Photo by Danilo Ursini http://www.ursiniphotography.com
The Canadian Art Song project is an initiative of Lawrence Wiliford and Steven Philcox to encourage the composition, performance and recording of Canadian Art Song (surprise!). Part of the program is an annual commission for a Canadian composer and poet for such a work. This year’s commission formed part of today’s recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.
Opera Atelier announced their 2012/13 season today.
Carla Huhtanen slumming it with the rest of us, queuing to get into a concert at the Four Seasons Centre
The exciting bit is a move into early romantic territory with Weber’s Der Freischutz. The cast includes local favourites Krešimir Špicer, Carla Huhtanen, Curtis Sullivan, Olivier Laquerre and Michael Uloth. The creative team is the usual OA gang and Tafelmusik will be in the pit, which is an interesting choice to out it mildly.
The less exciting bit is another revival of The Magic Flute in English. I’ll be tempted to see it to see the Pamina of Laura Albino, Mireille Asselin sing Papagena and see how Ambur Braid does with the Queen of the Night in a smaller house. Still, I first saw OA’s Flute over 20 years ago. I’ve seen it quite a few times in both its “full” and cut down for kids versions and I’m not that excited. Has that “bums on seats” feel.
Here’s the full announcement.
Today’s lunchtime concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was of a series of works by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho whose opera L’Amour de Loin opens on Thursday at the Four Seasons Centre. The composer was in attendance and introduced each of the pieces.
First up were four songs for soprano and piano on texts by the Finnish poet Leino. These were performed by Carla Huhtanen and Adam Sherkin. We were told that the texts were essentially untranslatable but the English versions we got were good enough to see how the mood of the music fit the piece, if not to make any real judgement of the relationship between words and music. I found the music evocative and quite complex but not difficult to listen to. It’s certainly well beyond being mere mood music. They are quite intense pieces and place pretty heavy demands on both pianist and singer. In particular the soprano has many loud, sustained high notes to cope with and some awkward intervals. Huhtanen managed this with comfort. I can’t comment on her Finnish though I guess I can say, given that the last time I heard her sing was in Serbian, that odd languages don’t seem to worry her. Sherkin seemed well in control at the keyboard.
Next up were two contrasting piano pieces played by Sherkin. Both demanded some rather athletic playing. The first, Prelude, I found the more meditative of the two. I zoned out at times (but in a good way). The second piece, Ballade, I found myself getting more analytical about. The composer explained that it was a more narratively structured piece and I did get that sense. Sherkin was really good on both pieces.
The final contribution was Tag des Jahrs for choir and electronics. It’s a setting of four poems by Hölderlin on the theme of the seasons. This was performed by the Elmer Iseler Singers who, besides the electronic tape, got “help” from a concrete saw on University Avenue. For me this was the least successful piece. The music was quite evocative but occasionally seemed to be slipping into mood music territory. It probably wasn’t helped by the performance. I thought the German diction was distinctly sub-standard. They might as well have been singing in Finnish.
I’m glad to have heard some of Saariaho’s music ahead of seeing L’Amour de Loin next week and it’s always good to hear the composer’s thoughts on works of this type. There’s another concert of vocal works by Saariaho on Thursday. Here’s the programme. I shall try to be there.
Back in June I attended and wrote up the world premiere of Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba-Wedding. Today it was given again in a concert performance by the original cast in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre. I’m not going to repeat what I said in the earlier review but focus on my reactions to seeing it again. First off, it works very well as a concert piece losing less than a more obviously narrative work might. Second, I was struck by the interesting way the piece weaves two very different musical strands together; the high tempo, almost percussive, onomatopoeic elements as referred to before but also a more lyrical element where a long, slow, folk derived line is introduced and then a second and maybe a third or even a fourth melody are woven in to create a rather dense harmonic texture. This second element is particularly apparent in the final number “Farewell”. The contrast is very effective. Finally, Jacqueline Woodley sounded even more like a young Dawn Upshaw. Her ability to sing powerfully with next to no vibrato is very compelling in this sort of music. [Image by John Lauener is from the staged production at Berkeley Street and was lifted from today’s performance flyer]
operaramblings 