Monthly Archives: September 2012

ENO: Martinu, Julietta

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Bohuslav Martinu is better known in reputation than performance in this country so it is not surprising that this was the first performance of Julietta to be staged in London. Richard Jones’ production was widely praised when it opened on the continent and it is here staged with all of the aplomb which we expect of his work. So far, so good. The difficulty comes with the work itself. The score allows the text to come through with clarity – for once there was hardly any need for the sur-titles – but rarely makes any profound impact. Where characters are indulging in fantasy there are long stretches of lyrical writing which are pleasant without being memorable but for too much of the rest of the work the musical line rarely lifts above the level of accompaniment to the voices.

The very clarity of text is also something of a disadvantage. Hearing the words we necessarily engage with them. When they make little sense, we are left confused, as are many of the individuals on stage. That the presentation is a theatrical expression of a dream is convincing, but has the effect of leaving us uninvolved in the action. Peter Hoare’s finely sung Michel has to carry most of the narrative weight but his confusion leaves us unmoved. Some fine moments in act two with the Julietta of Julia Sporsen do not go far enough to captivate us. Yet if we are meant to be at some sort of Brechtian distance it is unclear how we are being led to respond.

A fine cast, often doubling parts, bring moments of humour and the surreal. I particularly liked the horn player in evening dress who wanders through the action like something from Magritte. Edward Gardner and the orchestra do their best to convince us that all is well but, for all the efforts on stage and in the pit, I can’t help feeling rather short-changed. BH

The Pilgrim’s Progress

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Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) after John Bunyan

Conductor, Martyn Brabbins      Director, Yoshi Oïda

ENO stages the first full professional performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress since its premiere at the 1951 Festival of Britain

English National Opera’s new production of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress highlights the company’s commitment to celebrating great 20th century British opera. Yoshi Oïda’s directorial debut with ENO marks the first full professional staging of Vaughan William’s seminal work since its premiere at the 1951 Festival of Britain.

Vaughan Williams spent 40 years of his life perfecting The Pilgrim’s Progress – a sublime ‘morality’ that charts the trials, tribulations, temptations and revelations that Bunyan’s questing Pilgrim encounters on his physical and spiritual progress ‘from the world to that which is to come’.

The opera is based on the original two-part book of the same title, an extended Christian allegory by John Bunyan, published in the late 1600s. Although Vaughan Williams was a self-professed agnostic, he wrote in a letter in May 1951 that he wanted the music to “apply to anyone who aims at a spiritual life”.

Drawing on traditional Japanese Noh theatre, actor, film and theatre director Yoshi Oïda’s highly original technique bridges Eastern and Western theatrical methods. Oïda makes his ENO debut following a number of recent high profile European productions including stagings for the National Theatre Prague and Opéra National du Rhin. Oïda made his name as an innovative interpreter of English 20th-century opera with his UK debut production of Death in Venice – “a superb performance” (Daily Telegraph) – for the Aldeburgh and Bregenz festivals (2007), on which he worked with conductor Martyn Brabbins.

Brabbins is well-known for his championing of British Music, including his previous appearance for ENO, in 2005, when he conducted a ‘grippingly urgent and muscular’ (The Guardian) account of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. Brabbins is Chief Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. He was previously Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music 2005-2007 and Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1994-2005.

The Pilgrim’s Progress opens at the London Coliseum on 5 November for 7 performances – November 5, 9, 16, 20, 22 & 28 at 7.30pm and Nov 24 at 6.30pm

New production in association with The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust and supported by ENO’s English Opera Group and the Friends of ENO.

 

LPO at The Dome, Brighton

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The London Philharmonic Orchestra will be at The Dome Brighton on

Saturday 3 November – with works by Nielsen, Dvorak & Rachmaninoff conducted by Osmo Vanska

Saturday 2 February – with works by Sibelius

Saturday 23 February – with works by Joan Tower, Copland, Gershwin & Dvorak

Saturday 16 March – with works by Beethoven, Schumann and Elgar

Full details from www.brightondome.org  01273 709709

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Dome Brighton

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Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

The Dome Brighton, 22 September 2012

With the proms only just over we are already launched into the winter orchestral season on the South Coast. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Rory Macdonald brought a popular programme of familiar works, but started with one which was less known to most of the audience – Dvorak’s The Noon Witch. The composer’s late tone poems are so easy on the ear it is surprising they are not better known and one has no need of the underlying story to enhance one’s enjoyment. Not that we were encouraged to do so on this occasion, as the conductor gave as a finely honed, if somewhat tongue-in-cheek rendition of the fairy-story before the orchestra started playing.

The dance rhythms and strong Czech feel to the score are immediately appealing and there is little sense of the final tragedy even when it arrives. The range of tonal colour Dvorak requires was well found both by soloists within the orchestra and the deft handling from the podium.

If the Dvorak had seemed swiftly moving this was to be true of the whole evening. In the second half we had a highly extrovert reading of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. The first two movements seemed to be looking back to stricter classical lines with the crisp clarity of phrasing and dance-like underpinning. There was little sense of the listener being able to idle away his time by the brook – which seemed to be in full flood in this reading and alive to the possibilities of creation.

If the final three movements were more conventional in approach, they continued the sense of extrovert enthusiasm and thanksgiving which had been engendered from the start. This may have been a young man’s reading – it will be interesting to note Rory Macdonald’s timing for this symphony twenty-five year hence! –  but it was none the less very welcome.

Between the two works we heard Bruch’s first violin concerto. Though enthusiastically received by the audience I had ongoing problems with the soloist Barnabas Kelemen. That he has a sound technique is not in doubt but the intensity of his vibrato and the constant sense of strident attack became unpleasant. Even the introspection of the slow movement was not allowed to flower, as the tension from the soloist was every present. The other problem I had was the constant tapping of his feet, sometimes to the point of stamping out the rhythm as if the concert was for violin and tap dancer. I was sitting towards the back of the stalls and could hear it clearly; it must have been overpowering for those sitting at the front. A great pity, for the orchestral colour and phrasing throughout was impressive in what should have been a memorable performance.

Surprisingly, for such a popular progamme, there were many empty seats.  The next concert will be the opening of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra season on Sunday 21 October. BH

Edward Gardner joins director Rufus Norris in a revival of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at ENO

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Opening Wednesday 17 October, 7.00pm (9 performances)

Following from the success of Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee, multi award-winning director Rufus Norris teams up with ENO Music Director Edward Gardner in a revival of Mozart’s darkly seductive Don Giovanni. Norris’ production was described by Wall Street Journal as “A Don Giovanni for our times”.

Rufus Norris is one of the leading lights of British theatre and his relationship with ENO highlights the company’s commitment to working with creative talent from across the arts. Norris made his opera directorial debut at ENO in 2010 with Don Giovanni. In 2012, he returned to the company to direct Damon Albarn’s Elizabethan folk opera, Dr Dee – described as “dazzlingly fluid” (Daily Telegraph) and an “exquisite pageant” (Daily Mail).

Over recent years, Norris’ work has made an impact in London and New York – winning two Evening Standard Awards, two Critics’ Circle Awards, two Olivier nominations and ‘Show of the Year’ Time Out award for his revelatory production of London Road at the National Theatre. Rufus Norris’ film, Broken, opened Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix of the Odessa International Film Festival. Norris has been nominated for the Best British Newcomer award at the forthcoming BFI Film Festival and his production of Cabaret is currently touring the UK, arriving at the Savoy Theatre in early October.

Rufus Norris is joined by long-time collaborator and Tony Award-winning designer Ian MacNeil (Billy Elliot, David Alden’s Tristan and Isolde and Ariodante). The creative team is completed with costume designer Nicky Gillibrand, lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherrin, projections designer Finn Ross and movement director Jonathan Lunn. James Burton conducts the final three performances in the run.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni was modelled on the legendary Spanish Libertine Don Juan and the real-life Venetian rake Giacomo Cassanova. The opera follows Don Giovanni, a young, arrogant, sexually prolific nobleman, whose abuse, and outrageous conduct, spirals out of control until he must pay the price for his depraved lifestyle. Rufus Norris sets the action in contemporary times and explores a theme of Don Giovanni’s magnetic and electrically charged character.

This first revival boasts many of the outstanding singers from its initial 2010 run, including Iain Paterson as the infamous lothario, with Katherine Broderick and Ben Johnson (both former Kathleen Ferrier Award-winners) as the defiled Donna Anna and her uptight fiancé Don Ottavio. Rebecca Evans and Sarah Redgwick share the role of the abandoned Donna Elvira, Darren Jeffrey is Leporello, the compulsive cataloguer of Giovanni’s sexual conquests, along with Sarah Tynan as Zerlina and Matthew Best as heaven’s ghostly avenger, theCommendatore.

Don Giovanni opens at the London Coliseum on 17 October for 9 performances – October 17, 25, 27 & November 6, 10, 15 (7.00pm) and October 20 & November 3, 17 (6.00pm)

Pre-performance talk, Saturday October 20, 4.15-5.00pm, £5/£2.50 concessions.

New from John D Robinson

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John D Robinson’s 7th book

The Unfolding Of A Reclusive Silence In The Solitudes Of Ordinary Shadows
New & Selected Poems 1991 – 2012.

Is now available and can be ordered online through Amazon or through any of the High street book stores.

 

 I Draw From You

(With Love for my wife, Carmelina)

I draw from you the infinity

 Of cremated roses

& the reign of marvelous lakes

That spiral across

The ridges of a green leaf

I draw from you a voice

Of such elegance that

The holiest of prayers

Become shy of exposure

I draw from you the

Simplistic wisdom of a

Thousand fairy-tales & the

Exuberant joy of a thousand

Simultaneous smiles of friendship

I draw from you a flowering of

Childhood and a sound

So subtle that only secrets can hear

I draw from you the soft-winged

Erosion of evil & the

Tender flames that lick the wounds of all

Who have suffered

I draw from you the message of comfort

&the hushed dressage of

Sleep that moves like a

Soft blue through rooms of loneliness

I draw from you the strength

to recognize each moment is perfection & to know that the earth revolves safely in your hands

I draw from you Life itself, Beginning to end,

Love itself

That’s what I draw from you.

When

 

Remember as we could

The cool touch of dew

Saturated apples

 

Dangling like green

Moons before us,

Swaying gently as

 

Chinese lanterns hanging

From a small vessel

Moving slowly up stream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Handel: Alceste

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Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn

CHACONNE CHAN 0788 63:16

It may come as something of a surprise to learn that Alceste appears to be the only play for which Handel composed incidental music. Certainly it is the only one which survives in a form worth performing as a whole. The idea for the collaboration came from the writer Thomas Smollett who had persuaded John Rich of Covent Garden to mount his play, promising the most elaborate scenery ever seen and incidental music by the revered Handel.

In the event things went from bad to worse with all participants blaming the other for the eventual need to abandon the project. Handel’s music, completed in January 1750, was held to be too difficult for the actors to perform, though it is comparable to any of his oratorio of the same period.

This new recording allows us to judge the quality of the work for ourselves and its joyful choruses and florid airs delight throughout. There is no sense of a rushed job or of extensive borrowing from other works to fill it out. Many of the airs remind me of Semele and anyone who enjoys that will certainly like this.

Lucy Crowe, Benjamin Hulett and Andrew Foster-Williams bring youthful sounding voices to solo parts and the Early Opera Company under Christian Curnyn give authentic support with bright attack and well sprung rhythms. BH

Hastings Philharmonic Choir

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The Choir’s progamme for 2012-13 under their new Brazilian conductor, Marcio da Silva is as follows

Saturday 17 November   Haydn: The Creation   Christ Church, St Leonards

Saturday 15 December   Christmas Carol Concert

Saturday 6 April                Spring Concert

Saturday 22 June              Summer Concert

full details to follow and from www.hastingsphilchoir.org.uk

01424 431442 / 552119  publicity@hastingsphilchoir.org.uk

1066 Choir & Organ at the Electric Palace Cinema

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1066 Choir & Organ meet at the Electric Palace Cinema in Hastings this coming Monday 17 September at 7.30pm for a wide ranging collection of organ films.

The music of J S Bach will obviously feature but so will early baroque instruments with music by Frescobaldi, Couperin and Daquin. At the other end of the scale will be part of Jean Guillou’s epic La Revolte des Orgues for nine organs, recorded in St Eustache, Paris.

Introduced by Dr Brian Hick, new members are welcome and more details are available through the Lark email lark1066@aol.com

BBC Proms 2012

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The end of an extraordinary summer

  • · 93% average attendance for main evening concerts in Royal Albert Hall
  • · 51 of 76 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall sold out
  • · Over 300,000 attend the 88 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall

After a packed two months the 118th season of the BBC Proms comes to a thrilling conclusion this evening with the world-renowned Last Night of the Proms, led by conductor Jiri Bêlohlávek and featuring tenor Joseph Calleja and violinist Nicola Benedetti, at the Royal Albert Hall, part of the final weekend of an extraordinary summer in Britain.

Average attendance for the main evening Proms in the Royal Albert Hall this year was 93%, just below last year’s record level of 94%. 51 of 76 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall sold out and over 300,000 people attended concerts at both the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall.

More than 35,000 people bought tickets for the first time and over 7,500 under 18s attended concerts across the season. Record numbers of tickets were sold on the first day of sales with over 100,000 tickets purchased.

Roger Wright, Director BBC Proms, says:

“I’m delighted that the 2012 BBC Proms have been so successful with audiences, particularly in such an unique summer in London. The high attendance figures are a reminder of the strength of the BBC Proms brand and the festival’s vision to bring classical music to the largest possible audience. There has been a demonstrable excitement in embracing a wide range of music throughout the festival. The great value for money which the Proms offers is thanks to the ongoing commitment of the BBC.”

Jasper Hope, Chief Operating Officer, Royal Albert Hall says:

“In an exceptional year for the capital, the BBC Proms stand out as the international cultural event of the summer; a truly representative and extremely successful celebration of the very best classical artists from around the globe. It has been a privilege to once again host the world’s greatest classical music festival on the world’s most famous stage”. 

From Beethoven to Boulez; tap dancers to organist Cameron Carpenter’s fancy-footwork; a dedicated John Cage evening to an animated dog playing the violin, this season has truly celebrated the vast range of music the Proms champions. With more new music than ever before the BBC Proms demonstrated its commitment to contemporary work with 31 world premieres, 26 of which were BBC commissions.

With Promming tickets remaining at £5 for the seventh year, the festival continues to offer great value for money, broad programming and creative use of interactive technology and social media with more than 16,000 Twitter followers. The Proms website built on new initiatives including streaming concerts in HD Sound which was made available outside the UK for the first time through a syndication agreement with American Public Media.

The Proms offers an extensive learning programme with a rich offering of daily pre-concert and participatory events to enrich the audience’s experience and reach new and young attenders. Sir Henry Wood, founder-conductor of the Proms, believed in making the best-quality classical music available to the widest possible audience and that ambition remains central to the BBC Proms today as shown in the John Cage centenary celebrations which included the first Proms Music Walk where audience members downloaded 10 new commissions to accompany pieces of performance art around South Kensington.

For the first time ever the Last Night of the Proms will be streamed in 3D in cinemas across the UK. Coverage on BBC television continued to grow with more than 11 million viewers tuning in to see the Proms on television, even before the final two broadcasts of the season, including the Last Night of the Proms. Both the Wallace & Gromit and Broadway Sound Proms had over 1.5 million viewers on BBC One and BBC Two respectively, contributing to a record peak in weekly online traffic, up 92% year on year. Katie Derham has been the face of the Proms on BBC Two for the third year running and the BBC Four Proms have been led on screen by Samira Ahmed, Charles Hazlewood, Suzy Klein and Petroc Trelawny. Concerts will have been broadcast across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, and for the first time in 3D on the BBC HD channel. All services are available to listen and watch again on bbc.co.uk/proms and via the BBC iPlayer.

BBC Radio 3 broadcasts every Proms programme live, with an ambitious range of contextual programming around the music, including many of the Proms Plus events as well as interviews, talks, essays and features.

Highlights in 2012 have included Daniel Barenboim’s complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies coupled with major works by Pierre Boulez performed by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, culminating in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to coincide with the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Requests on YouTube for one of the four television excerpts from the Beethoven Ninth stand at just under 14,000 and total requests for clips from the 2012 Proms season on YouTube are 190,000 and growing.

This year also saw the first ever Desert Island Discs Prom to celebrate the programme’s 70th anniversary. The John Wilson Orchestra returned to the Proms with two star-studded performances in the Broadway Sound Prom and My Fair Lady, his first complete musical at the Proms.

Youth was a major focus at this year’s Proms with the first ever performance by the BBC Proms Youth Choir and a weekend celebrating UK youth ensembles. The Children’s Prom this year included the premiere of My Concerto in Ee, Lad from Wallace & Gromit, performed by the Aurora Orchestra with violinist Tasmin Little and conductor Nicholas Collon. Visiting orchestras included the Berliner Philharmoniker, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and debut Proms performances from the St Louis Symphony and São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the first ever Brazilian orchestra at the Proms.