Inhaltsverzeichnis für October 2023 in Opera Now

When we began having conversations about our ‘Maria Callas 100’ issue earlier in the year, I knew that covering the scope of her remarkable life would be difficult. It is, after all, a story of unprecedented talent, but not one without criticism, misogyny, grief and an untimely death. There are so many questions still asked about Callas’s transcendental mark on society, and why her impact was so deep and so wide. Few opera stars have won international fame as not only bel canto goddess, but also a fashion icon, celebrity – an ‘influencer’ of her day. What was it about her to cause such interest and fascination? For some, she is a figure that represents some of the darker parts to the opera industry for mid- and plus-size singers who…

The Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory (GIAM), a major research centre at the University of West London, is collaborating with chamber opera company The Music Troupe to create dementia-friendly opera. Their first collaboration, The Last Siren, premiered at the university’s Lawrence Hall on 30 August. The production was created providing a safe environment for people living with dementia to enjoy opera, with professional staff in attendance, as well as quiet areas and laying out the auditorium to minimise fall risks. Dr Andy Northcott and Professor Katie Featherstone, Director of GIAM, were at the forefront of creating a dementia-friendly cinema in 2017 – now available across the country. There is hope that the same will be possible with dementia-friendly opera.…

Glyndebourne Festival Opera is of great interest to me as a musician. It’s a small opera house known for its astonishing productions – what’s not to like? In the same breath, as someone working to make ends meet in an early-stage freelance career, it seems like a playground for the rich; opulent, untouchable. When offered the chance to attend Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, what could I say but yes? Catherine – my best friend’s mother, who had kindly agreed to accompany me – and I arrived at Glyndebourne just as the gardens opened. Our visit went roughly like this; wander around the gardens, snack on some plums, watch a French opera, eat our picnic, see sixteen nuns get beheaded and catch the train back to London. All in all, a…

‘Maria is not just unsurpassed, she is unsurpassable’ declared Luchino Visconti, the legendary film, theatre and opera director (the latter ‘only for and with Callas’), while the equally legendary maestro Leonard Bernstein likened the experience of watching Callas perform, or listening to her recordings to ‘plugging onto live electricity.’ So the Italian press and public were spot on when they christened Renata Tebaldi ‘La Superba’, Joan Sutherland ‘La Stupenda’ but saved the ultimate accolade ‘La Divina’ for Maria Callas, the immortal Greek Diva whose revolution brought drama back to opera and changed it forever. One is therefore justified in dividing the history of operatic interpretation into the B.C. and A.C. era. The accolade La Divina also aptly emphasizes the extra, metaphysical dimension that sets Callas apart from singers of her…

Kulturpalast, Dresden Music Festival MUSIC The idea of this Dresden Ring cycle is of momentous importance. This is a deeply-researched, ‘authentic’ Ring, performed at A = 435 Hz and utilising historical performance techniques: both string and vocal portamento, correct pronunciation, and with a freedom of delivery that led to some lines appearing as quasi-Sprechgesang. It is a bold endeavour: the results in this performance of Rheingold were remarkable. Part of the Wagner-Lesarten Project, a swathe of events around the performance pointed to the attention to detail and the amount of research involved, all headed by the curator of the Wagner project, the irrepressible Dr Kai Hinrich Müller. A workshop concert in Dresden’s Albertinum took in Instrumental Practice (including a performance of an arrangement by Wagner’s own concertmaster, Wilhelmj, of an…

OFFENBACH Le Voyage dans la Lune The witty libretto for Le voyage dans La Lune is inspired by two novels by Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon and Journey to the Centre of the Earth, prompting Offenbach to write some of his most joyous, effervescent music. This co-production with Opéra Comique in Paris, the Vienna Volksoper and the Angers-Nantes Opéra, by the distinguished French director Laurent Pelly, does it more than full justice. The production gave an imaginative, poetic staging with enchanting set designs by Barbara de Limbourg, lighting by Joel Adam and stunning costumes by Pelly himself, who always starts his preparation of a new production by designing the costumes ‘because they are decisive in helping me understand the personalities of the various characters’. Apart from the…

In 1902, Ethel Smyth wrote to her partner in despair. She was in Berlin, for the premiere of her second opera Der Wald (‘The Forest’). ‘I have never suffered so acutely’, she lamented. By any account, the first performance of Der Wald was not a success. The orchestra were under-rehearsed, the singers nervous about cuts made by the management, and the audience was in no mood to welcome a new work by an English composer. The Second Boer War had prompted an outpouring of anti-English sentiment in Germany, and critics were chagrined that the Berlin Court Opera had prioritised an English composer over a German. They expressed their disapproval vocally. ‘Every minute I thought yells from the public would stop the performance,’ Smyth reported. The composer in question being a…

This mammoth boxed set contains all of Callas’s studio recordings of complete operas and recitals, with representative recordings of her performing on stage – note that does not mean all of her live recordings but a selection: for example, you do get her onstage La traviata from La Scala (1955) and Lisbon (1958), but not other recordings of her as Violetta, such as Mexico City in 1952 or at Covent Garden in 1958. The Milan performance is operatic legend but London three years later is also one of those ‘you should have been there’ moments. But with the set wading in at 135 discs obviously something had to give and editorial decisions had to be made. It is your choice whether you want to fork out the money for items…

Congratulations on winning the Prix Yves Paternot at the Verbier Academy! How did it feel to win the award after your time studying at Verbier? Thank you. I was delighted. It is a huge honour to have been chosen at a festival as special as Verbier. I feel fortunate to have been there, surrounded by many talented artists. I am very grateful to the Prix Yves Paternot patrons and the Verbier Festival Team for this life-changing award. What can you tell us about your route into singing? Music runs in the family – my grandmother and great grandmother both had lovely operatic voices and performing has always been a big part of my life. I started piano lessons at age 7 and played viola in the Dublin Youth Orchestra! I…

Longborough Festival Opera has announced the appointment of Andrew Mosely as non-executive chair of its board of trustees. In the role from 1 September, Mosely succeeds Lizzie Graham who served as interim chair for one year succeeding her husband and Longborough co-founder Martin Graham, who stepped down after 20 years in the role. Bass-baritone Michael Ronan has been announced as the winner of Glyndebourne’s 2023 John Christie Award. The award includes a £15,000 scholarship and is designed to support the career of an outstanding young talent in the Glyndebourne Festival company with a grant for further study. Ronan was given the award during Glyndebourne chairman Gus Christie’s last night speech on 27 August. A new ‘Brit School North’ is to open in Bradford, serving as a specialist college for 16…

Apple has partnered with the Salzburg Festival to release both historic recordings and new productions, as well as present playlists. The initiative launches with 100 recordings from the archives, and sees the Festival joining the likes of the Berlin Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Philharmonic and many others in contributing exclusive content to the new Apple Music Classical app. The new content will draw on the Festival’s diverse programmes of opera, orchestral concerts, song and chamber music recitals in bringing a flavour of its more than century-old history to the newly created Apple Music Classical.…

Scandinavia is a polite, consensual place, as anyone attending the Opera Europa conference in Copenhagen and Malmö this October will likely experience. It takes a lot for Nordic folk to get hot under the collar. ‘We are quite reasonable people,’ I was told by the Swedish chief conductor of the BBC Singers, Sofi Jeannin, a few weeks ago, ‘but we can be extremely determined.’ In her nation’s capital, that determination is simmering into anger. Earlier this year the Royal Swedish Opera celebrated its 250th anniversary with a much-anticipated gala concert. But there was an elephant in the opera house that hosted the event: the place was literally falling to pieces. When the Culture Minister walked on stage to make a speech, it was widely expected she’d commit to plans for…

PROM 10 Horrible Histories ‘Orrible Opera ENO Orchestra Walking up Kensington’s Exhibition Road, it’s slightly disconcerting to be hit by a tidal wave of people going in the opposite direction. Luckily, the bumbling group of heights and ages, resplendent in pac-a-macs fished from daysacks, were heading home from the earlier of two Horrible Histories ‘Orrible Opera Proms on a wet Saturday afternoon in July. How do you tell the story of opera in such a short space of time? Here, the answer is, well, you don’t. Where the 2011 Bob Hale report on the history of classical music should be required watching for anyone who wishes to deliver a funny, factual tour of music to the present day – complete with crumhorns and John Cage gags – here, the vibe…

HANDEL Semele Munich’s Opera Festival offers new productions and reprises hits from the season. And ‘the hottest ticket in town’, as a well-known soprano sitting behind me in the Prinzregententheater loudly opined, was Semele. Claus Guth’s production proved a mixed bag: he explores Semele’s inner state as she abandons her marriage to Athamas and romps off with Jupiter. She abandons her impersonally perfect Vera Wang wedding, opts to Say No to the Dress, and literally hacks through the back wall into her subconscious world of self-discovery, lurching from clinical white into Stygian gloom. Brenda Ray’s acting and physicality in the title role was stupendous and she put herself through the mill emotionally. Her soprano has spin, perfect coloratura and accurate high notes. There is just one problem; it is miniscule.…

Regent’s Opera, London, UK MUSIC STAGING After an astonishing Rheingold last November, Regents Opera brings Die Walküre to the Grand Temple of Freemason’s Hall. This Walküre is in the round, with the audience on three sides and orchestra on the fourth. There is seating space behind the players where, before a note is sounded, Wotan enters: here is a God observing mortal life – initially the audience ourselves, later the act one humans. That interaction between the earth plane and Valhalla is to be crucial. Walküre is once more heard in a reduction for 23 players by Ben Woodward (including Gothic-sounding organ; sections of the final act are arranged by Jonathan Finney); director Caroline Staunton points out that this First Day (Rheingold is a ‘Vorabend’) ‘operates on a chamber scale’.…

Un ballo in maschera Verdi PTC 5187048 Cecilia Refice Naxos 8.660521-22 Legendary Singers Anders/Fischer-Dieskau/Gedda/Arroyo/Horne SWR Music 19436CD Remembering Tebaldi Melody Moore ADX 11207 Rigoletto Verdi C Major 7763708 Le nozze di Figaro Mozart Opus Arte OA1356D CDs and digital If I encountered this performance of Un ballo in maschera in a provincial theatre on my travels I would be perfectly happy. It features healthy voices and a competent conductor and orchestra, and I can imagine leaving the opera house humming a tune. But why it was recorded I don’t know, as it doesn’t add much to the opera’s discography (though I don’t think that there is a clear winner in that particular field). Riccardo is Freddie De Tommaso and he alone makes a good stab at developing a character. His…

Picador Although applauded for her clear, clean performances of Handel and Mozart (her previous books include Mozart’s Women and Handel in London) as well as contemporary operas by Stephen Oliver and Peter Maxwell Davies, the conductor Jane Glover (b. 1949) cut her teeth on early Italian opera. Glover’s doctoral thesis at Oxford was on seventeenth century Venetian opera, later adapted in a 1978 biography of Francesco Cavalli. As a student a half-century ago, she led the first modern-era performance of Cavalli’s Rosinda for the Oxford University Opera Club. Her professional bow was at the Wexford Festival in 1975 with a pioneering modern rendition of Cavalli’s Eritrea. Glover’s historical awareness of Italy’s operatic legacy is profound, like her expertise on things Mozartian. So imbued is she in a time and place…

ON SALE 17 OCT EUN SUN KIM From her thrilling leadership as Music Director of San Francisco Opera, Eun Sun Kim now takes to Opéra national de Paris for her debut with the company, leading Les contes d’Hoffmann and the Maria Callas Centenary concert. We explore her extraordinary career from growing up in South Korea to taking the US opera scene by storm ALSO… • We speak to young conductor Stephanie Childress about Glyndebourne and her other upcoming operatic projects • Life in the pit – exploring the reality for opera’s orchestral musicians • Women and War: director Rosetta Cucchi on Wexford Opera Festival • We review the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House’s new Rhinegold and launch our support of fringe opera with an ‘off the beaten path’ review…

Teatro Nuovo’s annual bel-canto opera crucible in New York was like a family reunion, even if much of the family had never met. Listeners for the mid-July performance of Donizetti’s Poliuto – rarely heard since a 1960 La Scala outing with Maria Callas – were trading weighty intermission pronouncements about cavatinas, cabalettas and high B-flats with the unspoken knowledge that there may not be anything like it until next year – at least in New York City. In the birthplace of Maria Callas and Beverly Sills, the composers Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti are hard to come by these days. Under founder Will Crutchfield, the five-year-old Teatro Nuovo arrived about the time that bel canto activity had peaked at the Metropolitan Opera. But its summertime seasons have built such a following…

DONIZETTI L’elisir d’amore Love potions were at the heart of Longborough Festival Opera (LFO)’s 2023 season, playing critical roles in Götterdämmerung, L’elisir d’amore, and Purcell’s Fairy Queen. The final instalment of LFO’s second complete Ring is already reviewed online and is still a work in progress, with final judgment waiting on director Amy Lane’s complete cycle in June 2024. L’elisir d’amore was an accomplished, crisp comedy thanks to conductor Alice Farnham and director Max Hoehn. Donizetti’s comic masterpiece opened in a contemporary Cotswold village where two gentleman opera-goers arrive with their picnic basket and fizz during the overture. Yes, this was Longborough Opera looking at Longborough Village through a Donizetti prism. The rest of the chorus represented locals: the pot-bellied builder, the footballing teenage girl, the jogger, the police officer,…

ROSSINI Il Turco in Italia Il Turco in Italia in Martina Franca? You rub your eyes and read it again. Isn’t the pretty Baroque town in Puglia famous for a festival which – like the Irish Wexford – seeks out forgotten operas and performs them for an international audience? A popular Rossini opera would certainly be out of place here! Yes and no. In Martina Franca, of course, a version of the opera is performed which in modern times has never been played. It is the version which the composer himself created in 1815 for Rome. Michele Spotti, conductor of the festival’s opening night, even believes thatthis is the superior version and should be used in future. Director Silvia Paoli has come up with a bathing establishment for the set…

In partnership with In this limited edition special collaboration with Classic FM, we draw together nearly 100 of our most fascinating My Music interviews. Find out which composers, works and artists have enriched the lives of some of today’s most famous celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley, Armando Iannucci, Sting, Paul Simon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many more. Order your copy today for just £9.99 Go to magsubscriptions.com/my-classical-music Call: 0800 137201 (UK) or +44 (0)1722 716997 (Overseas) P&P is free for UK addresses. An additional charge will be added for shipping overseas.…

Hulda Franck Bru Zane BZ1052 César Franck is little known as an opera composer, but actually produced two: Hulda, composed 1879-85, and premiered posthumously in 1894, and Ghiselle (1896). It appears that Mme Franck was a bit of a backseat driver and chivvied her husband to be more commercial in his output: but Hulda was not deemed a shining example of his art, being scorned by the Paris Opéra probably even before completion. Despite the odd revival it has never got going, though a recent Naxos recording exists: Bru Zane opens some cuts and includes textual variants. Perhaps Franck’s subject matter didn’t help, with its grisly Norwegian Middle Age story. Hulda’s family is slaughtered and she’s taken prisoner, immediately on the path for revenge. Her new fiancé is the first…

Performance runs starting in October and running to November 2023. Listings are in alphabetical order by city within each country heading. M = Matinee performance. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings are available at www.operabase.com UNITED KINGDOM GLASGOW SCOTTISH NATIONAL OPERA THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW Il barbiere di Siviglia | Rossini OCT 17, 20, 22M, 25, 28 (& INVERNESS, NOV 16, 18, EDINBURGH, NOV 03, 05M, 08, 11, ABERDEEN NOV 23, 25) Conductor Stuart Stratford Stage director Thomas Michael Allen Set designer Simon Higlett Lighting designer Mark Jonathan CAST Il Conte d’Almaviva Anthony Gregory Don Bartolo David Stout Rosina Simone McIntosh Figaro Samuel Dale Johnson LEEDS OPERA NORTH Falstaff | Verdi OCT 05, 07M, 14, 21, 25M (& NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, OCT 31, NOV 02; NOTTINGHAM, NOV 07, 11M; & SALFORD, NOV 15, 18M) Conductor Martin Pickard / Garry…