Prince Igor with blood and guts

Although Borodin's Prince Igor is rarely seen live in the west, there are many recordings. The music is gorgeous, and everyone knows the hit song "Stranger in Paradise".  Borodin's Prince Igor at the Coliseum, London with Novaya Opera and the Met's version have created a lot of publicity, but they are hardly the only points of reference. So in the interest of learning more, I watched how it  was done at the Royal Opera House in 1990, only 25 years ago, well within living memory, though the production was never revived. Bernard Haitink conducted the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus. The singers included Sergei Leiferkus, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Paata Burchuladze, Elena Zaremba and Nicola Ghiuselev.. By any standards, a performance to be reckoned with. The director was Andrei Șerban, best known in the UK for his Puccini Turandot

"Glory to the fair sun ! Glory to Prince Igor! Glory, glory!" sing the people of Putivl. Almost immediately, though, the sky (and set) darken. There's a solar eclipse. Șerban's set is based on strong visual angles, diagonals, horizontals and uprights. Igor and Yaroslava are further isolated by colour.  Their gowns billow gold and red, against the monochrome of their followers.  Then out come the icons, red and gold, too. No wonder Igor thinks he's on God's mission. Yet the same colours appear in the scene of debauchery where Prince Galitsky's followers get drunk and attack women.  More nudity (discreet) and violence here than at the Met or Coliseum, I suspect, but it's entirely appropriate. It's in the script. These thugs sing comic songs. Brutality underpins the whole narrative: miss it and you might as well watch Postman Pat.

The point is emphasized when Yaroslava sings her long aria against a backdrop of austere angles and moonlight tones. "Where are you now, oh bygone days?" She is faithful to her man but the men around her have little concept of  fidelity. The maidservants who have been raped writhe in white shifts. Soon after the "Glory" chorus returns, and the Boyars place their faith in God's protection. Huge bells ring out, but Yaroslava senses danger. With piercing pathos, Tomowa-SintoW sings "There is no escaping God's judgement".

Borodin immediately shifts to the Dance of the Polovtsian Maidens (photo of Elena Zaremba at the top). The costumes are exotic, and the music suggests "eastern" exoticism but the mood is desolation.  Konchak the Polovtsian Khan has captured Prince Igor whose son Vladimir loves Konchakovna. The understated set places full emphasis on the singers and the singing, and they deliver, beautifully. Burchuldaze's gorgeous in golden robes, too, and a true basso, his timbre warmed by the personality in the part.  The Polovtsian dances are wonderfully staged : the male dancer moves with angular but athletic grace. The orchestra create the "wild" rhythms of the steppes so dramatically that being a Stranger in Paradise doesn't seem like a bad prospect at all. Can we hear in this celebration of "savagery" hints of the Rite of Spring to come? Sadly, the filming is blurred and shot from a  fixed point in the balcony.

In contrast, Putivl with its repressive values does seem dull. Igor is back, but what has anyone learned? The comic players who caroused drunkenly when the women got raped, start singing again. Galitsky meekly accedes to Igor. What might really have happened had Borodin lived? Șerban's staging goes a long way towards making dramatic sense of a sprawling, illogical narrative held together by seductive music. Complicated contract problems prevented this Prince Igor from being repeated. A pity, since the staging adds so much to meaning. It still stands the test of time, though, so if it could be revived, it would help audiences to better appreciate the opera .

Kristine Opolais - exclusive interview !

An exclusive interview with Kristine Opolais in Latinos Post by David Salazar : very well written, very personal and interesting hints for the future. Read it in full HERE.

On singing Cio Cio San whichs she sang at the MET on Friday, replacing Patricia Racette
"The story for me is about the baby," she explained. "Every normal woman that is a mother will do everything for your baby to make sure he is happy. Every mother understands that the baby is only happy being with his or her mother. Every single time I play it is so terrible. I am fighting with myself not to cry because I am very emotional...."She lost all of her hope and love, but for her the most important loss is her child. She cannot live without the child, that is why she is killing herself."

When Opolais sang Cio Cio San at her Royal Opera House role debut, my friends and I were overwhelmed - we didn't know that she was nearly 5 months pregnant at the time (my review is here) . "Now it is hard from the very beginning. The entire first act brings me to tears because I know where it is headed. The mNow ieeting with Pinkerton is a tragedy. I don't see the illusion of love anymore," she revealed. "Yesterday I sent my manager a message saying, 'Not too much Butterfly in my future.' He was shocked and said, 'You're a spinto soprano. What are you going to sing?' I told him that it was just too hard Especially for me who gives 100 percent in rehearsal and 200 percent in every performance. I have to fight with myself not to cry while I am onstage." 

Plus, lots more on role interpretation. Pure vocalism is never enough!

Please also read my interview with Ermonela Jaho, a Royal Opera House favorite. Both of them specialize in similar roles, but Jaho sings more frequently in France and Italy. Like Opolais, she  believes in emotional engagement with what she sings and brings out the intense tragedy that lies behind the surface prettiness in the characters.

Faust in Hong Kong

Gounod Faust at the Royal Opera House this week with superlative casts. Plus, Luke Bedford's Through His Teeth based loosely on a Faustian pact, which those in the know have praised for its subtle intricacy. Faust in Hong Kong too at the Grand Theatre of the HK Cultural Centre. It's a joint production with Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur, Opéra Grand Avignon and Opéra Théâtre de Saint-Étienne, so will also be heard in France.

It's produced by Warren Mok, the great Chinese tenor. Read more about him here. It's good to have a singer in charge, especially one with such extensive experience.

Another very good reason for catching this Faust is ZhengZhong Zhou, who sings Valentin, a role he alternated at the Royal Opera House with Dimitri Hvorostovsky. Alternated - not replaced, and not in a second cast. He sang with Angela Gheorghiu, Vittorio Grigolo, and René Pape.  Zhou was a Jette Parker Young Artist and works with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as building a career in Europe, the US and China. Although I don't know any of the French cast,  Zhou stands out. He's distinctive, combining a good, flexible voice with strong technique and acting skills. How lucky HK will be to have him! The role in Gounod's opera is fairly substantial, far greater than in Goethe's original, and provides a balance to Marguerite and Seibel. Definitely a singer to nurture. So Hong Kong will now enjoy Faust and those rousing choruses "“Gloire immortelle”"

Tughan Sokhiev conducts Shostakovich tonight LIVE

Tonight at 7pm European time LIVE on medici.tv, Tughan Sokhiev conducts the Orchestre National du Capitole, Toulouse in a special  programme in honour of Dimitri Shostakovich. This concert will be significant because Sokhiev has recemtly taken over as Music Director of the Bolshoi Opera. Sokhiev came up through the Russian system, though he's spent most of his career abroad, so perhaps this Shostakovich concert i8s a statement of intent. Please read my article about the background to his appointment here. 

"Edgar Moreau, one of the most sought-after young cellists on the classical scene, performs Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107. Dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovitch who premiered the work in Moscow in 1959, this concerto bears witness of the personal difficulties experienced by the composer at the time of composition. Shostakovich's anxiety due to his illness, as well as his resentment againt the regime, pierce throughout the concerto's four movements. In the finale especially, the sarcastic quotation of one of Staline's most favorite Russian melodies is to be read as a lugubrious remembrance of what Stalinism inflicted on the population of the Soviet Union". 

"In the second half of the concert, Tugan Sokhiev, music director of the Orchestre National du Capitole, conducts Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65. The subtitle "Stalingrad" is not in the orignal score. The Soviet government added this mention in order to portray Shostakovich's symphony as a memorial to those killed in the recent Battle of Stalingrad. The Symphony No. 8 was indeed considered by the composer's friend Isaak Glikman as "the most tragic work" ever composed by Shostakovich. Yet, this symphony lies within the tradition of symphonies composed in C minor (Beethoven's Fifth, Bruckner's Eighth, Mahler's Second, ...) which follow a teleological path from minor to major, from "tragedy to triumph". Though here triumph might well sound bittersweet."

L'Ormindo Cavalli at the Globe

Sue Loder reviews Cavalli L'Ormindo at Shakespeare's Globe for Opera Today  

"Hurrah for the Royal Opera’s latest and most innovative Baroque production. Inside this gorgeous gem of a theatre, the Shakespeare’s Globe’s new indoor space known as the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Kasper Holten and his team have created a mini masterpiece of baroque performance with Cavalli’s L’Ormindo.Aided and abetted by a superb team of young singers and Christian Curnyn’s top-of-the range period musicians"

Read the whole rave HERE. 
photo: Alastair Muir

Royal Opera House 2014-15 season analysed

The Royal Opera House's 2014-15 season is a good balance of artistic venture and business savvy. London must be doing something right with sales running at 96% capacity and HD broadcast attendance running neck and neck with live performances. When opera houses and orchestras seem to be imploding elsewhere, it's worth taking careful note of the ROH strategy.

Seven new productions in the main house, plus others in the Linbury Studio, mixed with regular revivals.  In tough times, it's easy for houses to play safe but that is not good for the long term health of the arts. The Royal Opera House thus offers a well-planned balance of familiar and new

Shock! Horror! the new season opens in September not with a glizty gala but with something truly provocative - Mark Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole. Not only that, but with prices max £25. The catch is students only but that's a positive. It will get the kids into the house on their own terms with their own peers.  BRILLIANT idea. No doubt there will be spoilsports who think young people shouldn't be exposed to four-letter words, but that's patronizing. Kids are sharper than they get credit for. Do-gooding "outreach" means zilch if you don't trust kids to think for themselves. What happened to Anna Nicole was obscene and Turnage tells it like it is. Although I didn't like it at its premiere Anna Nicole grew on me the more times I heard it. I'm going again and taking a whole bunch of under 30's. Read more HERE.
 
Other revivals include Der fliegende Holländer with Bryn Terfel, Adrianna Pieczonka  and Andris Nelsons - definitely not to be sniffed at! Terfel is also singing his signature Dulcamara in Donizetti L'elisir d'amore. I'm also looking forward to Tristan und Isolde with Stephen Gould and Nina Stemme in the greatly misunderstood Christof Loy production, the first ROH production to face orchestrated booing. Booing is intimidation, the denial of artistic expression. But I guess those who get their kicks from bullying will be out in force. Read my "More tradition than meets the eye" HERE and  HERE.

 Very exciting fare for those who like interesting repertoire:

1. Umberto Giordano Andrea Chénier with Jonas Kaufmann, making his role debut. Any role debut with Kaufmann is big news, and he can probably do this notoriously difficult part better than anyone else in the business these days. This opera isn't standard rep because it's hard to pull off without ideal singers but with this cast (Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Željko Lučić) the ROH will probably leave the Met's current production for dead. Antonio Pappano conducts  He's been  confirmed Music Director "at least" until the end of the 2017 season.

2  Karol Szymanowski's Król Roger with Mariusz Kwiecień . The music in this opera is ravishingly beautiful, expressing the love that dares not tell its name. It's a fabulous opera but its depths aren't often plumbed as deeply - and disturbingly - as they could be. Kwiecień pretty much "owns" the part of Król Roger, the king hypnotized by a beautiful, mysterious stranger. I can't imagine Kwiecień being coy.  Kaspar Holten directs, which I think bodes well. 

3 Rossini Guillaume Tell, is one of the hallmarks of Antonio Pappano's career : Listen to his recording with his Rome band, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.  He's bringing the same soloists to London - Gerald Finley, John Osborn and Malin Byström. We are in for a treat. This is another opera that's not easy to stage but will be directed by Damiano Michieletto. This is the French version of an opera by an Italian  It's not so much "about" Switzerland (which has French, Italian and German -speaking communities) but about freedom, the essence of creative art..

4  Verdi I due Foscaro . "Maybe", says Pappano, "not one of Verdi's finest works but important because it deals with an elderly father, who's seen a lot about life". Which may suit Plácido Domingo at this stage of his career - life imitating art. Francesco Meli sings the son and Maria Argesta (handpicked by Pappano in Italy), sings the son's wife.

5 Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.  Kasper Holten says he wants to do a lot more operas from the first part of the 20th century, which should be really interesting. What lies in store in future years ?  A Janáček project, he hints. Possibly more? Rupert Christiansen complained that there was too much Italian repertoire and no Russian. So what, I thought. We can't have everything all the time.  We've had Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, The Tsar's Bride, Tsar Saltan and Eugene Onegin. This year we have Król Roger (in Polish) , decidedly "East" German Brecht and Weill and Czech/Moravian Janáček to come. Mahagonny is an excellent choice because it's quite flamboyant by Brecht standards, with big choruses and bizarre situations. John Fulljames should bring out its subversive anarchy well. 

6. Verdi Un Ballo in maschera. with Calleja, Hvorostovsky, Monastryka and Serafin. Worth going to for the singing alone. The director is Katharina Thoma, so be prepared for erudite, intelligent  dramaturgy. She does not dumb down: we're well advised to study the score as carefully as she does. 

7. Mozart Idomeneo with Matthew Polenzani, conducted by period specialist Marc Minkowski, in his debut at the Royal Opera House - hooray ! Director is Martin Kušej whose work in Zurich sticks in  my mind. Should we expect feathers?

 8. Philip Glass The Trial (based on Kafka) - specially commissioned for Music Theatre Wales, with which the ROH has a long and fruitful partnership . Lots on MTW and Glass on this site - please explore).

9. Harrison Birtwistle The Cure, a co-commission with the Aldeburgh Festival, with support from the London Sinfonietta, paired with Birtwistle's The Corridor, which I heard at Aldeburgh a few years ago.

10. The Royal Opera House's role in promoting British opera should not be underestimated. That's MUCH more important than promoting Russian opera! The ROH is also presenting David Sawer's Rumplestiltskin (read more here)  and The  Lighthouse Keepers.  Sawer is emerging as a genuine talent, so don't miss this double bill when it reaches the Linbury next year. This is a joint ROH/BCMG venture. Don't underestimate the importance of these partnerships.

11. Monteverdi L'Orfeo at the Roundhouse. This is significant because it links ROH's stagecraft expertise with the Roundhouse's extensive work with students and young people, which I've written about in some depth here.


photo of Pappano and Holten, : Johann Person, photo of Eva Maria Westbroek : Bill Cooper

Royal Opera House 2014-15 season announced

Here's the link to the basics:
Royal Opera House 2014/15 season details HERE.
HERE IS MY ANALYSIS

 -Seven new productions in the main house
- Many others in the Linbury (incl Birtwistle and Glass).
- Partnerships with WNO, Operalia, The Roundhouse and others.
- -full HD and BBC broadcasts
- Big stars and new stars
- imaginative venture to bring in young audiences
- hints of seasons ahead !!!!!

HERE is my more detailed analysis

Put-upon women: The Young Wife/Dido & Aeneas, OperaUpClose

From Roger Thomas:

Musically the two parts of this OperaUpClose double bill at King's Head Theatre, Islington, have little in common. Polish composer Katarzyna Brochocka's chamber “comic opera”, The Young Wife, a one-hander for soprano and piano, marries spiky keyboard writing, played skilfully by the composer, with largely recitative-cum-Sprechgesang from the singer. Dido and Aeneas retains most of Purcell's baroque original, reduced for a harpsichord, violin and cello trio by Alex Beetschen, with a few additional arrangements by Harry Blake helping to place it in the contemporary context of a US high school.

What the pieces do have in common is the perennial operatic theme of the put-upon oppressed woman with a tragic or near-tragic destiny. But both The Young Wife and Dido effectively master their own fates, tenaciously holding on to the autonomy to decide for themseves the resolution they will adopt.

 The Young Wife, which has a running time of one hour, is based on a novel by Gabriela Zapolska (1857-1921), neatly distilled by Brochocka, in an English translation from her own original Polish libretto, into 17 diary entries covering about a year in the life of a newly married 20-year-old. It is plain from the outset that the Young Wife has been forced into an arranged marriage – her husband, Julian, is uninterested in her, uncommunicative and, it transpires, unfaithful, and has married because his bride has a substantial dowry. This reviewer saw Sarah Minns in the role of the Young Wife – she undertook 18 performances of the gruelling run, with Maud Millar singing an equivalent number.
 
At first fearful of her new husband, Julian, and trying ineffectively to get closer to him, the Young Wife soon develops a protective shell of ironic commentary – with dashes of sharp humour. She is acerbic about the social milieu he has brought her into, particularly his mistress, Liza Troicka, whom the Young Wife learns to taunt (at least in her diary), and she goes into reveries about her true love, Adam. Discovering a cache of letters from Liza to Julian, the Young Wife contemplates the possibility of a divorce and marriage to Adam but realizes this is a vain prospect. Having given birth to a daughter, she continues to be obsessed by Liza and experiences premonitions of her own death. She writes a will, vindictively leaving her dowry to Liza – on conditions that she marries the hated Julian. She leaves the stage, leading us to believe she might indeed have given up the ghost. But after a piano interlude she returns to sing a last diary entry.

“I did not die!” she tells us decisively and cheerfully. “I have a lovely daughter. I put on some weight and became prettier. I take walks. Yesterday I saw Liza. She looked yellow and ugly! I looked sophisticated in my new cape and I nodded to her very condescendingly. I saw she was surprised. Winter is wonderful! The sun shines, and sleds ring. I don't give a damn about Julian! I think about Mr Adam very rarely, like someone whom I knew very little. I was stupid, viewing life from the tragic side. Childish and dreary! I'll go to the ice rink!”

Directed by Robin Norton-Hale, Minns portrayed the transformation from dependent, baffled insecurity to this self-confident autonomous outcome with great skill, managing to meld impressive acting and elegant physical agility with assured singing of a technically taxing score. No park and bark here.

Dido's autonomy, of course – choosing death over the pain of Aeneas's desertion – is of a different order. In this production of Dido and Aeneas, the baroque opera is transformed surprisingly successfully from ancient Carthage to Carthage High and its American football players and posse of cheerleaders. After all, Nahum Tate's libretto for Purcell had stripped away the purely divine intervention in Vergil's original that drags Aeneas off to Italy, replacing it with witches jealous of Dido who trick Aeneas into believing the gods are summoning him away. So, with a bit of invention and rewriting of the scene where the witches plot, Dido, Carthage High's Homecoming Queen, can be pitched against cheerleaders jealous of her fame and liaison with football star Aeneas. The machinery creaks a bit, but Aeneas, it seems, is destined to leave for a college football scholarship. Dido, meanwhile, is undermined by the cheerleaders' (“We're no angels; we're the witches/People say we're total bitches”) secret mobile-phone filming of Dido and Aeneas having sex.

But most of the original libretto is retained, the string/harpsichord trio effectively conveys Purcell's score and the singing is of a high standard, with Zarah Hible (Dido) and Ian Beadle (Aeneas) outstanding. Modern Purcell purists will not have approved. But an original baroque audience would probably have delighted in the madcap inventiveness and playfulness brought to the opera by director Valentina Ceschi and her team.

Photos: Christopher Tribble/Alastair Muir

Birtwistle Carter Wigmore Hall

Probably the greatest living British composer, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, turns 80 in July. He'll be the subject of a series at the Barbican and no doubt feted at the BBC Proms. At the Wigmore Hall, the BBC Singers joined the Nash Emsemble for the latest of their series on British and American composers.  Colin Clarke writes in Opera Today :

"So it was that Birtwistle bookended the evening. The first piece was his Fantasia upon all the notes (2012), commissioned by the present ensemble and premiered at the Wigmore Hall in March 2012. Scored for flute, clarinet, harp (the sound of the harp, although not omnipresent, was a Theseus-thread through the evening) and string quartet, the score breathed out a lyric expansiveness, its long lines fully honoured here and leading to a frenetic climax before the piece effectively disintegrated. The basis for the composition (“all the notes”) is the shifting scales of the harp, dependent on the pedals used. In this way, the harp, by no means soloistic, subtly guides the harmonic language of the piece. ........"

"Elliott Carter's Mosaic of 2004 (for flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, string trio and double-bass) began the second half. The harp part is virtuosic but in the pre-concert talk Birtwistle had contrasted Carter's treatment of the instrument to his own: Carter does not let the instrument resonate (and therefore, by implication, be true to its own nature). The complex pedal work is impressive indeed as a performance act and one does have to wonder if this aspect is part of the piece's basis, just as the viola is asked to be contra-itself and be very forceful; very un-viola-like perhaps. It is an interesting piece, certainly, but it was overshadowed to no small extent by the piece that most people had surely come to hear, Birtwistle's recent The Moth Requiem (2012)."

Read the full review HERE. 

And HERE's what I wrote about Birtwistle's Moth Requiem last year.

Pierre Boulez, 89 - Le Visage Nuptial

Pierre Boulez had his 89th birthday yesterday. What a character! For me, Boulez stands for integrity and artistic courage. We need him now even more as an antidote to that anti-intellectual trolldom. "Wer moderne Musik ablehnt, ist unkultiviert", he told Die Zeit four years ago. "Ich habe immer nur gesagt, was ich denke, das war für mich die Wahrheit. Diese Wahrheit schockiert bisweilen, wer schaut schon gerne in einen Spiegel. Oft habe ich es mit Humor versucht, aber Schlagzeilen sind leider humorlos......Man darf Unterhaltung und Kultur nicht verwechseln. Zum Parsifal-Vorspiel kann ich mir nicht die Zähne putzen. Die sogenannte ernste Musik verlangt Konzentration, auch Mühe. Das ist nicht elitär, die Verantwortlichen müssen nur mehr aufwenden, um die Menschen zu erreichen. Alle Arten von Nebenaktivitäten sind unglaublich wichtig geworden: So etwas wie Rhythm is it! müsste normal sein. Unser Musikleben ist heute doch so demokratisch, so offen wie nie".

Excellent concert last month at the Cité de la Musique in Paris by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Pascal Rophé. now available on medici.tv. Featured is Le Visage Nuptial. How magical it is! It's proof that modern music can be beautiful and emotionally intriguing.

ROH and the Roundhouse - new Monteverdi L'Orfeo

The Royal Opera House and the Roundhouse have announced a new partnership. They're doing a joint production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in January 2015. This follows on the ROH Cavalli's L'Ormindo,  a joint venture with Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It's the first time that ROH has done L'Orfeo, which is hardly surprisng: the opera is very early baroque, better suited to small, eclectic houses and period  performance. The Roundhouse in North London is edgier and gritter, an iconic space in its own way. This is the first time an opera has been staged there and the production has been specially conceived around it. Orpheus goes into the Underworld: glorious music but not a "pretty" story.

Marcus Davey, the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Roundhouse, said: “We are really delighted to be fusing the expertise of the Roundhouse and the Royal Opera House to create an important new version of this great opera. Developing L’Orfeo together is an opportunity to think of our building in a new way and introduce our audiences – many of whom are under 25, to opera"  Although  the Roundhouse has a committment to young audiences, and will be planning events around the production, artistic standards should not be compromised. Christian Curnyn will be conducting the specialist ensemble the Early Opera Company, so musical standards will be very high.  The singers are good, too, and include Gyula Orendt,  Susana Hurrell, Susan Bickley and Mary Bevan. Audience new to baroque may rise to the challenge, and baroque regulars to a unique performance space.
 
Michael Boyd, former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, makes his opera directing debut. He is known for his many productions of Shakespeare plays. Utterly relevant experience. Monteverdi and Shakespeare were contemporaries.

ADDENDUM (because i was in a rush earlier). As I said last year when plans for the Cavalli L'Ormindo were revealed (more here) "For a long time, it's been apparent that the Royal Opera House needs a new medium sized performance space  for productions that are smaller scale than merit the main house but too big for the Linbury Studio Theatre. Perhaps the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse might fit the bill? Certainly it would be an interesting place to do baroque and other works loosely connected to the 17th and 18th centuries, but I don't think it's a long term total alliance.  Outsourcing is not a bad idea. The ENO has been using the Young Vic for years, and the Barbican is expanding across the road and to Milton Court. It makes business sense and doesn't involve spending millions. Only the South Bank seems fixated on  keeping things in one place whatever the cost or the logic"

By using alternative performance spaces the ROH can expand the repertoire it can offer at relatively low costs - no fancy building costs, for example. Opera fans benefit because they get more than can be fitted into existing premises, and more unusual repertoire. More importantly, perhaps, it's what Kasper Holten has been talking about for some time, creating a loose network of different opera companies. Thus ETO and Music Theatre Wales have a London "home". It's not practical for ROH to tour, so the arrangements aren't reciprocal other than in the sense that opera in general will benefit from the exchange of ideas and relationships. Intriguingly, the network might one day include European houses .  Long term this is good for the UK opera world in general.

Working with the Roundhouse has specific benefits. The Roundhouse has a good reputation working with young musicians and communities.  What it doesn't have, and will never have, is the ROH's expertise in theatre and opera.  It makes sense for them to connect and share, ratther than starting from scratch. The ROH will provide  musicians and stage nous, and the Roundhouse will be organizing its own activities around the opera.  :

Joined Up BBC Arts- Tony Hall's vision

Director-General of the BBC Tony Hall announced today his vision for the "biggest push we’ve made in the arts for a generation. There’ll be more arts on the BBC than ever before.....  I want Arts and Music to be as recognised with the BBC as BBC News is."

Read the full text of hs speech here. There's nothing specially new in this per se. This new statement follows on from the outline Hall unveiled last October (read more here). He's firmed up on specifics, e.g., announcing a remake of Kenneth Clark's Civilization. That was a symbol of the time when the BBC was indeed the arts conscience of this country, leading the way with innovative content and far-sighted commissions. The problem is, society has changed. Perhaps the world has dumbed down: we can't expect organizations to remain unscathed, especially in an economy where many vested interests compete. The BBC must justify itself. Big organizations need scrutiny, but with that comes bean-counting silliness: Look at any big organization, private or public. The odds are against visionary leadership. Hall did good things for the Royal Opera House, but I suspect the age of the Reiths is over. Good luck to Hall for trying, at least.

At least Hall is addressing technological change. The Space failed because it was disastrously mismanaged, but in principle, it could take off.  If the French and Germans can do umbrella arts web channels why can't the British? The BBC is in a better position to do this than anyone else, even if it drives Murdoch and other competitors nuts. It just doesn't make sense to scrap an organization that's way ahead of anyone else. In the US, opera houses and orchestras are in meltdown. So much for the model of private funding. The arts aren't a luxury but fundamentally important to the ethical health of the nation, especially when education standards are dropping. 

Innovation depends on good people. I'm not convinced that creating Arts and Music supremos will do the job, per se, unless they're good at what they do.  The bigger the ambit, the less detail.  Once BBC Radio 3 was serious music. Now, there's no music at all after 10 pm. It's unfair to blame presenters, some of whom are less inane than others. The rot comes from applying Radio One values to a genre that suits people without Attention Deficit Disorder.

One  thing Hall skirts around is the international nature of the BBC. It represents Britain.Whatever any government of the day might do, the BBC symbolizes Britain as a force for good in the world. It does more for foreign policy than guns and bombs. The perceived political bias that so upsets so many is largely irrelevant on a world scale. (In any case cultured minds learn to think for themselves.) Although there's more competition within the UK from other media providers, the realities of a digital, global economy suggest that size matters. Organizations have to be multinational. If the BBC is to fulfil this international role, it might need to rethink its funding base. Now, we're getting really radical.

photo : Deskana

Broadcast Alerts - March/April

Mozart La Finta Giardiniera at Glyndebourne this year, directed by Frederick Wake Walker : Prepare by catching it live from Opéra de Lille . Emmanuelle Haïm and the Concert de l'Astrée, which will be pretty hard to beat, musically.

From Andrzej, forthcoming broadcasts for March/April

30 March 2014 Marco Spada Bolshoi Ballet Cinema LIVE Feed

05 April 2014 La Bohème MET Cinema LIVE Feed
05 April 2014 19.00 La Bohème Genova Internet Live stream http://www.streamingcarlofelice.com/la-stagione.html

08 April 2014 18.30 La Bohème MET Cinema Italian Feed

09 April 2014 Butterfly (Opolais) MET Internet
09 April 2014 La Scala Orchestra La Scala Cinema LIVE Feed

12 April 2014 19.15 Arabella Salzburg TV 3SAT

15 April 2014 Butterfly (Opolais) MET Internet Sirius

16 April 2014 19.15 Manon Lescaut Baden Baden TV 3SAT

20 April 2014 17.00 Berlin Phil (Rattle) Baden Baden Cinema LIVE Feed

22 April 2014 19.30 Otello Naples Cinema LIVE Feed

24 April 2014 19.30 Vikings - Live from The British Museum Cinema LIVE Feed

26 April 2014 Così fan tutte MET Cinema LIVE Feed

28 April 2014 The Winter's Tale Covent Garden Cinema LIVE Feed ??? The Winter's Tale Covent Garden Cinema Feed for Japan

29 April 2014 Le Nozze di Figaro Paris Cinema Not live 29 April 2014 18.30 Così fan tutte MET Cinema Italian Feed  

Roger Wright moves to head Aldeburgh Music

Simon Robey, Chairman of the Council of Aldeburgh Music, today announced the appointment of Roger Wright to the position of Chief Executive, starting September 2014. The news isn't - yet - on the BBC website, but basic details are HERE. What a high-profile catch for Aldeburgh! The announcement doesn't say much, understandably, but raises many questions.

When the much respected Jonathan Reekie stepped down in December after sixteen years at the helm,  it was obvious that he would be a hard act to follow. So this could be interesting. Aldeburgh is unique: will it continue to champion Benjamin Britten's eclectic vision or will it be remodelled as a mainstream music theme park?  And what does that mean for BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Proms? Roger Wright's been Controller of BBC Radio 3 for 15 years, BBC Proms for seven years, which isn't far off the usual life span. Leaving the BBC is a major career change, especially as Wright has been touted as a future head of the corporation. But Tony Hall made a similar switch himself.  "Conductor Chess" applies equally to heads of organizations. Each move leads to other possibilities. I won't speculate, but "watch this space".

Kiss me, Figaro! Merry Opera Company

Pop up opera in pubs? Here's a twist. The Opera House, a Wetherspoons pub in Tunbridge Wells, was built in 1902 but became a cinema in the 1930's, then a bingo hall. Now, for one night only it reverts to being an opera house again. The Merry Opera Company is using Tunbridge Wells Opera House for Kiss me, Figaro!  "It's not quite an opera, nor yet a musical or a straight play. As one of the jazz standards in the piece comments about Love, Kiss me, Figaro! is "the oldest, yet the latest thing" - it's a new piece but it contains music from the last 400 years of opera, Lieder and early 20th century popular song" says Merry Opera's  John Ramster  "It's definitely a virtuosic evening: our talented troupe of singers have to perform and sing in several styles from a filmic naturalism, to comic opera, to high drama, and also cope with some music theatre dance breaks along the way"

Although this is marketed as fun, there's possibly more to Merry Opera than meets the eye. For one thing, they're also doing The Messiah on separate dates. And they're touring in twelve cities, with two London dates. Some of the singers are good enough to be familiar names, and there's even a video trailer. There are numerous small opera groups like this but Merry Opera shows initiative and organizational flair, which I respect. Look at the promotional video - it's rather good. They also have a very well made facebook page.
Snobs should not sniff. Opera is a very tough business to crack but performance is good, healthy fun. No way is this going to threaten Bayreuth, ROH or La Scala but it's perfectly reasonable entertainment. But it's a niche that needs good marketing "Not as many people as we would like in Tunbridge Wells appreciate opera,"says the manager at the Tunbridge Wells Opera House, which is perfectly understandable. But if Wetherspoons sells it as community entertainment it might be onto a winner. Much more exciting than "music nights" with dodgy folk duos or fake Elvises. The regulars will have fun (if there's beer) and they might attract a middle of the road local audience. Such events are the lifeblood of local communities. The Donald Gordon Grand Tier crowd might not come, but ordinary people who like a good night out might have a good time.

Here's the video again: