Noilly Prattle: Opera Critique
Showing posts with label Opera Critique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opera Critique. Show all posts

Saturday, September 13, 2014

tragedia lirica, serata indimenticabile

Musica a Palazzo (Promo video)

     Sometimes, when you least expect it, something extraordinary happens.

Verdi
       That was the case with a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto, the court jester to a 16th Century Duke of Mantua, staged in an old palazzo in Venice. Like most of Verdi's operas, Rigoletto is a tragedy in the Greek sense of the word—the hunchbacked protagonist has a fatal flaw (an acid tongue) that leads inexorably to a tragic end. It's a story of blowback—malediction and revenge ... and some beautiful music that makes the tragedy, if not acceptable, at least bearable.

       But why was this performance something unexpectedly delightful?

Palazzo Barbariga Minoto - square of light in background
       We learned about something called “Musica a Palazzo” while searching for music options in Venice on the Internet while we are here. My first thought was that it was some kind of tourist trap putting on inferior music in powdered wigs as you can often find in Vienna. We searched out the venue one day, the Palazzo Barbarigo Minoto, and found that it was in an obscure alley with no indication that there was anything going on there. Since we were already there, I decided to walk the short distance down the alley and, luckily, bumped into a man coming out of a door who acknowledged that this was, in fact, the venue for “Musica a Palazzo” when I asked him.

entrance hall
       We decided to give it a try and discovered that getting tickets could be a rather complex affair. There are a couple of ways to get tickets. One is simply to use a ticketing agency and pay 78 Euro for a one-off ticket by credit card—the easy route. The other is to fill out a membership application for 70 Euro (you can either download one and print it out, or you can fill one out at the box office before the performance), and pay in cash. We downloaded and filled out the application at home and saved time at the box office. The astonishing thing, we discovered, is that a membership of 70 Euro allows you to attend other performances at no extra cost.

audience members awaiting the start of the performance
       The opera, cut to fit the venue, is staged in three rooms of the palazzo with the small (around 50 people) audience sitting right in the room with the 4-piece ensemble and the singers. It is a unique experience of being not just at the opera, but, in a sense, in it. The audience members can be used to fill in for the large number of chorus and extras that you would normally find in a conventional opera house. So, that, for example, the baritone in the title role, sang directly to a man in the audience as if he were a character (Marullo) in the opera.

Rigoletto - the baritone
       The word that echoes in my mind as I recall the experience of being “in the opera” is “intense”. The relatively small size (it is a palazzo, after all) of each room and the intimacy of close proximity to the performers forces you to feel the emotion and passion at an almost intolerably close range—like being caught in a crossfire I imagine. The ensemble (piano and three strings) were superb in adapting what is an orchestral score that left nothing lacking in the lyricism and drama of Verdi's music. And, the baritone (whose name I don't know, they don't publish the names of the cast) was one of the best Rigoletto interpreters I've heard—a superb actor wed to a rich warm-toned yet powerful voice, versatile in its range from mockery to pity and pleading and, ultimately, despair at the murder of his own daughter. A thoroughly moving and shattering performance by a true yet unsung artist.

       There is a short intermission at which guests are encouraged to sample the wine (at no extra cost) and enjoy the evening view of the Grand Canal from the windows. You can see the Peggy Guggenheim Collection across the canal and, if you lean out a bit, you can see the floodlit Santa Maria de la Salute church on your left.

bass and soprano

cast doing their bows - soprano, baritone,
mezo-soprano, tenor (behind)


















at Musica a Palazzo

       If you like good music and drama, you won't go wrong to give Musica a Palazzo a visit and you will experience something different from the classic opera house. Since we have a membership we plan to attend the rest of the shows in the repertoire, all for the price of 70 Euros. Going to see Verdi's La traviata today. It's one of the best deals in Venice.





Wednesday, August 27, 2014

at a Chambres d'Hôtes in Le Bailleul, France

sunflowers - taken from car window

huge kitchen that was
once that of a priory
La Croix Verte, the B&B
      It's an overcast, occasional rain kind of day, perfect for sitting in the huge kitchen of our Chambres d'Hôtes (B&B) in Le Bailleul, France, absorbing the past couple of weeks, give or take, driving around the western half of France. It's nice to have some time to just sit and reflect instead of the seemingly constant motion of one night stands (constant motion except for several-mile long traffic jams—two of them).





flute player - left
tenor - holding flowers
soprano in red,
flute player on right
      We are stopping here for two nights to attend the Baroque music festival in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France. Last night was a program of music and songs from the Baroque period (17th Century) music of Jean-Philippe Rameau, a French composer entitled Amour, a mort—a kind of reflection on love and death. We had a bit of a struggle fighting with one-way streets to find the venue, but all came out fine in the end. The period orchestra called Amaryllis was superb, especially the flute player. Between the soprano and the tenor, the tenor was the more outstanding--passionate with a beautiful lyrical quality to his voice. The soprano, alas, was a little weak in comparison and a little too haughty to be passionate. Still, she was more than adequate, just not as stunning as the tenor.

in the audience for Amour, a mort!
      Planning to do lunch at a highly touted restaurant nearby, then listen to some Gregorian chant doing Vespers at a nearby abbatial church. In the evening we return to the festival hall for a concert version of Elena (it's an opera about Helen of Troy, the famous ancient beauty whose face sank a thousand ships) by Italian composer Fracesco Cavalli.


      Tomorrow we drive to Orly Airport in Paris to fly to Venice, Italy the following day.  

Sunday, August 10, 2014

You get what you pay for

     Watch out for those things that seem to be bargains, or getting something for nothing. There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you make it yourself. But even then you have to pay for the ingredients.

Drottingholm Palace
Confidencen Palace Theater
        I recently experienced an interesting study in contrasts to illustrate the point. We were in Stockholm for a few days to attend a couple of operas of the summer stock variety. Both were staged in the concert halls of palaces—the Drottingholm Palace Theater and the Confidencen Palace Theater in Stockholm, Sweden.

        The illustration of the point, folks, is in a couple of boat rides—one paid for and one included in a 3-day transit pass. Both of the theaters are several kilometers from the center of Stockholm which is a city built on land surrounded by water. That being the case there is a considerable amount of water traffic as well as the usual metro, tram and buses of urban transportation.






boat to Drittingholm
on the boat to Drottingholm
         We opted for a boat to get to the Drottingholm Palace opera venue, a ride that takes about an hour. We bought two tickets and some sandwiches and nachos and an energy drink to have a picnic on the palace grounds while waiting for the curtain to go up. The ride was quite comfortable with pleasant weather for sitting out on the rear deck admiring the scenery. Many of our fellow passengers were also going to attend the opera; we recognized many of them strolling as we were having our picnic lunch. Before the show a lecture by a Harvard University professor informed us that Mozart was only 14-years old when he wrote the opera we were to attend called Mitridate, Re di Ponto. It was the breakthrough opera that got Mozart recognized as a serious opera composer—at only 14. We returned to downtown Stockholm in a chartered bus and got back to the hotel around midnight.

from the boat to Drottingholm
picnic lunch at the palace




















Mitridate: Re di Ponto - cast curtain calls




















                                            ************************************


boat to amusement park
Nobel Prize Museum on extreme right - Gamla Stan
        The following day we had most of the day to spend sightseeing around Stockholm, especially around the Old Town district known as Gamla Stan. It is similar to the old Town in Tallinn, though larger in scale and without evidence of an old wall. The tourist information agent we talked to told us that with could ride one of the boats from Gamla Stan to an island garden with our 3-day pass at no extra cost. Who can pass up a freebee? Nobody apparently, because when we got to the boat landing there was a large cr owd already queued up and we almost turned around and walked out, but thought better of it and waited in line. After all it was a freebee. After some push and shove and a little subtle elbowing, we finally arrived on the boat which was crowded enough to sink the ship. All well and good, but we appeared to be approaching a junk yard on the other shore not the promised "garden", but on closer inspection it turned out to be an amusement park. That, of course, explained why the boat was so full of people.


on the no-cost boat the the junk yard
boat landing at the amusement park













this horror show goes upside down
         Not being in the mood for either loosing my lunch on a roller coaster, or having a heart attack on a thingie that raises you up and drops you for a heart-stopping several seconds and suddenly jerks to a stop a few feet from the ground, we decided to move along and find the tram to take us back to the center and go to our hotel for a nap.














the lamp lighter -
lighting the candles
of the  footlights
conductor and harpsichord player
        In the evening, with a hankering for some junk food, we decided to dine at a Burger King before going on to the Confidencen Theater for another opera. This was also one by Mozart, his well-known The Marriage of Figaro. It was mostly interesting in that it was presented in the 18th Century style of the original production (conducted by Mozart himself) with a small Baroque orchestra and authentic period instruments, period costumes and sets with the stage dimly lit by candlelight. It gave an interesting impression of being in the theater back in the late 1700s.

cost of The Marriage of Figaro at the Confidencen Theater in Stockholm
        There was no public transportation available after the show, so we had to walk through the woods for about 15 to 20 minutes to get to the nearest metro stop. But all's well that ends well and we had a short but enjoyable learning experience in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. 

Monday, August 4, 2014

Music, music, music

Tane Mahuta

YIP Children's Choir

     Two of my passions (I have several) are travel and music and I love to combine them.

at Guy Bovet organ concert in St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn
       Tallinn seems to be joining many other and better known venues for summer music festivals (think Saltzburg, Austria, Glyndebourne, United Kingdom just to mention a couple). Although we have a few operas lined up elsewhere, we thought it would be fun to try some other types of music while here in Tallinn and we were not disappointed. We attended several different concerts, each one a different genre.

Tane Mahuta

St. Catherine's Church, Tallinn
       This program was held in what's left of the 14th Century St. Catherine's Church. The name of the group is Tane Mahuta named after a Maori guy who is the group's organizer and guiding light. According to the band's website: “Tane Mahuta is the Lord of the Forest according to a Maori legend and joins musicians from Estonia and Finland. [There was also a guest player from India.] They perform fairish folk music based on Scandinavian chants, Celtic prayers, shamanic songs from the Amazon rainforests, Indian bhajans, rainbow songs and traditional songs from Estonia. Most of the songs are hundreds or more years old and aimed at elevating the human soul and to connect the listeners with the forces of nature. This urban-folk has blended prayers, chants, Arabic & Celtic rhythms, throat singing and beatbox paving a path for urbanized people to reconnect with Mother Nature and so also awaken to their own true nature.”

inside St. Catherine's during Tane Mahuta show
       Looking at the audience and getting a feel for the ambience in the old stone-floored church reminded me of the late 60s on university campuses and in coffee houses. It was all peace and love and long hugs among the followers of the group. And the music was just a lot of fun and created a lively and happy mood among the audience, many of whom got up to dance. At the top is a sample that I recorded live during the performance.



YIP's Children's Choir

ornate doorway to Blackheads' Guild Hall
        This amazing group of young performers from Hong Kong was simply thrilling . . . and it didn't cost a Euro, a completely FREE (no strings attached) two-hour concert of music and dance and color that just blew us away. The performance was held in the Guild Hall of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads, a one time militaristic and social organization. The choir is a non-profit organization founded by Dr. YIP Wai-Hong, a highly revered expert in the field of children's music education. Not unlike the Tane Mahuta philosophy, Dr. YIP states: “Children's music education is not about producing musicians. Rather, it's about the educational goal of [achieving] a 'whole person'. If one has the 'misfortune' to become a 'musician', it is purely by accident.”

YIP kids performing a Chinese folk dance
         Hmm. Yes, well the “whole person” is an admirable goal of course, but, I felt that these kids were superbly talented performers and musicians. This is an excellent way to spread the cultural heritage of an increasingly great and ancient power like China's to a global audience in a non-threatening way. The audience absolutely loved these kids. The live recording I made during this remarkable performance will give you a very good example of how good these kids are.


Guy Bovet

St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn
interior of St. Nicholas and the pipe organ
        Mr. Bovet is a Swiss organist and composer. His performance last night at the St. Nicholas church was part of an organ festival this week here in Tallinn. I always thought of organ music as a large massive sound heard in church services and mostly playing the liturgy of the ceremonies. Think of Mozart's Requiem but scored and adapted for the organ.

the pipe organ of St. Nicholas Church
        But this was another eye-opening performance by this virtuoso organist. Of course, he sits high up in isolated splendor, far removed from the madding crowd below. However, a computer hookup was in place which featured a large screen that was focused on the organist so that you could see his every move. The pipe organ is a very complex instrument that is played with the whole body, full of keys and pedals and buttons that can achieve an amazing range and subtlety of sounds that I had never heard before. Unfortunately, I was not able to record during this performance. You'll just have to take my word for it, although the pipe organ is not my favorite instrument I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Bovet's very versatile performance.


Guy Bovet at the St. Nicholas pipe organ








Saturday, July 26, 2014

Music at dusk, exuberance at dawn



Tallinn, Estonia and the Baltic Sea

    The sun is doing it's best to impress here in the land of the almost midnight sun. The bombs and missiles of the ongoing global imbroglio are, thankfully, only a very distant echo from a fourth day of cloudless skies, comfortable temperatures and carefree travelers and inhabitants of Tallinn. While bombs and missiles rain down on unhappier climes, the sun embraces and kisses with nary a drop of rain in the sky. It's a little overwhelmingly dreamlike. This is the way the world ought to be even though I know it is a frame of mind. But perception is everything after all. It is what you think it is and how you see it.

recital hall in the Old Town Hall
       We attended the first musical evening of our summer travels. It was a small recital in the Old Town Hall consisting of a tenor, soprano and piano. It was billed as an opera concert but the first half of the program was of various songs by different composers, many of whom we hadn't heard of. We were beginning to get a little bored by break time. After the break, though, the tenor began with “Una furtiva lagrima” from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and he was spot on terrific; one of the sweetest tenors I've heard in some time. That broke the ice of boredom and the rest of the recital was most enjoyable. The soprano, a Polish lady, was very good in most of her repertoire but not great in “Caro nome” from Verdi's Rigoletto. That is a very difficult aria that requires coloratura sweetness and purity in the high notes and a virginal naïveté in the expression. The soprano wasn't a coloratura and lacked the virginal naïveté that the best artists, even if they are neither, bring to the role. Other than that, though, her singing was most enjoyable. We stopped off at a charming cafe in a blind alley for coffee and cake after the concert.


tenor and soprano duet
       I mentioned in a previous post that the raging hormone set parties all night beneath our windows. Now, you could be a crotchety old fart at having your sleep disturbed by these “inconsiderate hooligans”, or, you could be moved by the seemingly never-ending energy of these appallingly young merrymakers and remember, with a touch of nostalgia, your own salad days and, suddenly, you are young again. There is a practical point to this little homily.

       I was awakened at dawn by what sounded like a “chorus of angels” singing loudly and lustily. My “angels”, of course, were a large group of young men freshly departed from the nightclub across the street when, I assume, it closed. They obviously were not yet partied out and still had plenty of energy to spare. They were singing some song that sounded like something out of Viking mythology. The beauty of it was that it sounded good. The young men obviously all knew the song and harmonized beautifully. An occasional solo voice would rise up, sometimes high above the chorus and sometimes underscoring it in the bass tones. It was a song of health, pure exuberance, the joy of existence and the biological and emotional yearning for sex.

       Far from being irritated I had a feeling of the rightness and beauty that life, at times, can be. I felt joy and happiness myself and I fully expected to hear a maidens' chorus yearning in response to that of the young males, happily bonded and singing their paean to the joy of existence.


       It was a moment to savor, a sense of the sunset of life connected to its dawn. Thank you, gentlemen, for the honor. 

Saturday, October 5, 2013

the music was always there...

    In response to my recent opera critique post about the Zurich Opernhaus a commenter asked how and when I developed an interest in opera. The question got me thinking and so I decided to publish my response here on Noilly Prattle.

        It's hard to say exactly. You grow up with music without really paying much attention to it. Oh, of course there was the rock-n-roll craze in the 50s and then the folk music of the hippie era that I grew up with and was very much a part of. But many tunes from operas were always there in the background; just didn't know they were from operas. Think of the triumphal march from Aida, or the toreador song from Carmen or the theme music for The Lone Ranger TV series from William Tell for example. 

Triumphal March from Aida

Toreador Song from Carmen

William Tell Overture

         I saw and listened to a video recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company) back in the early 80s and got hooked little by little. As for Road Buddy, she, too, was familiar with Western classical music through hearing it in school and also loved American popular music (learned her basic English that way), but didn't take as early an interest in opera, per se, as I did. She was still very much into rhythm and blues, especially Eric Clapton, and belonged to a fan club of his in Japan. 

        Our town is pretty much a roll-up-the-sidewalks-after-5:00 p.m. kind of town. Also, unlike in Western societies, couples don't go out together in the evenings. The world of entertainment here is not structured that way. Generally, here men go out drinking after working hours with their colleagues (a kind of male bonding and slave to the company issue) and women have lunches together with their girlfriends (probably because many marriages are arranged and there isn't a strong romantic bond between married partners). It was one of the things I found remarkably intriguing when I first arrived in Japan. 

       Our relationship, of course, wasn't an arranged one, I not being Japanese. We met and chose to be together and we behave more in the Western style, especially when we travel to Western societies. But I digress. I was listening to NHK broadcasts of operas while she was still into Eric and would travel overseas now and again with her fan club to attend his concerts--mostly in London. As the English speaking interpreter for the group she went with all expenses paid. Although I also like Eric's music, I am not a fan type guy and wasn't a member of the fan club. I guess little by little the fan club thing began to wear thin and she went less often to concerts overseas. If Eric came to Japan she would occasionally attend with the group. Eventually she stopped going altogether and began to pay more attention to the operas I was watching.

our symphony hall
        I like to go out in the evenings once in a while and sorely missed the lack of a social life here. Then, one year, an opera company from Eastern Europe (I think it was Poland) came for a one night stand in our symphony hall. The tickets were 15,000¥ a pop, but I love to go to the theater (opera is just musical theater basically) and thought the price was worth it. The company put on Lehar's The Merry Widow and we were both utterly charmed by it. That started the going-to-the-opera ball rolling. A few more companies came occasionally and sporadically and put on one nighters in our symphony hall and we got addicted. Then they stopped putting on operas here so we decided to go to the places where they have opera houses and companies and seasons instead of waiting for Godot to come to our town. That meant going to Europe.

       I hope this perhaps unnecessarily verbose explanation answers my commenter's questions.


Friday, October 4, 2013

3 nights at the Zurich Opernhaus

Zurich Opernhaus (on the left) 
    We hadn't planned to go anywhere this summer while I was recovering from surgery and I had steeled myself to sweat out the execrably hot and humid Japanese summer at home. But one morning in the midst of the worst doggish days of this past summer we decided to get away from Japan after all since I felt my leg was mending well enough for a road test. We decided to head for Europe to catch the first few days of the Fall opera season at the end of September at the highly acclaimed Zurich Opernhaus--the culmination of a month's sojourn.

       The thing that stands out most in my mind about Zurich is the cost of everything--expensive. Too rich for my blood and wallet. We rented a studio flat conveniently located in the old city and within easy walking distance or a few tram stops to the opera house for four nights with shows on the first three nights--Rigoletto, La Straniera and Don Giovanni--all conducted by Fabio Luisi. 

Saimir Pirgu and Pink Feola
as Gilda and the Duke
        Many of the operas we had seen on videos that were taped in Zurich were of a very high quality overall. That is the main reason we wanted to attend some live performances there in spite of the very high price of the best seats. We booked seats in the medium price range online. Of the three shows we attended, the first one, Verdi's Rigoletto, was, for me, the best one. The cast, which included up and comer Saimir Pirgu as the Duke of Mantua was well matched with no weak voices. Coloratura soprano Pink Feola as Gilda gave a moving rendition of Caro Nome and baritone Andrzej  Dobber's rich voice and fine acting was both nuanced and powerful either in scorn and cynicism or in humility and abasement.  


principal cast of Rigoletto
Gruberova in the center as
the Strange Woman
        Bellini's La Straniera was, it seems to me, a project (not one of Bellini's best known or best operas) to accommodate the well known and loved but aging coloratura soprano Edita Gruberova. Though her voice is still a marvel, it is getting a bit rough around the edges and, to me at any rate, somewhat disappointing. (Road buddy, however, was more tolerant than I.) With a star of the magnitude of Gruberova, one hardly notices the other singers. Personally, I prefer a show of lesser known singers who work well together. With a star like Gruberova, although I don't believe she intends to, she upstages merely by her reputation and, of course, fan base.




Edita Gruberova
principal cast of La Straniera














Mark Verba and Marina Rebeka as
Don Giovanni and Donna Anna
        Mozart's Don Giovanni, is a difficult opera to produce since the principal roles require a cast that includes six perfectly matched singers--a feat not easy to achieve. Accordingly, this Don Giovanni with Mark Verba as the Don, was not a howling success with uneven performances throughout. In fact, Ruben Drole as Leporello would have been a better Don than Verba. His baritone was richer and more powerful in both the highs and lows. Soprano Marina Rebeka was excellent as Donna Anna, as was bass Rafal Siwek as the Commendatore. The tenor, Heidi (yes, it's a boy's name) Stober as Don Ottavio had a sweet enough voice but lacked power and authority in a very difficult role of lap dog and whipping boy. Julia Kleiter as Donna Elvira somehow missed the mark and gave a professional but, to me at least, unmoving performance--perhaps a bit too much anger and not enough ambivalence in her key aria In quali...Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata.


principal cast of Don Giovanni and conductor Fabio Luisi


Heidi Stober and Rafal Siwek as
Don Ottavio and the Commendatore






















       In spite of its high repute as a world class opera house (and as I believed based on videos I had watched), I feel that the Zurich Opernhaus is no better and no worse than other houses I have attended in Munich, Santa Fe, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Berlin, Vienna (well maybe the Vienna Staatsoper is worse) at far more reasonable ticket prices (except Munich and Santa Fe). But, that's just a personal observation and preference.