Author Archives: operaramblings

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About operaramblings

Toronto based lover of opera, art song, related music and all forms of theatre.

Brünnhilde lives

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The concluding instalment of Kasper Holten’s Copenhagen Ring really does wrap it up as Brünnhilde’s story.  It’s very effective in so doing too.  Holten states that the central problem in interpreting the Ring is the ending and he points out that Wagner struggled with it for years before resorting to what Holten sees as a cop out; the tired, patriarchal device of wrapping things up by having the heroine sacrifice herself for her man.  Holten rejects this and instead offers us a living Brünnhilde as a symbol of hope and renewal at the end of a century of terrible strife.  I wish I were as optimistic.

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Lotfi Mansouri

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So two “obituaries” on the trot.  Now Lotfi Mansouri is gone.  He was an interesting, larger than life, character.  Arguably he was born in the wrong age.  He would have been perfect in the days of entrepreneurial opera company owner/directors.  17th century Venice, London in Handel’s day or the US of the turn of the century would all have been natural homes.  His ability to cut a deal, to charm money out of the rich, to persuade legendary singers to perform in opera backwaters and to create spectacle while counting the pennies were amazing.  Was he so well suited for an age of complex artistic cultural politics and changing trends in opera production?  Perhaps not.

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Heaneygone

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Saddened by the news of the death of the great Seamus Heaney, I took some time out from opera last night to listen to the man reading his translation of Beowulf.  Some scholars may disparage the freedom of the translation but I love it.  I own, I think, four different translations of Beowulf and the Heaney is much my favourite.

This is a shot of the Folio Society bilingual edition (original poem, Heaney translation). It's a glorious thing. Continue reading →

Meyerbeer in the museum

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Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine was a huge hit in Paris, London and New York when it premiered in 1865.  I’m not sure why.  It has all of the things that make Meyerbeer seem very dated and not as much of the good stuff as Les Huguenots, or even Dinorah.  It’s ostensibly about Vasco de Gama but that’s just a peg to pin a love triangle and a bunch of exoticism on.  Are we actually supposed to believe that the Portugese wanted to find a way around the Cape to find out what was there?  It would have been a lot easier to get hold of a copy of Herodotus.  It’s also long.  Even with cuts it runs well over three hours in the version recorded at San Francisco Opera in 1988.

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The price is right

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simoneThe best bargain of the Toronto music season is the free lunchtime concert series at the Four Seasons Centre.  The 2013/14 line up was announced today.  Opera and vocal highlights include recitals by Sir Thomas Allen (Songs of the Sea, which sounds rather excellent), Simone Osborne, Robert Pomakov with The Gryphon Trio, Tracey Dahl, Russell Braun and Paul Appleby.  Somewhat off the beaten track, there will be a performance of Gagliano’s La Dafne by Capella Intima and the Toronto Continuo Collective and the Canadian Art Song project will be premiering a new commission by a Canadian composer.  There will also be the usual (and very popular) sessions from the COC Ensemble Studio (including two Britten themed concerts), the students of the University of Toronto opera division and the young artists of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal.

For the less vocally inclined there is also a full line up of piano, chamber music, world music, jazz and dance.  Here’s the full PDF brochure.

Ponnelle’s Ulisse

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Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria is the third of the Ponnelle/Harnoncourt Monteverdi collaborations and perhaps the best.  Itseems to stick closer to the original Zürich staging and be less obviously a film though it was recorded in the studio and lip synched.  The orchestra and conductor are visible and, in Act 3, Irus descends into the pit throws himself all over Harnoncourt.  It’s the conductor too who gives him the knife he kills himself with.  Is this the first (of many) times when Harnoncourt has been drawn into the theatrical action?

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Summer is icumen to an end

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opera5It may still be 90%+ humidity and hot as hell in Toronto but the signs of things to come are piling up.  I have a stack of tickets for fall events at various venues and the smaller opera groups are starting to announce their seasons.

The latest news is from Opera 5 who are launching the year with a Hollywood Glam Gala at Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu.  It’s a fundraiser with an “Opera in Hollywood” theme.  Performers will include Teiya Kasahara (probably not with the butch lesbian routine), Elizabeth MacDonald, Graham Thompson, and the increasingly visible Geoffrey Sirett among others.  Toronto photographer, Emily Ding will be on hand for Hollywood glam photos with food and alcohol provided by Fionn MacCool’s, notorious hangout of the COC Chorus.

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My darling goat

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Meyerbeer’s Dinorah ou le Pardon de Ploërmel must be a very strong candidate for the silliest opera ever written.  It concerns a young girl, Dinorah, who is deserted on her wedding day by her fiancé Hoël who disappears in search of a cursed treasure.  She goes mad.  There’s sheep and goat ballet, a lullabye to a goat accompanied on the bagpipes, more sheep and goat ballet and a scene where Dinorah sings a very difficult aria to her own shadow.  There’s a “ghastly” enchanted glen scene at the end of which Dinorah, pursuing her pet goat, falls into a river; apparently fatally.  Rather than resolve this we then get another half hour of pastoral with a hunter and a reaper and assorted shepherdesses and, inevitably, dancing sheep and goats before Hoël shows up having rescued Dinorah. He persuades her that the last twelve months have all been a bad dream and they get married accompanied by much pious singing.

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Spreading the goodness

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220px-Sir_Thomas_AllenWhen I learned that Sir Thomas Allen was going to be singing at the COC I decided that I really ought to try and get something organised for/by Durham alumni/ae in Toronto.  Step 1 is now complete.  There will be a party of 11 (so far!) at the opening night of Cosi to see Sir Tom’s Don Alfonso.  We’ll see what else we can manage… For me, this will be the second time I have seen him live; the first being in 1975!  Got a great price on the tickets too.

Armide at Versailles

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Lully’s Armide is pretty much the archetypal tragédie en musique.  It features an allegorical prologue praising Louis XIV’s multiple virtues, delivered as a dialogue by La Gloire and La Sagesse followed by five acts based on the Armida/Rinaldo story from Tasso.  There are also, of course, lots of ballet interludes.  As such, it isn’t all that easy to stage for a modern audience.  Robert Carsen and William Christie’s approach for their 2008 Paris production is to frame the story in the context of Versailles.

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