Intermezzo

Die schweigsame Frau in Munich

Die schweigsame Frau - Prinzregententheater Munich, 23 July 2010

Die schweigsame Frau's relative lack of success is sometimes excused as bad timing. An adaptation of Ben Jonson's play The Silent Woman, it's inoffensive comic fluff. But the fact that its librettist Stefan Zweig was Jewish ensured the opera was banned by the Nazis after just three performances in 1935. 

Now it languishes in a corner of the repertoire, picked up and dusted off only occasionally. But much else that was prohibited in Germany during Hitler's reign - Mahler especially springs to mind - has recovered its position, and more. Do the reasons lie more in the work itself than the unfortunate circumstances of its debut? This new production for the Munich Opera Festival gives it a fair chance, but I can't say that I was blown away. By riddling it with ironic pastiches of his own older works, Strauss was perhaps acknowledging that he had little new to say.

Operastar to Popstar - Episode 2: "oop north"

Can a classically-trained English tenor, even a very good one, ever hope to master the art of chanson?

Toby Spence married his skillz to the music of Jacques Brel at Wigmore Hall last week.

Now he's taken his talents to Scotland - the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow to be precise - where YouTuber Hunkydorable captured La Chanson Des Vieux Amants with the Scottish Ensemble on 13 February.

Listen and marvel (singing starts around 0:50):

And here's how it sounded when Le Grand Jacques himself laid it down:

Operastar to Popstar - Toby Spence tackles Jacques Brel

Scottish Ensemble / Toby Spence - Wigmore Hall, 7 February 2010 

Satie Gnossienne No. 1 Debussy (arr. Morton) Serenade for the Doll, The Little Shepherd, Jimbo's Lullaby, Golliwogg's Cake-Walk from 'Children's Corner'     Satie Gnossienne No. 3     Schwertsik Adieu Satie Brel J'arrive, Amsterdam, Ces gens-là, Fernand, Jef, Vesoul, Au suivant, Les bourgeois, La valse à mille temps   Encore: Brel La chanson des vieux amants

Popstar to Operastar demonstrates how tough it is for even the most successful of entertainers to switch genres. Lest anyone imagine that's because opera is 'hard' and pop is 'easy', Toby Spence proved in this patchy recital of Jacques Brel favourites that even an abundance of operatic skill is not enough to guarantee success when the the musical goalposts are moved.

Toby Spence seems to love Brel's music passionately. It's a shame he couldn't commit it all to heart though. True, there were a lot of words to learn, but it was a stretch to believe them when they were often read from a music stand. In Schubert, this wouldn't be an issue, but what Brel's songs demand most of all - above technical accuracy, native idiom or anything else - is conviction. Like a marriage proposal or a hostage statement, it's simply impossible to believe in when it's read from the page.

Spence doesn't have a flawless native accent, but I don't find that a necessity for this material. Clear diction however is vital. Perhaps an instinctive habit of his training, Spence favoured the smooth musical line over crisply-enunciated text. I hadn't expected le style, but I had at least hoped for les paroles. For the rapid patter of La valse à mille temps, it was less of a concern, but for the detailed narrative of Les bourgeois it was a serious drawback. Perhaps Brel's more lyrical, less declamatory songs like Litanies pour un retour or Je ne sais pas might have proved a better match for Spence's talents than the more well-known and verbally demanding ones that ended up on the programme.

A lot of the material sat in Spence's growly lower reaches - surely these songs are not too precious to transpose? Only Amsterdam was entirely in the more comfortable part of his range, and it was by far his most musically effective selection.

Reservations aside, Spence's deep love for Brel's music came across clearly in the songs themselves and his spoken introduction to each one. But as the Popstar to Operastar candidates are finding, enthusiasm only goes so far - training, practice and experience are required to complete the picture. Jacques Brel himself spent many nights honing his techniques in Brussels nightclubs before launching himself to success in Paris. For a first bash at singing Brel in public, Spence didn't do too badly, but he's got a long way to go.

No complaints about the wonderful idiomatic arrangements from the fourteen musicians of the Scottish Ensemble - including expert accordionist Ian Watson - which framed the songs beautifully. A first half filled with Satie, Debussy and Kurt Schwertsik's playful Satie tribute, Adieu Satie was an undemanding but delightful complement.

Royal Opera's Rake's Progress proves a Trial

The Rake's Progress - Royal Opera House, 22 January 2009

Robert Lepage's Hollywood-themed Rake's Progress returns to Covent Garden no more impressive than it was first time round, so I won't bother describing it in any detail again. The concept - fame corrupts - is superficially interesting. But it sits awkwardly atop the Londonian specificities of the libretto, and the production remains constricted by its static tableaux, a substitute for real dramatic action.

All its wow-factor technical gimmicks can't disguise a lack of depth. Of course that's a criticism you could level at almost any Lepage venture. Intellectual profundity is neither his aim nor his result. He's the 21st century Zeffirelli - overwhelm the audience with spectacle, and hope they don't peer any deeper.

In his theatrical work, an emotional resonance compensates. It can make his best efforts utterly compelling. But in the theatre his actors pretty much devise their own performances from scratch. Not here of course. In opera you have to work with what you're given - a fixed text and performers whose training is more musical than theatrical. This production's characters and situations lack sympathy, empathy - any kind of fellow-feeling at all. And I don't blame the singers, because it was exactly the same last time round, with a different cast. The revival 'direction' seems to have done no more than reproduce the original blocking.

Ingo Metzmacher's pacing, perhaps dictated by the technical demands of the projections and sets, seemed as sluggish as Tom Ades's had in the first run. And in deference to the placement of the singers frequently miles upstage, the volume was far too low. It's telling that the haunting solo harpsichord accompaniment to the graveyard scene had more impact than any of the more complex and clever writing. The clarity of the orchestral sound was perhaps its greatest strength.  

The singers seemed bathed in an air of defeat from the first note, though Rosemary Joshua's Welsh-inflected Anne Trulove battled hard to win hearts. Toby Spence undoubtedly has the voice for Tom Rakewell, but he too often lacked focus and, more surprisingly, projection, only really coming to life towards the end in the graveyard scene. Kyle Ketelsen's Nick Shadow and Patricia Bardon's Baba the Turk were decently sung, but strangely muted and anonymous presences. Even Frances McCafferty's Mother Goose - surely a gift of a role for a singer of McCafferty's vocal power and physical dimensions - lacked the expected impact.

The general impression was a lack of confidence, despite a surprisingly enthusiastic audience who laughed and gasped at the visual trickery and couldn't wait to applaud at every possible opportunity. Perhaps this production will come together more as the run progresses, but at the moment it's considerably less than the sum of its well-cast parts.

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

What's on in London in January

There's not much happening in London right now except the white stuff, but the city springs into musical life later in the month. The final week of January in particular offers a pile up of competing attractions. 

The first event in my January calendar is Elektra, in concert at the Barbican on 12 and 14 January. Valery Gergiev and the LSO are joined by a fabulous cast - Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, Angela Denoke, Felicity Palmer, Matthias Goerne and Ian Storey.

Music and movies are on the menu for the Barbican's 16 January Hans Werner Henze day, followed on 17 January by the UK premiere of Phaedra.

At the Royal Festival Hall, the Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Hvorostovsky recital on 18 January is sold out, but there may be returns on the date.

The Rake's Progress opens on 22 January at the Royal Opera House, the second run for Robert Lepage's disappointingly half-baked production. The casting is superb though - after a few dropouts the final line-up centres around Toby Spence, Rosemary Joshua, Kyle Ketelsen and Patricia Bardon, with Ingo Metzmacher conducting. 

The second Covent Garden opening of the month is Jonathan Miller's Cosi Fan Tutte, conducted by Julia Jones. Yes, a lady in the pit. Sally Matthews's Fiordiligi looks like the pick of the casting.

29 January sees the first of Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven piano concerto series at the Royal Festival Hall, with the rest following over the week. Sold out, of course, but all concerts will be relayed live (and free) to the Ballroom's big screen, and recorded for later broadcast on Radio 3.

Wigmore Hall offers Simon Keenlyside on his own on 22 and 25 and with Angelika Kirchschlager on 31 January for the Wigmore's annual celebration of Schubert's birthday. Joyce DiDonato appears on 26 and 28, and the Early Opera Company tackle Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno on 29 January with a cast including Lucy Crowe, Anna Stephany and Hilary Summers.

I missed the Birmingham premiere of Luke Bedford's Good Dream She Has thanks to Virgin Rail's incompetence, so I'm looking forward to hearing it in BCMG's interesting 24 January Wigmore Hall programme.

The mini-St Paul's acoustic of King's Place makes it one of my least favourite venues for vocal music, but their Vienna to Weimar Festival in the last week of January is worth checking out. The pick is a song recital on 27 January from Christian Immler and Helmut Deutsch, featuring rarely-performed works by Eisler, Gàl, Goldschmidt, Korngold, Krenek, Schreker and Zemlinsky. 

And the final last week scheduling conflict comes from the Roundhouse. Their cross-platform Reverb minifest includes Joanna McGregor, the Britten Sinfonia and the OAE sharing their performing space with the less classically-inclined. A piano day on 31 January includes recitals from the Labeque sisters and Rolf Hinds. Finally - approach with caution - Charles Hazlewood rethinks the Beggar's Opera on 25 January "from songs recreated exactly as they would have sounded to groove-laden walls of psychedelia."

Toby Spence rolls another one

"I loathe Bizet’s Carmen. Yes, it is wellcrafted and, yes, it has famous tunes. It is in those universally recognised melodies that the merits of the piece end and my hatred begins. They have been mauled and bent out of shape so much by countless TV ads, arrangements for solo flute with marching band and other Muzak versions that I can only hear the popera as a hit parade.

And then there is the story. As Don José blithely ignores the demure and hopeless passes made at him by Micaela in favour of Carmen, the desire to stand up and scream: “Go and live your life with the nice girl from the village, and tell that Gypsy slapper to sod off” is too much for me. And then there’s the hideous thigh slapping and unnatural cigarette smoking that all Carmens hope passes for hussy behaviour in Seville. It is unbelievable what people think translates as sexy when it comes to staging this long, dull, yet commercial melodrama."

Royal Opera House - the Winter Season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Sweaty Eddie's La Clemenza di Tito at the Barbican

La Clemenza di Tito - OAE/Gardner - Barbican, 26 July 2008

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment immediately sounded a lot better on this outing than they do at their native South Bank, confirming my suspicion that however questionable the Barbican acoustics might be, the Royal Festival Hall's are (despite the refurb) still worse.

As for the rest of the evening, this concert performance knocked the spots off David McVicar's recent ninja yawnathon for ENO (in which conductor Ed Gardner and Alice Coote also featured).

The OAE were immaculately prepared - perhaps a repeat performance this weekend at the Lincoln Center , marking Gardner's New York debut, justified a little extra rehearsal time. They were on thrilling form, playing as if their lives depended on it.

Even though the daily ENO grind is turning Gardner prematurely grey, his floppy-fringed cuteness endures. If only that was enough to move orchestras. I've found his ENO efforts patchy - too often pallid and uninspired - but he surprised me tonight, working up a sweat on the podium and a fire on the stage.

Tito seems to have built up a chorus of apologists recently, all ready to proclaim that it's unjustifiably sidelined, one of Mozart's finest, etc. But it's not. Unlike Die Zauberflöte, so eminently resistant to even the most cack-handed of treatments, when Tito's given a second-rate performance, it sounds like a second-rate opera. This is the first time I've heard it dispatched with the sort of passion and commitment that do it justice.

Of course the soloists played a huge part in this, none more so than Alice Coote, who gave so much more than just singing. In the central role of Sesto, agonisingly torn between self-destructive love for the selfish, ambitious Vitellia and loyalty to the Emperor Tito, she inhabited her part fearlessly and totally.  This was a concert performance, but nothing except the music stand gave a hint that this was anything less than Coote would deliver on the opera house stage. She looked utterly spent as she sank back into her plastic chair at the end of each aria.

Toby Spence as Tito was dressed for St Moritz in January with his white polo neck and thick velvet jacket. But this was London in July, with British (i.e. rubbish) aircon. When he whipped the jacket off and sat astride his chair (to the apparent surprise of the other performers) as he started to interrogate Coote aria-style, I wondered if it was a spot of heat exhaustion. But no - dramatic licence (and very effective) - he put it straight back on again afterwards.

There was a range to his performance that suggested experiment as much as expressive breadth. Not all of it came off - in particular I felt he stressed Tito's benevolence at the expense of his authority - but it was clear he has an ever-growing range of vocal tools, not to mention the ability to keep an audience on the edge of their seats.

Next to the white-hot intensity of these two, Hillevi Martinpelto's studied and refined portrayal of Vitellia inevitably paled a little. Vitellia's mean streak needed a harder edge. But she sang beautifully, every note appropriately shaded, the voice still lustrous and almost girlish. It was 'Mozart singing' in the classic sense, and a pleasure to listen too.

Sarah Tynan was wonderfully cast as the sweet Servilia, the plaintive innocent, and Fiona Murphy too as the doughty Annio.

Matthew Rose's Publio seemed rather lugubrious in comparison to the spirited performances elsewhere, but there's something of that in the character anyway, and his sonorous bass was impressively mobile in the faster passages. 

The Clare College Cambridge Choir were enthusiastic and crisply drilled - a textbook rendition, if not an especially sensitive one, to nitpick.

This concert was announced relatively late, and the Proms always provide stiff competition at this time of year. Even so, it surprised me, given the casting, that it was far from sold out - the whole balcony closed, and empty seats here and there elsewhere. The Barbican sometimes offers up some rather dodgy programming in its annual summer Mozart festival, but this was an overwhelming exception.

Here's one she made earlier: Hillevi Martinpelto sings Deh seh piacer mi vuoi for Charles Mackerras:

Tenors in their Underpants Part 2 - The Rake's Progress in Paris

The Rake's Progress - Opéra Garnier, Paris, 5 March 2008

I have no idea whether Parsifal director Krysztof Warlikowski and Rake's Progress director Oliver Py had a quiet chat at some point, but there were an interesting couple of coincidences in their productions.

Firstly and critically, the underpants issue. Christopher Ventris only dropped his trousers once in Parsifal, but Toby Spence could barely keep his on here. Again, what was revealed were sensible M&S whities, of the type the Parisian imagination can readily accomodate to all English tenors. And it wasn't gratuitous either - without the benefit of curtains here, Spence's numerous onstage trouser swaps provided a neat transition between scenes.

Py, like Warlikowski, also invented a child, absent from the libretto. In the year and a day of Tom Rakewell's 'progress' there was a rupture of the time/space continuum that in England would bring Daleks flying from the ceiling. Instead here it allowed Anne Trulove to spawn a six year old child in the space of little over twelve months. This enabled an heartwarming ending around the family table, a curious echo of the similarly engineered finale to Warlikowski's Parsifal.

But Py's main theme was rather more basic. In the ingeniously adaptable scaffold-like set, the one constant was the frequently-used bed, home to a succession of cavortings, and eventually to Rakewell's final insanity.

Py really milked every possibility of the second act brothel scene. The chorus, wigged and suspendered like Crazy Horse dancers, were supplemented with an array of top shelf flesh. Unlike the Royal Opera House, which issues nipple alerts at the faintest whiff of nudity, there was no warning at all the Paris Opera programme information. The two Japanese children I saw going in with their parents seemed to have disappeared by the interval, so who knows what happened there.

And just for good measure, he introduced an acrobat, a pair of strongmen and a painted dwarf to illustrate the cornucopia of London life. Just like Covent Garden on a Saturday afternoon, minus the human statue.

An unfortunate consequence of the staging was that the singers were often performing from high on the scaffolding, far back on the stage. The acoustic made it difficult to hear even strong singers like Toby Spence from this perspective, although all were clear from stage level.

It was a shame, because there were no weak performances here, starting with Laura Claycomb's cool and crystalline Anne Trulove. Laurent Naouri was a dark and powerful Nick Shadow, perhaps more camp than truly menacing, but then that was the tone of the production. And his English diction (he's French) was absolutely flawless. As Baba the Turk, Jane Henschel opened all the stops and let rip with a fearless and hysterically funny portrayal that made full use of every colour in her voice.

With an efficient, if rather pallid, performance in the pit from Edward Gardner, ill-matched to Py's high-octane farce, it was Toby Spence's Tom Rakewell who really held the performance together. He negotiated every step, from farce to pathos, with honesty and commitment. In the past I've sometimes felt he's allowed his natural vocal gifts to compensate for less than total preparation and application, but this role fits a singer of his versatility like a glove and every moment was truthful. Py's splashy stage-cramming theatrics lent spectacle to the production, but Spence cracked its brittle chill and gave it a heart. 

It's that time of year - again - La Cenerentola at Covent Garden

La Cenerentola - Royal Opera House, 20 December 2007

I was privileged - or maybe not - for this performance to be seated right over the orchestra pit, at the side of the stage. So for once I could see not only what the orchestra was doing, but also what faces the conductor was pulling. It came of course at the expense of a clear view of the stage, and the orchestral sound was raw. But given that this production's action is concentrated centre stage, and the ensemble is small, these weren't huge disadvantages.  I don't think I have ever seen a happier face on a podium than Evelino Pidò's. Even when orchestra and singers slipped momentarily apart, he maintained the manic joy of a cocker spaniel out for walkies, and was rewarded with a brisk and lively response from his players.

Although on this evidence Magdalena Kožená's acting skills hover somewhere around the Jessica Simpson mark, it's not clear to me why reviewers (example) have been so ruthlessly critical of her performance.

She certainly looked the part, all blonde curls and downcast glances. Her perpetual goggle eyed bafflement wasn't always the right fit dramatically, but at least it supplied the endearing charm that Cenerentola requires. And her singing was one liquid ribbon of exquisite silvery sound - too languid to be truly Italianate but beautiful all the same. Non piu mesta seemed like hard work, but she got through it cleanly, if rather coolly. She's told interviewers that Rossini is not a favourite of hers -- that much was obvious from the detachment of her performance -- but it was no disaster, and I suspect that supplied with more direction she could have delivered a more credible performance.

Toby Spence was more convincing as a rather earnest Don Ramiro. His voice has more muscle than flexibility, and the coloratura was effortful, but he did (just about) manage all the high C's in Si, ritrovarla io giuro. 

Ranked against Covent Garden's last Don Ramiro, the phenomenal Juan Diego Flórez, of course he doesn't measure up, but then who would? The only part of Spence's performance which really didn't work was the opening to Zitto, zitto, piano, piano, taken so quietly that it was literally inaudible - and I was only a few feet away.

Simone Alberghini's Dandini, more of a confidant than a servant, was a splendid foil. His performance was all the more credible for the subtlety of distinction between his disguised and real personas. Considering he'd only joined as a late stand-in for the sick Stéphane Degout he slotted in remarkably well with the tricky vocal ensembles and this production's fussy blocking.

Alessandro Corbelli displayed immaculate comic timing and technique as the grasping Don Magnifico, though at times so manically underlined it was as if he'd wandered in from a different production. Elena Xanthoudakis and Leah-Marian Jones were endearingly repulsive as his daughters, and served up some of the best singing of the night.

The production's updating of the action to the 1950's is not simply an excuse for lurid costumery and a splendid Bugatti to serve as Cenerentola's coach. The outmoded notion of social advancement through marriage took on a more modern economic emphasis in Don Magnifico's dilapidated home. Don Ramiro managed his staff rather than ruling them, and Dandini was his master's quick-witted equal.

Frustratingly, the more controversial ideas, when the otherwise amiable buffoon Don Magnifico physically beats Cenerentola, then feels up the two sisters later, formed odd and uncomfortable punctuations rather than properly explored themes. The sparsely furnished sets, too, seemed unfinished rather than intentionally spare. It was as if time, money and inspiration had all fizzled out in the home straight. Only the eternal and unrelenting vitality of the music papered over the cracks.

Thomas Ades does le French thang in Edinburgh

Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Thomas Ades/Toby Spence - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 14 August 2007
Edinburgh International Festival

Tonight's frenchy programme covered 300 years of music from fabuleux to fromage, though in the event it became hard to tell which was which.

The venerable Rameau was the starter. I've always found it hard to muster up the same enthusiasm for Rameau as I have for Couperin, and I couldn't help wondering if Thomas Ades and the COE felt the same. They exhumed the corpse of the overture from Les Indes Galantes but failed to breathe any life into it. It was as English as steamed pudding and just as soggy.

Ades's own Three Studies from Couperin surprisingly failed to pick up the pace, lacking the sparkle and drive of the UK premiere (Ades with the COE again) just four months ago. The scoring is intriguing, but was obscured by an odd dynamic balance, perhaps intentional. Whatever, it failed to dazzle in the way his other work has.

The shift into top gear finally came with Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Été and Toby Spence. Spence began tentatively and selected a different tempo from the orchestra for the opening Villanelle. This was something Ades failed to control, and a problem that re-occured in the final L'Île Inconnue.

However in the second song, Le Spectre de la Rose, both singer and orchestra finally blossomed. Toby Spence has all the basics and more - a fine ringing tone, secure notes, immaculate breath control and terrific projection. When he put it all together, the results were impressive. Although nerves crept in a couple more times, most noticeably at the start of Sur les Lagunes, there were more moments of pure gorgeousness. L'Absence in particular, pickily steered by Ades, was perfect in every way.

The animation that the orchestra gathered for the Berlioz returned after the interval for Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin. Ravel's arrangement is characteristically full of colour and detail, every inch of his canvas filled. Although this is at heart a memorial piece, it's also full of grace, wit and optimism, and the COE brought it exuberantly to life.

The closer, Bizet's Symphony in C, continued in this vein. Written when he was just 17, it has all the naive optimism of youth. This adorable froth is derivative, but Bizet pinched so many different ideas (mostly from Gounod) it's never boring. The COE made it crisp and light as a mille-feuille, but never over-sugared, a surprisingly satisfying ending to the evening. It came as a surprise that Ades could pull more out of Bizet (Bizet!) than his own work but sometimes these things just happen, who knows why.

(No photos tonight - I was personally and firmly informed that this means me:)

Orfeo and more in Edinburgh

Tomorrow I'm off to Edinburgh, where this year's international festival is loosely themed around Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, celebrating its 400th birthday. I'll be hitting the Jordi Savall-produced opera itself and some of Concerto Italiano's Monteverdi Madrigals. Not to mention Jordi Savall's solo viola da gamba recital (if I can get up in time). Savall sidesteps slavish reproduction in favour of spontaneity, so I'm looking forward to these.

Tuesday's soirée française offers a rare tenor rendition of Berlioz's Les nuits d’été from Toby Spence, plus a chance to re-evaluate the Three Studies after Couperin by Thomas Adès premiered earlier this year in London.

Sadly I'm not staying around for long enough to catch the Tiger Lillies Monteverdi tribute concert on 25 August. No news yet on exactly what they're going to do, but armed with their habitual countertenor, musical saw and toy drumkit I'm guessing they won't be drafting in Nikolaus Harnoncourt to conduct.