Tag Archives: verdi

24 carat Golden Age

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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).

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Alannah Beauparlant shows great versatility

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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!

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La pièce écossaise

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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.

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Stellar singing in Rigoletto revival

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Wednesday night I attended the second performance of the current run of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the COC.  This is a revival of the Christopher Alden production first seen in 2011 (first cast, second cast) and again in 2018.  So the basic concept is the same.  All the action is played out, quite publicly, in the “gaming room” of a Victorian gentlemen’s club.  I think the production has grown on me over time.  I felt the tweaks in 2018 were improvements and I suspect some more tweaks this time.  Certainly from where i was sitting in the Orchestra the set seemed bigger than I remember.  It’s huge and very painterly.  It also has great acoustics.

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Lise Davidsen at the Met

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Soprano Lise Davidsen recently gave a recital at the Metropolitan Opera with pianist James Baillieu.  The live recording of that gig is now being released by Decca in various formats.  My gut reaction was to think that a piano recital at the Met is not such a great idea but the recording turns out to be terrific.

It starts out with a couple of opera arias,  There’s a powerful but very beautiful account of “Vissi d’arte” and a very stylish account of “Morrò, ma prima in grazia” from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera.  In this one she shows some interesting colours as well as terrific, clean, high notes. Continue reading →

Ensemble Studio do the standards

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Last Tuesdays’s concert in the RBA featured four singers and two pianists from the Ensemble Studio in a concert of highly recognisable opera arias.  I guess with Barber of Seville and Rigoletto coming p on the FSC stage that was a bit inevitable.  It was though very well done with all four singers not only singing well but really conveying a sense of character.

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Un Ballo in Maschera in the dark

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Vincent Boussard’s production of Vedi’s Un Ballo in Maschera staged and filmed at Barcelona’s Liceu in 2017 is dark.  Basically there’s a light box in which the characters at front of stage can be seen while others lurk in the darkness.  According to the notes Broussard is using light and shadow to bring out the themes of illusion and truth, duty and betrayal.  That sounds to me like cleverness masquerading as a production concept and bar a few striking visuals this is hardly a production at all.

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Greyscale Macbeth

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Christof Loy’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth filmed at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2016 is grey, very grey.  Costumes and lighting are such that one might think one is watching a black and white film.  The first, brief, touch of colour; some lights and bunches of flowers appears at the beginning of Act 4.  Beyond the greyness the vibe is essentially late 19th century and it’s pretty sparse.  It’s also very dark; at times almost unwatchably so on video (even Blu-ray).

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Not really a review at all

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So Thursday lunchtime I went to see Karoline Podolak and Wesley Harrison supported by Mattia Senesi and Brian Cho in the RBA.  It was a “schmaltzy” programme (Wesley’s description not mine!).  The whole thing consisted of arias and duets from La Traviata, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale with a bit of Lehar and a final Prayer chucked in.

It was the sort of rep that if it came up on University Challenge any opera goer would be hitting the buzzer in under two seconds!  And it’s all lovely of course.  It was beautifully sung by two beautiful people with two excellent pianists.  They sing beautifully separately and wonderfully together and Karoline’s coloratura is spectacular.  It’s rep that fits them like a glove at this stage of their careers and I’m not going to bore you with a blow by blow account.  It was unalloyed, undemanding enjoyment made all the better by being in the RBA on a sunny day!

Photo credfit: Karen E. Reeves.