The Makropoulos Case, Janacek – ROHCG, 21/11/25

Director, Katie Mitchell; Costume Designer, Sussie Juhlin-Wallén; Lighting Designer, James Farncombe; Set Designer, Vicki Mortimer; Video Designer, Sasha Balmazi-Owen. Emilia Marty, Ausrine Stundyte; Albert Gregor, Sean Panikkar; Baron Jaroslav Prus, Johan Reuter; Dr Kolenatý, Henry Waddington; Vítek, Peter Hoare; Janek, Daniel Matoušek; Count Hauk-Šendorf, Alan Oke; Krista, Heather Engebretson; Stage door woman; Susan Bickley

Of the mature Janacek operas, it’s now only From the House of the Dead I have never heard…..This is, I think, the third production I have seen of this work – the first was an ENO one with Mackerras in the 70’s, the second was a very fine performance by WNO about 3 years ago in a joint production with Scottish Opera.

Reviews of this new ROHCG production were mixed, as far as what was happening on stage was concerned, but all agreed on its musical merits. The more I hear The Makropoulos Case, the less it seems outlandish and the more i find to enjoy. There were splendid, even great, aspects to this performance and some other areas where things didn’t go quite as well. Foremost amongst the very positive things were the playing of the orchestra, with Hrusa as conductor, and Ausrine Stundyte’s towering performance as Emilia Marty/Makropulos etc (hereafer EM). The orchestral playing was glorious. The score, which I have only heard a few times, is more lyrical than I remembered, and the strings produced sweetness and intensity for the emotionally charged passages. The combinations of instruments are sometimes quirky but one felt an inherent rightness about the balance achieved in those moments in this performance, obviously benefiting from Hrusa’s long association and detailed knowledge of the work. I recall some particularly subtle and impressive horn playing. At the same time when, as in the prelude to Act 1 , there are outbursts of energy, these were performed with great brilliance and accuracy.  The, in the context, eerie and unworldly sound of the viola d’amore to suggest the iciness of EM’s personality and her inner life was wonderfully done. Hrusa and his musicians seemed to be having a love-in at the beginning and end of the performance – Pappano is no easy act to follow, and it is very heartening to see such mutual respect developing between Hrusa and his orchestra.

Ausrine Stundyte was outstanding as EM.  Her tall glamorous presence was ideal for the role, and she delivered the challenging task of making her stage presence one of infinite hauteur and infinite boredom while still keeping the audience’s fascination and attention. Vocally she was ideal – a bright strong voice (I saw her as an excellent Elektra at ROH a couple of years ago) which could be coloured to present her quiet,  weary, and sad asides effectively. There were no weak links among the singers – Sean Pannikar and Johann Reuter were particularly effective.  Hrusa praised Henry Waddington on the “Insights” stream for his idiomatic Czech.

The director’s concept was of a work which was wholly contemporary in focus. This worked very well – the sets, the costumes, and the acting of the singers, all reflected this admirably. An enormous amount of work must have been done with the singers to get them moving and reacting to each other so normally, and this meant that the complicated to-ings and fro-ings of the plot, with all the details of the will, in Act 1 seemed entirely understandable.  So far so good…….

Unfortunately, while direction and stage pictures made for an effective contemporary setting, and huge efforts had been made to create believable characters on stage, the problem with the production was that it was cluttered in ways which did not help our, or at any rate my, understanding of what was going on. The introduction of a lesbian relationship between EM and Krista is not too much of a complication, though what it adds to the main themes of the work is debatable. What did add unnecessarily to the complexity was the displays of texting, below the surtitles, going on between EM and Krista, Krista and Janek and Krista and her Dad. The Krista and Janek exchanges at least allowed Krista’s rooting around EMs hotel room, and all the memories of over 400 years to be displayed to the audience, but on the whole it was just confusing to cope with so much going on at the same time. There were various changes to stage directions in the last two acts – Krista shoots Janek rather than Janek killing himself, and Krista keeps the everlasting life formula rather than its being destroyed. These were not particularly bothersome – the main problem was the two-sets-at-a-time on stage approach, which restricted room for action and movement. This was particularly an issue in the last act (when in fact three different rooms were on display). EM’s bedroom on stage was far too small to allow her the space to die dramatically and appropriately, and accommodate the 4 or so people who have to witness it.  From where I was – second row Upper Circle – it was sometimes difficult to see what was happening. The WNO/SNO production handled the demands of this act far more clearly, with a huge bed with sail-like curtains. Nor was there any attempt to represent EMs sudden ageing (very effectively done, again, by WNO/SO)

So this production, while its focus on the contemporary may well attract people who are not normally opera-goers (and from conversations overheard there were definitely young people in that category in the house), confused more than it enlightened. But its musical and acting strengths redeemed the clutter.

Susanna, Handel – Opera North with Phoenix Dance Company, Lowry, Salford – 14/11/25

Anna Dennis, Susanna; Matthew Brook, Chelsias; Claire Lees, Daniel; James Hall, Joacim; Dorna Ashory, Teige Bisnought, Aaron Chaplin. Pikolwethu Luke, Graciela Mariqueo-Smith, Hannah McGlashon, Yasmina Patel, Tony Polo and other Phoenix Company Dancers. Johanna Soller, Conductor; Olivia Fuchs, Director; Marcus Jarrell Willis, Choreographer; Zahra Mansouri, Set & Costume Designer; Jake Wiltshire, Lighting Designer

Another Handel oratorio/opera new to me!  This was directed by Olivia Fuchs, who had also directed recently the brilliant WNO Britten Death in Venice, and, like that production (which had involved circus acrobats) this brought together singers from ON with artists from another medium, in this case a dance company. Handel composed the music in the summer of 1748 and the work had its first performance at Covent Garden in February 1749. The story is taken from the apocryphal 13th chapter of the Old Testament Book of Daniel and involves the newly wed and virtuous Susanna, her faithful new husband Joacim, and some creepy Elders who try to seduce her and then accuse her of illicit sex outside her marriage. The prophet Daniel intervenes to sort things out and the Elders are suitably punished.

The day of the performance coincided with Storm Claudia which produced 50 mph winds and 24 hours’ worth of driving rain. My normal last train from Manchester was cancelled, and I was on the point of not going to the performance when I realised there was another way of getting back, albeit with difficulty, and that I would feel feeble if I missed seeing this work, probably my only chance to experience it live. I arrived at the Lowry thoroughly soaked, dripping with rain, with 15 minutes to go before curtain up.  The Lowry had a far fuller audience than I have seen for other ON performances there, and also more diverse. I think perhaps this might have been the dance element bringing a different group along.

I hadn’t heard a note of this work before seeing it live – as with almost all the Handel opera and oratorios I have come across over the last few years. It has some fine numbers – the beautiful aria “Chastity. Thou Cherub Bright” which Daniel sings, and Susanna’s ‘Crystal Streams in Water Flowing’ – and there are some splendid choruses.

It felt perhaps more than some of Handel’s oratorios a little clunky as a staged piece – there is perhaps too slight a plot for 2 and a quarter hours and it feels quite static at times – nothing to do with the direction, but simply the ratio between action moving the plot forward and da capo arias and choruses. Hence I suppose the idea of teaming up with a dance company in performing the work, to enhance the interest of what was happening on stage. This idea worked for some but not all the time. This may be in part a personal reaction – I am much more an aural person than a visual one, and have never really responded that positively to dance and ballet. At times the dancers were making an effective commentary – a writhing dancer coming out of the bath tub in which Susanna is shortly to be propositioned by the Elders was a great piece of theatre, and some of the dancing at the beginning and end – during the wedding, and the rejoicing when Susanna is declared innocent – were both spectacular and relevant. But there were sections when the dancers unaccountably disappeared – it wasn’t very clear what the logic for their being or not being on stage was. To add to what was happening, there was also a BSL interpreter integrated with the crowd, who again came and went a bit.

You can see the costumes and set designs in the following trailer/advert, and in the photos at the end – Handel’s Susanna I Trailer (Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre) and Susanna | Opera North. The set was functional and the upper gallery was effective, so that both Susanna’s father, Joacim, Daniel and the two Elders could be seen to be singing from a different perspective or place. Quite what the metal Christmas tree thing upstage right was doing, or why the set was so cold-looking and grey I am not sure. Costumes were vaguely modern, mostly shades of brown and grey with Susanna in dazzling white and Joacim in a smart dark suit/white shirt. I suppose the general sense was of a monochrome society, and Susanna stands out in this production not only for her virtue and ‘chastity’ but also for the strength with which she defends herself against the two Elders and the miscarriage of justice, ending up with her flooring both the Elders, kicking one of them and holding the other in an arm lock which is wratched-up ever tighter as she goes up the scales with her coloratura.

In terms of singing and acting, this was a very strong cast and performance.  I was struck first by the idiomatic playing, energy, and sheer joi-de-vivre of the ON orchestra. I have never come across her name before but whoever Johanna Soller is, she did a very good job with the orchestra. The choruses were strongly sung too – everyone sounding as though they were singing loud enough for two people, and with impressive discipline. Anna Dennis as Susanna was stunning. I kept trying to think where I had heard her name before, but certainly in this performance her singing and acting were outstanding – a pure voice without much vibrato, the coloratura pinged out with extraordinary accuracy, good shading of words and music, and she projected powerfully the sense of a driven, angry woman unjustly accused of adultery. The aria “Guilt trembling spoke my doom” was spectacularly delivered (and very well played by the orchestra). James Hall, another unfamiliar name, was truly excellent as Joacim, his countertenor voice not at all ‘hooty’ but strong, flexible, and clear with, again, excellent coloratura singing and some amazingly powerful top notes – he acted very well too. Claire Lees sang beautifully as Daniel in her big aria about chastity, and all the other parts were well taken.

Altogether this is a piece I’d love to hear again.

Dead Man Walking, Heggie – ENO – 4/11/25

Christine Rice, Sister Helen Prejean; Michael Mayes, Joseph De Rocher; Sarah Connolly, Mrs Patrick De Rocher; Madeline Boreham, Sister Rose; Andrew Manea, Warden George Benton; Ronald Samm, Father Grenville; Gweneth Ann Rand, Kitty Hart; Jacques Imbrailo, Owen Hart.  Kerem Hasan, Conductor; Annilese Miskimmon, Director, Alex Eales, Set Designer, Evie Gurney, Costume Designer; D.M. Wood, Lighting Designer

The first night of this new ENO production received rave reviews, so I was very much looking forward to seeing it. It seems extraordinary that this was the first professional stage production of Dead Man Walking there has ever been in the UK, after 25 years of performances all over the world since its premiere in 2000. Could there have been some snobbishness that delayed the decision to go ahead for so long? A feeling that it was a bit too, well, popular…..? I hope not……Yes, Dead Man Walking is tonal, with passages of gospel music, jazz, Elvis (!) and much else.  But it has a gripping story, handled with great deftness in the libretto which in different hands might have sounded mawkish or toe-curling at points.   Above all it is definitely an opera and not a play with music; it has duets, a sextet even, a striking use of the chorus at points, and, throughout the characters are communicating through the music as well as through the words they’re singing. The story lends itself very well to opera’s particular ability as an art form to tackle powerfully emotional story-telling, and communicate raw feelings. Sadly I fear that the real reason for its delayed UK appearance was probably the view that any company putting on a contemporary work would risk instant financial damage (which is what happened at the performance I went to, though I hope the rave reviews and 5 stars from several newspapers would mean better audiences for its remaining performances – on November 4, though, Balcony and Upper Circle where closed, and even the Stall and Dress Circle were not by any means full). But then why was Turnage’s  Festen earlier this year sold-out? It remains a mystery why more people weren’t interested in seeing this production…..

The story is a true one, albeit fictionalised to preserve anonymity, written by a nun who had befriended several prisoners on death row, and talked with them to enable them to admit finally, and publicly, their guilt. In the case of the opera the composite convict is called Joseph and he finally admits in front of the parents of the two young people he had murdered, his responsibility for the murder and rape he committed, and his hope that his death will ease their pain.  The nun’s account was first made into a film and then this opera. The nun, Sister Helen Prejean (who is still alive – now in her late 80’s) was happy for Heggie to write the opera as long as the Christian message of her story was not watered down. It isn’t – and whether you accept the Christian aspects of it or not, even from a secular perspective the opera is about powerful issues everyone has to consider –  taking responsibility for your actions, loving others, whatever the cost, and of course it represents a powerful questioning of the need for capital punishment (Sister Helen became a leading US advocate for its abolition for many years). The opera raises many difficult moral issues – can a crime be so extreme it cannot be forgiven, the place of compassion as against justice, are there people so completely evil love cannot reach them? – the libretto deals sensitively with them all, and Sister Helen’s (self-doubting at times) perspective on these issues is balanced by the views of the parents of the young couple and the prisoner’s mother.   

Heggie’s music is difficult to describe. It doesn’t really have any motifs for different characters, as far as I could tell, though there is the composed gospel song which opens the work and recurs at points throughout, including, as a solo for Sister Helen, at the very end. For the most part, the compositional style is a complex wash of melodic fragments, nearly all as far as I could tell not repeated or developed further, that are occasionally memorable and beautiful but always working well with both the words and the singers’ voices. I guess you could call it a bit like film music but it isn’t really – there are many occasions when words and music are together giving complex messages, with the music as powerful and important as the words.  Musical highlights include the prisoner the scene where Joe (the prisoner)’s mother, Sister Helen and the two sets of parents sing in the Appeal Court of their feelings, and much of Sister Helen’s role. I mused afterwards how Puccini, say, might have tackled such a libretto. I am sure his approach would have been completely over-the-top, and by comparison with what he would have made of it, Heggie’s work sounds much more restrained – and that is all to the good, for 21st century sensibilities. All in all, this was everything an engaging contemporary opera should be – powerful, dealing with big issues, being something different from a film or play with music, and very moving. It’s not a short work – about two and a quarter hours – but always gripping, and the audience was as wholly engaged as they should have been.

And….this was an excellent production and set of performances……….. The set as in the photo below was two greyish white walls of an institutional building which served as the school in the ‘projects’ where Sister Helen worked with poor children, the prison and the court room where appeals were heard. This allowed the many scenes in the opera to be deftly transitioned, often by means of characters ascending and then descending a staircase via the upper level of the walls. At the end, the execution chamber was realised in terrifying detail, moving onto the stage in blazing white light. All the characters were believable, their movements appropriate and realistic, and their reactions superbly timed and realised.  Annilese Miskimmon, one of the triumvirate who runs ENO currently, deserves huge credit for her brilliant production.

There was not one weak link in the cast. All sung and acted superbly. Christine Rice not only had the ability to sing the lyrics with a beautiful and varied line, but captured in great detail a character both awkward and sensitive – moving in an ungainly way, some hesitancy at times, faltering and self-doubting. I suspect the real Sister Helen is probably a more forthright person, but this was a brilliant representation of the character. Michael Mayes, who has sung the role in many productions since 2018, was outstanding as Joe – he has a big stage presence, a resounding voice and is a large man – all these elements making him very credible in the tough but ultimately fearful prisoner role, and he sang superbly. Sarah Connolly was luxury casting as Joe’s mother, and she offered a highly convincing and touching portrayal of someone not really coping with what’s happening to her, and awkward when faced with authority. She leaves the stage still convinced that Joe is innocent, and Ms Connolly’s singing and acting was very moving. All the smaller parts were very well-done – I was particularly taken by Madeline  Boreham’s account of Sister Rose. Kerem Hasan and the ENO orchestra did everything they could to realise Heggie’s music vividly and sensitively, and at the same time Hasan’s control of dynamics meant the singers were never overpowered by the big orchestra Heggie requires. Perhaps my only quibble would be the use of Southern US accents by the cast, which came and went a bit among the UK members of it.

So…..I think this was a powerful work, which we have waited too long to see in this country. I am still asking myself why, in the end, I was more impressed by Turnage’s Festen seen earlier this year. Both are works with powerful stories – in Festen’s case sexual abuse – which started life in other mediums (in Festen’s case film). Perhaps in the end the music has more character – I am not sure and need to think about it.

Messiaen, Ensemble 360 – Sheffield Crucible – 1/11/25

Klein, String Trio; Smit, Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano; Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time

This concert was preceded by an hour or so with a lecturer from the Birmingham Conservatoire talking about Messiaen, with the aid of two of the evening’s players to provide musical illustrations. One of the fascinating things we learned is that Messiaen was a veritable thieving magpie among composers, constantly using and re-using segments of other people’s music. There was a brief extract from the Prelude to Boris Godunov which is used several times in the Quartet, as an example. We also heard a recording of birds singing outside Messiaen’s country summer composing house – they were extremely loud, and insistent their voices should be heard on his music! The cellist spoke about how difficult it was to sustain the long high notes of her glorious duet with the piano in the middle of the work. The lecturer pointed out how consistently Messiaen had worked on the Christian concepts of heaven, hell and eternity throughout his long life of composing, exemplifying this by looking at the Quartet, near the beginning of his career, and Eclairs sur l’au-dela, written 40 years later All in all, a very absorbing hour……….. 

The two compositions by Klein and Smit, who were both murdered in Nazi extermination camps., are very different in style. The Klein work was the more immediate and gripping. and i think one would feel that, even if you didn’t know that it was completed 9 days before he was transported to Auschwitz. Its writing is raw and bitter at times but it also uses Czech folk music, sometimes almost violently as though the composer is grabbing onto aspects of normal life, unwilling to let go. Smit (who was Dutch) had a more formal distanced style – it was written in 1938  – and had less intensity. I wasn’t as engaged with it.

The Messiaen Quartet i have heard several times live. The Crucible music in the round space is ideal for this work – you experience its drama at very close quarters. All four musicians conveyed the sense of both fear and bliss which any good performance of this work must have, and clarinet, violin and cello played their big moments superbly.  Gemma Rosefield and Benjamin Nabarro held the audience spellbound in the quiet beauty of their playing (except for the idiot who audibly moved out of his seat upstairs before the music faded into silence at the end). I don’t find this work easy listening but somehow you know – and you could feel everybody else in the audience knew – that every note counts in this piece and you have to listen intently. There was a rare stillness in the audience [apart from the idiot at the end) and at the end, after the whisper of the violin dies into silence, stomping of approval on the wooden floor and tiers

Bach and  American Minimalism: Shani Diluka, Sheffield Crucible 31/10/25  

JS BACH (arr. Alexander Siloti) Prelude in E minor BWV855; GLASS Etude 2; JS BACH Prelude in C BWV846; CPE BACH Solfeggietto H220 Wq 117; GLASS Etude 9; JS BACH Prelude in F minor BWV857 ; GLASS Mad Rush; JS BACH (arr. Alfred Cortot) Arioso from Concerto No.5 in F minor BWV1056 ; MOONDOG Canon VIII ; JS BACH Sicilienne BWV1031; MONK Railroad; JS BACH Contrapunctus from ‘The Art of Fugue’; MOONDOG Barn Dance Pastoral; GLASS Opening; JS BACH (arr. Petri Sheep) Cantata ‘Schafe können sicher weiden’ BWV208; GLASS (arr. Shani Diluka) Tyrol Concerto (mvt 2); JS BACH Prelude in C minor BWV847

I haven’t come across the Monegasque-Sri Lankan pianist, Shani Diluka, before but she is clearly a very fine pianist with a substantial track record of appearing at prestigious  venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the  Vienna Konzerthaus.

The theme of the programme was perhaps looser than Bach & American Minimalism -more like ‘Bach and a bunch of blokes who happened to be living in New York in the 1950’s to 1970’s who all knew each other and found inspiration in their composing from Bach’. But no matter – I may know Glass’ idiom fairly well, and indeed recognised a couple of the Glass pieces (I have an excellent recording of Glass piano works by Vikingur Olafsson), but Moondog and Keith Jarrett were completely new to me, and I have never, as far as I can recall, heard much of Cage’s music before. There was quite a lot of jazzy Jarrett music which had perhaps less obvious links than the others with Bach but even then there would have been the connection of improvisation, as well as melody. Ms Diluka gave very helpful comments on the composers and their music.  As an encore she did ‘something completely different’ and played something by de Falla

All in all this was a rewarding and absorbing evening. More Glass in Sheffield next week…

John Adams – Bridgewater Hall, Halle, Adams – 30/10/25

John Adams conductor; Mary Bevan soprano; Hallé Choir (Matthew Hamilton, choral director). . John Adams: Slonimsky’s Earbox; Debussy/John Adams Le Livre de Baudelaire; John Adams ‘This is prophetic!’ (Pat’s Aria from Nixon in China); Harmonium 

I have enjoyed listening to John Adams’ music for many years, and have several recordings of his music, but all the works programmed here were new to me (I am very much looking forward to seeing the Paris production of Nixon in China in February next year). I managed to listen to some parts of Harmonium before the concert and was particularly impressed by this work. And, of course, it was rather exciting to have Adams conducting these works in person (although he fairly often visits the UK, I haven’t seen him live before). It seems astonishing that he’s now 78, still lithe and energetic on the podium, and that Harmonium was composed 45 years ago. 

Slonimsky’s Earbox, the first piece on the programme, I liked very much. Although it occasionally still has the driving motor rhythms of minimalism, Adams’ music by the mid 90s had become more complex and diverse and this piece, very much a display piece (and written for the Halle almost 30 years ago during Kent Nagano’s regime) plays with all sorts of Stravinsky-like sounds, particularly the Rite of Spring. I am not quite sure what it amounted to but it was great fun. Next up was Adams’ orchestration of 4 Debussy songs. These were beautifully sung by Mary Bevan, and the orchestration sounded exquisite and fascinating, but the experience was somewhat marred by the lack of words – not even the title of the songs – neither in the programme or on the surtitles screen (which was used for Harmonium’s poems). This was disappointing.

After the interval we had Pat’s aria from Nixon in China – a rather beautiful setting of some very thoughtful and resonant lines from the clearly excellent libretto by Alice Goodman.     , again sung by Mary Bevan. Adams joked before about his problems with an American president – at which everyone laughed, thinking he meant Trump, but in fact he was referring to Nixon and Adams being drafted – or not – to Vietnam. There was warm applause when he talked about Pat’s aria’s words as intending to express something of what is good about America.

Harmonium is a most impressive work and I am amazed that I’ve never come across it before. It was written early in Adams’ career and though the motor rhythms are omni-present, the quality of the choral writing already indicates an individual voice very different from the world of Phillip Glass or Tim Riley’s In C.  It’s a setting of three poems by Donne (Negative Love) and Emily Dickinson (‘Because I could not stop for death’ and ‘Wild Nights’. I thought it a very fine piece for the following reasons:

  • The choral writing is sensitive to the words and texture of the poems. In particular the first Emily Dickinson setting in its colouring clearly evokes this mysterious dream-like journey with death. The mad ecstasy of Wild Night is extraordinarily effectively conveyed by the choral writing, and the gradually increasing tension of the Donne poem is enhanced by the way the words are tossed around the choir
  • The three chosen poems work very well together in offering 3 different kinds of quasi- mystical experience. It is a piece which creates something more than the sum of its parts
  • The orchestral music is beautifully attuned to that sense of unworldly experience – the orchestral transition from the second to the third movement is remarkable in the way it moves from the icy stunned stillness of the first Dickinson poem to the momentum gradually gathering into the explosion of energy of ‘Wild Nights’

At the end the audience gave Adams, chorus and orchestra a completely justified standing ovation. The choir sung what must be very difficult music to get your vocal chords around and coordinated with the orchestra and conductor magnificently. Some get a bit sniffy about Adams, but for me – Harmonium particularly – this is just great music. Sadly I can’t go to the other concert Adams is giving, with a world premiere. A great pity…….

Bach / Ensemble 360: Upper Chapel, Sheffield – 25/10/25 2pm

Bach:  Sonata No.3 in C; Partita No.3 in E; Benjamin Nabarro, violin

I have been reading a fascinating book by Kate Kennedy called ‘Cello’, about the passion and the closeness of the relationship between instrument and player, as exemplified by four historical/ contemporary figures. Amongst many other topics, she muses on whether, in the same way as players gain muscle memory, so might instruments gain a sort of body memory of how certain players have played certain pieces on them in the past. I wondered, as Benjamin Nabarro played the Bach pieces, what sort of relationship he had with his instrument that allowed both to produce the extraordinary multi -layered polyphonic texture of these works, pushing the violin and violinist to extremes.

The Partita is a more accessible work than the sonata   – essentially it is a dance suite, with the very famous Gavotte at its heart. Nabarro and his violin produced variation and shade in the sometimes-overwhelming spray of notes. The sonata is particularly severe, with a central fugue which sounded a nightmare to play. The sheer energy and focus needed to play these works is extraordinary, and yet at the same time performer and instrument have to convey the essential gravity and melancholy of Bach’s world, where death comes too frequently and the memories of the Thirty Years War are still strong. This performance was utterly convincing in capturing both these elements. And he has to do the same thing this evening………!!!

An hour after the performance. I went back to the Upper Chapel for an intriguing experience – Music in the Round had set up 8 speakers in the church, which seem to have programmed in some way to broadcast different strands of several of Bach’s pieces for violin, again played by Nabarro. For each movement played, we heard first a straight rendition, in surround-sound, but then, whether automatically generated by AI, or played with by someone, several of the strands in the different loudspeakers started to repeat, to be taken apart, so that what had begun as Bach began to sound like something by Philip Glass or John Adams. It was an eerie oddly compelling ¾ hour or so that I spent listening to these performances and their reworkings. This connects with next Friday’s MITR concert which indeed is precisely about Bach and American minimalism

Takacs Quartet, Timothy Ridout, Mozart Quintets – Wigmore Hall – 20/10/25

Mozart, String Quintet in C K515; String Quintet in G minor K516

This was a superb concert. I have listened to these two works a number of times but have never heard them live and therefore haven’t ever, really, given them the full, deep concentration I find I can only give at a live concert. I also don’t think I have ever heard the Takacs Quartet live before (though maybe I have a brief memory of Beethoven quartets at the RFH in the early 2000’s). I enjoyed reading Edward Dusinberre’s book about the life he has led with the Quartet so it was a bit of a thrill to hear them live, and at the Wigmore Hall – and playing Mozart!! They had also played some of the other quintets the previous evening, but as you will have seen , I was elsewhere……a great pity I wasn’t able to get to this first concert…….

There was an unusually good programme note, by Richard Bratby, which quoted at length a letter Mozart wrote to his father not long before the latter’s death. I’ll quote a bit of it here – it’s dated 4 April 1787: ‘…….. Since Death, if we think about it soberly, is the true and ultimate purpose of our life, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind that its image holds nothing terrifying for me any more, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank God for graciously granting me the insight (you know what I mean) of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. I never lie down at night without reflecting that perhaps, young as I am, I may not live to see another day. And yet no one who knows me could say that I am morose or dejected in company – and for this blessing I thank my creator daily.’  While you could read this as a set of messages to keep his Dad content, and make him feel Wolfgang was leading a virtuous life in Vienna, to me, as it does to Bratby, it seems a profound statement of Mozart’s sense of his own mortality, and of the depth of his faith, which makes us understand how light and shade alternate so much in his writing, and in these quartets, one in C Major and one in G minor.

What struck me so much about this current version of the Takacs Quartet was the lightness and deftness of the playing. Some of this was clearly emanating from Dusinberre, who led some wonderfully wispy (yet rhythmic, with a kick) playing in the finale of the G minor, which makes the Amadeus Quartet in the recording I have sound quite leaden by comparison, but there were moments when the same could be said of other players – such a lightness of touch…….. In addition to the lightness there was delicacy, bounce and clarity – a sense of an intricate interweaving of parts, all making a greater whole, but never mechanical, never anything other than a sensitive and musical listening to each other.  The darkness juxtaposed against the light in the first movement of the C Major, the joy of its finale, the sadness and hope of the G Minor quintet’s adagio, the passionate darkness of the opening of its finale, and the hope and energy of the rest of that finale once the prelude is passed – all were wonderfully realised.

I do hope I can hear this quartet again playing other Mozart, Beethoven (or indeed anything!)

Gotterdammerung, Wagner – London Opera Company, St John’s Smith Square, 19/10/25

Siegfried – Neal Cooper; Brünnhilde – Cara McHardy; Gunther – Pauls Putnins; Gutrune – Philippa Boyle; Hagen – Simon Wilding; Alberich – Freddie Tong; Waltraute – Harriet Williams; First Norn – Rozanna Madylus; Second Norn – Sarah Pring;  Third Norn – Katie Lowe; Woglinde – Cressida Sharp; Wellgunde – Grace Maria Wain; Flosshilde – Katie Stevenson; conductor, Peter Selwyn, augmented Sinfonia Smith Square, London Opera

I hope I will never lose the excitement and the anticipation which always hits me when I’m going to be at a live performance of any of Wagner’s Ring operas. I only got to hear that this London Opera Company performance was happening a few months ago a little before Peter Selwyn, the conductor, was giving a talk to the Manchester Wagner Society. I immediately re-organised my diary to fit it in! The LOC, according to the programme, is a company set up in the immediate post Covid lockdown period to give work to freelancers deprived of employment during the pandemic. Over the last 4 years it has performed a number of Wagner music dramas, most recently Siegfried. Gotterdammerung was being performed in association with the Sinfonia Smith Square, and the LOC orchestra thus has a core set of musicians from the Sinfonia, supplemented with music college postgraduates and known first-rate amateurs. The orchestra for Gotterdammerung was, considering, surprisingly large – not quite the numbers Covent Garden would use, but nevertheless there were 2 harps, triple woodwind, the full complement of brass, 1 timpanist, and only slightly reduced strings (though 9 cellos). It is probably a bit larger than the orchestral size the Longborough Festival would use. The cast soloists were all solid, excellent professionals, who in times past would have been members of ENO, WNO, SNO, and ROHCG companies but now have to get work where they can.

I was rather concerned about the inevitably churchy acoustics of St Johns Smith Square and how such a large orchestra would sound, as well as the balance between orchestra and soloists. From my position – about 10-11 rows back –  the sound of the LOC orchestra, and the balance between singers and that orchestra, were both ideal. I suspect that has a lot to do with the competence of Peter Selwyn and the sensitivity of the musicians and singers, and rather less to do with the inherent acoustics. The strings, particularly the lower strings, had a splendid bloom and luscious sound, the brass, right at the back of the platform and with, I suspect, some of their volume floating up to the chancel roof rather than into the nave, sounded strong but not overwhelming and the unison horns in particular (eg the recurrence of the blood brotherhood motif in Act 2) sounded glorious in some of their big moments. There was some excellent woodwind playing – the oboe and cor anglais playing stood out. It has to be said that sometimes the band sounded a bit ragged – for instance, some of the tricky violin passages – eg the Rhinemaidens’ music in Act 3 –  seemed smudged sometimes, and there were a few false/late entries at points, plus some of the horns seemed to have intonation problems now and again (Siegfried’s horn playing seemed particularly perilous). Occasionally also some sections of the orchestra seemed to get a bit over-enthusiastic and music which should have been just in the background suddenly became fore-grounded in a slightly odd way. But, even with some imperfections, the orchestra offered nearly 4 hours of thoroughly enjoyable and moving playing, and, at times, rose to great heights, particularly in the Immolation Scene.

This was essentially a concert performance with a bit of movement, and nobody was credited with any staging role in the programme. It rather looked as though it was left up to singers to decide what to do. Some stood resolutely by their music stands and registered little with their facial expressions, others, particularly Hagen, moved around the platform a lot, even leaping on a chair at one point and conducting the Vassals. In that kind of situation it tends to be the singers who leave their music stands and engage with each other who capture the audience’s attention far more effectively. Hagen, sung by Simon Wilding, I had admired in the Regents Opera Ring, where he was just as effective as he was in this performance – a dark powerful voice, and capturing the brooding menace of the character without falling into cliché, killing Gunther and Siegfried very dramatically. He dominated the stage whenever he was on it, and never looked at his score once, though he carried it around with him. There was a most impressive Waltraute – Harriet Williams, with a lovely mezzo voice and with the ability to stand still yet hold the audience’s attention. Her narration was wonderfully done. Pauls Putnins was also very good at getting across the essence of Gunther’s feebleness and indecisiveness, with facial expression, hand movements and even his looking at his score had a fidgety nervous feel that suggested the essence of the character. Alberich, Gutrune, the Three Norns and the Rhinemaidens were all good vocally and, again, were effective in using facial expressions and limited movement to enhance their performance. The two main score-reading offenders were, unfortunately, Siegfried and Brunnhilde, who, whatever the musical excellences of their performances, did very little to engage the audience, and for the most part kept their eyes on the score – so I also in response shut my eyes when they were singing. I thought Cara McHardy did very well – she has the power and the heft for the role, and was excellent in realising some of the lyrical passages as poignantly as possible – her responses to Waltraute’s narration and the Immolation scene had some lovely examples of this. She could also sing the bitter powerful music for Brunnhilde in Act 2 with the venom needed. Neal Cooper (nephew of ‘Enerey’, someone next to me said??) I realise I had heard before when he stepped in in Act 3 of Tristan at the Proms in 2021 when Simon O’Neill couldn’t carry on and also as Erik at Holland Park). He again has the power and stamina for the role – his account of the Narration was a very good example of his careful wording and craft. Perhaps sometimes he struggled slightly with some of the highest notes, but this really wasn’t important.

There had been some excellent very gripping sequences in the performance up to the end of the Funeral March – Hagen’s solos; Waltraute’s narration; the Norns scene was very compelling and clearly sung; the summoning of the Vassals (with the excellent chorus, including the Longborough Community Chorus, and some very splendid steerhorns borrowed from Covent Garden) was exciting, and so was the ‘trio’ at the end of the Act,  very well sung by all three principals. I also liked the way the Rhinemaidens’ scene went – Katie Stevenson in particular an excellent mezzo. But after the Funeral March, at least for me, something happened and the performance went on to another level – one of those moments that only happen in a live performance with an audience. Suddenly the very occasional orchestral glitches ceased, Brunnhilde was superb throughout the Immolation scene, and its aftermath was altogether very moving. After a few seconds of stunned silence the audience cheered.

I saw Anthony Negus in the audience – again, as with the Regents Opera performance, I hope he is making notes about some of these excellent singers for the Grange Park Ring

I must make it to the LOC Parsifal next year

Giustino, Handel – ROHCG Linbury Theatre, 10/10/25

Director, Joe Hill-Gibbins; Designer, Rosanna Vize;  Lighting Designer, James Farncombe. La Nuova Musica. Conductor, David Bates. Cast: Giustino, Polly Leech; Anastasio, Keri Fuge; Arianna/La Fortuna, Mireille Asselin; Leocasta, Esme Bronwen-Smith; Amanzio, Jake Arditti; Vitaliano, Benjamin Hulett; Polidarte, Jonathan Lemalu. Plus 8 person chorus

In my ongoing quest to hear as many of Handel’s operas as I can before I disappear off stage, I am lucky this Autumn – there’s Giustino, but also Susanna and Ariodante coming up, all of which are new to me.

Giustino was premiered at Covent Garden in 1737, with the castrato Domenico Annibali in the title role, and this current production is the first set of performances at that venue for nearly 300 years. Its date makes it one of Handel’s later works but it is not a familiar and often-staged opera. It concerns the early life of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and its plot is more than usually complicated, indeed at points daft! Suffice it to say that it concerns the military and romantic relationships involved between the young Justinian, when we see him first a peasant, and courtly figures in Constantinople. To quote the ROHCG blurb, “Giustino wakes from a dream of future glory and rescues a royal woman from a bear attack and is immediately hailed as a hero at the Byzantine court of Emperor Anastasio. When the Empress Arianna is captured by the scheming rebel Vitaliano, Giustino rescues her from a sea monster, ultimately sparking jealousy in the Emperor. Overcoming Emperor Anastasio’s jealousy and Vitaliano’s murderous ambition, Giustino returns to court, where a new enemy, Amanzio, has attempted to steal the throne. Giustino defeats Amanzio and is appointed as co-regent”.  This is helped by the fact that Vitaliano, still in prison, discovers that Giustino is his long lost brother, so Giustino releases him and  they join forces…………

The basic set concept was of a box, the entire stage bounded by walls with many doors, some chairs and suspended lamps, and appropriately for a Byzantine court, a range of dangling nooses hanging from the walls. The (I believe Guildhall School resourced) chorus is dressed in white and watches on, getting engaged at various points, acting as guards, courtiers, moving things, occasionally being a sea monster or a bear. There is a fluid approach to who is meant to be on stage when – different characters sit in on the da capo arias where their rivals are giving their thoughts about them. Excitingly the horn and trumpet players come on stage when they play their bits. The dress is modern though the princess/empress has something like an old-fashioned glittery ball dress, looking almost Victorian. Personally, I thought the staging worked very well – it pointed the action clearly enough, it meant there was always something to look at during the longer da capo arias, and the set gave a lot of space for movement.

The plot of the work is a bit lop-sided – most of the first part is really about Arianna, Anastasio and Vitaliano, and Giustino only really comes to the fore in the second half when he is leading the fight against the traitor Amanzio. But no matter……the point is that, as always with Handel, there are a superb series of varied arias and choruses to listen to. I have said before in this blog that in every Handel opera I’ve ever heard, even the less well-known ones like Giustino, there’s always at least one big hit number that lifts you up and delights, and which you immediately want to hear again. In Giustino it’s a beautiful slowish aria, with recorders in the orchestra, where Giustino compares a breeze slowly moving the grass and flowers, and poison slowly moving through a set of relationships. But there are lots of other arias as well that demand a second listening – some of Arianna’s arias near the beginning are intensely beautiful, and there’s a great triumphal aria for Giustino when he has conquered the sea monster.

As with the Irish Baroque orchestra, and the two Vivaldi operas they’ve performed in the Linbury, it is very exciting to hear a period band playing this music in that space. The strings crunch and sizzle, a number of the extended da capo arias feature oboe obbligato, specially written for the virtuoso instrumentalist Giuseppe Sammartini (also a composer), the horns and trumpets rasp, and the recorders are able to be heard clearly.  The singers, almost all of them young-ish (Jonathan Lemalu was the only ‘name’ I recognised) were superb. Pride of place probably goes to Mireille Asselin, singing Arianna, a Canadian singer who, from her website information, has done work at the Met, and is clearly a Baroque specialist. She has a ‘white’ sound, very pure, she is able to handle the coloratura element well and produced some lovely floated top notes. Polly Leech as Giustino was also impressive – a real contralto voice, large, flexible and warm.  Keri Fuge as Anastasio has less to do than these two roles  but was also very good – again, a ‘white, vibrato-less sound . All the other singers were excellent. It goes without saying that all these singers were fully ‘in’ their roles, completely committed to what they were doing on stage. The director had got them all moving purposefully, – and fast! – and they were constantly rushing round the space (a feature of the same director’s ENO Figaro). Somehow the directing style and the period band ]’s sounds worked perfectly together.

This may not be a dramatic masterpiece on the lines of Semele, but it is a very enjoyable and worthwhile evening – I never felt bored in the way I occasionally did at Cenerentola the evening before