This review first appeared in the print edition of Opera Canada.
O Gladsome Lightis a collection of sacred songs, hymns and meditations by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and his pupil Edmund Rubbra. They are performed by various permutations of Lawrence Wiliford, tenor, Stephen Philcox, piano and Marie Bérard and Keith Hamm, respectively Concertmaster and Principal Violist of the COC Orchestra.
Want a Christmas CD with a difference? Christmas at Casa Diva may be what you are looking for. It’s a collaboration between Canadian opera singers lyric soprano Virginia Hatfield, dramatic soprano Joni Henson and mezzo Megan Latham with collaborative pianist Pieter Tiefenbach. While some of the tracks are fairly traditional sounding versions of standards like White Christmas most are clever, almost cheeky, arrangements or even mash ups. Born is the King, for example, is a really cool mash up of Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, The First Noël and Silent Night that had me grinning like a loon when I heard it at the CD release party (OK the rather good mulled wine probably helped). Most of the tracks are also quite “modern” sounding. The arrangements make no concessions to the sort of soupy sentimentality found on so many seasonal offerings.
The music making throughout is unashamedly the work of serious, classically trained musicians (albeit SCTMs with a sense of humour) so it might not be an ideal gift for friends/relatives who are allergic to that kind of thing. For most readers of this blog though that will hardly be a deterrent. I have never heard a Christmas record remotely like this and it’s growing on me with each listening. You can buy the CD at Atelier Gregorian or online at jonihensonsoprano.com
Among the goodies I won from Chicago Opera Theatre in a recent Twitter! contest was a 2001 recording of Robert Kurka’s 1956 opera The Good Soldier Schweik based on the novel by Jaroslav Hašek. It’s a very interesting piece. It’s on an odd sort of scale with 26 solo parts, here managed by a team of 12 singers, plus chorus. It uses a fifteen piece woodwind and brass band with no strings at all. I’m guessing it could easily be presented in quite a wide range of theatres.
My “to watch” pile now consists entirely of older productions of 19th century operas (pretty much the dregs of the Toronto Public Library collection) and the COC season doesn’t start for another six weeks or so. I have one other live performance booked before then; a rather peculiar Handel piece performed in various locations at a local hotel. I’ve been listening to some new CDs then at least partly as a form of procrastination.
The first two were part of an ENO “goody bag” that I scored on Twitter. Songs of Muriel Herbert is a most worthwhile project. Herbert, like so many women composers, has never had the recognition she deserves. Not as “romantic” as a drug addled loon like Peter Warlock I guess. The CD contains thirty six songs setting texts ranging from Peter Abelard to James Joyce. I’d say they stand up well against other early twentieth century English art songs and would be well worth mining by anyone looking for some less well known recital repertory. The works are most sympathetically performed by Ailish Tynan, James Gilchrist and David Owen Norris. Continue reading
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