Tag Archives: alder

The Raptur’d Soul

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Theodora - ArcangeloHandel’s Theodora is probably performed more nowadays as a staged opera than as an oratorio.  The same is true for several of his other English language oratorios; notably Semele.  It was in that format I was introduced to Theodora by Peter Sellar’s famous production at Glyndebourne, which I loved, but I had never sat down and listened to the piece until getting my hands on a recent recording on the Alpha label.  Bottom line, I think it’s some of Handel’s best music.  Maybe the second part isn’t as inspired as the first and third  but it abounds in truly great airs and the libretto is really tight; dramatic and carefully constructed.

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Giulio Cesare at Grauman’s

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The 2021 production, by Keith Warner, of Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the Theater an der Wien uses Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre as a framing device.  Sometimes the action is clearly the actors, producers, cigarette girls etc involved in the screening of a silent German movie version of “Caesar and Cleopatra”.  Other times they are performing the action of the film/opera.  Sometimes the cinema screen shows clips from the movie.   Other times it shows pictures of the characters on stage.  For example, at the beginning of Act 2 Tolomeo, whose other persona is some kind of sleazy mafioso movie exec, is shooting up.  There’s a B&W picture of him on the screen that slowly changes to bright colours and then becomes more and more a depiction of a pretty heavy trip.

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Don Giovanni redux

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It’s becoming a bit of a habit.  The Royal Opera has released a video recording of the 2019 revival of Kaspar Holten’s 2014 production of Don Giovanni directed by Jack Furness and conducted by Helmut Haenchen.  I’ve already reviewed both the DVD and the cinema broadcast of the 2014 production so saying much about the production would be superfluous.  Suffice to say it’s one of the better Don Giovannis available on disk.

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“Live” from Covent Garden

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If you didn’t catch it live last night there’s a really lovely concert up on the Royal Opera House Youtube channel which should be available for a couple of weeks.  Tony Pappano is at the piano with Louise Alder singing Britten, Strauss and Handel, Toby Spence with some Butterworth plus Gerald Finley with Finzi, Turnage and Britten.  The boys finish off with the Pearl Fishers duet.  Along the way, Morgen is sung by Louise and danced quite beautifully to choreography by Wayne McGregor by Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales.  It’s weird, and even eerie, to see a concert from a large empty theatre but there we are.  Highly recommended.

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The Romans, being wanton, worship chastity

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Continuing my struggle with Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia I got hold of the Blu-ray recording of Fiona Shaw’s 2015 Glyndebourne production.  I’m beginning, I think, to see my way to understanding the problems inherent in the libretto and some of the strategies that can be used to overcome them.  The more minor problem is Junius and the odd scene early in Act 2 where he seems to be inciting the Romans to revolt while acting as a general in Tarquinius’ army while, also, apparently, been in some sense complicit in the rape.  So we have a two faced power hungry schemer who is oblivious to the consequences of his mischief making; whether rape or rabble rousing (a sort of Roman Boris Johnson).  Most productions ignore this aspect of things and probably rightly.

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