Support independent media - Mark Berry on Mozart

Here is a link to Mark Berry's article Power and patronage in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito and Die Zauberflöte in Boulezian - please read iut - very informative 1 support independent mdedia !

Ryan Wigglesworth Piano Concerto Prom - Stravinsky, Mozart

Ryan Wigglesworth (courtesy Groves Artists)

 More Ryan Wigglesworth at the Proms, and more Mozart, too. After Mozart The Magic Flute from Glyndebourne idiomatically played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, (review coming up soon), Wigglewsworth returned with the Britten Sinfonia in Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Wigglesworth's own Piano Concerto, a world premiere.

For his publishers, Schott, Wigglesworth describes his Piano Concerto. Please read the link for more. "The opening Arioso pits quiet, obsessive rhythmic figures against the piano’s brief chorale-like utterances. The argument becomes more contrapuntally involved, reaching a tentative climax, before dissolving back into the hazy mood of the beginning".  My response, probably coloured by listening to Mozart (always a balm in times of political insanity),  was to pick up on the sense of tension between classical elegance and nervousness : fast paced, jerky piano lines, almost en pointe (to borrow an idea from ballet).  In the Scherzo, "the piano weaves an insistent pattern of quick, cascading figures, oblivious to the short, sharp attacks of the orchestra". The piano seems to taunt the orchestra, who respond in kind before winding down to dream-like stillness. From this the Notturno emerges, as if released by the unconscious. It's simple but intensely evocative - piano, strings and harp - the melody based on Polish folk song, which Wigglesworth heard his sister-in-law singing, quietly, at night.  A timeless moment, transcending national borders, the piano and harp becoming partners, in contrast to the rivalry that went before. in the finale, "A brief battle between piano and orchestra is initially won by the latter, only for the piano to launch into an explosive cadenza. This traverses the movement’s two main themes before a crash from the orchestra freezes the music into a short recollection of the Arioso chorale. The piano, left alone, wanders to the concerto’s close." The soloist here was Marc-André Hamelin.

Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss was fashionably maligned in its time, not least thanks to Diaghilev's disdain for Ida Rubenstein, for whom it was commissioned, a celebrity but as a dancer nowhere near the standard of the Ballets Russe. It also didn't help that it was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinsky, who had followed her brother away from Diaghilev circles. Part of the Fairy's Kiss "problem" is the plot of the ballet, or lack thereof, but for Stravinsky himself  it was "an allegory of a man marked out from his fellows, unable to join in their life" : the role of an artist, whose destiny is to fulfil his gift, even if it means  being alone.  In 1928, that ideal was
pertinent to Stravinky, living in exile, surrounded by change. In Tchaikovsky, he  saw a quintessential outsider, forced to hide his true identity in a society where being out meant death.  In musical terms, this applied too to Stravinsky, not because he was reverting to Tchaikovsky, but because he didn't want to be constrained by style, or by market forces.  It's perhaps ironic that chreographers - Balanchine, Ashton, Macmillan, Ratmansky - have found more in the music than many listeners.

Rustling strings suggested the snowstorm in which the story begins, but typically Stravinskian winds delineated the narrative, leading onwards, then pausing tenderly.  Perhaps one might imagine a vulnerable infant who might otherwise die.  The pace picked up, winds and brass joining. Lively dotted rhythms, ideal for dancing to, outbursts of bassoon, flute and brass suggested a wild but cheerful procession, the horns adding a "peasant" touch.  The baby grows up happily enough in the village, as the music suggests, but on the eve of his marriage the fairy returns, disguised as a gypsy.  Tchaikovsky, who entered a marriage blanc, may or may not have intuited Hans Christian Anderson's dilemmas about sexuality, but for Stravinsky, this turning point seems more artistic than literal.  The music abounds with lively figures, ideal for dancing to, offering a choreographer many inventive opportunities. A single violin appeared, then a woodwind : two figures, one seductive, once youthful.   Eventually, a hush fell over the music, suggesting mystery.  Perhaps the boy is enchanted, as the Fairy claims him for her own. Not such a bad fate, for an artist. I have a weakness for Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss, a favourite of Vladimir Jurowski, who's done it many times, so I got a lot out of Wigglesworth and the Britten Sinfonietta, whose more chamber focus added to the sense of magic.

In the context of this Prom, Mozart's Concerto in E flat major for two pianos fitted in very well. Two soloists - Marc-André Hamelin and Ryan Wigglesworth - communicating with the orchestra.  Not  a foretaste of the Notturno in Wigglesworth's Piano Concerto, but thoughtfully connected. Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4, 'Mozartiana' continued the concept, which also infuses Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss. 

Refreshed and reinvigorated : Haitink at 90 - Mozart, Bruckner

Bernard Haitink, LSO 10/3/19 photo : Sylvia Haotong Wong

Bernard Haitink at 90 : honoured by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbicua, London: as honour for the audience, too, not only in the hall but internationally, online.  A true Haitink programme : Mozart Piano Concerto no 22 with Till Fellner, and Bruckner Symphony no 4.  Haitink was looking much less exhausted than he did in Munich (Please read more here) where he had conducted several concerts in a row : at 90, anyone deserves a rest !  Most people couldn't conduct like this, even in their dreams.   A truly classic performance, with the depth and sensitivity that are hallmarks of Haitink's style, where the music shines, not the conductor. Haitink channels the composer, inspiring his players to give of their best.

Absolute poise from Fellner, the richness in his playing adding sparkle, supported by the LSO. This is what "classical balance" means : equanimity, elegance, civilization. Virtues which in these venal, mendacious times we need to cherish all the more.  Not long ago someone said to me "No-one listens any more to Mozart and Bach". I thought, "No wonder trolls are taking over the world".   Haitink reminds us that sensitivity and intelligence are what make us decent human beings.  In that context, Haitink's Bruckner shone with the nobility one might associate with Beethoven, warmed by the humility that lies at the heart of Bruckner.  This symphony is like a cathedral : beautifully shaped and proportioned, with little personal quirks embedded, all dedicated in the service oif some higher power, whether that power is God, or music itself.  I'm noit 90 - yet - but I came away refreshed and reinvigorated.

Can't wait til Thursday when Haitink returns to the LSO with Dvořák Piano Concerto (Isabelle Faust, another Haitink regular) and Mahler Symphony no 4 (Anna-Lucia Richter, whose first London recital I heard at the Wigmore Hall way back when - she's proved her promise! I will write more about her Schubert CD Heimweh, shortly)

Poignantly human - Mozart The Magic Flute, Castellucci, La Monnaie

Mozart Die Zauberflöte at La Monnaie /De Munt, conducted by Antonello Manacorda, directed by Romeo Castellucci.  Part allegory,  part Singspeile, and very much a morality play, Die Zauberflöte is not conventional opera in the late 19th century style. Naturalist realism is not what it's meant  to be.  Cryptic is closer to what it might mean. It is thus ideally suited to Romeo Castellucci's intelligent, literate approach, with multiple layers of symbols, not all of which might be obvious at first, but become more rewarding with each viewing.  His sets are elegant but don't operate on appearance alone. Castellucci is a director for those who care enough about opera to make an effort to penetrate beyond the surface.  Those who want opera to be "pretty" can be content, but they'll miss out on the real depths.   Please read more about three of his recent productions Salzburg Salomé, Munich Tannhäuser, and Henze's the Raft of the Medusa.    Like composers, and conductors and artistes, good directors have a vocabulary of their own : the more you experience, the more patterns emerge.

Catellucci's approach to Die Zauberflöte  is illuminating on many levels, a term which has more meaning in this case than usual, since illumination is a concept at the core of Freemason beliefs. Freemasons are "The Sons of Light", light meaning enlightenment, self-awareness and understanding an individual's place in a community.  Members undergo rites of initiation, facing challenges as they rise within the hierarchy.  Until very recently, secrecy was also part of the Freemason ethos, further emphasizing the concept that wisdom comes not as an automatic right for everyone, but only to those who make the effort to seek it out.  Elitist perhaps, but that kind of elitism is no bad thing.

Thus the Overture is played over a dark set where a man faces a single line of light and tries to grasp it. Other men appear, in strange non-human regalia, with a sheet of coloured cloth. It's evidently a reference to something, though one I don't get, which is part of the fascination of Castellucci productions : you don't need to know everything first time round, which in itself is the beginning of wisdom.  The darkness remains, but now is backdrop to props and costumes of lustrous whiteness: singers and actors move like dolls in an elegant music box, seen through a haze of fine gauze.  Roccoco elaboration against classical formality.  For more detail on the set, which is as beautiful as icing on a wedding cake, please see HERE.  he singers move in symmetrical patterns, suggesting at once the intricate layers in the plot and the idea that the characters’ fates are controlled by forces beyond their control.  The moon, the sun, the movement of planets in the universe and the traverse of time. Lots of feathers, too, evoking nature and the birds, and Papageno (Georg Nigl) whose job it is to trap and kill.  In Die Zauberflöte the Queen of the Night (Sabine Devieilhe) pits her wits against  Sarastro (Gábor Betz) and his confrères. Men versus women, an undercurrent that runs through the piece, which Castellucci, with his appreciation of the "Eternal Feminine", knows how to develop.

Thus the interlude between the first and second acts, separating the silvery night from golden day.  At first, the impersonal "song" of machines : three women are seen using breast pumps. Real women, who lactate.  the contrast between this intimate act of selfless nurturance and the hollow drone of the machine makes a point.   As the real music starts the milk is poured into a long tube - the tube which represented light right at the beginning.  This makes sense connected  to Sarastro's aria "O Isis und Osiris" which follows, which is an invocation to protect those starting out on their journey ahead. Castellucci then inserts spoken dialogue which also should not shock, since dialogue is part of the Singspiele tradition.  Women and men on two sides of the same stage, costumed as androgynes.   As they tell of the challenges they have faced in their lives, they become individual, with personalities and backgrounds.  Compelling testimonies about coming to terms with blindness and disfiguremernt. Many of these speakers are in fact real people, not actors, and they've faced challenges most of us may (hopefully) never meet.  So anyone in the audience who can't face these brutal truths therefore fails the challenges placed before them.  "We have passed through the Night. We are very close to freedom".  So don't anyone dare knock this scene or sneer at their courage, and Castellucci's decision to let them speak. The reason the dialogue is in English is, I think, because the speakers come from different countries, but are united by experience - another concept important to this drama.

More gold - more "light"- but androgyny still prevails, since enlightenment is not yet achieved. Georg Nigl's robust Papageno provides comic relief, of a sort, but the silvery tomes that accompany his song suggest the silvery tones of the night.  For much the same reason, the Three Knaben represent immaturity.  They have the innocence of birds, for they have not experienced challenge.  Tamino (Ed Lyon) and Pamina (Sophie Kärthauser) will, however, grow up in the course of the time as they face their destiny. Different couples - professional singers and amateur speakers - are seen interacting together, coming to "know" each other and themselves.  More symmetry still, and almost painful vulnerability.  A blind woman lets herself be touched, respectfully, by men whose hands are maimed : she has learned to trust, not to judge.  Would that more audience dared the same ! Then another surprise - the Narrator (Dietrich Henschel)! He finds himself alone.  "I am not myself, but still myself.  I have crossed another horizon", he says  "But I have you, silvery light, victorious over fire".  He calls out the individual names of the non-professional speakers, who surround him, some of whom are burns victims.  "You are the truth for me - you re-assure me".  Thus the bird-like freedom and innocence of the Papageno-Papagena duet that follows and the joyous ensemble, where all are united, women and men, Night and Day, mortals and (possibly) immortals.  "Heil sei die Geweihten! Ihr dräget durch Nacht!.....Es siegt die Stärke und Krönet zum Lohn die Schönheit und Weisheit mit ewiger Kron".  A fine cast all round, conducted by Antonello Manacorda, worthy of the challenges of this visionary yet powerfully human production.  Those who can cope with challenge can catch it here on arte.tv. 

Don Giovanni Royal Opera House livestream

Mozart Don Giovanni  livestreamed from the Royal Opera House tonight., I was at the premiere in February 2014 and loved it. Kasper Holten's staging brilliantly mirrored Don Giovanni's,personality. - always on the move, always elusive, always half hidden even in plain sight. At that time the production was hard to grasp for some, but it’s now proved its worth.  This time round, Mariusz Kwiecień is back and as good as ever, with  a strong Leporello in Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Pavol Bresik as Don Ottavio and Willard White as the Commendatore. Marc Minkowski conducted.

The filming, though, diminshes the production. Part of the in-house experience was the sense that the set was like Don Giovanni's mind, composed of many compartments, doors opening and closing everywhere, passages opening out then disappearing. What is reality?  What is illusion? Some of the constructs are physical, others projected onto the hard surface throughvideo, always changing, deliberately misleading.  Words and drawings appear then fade before you can pin them down. . Don Giovanni, all over.   So do not judge this production by the video, and go to a live performance if you can.   Though the images flash and flicker, the ending is unequivocal, though it's a variation onn the usual, and it's stunning theatre.   Please read below what I wrote about this Don Giovanni premiere  in 2014 and also read about Holten's Juan, HERE a movie adaptation of the Don Giovanni meme, not the opera as such but extremely good .

"The new Mozart Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House London is so innovative that it will take time to sink in fully. What is Don Giovanni but an opera that operates on many different levels?  Many will panic at the very idea of anything new. But Don Giovanni is so  rich that anyone, including the audience, who doesn't keep learning from it, will not do it justice. This production has so much

insight  that will enrich appreciation of the opera itself,  and of the process that goes into the making of opera. Kasper Holten has pulled off a great feat: this Don Giovanni could be rewarding for years to come. Indeed, I think we'll appreciate it even more once the initial shock effect wears off. Women's names appear on the backdrop, gradually developing into a torrent in tinier and tinier script. We are seeing the Catalogue unfolding before us. There are so many names that they become undecipherable, the identities of the women blurred. What sort of man keeps a catalogue of conquests?  What motivates such obsessional behaviour? Don Giovanni's relationships with women are mechanical, bringing no lasting pleasure. What is really behind his compulsiveness? This production is psychologically penetrating and exceptionally subtle. The images often suggest marble, a stone that seems soft to the touch but is enduring. Like women, perhaps, or like the Commendatore's statue.

Don Giovanni smashes a stone head but ends up trapped behind stone walls. Is he in the Commendatore's tomb or in some frozen womb?

This sensitive approach to the opera reveals itself in the multiplicity of visual images. This sensitive approach to the opera reveals itself in the multiplicity of visual images. The central structure , designed by Es Devlin, resembles MC Escher's etchings of palaces with staircases that lead nowhere, and buildings that reverse themselves in precise, but

irrational ways.  Like Don Giovanni's mind. He compartmentalizes his

emotions, locking them in a maze of subterfuge. He needs escape routes if only to escape responsibility for himself.  Perhaps he seeks challenge in order to prove himself? Gambling with the Commendatore is the ultimate dare. Leporello's scared but Don Giovanni is defiant. Suicide by Stone Guest?

Onto this structure, numerous images are projected, allowing exceptionally rapid changes of nuance and detail. Music develops  with every note and operates on many simultaneous layers. Physical stagecraft just can't compete. It felt as if we were watching notation dance and come to life. At one stage the singers are seen each in their individual vortexes, moving forwards while being pushed back by the force of the visual projections. We know it's video, but the image is so powerful that it expresses the force of the music and the psychic trauma the characters are going through.Luke Hall's video designs elevate projection into an art form. A hundred years ago, electricity transformed stagecraft : now we are heading into  a new doimension.Nicola Luisotti's conducting emphasized agility and brittleness. This wasn't a full-blooded Romantic interpretation, but something at once

late Baroque and surprisingly modern. How poisonously dissonant the fortepiano, harpsichord and cello continuo sounded! Don Giovanni was elegant though he used his grace for evil purposes. (Luisotti played the fortepiano).

Watching this Don Giovanni was stimulating because the visuals, for once, kept up with the constant motion in the music, which reflects Don Giovanni's obsession with

staying ahead of the game. This production elevates video into art form, much in the way that electricity transformed stagecraft a hundred years ago, yet it's also pertinent to meaning.  Don Giovanni is a master of

deception. Portraying his personality through tricks of light intensifies the sense of constantly changing illusion.  When Leporello hides, we can still just about see him, camouflaged in moving shadows. When the Stone Guest appears, he materializes as if from the very

structure of the building,  By this stage in the opera, the images are becing more recognizable, as if reality is starting to intrude on Don Giovanni's  consciousness. The Stone Guest stands above  the image of an eye, a reference to the all-seeing Eye Of God, often seen in Catholic symbolism,  and also in Freemasonry.  Normal physical staging could not produce this level of detail.

When Don Giovanni is drawn down to hell, he's seen trapped behind high walls that fill the whole stage area. All his life, Don Giovanni has survived by manipulating people. Suddenly, he's all alone. What can be more horrifying to someone like that to be alone and having to confront himself ? Being entombed alive is far more chilling than comic book hellfire. Moreover, he hears the Sextet, taunting him from a distance. The "happy ending" is sometimes unrealistic, like an add-on moral lesson. Here, it's incredibly poignant.

Part of the joy of this production was the way the visuals stayed as backdrop, allowing the singers to take prominence. The big set arias were given full prominence. In this production, Mariusz Kwiecień was very much the central character. His elegance suggested Don Giovanni

assumed his superiority as if it were his natural right.  As the net closes in on the character, Kwiecień sang with  vehemence verging on

demonic, without losing his innate poise.

Sparkling Mozart Il sogno di Scipione - Classical Opera

Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione, K126 from Classical Opera, conducted by Ian Page, with soloists Stuart Jackson, Klara Ek, Soraya Mafi, Krystian Adam, Robert Murray and Chiara Skerath, from Signum. This is very early Mozart, scheduled for performance when the composer was 15, though there's no evidence that the premiere took place as planned.  Though there are two other recordings, this one is worth hearing for its freshness and spontaneity, values which enliven a piece by a very young composer, and give it particular charm, which amplifies its underlying message, that mortals have more sense than to be fooled by the delusions of dream.

Il sogno di Scipione is what we'd now call a dream sequence : a fantasy stylized as allegory. There is no plot.   While asleep, Scipione is wafted away by Fortune and Constance to some heavenly otherworld.  "You're not in Massinissa (Africa) any more!" the Fates inform him.  The Fates demand he choose only one of them as his destiny.  Scipione, understandably confused, refuses to take sides. Fortune and Constancy slug it out vocally, with trills and flourishes as weapons, conjuring up the spirits of the dead.  Being fickle, Fortune eventually flounces out, cursing.  Scipione suddenly finds himself back home and awake. You can't blame Scipione for singing "Stelle, che fia ? Quel sanguinosa luce!". Constancy has won, because she didn't desert him.  Basically, you can't choose your destiny, it finds you.  There is a lot more to Il sogno di Scipione than an excuse for vocal gymnastics.

That's why I'm so taken with this recording.  Ian Page conducts the orchestra and chorus of Classical Opera with a light, but elegant touch : the colours sparkle, undimmed and pure.  Constancy (Klara Ek) and Fortune (Soraya Mafi) are dream symbols not women.  Ek and Mafi are delightful, singing with great charm.  Krystian Adam and Robert Murray sing Publio and Emilio, representing the visions the Fates conjure up.  Scipione, on the other hand, is a real person, with emotional substance.  By making Scipione feel like a real person, Stuart Jackson fills out the  character with human feelings and conflicts. The mortal triumphs, because he's created as a sympathetic human being.

No-one, ever, comes close to Peter Schreier, who sang the part in 1979, when he was in his prime.  It would be utterly pointless to compare anyone with him.  But Scipione is, arguably, a young man's part, which Jackson's directness and enthusiasm brings out well : listen out for his sudden leaps up the scale and extended decorative legato : the "spirit" of Scipione, a man who dares question deities.  Jackson expresses Scipione's confusion and fears, but prepares us for his eventual awakening. Schreier, one of my gods, had an ardent challenge to his voice which communicated more deeply than words alone, and Jackson, too, has a distinctive timbre. He's not an "English tenor", though I can imagine him a brilliant Peter Grimes : definitely a talent to nurture.  I first heard him sing a few songs at a private recital when he was a student. He was impressive, but you can't count on hearing students again, even if they're good.  The next time I heard him - unexpectedly - was at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition in 2011.   Immediately I recognized the voice, though not the name, though it had been nearly a year since I'd first heard him. I nearly shouted aloud "I know that voice!"
Nothing will replace the Schreier recording, with its dream team including Lucia Popp and Edita Gruberova,  but Ian Page and Classical,Opera are brighter and more period-true than Leopold Hager and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg.  After 40 years, Il sogno di Scipione deserves another outing.  I haven't heard the other recording on Brilliant Classics but am not worried.  Schreier and Hager and Jackson and Page are plenty rewarding. 

 

Mozart 250 Classical Opera Wigmore Hall

Ian Page and Classical Opera reached 1767 in their Mozart 250 project, the ambitious series planned to cover 27 years of Mozart's music and influences. 1767 was the year in which the young Mozart began to write more substantial and ambitious work, so this programme at the Wigmore Hall, London, was a good taster for what is to come later in the series. Read Claire Seymour's review of the concert HERE in Opera Today.  

Coming up next, my review of the latest recital in the Wigmore Hall's complete Schubert song series,  with Georg Nigl and Andreas Staier

Garsington Opera for free with dates !

Garsington Opera is an experience so unique that it should not be missed. The theatre at Wormsley is an architectural wonder, shimmering glass, air and light (with good acoustics, too, that seems to float in the air.  Not many theatres have an entire valley, complete with lake, as a backdrop !  But because the theatre is a gem, seats sell out fast.  Under Music Director Douglas Boyd, with the support of Mark Getty, Garsington Opera at Wormsley is developing into the most innovative smaller house in the country.  So Garsington Opera's "Opera for All" plans are extremely good news indeed.

Even more exciting, the opera being screened is the highlight of the whole season, Mozart Così fan tutte. Garsington Opera has  a strong Mozart tradition, and is possibly ideal for thge more intimate Mozart operas, so this brand  new production heralds great things. Douglas Boyd conducts and John Fulljames (Associate Director at the Royal Opera House) directs. Celebrity Lesley Garrett sings Despina, supported by Ashley Riches,  Robin Tritschler, Andreea Soare, Kathryn Rudge and Neal Davies.

Dates and venues here :

OXFORD Sunday 2 July 6pm Magdalen College Fields 
LOUTH Sunday 5 July 1.30pm SO Festival, Westgate Fields
GRIMSBY Tuesday 29 Sept 12noon Grimsby Auditorium
WADDESDON Thursday 3 September Waddesdon Manor
RAMSGATE 10 – 15 October tbc Ramsgate Arts

NOT for free but important : A Midsummers Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) Garsington Opera's first ever collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company opens at Wormsley on 19th July but sold out almost instantly. But it's coming to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London from 22nd July for three nights More details here,

MARLOW Sunday 14 June 7.30pm Marlow Festival Enclosure - a recording of Offenbach’s Vert-Vert from Garsington’s 2014 season. Reviewed HERE in Opera Today

So, enjoy Garsington Opera in stately surroundings, or on the beach. Bring a picnic, or purchase on site. Photo : Mike Hoban

Mozart La clemenza di Tito livestream today

Live from the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. Paris., Mozart La clemenza di Tito on arte.tv here today
Kurt Streit!

What's with the shark ? Mozart Idomeneo Royal Opera House

What's the fuss about the shark ? Mozart Idomeneo at the Royal Opera House last night (I was at Boris Godunov on Monday)  Very musically satisfying, with Marc Minkowski at the helm. The infamous shark appears for only a few moments, borne aloft by the chorus, yet everyone seems fixated  by it. Surely London audiences must be aware that Idomeneo is set on the island of Crete, in the middle of the Mediterranean.  Who is the God of the Sea? Neptune (Poseidon), upon whom Crete is utterly dependent. Neptune, being the God of the Sea, is often depicted with fish and with waves.  Hence, too "the sign of Pisces" - a fish. The Cretans were bereft when their king was lost at sea.  So when he's saved by Neptune, they think it's a miracle. Why shouldn't they hold a religious procession, parading a symbol of their God? Many other Mediterranean cultures do the same today, though the religion is different.

In this production, Neptune doesn't materialize in the midst of a thunderstorm waving a triton, but he haunts Idomeneo throughout the opera. Perhaps the mpst powerful gods are those who are invisible, conjured up in the minds of those who believe. Neptune's presence is felt, invisibly, in the music, its moods as changeable as the ocean. We hear howling winds, ominous clouds and gentle breezes, as soft and sweet as zephyrs. We only have to listen. Marc Minkowski is one of the great Baroque conductors of our time, so the Royal Opera House scored a coup getting him behind this Idomeneo.  Although the Royal Opera House orchestra isn't a period instrument ensemble, Minkowski had them playing with a proper period sensitivity. The harpsichord dominates, creating cleaner, leaner sound than one usually hears. Perhaps Idomeneo harks back to an earlier era, to Haydn, rather than to the hurly-burly of Viennese popular theatre. With this aesthetic, it might seem too cool and formal to be one of Mozart's "greatest hits",  but for those who care about music, Minkowski's approach was immensely rewarding. Yet when Minkowski took his curtain call, some smartass booed.  Some come to opera these days to bully others, not to listen to music.

Given Minkowski's  elegant touch, Matthew Polenzani's Idomeneo  was very effective. He's done a lot of Mozart, and this is the best yet. Measured, well paced and well balanced, his voice suggested a king not driven to extremes by his own flaws but by the caprices of nature. His interactions with Idamante (Franco Fagioli) felt human, as if they were real life father and son. Very good singing from Sophie Bevan (Ilia) and Malin Byström (Elettra)  Please read Claire Seymour's review of the singing HERE in Opera Today.

It is in this musical context that I think Martin Kušej's direction needs to be considered. The minimalism of the staging may enrage some, but it focuses attention on the music. The story itself supports Spartan – oops, Cretan, treatment. The people have been at war, and have suffered. In the First Act, the people are seen in pale-coloured garments, moving in stylized fashion, not unlike sculpture in Greek art. Stark black and white suggest the dilemma Idomeneo has to face. Neptune is not a benevolent god. He demands human sacrifice. Thus the red banners and blood soaked mass that extrudes from a crack in the palace walls. Anyone who's been in  a fish market can figure out what that might be. Idomeneo's disembowelled spiritually because he has to kill his own son. So much for religion. Technically, the revolving stage mechanism ) is very effective since it avoids clumsy scene changes. It's much more sophisticated than the series of boxes used in Katie Mitchell's Idomeneo at the ENO (read more here). It manages to suggest the cliffs above the beach and the marble palace in which thr Cretan royal family live. The trouble is, though, it's no fun  to look at. Perhaps it shouldn't be, since this isn't a pretty story, but it looks tacky and incomplete. the lighting is a joke./

Kušej has been played up in the media as some kind of monster, often by people who repeat what they've heard about things they haven't seen, but he's more banal than dangerous. .He doesn't take as many liberties with opera as, say, Klaus Guth, whose Die Frau ohne Schatten (more here)  changed the whole meaning of the opera, but which was wildly praised by London critics. Kušej's Don Giovanni for Salzburg was better than the soulless Sven-Erik Bechtolf production which replaced it this year (read more here)  What matters about any production is not updating as such, but how the ideas reflect the music and the drama. Kušej's Idomeneo isn't his best work, but it's more dull than enraging. Thank goodness for the music!


photo : Catherine Ashmore, 2014, courtesy Royal Opera House

How to market Mozart to the masses

Sarah X Mills shows how Mozart can be pitched to reach millions ! She's wonderful, I think. Trouble is, some politicians and bureaucrats might take this to heart.

Salzburg's soulless Don Giovanni

A new Mozart Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival with a superb cast and a good conductor. So what went wrong? Excellent singers - Lenneke Ruiten (Donna Anna), Anett Fritsch (Donna Elvira), Valentina Nafornita (Zerlina), Ildebrando D’Arcangelo (Don Giovanni), Luca Pisaroni (Leporello), Tomasz Konieczny (Il Commendatore,) Andrew Staples (Don Ottavio), Alessio Arduini (Masetto), Conductor Christoph Eschenbach. Maybe I was expecting too much, but surely good Mozart in the Haus für Mozart should not be too much to hope for ?

Joyce DiDonato has said  "People need to understand that great performances are aided by great direction." She knows what shes talking about. Good direction isn't about costumes, or props, or physical things, but about drama.  An opera is "about" something. Performers are there to express what the story and music might mean. Every performance, even a 100th revival, should engage with the dynamic of  human relationships. Singers of this calibre can't go wrong. But what were they singing about? They seemed oddly disengaged, almost as if they were bored.

Setting Don Giovanni in a stylish hotel is a good idea, because it allows quick scene changes that don't hold up the pace. Donna Anna might be in a fancy suite, while Masetto and Zerlina's wedding takes place in the ballroom. This solves the problem of fitting in parties and dinner guests. A hotel is also anonymous: a metaphor for Don Giovanni's  soulless pursuits. But there's more to good directing than a set.  Sven-Erik Bechtolf's production unfortunately dwells so much on the impersonal and anonymous that there's almost no insight as to why Don Giovanni does what he does, or why women fall for him. Or, for that matter, why the audience should care.

Luca Pisaroni's Leporello looks bemused the whole time. The look of incomprehension on his face may be the director's take on the drama. Pisaroni has done the part so many times that he knows how much more there is to Leporello than this. Very good singing, but he can, and has, been much more emotionally involved.  When will he sing Don Giovanni himself ? In a production that makes full use of his exceptional skills for characterization, one hopes.

Ildebrando D’Arcangelo sings Don Giovanni well, but the lack of direction lets him down.  He appears in a snakeskin coat, which is a nice touch, since the character is a snake, who slips his skin off when he wants. His many costume changes aren't in themselves a problem, but there's much more to drama than what one wears. Who is Don Giovanni? What drives him? Why does he defy death itself? He's a lot more than a serial seducer. D’Arcangelo falls to the ground when the Commendatore grabs his hand. But at the end he gets up, runs off and chases yet another anonymous woman.  Quite probably, men like Don Giovanni don't learn a thing, but Mozart makes it pretty clear that Don Giovanni is wrong. In this production, so much for the Moral, and for the intensity of its expression.

There are lots of extraneous details, like waiters in devil masks and a rather good scene where D’Arcangelo licks the icing off Zerlina's wedding cake, but these details amount to nothing, if there's no engagement with the deeper ideas in the drama.  There are people who sneer at "Konzept",as if they're being clever. But all the word means is joined-up thinking. It's all very well to have bits of this and bits of that, but without an overall conceptual understanding of what makes a drama work. Maybe some audiences like productions that are purposeless but pretty. But Mozart and da Ponte deserve a whole lot more. How can anyone not engage with music and ideas as powerful as those in Don Giovanni ?  There's no such thing as affect-neutral listening.

FREE Glyndebourne Don Giovanni

FREE Glyndebourne Don Giovanni on Sunday 6th July from 3pm.  ENTER BY CLICKING THIS LINK HERE.

With this glorious weather you can picnic in the comfort of your own garden, if you can rig things up. I don't know if it's international, but it's worth a try. The link will stay live for a week. Wonderful, vivid production with a better cast than the current year - Luca Pisaroni practically steals the show.

HERE is what I wrote about the premiere in 2010  (the one we'll be seeing)
 
".......instead of a conventional set, there’s a giant rotating cube, a square globe, so to speak, which contains “the world”. It unfolds, reshaping and reinventing itself: a box of tricks, like Don Giovanni himself. Because it’s meticulously designed the cube moves quickly and silently. it’s much less intrusive than conventional set changes. Major transformations take place during the interludes, so they don’t get in the way. This amazing set frees the action from technical limitations. allowing the drama to unfold, rapid-fire and free.At first the cube reveals its secrets slowly. A crack appears. It’s a narrow alleyway. Don Giovanni is trapped like a rat, so he lashes out and kills the Commendatore..The cube closes again, its outer walls like a stone building. Later, the cube opens to reveal a sunlit garden, complete with trees. It’s the peasant wedding. So many shifts of focus. Garden transforms to ballroom, Zerlina’s loyalties shift, the masked visitors move in on Don Giovanni."


"Conflagration ends the First Act. While the crowd converge on Don Giovanni, Don Ottavio points at objects, just like the Commendatore will later point at Don Giovanni. For now, it’s just the furniture that goes up in flames. Real flames, you can smell the gas. It feels dangerous, even though you know Glyndebourne (and its insurers) have checked it all out thoroughly. We know Don Giovanni will end up in hell, but seeing him circled by fire is dramatic. It’s entirely consistent with the turbulent music with which Mozart marks the beginning of Don Giovanni’s end"

Glyndebourne La finta giardiniera

I was a bit wary of Mozart's La finta giardiniera because the recordings I've heard do little for it. At Glyndebourne, however - a Mozart house - they know how to bring out the best. Excellent staging and performances serve Glyndebourne's La finta giardiniera well.  Claire Seymour's review in Opera Today WITH VIDEO. 

This sounds like it's definitely worth going to ! Returns available. 

"Wake-Walker has judiciously applied the pruning shears to both arias and recitative, and there is some re-ordering, but — even with such a uniformly excellent cast, and especially in the long second half — there are a few redundant arias, showing that the precocious composer might have acquired musical mastery but had not yet sharpened his dramatic instincts. That said, there are many moments which look ahead to the treasures to come, most particularly the two Act final ensembles where conductor Robin Ticciati moved things along swiftly, highlighting the juxtapositions between characters. And, there was a directorial nod towards Don Giovanni with the cloaked entrance of the masked gang, searching for Sandrina, at the end of Act 2, as the characters mistook other’s identity in the darkness"

Read the full review HERE. 
photo : Tristram Kenton

Innovative Don Giovanni Royal Opera House

The new Mozart Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House London is so innovative that it will take time to sink in fully. What is Don Giovanni but an opera that operates on many different levels?  Many will panic at the very idea of anything new. But Don Giovanni is so  rich that anyone, including the audience, who doesn't keep learning from it, will not do it justice. This production has so much insight  that will enrich appreciation of the opera itself,  and of the process that goes into the making of opera. Kaspar Holten has pulled off a great feat: this Don Giovanni could be rewarding for years to come. Indeed, I think we'll appreciate it even more once the initial shock effect wears off.

Women's names appear on the backdrop, gradually developing into a torrent in tinier and tinier script. We are seeing the Catalogue unfolding before us. There are so many names that they become undecipherable, the identities of the women blurred. What sort of man keeps a catalogue of conquests?  What motivates such obsessional behaviour? Don Giovanni's relationships with women are mechanical, bringing no lasting pleasure. What is really behind his compulsiveness? This production is psychologically penetrating and exceptionally subtle. The images often suggest marble, a stone that seems soft to the touch but is enduring. Like women, perhaps, or like the Commendatore's statue. Don Giovanni smashes a stone head but ends up trapped behind stone walls. Is he in the Commendatore's tomb or in some frozen womb?

This sensitive approach to the opera reveals itself in the multiplicity of visual images. The central structure , designed by Es Devlin,  resembles MC Escher's etchings of palaces with staircases that lead nowhere, and buildings that reverse themselves in precise, but irrational ways.  Like Don Giovanni's mind. He compartmentalizes his emotions, locking them in a maze of subterfuge. He needs escape routes if only to escape responsibility for himself.  Perhaps he seeks challenge in order to prove himself? Gambling with the Commendatore is the ultimate dare. Leporello's scared but Don Giovanni is defiant. Suicide by Stone Guest?

Onto this structure, numerous images are projected, allowing exceptionally rapid changes of nuance and detail. Music develops  with every note and operates on many simultaneous layers. Physical stagecraft just can't compete. It felt as if we were watching notation dance and come to life. At one stage the singers are seen each in their individual vortexes, moving forwards while being pushed back by the force of the visual projections. We know it's video, but the image is so powerful that it expresses the force of the music and the psychic trauma the characters are going through.Luke Hall's video designs elevate projection into an art form. A hundred years ago, electrictyb transformed stagecraft : now we are heading into  a new doimension.

Nicola Luisotti's conducting emphasized agility and brittleness. This wasn't a full-blooded Romantic interpretation, but something at once late Baroque and surprisingly modern. How poisonously dissonant the fortepiano, harpsichord and cello continuo sounded! Don Giovanni was elegant though he used his grace for evil purposes. (Luisotti played the fortepiano).

Watching this Don Giovanni was stimulating because the visuals, for once, kept up with the constant motion in the music, which reflects Don Giovanni's obsession with staying ahead of the game. This production elevates video into art form, much in the way that electricity transformed stagecraft a hundred years ago, yet it's also pertinent to meaning.  Don Giovanni is a master of deception. Portraying his personality through tricks of light  intensifies the sense of constantly changing illusion.  When Leporello hides, we can still just about see him, camouflaged in moving shadows. When the Stone Guest appears, he materializes as if from the very structure of the building,  By this stage in the opera, the images are becoming more recognizable, as if reality is starting to intrude on Don Giovanni's  consciousness. The Stone Guest stands above  the image of an eye, a reference to the all-seeing Eye Of God, often seen in Catholic symbolism,  and also in Freemasonry.  Normal physical staging could not produce this level of detail.

When Don Giovanni is drawn down to hell, he's seen trapped behind high walls that fill the whole stage area. All his life, Don Giovanni has survived by manipulating people. Suddenly, he's all alone. What can be more horrifying to someone like that to be alone and having to confront himself ? Being entombed alive is far more chilling than comic book hellfire. Moreover, he hears the Sextet, taunting him from a distance. The "happy ending" is sometimes unrealistic, like an add-on moral lesson. Here, it's incredibly poignant.

Part of the joy of this production was the way the visuals stayed as backdrop, allowing the singers to take prominence. The big set arias were given full prominence. in this production, Mariusz Kwiecień was very much the central character. His elegance suggested Don Giovanni assumed his superiority as if it were his natural right.  As the net closes in on the character, Kwiecień sang with  vehemence verging on demonic, without losing his innate poise.

Véronique Gens was outstanding as Donna Elvira. She sang with such richness and dignity that she brought out the tragedy in the role. Donna Elvira throws herself at Don Giovanni : she's just as obsessive as he is, and possibly disturbed, but Gens makes us feel her tragedy. When she sings her last big aria, she is so compelling that we feel sympathy for Don Giovanni lurking in the darkness. Perhaps he's learned the real meaning of love, too late.

Malin Byström sang Donna Anna. with presence, well supported by Antonio Poli's Don Ottavio. Elizabeth Watts was a lively Zerlina and Dawid Kimberg sang Masetto. Alex Esposito sang Leporello.  As the run progresses, the singing will settle, so I'm certainly going again, and catching the HD broadcast on 12th February. For more, please read Opera Today, where Claire Seymour will be reviewing.

photos copyright  ROH Bill Cooper 2014

Bampton Classical Opera Mozart La finta semplice

"Mozart cut his operatic teeth on La finta semplice, as a twelve-year-old prodigy being paraded before the Viennese court by his ambitious father, Leopold. Responding enthusiastically to a casual remark by Emperor Joseph II that the young wunderkind might like to compose an opera for the court, the proud parent precipitately exclaimed, “Today we are to see a Gluck and tomorrow a boy of twelve seated at the harpsichord conducting his own opera”."

Claire Seymour's perceptive review of Bampton Classical Opera's Mozart La finta semplice. in Opera Today.  

"Incidentally, operatic croquet seems to be all the rage at present: BYO’s recent production of Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage featured a panoply of ‘sporting’ ensembles - but Bampton got there first!) Overall, this was another discerningly amusing performance by Bampton Classical Opera: a cheerful, charming production which confirmed the essential mystery of the ordinary and the inscrutability of the world of love."

Garsington Opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Garsington Opera at Wormsley isn't Mozart as you'd expect but it's true to the spirit of Mozart, who loved witty, madcap japes.  The Singspiel is a comedy with an improbable plot. How did a nice girl like Konstanze get mixed up with a Turk? How does a tyrant suddenly turn into Good Guy? Daniel Slater's imaginative invention might not follow the score note by note but it reaches the free-wheeling, zany spirit of the comedy. Audiences should have the maturity to realize that the opera is strong enough to support different perspectives. Beckmesser would explode in a frenzy of fury. Mozart, though, would be cackling with delight. 

Mozart didn't encounter many real-life Pashas. Selim is a man of formidable wealth and power. Men this rich aren't in touch with reality. They're isolated in their places, guarded by paranoid henchmen. They don't do things like normal people. Turning Selim into an oligarch isn't mere updating. It's a perceptive reading of the personality type.This Selim (Aaron Neil) likes football. "I built my house near the stadium. Or did I build the stadium near my house".This deepens the portrayal and is an opportunity for good visual effects. The backdrop suddenly opens and a real Jaguar is driven onstage! This is Wormsley after all, where they do things in grand style. Football also serves as plot device. It makes Selim human. Osmin (Matthew Rose) can see through Belmonte (Norman Reinhardt) and Pedrillo (Mark Wilde), because they know his weak spot. When Selim's team win a match, he drops Konstanze, as easily as a child moves on to a new toy. The contrived ending becomes perfectly logical.

Slater replaces the German spoken dialogue with multi-lingual banter. Why not ? How did the "Turks" communicate with the "foreigners"? When Osmin says "Ich hass Englander!" the audience laughs, but the idea springs from the original libretto. In the Vienna of Joseph II, England represented liberty. Osmin isn't so much a Turk as an agent of repression. Thus Blonde sings "Ich bin eine Engländerin, zur Freiheit geboren". It's doubly funny when we know that Susanna Andersson is Swedish and is cooking up a sokker kaka. Her mistress is being preened in a spa where calories are seditious. The new dialogue is fast-paced and funny even when the jokes are deliberately hammy. Comedy subverts.

"Ein Herz, so in Freiheit geboren
Läßt niemals sich sklavisch behandeln
Bleibt, wenn schon die Freiheit verloren,
Noch stolz auf sie, lachet der Welt!"

Garsington Opera at Wormsley is a good size for Mozart and Douglas Boyd, the new Artistic Director, has spoken of its potential as a house for Mozart. (read the interview here). The musical standards in this Die Entführung aus dem Serail were very high. Matthew Rose's Osmin was so well-defined that his performance would be impressive even in a much larger auditorium. He has been singing with Garsington Opera since the early days of his career. The company prides itself on nurturing young talent and singers remain loyal. Rose and Susanna Andersson made a striking pair. He's very tall, and she's very short, reflecting the imbalance of power. Both are equal as singers. Together they duelled as much as duetted. Although the bigger ensembles usually attract more attention, the conflict between Osmin and Blonde is the critical heart of the opera.

Rebecca Nelsen sang a feisty Konstanze. In the torture scene, she's seen sitting in the same reclining chair she used in the spa. Now it's an instrument of torture, the ideas not unconnected. Mozart writes tension into the music to suggest extremes of pain and screaming. Nelsen's "Marten aller Arten" felt vivid, as if she were shaking with the effect of electric shock, though she maintained the proper flow.
 
Mark Wilde's Pedrillo was as well acted as sung, with sharp control of fast-paced dialogue. Incidentally the speech rhythms in the dialogue mirrored the way Mozart sets the brisk, punchy vocal lines. Norman Reinhardt sang a laconic Belmonte. William Lacey conducted with brio.

Much credit must go to Francis O'Connor who designed the set. There isn't much backstage area at Wormsley, since the pavilion was designed as a temporary structure. O'Connor's simple backdrop suggest an impenetrable wall when Belmonte stands alone before it. Later segments pop in and out through recessed compartments. One becomes a lift which suggests movement beyond the stage, though it's of course illusion. When the conspirators escape the guards, the guards are seen watching football in security control. The torture scene was particularly well executed, though that's perhaps the wrong choice of words.  The same compartment which had served as the lift and the entrance for the Jag became a claustrophobic room in stark black and white.  Stagecraft rarely gets the attention it deserves, but it makes good drama possible.  At Garsington Opera at Wormsley, technical facilities may not be huge, but they are used very effectively.

Please see the full review in Opera  Today with photos and cast details. 
photo credit : John Persson

Douglas Boyd - Garsington Opera at Wormsley

 “Aim for excellence”, says Douglas Boyd, new Artistic Director of Garsington Opera at Wormsley, “and the audience will follow you”.
Wise words. With the spectacular new Pavilion, Garsington Opera is on the verge of great new things. Read the FULL INTERVIEW here in Opera Today. 

"Excellence is an ideal he learned from his earliest days as a musician, playing the oboe in Claudio Abbado’s European Community Youth Orchestra and later in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. “Abbado has an absolutely enormous influence on me”, he adds, explaining how Abbado’s ideals shape his vision"...

“Abbado instilled into us right from the start that excellence is a fundamental to strive for. It’s not a given. Although we were young, we played each concert as if our lives depended on it. So my mantra is “dedication and energy”. When you aim for the highest possible level of excellence, then you start with a fighting chance”.

The new season at Garsington Opera at Wormsley starts on 7th June with Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail. This will be followed by Giacomo Rossini’s Maometto Secondo in its first full performance in this country. Garsington Opera is famous for Rossini specialities. This will be the twelfth new Rossini production staged here since 1994.  Maometto Secondo is particularly interesting, especially in modern times. Read more here. The main summer Festival concludes with Englebert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.

For more details, please see the Garsington Opera at Wormsley website.

Mozart Salieri and Rimsky-Korsakov - Young Artists Week, Linbury

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri (1897) received its first ever performance at the Royal Opera House as the highlight of Meet The Young Artists Week at the Linbury Studio Theatre.

Salieri is jealous because Mozart makes composing look easy. He poisons Mozart but weeps, since he's reading the score for The Requiem, presumably overwhelmed by its beauty. We know the plot is fiction, but the text is by Alexander Pushkin, who lifts it above maudlin melodrama. Salieri can kill Mozart but he can't kill his art. In destroying his rival, Salieri has compromised his integrity. "Can crime and genius go together?" he asks himself, and consoles himself with the thought that Michelangelo  killed his model for the crucified Christ to get a better likeness for death.  Does art justify murder? Pushkin and Rimsky-Korsakov possibly knew the tale was untrue, making Salieri's excuse highly ironic.
 
Mozart and Salieri is unusual. The part of Salieri so dominates the work that it is more psychodrama than opera. Mozart and Salieri barely interact. Mozart isn't a character so much as the embodiment of music. The real protagonists here are Salieri and the orchestra. At critical moments, Rimsky-Korsakov adds apposite musical quotations. Moments of Cherubino's Voi che sapete convey Mozart's youthful impudence. Fortepiano melodies are played, and shrouded figures sing excerpts from Mozart's Requiem.  References to Salieri's opera Tarare and to Beaumarchais and Haydn are embedded into text and orchestration, expanding Salieri's monologue. He can "hear" but he can't create like Mozart can. The Southbank Sinfonia was conducted by Paul Wingfield, with Michele Gamba playing the keyboard Mozart is seen playing invisibly on stage, his hands lit with golden light. A magical moment.

Ashley Riches sang the demanding role of Salieri. His experience and skill come over well, even though he's been a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme for barely a month. Later this year, he'll be singing parts in The Royal Opera House Robert le Diable, Don Carlo and La rondine, and covering the title role in Eugene Onegin.  In this opera, Mozart isn't given much to sing, and the range in the part is limited, but Pablo Bemsch developed the role purposefully through his acting. Salieri thinks Mozart is skittish: Bemsch with sheer personality shows that Mozart is a stronger character than Salieri could ever fathom. Bemsch is a second-year Young Artist and has been heard extensively. He's covering Lensky in February 2013.

The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme isn't just for singers but focuses on theatre skills. This production was one of the most sophisticated I've seen for a group with these relatively limited resources. Sophie Mosberger and Pedro Ribeiro designed an elegantly simple set, which suggested that Salieri, despite his  wealth and status, was a fundamentally isolated man. The little puppet figure buffeted by figures in the darkness suggested that both Mozart and Salieri were victims of forces greater than themselves. Exquisite lighting by Warren Letton, colours changing as mysteriously as the music. A stunning finale, where the dark figures singing the Requiem move around lighted candles. Since financial problems will haunt the opera world for a long time to come, this restrained but poetic minimalism may be the way ahead. This production was intelligently thought through, and musically sensitive.

 Before Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri, we heard Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne, written when the composer was twelve years old. It's a slight piece about a courtship between shepherd and shepherdess. Staging this literally would expose the weaknesses of the piece. Ribeiro and Mosberger set the Singspiele in a vaguely industrial landscape, which added much needed good humour and gave the singers more material with which to develop character. The trouble is, neither Bastien or Bastienne are much more than stereotypes. David Butt Philip, another new Young Artist, generates interest with his voice though the part is shallow. Dušica Bijelić sings sweetly but needs to project more forcefully. Jihoon Kim made a much more convincing portrayal of Colas, the wise older man who sorts things out. He was a striking Hector's Ghost in the Royal Opera House Les Troyens in June 2012, and will be singing in several ROH productions in the 2012/13 season.

The photo show Chaliapin singing Salieri in an early production.
A ful review with cast list will appear in Opera Today.

Lucerne starts with a Requiem - Mozart

The Lucerne Festival starts tomorrow with a Requiem, albeit Mozart's Requiem, conducted by Claudio Abbado. Soloists Anna Prohaska, Sarah Mingardo, Maximillian Schmidt and René Pape. The rich, well connected and the usual host of freeloaders will be out in force, but us common folks who listen for the music can catch it LIVE on Medici TV from 1730 Swiss time.