The schedule and programme for the first part of Simone Osborne and Anne Larlee’s Jeunesse Musicale tour have been released. They will perform in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre on November 12th at noon. The other venues are mostly smaller centres in Ontario and Quebec. The programme includes some Richard Strauss and two works by Brian Current including a new commission. Full details are contained in the linked PDF below.
Haydn’s Orlando Paladino is a “heroic comedy” based, of course, on Ariosto. In this version Angelica, queen of Cathay, and her lover Medoro have fled to a remote castle to get away from Orlando who is in love, of course, with Angelica. There’s a shepherd and shepherdess, a sorceress, a squire and Rodomonte, the king of Barbary thrown into the mix and various misadventures ensue until the sorceress, Alcina, dips Orlando into the waters of Lethe causing him to forget being in love with Angelica and it all ends happily. There are also a bunch of non-singing characters who, I think represent the “dangerous” people of this remote country. For reasons I haven’t quite fathomed they include a bishop and a bearded air hostess.
The 2009 Florence recording of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen is bright, colourful, straightforward and fun but it doesn’t quite have the magic of the older Théâtre du Châtelet version. Laurent Pelly’s production is quite straightforward with attractive sets and costumes and interesting choreography from Lionel Hoche.
People keep asking me at musical events whether I have a business card. So I created one.
It was back to the Four Seasons Centre last night for a second look at the COC’s Peter Grimes. This time Ben Heppner was singing the titled role as scheduled. Everything else was much the same as opening night and so I’ll just focus on the differences between Tony Dean-Griffey and Ben. In many ways their interpretations are similar. They both come across as “gentle giants”; alienated and outside Borough society but not really “brutal and coarse” as the libretto has it. In both cases the violence offered to Ellen in Act 2 seems to come from nowhere. The big difference, it seems to me, is that Dean Griffey has the voice to sing that interpretation. He can float the high notes in Now the Great Bear and Pleiades and What Harbour Shelters Peace in the disturbing and otherwordly manner of a Pears or a Langridge. Perhaps Heppner once had that quality but if he did it has gone. What Heppner does have is great acting powers. The prologue and the final scene were nuanced and compelling and worth the price of admission. In between he had his moments but he clearly isn’t over the problems that kept him out of opening night and there were a couple of quite jaw dropping moments in the scene in his hut. None of this stopped the Four Seasons crowd from giving him a rapturous reception.
Photo: Michael Cooper courtesy of the COC
Peter Grimes remains a great show with brilliance from the orchestra and chorus, a very fine Balstrode from Alan Held and strong performances from the other soloists. I’m glad I saw the show with both tenors and I would certainly recommend it highly with either. There are four more performances between now and October 26th.
Yesterday’s free concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre saw four members of the Ensemble Studio singing contrasting works by Benjamin Britten. First up was bass-baritone Gordon Bintner with excerpts from Tit for Tat; settings of works by Walter de la Mare. These were full blooded performances and Bintner gave full reign to his powerful and flexible voice. It’s a terrific instrument but I would have preferred a little more restraint and subtlety, especially in something as intimate as these pieces. Next up was tenor Andrew Haji with excerpts from Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo. It was rather a similar story. He has a fine, operatic voice and gave the songs a rather operatic treatment. It was good singing but not in the idiom one is accustomed to hearing this music sung in.
Photo: Karen Reeves
So Ben Heppner sang in the second performance of Peter Grimes at COC last night and is expected to sing the remainder of the run. I’m going again on Friday so watch this space.
The saga so far…
The COC is usually tighter than a duck’s arse when it comes to revealing information about future seasons so it was really quite surprising to find the leaflet illustrated below in last night’s programme. It’s not exactly a secret of course. I actually expected Falstaff to be in this season’s line up with the Verdi bicentennial and all. It’s pretty well known that Gerry Finley will star and I have a pretty good guess on the Nanetta.
It’s an interesting ploy to piggy back on the Met HD season this way.
Readers of this blog will likely know that Peter Grimes is a very special opera for me. I’ve watched it live and on recordings a lot. I think about it a lot troo so the chance to see it live is rather special. It’s even more special when it’s done as well as at the Four Seasons Centre last night in the opening performance of a new run of Neil Armfield’s much travelled production, revived here by Denni Sayers.
Where better to record a production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette than in the spectacular Arena at Verona? The productio, dircted by Francesco Micheli with sets by Eduardo Sanchi and costumes by Silvia Aymonino, is as spectacular as the setting and also quite weird in a space opera sort of way, The characters wear huge collars and are colour coded; Yellow for the Montagues, red for Paris and his entourage and blue for the Capulets. Only the non-feuding characters escape this schema notably, of course, the two lovers and Friar Lawrence. There are also lots of colourful cage like structures that character pop in and out of or sing from and a huge chorus and crowd of supers flow all over the vast space. It’s amazing to look at and actually suits a straightforward telling of the story quite well.
operaramblings 