Mayerling

The revival of Kenneth Macmillan's ballet "Mayerling" promised to be a highlight of the Royal Ballet's season at Covent Garden.

I was there on Saturday evening (14 April) and I must confess to finding it a little disappointing.

The ballet tells the story of the Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, whose life ended in a double death with his 17 year old mistress Mary Vetsera at the hunting lodge Mayerling. The music is a wonderful selection from Liszt's music put together and orchestrated by John Lanchbery, who described the task of assembling the material as 'a month enjoyably exhausting as any I remember'. The three act ballet enables Macmillan to show off many of his best qualities as a choreographer: real drama, yet allied with proper dancing; innovative and thrilling movements for the dancers.

Yet I still have my doubts about the work itself.

The story is too complex. There are too many characters (22 named characters plus the four Hungarian Officers). There are too many ladies in long frocks and too many men in moustaches: it took me the first few minutes of every scene to work out who was who - and then sometimes I got it wrong. The three pas de deux that end each of the three acts are individually stunning but too similar in style. To have the four Hungarian Officers hiding in the curtains once is a bit silly: to do it twice is absurd. There are too many 'ladies of the bedchamber' scenes, which look like padding. Too much of the work is not actually danced, which gives the piece something of the air of a silent film and makes the dancing when it starts appear somewhat incongruous.

Martin Harvey played Rudolf (his debut in the role?). He started tentatively but warmed up as the evening went on. His dancing and partnering were both hard to fault yet I felt he conveyed little of the character. His main attempt at showing Rudolf's madness was a fixed manic grin.

The women were rather better: Tamara Rojo as Mary and, especially, Victoria Hewitt as Stephanie - I thought her performance in the first pdd was excellent.

There was some superb showy dancing from Zachary Faruque, Valeri Hristov, Kenta Kura and Ernst Meisner as the four Hungarian Officers - although they did drop Martin Harvey on the floor at one point!

A special mention too for Paul Kay as Bratfisch: I love that jump he does with a wiggle of the hips.

A Big Frock

The dress worn by Joan Sutherland in the Royal Opera House's production of Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia" is on display in the foyer of the Royal Opera House. It is a magnificent costume, notable for its closely detailed decoration.

And thanks to youtube, the costume and its wearer can be seen in action!

This is one of my very favourite Sutherland clips. Recorded in 1980 it shows what she could do at the end of a long and taxing role. It shows the huge power of the Sutherland voice ( a voice that could have sung Isolde). It shows the extraordinary range of the voice. It demonstrates her extraordinary ability in fioriture, without losing any vocal quality. And it is capped by a wonderful "Sutherland special" a fully voiced top E flat.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7E445edhyw&feature=related

La Fille du Regiment

Laurent Pelly's brilliant new production is now conquering Vienna, as it did London two months ago. All performances are sold out, with waiting lists for returns. I hope to be there for the last night of the run on 28 April. Florez and Dessay again play the leading roles with Montserrat Caballe as the Duchesse de Crakentorp.

The first night was televised and here are some clips I have found on Youtube.

Florez and Dessay in the Act I duet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0PnaeCOyWs

Florez sings “Ah Mes Amis”...

Florez singing 'Pour me rapprocher de Marie'...

And here is what the audience at Covent Garden thought of it all...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BglLP9Rw8E

And finally, two stars from a previous generation:-
Sutherland and Kraus in the Act I duet (recorded 1987)...

Royal Opera's New Season 2007-8

The season opens on 10 September with Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Tauride” in a production by Robert Carsen shared with Chicago and San Francisco. Carsen’s productions tend to be sparse but beautiful: his “Eugen Onegin” at the Met didn’t quite work but his “Dialogue des Carmelites” for Netherlands Opera was stunning. This early opera might well suit his style. The cast is led by two big names, Susan Graham and Simon Keenlyside, and the musical direction is in the specialist hands of Ivor Bolton with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

October is taken up with three Ring cycles. I have already written about these and they are sold out.

Normal service resumes in mid-November with another shared production, this time of Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore”. The director is Laurent Pelly who had such a success with “La Fille du Regiment this season. Rolando Villazon and Paolo Gavanelli are strong casting as Nemorino and Dulcamara. Aleksandra Kurzak sings Adina.

December brings what should be one of the highlights of the season: “Parsifal” conducted by Haitink. I am disturbed to see that this is a revival of the production by Klaus Michael Gruber, originally created for Netherlands Opera. I am encouraged to see that it is only ‘based on’ that original. I hope that the piece of coal representing the Grail will have gone; Amfortas will no longer be pushing round a long arm splint with a wheel at the end of it; and Klingsor will now have a castle and not a dolphinarium. The musical side looks very good: Christopher Ventris as Parsifal, Falk Struckmann as Amfortas, John Tomlinson as Gurnemanz, Willard White as Klingsor and Petra Lang as Kundry.

Christmas time brings “La Cenerentola”, with Toby Spence taking the role created by Florez in this production. Will Magdalena Kozena appear? The only time I tried to hear her she cancelled. If she does sing, is Rossini really her fach? I don’t think I shall be rushing for a ticket for this one.

Some starry casting for “La Traviata” in January and February: Anna Netrebko and Norah Amsellem as Violetta, with Jonas Kaufmann and Dmitri Horostovksy playing the male roles in cast A.

February also brings a revival of “Die Zauberfloete”, most notable for Kate Royal as Pamina and Keenlyside as Papageno.

The first entirely new production of the season comes with “Salome”, conducted by Philippe Jordan and directed by David McVicar. The director’s previous two efforts for the ROH, “Faust” and “Le Nozze di Figaro” were both outstanding. The title role will be sung by Nadja Michael.

The revival of “Eugen Onegin” in March might be worth catching for Marina Poplavskaya’s Tatyana and Piotr Beczala’s Lensky, as might “Carmen” for Marcelo Alvarez as Don Jose.

The ROH are obviously pinning high hopes on their World Premiere in April. Their commitment to new opera has been a bit hit and miss so far: “Sophie’s Choice” not a great success; Thomas Ades’s “The Tempest” a triumph; and Lorin Maazel’s “1984” a joke. So now we have “The Minotaur” from Harrison Birtwhistle with John Tomlinson in the title role and Pappano conducting. For anyone with an interest in new opera, a production not to be missed.

This will be followed by a fairly routine revival of “Simon Boccanegra”, with Marcus Haddock as Gabriele Adorno. He always sticks in my mind as the tenor who went into falsetto when singing Faust in a Met broadcast. The May revival of “Tosca” gives no cast but is notable for being conducted by Pappano: when he conducted this production when new I thought it some of the best Puccini conducting I had ever heard.

June brings what should be the outstanding new production of the season: Verdi’s “Don Carlo” directed by Nicholas Hytner and conducted by Pappano. The cast is led by Villazon and Poplavskaya, with Keenlyside as Rodrigo, Sonia Ganassi as Eboli and Ferriuccio Furlanetto as Philip II. I vividly remember the last ROH production of “Don Carlos” with Alagna, Mattila, Hampson and van Dam. That was one of my greatest ever evenings in the opera house. I hope this new production can match it.

A quick note of Thomas Ades’s “Powder her Face” in the Linbury Theatre. Ades’s first opera, which includes the infamous ‘cock-sucking’ aria.

Back in the main theatre, the season continues with “Ariadne auf Naxos” with Deborah Voigt(!) as Ariadne. This is followed by a strong revival of David McVicar’s excellent production of “Le Nozze di Figaro”, conducted by Charles Mackerras and with Barbara Frittoli as the Countess and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Figaro.

In July Sally Matthews, who impressed me so much in Munich’s “La Calisto” sings Anne Trulove in “The Rake’s Progress”. These performances will be conducted by Thomas Ades. I wish he would spend less time conducting and compose another opera himself.

The seaon ends with what looks like a fairly routine revival (its 21st) of John Copley’s production of “La Boheme”. Most notable among the casting is Nicole Cabell as Musetta.

Britten's War Requiem

Written to mark the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in the 1952, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is one of the great choral masterpieces of the twentieth century.

Interspersed with the texts of the traditional Requiem Mass are war poems by Wilfred Owen. The forces used are a large choir and orchestra with soprano soloist for the Mass texts (occasionally joined by an off-stage boys' chorus) with a chamber orchestra accompanying tenor and baritone in the settings of the war poems.

The settings of the Mass texts tend towards the dramatic and owe much to Verdi's setting. That is not to say that Britten's version is a copy or even, properly speaking, derivative; more that he had learned the most important lesson from his great Italian predecessor: that the words of the Requiem provide huge scope for dramatic and musical effects.

The settings of the war poems are more conventionally Britten's style - beautiful word setting and proper vocal lines.

I select just two of the many moments of genius in this work. First the Offertorium. Picking up on the reference to 'Abraham and his seed' in the Latin text, Britten then takes us to Owen's poem "So Abram rose" with its horrible conclusion 'But the old man ... slew his son - and half the seed of Europe, one by one'. The boys then come in with the verse from the Offertory 'sacrifices and prayer and praise we offer thee O Lord' as the men soloists (slightly off the beat from each other) repeat again and again the shocking last words of the poem.

Secondly the ending. After a dramatic "Libera me" from chorus and soprano, the tenor and baritone sing as two men who meet in the afterlife: 'I am the enemy you killed, my friend'. And as the boys sing "In Paradisum" the two men sing 'let us sleep' before the chorus bring the whole work to and end with the final hushed "Requiescant in pace. Amen".

At the centre of Saturday's performance at The Sage was the Huddersfield Choral Society, living up to their high reputation, and impressing particularly in their wonderful whispered, yet still properly vocalised singing of the opening and closing of the work.

The boys chorus (from Croydon) were placed right at the back of the highest level of the hall so where I was sitting (centre stalls) provided just the right shock of ethereal sound from an unexpected direction.

Janice Watson was the soprano soloist, set high on the top level above the chorus and vocally soaring over them.

The two men were Paul Nilon and Grant Doyle, both excellent but the latter particularly impressive not just vocally but dramatically. If I were the Intendant of an opera house I would be asking Mr Doyle when he would like to do his first Billy Budd...

The 'big' orchestra was the Orchestra of Opera North and the chamber orchestra members of the Northern Sinfonia. Sometimes the big orchestra and the chamber orchestra have their own conductors but this performance was all under the direction of Takuo Yuosa - and what a brilliant job he did.