Lise Davidsen’s latest CD with Ed Gardner and the LPO features arias from five Verdi operas; Macbeth, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo and Aida. It’s pretty good. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
Catalogue information: Decca 4872241
The 2025 production of Verdi’s Nabucco recorded in the Arena di Verona is nothing if not spectacular; visually and vocally. One might ask though if it’s anything other than spectacular. Stefano Poda, who was responsible for designs and direction, makes some pretty bold claims in his Notes; “a symbolically charged reflection on power, spirituality and human identity”, “contrasting dualities: Babylonians and Hebrews, rationality and spirituality, progress and faith”, “the possibility of inner transformation and human reconciliation”. That’s a lot of freight for Nabucco to carry and I’m not sure it does but the visuals are certainly spectacular.
Wednesday saw the first lunchtime concert of the season in the RBA. And, of course, it was the COC’s Ensemble Studio performing. Angelo Moretti was away singing in Quebec so there were six singers and two pianists with an aria for each singer.
My review of the COC’s revival of Verdi’s La traviata is now available at bachtrack.com.
The season starts to ramp up a bit…
Concerts and Opera
Being distinctly impressed by Erin Morley and Lawrence Brownlee’s performance at Koerner Hall last month, I got my hands on the CD on which the tour is based. It’s much the same material but with orchestra which really changes things up a bit. It’s a different order too. They begin with six numbers in French starting with comic duets from La fille du régiment and Le comte Ory. It’s very playful but backed up by exquisite technique. There’s no sense of strain despite some serious high notes and some exacting coloratura passages for Morley. The orchestra; the Múncher Rundfunkorchester conducted by Ivan Repušić sounds great too.
It’s not often that one attends a recital that is so stunning that one struggles to find words to describe it but The Golden Age recital given by soprano Erin Morley, tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Malcolm Martineau at a packed Koerner Hall on Thursday evening, as part of Toronto Summer Music, was in that class. Most of the rep was drawn from the Golden Age album released last year with a few change ups. It’s basically all highly virtuosic material in the bel canto style (plus a couple of piano pieces).
Soprano and Conservatory student Alannah Beauparlant gave a recital in Mazzoleni Hall on Sunday that showed considerable versatility as well as a nicely developing voice. She sang in six languages and covered all the bases from art song to opera to musical theatre with some Bernstein that lay somewhere in the middle!
There’s a French version of Verdi’s Macbeth dating from 1865 and based on the 1847 Italian version. It was performed at the Verdi festival in Parma in 2024 and recorded for video. It’s not enormously different from the original though, unsurprisingly, there’s more ballet (at the beginning of Act 3). The ending is just as weirdly abrupt at least (*). In 1847 this was a transitional work with Verdi moving away from bel canto but here’s there’s still lots of rather jolly music accompanying either sinister or bloody scenes. By 1865 that must have sounded a bit odd.
The COC announcement of the 2026/27 season dropped this morning with zero fanfare; not even an embargoed presser in advamce. It’s pretty mixed and, rather to my surprise not far off what I predicted; at least in my more pessimistic version. So…
