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Volume 23 Issue 5 - February 2018

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • February
  • Jazz
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  • Performing
  • Theatre
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VOCAL Mozart – Des

VOCAL Mozart – Des Königs Zauberflöte Enoch Zu Guttenberg Farao Classics A108095 (farao-classics.de) !! It was not an uncommon practice in the 19th century for aristocratic families to mount extravagant amateur performances of classic theatre, including opera. Such productions demonstrated their education and sophistication and Ludwig II of Bavaria was no exception. In the late summer of 1884 at Herrenchiemsee in his “New Versailles” at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, Ludwig staged evenings of music and lights, outdoing the opulence of Louis XIV’s Versailles by employing new technology and an elaborate system of electric lights. For his gala Zauberflöte, Ludwig enlisted members of the political elite to perform name roles: he himself played Sarastro; Emperor Franz Joseph was Tamino; his mother Sophie was Queen of the Night and Empress Elizabeth was Pamina. This re-enactment of that event was first performed at the Herrenchiemsee Festival in 2010 under the direction of Enoch zu Guttenberg, a recognized and respected Mozartean. It is he who directs this exuberant performance recorded live in the Prinzregenten Theatre, Munich in November, 2013. Each member of the outstanding professional cast plays a named aristocrat singing their role in the original 1884 cast. The scenario though is fictitious. The whole production is, in effect, a show within a show. Before the actual performance starts we are treated to some amusing exchanges involving the King and various obsequious persons explaining the lighting, etc. One figure stands out and appears throughout the production… an elderly gentleman who just happens to be the original Papageno from long ago. His is a spoken role and he wanders in and out of the action as he tells the singers and others how it was done back then and hence how it should be now. Lots of clever banter and exchanges throughout, performed in German with optional subtitles, but Mozart’s music remains brilliantly intact and the audience gets the opera and a show. As do we. In state-of-the-art video and audio, Mozart lovers and others will get a real kick out of this unique event. Bruce Surtees Haunted by Brahms Lewis Furey ATMA ACD2 2765 (atmaclassique.com) !! Haunted by Brahms may be less lied in the classic sense and more song in the modern sense, but naysayers of either style ought not to have a complaint. The clarity with which Brahms’ overlapping melodic strands and patterns of narrative tension are weighted, articulated and cleverly woven together in the angular charm of Lewis Furey’s whimsical lyricism, is beautiful. Moreover, turning Brahms’ lieder on its head gets the listener’s attention as Furey’s gently slurred nasal intonation recreates a hypnotic aura around the prevailing Brahms gravitas. Purists may recall Glenn Gould’s April 6, 1962 performance of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, where Leonard Bernstein voiced his dissent but proceeded to conduct the New York Philharmonic while Gould performed his radical interpretation of the work. To those who would bristle at Haunted by Brahms it bears remembering that there were still aficionados of Brahms who stayed behind and appreciated that performance. Likewise listeners of this recording will be better served by wide open ears rather than a proverbial Germanic rigidity. Furey’s interpretations of Brahms’ rather unique German lieder reminds us that the composer took great risks when he also patronized lyricists who weren’t – like Goethe and Heine – counted among the major poets of the day. Furey’s lyrical, philosophical leap is just as remarkable. Also, in mirroring Brahms Deutsche Volkslieder in his own rather folksy, contemporary English renditions, Furey may actually have opened a new window into the Brahmsian lied. Raul da Gama Bellini – I Puritani Diana Damrau; Javier Camarena; Teatro Real de Madrid; Evelino Pidó BelAir BAC142 (belairclassiques.com) !! This was one of those rare events in the annals of opera when everything is just right, a spectacular success, with show-stopping moments like the final duet between the tenor and soprano. Even the conductor is applauding the singers from the pit while on the square outside a spontaneous crowd gathers watching it on a big screen, cheering wildly. Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece, I Puritani, his take on the 17th-century civil war in England, hugely successful at its premiere in Paris in 1835, has remained one of the most demanding and difficult to perform. It demands four superstar quality singers (the so-called Puritani Quartet), very rarely available. Recently it was revived at the Met with Anna Netrebko, which I thought quite wonderful, but this one surpasses it. Two main reasons are the tenor and the soprano. Phenomenal Mexican tenor Javier Camarena (Arturo) is unlike anything I’ve heard before, capable of producing shattering high Cs and even higher (Ds, F-sharps) with ease. At the same time his gorgeous tone, beautiful lyricism and total abandonment communicates the love he feels for Elvira. His A te, o cara made the audience go wild. More surprisingly, Diana Damrau, whom I always regarded as a soprano of great potential, now suddenly becomes a true diva, another Sutherland, in the role of Elvira with a breathtaking mad scene, a total immersion in the role and almost divine inspiration. Primo baritone Ludovic Tézier (Sir Richard), one of today’s most sought-after, is a very complex villain, an enemy who forgives his rival. His voice is rich and powerful yet he can be tender; a warrior very much in love. The famous duet in Act II with basso Nicolas Testé (Sir George), a longtime favourite of mine, is suitably rousing. Highly acclaimed Italian conductor Evelino Pidó, with tremendous sense of style and perfectly chosen but flexible tempi, alternately intensely dramatic or tenderly lyrical, has Bellini in his veins. Stage design by Emilio Sagi is deceptively simple, unobtrusive yet elegant, but can be awe-inspiring at crucial points of the opera. Janos Gardonyi Bellini – Norma Sonya Yoncheva; Joseph Calleja; Sonia Ganassi; Royal Opera House; Antonio Pappano Opus Arte OA 1247 D ! ! Ah, Norma, the opera with which young Bellini (merely 30 at the time) cemented his hold on Italian stages! He did create it as another vehicle for Giuditta Pasta, the foremost soprano of the time, yet she was followed by countless others including Rosa Ponselle, Maria Callas, Canada’s Sondra Radvanovsky, and now, Sonya Yoncheva. Breaking with Romantic and Classical tradition, however, is the fact that Norma is no damsel in distress. She is a force of nature, potent, fearless and 70 | February 2018 thewholenote.com

terrifying. She is also in charge of her own, however tragic destiny. That alone is enough to experience the opera with goosebumps on one’s arm. Here, the director, Àlex Ollé of the famous collective La Fura dels Baus, chooses to present Norma as enmeshed in a religious and military apparatus, an intellectual choice. However, rather than presenting modernday, right-wing evangelical orthodoxy, he gives us Spanish Inquisition-era ultra-Catholicism. This results in unintended humour and the need for even more of a suspension of disbelief: a woman, ordained as a top priest? So yet again, we are best left just listening to the music… And what music! Pappano is the undisputed conductor-king of the operatic stage. The three principals are in fine form, especially Calleja, as a strong, commanding Pollione, rather than the frequently portrayed wimpy ladykiller. In the end, it seems that Yoncheva, though gifted with a silky and precise voice, does not have the dark notes with which Callas’ and Radvanovsky’s Normas strike fear in our hearts. Robert Tomas Verdi – Otello Nikolai Schukoff; Melody Moore; Lester Lynch; Gulbenkian Orchestra and Chorus; Lawrence Foster Pentatone PTC 5186 562 (pentatonemusic.com) !! Apart from Nabucco, all Verdi operas contain important tenor roles, but the demands in his penultimate opera Otello are much greater than those in his earlier work. Many readers will recall the sad time when Carlo Bergonzi attempted the role (Carnegie Hall, 2000) and was unable to finish. Bergonzi was already 75 then. Perhaps he simply left it too late. I think it is misleading to call the part that of a heldentenor, yet it is worth adding that several of the finest interpreters of the role, notably Ramón Vinay and Jon Vickers, have also been known for their singing of Wagner. The Austrian tenor Nikolai Schukoff has sung a large assortment of roles (they include a great deal of operetta) and he has also performed some important Wagnerian parts: Lohengrin, Siegmund, the Götterdämmerung Siegfried and Parsifal. These CDs show that he is certainly up to the part of Otello, both in its heroic qualities and in its more tender moments. I like the tone of the soprano (Melody Moore), although her diction is not always clear. She is very affecting in the opera’s final act. The Iago (Lester Lynch) is first-rate. A peculiarity of the recording is that the voices seem recessed in contrast with the clarity of the orchestra. This brings out orchestral detail in ways that recordings generally don’t, but it is only by using a very high volume that one can hear the singers properly. Hans de Groot Verdi – Rigoletto Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Nadine Sierra; Francesco Demuro; Andrea Mastroni; Oksana Volkova; Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and State Choir; Constantine Orbelian Delos DE 3522 (delosmusic.com) !! This is the final opera recording that the great Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky made before his too-early death last November. Surprisingly, it marks the first time he recorded Rigoletto, even though the cursed, tragic court jester was one of his favourite – and finest – roles. Verdi wrote some of his most memorable arias for Rigoletto. They’re given bravura performances here, with Hvorostovsky’s harrowing Pari siamo! confirming him as a Rigoletto for the ages. Tenor Francesco Demuro’s Duke of Mantua dazzles, at times too brightly, in La donna è mobile, while soprano Nadine Sierra portrays Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda with a rich, moving Caro nome. Rigoletto’s extended duets with his daughter provide the most dramatic moments in this opera. Sierra is persuasive as a naïve yet determined young girl, while Hvorostovsky manages to reveal the depths of Rigoletto’s anguish. During the first act duet, Figlia! Mio padre!, Rigoletto suddenly shatters the tender mood by turning on Gilda accusingly. The way Hvorostovsky darkens and roughens up his voice makes for riveting drama. The men of the Kaunas State Choir deliver with such style that they almost steal the show. Hvorostovsky’s longtime collaborator, Constantine Orbelian, leads the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra with delightful clarity. Hvorostovsky performed regularly in Toronto throughout his career, though unfortunately never in a staged opera. This recording of one of the most demanding roles in all opera makes a fitting tribute to a matchless singer. He will be missed. Pamela Margles Concert Note: The Canadian Opera Company performs Rigoletto at the Four Seasons Centre on February 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 17, 21 and 23. Robert Paterson – Three Way: A Trio of One-Act Operas Nashville Opera; Dean Williamson American Modern Recordings AMR1048 (americanmodernrecordings.com) !! In this 2CD set’s booklet, librettist David Cote writes that “Three Way is a sex-positive comic opera” that “holds the mirror up to all sexualities – gay, straight, BDSM, bi, trans… without moralizing or treacly reverence.” What we're listening to this month: thewholenote.com/listening To Dream of Silence Jeff Reilly To Dream of Silence beautifully chronicles a series of extraordinary dreams experienced by Jeff Reilly. The album includes a new work by Christos Hatzis. In the Weeds Ventus Machina New Release! woodwind quintet, commissioned works by Martin Kutnowski and Mike Titlebaum, works by D'Rivera, Piazzolla and Bernstein. Purchase directly at www.ventusmachina.com For You Carol Welsman The #1 best-selling jazz album in Tokyo for 6 months! Reached #12 on Jazz Week Chart, USA. Top 5 Pick of Week - ICI Musique- Radio Canada! Alex Pangman's Hot Three! Alex Pangman Recorded live, in the spirit of early jazz recording pioneers, direct to acetate 78 rpm disc on a 1930’s portable Presto lathe. No smoke. No mirrors thewholenote.com February 2018 | 71

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