Wigmore Hall saves Christmas

At this time of the year the transport system closes down - cancellations, roadworks, traffic jams, possible bad weather, insane crowds in the West End......   No wonder the music business goes into hibernation at this time of year. There's no serious music at the South Bank until 22nd January (Calleja)! Unless you like Dudamel (though there's a solitary piano recital). The Barbican wakes up from Raymond Gubbay on 9th January with Pelléas et Mélisande, but having heard Rattle conduct it with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Philharmonie, I don't think the LSO at the Barbican will top that.

The Wigmore Hall closes after 23rd December and reopens 27th, though the last pre-break concert, with Ensemble Correspondances, presents 17th century French Noël. On Monday 28th, the celebrated Max Emanuel Cencic (photo at right) sings Hasse and Vivaldi with Armonia Atenea.  I'm tempted because he's wonderful.  I first heard him live in recital  when he was 17 years old, after he left the Vienna Boys Choir.  Previously, I'd heard him as a 12-year-old treble singing Mahler Symphony no 4. His voice never really broke, and he trained it so he could keep singing male soprano repertoire. Thirty five years later, he's a countertenor with immense range and style. I've already booked tickets for New Years Eve at the Wigmore Hall with Andrew Carwood and the Cardinall's Musick – British choral music – Britten, Warlock, Howells, Holst, Moeran, RVW and Gerald Finzi.

The Wigmore Hall's first big Monday afternoon concert on 4th January features Benjamin Appl. He's very young but extremely promising (read more about him by searching this site). Appl is singing Schumann, Wolf and Brahms with Graham Johnson, no less. What a good way to start the new year!  The Wigmore Hall complete Schubert song series continues on Wednesday January 6th with two concerts, both with Graham Johnson. Birgid Steinberger, Daniel Johannsen and Benjamin Appl sing Schubert's "Gothic Songs of Horror",  seldom heard live, while Christopher Maltman sings later in the evening. The Schubert Song series continues with a very interesting programme on Monday 11th with Luca Pisaroni and Wolfram Reiger - don't miss this! Pisaroni has an intuitive understanding of the Lieder genre,  and a warm, Italianate timbre which suits these songs exceptionally well.  Do not miss!

Plenty more chamber music, early music and recitals, including the ever-lively Royal Academy of Music Song Circle (Jan 17) and then Classical Opera does a  Mozart evening with Louise Alder and Benjamin Hulett. By then, the Barbican is back to normal programming but the South Bank has a week yet to go.

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.

Italian Lieder Luca Pisaroni Liszt Wigmore Hall

At the Wigmore Hall, London, Luca Pisaroni and Wolfram Rieger presented an inspired programme: Lieder in Italian. The core Lieder repertoire is solidly Austro-German. Writing Lieder in Italian poses challenges: different syntax, different sounds, different sensibilities. Pisaroni is Italian, and a very well established opera singer. He brought great insight to an unusual programme. 

Beethoven's In questa tomba obscura spans the cusp between Classicism and Romanticism. This song reflects the early 19th century fascination with death, but also the tradition of seeking inspiration from Classical Antiquity. Rieger played the slow, solemn chords so you could imagine an ancient marble monument. Pisaroni's dignified tone added human richness. Then, faster figures  suggesting wind and the rustling of leaves. One could almost visualize a landscape by Claude or Poussin. 

Having established the tone with Beethoven, Pisaroni and Rieger turned to the songs of Johan Friedrich Reichardt, born a generation before Beethoven and an associate of Goethe, Schiller and Gottfried Herder. Pisaroni sings a lot of Mozart, who also wrote art song, but Reichardt's settings of Petrarch fitted the Lieder-oriented programme well. In his first Wigmore Hall recital (more here) , Pisaroni sang Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets (S270) The Reichardt and Liszt settings compared would be a miniature lesson in music history. Hearing Reichhardt, one recalls Goethe's conservatism about song, and his supposed disregard for Schubert. The songs are beautiful, but formal: Liszt's settings are freer and much more expressive. Incidentally, Reichardt's daughter, Louise, an exact contemporary of Beethoven, wrote Lieder in a more "modern" style, and was highly regarded. 

Brahms Funf Gesänge  op 72, formed a bridge between Reichardt's almost pre-Lieder style and the 19th century sensibilities of Franz Liszt. Liszt's songs i n many ways aren't Lider is the Schubert, Loewe or Schumann sense but songs for piano with voice accompaniment. Liszt's more florid form suits an Italian temperament, even when the texts are in German. Pisaroni is wise to make Liszt another of his specialities. It's interesting to compare Liszt's version of the Goethe poem Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß with the settings by Schubert and Hugo Wolf. Reichardt and Zelter made settings of that, too. Liszt's Drei Lieder aus Schiller's Wilhelm Tell (S292) on the other hand are exqusitely vernal, piano decorations trilling brightly, creating the impression of spring and mountain vistas. I thought of those sub-genres, the Alpine operas of Catalani (La Wally) and even the Bergfilme of Franck, Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker, when Pisaroni sang the Der Alpenjäger, with a piano part as formidable as a rugged cliff face.

More conventionally lyrical and Lisztian, Die Loreley, which suited Pisaroni's gift for breathing sensual colour into words. Pisaroni and Rieger followed this with Uber Allen Gipfeln ist Ruh (S3062) and Die Drei Zigeuner (S320). Angelika Kirchschlager sang this with Yves Thibaudet at the Wigmore Hall last week (more here). Both very good performances, though very different. Pisaroni's bass baritone is swarthier and masculine, bringing out the male bonding implicit in the song, even if the tessitura is a little high. Rieger's assertive playing suggested macho bravado. For an encore, Liszt's Im Rhein in schönen Ströme (S272) and O Liebe, so lang so Leben kannst (S298/2)

This recital is available online for a week on BBC Radio 3 with the added bonus of Reichardt's Harpsichord Sonata. 

January at the Wigmore Hall

Back to real music at the Wigmore Hall in January! On Saturday all day, Apartment House presents an eclectic programme. Interesting, even though I don't know any of the works featured I might go.

Absolutely unmissable is Matthias Goerne's recital on 7/1, with Lief Ove Andsnes. Amazingly challenging programme mixing Mahler songs with Shostakovich's Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Goerne's approach to both composers is highly original and perceptive. Definitely an event for serious fans of song and good repertoire. It's been sold out for months.It could tie in well with the four-part Wigmore Hall series on Russian music with Roy Stafford which runs each Thursday this month.

EIGHT TOP CONCERTS IN A ROW! Angelika Kirchschlager and Jean-Yves Thibaudet do another very strong Brahms and Liszt programme on 20/1. The very next day Christoph Prégardien and  Michael Gees do an interesting programme which mixes big names like Schubert and Wolf with less well known contempraries like Loewe and Franz Lachner, whom Prégardien has done so much to promote. Search this site for more on Lachner.Very interesting baroque and early music, too. On 22nd  La Nuova Music presents Francesco Conti's 1732 opera Issipile prepared for the Hapsburg court. Top soloists, which will make the evening very worthwhile indeed. And on 23rd the acclaimed Jack Quartet performs Ferneyhough, Anderson and others. On 24/1 Sara Mingardo sings Venetian baroque, and on 25th the Nash Ensemble, with Latonia Moore, Kim Cresswell and Roderick Willliams do American songs (Barber, Ives, Copland, Gershwin) - probably way above the usual. Luca Pisaroni sings Beethoven, Reichardt and Brahms with Wolfram Rieger on 26th and on 27/1 Florian Boesch sings Schubert and Wolf with Malcolm Martineau. I might also go to Mauro Peter's debut on 28/1 and to Classical Opera Haydn/Mozart on 30/1. That's ten recitals in eleven days, or eleven if you include Peter Grimes at the ENO on 29th. . I can't even contemplate the chamber music recitals, and other things that otherwise would be very tempting. I might as well camp on the pavement.

Christmas in Vienna 2013 viewing link

Angelika Kirchschlager, Ursula Langmayr (replacing Anna Prohaska), Luca Pisaroni and Joel Prieto in this year's Wiener Konzerthaus "Christmas in Vienna" broadcast (link here). This annual concert is a treasure because it's a complete antithesis to the formal stodge we normally get at Xmas, and also refreshingly different to the famous Neujahrskonzerts at the Goldenersaal at the Musikverein. You can also tell, by the number of women and blacks on the platform that it's the ORF Radio Symphonieorchester Wien not the Wiener Philharmoniker. The audience turns up in normal clothes, just as the shepherds turned up at the stable in Bethlehem.

The opening shots show the soloists and conductor Erwin Ortner put gifts under a simple Xmas tree,  while the boys of the Wiener Sängerknaben pretend to snatch them away. Of course it's staged - but it's good humoured and full of charm.  Musical values, though, are extremely strong. Bright trumpets announce Adeste Fidelis, soloists, choir and orchestra celebrating together. 

Angelika Kirchschlager is in her element. She always sings beautifully, but here she seems much more relaxed and spontaneous than she might be in a more pressurized recital. Maybe her children are listening, and she knows it.  When she and Luca Pisaroni sang Englebert Humperdinck Weihnachten, they gave the simple song the human, personal warmth it needs. The voices of the Wiener Sängerknaben rang out like angels as they stood in the golden balcony above the choir and orchestra. 

Glorious Bach, of course, (nice trumpet) but also Ariel Ramirez "Gloria" from Missa Criolla (12964) which combines South American folk instruments with conventional orchestra and singers. The folk musicians wear red ponchos - quite a showpiece - and Prieto sang with them in the small upper stage balcony. The piece suited Prieto well, and he sang with concentrated focus.  Pisaroni and Kirchschlager showed the comic side of their talents with "Baby, it's cold outside". They were classy, and stylish. Prieto and Langmayr duetted with "Let it snow". Neither can sing in English, but it didn't matter, they conveyed the mood. Then, Vienna's own contribution to the Christmas repertoire, Franz Xaver Gruber's Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. Magical ! Watch it again HERE.

Earlier today on Arte TV, a version of Monteverdi Poppea. Not the full Monty, but Rock Baroque. The very fact that European rockers can engage with Monteverdi is quite something. Anglo rednecks, I suspect, would sneer at the very thought. It wasn't my thing but it was good to hear that these musicians were prepared to engage with new/old ideas and create anew. More than can be said for many who think they know better. Later tonight, Marc Minkowski conducts Berlioz - should worth staying up for. 
 

photo : ORF Ali Schafler (not 2013)

Mozart Le nozze di Figaro - ROH

Claire Seymour reviews the Royal Opera House Mozart Le nozze di Figaro in Opera Today.

"The chandeliers glint and sparkle, under Paule Constable’s beautiful lighting; there are some breath-taking moments such as the fading into twilight between the final two Acts, as the interior of the chateau imperceptibly metamorphoses into an enchanted nocturnal garden. Costumes are similarly eye-catching and visually there is scarcely an anachronistic note - indeed, McCallin could probably teach the producers of Downton Abbey a thing or two about period detail. It’s a shame, then, that the shine seems to have been wiped off the drama itself, for this was a rather lacklustre and untidy performance of an opera which should fizz and glide along effortlessly."

Read the whole review in Opera Today HERE. 
(photo copyright Mark Douet, courtesy ROH)

Handel Radamisto Barbican - Daniels Bardon Pisaroni

Handel's Radamisto HWV 12a confirms the Barbican Hall as one of the finest places for baroque in London. Superb  performances from David Daniels, Luca Pisaroni,  and Patricia Bardon, with Harry Bicket conducting The English Concert from the harpsichord. Performances like this highlight the inherent drama in the music. The comparison between this Barbican Radamisto and the ENO staging in 2010 (more here) could hardly have been greater. Although unstaged, Bicket's Barbican Radamisto was far better theatre because the drama was revealed through good singing.


Harry Bicket's style is understated - I hate using the cliché "English" - but it works well in a medium-sized space like the Barbican. Handel's plot may be outrageously exotic, but here the focus was on the characters as human beings, despite the implausible situations in which they find themselves. This isn't historical drama. Most of us wouldn't recognize first century Armenia if we tried. At heart, Radamisto is about a family and their power struggles, and the ultimate triumph of married love.

Bicket's restraint allows the singers to demonstrate the elaborate vocal technique that Handel's audiences would have thrilled to. Part of the drama in Radamisto is marvelling how long a singer can sustain a line, or decorate a vowel in myriad repeats. Radamisto and Tiridate are duelling with their voices: oneupmanship through trills. David Daniels was particularly effective, showing the gentle side of Radamisto . His "Cara Sposa" was tender: no wonder Zenobia adores him so. Later, when Radamisto and Zenobia duet, the chemistry between Daniels and Patricia Bardon is palpable. She was suffering from an illness, but delivered with the courage Zenobia has to endure suffering. If anything, Bardon's determination enhanced her portrayal.  Daniels sounded genuinely solicitous. The dynamic between the two singers, especially in the Act Two sequences which predicate on the emotional bond between the couple,  is so deep that they can see through disguises and the convolutions in the narrative. Tiridate hasn't a chance.

Luca Pisaroni is an exceptionally good Tiridate. He sings with great authority. He creates Tiridate as a mighty tyrant before whom all enemies quake. Except, of course, Zenobia, whose weapon is love. Pisaroni has presence as well as astounding range. In Act One, his variations on the single vowel "a" are spectacular, suggesting the arsenal he has behind him. The valveless horns of the English Concert extend his burnished tones. This is where period instruments come into their own. Do the horns suggest military glory or the hollowness of power? This subtlety would be lost with modern instruments.

Later, Pisaroni's "Sì che ti renderai"  was so beautiful that the audience rewarded him with the longest, and genuinely spontaneous applause. Pisaroni's expressive range shows how Tiridate, formidable as he is, is still "family". When he sings Tiridate's magnaminous reconciliation, it feels right, emotionally, although the act would be absurd Realpolitik.  In the final scene, the elegant balance of voices suggests that this war-torn family will indeed find harmony.

Elizabeth Watts sang Tigrane. Since this is usually a trouser role, she was dressed in 18th century male costume. At the ENO Radamisto, the part was played as burlesque. A singer like Elizabeth Watts couldn't do crude even if she tried, for her timbre is naturally lustrous and Italianate, to the extent that she is far better in dramatic repertoire than in Lieder. Tigrane is the peacemaker in this opera, not a figure of derision. Watts's warm timbre fills out the generosity inherent in Tigrane's personality. Brenda Rae sang Polissena and Robert Rice sang Farasmane.

Read the FULL review in Opera Today

MORE Baroque coming up soon at the Barbican, an ideal setting for the genre. 

Glyndebourne Handel Rinaldo on TV tonight!

Don't forget, Handel Rinaldo from Glyndebourne on BBC4 TV tonight. Wonder how it will turn out on film, which is always different from live. Despite dodgy premise, there are some very good moments in this. Watch Sonia Prina fly thru the sky on her magic bike! And listen to Luca Pisaroni's divine Argante. Read about the live performance HERE . 
And HERE is a link to my review of the Proms performance

The Enchanted Island at the Met - deeper than expected

Extravagance is the essence of baroque, but few houses can do spectacles as well as the Met. So when the  Met throws its might behind The Enchanted Island, it can create a spectacle worthy of the genre. At last Met technology put to good use - this is baroque as it should be done! William Christie is one of the great baroque specialists, and a guiding force behind Purcell The Fairy Queen at Glyndebourne in 2009. That may have been part of the inspiration for The Enchanted Island, for both take material from various sources and present them as glorious extravaganza. Christie and the Met also use some of the finest singers in the genre.
 
Perhaps the idea that The Enchanted Island is a "new" opera panics people. But why not? "Pastiche" carries negative connotations now, but didn't in baroque times when recycling was part of what went into theatre. Recordings didn't exist then, so composers were expected to re-use popular melodies so people could enjoy them again. That's also partly why baroque operas adapt similar ideas over and over. Audiences delighted in new ways of hearing old. How many of Vivaldi's operas were all "new" or even all Vivaldi? And how many adaptations of Ariosto and Tasso? The baroque aesthetic blended characters  from ancient antiquity and medieval myth in joyous riot. Even Mozart had no qualms about recycling a good tune. So snobbery about this kind of pastiche is misguided. Indeed, I suspect the choices made in The Enchanted Island are wittier than might be expected.

The secret to The Enchanted Island is to take the story as it comes,  just as baroque audiences would have done centuries ago. The basic premise is that Prospero has usurped Sycorax on her island, and pushes his weight around. That's why Shakespeare's The Tempest gets banned in Arizona. It's a simile for what happens when indigenous people are colonized by masters from over the seas. Caliban has long been seen as a metaphor for the Third World.  Perhaps Shakespeare wasn't political, but there's no reason why a reworking of the premise shouldn't tease out new meaning from an old story. Handel did it all the time, as did many others. William Christie and Jeremy Sams emphasize the anarchy inherent in the plot. Please read what Sams wrote for the British press here.

Prospero (David Daniels) rules the island but Sycorax (Joyce DiDonato) this time fights back, by simply changing dragon's blood for lizard's blood  in the spell Prospero sets for getting off the island.  Immediately, we know that this retelling of the basic story will be mischief!  So Ariel (Danielle de Niese) conjures up a boat. It's the first of many visual special effects which baroque audiences would have gasped at in admiration. Only it's the wrong boat! It's carrying the lovers from A Midsummers Nights Dream, who've already been cast in several guises before. Ariel connects to Puck, Caliban (Luca Pisaroni) to Bottom. Fun is of the essence. More fool those who can't see the humour in The Enchanted Island. In the cinema where I saw it, the audience was chuckling with delight.

Exceptionally good performances from Joyce DiDonato (Sycorax) and Luca Pisaroni (Caliban). DiDonato pretty much creates the part on her own, since it's hardly developed elsewhere, but fundamental to the background of the story. DiDonato is magnificent. Her singing ranges from ethereally high textures to animal-like growls. She's a nature spirit, connected to the mysteries in the jungles of her island. She's also an earth mother who loves her son just as much as Prospero loves Admir'd Miranda (Lisette Oropesa, singing in American). Caliban (Luca Pisaroni) is costumed as half gorilla, but with a sensitive side, (he likes flowers). Pisaroni is a natural actor, moving half crouched and intuitively, like an animal, yet his voice expresses deep emotional feelings.  In The Tempest, Prospero holds all the cards. In The Enchanted Island, the underdogs Sycorax and Caliban get a fair chance. This time, they're evenly balanced, and the meaning of the plot enhanced. Incidentally, the plot is driven by pe-existing baroque materials - nothing 21st century added. Sorceresses on enchanted islands abound throughout the genre.

Then, one of the most magnificent coups de théâtre in recent memory. Ariel calls on the God Neptune nd suddenly he arises from the ocean, surrounded by four mermaids, suspended from the roof. It's an image straight out of baroque fantasy, the sort of scene baroque artists used to paint, except this time it's done with modern stage techniques baroque stage designers could only dream of. It's fantastic in the true, baroque meaning of the word, totally artificial and gloriously splendid at the same time. Some of the chorus fill the foreground, others as singing heads in a backdrop that could come right out of an 18th century painted flat.    Since when did Gods rise up out of the sea, except in the imagination? And part of the baroque aesthetic is to push the boundaries of imagination. Only a house like the Met can pull scenes like this off so well.

This magnificent scene must have been stunning live, given the gasps from the audience, on screen and in the cinema. But it's absolutely fundamental to the whole concept of the plot. Neptune is the Deus ex machina around whom the resolution pivots. What a wonderful way to make the most of Placido Domingo!  He doesn't have to sing much (thankfully) but his acting skills are superb. Again, the anarchic humour in the text. "I'm old, irritable and tired", he sings with a merry grin, "I don't do the high seas". Pun, pun, pun for those who forget he used to be a tenor. It's a measure of Domingo's greatness that he can do acidly witty self parody like this, upstaging the elaborate ostentation around him.

The scene where Pisaroni as Caliban is surrounded by dancers isn't there merely to squeeze in a bit of Rameau but to show how he's "enchanted" by nature spirits half-animal, half-human like himself.  It's crucial to the plot because Caliban is trying his hand at magic spells and conjuring a new world, unintended,  where things will be more in tune with nature. It won't happen, though, as Prospero won't let it. The proscenuim, which magically transforms throught the evening from dense jungle to baroque fanatsy now turns dark, two glowing orbs like the eyes of a wild animal, the stage like a gigantic mouth swallowing Caliban's dreams. It's time now for Neptune to restore the natural order.  In another spectacular scene, Domingo as Neptune conjures up another magnificent boat, complete with the sort of rolling "waves" baroque designers made out of painted horizontal sheets, shaken up and down. At once "traditional" baroque design, with modern technology. At last Ferdinand (Anthony Roth Costanzo) appears. Miranda is saved, and Prospero returned to where he belongs. "Forgive me" he begs Sycorax, and maybe he means it, but our sympathies are with DiDonato's wonderful characterization. But baroque means happy ending, so all join in in standard ensemble, praising new beginnings. Excellent ideas, excellent cast and the Met Orchestra playing idiomatically even though they're using modern instruments (plus harpsichord). The Enchanted Island shows that the Met has huge potential.  Had this piece been heard at Glyndebourne, where audiences are receptive to baroque and to innovation, it would have been greeted with the acclaim that The Fairy Queen received. (read more here)  


And HERE is a link to my most recent post which has another link to something even better.

Luca Pisaroni - the other man from Busseto

Luca Pisaroni has arrived. Eighteern months ago he sang Leporello at Glyndebourne, so impressive that I snapped up a chance to hear his Wigmore Hall debut last March.  (Read what I wrote here and what Mark Berry wrote here) Guess who was sitting behind us, trying to be incognito and out of Pisaroni's sightlines? At that time I didn't know the connection, so my praise fell on ears that appreciated it greatly. Pisaroni is very good, and he's young enough that there's lots ahead for him. One day, a supreme Don Giovanni?

HERE is a link to a new interview by Olivia Giovetti in Classical Singer. Enjoy! Please also read one of the earliest interviews with Pisaroni in Opera Today.

Handel Rinaldo at Glyndebourne

When Glyndebourne's Handel Rinaldo reaches the Proms on 25th August (live, and broadcast online) make sure you listen, because some of the singing will be very good.  Same principals, different conductor (Lawrence Cummings) and of course, minimal staging.  Hopefully, they'll retain some of the better bits in the production, like the flying bicycles, and drop the kinky boarding school pretence.

Baroque is fun because it's surreal. No-one in their right mind could insist on authentic realism in Rinaldo, simply because it's set in the Crusades. A plot with sorcerers who can whip people over skies and seas? Handel and his audiences had no illusions about being literal. So there's no problem at all with the idea of knights on bicycles, because that's integral to the story. Against Armida's magic, the Crusader's macho bluff is revealed as hollow. Rinaldo gets saved because he's loved.  In fact, you could say the whole idea behind the real Crusades was fantasy. Europeans have long been fascinated by "Eastern Promise" because it offers an alien exoticism they can't get in real life.

So why schoolboys/schoolgirls in the Glyndebourne Rinaldo?  The bad news is that it demeans the story as teenage wet dream. But the good news is that it enhances Sonia Prina's Rinaldo. Prina is a very experienced Handel singer and has worked with director Robert Carsen before, so it's quite feasible that the production was designed round her. There can be little explanation for the recent Meistersinger updating other than to enhance Gerald Finley's Sachs as poet, not cobbler. It's essential that the main role looks and sounds right, so as a choice it has merit. Prina is attractive in a short, compact schoolboy way - think Justin Beiber. She's energetic and earthy, so the production plays to her strengths. If you want an ethereal countertenor, you have to conceive the role in a completely different way.

Originally, Sandrine Piau was cast as Armida, which also makes sense in relation to Sonia Prina, because Piau's so elegant and refined the contrast would be hilarious. For whatever reason, Piau pulled out, and Brenda Rae stepped in. Rae is excellent in this context, because she moves well in 6 inch heels and wiggles her body salaciously, which is aboslutely right for Armida as sex queen (which is implicit in Handel!). The voice has an edge, but again that works with the role.

Best singing from Luca Pisaroni, who is singing the role again, in a different production, in Chicago in a few months. Argante is the King of Jerusalem, a warlord who's quite capable of holding the Crusaders at bay. His weak spot is that he fancies Armida who is by no means a nice Muslim girl, even by the standards of the 11th century. Argante is by no means cardboard villain, as Pisaroni shows, glorying in roccoco flourishes of his entry aria so it shines with colour and complexity. You can "hear" the baroque gold and burnished curlicues in this voice! Fortunately, Handel develops the role, so we get to hear Pisaroni build the other sides of Argante's character. This is important because the ending defies logic unless you think of Argante as a real person. He and Armida make up even though both are seriously strong personalities.

If this Glyndebourne Handel Rinaldo becomes available on DVD or in cinemas, it is definitely worth catching. Perhaps the film direction will moderate the staging, and emphasize the music. Wonderful countertenors, William Towers and Tim Mead. Please read my full review of the live performance at Glyndebourne HERE in Opera Today. More photos, too. Photo above of Brenda Rae and Luca Pisaroni, Alastair Miles, courtesy Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Handel Rinaldo starts today at Glyndebourne

Handel's Rinaldo starts today at Glyndebourne, the second new production this season after Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (described HERE and HERE). Rinaldo is one of the great Handel bravura pieces, fabulous music and theatre.  Baroque isn't timid! At its premiere in 1711, the Spectator said that Rinaldo was filled with "Thunder and Lightning, Illuminations, and Fireworks"Please read the full interview with Luca Pisaroni in Opera Today. Very interesting singer. Here is a link to his superb Leporello at Glyndebourne in 2010.
Please also read my review of the Glyndebourne Rinaldo HERE. 

Rinaldo is a chaste Crusader, with whom Armida, Queen of Damascus, falls in love. Trouble is, she's a sorceress and her lover is Argante, the King of the Saracens, one of the feistier Handel anti-heroes. Meaty part, demanding fioratura elaboration, ideal for creating character. Luca Pisaroni's singing it at Glyndebourne today (and will be doing it again in Chicago later this year).

“I really look forward to embodying Argante at Glyndebourne”, he says, “because the music that Handel wrote for Argante is incredibly challenging.” His first aria “Sibillar gl’angui d’Aletto” is not only one of the best-known arias for bass-baritone but also one of the most difficult arias in the entire baroque repertoire." Having sung Tiridate in Handel's Radamisto at Santra Fe Opera, Pisaroni discovered "how exciting it is to portray a ‘bad guy’ on stage.....I had to push myself. It was really rewarding to explore such a dark personality and to get a great response from the audience. In life you never get away with being the bad guy! On an opera stage you do and everyone loves it! "
LOTS OF OTHER CLIPS and pieces on Glyndebourne Handel Rinaldo =- use search box or labels
photo : Marco Borggreve

Luca Pisaroni wonderful recital Wigmore Hall

After hearing his stunning Leporello at Glyndebourne and his Figaro at Salzburg, there was no way I was going to miss Luca Pisaroni's concert with Wolfram Rieger at the Wigmore Hall yesterday. But I was delighted by how wonderful he sounded close up in  recital.

Extremely erudite choice of programme too. When Pisaroni started singing, it fell into place. He's primarily an opera singer and a specialist in Italian repertoire, Mozart and baroque.. He was even grew up in Busseto, Verdi's birthplace, so he he could coast to the top "to the manner born".

So the fact that he chose an unusually intelligent programme says a lot about his versatility and musical instinct.  He's also smart enough to have figured out the Wigmore Hall ethos. Although the auditorium wasn't full, those who were there were the real cognoscenti, serious listeners who really appreciate good singing (and good programmes). Some of them are getting on in years and don't get out as much as they used to, so the fact that they were there is a huge compliment to Pisaroni.

And Pisaroni delivered! Schubert wrote several operas in Italian, but instead of singing "bleeding chunks", Pisaroni picked Drei Gesänge, D902, (Metastasio, 1827) which look like excerpts but were written as stand-alones. This integrity brings them closer to Schubert's song repertoire.  They're Italianate but Schubert's Austrian aesthetic is clearly distinct. Pisaroni placed the last song in the group first, Il modo di prender moglie, (How to choose a wife - for money!) which was a good idea. It's a strophic comic ballad which doesn't make great demands and lulls you into forgetting who the composer might be. Then, the first song L'incanto degli occhi (the magic of eyes)  where the trure Schubertian voice is unmistakable. What a witty juxtaposition! Pisaroni not only has an amazingly good voice, but musical intelligence, too. Then you appreciate the humour in , (the deluded traitor) which isn't morbid, despite the title. When Pisaroni sang Ove son io? (Where am I?), and repeated it cryptically,  I had a vivid mental image of Schubert, frustrated by having too little success in a genre he needed to master if he'd compete with changing fashions.

Hence, Rossini. Again, Pisaroni chose songs rather than bits from popular operas, to connect better with Schubert.  Pisaroni is a bass baritone, so the darker timbres were extremely beautiful, but the voice is agile and flexible, so the transits upwards come with ease. Truly a gorgeous voice, full of nuance and colour.

Franz Liszt wrote transcriptions of Schubert's songs which are still popular today, though they sound much more Lisztian than Schubertian. They're florid, as if Liszt can't quite get the Lieder aesthetic and submerges it in too many notes. That's OK, they're different composers. Liszt also knew Schumann, the "new music" of the 1840's.  There are well over 70 Liszt songs for voice and piano, but Pisaroni again chose thoughtfully. Two settings of Heine, one of which, Im Rhein im schönen Strome is indelibly associated with Dichterliebe and Schumann.  Liszt's S272 (1855) is a more studied piece, reflecting a different approach to song, which is quite distinct, though the text in the last verse demands strong phrasing.

Pisaroni and Rieger followed with three songs Schumann didn't set, to emphasize Liszt's unique style. There are vaguely Schumannesque passages in the piano parts, though Liszt doesn't write extended preludes and postludes. Der Vätergruft (1844, Uhland) displays Liszt's gifts as dramatist. The ghost of a knight joins his ancestors in their tomb. Die Geisterlaute verhallten, da mocht es gar stille sein. (ghostly sounds fade and silence reigns again).  This could almost be a song without words, it's so effective.

This extremely well planned recital ended with Liszt's Tre sonetti di Petrarca S270 in the version for baritone and piano. Liszt as pianist triumphs. This isn't Germanic Lieder by any means but completely unique. Reiger played with great delicacy, matched by Pisaroni's sensitive modulation. His Benedetto sia'l giorno is truly a love song. He lingers gently on the words E i sospiri  e le lagrime so they feel like a gentle caress. An exquiste recital wonderfully realized. Next time Pisaroni appears, there should be queues around the block. He's singing  Argante in Handel's Rinaldo at Glyndebourne this summer with Sandrine Piau, who did  fascinating programme of Schubert transcriptions last week. (See review here)  So we've heard both Pisaroni and Piau in two unusual recitals in the same week at the Wigmore Hall. Brilliant!
photo : Marco Borggreve