Tag Archives: heppner

Farewell Ben

Posted on by
Reply

benhFamed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner has announced his retirement from singing.  It’s entirely understandable as he has been struggling with vocal problems for some considerable time.  On form, he was magnificent and I was privileged to hear his Tristan when he returned to COC after a long absence in 2013.  Unfortunately a run of Peter Grimes later in the year showed the other side of the coin with a cancellation and some pretty rough moments.  Ben is a gentleman and a professional and I think he’s doing the right thing by the opera world, for which he’s been such a distinguished servant for so long.  He’s already got a radio gig hosting CBC Radio’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and I’m sure other interesting opportunities will open up.  On to pastures new…

A static Tristan

Posted on by
4

Dieter Dorn’s production of Tristan und Isolde for the Metropolitan Opera is one of the most interesting from a design point of view that I have seen from the Met.  If only the direction of and acting of the principals in this recording (made in either 1999 or 2001; sources differ) was up to the same standard!

1.isolde_brangane Continue reading →

Heppner as Grimes

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Heppner as Grimes

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.

What harbour shelters peace?

Posted on by
3

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.

13-14-02-MC-D-0594 Continue reading →

Old Ben has gone missing

Posted on by
1

It’s official.  Tony Dean Griffey will sing the title role in tomorrow night’s opening performance of Peter Grimes at the COC, replacing an indisposed Ben Heppner.  The party line is that Ben will sing the remaining performances.  We will see.  Certainly Tony is scheduled to start a run of Fledermaus in Houston on the 25th and the last Grimes is on the 26th.  This story isn’t over.  Whatever else goes down, let’s hope Ben makes a speedy recovery from whatever ails him.

Heppner out of COC Grimes?

Posted on by
10

griffeyAnthony Dean Griffey was flown into Toronto yesterday to replace Ben Heppner in the final dress rehearsal of the COC’s Peter Grimes which opens on Saturday.  There has been no official announcement of a cast change but I’m making enquiries.  Reports from the dress say that the einspringer was splendid.

This in from the COC… “Yes, it’s true that Anthony Dean-Griffey sang the dress rehearsal. Ben wasn’t feeling well and since he knows the role so well, he was resting up for opening night.”

Ben Heppner at Toronto Reference Library

Posted on by
Reply

heppnerLast night’s event in the Star Talks series at the Toronto Reference Library involved Richard Ouzounian interviewing Ben Heppner who is in town to sing the title role in Peter Grimes.  It was a very genial interview; no tough questions about elitism or whether opera was dying.  Rather it was very much the tale of the kid from Dawson Creek who beats Renee Fleming and Susan Graham in the Met auditions and becomes a superstar.  It was curiously like Desert Island Discs without the music.

There were a couple of interesting stories.  The best concerned Heppner and Richard Jones’ production of Lohengrin (available on DVD/Blu-ray with Jonas Kaufmann in the title role).  It’s the one where Lohengrin and Elsa build a house then Lohengrin burns it down.  Well it turns out the the three year old Ben Heppner managed to burn the family home down and during the dress of Lohengrin had a pretty strong repressed memory reaction at the point where he had to set the cradle alight.  It says a lot for his professionalism that the first night went off without incident.

I did get to ask him for his views on different kinds of tenor singing the role of Grimes.  After all it was created for one of the most ethereal operatic tenors ever but ids frequently sung today by full on heldentors.  He said he didn’t think the voice was as important as how fully the singer inhabited the character and singled out Philip Langridge in that regard.  I have to agree with him.  I love Langridge’s Grimes.  It’s a real pity the video recording of it is so awful.

Peter Grimes runs for seven performances at the COC starting October 5th.

All the Grimes that’s fit to print

Posted on by
Reply

opusarteoabd7119dIt will come as no secret to regular readers that I am something of a Peter Grimes completist.  Until recently this blog was probably the only place one could find detailed reviews of all the available video recordings of that great work.  Now the recent La Scala production has been released on Blu-ray and I am no longer complete.  Fear not though, the disk is in the mail as they say and the divine order will shortly be restored.

In other Grimes news, the Aldeburgh Festival is staging the work on the beach.  The estimable Chris Gillett, Horace Adams both there and at La Scala, is blogging about it in his usual inimitable style.  In some ways I really wish I could go but I know that coast.  Even on a good day the wind will freeze one’s soft bits off. Definitely a challenging place to perform or even watch opera.  It’s also just off the A12 and I still have the after effects of 24 stitches on my face from a rather unfortunate encounter on that highway in my youth.  I shall patiently await Ben Heppner, Alan Held, Ileana Montalbetti et al at the Four Seasons Centre in the fall.

Highest, purest joy

Posted on by
12

12-13-03-MC-D-0022-21After seeing Peter Sellars on Monday night I decided that (a) I had to see Ben Heppner as Tristan and (b) I couldn’t wait until next Friday when I have tickets to see Michael Baba in the role.  So, I skipped out of the office yesterday morning and with a little help (thanks Sergey!) scored a standing room ticket for last night’s opening.  (At $12 for nearly five hours music this was a remarkable bargain!).  I’m back at my desk on five hours sleep and I’m still in shock.  This will go down in legend.

I’d only seen Tristan und Isolde once before, in a disastrous MetHD broadcast, which had been so irritating that the music left little impression.  Other times I’d attempted it on DVD I couldn’t get past the nothinghappensness of it.  Last night I finally got it.  In Sellars’ production not much happens on stage.  The singers, in non descript monochrome outfits, come and go or stand around in square light spots.  They gesture in characteristically Sellarian fashion but it’s almost classic “park and bark”.  But, and it’s a huge but, behind them there is a giant screen on which videos by Bill Viola play more or less continuously and through them he evokes time and place and we see the inner journeys of the characters.  It’s really hard to describe but it works brilliantly.  To counterpoint the long meditative sections, when there is action it often happens off stage.  The chorus sing off stage from various parts of the house and characters, too, appear on the orchestra apron or high up in the Rings.  These action moments are often accompanied by lighting that encompasses the auditorium and implicates us in the action (but not the dark inner journey of Tristan and Isolde).  It’s great.  (1)

Continue reading →