackerras - ENO Tribute Concert

One year after his passing, English National Opera present a special tribute concert in honour of former music director Sir Charles Mackerras at the Coliseum on Sunday 26 June 2011.

The evening will include performances by singers including Sir John Tomlinson, Dame Felicity Palmer, Lesley Garrett, Rebecca Evans, Janice Watson, Catherine Wyn Rogers, Diana Montague, Jonathan Summers, Neal Davies, Nuccia Focile, John Graham-Hall, Della Jones, Yvonne Kenny, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Christine Rice, Timothy Robinson, Matthew Rose, Peter Rose and Brindley Sherratt.

Past and present ENO Music Directors Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder and Paul Daniel will conduct ENO’s Orchestra and Chorus. The evening will be presented by Radio 3's Sean Rafferty.

The programme has been put together with the aid of the Mackerras family, and reflects the repertoire championed by Sir Charles. It will include operatic arias and choruses from Handel’s Julius Caesar, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Idomeneo, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, Verdi’s Falstaff and Don Carlo, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Britten’s Peter Grimes, Puccini’s Tosca, Janáček’s Jenůfa and Strauss’s Rosenkavalier.

Booking is now open: tickets £8 - £45.  All concert proceeds will go to ENO Benevolent Fund.

Cunning Little Vixen, Royal Opera House

The Cunning Little Vixen - Royal Opera House, 18 March 2010 (first night)

Perhaps it's unsurprising Covent Garden's Cunning Little Vixen is looking a bit dog-eared these days. Bill Bryden's production debuted twenty years ago, making it older than many of the smaller cast members. Stage technology has moved on even if budgets haven't, and the faded, knocked-up amateurism lacks the charm it may once have possessed.

William Dudley's designs are literal, almost illustrative. Bestial extras like a two-kid caterpillar and a fluttering aerial dragonfly retain their ingenious charm. But the giant hamster wheel 'circle of life' that dominates the stage is literally and metaphorically clunky. Some of the other elements, like the twirling carwash brushes and stage-slicing chainsaw clock, are simply mystifying. Buried within is some point about the passage of time perhaps. But what exactly?  That's not obvious.

Though the tale Bryden tells embraces both the vixen's life story and Janácek's broader message about love, life and renewal, somehow neither angle is quite as clear as it should be. The Vixen's foul trick to take over the Badger's sett passes for nothing, as do some other key plot points. The whole tavern scene barely registers, the humans overwhelmed by a visual orgy of giant green bottles and spinning brushes. Even the menagerie of cutely costumed kids can't compensate for a fundamental failure to tell the story. 

The final act was the most gripping, perhaps because it was the least encumbered with whimsical clutter, or perhaps because some noisy tears from the audience as the Forester fired his rifle reminded that despite its comic-book origins, this is no children's opera.

With Sir Charles Mackerras in the pit, at least the music had the incisiveness the production lacked. A few minor fluffs aside, the orchestra played with warmth and authority, and attentive pacing allowed the drama to develop.

But concessions to the light voices of the cast were sadly limited by Sir Charles's assertive weighting. Not much point in performing in English if the singers can't be heard, but only Elisabeth Meister, the short-notice substitute Fox, had the lung power to cut through the orchestra consistently. Making the most of her golden opportunity, she gave a sparky, uninhibited performance.

Christopher Maltman's Forester was underpowered and Emma Matthews seemed an odd casting choice as the Vixen. Clearly better suited to higher, lighter roles, her flutingly clear singing above the stave was outweighed by a tendency to squalliness below as she tried her hardest to project. The most rewarding performances were in the smaller parts, Matthew Rose's Harašta particularly.

At least it's a livelier evening than Tamerlano. Though it could hardly be less. And perhaps the Royal Opera House have been listening to complaints about early starts - the 8pm kick-off permits the unaccustomed luxury of dining beforehand.

********   lots more photos on next page   ********

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.

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*******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.

Alfred Brendel - the final farewell in pictures

On 18 December, the mighty Alfred Brendel gave the last concert of his farewell tour, and the very last of his career. The venue was Vienna's Musikverein, chosen I suspect not because the longstanding British resident wanted to return to his own homeland, but because that's where the music was born. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, the classical titans who form the backbone of Brendel's repertoire, are all indelibly connected with Vienna. And for Brendel, the music is always greater than the man.

Brendel chose to bow out with Mozart's Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, the 'Jeunehomme' as he had for his final London concert.  The conductor was again his old friend Sir Charles Mackerras, but the orchestra this time the home crew, the Vienna Philharmonic.

I couldn't be there - not for want of trying. Apart from Alfred Brendel's own guests, the audience was packed with journalists and Austrian politicians. Even longstanding Musikverein patrons had to fight for seats. Truly the hottest ticket in town.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger managed to snaffle a seat - here is his report. And for German readers, there's a more detailed one from Wolfgang Sandner for FAZ, here (imagine living in a country where a critic can drop a term like 'tonic-dominant relationship' into a mainstream newspaper and expect readers to get it. Sigh.)

Channel 4 News ran a little feature on the concert - below find a video profile of Alfred Brendel and a chat with lucky spectator Alan Rusbridger (try here if the videos don't work for you). More photos below as well.

For anyone wanting to find out more about Alfred Brendel's approach, or just about playing the piano generally, I cannot recommend highly enough his essay collection Alfred Brendel On Music.

     

Photos: Dieter Nagl

No sleep till Vienna - Alfred Brendel bows out

Philharmonia Orchestra / Mackerras / Alfred Brendel - Royal Festival Hall, 12 October 2008

On Tuesday Alfred Brendel leaves England via the majestic portal of Basingstoke to commence the final leg of his farewell tour, which winds up in Vienna's Musikverein on 18 December.

Tonight was London's chance to say goodbye as he took to the Royal Festival Hall stage in front of a packed house, the even more senior Sir Charles Mackerras and the Philharmonia Orchestra in tow.

His choice of parting shot, as it will be for that final Vienna concert, was Mozart's Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, the 'Jeunehomme', the work which perhaps captures the composer's genius most perfectly in its sweeping play of emotional contrasts and invention. Brendel, modest and thoughtful as ever, never sought to impose himself, but gently drew out the sparkling wit of the outer movements and the bleak, bitter core. The Philharmonia were alive to every nuance and contributed to a perfectly-crafted whole.

It was a performance above criticism, a fitting end to a mighty career.

How odd then that it was decided to follow concert convention, and place this work in the first half, with a Dvorak symphony to follow in the second. Perhaps it was simply Brendel's choice, humble to the last.  

 

The Royal Festival Hall's standing ovation for Alfred Brendel:
 

Even more Don Giovanni at Covent Garden

Don Giovanni - Royal Opera House, 10 September 2008

 

Well, I am pleased to report that musically at least, this second night of the season was a vast improvement on the first. And if the audience wasn't exactly a better one, it was at least a markedly different one.  Downstairs, the familiar tap of Ferragamo against parquet and a faint smell of hairspray marked the return of the queens, counsels and assorted bankers to their rightful boxes. Upstairs, it was socks, sandals and sandwiches as usual.

But back to the music. Covent Garden shows often improve as the run progresses - especially revivals, like this one, where rehearsal time is limited. And in this case, the previous combination of a first night, an unpredictable audience, and being beamed live and in close-up around the world's cinemas can't have helped singers' nerves. The production itself remains by turns tacky and dull, but the performances were so much better second time round.

Most improved was Miah Persson, sweetness and innocence outside, a tumble of hormones within, and this time round, the secure mistress of Zerlina's vocal demands.  Robert Gleadow (still only 24!) was an equally impressive Masetto, and they displayed undisputable physical rapport, wrapping themselves around each other as if the honeymoon had already started.

We were again issued with a pre-show apology for Marina Poplavskaya's health, and again she proved little if anything was wrong. Both Or sai chi l'onore and Non mi dir displayed a tissue-thin top but that was it. Her Donna Anna, emotionally numbed, single-minded in her quest for vengeance, was a smart piece of casting and convincingly acted.

Joyce DiDonato again unravelled thrillingly as Donna Elvira, bewitched and eventually unhinged by Don Giovanni's wiles.

The Dirty Don himself was more problematical - and it wasn't just the stringy ginger wig. Simon Keenlyside has an intelligent and just fundamentally decent air that doesn't sit comfortably with this determinedly anti-intellectual production. He can't match the swarthy feral magnetism of last year's Don Giovanni, Erwin Schrott (wisely he doesn't try). His Don seduces with words, not pheromones, and his seduction arias carried far more weight than the oddly unconvincing murder at the start and the gluttonous debauchery of the finale. The orchestra sped past him in his Champagne Aria but everything else was sung with grace and musicality.

Kyle Ketelsen's robustly sung Leporello, in an even more dreadful wig, was an able counterweight, a properly reluctant partner who conspires in his own oppression simply for the cash. He needed to dig harder for the laughs with this audience than the first, but he got them in the end.

Don Ottavio is not the most dynamic of roles - all he has to do really is sing a couple of arias nicely. Ramón Vargas certainly has the voice, even if it's a bit more Italianate than we might expect for Mozart. He managed a lot better than he had on the first night, lyrical and flowing, just a little pinched at the top, and faded genteely into the background when he wasn't required. Neatly done.

I wasn't quite as thrilled with Sir Charles Mackerras as the critics have been, but he did a more than able job with the modest number (an advantage in itself) of players, including the superbly-drilled onstage bands. Rapport between pit and stage showed a marked improvement, relaxation and co-operation both playing their part, though again it was clear that those who slipped could expect little sympathy from the podium. 

One performer at least has managed to get a few bonus column inches this week - that's MAW Emma Reed who descends to hell with Don Giovanni (minus kit) in a Page 3-style finale, clairvoyantly scripted well before the Sun came on board. Here she is 'without costume' in The Sun, and here's the pearl-clutchers' version from genius of teh Photoshops, OperaChic.

           

The Sun comes out for Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House

Don Giovanni - Royal Opera House, 8 September 2008

 

The opening night of the Royal Opera House season. Officially! We know because big cheese Tony Hall told us so, in an Oscarish pre-show speech that stopped millimetres short of thanking his agent and teh baby jeebus. 

We arrived to find a splashy Sun bus parked at the front door - supposedly, the show was 'only' open to Sun readers, a myth propagated by the Sun's fact-lite press rivals.

But in fact anyone who registered on a special page of the ROH website, as explained here, could apply for tickets. Which would account for the number of familiar faces I spotted in the audience. (My own conscience is clear - I took along a ROH newbie).

But there were welcome absences too - scarcely a rustle of anoraks in the amphitheatre, no gobby tourists, few corporate suits at the bar. In their place, not the lager louts the broadsheets had doomily predicted, but a cleaner, better-dressed and better-behaved class of customer than Covent Garden has seen for a while. Enough looked understandably bewildered by the confusing ROH signage to convince me that few were regulars.  And was that one of the scheme's most vehement opponents, Charlotte "boycott in order" Higgins of the Guardian skulking around the bar? No moral dilemma 'subsidising' "that utterly repellent institution: page bloody three" when you've nabbed a freebie press seat I guess.

In fact, genuine Sun readers may have been outnumbered by journalists. Not just the opera-reviewing habitues, but mike-wielding newshounds, pouncing on Essex families for 'your impressions'.

The huge but unobtrusive cameras in the auditorium itself were part of a Met-style live relay to cinemas across the known universe.

Whether they captured the Royal Opera House at its best is another question. Francesca Zambello's production has a couple of qualities - it's cinematically splashy (my companion appreciated the guidance of the colour-coded costumes), and it strikes the elusive balance between comedy and drama with rare precision.

But despite its flaming wicker and shoals of purposeless extras it never really grips until the final showdown, with the dirty Don spectacularly flanked by burning bathtubs.

Still, there were enough laughs to hold the audience's attention, mostly supplied by the vast-voiced Kyle Ketelsen, shamelessly mugging as Leporello. Vocally at least he was more imposing than Simon Keenlyside's patchy Don Giovanni.

Joyce DiDonato gave the most consistent and impressive performance of the evening, totally uninhibited as the combustible Donna Elvira. Charles Mackerras took a firm grip on the orchestra, no concessions to any singers' foibles here, and she alone could ride the waves at their crest.

Marina Poplavskaya, suffering we were told from a respiratory infection, struggled with intonation to begin with, but her increasingly weighty voice made a powerful impression in any case, a significant development from her Donna Anna in the same production last year.

Miah Persson's Zerlina was more of a disappointment. She has the requisite sweetness, and began well, but soon strayed way off vocal course - perhaps she's picked up the respiratory bug too. Ramón Vargas also played a game of two halves, in his case a strained, reedy tone which eventually opened out.

But this was a generous audience, and it rewarded the performance with a generous ovation.

I'm back for more on Wednesday (booked long before the Sun offer appeared) - hoping for better singing from some quarters, but I doubt if there'll be a more enthusiastic and less jaded audience in the Royal Opera House for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

ISRAEL 1 BABYLON 0 (after extra time)

Prom 41: Belshazzar - OAE / Mackerras - Royal Albert Hall, 16 August 2008

I know how you got here. User stats reveal that the googlers' favourite is topless opera (yawn, here, NSFW), but seekers of the wisdom of teh internets have landed here via everything from Angela Hewitt dress sense to John Tomlinson naked. One of the searches that crops up sporadically but persistently, who knows why, is Charles Mackerras died.

Eh? I can report conclusively to whoever is interested that Sir Charles Mackerras is not only very much alive, but at the age of 82 dispatching a three hour oratorio in the clammy heat of the Royal Albert Hall with laser focus and the energy of a puppy (and a ninja jacket, but I'm not sure how much that helps).

Here, just a couple of nights after the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's border-busting visit, we were reminded of how far the roots of Middle Eastern conflict stretch back.

Handel's biblical tale relates the fall of Belshazzar's kingdom of Babylon and the freeing of the Jewish people. It sounds unpromisingly stern stuff and perhaps that's why it's not performed often. But Handel constructed a score as dramatic as any opera, short on the narrative twists and turns, but impeccably characterised, melodic and powerful.

The Arena was half empty despite a near sell-out of the seated areas - often the case when people weigh up the prospect of three hours on their hind legs.

Even so, with a huge TV screen at the front of the Arena - providing a view of the conductor for the soloists while blocking it for a lot of prommers - I couldn't see exactly what Sir Charles was up to. But his taut, driven reading spoke for itself. The pace never slackened and the time just whizzed past.

Vocally the night belonged to the rousing and immaculately-schooled chorus, their many contributions hitting the target every time.

Iestyn Davies, fresh from his convincing Proms performance in The Coronation of Poppaea a couple of weeks back, was the pick of the soloists, a honey-toned countertenor who never lets the stubble show vocally. The searches I've had -  Iestyn Davies wife and Iestyn Davies gay - testify to the range of his appeal.

The other countertenor on stage, Bejun Mehta, provided a bright and flinty vocal contrast and some dashing coloratura work, as did the impressive Rosemary Joshua as Nitocris.

I was less convinced on the night by the murky and occasionally insecurely-placed sound of tenor Paul Groves and bass Robert Gleadow, though on the radio playback they come across considerably better, with colour and dramatic urgency.

This puzzles me, but not quite as much as the quality of the vocal sound in general on the night. Now, I know the Royal Albert Hall has a cavernous, cathedral-like acoustic, but it's rare to hear quite so much of an echo from every single soloist when the sound from the orchestra and chorus was crisp and clear. It's also rare for comparatively light voices to project so cleanly and consistently all night - not a note was lost to an unwise pianissimo.

There were microphones in front of the singers for recording purposes - naturally, as the event was broadcast live - but no speakers to be seen. I very much doubt whether singers at this level would consent to be surreptitiously amplified, but that's honestly what it resembled - loud, trained voices boosted with near-instantaneous playback. It's just how Juan Diego Flórez sounded in the second half of his Proms performance a couple of years back, when he was (openly and unashamedly) miked.

Perhaps it's just that the TV screen at the front - hard, flat, reflective - increased the normal RAH reverberation level. Because in spite of the BBC's recent lapses from probity, the alternative is unthinkable. Isn't it?

 

  

I Czech Out Katya Kabanova

Katya Kabanova - Royal Opera House, 2 July 2007

Ashes. 1894. Edvard Munch

A few days ago, despite critical raves, maybe half of tonight's stalls seats for Katya Kabanova were unsold. A newspaper promotion reduced the price from £135 to £50, and bingo, the lot were filled. Proof that high prices keep many people away from opera - or that more people read the special offers than the reviews section?

For over fifty years it has been Sir Charles Mackerras's mission and passion to bring the work of Janácek to a wider public. Could there have been a more ideal conductor for this production? He brought all his experience and know how to bear in a nuanced interpretation of great delicacy and sensitivity, the orchestra responding immaculately in one of the best performances I have heard here for a very long time. Mackerras picked out the elusive feminine qualities in the scoring which contrast and complement its rawness.

Age always defeats beauty in Janácek, and often the singer in the matriarchal role can dominate proceedings too. Not so with Felicity Palmer's Kabanicha - although her caustic performance was magnificent, the other singers more than held their own. None more so than Janice Watson as Katya, her vulnerability and desperation tragically spotlit. Liora Grodnikaite, a late sub for the sick Linda Tuvås, was as impressive playing Varvara as she had been last week in her small role in Thaïs, finding the right note of bubbly optimism to contrast with the doomed Katya. Toby Spence's boyishly exuberant Kudrjáš was another highlight. Kurt Streit as Katya's lover Boris took a while to settle vocally, and generally gave a rather understated performance, as did Chris Merritt as Katya's husband Tichon - underlining Mackerras's emphasis on Katya at the unquestioned centre of the drama.

The set - a rough path spiralling up through a Munch-like stormy blue-black sky - certainly set the tone well enough, but it began to pall after a while. Director Trevor Nunn must have sensed this - why else the gratuitous equine finale to Act 1? Any punters who'd been nodding off of course perked up as Tichon's car arrived on stage drawn by two real, live, and slightly irritable horses. But really, unless you're doing Götterdämmerung, nothing signals a director's lack of faith in his production concept like sticking a live animal on stage. The collapsing wooden cross in Act 3 too seemed more of a confusing commentary on the drama than an attempt at interpretation. Simpler would have been better - but really anything would have worked with performances this wonderful.

Watson, Streit

Spence, Grodnikaite, Mackerras, Watson