Table of contents for March 2022 in Opera Now

After two years of hardly any work in the opera world, it was a tall order to ask our regular contributors to put together a list of singers who represent some of opera’s brightest hopes for the future. But they did it! Singers are a resilient bunch. In fact, becoming an opera singer is rarely a choice – most artists, young and established, will tell you it’s a compulsion that you simply cannot resist once it overtakes you. Think about it. The voice is one thing: it has to be beautiful, distinctive and technically failsafe if you are to succeed in your career. And that’s just the starting point. Then comes the need to act convincingly – something that is an increasingly necessary part of an opera singer’s trade, especially…

Leading opera singers took to social media to express their outrage following the cancellation of the scheduled run of Carmen at the Théâtre de la Monnaie/De Munt, Belgium’s leading opera house in Brussels. The cancellation, just days before opening night, was forced after Belgium’s government brought in strict rules surrounding public gatherings with the rapid spread of Covid’s Omicron variant. The new rules would have reduced La Monnaie’s seating capacity from 1,200 a night to a mere 200. A spokesman for the opera company said that the restrictions would result in a box-office loss of €900,000: ‘We would only be able to sell 2,400 tickets instead of the planned 13,800, and it becomes clear that such a scenario would not meet everyone’s expectations.’ The production of Carmen staged by Dmitri…

Sunday 10 April 2022 at 3pm Book now at: glyndebourne.com/meath Some of Britain’s leading singers will be joined on stage by the brightest stars of tomorrow performing popular arias and ensembles from opera and musicals. Fleur Barron Jennifer France Elizabeth Llewellyn Sally Matthews Huw Montague Rendall Rachel Nicholls Alexandra Oomens Mark Padmore CBE Brindley Sherratt Nicky Spence Freddie de Tommaso Accompanied by: Matthew Fletcher and Caroline Dushanthi Jaya-Ratnam All the performers are donating their services and the proceeds from the concert will go to The Meath Epilepsy Charity (registered in England and Wales no: 200359).…

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The Barbican Centre London MUSIC STAGING Viktor Ullmann composed a substantial number of works – including three piano sonatas, a string quartet, songs and the chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis – during 1942-44. The quality and depth of his harmonic language is noteworthy, but what makes the achievement remarkable is that Ullmann wrote this music while being detained at Theresienstadt (Terezín), a Czech ghetto used as a holding pen for victims of the Final Solution. Despite facing starvation, illness and the constant threat of ‘transportation’ to Auschwitz and elsewhere, Ullmann and others held concerts using whatever resources were available. The music created at Terezín was at the centre of BBC Symphony Orchestra’s recent Total Immersion: Music for the End of Time – a day-long programme of events dedicated to…

The last couple of years have sadly meant that we have had fewer opportunities to experience singers performing live onstage. Consequently, there has been more of a reliance on seeing and hearing them online and on CD and DVD. Here are ten artists who may be new to you and who have caught my attention while they were essentially locked down in their home countries – these are some of the lucky ones who somehow have managed to produce work when they could. Perhaps performances were already ‘in the can’, created between lockdowns or even performed onstage with social distancing and no audience. But the show did go on and continues to do so, and therefore I have also looked ahead to what new work they have coming up, working…

Jessye Norman’s 1983 recording of Strauss Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) had already been hailed as a classic, so when she sang the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos at Covent Garden in 1985 expectations were running high. The opera’s teasing blend of comedy and high tragedy suited the soprano to a tee – grandeur with a raised eyebrow. The following year lucky Londoners heard Norman sing yet more Strauss, both Lieder and opera, this time at the Royal Festival Hall. A new release from the London Philharmonic Orchestra gives us the opportunity to enjoy the concert anew, under the baton of Klaus Tennstedt, then the orchestra’s principal conductor. Norman bookends the concert, starting with five songs and finishing with the final scene from Salome. The first song, ‘Cäcilie’…

Performance runs starting in March and April 2022. Schedules are subject to changes and cancellations due to Covid restrictions. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings with regular updates are available online at www.operabase.com UNITED KINGDOM CARDIFF WELSH NATIONAL OPERA www.wno.org.uk Jenůfa | Janáček MAR 05, 12, 18 ON TOUR FROM MARCH-MAY Conductor Tomáš Hanus Stage director Katie Mitchell Designer Vicky Mortimer Lighting Designer Nigel Edwards CAST Jenůfa Elizabeth Llewellyn Kostelnička Buryjovka Helena Zubanovich Laca Peter Auty/Peter Berger Števa Adam Gilbert Madama Butterfly | Puccini MAR 16, 19 THEN ON TOUR UNTIL MAY Conductors Carlo Rizzi / James Southall Stage director Lindy Hume Lighting designer Elanor Higgins Set designer Isabella Bywater Choreographer Denni Sayers Video Ash J Woodward CAST Cio-Cio-San Joyce El-Khoury / Alexia Voulgaridou / Meeta Raval B.F. Pinkerton Leonardo Caimi / Peter Auty…

Favourite time of day? Last thing at night reflecting on everything that’s happened in the day and looking forward to the next day. Favourite season? It used to be summer, now it’s autumn. I still love the summer because it’s so full of life, vim, vigour and fun but there’s something about the autumn with everything going a little quieter and more reflective and also seeing the fruits of the labours. I think it’s moving to the country, actually. Favourite colour? Blue. Partly because it’s my little boy Riley’s favourite colour. I like wearing blue, I like seeing blue. I wear a lot of bright blue and my palette goes as far as aquamarine… I’m in Portugal at the moment doing a project for a new Baroque orchestra in the…

In tune with Tebaldi In your latest February issue, it was good to read the several tributes to Renata Tebaldi on the occasion of her birth centenary. She is one of my favourite singers. However, there were a few things that struck me as misplaced. I find it odd that Helena Matheopoulos writes that Tebaldi’s voice was ‘without an upper extension beyond B natural…ideal for verismo and some of the lyrical Verdi roles such as…Aida’. Aida contains several high Cs (and Tebaldi famously came to grief on one in ‘O patria mia’ at the Paris Opera) and yet she could certainly execute the note at forte well into the 1960s. Indeed Francis Muzzu in his recordings survey actually praises ‘a thumping high C’ in the role of Manon Lescaut. Tebaldi…

Few sensations can be more rewarding for true opera lovers than the jawdropping sense of wonder on encountering an extraordinary new singer– a sure-fire future star whose qualities shine through in spite of their youth and inexperience. Being in the presence of a beautiful, engaging and individual voice combined with stage charisma produces an instant, exhilarating adrenaline rush. And when this artist’s subsequent performances justify the predictions of a promising future, a lasting bond is formed that keeps you interested in their progress and success throughout their career. Two years of Covid have been especially tough on emerging young talent– especially for singers who were on the cusp of an international career before being thwarted by cancellation after cancellation. Throughout the pandemic, Opera Now’s correspondents have kept listening whenever they…

‘Is there a doctor in the house?’ Well, if you’re at a performance featuring Theresa Pilsl, the answer would have to be yes. In addition to her growing following as a singer, the young Bavarian-born soprano is a qualified physician. She completed her residency at The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, one of Europe’s major teaching hospitals, where she interned at the Audiology and Phoniatrics Department, treating ear diseases as well as hearing, balance, voice and speech issues. Her medical training has given her some serious insights into the workings of the voice, but she has recently been exploring the lighter side of singing in the Munich Chamber Opera production of Charley’s Aunt, an operetta about good old British transvestism, based on the farce by Brandon Thomas, as arranged in 2014…

Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset Opéra Royal Versailles, Paris MUSIC STAGING concert Lully’s1678 ‘tragédielyrique’ Psyché is to a libretto by Thomas Corneille and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. Reputedly written at some speed, the score re-uses material Lully had previously written for Molière’s play in 1671. Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques confirmed (if such confirmation were needed) their excellence in Lully with their recent recording of Isis, the opera which immediately preceded Psyché. On this occasion, Psyché was given in a concert performance of two hours 15 minutes duration, without interval. Some cuts were instituted, including dances from the fifth and final act, but the subsequent recording, on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label, will be complete. There was no disguising the glory of Lully’s music in this near-faultless account.…

Enchantresses Sandrine Piau Alpha Classics ALPHA765 Achante et Céphise Rameau Erato 9029669394 Dark Spring Hans Thomalla Oehms Classics OC994 L’enigma di Lea Benet Casablancas Naxos NBD0143V Rigoletto Verdi Dynamic 57921 Belisario Donizetti Dynamic 57907 CDs and downloads Sandrine Piau is one of those singers who rarely disappoints: not because she is dully reliable, but because she possesses a gorgeous voice along with the imagination to use it to great purpose. In this new album, Piau doesn’t particularly tread new ground, but builds her selection of Handel arias around the basic idea of enchantment. All the women here have either a literal ability in terms of sorcery, such as Alcina, or the personal magnetism to attract and affect others – Cleopatra is obviously a woman who draws people into her orbit.…

1 What is the name of the heroine in Beethoven’s only opera? 2 In Rigoletto the Duke launches the quartet singing ‘Bella figlia dell’amore’. Who is he singing to? 3 Who is the only reigning monarch to feature in a Puccini opera? 4 250g chopped pimiento + 250g chopped tomato + 150g rice, served with chopped shallots and a curried vinaigrette. Sounds awful (blame Escoffier). What is it? 5 Which Verdi opera features the problematic impersonation of King Stanislaus I of Poland? 6 In which opera does the public prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville send the hero to his death? 7 Whose husband gives birth to 40,049 children in one day? “Cher public, faites des enfants!” 8 Rossini’s Semiramide and Verdi’s Abigaille both sing in which botanical Wonder? 9 Wagner’s Meistersingers maintained the traditions…

UK Live Reviews Royal Opera House, London MUSIC STAGING With this new Theodora, the Royal Opera House has proved that it can excel as a Handel house, and that the composer’s works belong on its main stage and at the heart of its repertoire. It says a great deal about the transcendental power of Handel’s music that even Katie Mitchell, a director who generally likes to delve into the gloomier regions of the soul, here finds her way to a happy ending for Theodora’s protagonists, as the executed lovers quash their enemies and rise from the dead and into what seems like a more hopeful future (not at all what the original says). The work, an oratorio rather than an opera of course, is one of Handel’s most elevated, based…

Despite the temporary closures imposed by Covid-related restrictions, the Bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence from the Ottomans (1821/2021) was celebrated by Greek National Opera in an imaginative and informative way. The celebrations around the theme of Revolution were inaugurated last year by a production of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier (reviewed in the August 2021 issue of Opera Now). Nikos Petropoulos’ stylish, beautifully designed staging has just been revived and re-cast at GNO’s splendid home at Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre. In terms of Greece’s own national operatic legacy, audiences in Athens had the opportunity to hear live performances of all three operas related to the Greek Revolution by arguably Greece’s greatest operatic composer, Pavlos Carrer (1829-1896): Marcos Botsaris (Marco Bozzari in its Italian version), Despo and his masterpiece, Kyra Frosini.…

Dido and Aeneas Purcell Naxos NBD0140V Sophistication can lurk in the utmost simplicity, and so it proves here, with a reissue of a classic production of Dido and Aeneas by Deborah Warner (filmed at the Opéra Comique in Paris, 2008). Warner creates an acting space not unlike the Globe in London, so that the singers are thrust into immediate engagement with the audience. She replaces the missing musical prologue with three short texts performed by Fiona Shaw – (Ted Hughes, T S Eliot and Yeats) – a mercurial delight in such accomplished hands. Otherwise the production is essentially traditional, with Dido particularly regal in a pastel brocade gown. It does not overplay its hand – but there is a fun nod to the premiere of Dido taking place in Josias…

In his Naples years Rossini specifically worked on pushing the boundaries of operatic structure, and 1819 brought a particular flurry of activity, with three operas composed for the San Carlo and one for La Scala. March 1819 saw the premiere of Ermione, starring top league singers: the stupendously talented Colbran, tenors Andrea Nozzari and Giovanni David, and mezzo Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni. It was not a hit. Perhaps the audience was flummoxed by its modernity: it had accompanied recitatives, often highly declamatory, and a grand structure of connected numbers, pushing opera on from its stop-start nature and into more continuous drama. Ermione disappeared until 1987, when an unprepared Monsterrat Caballé wandered vaguely through the title role at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and was booed for her efforts, or lack thereof.…