Intermezzo

Terfel and Keenlyside join forces at Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall's 2013- 2014 concert season opens on 7 September with a rare bari-summit. Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside  join forces in what is likely to be the recital of the Wigmore season.

Other highlights include a five-concert survey of Bach’s keyboard works by András Schiff. Yo-Yo Ma comes to Wigmore Hall on 29 April 2014 to give his first recital there for more than 20 years. Matthias Goerne returns to Wigmore Hall after a three-year absence on 25 September for the first of two recitals in 2013/14, opening with songs by Schubert and moving on to music by Mahler and Shostakovich in January with Leif Ove Andsnes.

More details (but not as yet a full schedule) in the press release.

The next best thing

Let's face it, a chocolate-covered Simon Keenlyside is unlikely to materialise any time soon.

So here's the next best thing: Simon Keenlyside-covered chocolate.

Available at the Met's shop (though sadly not online).

 

***UPDATE***

I posted this after the reader who sent the photo told me they'd bought this chocolate at the Met shop.

Metropolitan Opera Customer Relations, however claim the chocolate "does not exist and appears to be a hoax that has been posted over the internet."  "Unfortunately," they added "we have been unable to trace the origin of this falsehood."

Not quite.  The chocolate does exist - but apparently only as gifts for production members. So, sadly, unless you can find your way to Iestyn Davies's fridge, a nibble is out of the question.

La traviata - Round 2

La traviata - Royal Opera House, 28 November 2011

I'm guessing Simon Keenlyside did his own grey hairspray* on Monday night and forgot to check the back. I mean, he can't have been going for the caramelised badger look deliberately. Can he?

It was part of his stab at playing Germont much older than I can recall any other singer attempting in this production - even last month's Leo Nucci. Accessorised with a walking stick that he sometimes forgot he needed and a stoop that failed to mask his natural gymnast's posture, he recalled my own brother's portrayal of Polonius. In the school play, aged 16.

Salzburg's nozze di Figaro gets the bird

Le nozze di Figaro - Haus Für Mozart, Salzburg, 30 July 2011

Claus Guth's cinematically-inspired 2006 production sets Figaro in funereal Bergmanesque monochrome. Hitchcock's The Birds is referenced in the dead crows and autumnal leaves littering the bare rooms. It looks more like a particularly scary The Turn of the Screw than a Mozart comedy. 

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.

Pelleas et Melisande with Dessay and Keenlyside

Pelléas et Mélisande - Barbican, 19 April 2011

Pelléas et Mélisande is undoubtedly a tough opera to pull off, but a French orchestra and mostly French cast at least brought a bit of Gallic authenticity to the Barbican's concert version (as concocted for the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris). With singers all parked behind music stands, Natalie Dessay's beaded gown provided the only visual reference to Debussy's opera. Crystals sparkled like stars on black chiffon above a hem embroidered with foaming waves - the dark night and the restless sea in a size 36.

Prom 48: Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Prom 48: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Simon Keenlyside - Royal Albert Hall, 21 August 2010  

The least disappointing part of this patchy Prom was its centrepiece, Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, all five of them, sung with earnestness and intensity by Simon Keenlyside. His evident strain on the very highest and lowest notes only added to the impression that he was giving these expressions of love and loss his very all.

I had expected equally great things from Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. They've been together for two years now, enough time, you might think, to get acquainted. Yet in the opening Tannhäuser Overture the winds and brass consistently overwhelmed the strings and the timpanist was behind the beat. It's not an easy acoustic but Nézet-Séguin has conducted Proms before; he should know the ropes. I'm guessing the aim of his barely-varied mezzo forte and unblended colouring was translucency, but instead the sound was emaciated and lacking in the least degree of authority or sensuality, the two threads that should wind through it. Not good.

Beethoven's Eroica Symphony was an improvement, but then it is by nature reasonably conductor-proof. The orchestra cohered better, and Nézet-Séguin conjured a different sound - fuller, yet still crisp. But too much felt forced, with details - an accented horn here, a tempo shift there - applied like decoration instead of emerging naturally from the score.  If a conductor lacks faith in the music's ability to speak for itself, why perform it? A brief but exquisitely-shaped Ravel encore, from Ma mère l'Oye, hinted that his strengths may lie elsewhere.

Juan Diego - going, going, nearly gone!

Booking opened just a few minutes ago for Juan Diego Florez's Royal Festival Hall recital on 20 January 2011, and already all the best tickets are gone (held back for the organiser, Rosenblatt Recitals, I wonder?). Nice to see Juan Diego doesn't forget the people who gave him an early break, by the way, and also that there are loads of cheap £6 seats in the choir, if you don't mind looking at the back of his head all night. 

There are plenty of seats left at sides and rear at the moment, though I don't expect they'll last for long, so get your skates on.

Also just opened for booking is Simon Keenlyside at the highly atmospheric (if acoustically dodgy) Temple Church on 22 October 2010. While you're at it, take a look at Temple Music's other events, which include recitals by Nathan Vale and Mark Padmore, and Monteverdi's Vespers by the Sixteen.

no substitute

Don Carlo - Royal Opera House, 27 September 2009 and 18 September 2009

Every singer (except Plácido) gets sick now and again, and I got Jonas Kaufmann for two out of the three Don Carlo performances I went too, plus the rehearsal, so I can't complain too much. It was clear at the time of Kaufmann's restrained, mostly marked rehearsal performance that Don Carlo lies at the limits of his capacities. He was wise not to put his voice in jeopardy by attempting the part in anything less than 100% health.

But I can't deny it was a major disappointment to arrive at the Sunday matinee and find he'd been replaced by Alfred Kim, who'd played the part recently in Oslo. Kim is competent and likeable. He hits all the notes cleanly, projects well, acts industriously, and truth be told has a much more Italianate and objectively appropriate voice for the part than either Kaufmann or his predecessor Rolando Villazón.

But he just didn't possess that elusive factor that catches your eye when someone walks on stage and draws your ear to their every word. It's something to do with singing from inside the role rather than merely playing it, and it excuses all sorts of other issues. It's why every single major opera house rushes round chasing after the same 20 or so singers, why nothing (except the recent Barbiere - a miracle) is ever ideally cast.

Alfred Kim (top) and Jonas Kaufmann (below) with Ferruccio Furlanetto:

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

Royal Opera House's Don Carlo faces the Inquisition

Don Carlo - Royal Opera House, 15 September 2009

It’s little more than a year since the Royal Opera House premiered this production, but already the temperature has dropped a few degrees.

The main reason is Semyon Bychkov. Pappano was all heart; Bychkov is all head. Where Pappano offered untrammelled passion, Bychkov’s Don Carlo is thoughtfully structured, scrupulously detailed and immaculately performed (the last time the ROH played this well was in Lohengrin for – Semyon Bychkov). His weighty attentions serve the music well, the drama less so. The issue isn't the idiosyncratic tempos – sometimes super attenuated, sometimes dangerously pacy. At least these make you listen in a new way.The real problem is a lack of flexibility and dramatic response. The music feels superimposed on the drama, when it should be the other way round. The great Carlos/Posa freedom duet was more dutiful than ardent; Philip’s ruminative Act 4 monologue had the air of a prepared speech. There is much to admire – and to think about - but I rarely felt drawn in.

The other big change is in the title role. Rolando Villazon’s Carlos was an impetuous boy; Jonas Kaufmann’s is brooding, serious and totally grown-up. Kaufmann’s Carlos has no hesitation in placing his duty to Flanders above his personal desires. But this is the five act version, whose first act narrates the brief meeting of Carlos and Elisabetta. The first act does so much more than contextualise Carlos’s later moping. It changes the story. His joy (Elisabetta's too) is seen as real, but his later obsession as delusory, while her acceptance of her duty is the only pragmatic solution. Playing out the love story diminishes it. We see it ourselves for what it is, a moment of happiness, and not as Carlos presents it, the pivot of his destiny. And then we see the discrepancy between our view and his, and Carlos too is diminished in our eyes. He is merely evading his responsibilities, even if he doesn't realise it.

Jonas Kaufmann has chosen to emphasise the political and idealistic side of Carlos, and while that's right for the four act version, I don't think it works here (for one thing, it makes the first act into a tacked-on appendage). But having said that, and first act simpering aside, he follows through brilliantly. He is every inch the rebel prince, and his singing was out of this world. His ravishingly beautiful mezza voce was used to great effect, but he could turn up the power too. And who else could look that hawt in puffball shorts and pixie boots?

Inevitably this Carlos has more chemistry with Posa than with Marina Poplavskaya’s Elisabetta. She is much improved from last year's outing. Perhaps she really was indisposed all those times she claimed. Her steel-coated power was complemented this time round by smooth grained tone and accurate (if hard earned) top notes, lending Elisabetta's dutiful sacrifice a noble cast.

Simon Keenlyside sounded better than I have heard him for some time. Evidently a summer's rest has done him good. He is not and never will be a Verdi baritone - the heft and depth simply aren't there. Pairing him with the baritonal tenor of Jonas Kaufmann unfortunately emphasises this. But he compensates intelligently and with unquestionable commitment.

Marianne Cornetti is definitely a Verdi singer, but I doubt if Eboli is her best role. She wobbled gamely through the Veil Song, but her voice is simply too weighty to navigate it with the required agility. O don fatale was quite lovely though, and she has the warmth to generate sympathy. Couldn't the make up department have glammed her up a bit more though? - the revelation that Carlos has mistaken her for Elisabetta raised an understandable laugh from the audience.

The most satisfying performance came of course from Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip. Near-perfect. Every note, every gesture conveys absolute authority. He perhaps more than anyone suffered from Bychkov's counter-intuitive pacing though. Unable to linger or rush where the emotions demanded, he was sometimes less convincing than I know he can be. And his showdown with John Tomlinson's unscary Grand Inquisitor didn't pack the wallop it should have done.

Amongst the smaller parts, Robert Anthony Gardiner as the Conte di Lerma really stood out. His singing, most of it terrifyingly exposed, was bright, accurate and rock-solid, and his presence aristocratically relaxed.

I'm going to see a couple more performances, and I'll write more about the production itself then. But suffice to say for now I was surprised at the stagey gesticulation of some of the principals, and at how much fussy micro-managed movement had been imposed on crowd scenes (the auto-da-fé scene was the most egregious example of extraneous chat, clatter and fidgeting). A case of the director working with what was available perhaps, but not quite what you'd expect from Nicholas Hytner.

 

*****  more photos over page  *****

 

Spanish practices

 

Rumours that the first revival of the Royal Opera House's Don Carlo was in even better shape than the original were given some weight by yesterday's dress rehearsal. Half the original cast return - Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip, Marina Poplavskaya as Elisabetta and Simon Keenlyside as Posa. The new additions are Jonas Kaufmann (Carlos), Marianne Cornetti (Eboli) and John Tomlinson (the Inquisitor).

But it's the new conductor, Semyon Bychkov, who has the most impact. Some of his tempos are unique to say the least - the great third act ensemble is taken at such a clip the singers struggle to keep up. But it's a probing, intelligent perspective, at times revelatory - I suspect it will be controversial. Jonas Kaufmann's performance may be too. I had some reservations, but they can wait given this was only a rehearsal, things may change, etc.

Poplavskaya and Keenlyside bring a greater depth to their characterisations this time round. (Ferruccio Furlanetto is of course unimprovable). Poplavskaya in particular has matured astonishingly in just a year. Her range has extended upwards so she can now actually sing all the notes, and with what power. When she sings, she changes the temperature of the room.

Marianne Cornetti is a lovely sympathetic Eboli, and although John Tomlinson isn't quite as scary-looking as Eric Halvarson was, he sings with the authority of absolute power.

The sets seemed uglier than I remembered them, the lighting brasher and less forgiving - just a concession to the official photographers snapping away? I hope so.

What's on in London in September

Summer is nearly over, and at last the concert calendar is filling up.

Proms and alternatives
The Proms seem to have gone on forever, but it'll all be over for another year on 12 September.

Remaining highlights include Mariss Jansons with the Concertgebouw, Riccardo Chailly with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and Franz Welser-Möst (replacing the scheduled Harnoncourt).

On 4 September there's an unmissable double header - first Matthias Goerne and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in Mahler, Ligeti, Schoenberg and Strauss, then a late-night George Crumb special.

Incidentally, operatic highlights for the 2010 Proms - you heard it here first - are expected to include Die Meistersinger with Bryn Terfel, Glyndebourne's Don Giovanni, and a substantial chunk of Tristan und Isolde from the Orchestra of the 18th Century with Ben Heppner.

If you want to skip the ghastliness of the last night - something I cannot recommend too highly - alternatives include the Wigmore Hall season opener which is Die schöne Müllerin from Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis.

Or there's a FREE screening of the 1929 silent movie Piccadilly on an outside wall (don't blame me if it rains) of the Royal Festival Hall accompanied by a new score from composers Suki Mok and Ruth Chan. Following the screening, the score "will become the lynchpin of a cross-artform work incorporating dance, drama and video against a backdrop of the original silent movie".

Opera
The Royal Opera House season opens on 7 September with two concert performances of Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix conducted by Mark Elder and featuring Alessandro Corbelli alongside the hotly-tipped Eglise Gutiérrez and Stephen Costello.

Don Carlo has started rehearsals and promises to turn out even better than first time round. Semyon Bychkov conducts, Jonas Kaufmann is in the title role, and the rest of the cast is much the same as it was first time round, with Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside and Ferruccio Furlanetto reprising his definitive Philip.

Don't expect much on stage except the singers in born-again minimalist Christof Loy's new production of Tristan und Isolde. Tristan is Ben Heppner and Isolde Nina Stemme, with Matti Salminen, Michael Volle and Sophie Koch completing the cast. Pappano conducts.

English National Opera's season opens with the much-travelled, highly-praised production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre by La Fura dels Baus.

The Arcola Theatre's variable but occasionally brilliant (and cheap) Grimeborn opera festival continues until 5 September. Handel, Poulenc and Mozart are included amongst the mostly contemporary works.

There's an opportunity to hear Rossini's rarely-performed Il Signor Bruschino and La Scala di Seta as well as The Rake's Progress from British Youth Opera between 4 and 12 September.

And Valery Gergiev conducts the LSO in a concert performance of La Damnation de Faust on 22 September, with a cast including Joyce DiDonato, Michael Schade, Thomas Quasthoff and Florian Boesch.

Concerts
The LSO's season opener is on 20 September, with Gergiev conducting Debussy, Dutilleux and Ravel.

At the Royal Festival Hall, Bernard Haitink conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on 23 and 24 September. And on 25 and 26 September Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO tackle Mahler's 2nd Symphony. Anne Sofie von Otter visits on 30 September with songs from her Theresienstadt CD.

At Wigmore Hall, Matthias Goerne continues his Schubert marathon on 18 and 20 September (a different programme on each night).

And on 28 September it's Imogen Cooper's bus-pass birthday concert. She'll be joined by Wolfgang Holzmair, Mark Padmore, Sonia Wieder-Atherton and Paul Lewis.

Simon Keenlyside departs from Seville

Simon Keenlyside has formally pulled out of the Royal Opera House's forthcoming Il barbiere di Siviglia revival, where he was due to play Figaro (as foretold last week by Greek Oracle, Parsifal). 

No, he hasn't come a cropper performing gymnastic routines in highly-polished corridors.

According to the ROH press release he has "received strict orders from his doctor to give his voice complete rest." Hope it's nothing too serious and he's back with us soon.

He will be replaced by Pietro Spagnoli.

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.

Royal Opera House Summer Season is on the way

Not long now till the Royal Opera House summer season opens for booking - 25 March for Friends and 28 April for the rest.

The highlight for me is Berg's Lulu, in a new production by Christof Loy, a director for whom drama is never confined to the stage. He famously (allegedly) sacked Tubby Voigt from his Ariadne in 2004, then walked out of his own production - La finta giardiniera - a couple of years later, citing Spinal Tap style "musical differences" with the conductor.

For his Lulu, newbie Agneta Eichenholz takes the title role, but more importantly, Klaus Florian Vogt makes his Covent Garden debut as Alwa. (Which means he'll be hanging around Covent Garden while Lohengrin's on, should either of the scheduled leads catch Netrebkoitis - we can but hope). A welcome return for Michael Volle (Dr Schön / Jack the Ripper) too. Pappano conducts.

Richard Eyre's beautifully coherent and underrated La traviata returns, this time with the cougarific pairing of Renee Fleming and Joseph Calleja in the leads. Will la Renee's unconcealable chemistry with Thomas Hampson (Germont) lend an 'interesting' dimension? Tony Pappano conducts this one too.

The hugely jolly if puddle-deep Leiser and Caurier Il barbiere di Siviglia gets an all-star cast this time round - Simon Keenlyside, Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, with the fabulous Alessandro Corbelli and the great Ferruccio Furlanetto the cream on top. More Pappano.

Bryn Terfel is the main attraction in Jonathan Kent's tourist-friendly Tosca. Marcello Giordani attempts to fill the shoes last worn by Jonas Kaufmann and Deborah Voigt displays her slimmed-down talents. Jacques Lacombe conducts.

I can't get too excited about Un ballo in maschera with Ramón Vargas and Angela Marambio, though I look forward to Anna Christy's ROH debut as Oscar.

The Mariinsky's summer Ring Cycle is also booking - no casting yet announced. I don't know whether that's good or bad news. But given that the company harbours everything from wet-behind-the-ears teens to world-class soloists, we can only hope for the best. Check out the ticket prices carefully before you book - there are very few cheap seats, even in the amphitheatre.

Gambling types may grab a ticket for Rolando Villazón's recital with Tony Pappano on 24 June.  'Mixed form' doesn't begin to describe Rolando's recent performances, but at least with the opportunity to pick and fine-tune his programme, we may see him at his best.

Finally, the Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Concert on 19 July is an opportunity to hear more from the company's walk-on specialists.

Simon Keenlyside's Wiener froth

Simon Keenlyside / Angelika Kirchschlager / Marc Minkowski / Les Musiciens du Louvre - Barbican, 3 November 2008

Johann Strauß IIÄgyptischer Marsch
Franz von Suppé (BOCCACCIO): Hab’ ich nur deine Liebe; Mia bella fiorentina (Florenz hat schöne Frauen)
Franz Lehár (EVA): Zwanzinette
Emmerich Kalman (DAS VEILCHEN VON MONTMARTRE): Heut' nacht hab' ich geträumt von Dir
Johann Strauß II (DIE TÄNZERIN FANNY ELSSLER): Draußen in Sievering blüht schon der Flieder
Franz Lehár: Gold und Silber 
Franz Lehár (GIUDITTA): Meine Lippen, die küssen so heiß
Emmerich Kálmán (DIE ZIRKUSPRINZESSIN): Wieder hinaus ins strahlende Licht
Johann Strauß II (Die Fledermaus): Ouverture
Franz Lehár (ZIGEUNERLIEBE): Nur die Liebe macht uns jung
Emmerich Kálmán (DIE CSARDASFÜRSTIN): Weißt du es noch

Viennese operetta is like the morris dancing of Austria - deeply ingrained in the cultural heritage, ineffably inexplicable and best enjoyed at source. For Angelika Kirchschlager the attraction is obvious but what Simon Keenlyside's doing is anybody's guess (clues here). It sounds like mating music for teddy bears. Still, it has plenty of fans, and they were out in full gushing force at the Barbican.

La Kirchschlager accomodated herself to the medium successfully. This kind of thing plays to her assets - the charm, the warmth, the almost conversational way with words - without drawing too much attention to her - oops - threadbare lower register. She looked yummy in the same purple satin frock she'd worn at the Proms and cavorted girlishly around the first violins, sounding pearlescently perfect up top.

Simon Keenlyside on the other hand was like a Ferrari in a 30mph zone. He was clearly having a great deal of fun with the physical side of the performance - not least when he got a message from a bottle as his beery prop suddenly spurted forth. He couldn't wait to obliterate the unwanted froth (I'd had enough of it by then, too), crouching down and mopping up with his hanky as he sang.

But Simon's qualities rest in elegance and nobility, and too much of the material was the opposite. Not to mention shoved down from higher keys - to its detriment. The worst culprit was his encore, Lehár's Dein ist mein ganzes Herz - it just cries out for a big, ringing tenor. 

The sweetly bonkers Marc Minkowski and his mostly French band sounded out of place too, lumpish and coarse where they should have been crisp as Strudel and unctuous as Schlagobers. There's only one way to play this music, and it's the way handed down by unbroken performance tradition in Vienna.

It is only fair to say that I was very much the mouse pewp in the chocolate box- every number was rapturously received by the vast majority of the audience. I just hope it's a diversion for Simon Keenlyside, not a new career direction .

 

 

 

 

  

Simon Keenlyside does Wigmore Hall

Simon Keenlyside / Malcolm Martineau - Wigmore Hall, 26 October 2008

Fauré Mandoline No. 1 from 'Cinq mélodies de Venise'; En sourdine; Green No. 3 from 'Cinq mélodies de Venise'; Notre amour; Fleur jetée; Spleen; Madrigal de Shylock; Aubade; Le papillon et la fleur   Ravel Histoires naturelles   Wolf Gesang Weylas; Heimweh; Auf eine Christblume II; Lied vom Winde   Schubert An Silvia D. 891; Die Einsiedelei D393; Verklärung D59; Freiwilliges Versinken D700; Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, D583; Himmelsfunken D651; Ständchen D957; Die Sterne D939; Auf der Bruck D853

Encores: Wolf Der Knabe und das Immlein; An die Geliebte   Poulenc Hôtel 

This was the second of two identical recitals that Simon Keenlyside is committing to disc for the Wigmore Live CD series. And if the engineer can zap out the intrusive but ohso predictable coughing it should make one terrific recording.

New dad (congratulations!) Simon is like the Swiss Army knife of baritones - he can do just about anything. Well, except pluck your brows or pick stones out of ponies' hooves, but you have to pay extra for that.

At Wigmore Hall there was little trace of the physicality so central to Simon's operatic performances. Nattily turned out in a three-piece grey suit, he commanded the Wigmore stage by sheer force of presence, fingers locked over his chest. And he was in excellent form, even though his admirable insistence on performing in original keys meant he was stretched tissue-thin at the top.

The first half's Fauré, drawn from the less sticky end of the syrup pot, was sung with affection and feeling, and Ravel's quirky animal songs allowed room for characterisation. His diction was clear without being fussy, and his French mostly excellent. Only a tendency to nasalise vowels too early marked him out as English (a bit pedantic eh, but unless long vowels are sung open, only nasalising towards the very end of the note, it's a dead giveaway.) Malcolm Martineau was in perfect accord, locating as he so often does that tricky middle ground between anonymity and assertiveness.

Simon sang everything without a score, only a couple of lines in the second half's Wolf group challenging his memory. But the Schubert group which followed was the highlight of the evening for me, traversing from the sublime yearning of Ständchen to the operatic thunder of Auf der Bruck and everything in between. The encores continued on a high. The main programme had been beautifully sung, every note placed perfectly, but here in the pair of Wolf songs Simon let rip more, taking risks he perhaps hadn't dared earlier. It left me wanting more....the ideal way to end any recital.

Don Giovanni from the Royal Opera House - free online streaming

As previously reported, the Royal Opera House is streaming its recent Don Giovanni in full. The performance is the infamous 8 September "Sun special", which I attended in person, and marked Joyce DiDonato's role debut as Donna Elvira.

Like everything else of interest on the ghastly new website, the link is well-hidden. You can find it yourself on the page http://www.roh.org.uk/video by clicking 'Don Giovanni' in the menu on the left-hand side. Or you can go directly to any of its ten parts via the links below:

Part 1   Part 2    Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   Part 7   Part 8   Part 9   Part 10

The technical quality is good on my set up, though in full screen mode the picture is poor and the screen tends to freeze. The sound has clearly been cleaned up. This is mostly sensitively done, though a lot of dynamic contrast has been lost.

Beware there's a Parental Advisory moment at 20:40 of Part 10 (now, how many of you will ff there in the next 10 seconds.........?)

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.