Tabla de contenidos para June 2022 en Opera Now

Our focus on Italian and Spanish opera companies in this issue of Opera Now comes at a moment when UNESCO is deciding whether the art of bel canto singing, with its origins in the European South, should be added to its list of intangible heritage. The move would acknowledge and endorse the contribution that the human voice, as expressed through opera, has made to the development of civilisation and cultural understanding. Bel canto remains perhaps the most challenging and physically demanding of styles, forming the foundation of all great operatic singing. Most accomplished Wagnerians, for example, describe it as the bedrock of their technique, allowing them to control their breath and tone without straining (it should be remembered that Wagner’s own understanding of the singing voice has its roots in…

The Metropolitan Opera and Polish National Orchestra have announced that they will assemble an orchestra of leading Ukrainian musicians to tour Europe and America this summer, with proceeds from the concerts directed towards victims of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra comprises musicians who are recent refugees, members of European ensembles and leading orchestral players from Ukraine. The orchestra will tour from 28 July to 30 August, with performances in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands followed by appearances in New York and Washington DC. In a joint statement, Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, and Waldemar Dąbrowski, director of the Polish National Opera, said, ‘Music can be a powerful weapon against oppression. This tour is meant to defend Ukrainian art and its brave artists as…

Still fearful of air travel, it took me a whole day to get to Basel by train, but what a prospect! On three successive evenings I could see there Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse, Verdi’s Don Carlos and Shostakovich’s The Nose – three iconic works from respectively, the 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. On an expectation high, I came down to earth with a bump when, arriving in the theatre for my favourite Monteverdi, I read in the programme that Krystian Lada, the director, had decided to dispense with the role of Ulysses. In his place, there would be six immigrants to Switzerland talking about their experiences; and their spoken contributions would be accompanied by an electronic score. I dreaded what was to come, and the first 15 minutes were not…

The chief message in the fairly complicated story of Handel’s Alcina is surely the discovery and meaning of real love and its loss. The eponymous sorceress habitually seduces vulnerable suitors and changes them into objects and animals when they begin to bore her. Yet Ruggiero, who also falls under her spell, becomes the love of her life. In the end, however, she loses him to his devoted fiancée Bradamante who, disguised as her own brother, arrives at Alcina’s enchanted island to rescue him. In the meantime, we see the usual twists and turns of a Baroque opera: mistaken identities, mad jealousies, a magic ring, demons and spirits summoned by Alcina – and finally all of her spells broken. Her exlovers are also released from their animal transformations, and everyone is…

Half a century ago, the late and visionary Dr David DiChiera founded Michigan Opera Theater (MOT). The company’s initials also stood for the things that have made Detroit famous: Motown and the Motor Capital of the USA. The company has just renamed itself Detroit Opera in order to focus its identity on the city of Detroit itself; and, under its artistic director Yuval Sharon, it has launched itself on a mission to become one of the US most innovative and experimental opera theatres. The company’s first live opera performance in more than two years in its home, the cavernous 4,125-seat Detroit Opera house, was Puccini’s La bohème, staged by Yuval Sharon – not so innovative, you might think, until you learn that it was performed in reverse. The opera began…

In questa reggia Oksana Dyka Delos DE3586 Dein ist mein ganzes Herz Lehár Profil PH22004 Die tote Stadt Korngold Opus Arte OACD9050D Der Freischütz Weber Unitel/CMajor 760008 Idomeneo Mozart Unitel/CMajor 760208 Così fan tutte Mozart Naxos 2.110726-27 CDs and digital Oksana Dyka is in the handful of sopranos who essay dramatic roles such as Turandot, Abigaille (Nabucco) and Lady Macbeth, with their requirement for lungs of leather. No room for shrinking violets, the job is to get out there and make an impressive amount of noise, show your stamina and galvanise your audience. Dyka certainly has the first two attributes in the bag in her new solo album, In questa reggia (the title of Turandot’s opening blast). She is loud and seemingly tireless. And I suppose I am galvanised –…

High time I very much enjoyed reading Fiona Hook’s survey of countertenor singing in the recent May issue of Opera Now, and was particularly interested to learn about the different ‘schools’ that emerged in the US and Great Britain – though the article doesn’t really explore the European origins of the voice in the traditions of the castrato, with its beginnings in Italy. Though countertenors can, and often do sound ethereal and ‘asexual’, early 18th-century figures such as Farinelli and Senesino were figures of considerable sexual allure and the castrato voice was known for its seductive, sensual characteristics. Singers such as Jakub Jozef Orliński, Max Emanuel Cenčić and Carlo Vistoli definitely come with a swagger that puts them firmly in the traditions of the big-boned, viscerally engaging European tradition. It…

I’m looking forward to it so much – I’ve been waiting over two years!’ exclaims Amanda Echalaz, referring to the new production of La Gioconda at Grange Park Opera that was postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic. ‘Singing it to yourself is OK to a point, but I’m really looking forward to singing with other people.’ I meet Echalaz onscreen as she prepares to leave her home in Santa Fe (where husband Robert Meya is general director of the famous opera company), to travel to the UK for rehearsals. She has a relaxed charm and great humour as she takes me through her preparation for the role. Ponchielli’s 1876 masterpiece is generally known best for its ballet, ‘The Dance of the Hours’, (famously lampooned in Disney’s Fantasia and also…

The crimson robes forced upon the enslaved women in The Handmaid’s Tale are everywhere: donned by protestors (such as in Texas by those in opposition to restrictive abortion laws in the state) and reality TV stars (Kylie Jenner was recently criticised for hosting a Handmaid’s Tale-themed party). Amazon now offers its own version of the blood-red outfit – that ominous symbol of fertility – and white, vision-restricting bonnet: yours for just £37.99. The iconic robes line the London Coliseum stage, their inhabitants’ faces darkly anonymous. It is only when the 2195 International Historical Association’s 12th Symposium on the Republic of Gilead is officially opened – a slight deviation from Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, which mentions the academic setting as an epilogue – and the robes are tugged upwards (a nod…

The world is doling out savage critiques of Russia and all things Russian following the invasion of Ukraine; but this only renders the work of the 19th-century Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol even more prescient and powerful. The Royal Danish Opera’s new production of Gogol’s most celebrated operatic transfer, Shostakovich’s The Nose (soon to be seen at La Monnaie in Brussels), was designed as a contemporary, political show and evidently mapped out long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What surely attracted Shostakovich was the borderline impossibility of recounting The Nose’s events in the theatre, which explains his score’s parallel challenges – too fast, too large and too loud, when measured against anything like ‘normal standards’ in the late 1920s. It’s fine for theatre-makers to grapple with the ridiculousness of a nose…

The Sarasota Opera 2022 Winter Festival was an occasion for celebration. It welcomed the company’s return to its first full season of a four-opera festival since 2019, and it marked Victor DeRenzi’s 40th season as artistic director of this cultural jewel on Florida’s Gulf Coast. During his four-decade-tenure, DeRenzi has steadfastly kept the same artistic philosophy: to recreate as closely as possible how operas would have appeared when they were first performed, centuries earlier. His traditional mindset stems from the maestro’s first opera experiences as a child, when he recalled being transported to exotic locations such as La bohème’s Paris, Aida’s Egypt or Carmen’s Spain. Consequently, attending the Sarasota Opera is seeing the genre frozen in time. Opera here is viewed mainly as entertainment, with appealing sets, pretty costumes, beautiful…

Erato 9029627842 Last November there were two celebratory concerts marking the 20th birthday of orchestra Le Concert d’Astrée, one in Berlin, one in Paris. They were both led by Emmanuelle Haïm, who created the ensemble in 2000, and she attracted a wealth of talented star singers (and a guest appearance by Simon Rattle) to get the party to go with a swing. There is no particular theme, simply a series of baroque arias, ensembles and orchestral numbers, 41 in total. Highlights are many, but here are some to listen out for. Soprano Emmanuelle de Negri sings an aria from Rameau’s Castor et Pollux with a bright tone and good attack. Coloratura skills abound as Lea Desandre negotiates her voice through a Vivaldi aria from Juditha triumphans with the seeming abandon…

Performance runs starting in June and July 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 FESTIVALS GARSINGTON OPERA www.garsingtonopera.org L’Orfeo | Monteverdi JUN 01, 03, 09, 11, 15, 23, 25; JUL 03 Conductor Laurence Cummings Stage director John Caird Lighting designer Paul Pyant CAST La Musica Claire Lees Orfeo Ed Lyon Euridice Zoe Drummond Proserpina Lauren Joyanne Morris Plutone Ossian Huskinson Cosi fan tutte | Mozart JUN 02, 04, 10, 12, 17, 26; JUL 01, 08, 13, 16, 20 Conductor Tobias Ringborg Stage director John Cox Orchestra The English Concert Lighting designer Paul Pyant Set designer Robert Perdziola CAST Fiordiligi Camila Titinger Dorabella Polly Leech Despina Ailish Tynan Ferrando Gavan Ring Guglielmo Sean Boylan…

1 A prince and a sweep are both what? And a lingonberry even more so! 2 Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna (d1838 aged 96), known in later life as Princess Moustache, was the inspiration for which operatic character? 3 What links the Golden Globe-winning movie song ‘This is Me’ to Baba the Turk? (Princess Golitsyna might have joined in the conversation.) 4 La clemenza di (____) Manlio; fill in the missing word. 5 Which opera stars a marsh nymph? 6 Which countertenor is full of beans? 7 Which ‘Yankee vagabondo’ offers a choice of whiskey or a drink made of brandy, milk, vanilla, sugar and nutmeg; and what is that drink called? 8 You have a ticket to see a performance of Figaros bryllup; in which country are you? 9 In…

No opera singer can earn more than €18,000 per performance in Spain, and artistic directors seem to concur that the choice of titles to be performed should not be determined by the presence of glittering stars. Those taking lead roles should simply join other good singers in well-rehearsed productions. Certainly, the Liceu and the Real are more pressed by public opinion to compete with other international companies on who gets whom first, but in the words of Joan Matabosch at the Real: ‘The days are over when a divo or diva could choose what he or she wanted to sing, with the house obliged to assemble the rest of the production around them, not even bothering to insist on a properly rehearsed orchestra under a competent conductor.’ Besides, suggests the…

Over the past few months, all those war-torn set designs so beloved of contemporary opera directors have become apparently ‘relevant’ in new and exciting ways. My own feeling is that opera starts opining about actual geopolitics at its own risk: drawing parallels between itself and current conflicts tends to undermine the seriousness of both. Still, it was piquant that English Touring Opera’s bold tour of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel – which fully employs the composer’s cunning tendency to use fairy-tale narratives to satirise the various fatuities Tsardom – opened at precisely the moment of the latest Russian martial adventure. In the end, scary old President Putin would seem to have little in common with Tsar Dodon or with the hapless Nicholas II, the target of the opera’s original satire. The opera…

Classical music fans in Japan consider Benjamin Britten the most important British composer of the 20th century. His works are not frequently performed in Japan, but his operas are steadily gaining in popularity, especially Peter Grimes and (since it is based on a Noh drama) Curlew River. Yet many of his operas have hardly ever been performed here – Billy Budd is yet to have its Japanese premiere, for example. Therefore, the performance of Noye’s Fludde at the Spring Festival in Tokyo was a valuable occasion for Japanese opera-goers to learn more about Britten’s operatic output. According to the festival’s organisers, it was only the second public performance of Britten’s 1958 community opera in Japan, although there may have been private performances by amateur groups, for whom it was principally…

Joyce DiDonato has toured the first series of concerts based around her new album, Eden, in which she explores our connection with the natural world through a series of arias and songs expressing a range of emotions engendered by our relationship with our environment: how we co-exist with it, love and enjoy it, treasure it – and also vandalise and destroy it. The London performances were given at the Barbican Hall. The concert was semi-staged by Marie Lambert and launched with an atmospheric start, with a barefoot DiDonato entering the back of the almost totally dark auditorium as orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro sustained the mesmerising phrases of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, rewritten to give the mezzo the haunting and wordless questioning phrase, repeated seven times. Once onstage, DiDonato continued…

Before I started this album I knew little about Fanny Hensel,’ admits Chen Reiss, ‘and now I feel that it was a loss for me: she’s a fabulous composer! If she had been a man, she’d be as famous as her brother. I feel it’s my responsibility to widen her audience.’ So, how much did Reiss actually know about Fanny Hensel? ‘I knew some of her songs, not as a performer but on recordings. Then Daniel Grossmann, conductor of the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich approached me to sing a Hensel cantata, and that really provoked my interest and research. And I thought wow, she’s not just a great chamber composer but also creates larger pieces and is a good orchestrator who captures the atmosphere of a piece and knows how…

JOHN COPLEY John Copley, 89, is one of Britain’s most distinguished opera directors. His career includes some of the Royal Opera House’s longest running productions, including his acclaimed 1974 production of La bohème (which ran for 41 years), Così fan tutte (24 years) and Le nozze di Figaro (21 years), As Principal Resident Director for The Royal Opera, he worked with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Georg Solti. He has also directed extensively in Europe and the USA and has had a long association with Opera Australia, including directing the Australian premiere of Janácek’s Jenufa at the recently opened Sydney Opera House in 1974 Favourite time of day? The day just happens. I was always working at night. For about 35 years I did…