Tabla de contenidos para December 2021 en Opera Now

As we come to the end of 2021, you’ll notice that this magazine is filling up with live reviews again. It’s a sure sign that opera is getting back to normal – though of course nothing feels quite the same as it was ‘before’. Even without the pandemic, the world has changed: Black Lives Matter, gender equality, climate change – all these things have had a huge impact on the arts. What we see on stage in the opera house has always reflected the society in which we live. Take Verdi’s exploration of sexual mores in La Traviata or Puccini’s dissection of the nature of power in Tosca: two of the most popular works in the repertoire. Both are full of resonances that continue to affect audiences today, in ways…

The Bayreuth Edition – a collection of classic Wagner performances from the Opus Arte label, recorded live at the annual festival at the historic Festspielhaus with its superb acoustics. The box set features 30 CDs and includes nine operas that form the core of the Wagnerian canon. Artists include conductors Christian Thielemann and Andris Nelsons, and singers John Lundgren, Iréne Theorin, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Linda Watson. The closing date for entries is 22 December. The winner will be published in the February issue of Opera Now To enter, visit the competitions page on our website www.rhinegold.co.uk/operacompetitions…

It has been a phenomenal career so far: Cecilia Bartoli has shown that you can win a vast popular following by shining light into obscure corners of musical history and championing opera’s underdogs. The Italian mezzo is among the most successful classical singers of all time. She has revived the fortunes of forgotten composers, remodelled herself as a leading impresario and become one of the biggest selling classical recording artists of her generation. You would be forgiven for thinking life has few challenges in store for this intrepid musical explorer. You would be mistaken. Unreleased, Bartoli’s new album, is dedicated to rarely recorded – and mainly delectable – dramatic concert arias. The pieces featured on the disc gave the singer the opportunity to take stock of some of the biggest…

Scottish Opera Theatre Royal, Glasgow Back in the theatre for the first time post-pandemic, Scottish Opera’s co-production of The Gondoliers, with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and State Opera South Australia, provided a bright and cheerful start to the current season. However, Gilbert and Sullivan’s gentle dig at the class system and social equality, set in a sunny Venice and a fictional Barataria, is an uneven work, especially in the 40 minutes of uninterrupted music at the outset. The lengthy overture and opening sequence, ‘List and Learn’, try too hard and overstay their welcome. (A sluggish tempo from a tired-sounding orchestra in the pit plus some flat woodwind and soprano notes didn’t help). The distinctive witty patter and sparkle that define this genre finally emerged with the dramatic entrance of…

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Antwerp Kurt Weill’s collaboration with playwright Georg Kaiser produced several one-act operas, plus this longer Silver Lake, produced after he had split with Bertolt Brecht saying, ‘I can’t set the Communist Manifesto to music’. It’s still infused with all the pessimism of the Weimar Republic. Its premiere came 19 days after Hitler’s election, the productions disrupted and quickly closed down as Weill and Kaiser fled. (Its 1980 New York City Opera adaptation toned everything down, with Hugh Wheeler perhaps understandably saying he was ‘bored with that 1930s-ish, pissy-assed socialism’.) After a striking production of The Smith of Ghent a couple of years ago, Flemish Opera invited back the German director Ersan Mondtag, this time in collaboration with actor Benny Claessens, a theatrical provocateur who comes over like…

New National Theatre Tokyo The choice of La Cenerentola for the opening production of the 2021/22 season of the New National Theatre Tokyo would not have been possible without the presence of mezzo-soprano Aya Wakizono as Angelina. Already reputed to be among the finest Rossini interpreters of her generation, she has sung the role at La Scala (with the Accademia), Verona and Osaka. Making a welcome return to the NNTT following an acclaimed performance of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro in February, Wakizono did not disappoint. It seemed the more difficult and higher the phrases were, the richer and more effortless her singing sounded. Wakizono had a wonderful partner in René Barbera as Don Ramiro, whose high Cs and Ds shone brightly on the first night. Their Act I…

Voices of Nature: The Anthropocene Renée Fleming Decca 4852089 enargeia Emily d’Angelo Deutsche Grammophon DG4860536 Isaac Albéniz: Complete Songs Adriana González Audax ADX13784 Donizetti-Verdi Hila Fahima Orfeo C210201 Ciboulette Hahn Naxos 2.110697 Tosca Puccini C Major 759108 CDs and Downloads Renée Fleming’s new album, Voices of Nature: The Anthropocene, is a collection of songs connected to nature, inspired by her walks during lockdown last year and something a lot of us will relate to. She chooses wisely from classic repertoire to illustrate her connection to the natural word; but also tacks on a rather on-trend message about the destructive society we live in and its effect on the environment, hence anthropocene, meaning the geological epoch that commenced when humankind started to have an impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.…

1 George Emerson sweeps Lucy Honeychurch off her feet to the strains of Puccini’s ‘O mio babbino caro’ in which film? And who sings the aria? 2. Which classic 1935 MGM comedy features three brothers, capers aboard an ocean liner, and a large chunk of Il trovatore, cheerfully and hysterically sabotaged? 3. ‘On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.’ So goes the first sentence of a 1920 novel on which Martin Scorsese based a film in 1993 – the opening scene is faithful to the book. What is the novel and who wrote it? 4. In Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Part III a lot of the cast is wiped out in a bloodbath in and around the…

The art of being popular I was delighted to read in your November issue the appreciation of the operas of Carlisle Floyd, who very sadly died earlier this year. As an American who lives in London, I’m dismayed that we never hear his work in Europe. It’s (I’m sorry to say) typical European intellectual snobbery that dismisses his operas as trite and tuneful. (Since when, I ask you, has being tuneful been a sin?) Floyd’s operas are difficult to define – and perhaps that’s another reason why opera companies in Europe have been reluctant to programme them: they are neither grand opera (though they often use grand operatic resources) nor are they musicals. They do, however, pack an emotional punch that leaves an unforgettable impression on audiences who are put…

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has launched Opera 360, a unique online programme designed to help develop the love and future of opera and musical theatre. Starting in September 2022, and in partnership with Welsh National Opera, Opera 360 will be an industry-led, digital course that invites opera lovers, arts professionals and students to gain behind-the-scenes knowledge of the industry with expert guidance given by those who make opera. It will offer detailed investigation into both the artistic and administrative practices of the global opera business. Opera 360 short courses are for anyone who has a deep love of opera and wants a strong connection with opera that goes beyond appreciation, whatever their stage of life. In addition to the short courses, the college is launching a full…

For beauty of sound in arias by Donizetti, Puccini, Bizet, Giordano, and Verdi, Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) remains unsurpassed. The delicacy and softness of his voice, which Italians call morbidezza, make his recordings a sensuous experience, from his Pearl Fishers Duet with Giuseppe De Luca to the Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor with Galli-Curci, ‘Donna non vidi mai’ from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, and a host of others. The tonal palette of his singing, particularly expressive in the passaggio between the head and chest voices, was varied, with mercurial shifts. Ardent fans even excuse Gigli’s characteristic sobs and gulps, which convey emotion in a way comparable to the catch in Judi Dench’s voice that makes her Shakespearian monologues so touching. Gigli’s portamento (sliding a pitch from one note to another), gave his…

English National Opera The Coliseum, London Well, I suppose nobody was expecting Calixto Bieito. Or were they? Might that explain the ranks of empty seats – at the second evening performance, on a Saturday night – for a show that needs to be ENO’s big banker? I’ve never seen the company’s self-inflicted wounds so plainly on view. There’s a mountain of work to do here begging the poor abused audience to come back. Can the recovery start with this Pinafore? Let’s hope… This was a show so trad (taking next to no notice of the marvellous G&S reinvigorations of the last decade) it kept throwing my mind back to the old D’Oyly Carte performances that staggered on at the Savoy until 20 years ago. But no, director Cal McCrystal was…

Oper Halle Am I dreaming or am I awake? Am I in the auditorium or on the stage? Have I joined the singers or was I always sitting in my seat? Is the curtain still open or not? These are – according to Walter Sutcliffe, the new artistic director of Oper Halle – the questions that a spectator should ask both during and after a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. In order to achieve this effect, the British director has altered the action, making Theseus (Ki-Hyun Park), who in fact appears only briefly at the end of Britten’s opera, a central character in this Halle production. We encounter Theseus at the outset of the opera, sitting in a theatre seat in front of the stage, representing us, the…

The enduring magic exerted by Maria Callas, not only on the public but also on creative people in widely different artistic disciplines, is also an enduring mystery. In Athens two famous divas in their own right – Monica Bellucci, the acclaimed film star, and Marina Abramović, one of the leading performance artists of our time – presented different ‘shows’ about La Divina in the Greek capital within a fortnight of each other. The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas, written and performed by Marina Abramović, is a co-production with the National Operas of Paris and Athens, the State Operas of Berlin and Bavaria, and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. It was produced in Athens by Greek National Opera. Abramović calls her creation an ‘opera’. In reality it has nothing to…

Michael Spyres Baritenor Erato 9029515666 Michael Spyres romps through this new album with palpable glee. And underneath the fun of the collection of arias on Baritenor, he has a serious point to make: that singers have become pigeon-holed into voice types and Fachs. In an interesting booklet essay, Spyres points out the number of singers who have moved up or down vocally, sung in higher and lower ranges, or had a centre of vocal gravity coupled with surprisingly high, or low, notes. Rossini’s star tenor Nozzari is an example of the latter, with a freakish top extension on a baritonal voice. Spyres also points out that composers changed roles while working on them, so variants exist: Ambroise Thomas originally composed Hamlet for a tenor; and Offenbach started with Hoffmann as…

Tenor superstar hassomethingalittledifferent in store for London audiences on his forthcoming visit to the capital. On 16 December, at the Royal Albert Hall, he will be singing some of his personal festive favourites, including renditions of traditional German songs from his childhood, lots of well-known carols, and swinging hits made famous by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. Glyndebourne will be full of the festive spirit as the year draws to a close. The 89 December at 7pm; 11 & 12 December at 3pm) will showcase the talents of the Glyndebourne Chorus and Tour Orchestra. The concert starts with opera highlights followed by yuletide classics and carols for all Also coming to the Glyndebourne stage this festive season is a concert performance of Handel’s 10December7pm), a rare opportunity to…

Royal Opera House, London When the curtain came down on the last performance of this new staging, Covent Garden erupted into a baying, hollering, stamping pandemonium like I’ve rarely heard here. Nice for everyone, of course, but a bit odd for a show that certainly deserved enthusiastic applause, but maybe not this. Yes, we’re all delighted to have opera back, and Jenůfa is a bloody good piece. But this was a staging which to put it mildly did not make the most of its material: of its singers, by the simple expedient of having them too far upstage, where they were often drowned by Henrik Nánási’s rather romanticised, imprecise orchestra; the voices couldn’t bloom and fill the house as you would want, particularly with Asmik Grigorian’s radiant but not huge-voiced…

Northern Ireland Opera, Belfast Cameron Menzies’ production of La bohème, his first live event as artistic director of Northern Ireland Opera, is a most intimate affair. The loves and dreams of a group of young bohemians play out in Belfast’s Carlisle Memorial Church – a Gothic Revival structure that informs the style of set designer Claire Morrissey’s rendition of the artists’ garret. The most significant design feature, however, is the placing of the orchestra in a purpose-built pit surrounded on all four sides by stage. Menzies uses the front strip to great effect throughout the production to bring moments both whimsical (a parading bird seller) and intense (the hotly quarrelling couple, Marcello and Musetta) within reach of the audience. This nearness involves and engages us. It would not be possible…

San Francisco Opera War Memorial Theater, San Francisco Fidelio can hold up a mirror to its audience in ways that seem relevant no matter the era in which it is set. This was certainly the case with San Francisco Opera’s first new production of the season. Yet the company’s staging went beyond tracing predictable parallels, succeeding in harnessing the work’s musical and dramatic dimensions to memorable effect. Director Matthew Ozawa and his design team certainly had points to make about the barbarity of the prison, which has become a burning topic for critics of the police system in the USA. At the same time, powerful casting and spirited contributions from the orchestra reinforced the timeless qualities of Beethoven’s vision. This Fidelio had originally been designed to serve as the grand…

Rosetta Cucchi commenced her role as Wexford’s artistic director in 2020, and was immediately (due to Covid) set the task of replanning her first season – which she did with imagination and flair in her online Shakespeare in the Air programme. This year, she was able to present much of the programme originally scheduled for 2020, and to live audiences, though initially limited to 60 per cent of capacity and with reduced orchestral forces. Cucchi had commissioned skilful reductions for each opera, intended to give it the best possible orchestral representation in the circumstances. This year’s theme of Shakespeare in the Heart thus followed on from last year’s Shakespeare in the Air. The first of the three main operas, though – and the only one to be fully staged – did…

ANJA SILJA Born in Berlin in 1940, Anja Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, training with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn. Known as a superb singer-actress, her vast repertoire has encompassed almost all the major soprano roles, from Mozart to Wagner to Strauss and Berg. Her love affair with Wieland Wagner proved an inspiration in the Bayreuth of the 1960s. Of her Salome, the critic Harold Rosenthal wrote, ‘There is no denying that this is one of the great performances of our time’. Her landmark appearances in Janáček operas at Glyndebourne kept her at the forefront of her career into the 21st century. Silja lives in Hamburg Favourite time of day? Between morning and lunchtime when I have the most energy. Favourite season?…