Britten, Billy and Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne is staging its first Billy Budd, sixty years after it was written. Thereiin lies a story.  Here are two different articles on the background. More detailed, but an extremely good read: Richard Fairman in the Financial Times.  Shorter: The Guardian 

And then there's the wonderful quote Diane McVeagh found in Gerald Finzi's papers. "Britten is the Meyerbeer of our age", Finzi wrote, after the premiere of Billy Budd. He wasn't too comfortable with all those gay men.

(please see some of the things I've wriiten about Billy Budd HERE)
And also my reviwew of thew Glyndebourne production HERE

Glyndebourne Falstaff free download this weekend

Plush Opera are streaming the 2009 Glyndebourne production of Verdi Falstaff this weekend, 8th and 9th May. in full and for FREE if you sign up. Christopher Purves sings Falstaff, with Dina Kuznetsova, Tassis Christoyannis, etc with Vladimir Jurowski conducting.  It's the humorous Richard Jones production. HERE is the link.

It's part of  European Opera Days,  where companies all over Europe are mounting events to bring people to the opera who might not otherwise participate.  Quite interesting reading if you're into outreach and community projects.

Anderszewski Szymanowski Focus Wigmore Hall (1)

In the 1990's, by sheer chance, I walked in on the TV. Wonderful music, playing to an image of wheatfields, swaying endlessly in a breeze. It was the famous documentary about Karol Szymanowski that cemented the composer's reputation in this country. Until then, his name was associated with virtuoso piano works, compared unfavourably to Liszt or Chopin. The documentary made a case for the composer on a much grander scale, with a complex individual personality of his own.

Szymanowski was an urbane cosmopolitan semi-aristocrat who owned a huge estate in Tymoszowka in the Polish part of the Ukraine (hence the wheatfields). Like many aesthetes from Goethe to Debussy and Ravel, he was fascinated by exotic places, and travelled in the Near East, imbibing the opulent Romanticism that Edward Said analyses in Orientalism (a key work for understanding modern art and music).  After 1917, his world collapsed. Decades of war and Communism didn't favour his reputation, but now he can  be assessed anew.

Piotr Anderszewski is curating a special Szymanowski Focus over two days at the Wigmore Hall, London.  If you missed the first, get to the second, on Friday 7th May where the programme is even better.

In the first concert, Anderszewski bracketed Szymanowski with his contemporaries, Janáček and Bartòk. Szymanowski's String Quartet no 1 in C op 37 bears the hallmarks of the composer's distinctive style - extremely high tessitura floating over rhythmic repetitions, quirky summations ending abruptly, held in silence.  It's a relatively mature work, from 1917, and the Belcea Quartet performed it with real panache, a great opener for the first great Szymanowski fest in years. If Bartòk's op 1 String Quartet (1908) sounded surprisngly pedestrian in  this performance, it was perhaps because the Belcea had put so much into perfecting Szymanowski, which is at it should be.

A better comparison was Janáček's In the Mists (1912), which Anderszewski paced elegantly, catching the underlying tension, often overlooked. Janáček's nostalgia is laced with frustration., a yearning to go forwards while being held back.  It was a good choice to precede Szymanowski's Myths op 30 (1915), when Henning Kraggerud joined Andreszewski.  Their interplay intensified the double edged flow in these pieces where balance keeps shifting. The Fountains of Arethusa refers to a myth about a woman who turns into a spring to escape a man who then turns into a river. Fluid interchanges, not firm lines: gradually, though, violin and piano flow together . The other two parts of this piece, Narcisscus and Dryads and Pan extend the shimmering harmonic ideas, the feeling of double entities vibrating beside each other. For a moment, Kraggerud plays alone, so high and pure he almost goes off the scale. He even moves away from the piano. He's drawn back, however because the essence of these pieces is duality.

Like Debussy and Scriabin, the exotic appealed to Szymanowski because it favoured impressionistic colour. He turned, too, to Polish idioms, which for a man of his class was a significant statement. Słopiewnie (Word Songs) op 46b (1921), uses texts by Julian Tuwim, but they're idiosyncrasic, "invented" language, experimenting with words as sounds, flowing impressionistically.  No straightforward literal "folksiness", but rather an experiment with rhythms and intervals, as they flow in speech, combined with a completely unspeechlike legato which explodes with expressive freedom. Iwona Sobotka's coloratura dynamic lifts the songs onto a higher plane.  Szymanowski's soaring violins, again, the concept adapted to voice. She wasn't as note perfect as she can be, but she's very experienced in this repertoire. Her Songs of a Fairy Tale Princess, is wonderful, I can hardly wait to hear it on Friday.Here's the link to my review.  Please see also Jim Samson "Chasing Beauty".

Hanging us out to dry?

In this country, voter turn-out is low. Shame!  People don't know how fortunate they are to be able to vote at all.  A vote may not mean much in a flawed system but at least it's a chance for an individual to make a stand. We'll be hung out to dry, whatever happens, but at least in some small way we can make a mark.

Big majorities make governments cocky. At the last election a van covered in one party's flags was parked across the entrance of the polling station, in contravention of electoral rules. I protested and was threatened by the party members. "We are going to win anyway, whatever you do". And worse! When I approached the electoral officer, he looked so cowed that I couldn't bear to put him in a spot.. I protested direct to the party and got no reply. Being a coward, but also knowing the people involved, I didn't dare take it further. Some comfort, though, the seat, previously unshakeable, was lost.

Parties become arrogant and corrupt when they think they can get away with it. That's why votes matter even if they don't change a result. Being unsafe keeps parties on their toes. That's why they try to scare the rest of us into voting like sheep.  In theory, uncertainty makes them think through their policies more carefully. Though that didn't stop the invasion of Iraq.  That said, tomorrow I might change my principles and vote for the man who beat the last lot last time round. It turned out that he's a genuinely uncorrupt, hard-working man.  No expenses claims, good voting and attendance record, even asked a Question for me and did the homework. He is a sign that decent people still exist. Maybe it's irrational to think good individuals can change things, but I'll take a chance..Not many people have this kind of MP, or this kind of choice.

Tomorrow a friend is standing for election in a nearby seat. She's a good person, too, and conscientious. Besides, she listens to Szymanowski.  And of course the election has to be in the middle of the big Szymanowski fest at the Wigmore Hall.  Good Luck, anyway, J!

The Orphan 1929 - bilingual movie download

Many important Chinese movies are impenetrable to non-Chinese viewers, which is a pity, because some of these films are seriously good, and should be part of world film heritage.   Very unusually, especially for 1929, this silent, The Orphan was made with both Chinese and English subtitles. It's rollicking good fun, especially the final scene where the hero rescues the heroine from a dungeon, singlehandedly rounding up a gang of crooks with a rope, leaping from parapets. Bad guy gets trapped with the iguanas. Douglas Fairbanks Jr eat your heart out.

What's even more interesting is that the film is a historical record in itself.  Look at the opening sequence which shows  a traditional Chinese wedding in an upper-class household, complete with musicians, some of them children. The bride arrives in an elaborate palanquin, carried by retainers, and steps out, in a beautifully embroidered costume.  Since the film was obviously low budget, the film makers were using real, authentic costumes and sets. These would have been impressive enough at the time - today they would be treasured museum pieces. The wedding ritual is shown in detail.  It's realistic because the audience knew about Chinese weddings, and about wedding nights where bride and bridegroom have never met before. Though this is a movie, it's useful as an authentic resource on traditional customs. Notice how many of the people aren't actors, but ordinary folk.

Eventually mistreated bride runs away and attempts suicide by lying on railway tracks, but is rescued by  hero, a modern young dude with slicked-back hair, plaid tie, plus fours and a motorcar with four-digit license plate. He's the Young Master, whose family live in a "western" villa, with marble columns and staircases, with western wallpaper, though their furniture is mostly Chinese (and very posh). You can tell how modern they are, they have a wind-up gramophone and listen to jazz. Watch the sequence where mother and daughter "discuss" the music through visual images projected onto the gramophone horn. The singer isn't Al Jolson but a blacked-up Chinese !

The hero's family have status - Dad cleans his western trophies on the mantelpiece (too precious for the servants)  but they observe The Chinese New Year. Sis is seen eating dried lotus root candy (looks like a cookie but isn't.) They're playing Chinese chess. In an amazing scene, they go out and play at farming, with hoes and water carried in buckets by maids. Real Petit Trianon stuff which would have had the 1929  audience cackling with  laughter because they would have known what real farming was.A reminder that being rich and westernized doesn't stop you being stupid.

Houses like this were pretty common at the time, in fact a few survive today, like Sun Yat-sen's villa in Macau, where his daughter lived until she died only a few years ago, which is now a museum. Again, because this was a low-cost movie, they probably used a real house or modelled it on a typical villa of the period.  So study the detail. Look at the women's clothing and hairdos. The cut of their sleeves and the length of their skirts are typical of the period, you can date Chinese dress just like you can date western. The women wear their hair bobbed and crimped, just like western women of the time. The heroine's hair is authentically untamed, like a real woman, not a processed actress.

"Assistant Director" is White Rose Woo, the actress who plays the heroine Chun Mei. Evidently a "modern woman" despite the wimpy character.  People watching this movie knew about arranged marriages and the tragedies they caused. This film was an object lesson, told as entertainment, its real message not lost on its audience. Brides really did commit suicide. Chun Mei is rescued by the hero but at least she shows initiative and runs away. The movies were a medium in which liberated women could make a mark. Most were actresses, of course, but there were several other female directors. By her body language, White Rose Woo seems Chinese, not overseas Chinese, so it would be interesting to find out who she was. (In fact film is the only way to preserve body language, which really does vary between cultures and periods. Another reason why this film is a study resource)

Significantly, too, the English titles show that the film makers wanted to reach a wider audience, outside China itself.  The "Orator" is John Chow who also "storied" the text. That's a historical archive, too, a very rare example of China Coast English, which was a curious hybrid of Victorian formality filtered through Missionary school, but "Chinese" too, because it follows Chinese grammar which doesn't use as many non essentials as English. When Chun Mei rues her fate, her words could come straight out of a Bible tract.  People really did use to talk like that, but little is preserved except in private letters. Yesterday was May Fourth. On May 4th 1919, the "real" Chinese revolution was launched, a movement dedicated to modernizing China through literature, art and persuasion. Movies were an essential part of this concept that art and entertainment could serve a social function. The Orphan continues to serve a social function because it's a snapshot of its time.


Please see The Chinese Mirror, where there's a detailed biography of White Rose Woo and her times.
Please see other full movie downloads on this site - both Chinese and European. Street Angel, Kuhle Wampe, Berlin Symphony, Dvorak Ufa, Faust, Caligari,  White Haired Girl etc. plus lots of shorts

Albert Coates conducts Hanns Eisler Pagliacci

Albert Coates conducts the Boyd Neel Orchestra playing  Hanns Eisler? No, not Kampflieder or the German Symphony but Eisler's version of Pagliacci. A few weeks ago I attended the first ever UK Conference on Hanns Eisler. One of the papers was Peter Schweinhardt's "My work was nil": An attempt to Rescue Eisler's Peculiar Pagliacci"

This interesting venture came from Trafalgar Studios in 1936. It's in English, with words by John Drinkwater, the poet.. English text, Boyd Neel, Trafalgar, London, Albert Coates, the epitome of Establishment Britishism? In  fact the studio was fronted by a German émigré called  Max Schach, directed by Karl Grune, and employed Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler.

The idea was, I think, to turn the opera into an extravagant star vehicle for Richard Tauber, who sings all the parts and dances, too. There's extra dialogue, new scenarios and state of the art colour processing. The studio collapsed soon after, having made only three films, putting its employees out of work, and owing creditors big money. Crafty Brecht had already been paid, enough for him to buy a house in Denmark, though his work wasn't used and he's not credited.  Eisler said "My work was nil", but Schweinhardt shows how Eisler rearranged some of the music and added some completely original passages.

Schweinhardt showed clips from the film, and others are available on youtube. Now here are some quotes too good to miss. Opera Quarterly 1986/4, :"Indigestible, yet wierdly tempting....Tauber appears as a rotund, benevolent Big Daddy..... a W C Fields snowstorm...final catastrophe before an audience of hundreds in Cremona"  Now I want to see the whole. .

Christoph Eschenbach Mahler - FULL streaming cycle

At last, a truly superb tribute to Gustav Mahler! Christoph Eschenbach is presenting a cycle of the symphonies for free video and audio download on his site HERE.  "Each symphony was recorded with the Orchestre de Paris under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach and filmed by the director François Goetghebeur. By October 15th, 2010 the complete symphonies will be online for streaming and remain accessible until at least July 2011"

This series was developed over many years. I've been to several Eschenbach Mahler performances (not necessarily the same as the ones in these downloads)  It's a very mature, thoughtful cycle that genuinely makes a contribution to a deeper understanding of Mahler's music.  Throughout Mahler's work, there's a powerful sense of trajectory.  Eschenbach's Mahler is intelligent, stressing the architecture of each symphony and its place in the panorama of the whole. With Eschenbach, you feel that you're engaged on a journey, intellectually as well as musically.  Listen to the Second Symphony, already online. It's wonderful, structurally very clearly defined, yet with powerful emotional kick that's hard to put into words. This year there'll be much flash-in-the-pan Mahler, but this Eschenbach/Paris series is outstanding. When these are released for sale, they'll be collectors' items. For now, Eschenbach's making them available for free.
photo credit: Eric Brissaud 

Hoho! I've got excellent tickets to the Proms Mahler 8!

The joy of singing

The Soprano from Rahul Singh on Vimeo.
Non-singers often can't imagine the dedication and hard work it takes to make a career as a singer. Singers give so much, so the least we can do is appreciate what they do. Here is Sarah Minns, a young singer I've got a lot of respect for. You''ll hear her in the chorus in Carmen at Opera Holland Park next month. In the past you may remember her from the Royal Academy of Music productions, and in the chorus at the First Night of the Proms (Ivan the Terrible). She's also in the chorus in Richard Hickox's recording of RVW's The Poisoned Kiss.  Opera Now has said of her "Sarah Minns as Dido conveyed her gravitas and depth of her reined-in passion most effectively... What we heard was not mere elegiac beauty but heartfelt grief". Here she is, enjoying last week's sunshine.

Barenboim, Berlin Phil, Elgar, Sheldonian, Oxford

This morning, at 10am, Daniel Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. Barenboim and the Berliners playing in a theatre seating fewer than 1000? And at ten in the morning?

It was a historic occasion. German press and TV in attendance: this was being filmed for international broadcast and DVD. Barenboim and the Berliners played the same concert at the Philharmonie on 27th April. It can be heard (and watched) in full on the Berliner-Philharmoniker site.http://dch.berliner-philharmoniker.de

Obviously, the Sheldonian is an important historic site, but there are plenty of historic sites elsewhere. The significance is that Barenboim was conducting Elgar's Cello Concerto,  so closely associated with Jacqueline du Pré. Indeed, Barenboim played with Jackie and Pinchas Zuckerman in Oxford (at the Town Hall) forty years ago. Maybe I shouldn't upstage this morning's soloist, Alisa Weilerstein, but the fact is that Jackie is forever associated with Elgar, Barenboim and with Oxford.


And why May Morning? It's an Oxford tradition. May Balls are the biggest social occasion in the year. Colleges hold elaborate balls. Students party like crazy and get blind drunk, the way you do when you are 18 and it's the first time away from your parents! Then they roam the town (which is very small) in their evening clothes, drinking, falling in the river, etc. Part of the tradition is staying up all night and then sobering up in the dawn to music. Walpurgisnacht, Anglo-style. Berlin and Oxford traditions converge.

Walpurgisnacht witchery might have bedevilled last night's rehearsal. Nearly an hour delayed, because part of the orchestra were held up at some airport. Then when they landed there was a crash on the road into Oxford. Then suddenly a rush and they came in and the rehearsal started immediately.

The Prelude to Meistersinger Act 3 was a wash out, very slow tempi, but in the circumstances definitely the right way to do it, if they'd all been rushing and tense beforehand. Nothing calms and centres a musician better than playing something familiar. No such problems in the "real" concert as they've had a night to settle down. The last-minute rush might have helped Barenboim, too. It must have been very emotional for him to come back to Oxford ((he hasn't played theatres this small for years) with its memories of  Jackie. But he's a consummate professional, and had a job to do.  In the Elgar Cello Concerto, the orchestra was fully engaged, energetic. It must have been intimidating for Alisa Weilerstein too, given the inescapable Jackie presence, but she acquitted herself very well. (there can be no comparison)
Here is  where I broke this story in JANUARY, but which is now elsewhere. Proof that there is no difference between print and online journalism. Quality isn't dependent on status. But maybe quality doesn't count.

Paul Rah was at the Berlin rehearsal and concert, and caught this morning's broadcast. His report will follow. Watch this space ! (and catch the concert online and on TV) A friend sent this :"Today at www.medici.tv (registering is required but free) you can watch BPO/Barenboim with Alisa Weilerstein (cello)

Wagner Meistersinger Act III Prelude
Elgar Cello Concerto
Brahms 1st Symphony

"I THINK the web-videocast is at 3pm GMT, i.e. 4pm British Summer time, 5pm Paris time, and 11am EST. " Check Medici TV site, it's a treasure. Video on demand of the concert is available for an unspecified time. See under Europa Konzert 2010.

photo credit

No elephants ! Aida at the Royal Opera House

 It's time Verdi got attention in Aida, not elephants.The blue elephant in Graham Vick's Tamerlano almost stole the show, but elephants were pointedly banned from this new production of Aida at the Royal Opera House, London. Instead, Verdi's music takes pride of place, revealed in full glory.

Pre-performance publicity indicated that this would not be a stereotype production, but minimalist it certainly was not. Abstraction in many ways suits Aida, an opera of secrets and mysteries.

Large structures loom over the cast, for this is a drama where individuals are pitted against overwhelming forces. The simple, strong lines also permit a new kind of staging, created from light and colour.

No elephants, no circus. Instead the focus shifts onto Verdi's music itself, revealing its magnificence without distraction.  How glorious it is, heard as music!   Indeed, it's because Aida is so vivid orchestrally that we've become accustomed to associating it with grand panoramas. But music is in itself abstract. This time, the orchestral colours can be seen as well as heard. Shades of rose and ochre, scarab and peacock, amethyst and sand, glow iridescently, transforming as the music develops. Synaesthetes may overload, but this abstraction is surprisingly expressive, given the connection between visual image and  music.

Nicola Luisotti conducted with flair..Tempi were on the fast side, but better that than too slow. Freed from the restraints of cumbersome staging, the orchestra's pace matched the nervous energy in the drama. Violent moods, violent music. In the scene at the Temple of Vulcan, the Egyptians are working themselves up to a frenzy. Heightened emotion in the orchestra but less so in the dancing. The Rite of Spring style choreography would not have been out of place, but perhaps too much to expect. Strange,  distorted shapes hang from the sky, like the corpses of the dead. When the prisoners shuffle in, they look like they've been in battle. As Aida (Micaela Carosi) reminds us, the Triumphal March may be triumph for some, but defeat for others.

In the third act, when Aida sings Qui Radamès verrà, Carosi stands before a black and white panel, as stark as the dilemma before her. But when Micaela Carosi sings, the lusciousness of her music translates into washes of blue and green, evoking the dark, swift Nile and "cieli azzurri" above, her Eygptian present and memories of her native land. Carosi is a very experienced Aida. Her middle voice is secure, so the extremes in the part feel natural, rather than over-coloured. Aida is constrained, all around, by secrecy and the need for stealth, so she's a strong personality, and alert.

Marcelo Álvarez as Radames is a more conventional portrayal. He hectors, but then, Radames is a headstrong hero, eager for battle, but ennobled by the grace of love. His finest moment comes as he and Aida face death, when his voice softens and takes on a gentler tone. Marianne Cornetti was a forceful, forthright Amneris, and Marco Vratogna's Amonasro suitably subdued.

Jennifer Tipton deserves much credit for designing the magnificent light show. David McVicar proves that abstraction doesn't mean minimal, and is just as valid musically as circus gimmicks. Complete review with more photos coming up soon in Opera Today.http://www.operatoday.com/content/2010/05/no_elephants_-_.php
Photo COPYRIGHT Bill Cooper, Royal Opera House

Duel of the Dudamel agents

Fascinating inside story from The Times about Dudamel switching agents. The "why" is as interesting as the "how". What does the future hold, and where is money to be made? Films, internet and new media or boring old-fashioned stuff like making music?

New home for Garsington?

Has Garsington Opera found a new haven? Garsington Opera has now started consultations with the local community, and relevant authorities to apply for planning consent to locate the festival at Wormsley Estate, the home of the Getty family.

If anything, Wormsley will be even more spectacular. It's set in 18 acres in the lush Chiltern countryside, with an 18th century walled garden, a deer park and woodlands. Each year a special pavilion will be raised around a group of houses, built in flint in the traditional Chiltern style. The architect's drawings show an airy, attractive structure, nestling among trees.  Wormsley's only 15 miles from Garsington, even easier to get to from London. In theory, it's taxiable from Henley-on-Thames or Reading. If you have a party of four and champagne, taxi costs might not be disproportionate. Yet Wormsley's in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, where there are lots of huge estates, many of historic importance. Could it rival Glyndebourne?

Anthony Whitworth Jones, General Director of Garsington Opera, said: "Over the years Garsington Opera has become known for introducing lesser known works of genuine interest and artistic merit, and for attracting young and talented singers on the threshold of their careers. Our new home at Wormsley will enable us to continue that tradition in a thrilling environment, not far from Garsington, and marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in our history."

Mark Getty added:"We are delighted to welcome Garsington Opera for a summer season each year. I see Garsington Opera forming a central part of a vibrant cultural future for Wormsley Estate. It is also important to us that Garsington Opera will bring its terrific outreach activities to benefit schools and others in the local area with an interest in the performing arts. We are very pleased to be associated with a successful arts organization which enjoys such a high reputation for excellence in its field both nationally and internationally."

Franz Schmidt's Notre Dame in Dresden

What makes a composer "suppressed"? Franz Schmidt wasn't suppressed by the Nazis, whom he actively supported, even when they marched into his native Austria. But his music isn't heard much, apart from Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln (The Book of the Seven Seals), which was a big success at the Proms ten years ago, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst Here's a link to Shirley Apthorp's review of Franz Schmidt's Notre Dame in the Financial Times.

Adès Power of Powder Linbury ROH

Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face is back at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House.It's a classic. Once again, Joan Rodgers sings the Duchess, supported by Alan Ewing, Iain Paton and the incomparable Rebecca Bottone, all in multiple roles.
 

In 15 years, Powder Her Face has gone from new music cult hit to an opera of international significance. The Tempest notwithstanding, it's Adès's finest work. He's gone on to fame, fortune and Los Angeles, but  hasn't recaptured the vitality of his early work. More recently, he's revisted Powder Her Face, writing a suite based on it, so maybe that will reinvigorate his creative juices.

So cherish this wonderful production directed by Carlos Wagner. The production is every bit as much of a star as the drama queen who inspired the opera itself.

"In your face" is probably  indelicate, but it describes the magnificent staging well. There's no way round the fact that the Duchess of Argyll was destroyed by hypocrisy. In the small space of the Linbury Studio, Conor Murphy's giant staircase overwhelms, but that's the point : no escape! It's a brilliant piece of theatre in itself, because it changes character in each scene. In the end, Paul Keogan's lighting turns it into a lurid neon sunset, the perfect coda to the Duchess's life.

The stairs also mean the cast can go up and down (oops) using the whole space, overcoming the cramped limitations of the small stage. Perhaps that's a reverse metaphor for the Duchess, too. With her wealth and beauty she could have lived a charmed life, if she'd conformed. Instead she grabbed life greedily, imbibing to the full.  The headless men in the notorious photos got away scot-free, as did the philandering, brutish Duke, but the Duchess's reputation was destroyed. Defiant to the end, she cocoons herself away from a world that's changing in ways she can't understand ("Buggery, legal?" she exclaims.) Her end is sordid, but she keeps her dignity, at least in delusion. Larger than life personalities just don't fit in grubby society.

The music's remarkably inventive. Saxophones and jazzy clarinets evoke the glamour of 1930's London.  "They don't know how to do parties now," she wistfully tells a young reporter. Adès' does luscious elegance, but undercuts it with sharp, dissonant edges. The luxury is illusion. Debutante balls were a meat market for the upper classes, nothing romantic.  The Duchess buys sex from a waiter. Two weeks wages for a blow job? "You can get anything with money," she cries. But others have more money, and more power. The Courts rile against her, to the prurient delight of the "lower" class, represented by Bottone and Paton in dirty macs. And when the money runs out, the Duchess is evicted.

Adès weaves elusive sounds into his orchestra. At the beginning of the second Act, he starts with solo accordion, played in a mysterious, bluesy fashion.. It makes an excellent bridge between past and present. Later, accordion, harp and piano (Adès's instrument and "voice") combine, wheezing, wailing and tensely staccato percussive blasts. It's surreal, like hearing the ghosts of the past dancing in Hell.

The opera is both diamond hard and brittle, but then, that's the subject. The Duchess wasn't a nice person even though she was a product of the circles she moved in, and the men around her are worse. Her sexuality is compulsive, and fundamentally unerotic. (It's the role, not Rodger's portrayal.)  Perhaps the maid gets more fun. Bottone's high-pitched shrieks at the top of her register (an Adès' trademark) are well deployed. She's the voice of anarchy. Her voice rips through the silky surface of propriety. In the end it's not she who gets screwed, whatever the Duke might think..

Pedro Amaral O Sonho London Sinfonietta

The London Sinfonietta premiered Pedro Amaral's chamber opera O Sonho last night at London's Robin Howard Dance Theatre. It's based on an unfinished play by Fernando Pessoa, the eccentric genius of Portuguese literature (pictured here).  Pessoa's whole life was an art form. He's the Edgard Varèse of literature, pioneering new ways of interpreting reality and identity (see more here)

Dreams exist for a purpose. They mean something, but by their very nature, they don't follow the rules of reason. Yet what is reason? Many cultures use dream as altered reality. As Pessoa shows, it's possible to use dream creatively.

Amaral's approach is robust. His music is highly dramatic, full of assertive character, very much an active protagonist. The English translation is projected onto a backdrop, as if it's materialized straight off Pessoa's ancient typewriter, another invisible "person" operating in another dimension. Still, as in a dream, specific words don't matter so much as the overall emotional impact.

Pessoa (Jorge Vaz de Carvalho) appears. Like a master of ceremonies, he opens the show with the provocative words "I see before me, in the transparent but real space of dream, the faces  and gestures of Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Alvaro de Campos" (the personalities through which his work was channelled). They flank him, dressed like him but clearly "not" him.

Salome is a role in a play Pessoa's writing, but now she comes alive. Carla Caramujo is a force of nature, her voice adding nuance and individuality to what she sings even if the words don't make much sense. She lives in an enhanced dream state. It's a mystery to her why she's asked for something so gruesome as the head of St John The Baptist, whom she recognizes as a kind of soulmate, for prophets dream of things that have not yet happened.  But is the head she sees (we have to imagine it) that of the saint or a common criminal? Salome's never quite sure,  and that conflict is the essence of her dilemma.

Amaral's  unusual choice of instruments integrates the ideas in the play into the music. He calls it "dédoublement", because this is more than simple shadowing. A disproportionately large number of celli, which in theory might seem unbalanced, but in practice, works beautifully. They are  led by the harp, deepened by double bass, xylophone and marimba. This is Salome's music, shimmering and sensual, but with a strong basic pulse in the harp ((Helen Tunstall). Three flutes add a distinctive second "personality" - some very inventive passages there that might be developed in future works, perhaps. Amaral is still in his 30's but O Sonho is a surprisingly mature, assertive work.  The subject matter may confuse on first hearing, but once you make the conceptual leap that meaning is "beyond" words, the music speaks for itself. One particularly well written passage interplayed conventional singing with long, wordless ululation. It was mysterious, like dream, yet also evoked a sense of the desert that surrounds Salome, where horizons dissolve in haze, and the sands constantly shift their shape.

Amaral's music is very distinctive. It's hard to describe him in terms of others because he sounds so much himself. O Sonho really deserves to be heard again, better publicised and in a bigger hall.  The staging, by Fernanda Lapa, is excellent too, showing how much can be done with minimal resources if the person directing knows what the opera is about.  The whole cast, singing and non singing, on stage and off,  seem passionately committed: this really feels like tight ensemble work.

The Gulbenkian Foundation was created by the Gulbenkian family who were genuine art lovers.  They could have made an impact in anywhere in Europe, but chose Lisbon, where the ambience fitted their cultivated, individualistic values. The Gulbenkians would be proud of what the Foundation does to promote works like O Sonho, iconoclastic but creative and very distinctive.