There were two notable broadcast/streamed events at this time – the Opera North Fidelio and the ENO Mozart Requiem. The Opera North Fidelio was a knock-out – again, as with the Halle in February, Rachel Nicholls was a glorious Leonore, and Toby Spence surprised me with the power of his voice and general presence as Florestan. And Mark Wiggleworth, while taking on some hair-raisingly fast tempi, really gave the performance dynamism and energy, and the Opera North Orchestra played brilliantly. This was a paid (£!5) performance that was worth every penny. Rocco was Brindley Sherratt again as with the Halle and it was nice to hear Fflur Wyn(Opera North Susanna, March)) as Marzelline plus Don Pizarro was played by ex-Wotan Robert Hayward.
I didn’t enjoy the ENO Mozart Requiem anything like as much, partly I think because Mark Wigglesworth drove it too hard and also because, though a worthy work, there are probably better pieces by which to convey to a television audience the depths music can offer when dealing with death and grieving. Again Elizabeth Llewellyn impressed and I also liked Sarah Connolly’s voice – it’s great to see her singing and seeming well following her breast cancer last year.
I signed up to the Halle live stream series of 9 concerts between December and March – about £10 a live stream ticket. Not really value for money, when there is so much freely available, but I do feel I ought to support them – from 3 December, streamed on demand from Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, and available on demand until March. The first streamed event had a very well-defined and enjoyable Brahms 1 from Mark Elder, as well as a suite of music from Mastersingers
December meant I could at least do some Christmas shopping for my family’s presents. The most exciting musical thing on the horizon was planning the church Christmas carol service!! This was planned to take place outside the church in the churchyard – luckily the church has a large open space uncluttered by graves at the east end so that makes it possible, for otherwise everyone would be tripping over graves and suing us! Unless the weather proved to be truly foul, most people here are inured to standing around in murk, rain and wind to some extent, and we could use the Village Hall audio system to broadcast the organ to the assembled multitude. Our other Christmas services were able to carry on inside church as per normal – I reckon we can fit about 50 in at a socially-distanced squeeze, and that would have been enough for any projected 1000 Christmas Day service – the Midnight Mass would only normally have between 6 -20. The carol service though was a bit on and off until we were confident about the weather – beyond a certain point the equipment wouldn’t be able to cope. But we managed to do it with about 120 people there, despite some quite cold weather, and it went very well – lighting and sound came from various local people who have professional-level ability and kit to deploy, and we were Covid-secure, with people singing the carols from their smartphones rather than any service sheets being given out. Curiously the C of E guidance for such outdoor events is that you are to wear masks except when singing, which seems a bit counter-intuitive! People seemed very appreciative of its having been organised – the only village event of any size to have happened since mid-March. We also made about £300 for charity!!
The other big event worthy of note was getting Sir Mark Elder – and it was very kind of him to offer to do this – to do a talk for the Wagner Society Manchester. My Wagner Soc Committee colleague Edwina posted this excellent report of the event Report of Sir Mark Elder’s Talk – Wagner Society Manchester
And so onwards to Lockdown 3……………….
John's musical journey 