Intermezzo

Berlin Philharmonic want your money and they want it now

Thought about what you're doing in 15 months time yet? Tickets for the Berlin Philharmonic's February 2011 London visit went on sale today.

The Berliner's four-night residency takes in both the Barbican and Southbank, and members of either can buy tickets now. Non-members will have to wait until 14 December.

Although the concerts are unlikely to sell out immediately, most tickets are at the spendy end of the scale (up to £75), and already the limited 'cheap' (£15) seats are thin on the ground - so early booking is advisable for these.

More details and ticket sales link here.

Mrs Prada kicks fatties out of Met

According to Peter Davis in Paper, Miuccia Prada took one look at the supersized supernumeraries she was due to dress for the new Met Attila and groaned: "I cannot clothe them! I need models!"

The kiss-a$$ Met has duly ordered an extra set of extras to please the surprisingly picky (yes, that *is* her above) designer.

how much is the Berlin Philharmonic?

About £120,000 according to Kenneth Walton in today's Scotsman. A mere common or garden "top-notch" orchestra on the other hand can be yours for £70,000.

(The rest of the article is a thought-provoking look at the provision of classical music in Scotland, and well worth reading).

Royal Opera House gets educational on yo a$$

image: Banksy

The Royal Opera House today ventures a further toe into digital waters with the launch of its own iTunes U site on www.roh.org.uk/itunes.

This holds "almost 300 items of free multi-media content on opera, music, ballet and dance" including "film, audio and written resources on specific productions or taken from ROH Education's hugely successful Insight events programme, a series of educational events comprising master-classes, interviews with artists and backstage staff, and sessions focused on specific repertory." Whatever that means. Anyway, if you can recommend anything on there, do please report back.

pushing up with Nathan Gunn

What's the secret behind the most famous chest in opera?

Nathan Gunn, who "works out only in a pair of athletic shorts because he sweats "like crazy"" reveals his workout routine to a panting Wall Street Journal.

His favourite way to release pent-up pre-show adrenaline? "A set of incline push-ups" in his dressing room. "I do just enough to tire my muscles out,"  he says.

HunkenCarmen

There was wall-to-wall applause after tonight's Carmen premiere at La Scala - except for director Emma Dante, whose appearance provoked an eruption of loud boos. From my seat in the Covent Garden Odeon it was hard to understand why. Perhaps the heavy dose of Catholic symbolism offended. Or the rapey ending - but frankly that loooong final duet needs something to liven it up, and her solution is a plausible one. Or maybe it was the shortage of castanets and thigh-rubbing. Who knows.

Her production wasn't always coherent, but there was plenty to cheer. She drew superb acting from the whole cast - the mark of a solid theatre director. I loved what she did with that perennial problem Micaela, turning her into the messages she bears Don Jose - first the bride, then his sick mother. And even scenery fetishists can't have been too disappointed with the mostly realistic locations and the intricate, colourful costumes.

Jonas Kaufmann's Don Jose was the big draw though, and he didn't disappoint. Beneath his billowing shirt, an immaculately waxed chest was revealed by Act 2's close up cameras, as expertly pummelled by Anita Rachvelishvilli's surprisingly terrific Carmen below. Oh, and he sang pretty well too.

The secondary attraction, Erwin Schrott's Escamillo, was less successful. Too many notes off target, and too many clothes.

With multiple camera angles and zooms sensitively deployed, it was technically the best live opera screening I've seen. Pit close-ups revealed the principal flautist's werewolf hands and even better, Barenboim tweaking out a wedgie (at agonising length) before settling in for the prelude. And the cameras' silent zoom around La Scala's plush-lined burrows and their jewel-draped occupants was far more revelatory than a fancy Met-style 'intermission feature'.

Pity about the sound, which was too low in the first act and too loud afterwards, but I suspect that was the Odeon's fault not the film crew's. Of course no cinema acoustics can possibly hope to replicate the live sound - the big drawback of all movie-opera.

Rolando Villazon is back! First post-op date announced (PLUS new London date)

Rolando Villazón is making a comeback earlier than expected.

He will make a one-off appearance at Vienna's State Opera in L'elisir d'amore on March 22.

This will be Rolando's first stage appearance after his recent vocal cord operation. It follows numerous cancellations of 2010 bookings, including Vienna's Carmen in May - so perhaps this news is some compensation to the Austrians.

And he's coming to London!

A rescheduled calendar on his website also promises a London visit in May, with Handel arias on the menu - no firm details at present, though 3 May at the Royal Festival Hall is rumoured.

UPDATE - *unconfirmed* recital dates are:

26 April - Hamburg Laeiszhalle,  29 April - Festspielehaus Baden Baden, 3 May - Royal Festival Hall London, 6 May Salle Pleyel Paris and 10 May Munich Philharmonie  - all with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort

Berlin orchestras merge - will opera houses follow?

It was announced yesterday that two of Berlin's four orchestras - the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin (DSO) and Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra Berlin (RSB) - are to merge under the leadership of the current RSB head Marek Janowski.

The proposal is still subject to final ratification, but the support of the majority owners, the federal government and German radio, makes this seem inevitable.

The head of German radio orchestras claims the decision has been made on artistic grounds - "Do we want one orchestra in the Champions League or the worry a few years down the line about keeping two orchestras in the Bundesliga?" he told an interviewer.

Perhaps more to the point is that a single orchestra would require a maximum of 125 musicians, whereas the two orchestras together currently employ around 180.

The DSO's chief conductor Ingo Metzmacher has spoken out against the plans, but then he's leaving shortly anyway in protest against earlier funding cuts. "It is a great mistake to think that the merger of two first-class orchestras would create an even better orchestra," said his statement. True, but it would be a cheaper one, and the days of unlimited public funding are long gone.

Meanwhile, Berlin's three opera companies are doing themselves no favours with their half-empty houses and uncoordinated calendars. You can for example catch La bohème at any one of the three this month - a total of 13 performances, or something like 30,000 seats to fill in a city half the size of London.

Of the three houses, only the Komische Oper has a clear identity - new, challenging productions in the German language are its mainstay. The Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Unter den Linden meanwhile scrabble for funding, stars and audiences with patchy results. One of the few new productions to hit the mark this year was Stefan Herheim's Staatsoper Lohengrin, which incorporated a prescient swipe at Berlin's internecine opera house politicking. Some have speculated that the closure of the Linden opera house for renovations at the end of this season offers an opportunity for reorganisation. Who knows?

a faded rose

A bulging diary forces me to skip Covent Garden's nth revival of Der Rosenkavalier later this month, but I did find time for Friday's general rehearsal.

What a disappointment.

The tired old tinselled macaroon production is the least of the problems, even making allowances for the unfinished nature of the rehearsal product. I haven't heard the ROH orchestra play this badly all year. Scrappy ensemble, poor intonation, deranged brass - it would shame a school band. The curtain-down preludes were a real trial. Were there any orchestra rehearsals at all beforehand? It certainly didn't sound like it. Kirill Petrenko really has his work cut out to knock it into shape before Monday's opening.

And I was disappointed in Soile Isokoski's Marschallin. I can understand why she wanted to conserve her voice for most of the rehearsal, but charisma doesn't wear out if it's exercised. Her presence barely registered. And her makeup was positively unkind - couldn't they at least give her some brows?

Sophie Koch's Octavian too failed to sparkle, though at least she sang out. As to why a seventeen year old boy might be interested in knocking off a flour-faced gran (and vice versa) the production imparts no clues. It's rare that any of the characters even look at each other outside the comic knockabouts, and so the Marschallin's beautifully-written soul-searching passes unexplored.

So the sideshow became the star - the delightfully oafish Baron Ochs of Peter Rose, whose less than elegant singing works in this case to the character's advantage. Thomas Allen's Faninal too was wonderfully drawn in the few lines allotted.

But it was Lucy Crowe who left the most positive impression overall, a Sophie as defiant and spirited as Baron Ochs claims. Some of those top notes sounded dangerously squeezed, but the rest was liquid silver, and her stroppy charm made a long four and half hours pass less slowly.

 

Otello stile inglese

Otello - LSO / Davis - Barbican, 3 December 2009

You sneeze, you lose. With Torsten Kerl off sick, the pages of lastminutetenor.com yielded Simon O'Neill. Not the most obvious choice of Otello, even for a concert performance like this one. Indeed you could scour the big Wagnerian's resume and find no mention of Verdi whatsoever. But his bright, hard edged voice proved an excellent fit, and his unfamiliarity with the score was barely noticeable. Now that the role is associated more with darker baritonal tenors like Domingo, the clarity and ease of O'Neill's thrilling top notes hinted at a long-gone golden age. The short-fused Moor's temper flashes perhaps didn't spark quickly enough, but it was impossible not to be moved by Otello's final agonised moments.

The rest of the casting was just as brave, and nearly as successful. The only authentic Italian in the cast was Eufemia Tufano, an understated Emilia. Desdemona's purity and incorruptibility were perfectly evoked in the unearthly silvery soprano of Anne Schwanewilms, even if her delivery was some distance north of Italianate. The London Symphony Chorus trumped her for sheer incomprehensibility though - I didn't catch one single word of their spirited singing all night.

Gerald Finley's intelligently drawn Iago schemed with devious charm. But ultimately he lacks the fundamental heft for this role, as even a golden voice spinning meticulously-crafted phrases cannot conceal. Bantamweight tenors Allan Clayton and Ben Johnson were effective as Cassio and Roderigo, and a trio of magnificent basses - Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Matthew Rose and Lukas Jakobski - rounded off the ensemble. 

Sir Colin Davis, we were informed before the concert, has just been awarded the Queen's Medal for Music. Typically, he was keener to get on with the show than acknowledge the predictable ovation. His hard-driven first act lacked a degree of dramatic nuance - when everything's loud, fast and exciting, perversely, nothing is. But with the excess fuel burned off, a more measured approach proved infinitely more compelling. The second half in particular simmered and glowed, sweeping into blazing climaxes, yet eggshell-delicate beneath Desdemona's beautiful Willow Song. A rapturous intensity revealed so many details I'd never noticed before.

A recording will be stitched together from this performance and the repeat on 6 December. Not a purist's Otello perhaps but a vivid reminder that at 82, Sir Colin Davis is still on top of his game.

 

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air kiss FAIL

Anne Schwanewilms (Desdemona) and Eufemia Tufano (Emilia) fail to lock face after last night's superb Otello at the Barbican (of which more later):

but at least they're talking:

he shoots, he scores

From a book review by Roddy Forsyth in today's Daily Telegraph:

"Football club PR departments are used to requests for tickets from players, but Celtic’s was taken by surprise when Paolo Di Canio requested two for Scottish Opera’s production of La Boheme in 1996, a tale told in Stephen McGowan’s Flawed Genius.

Scottish Opera came up with the goods and Di Canio and his girlfriend were treated to excellent seats and entry to the VIP reception afterwards, during which they were approached by a blue-rinsed item from Edinburgh, who asked, in a condescending tone, what he knew about opera. Di Canio replied politely that her familiarity with the genre would undoubtedly exceed his.

Having caught the attention of the room, however, the lady would not give up. “But what, may I ask, prompted your footballer’s interest in opera?” she persisted.

“Well, madam,” Di Canio replied softly. “When I played with Juventus in Italy a man who sang opera used to ring me up and ask for tickets. You may have heard of him.”

As the lady arched her eyebrows sceptically, Di Canio added: “Luciano Pavarotti.” The midfield maestro then turned to his new audience and sang them a couple of arias, to enthusiastic applause."

future of Salzburg Easter Festival in doubt

The rumours have been flying around for weeks. Now the impeccably well-informed music critic of Die Welt Manuel Brug confirms that whatever official denials may be issued,

the Berlin Philharmonic are pulling out of the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2012.

The Berlin Philharmonic are the only orchestra featured in the festival, which is run independently from the summer event based around the Vienna Philharmonic. Grumblings about the level of subsidy and a lucrative competing offer from Festspielhaus Baden-Baden are believed to feature in the decision. Eagle eyes may have already noticed that the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, which in the last few years has shared the Easter Festival opera production, is not doing so in 2010.

The incoming summer festival boss, Alexander Pereira, had suggested incorporating the Easter Festival opera into the summer schedule, thus presumably spreading the costs. But Brug claims this offer has little appeal compared with the lucrative private engagements available to the Berliners in the summer months. The start of the Philharmonie season at the end of August also limits their availability.

A significant part of the Easter Festival's attraction has always been the rare opportunity to hear the Berliners in the opera pit. It remains to be seen whether it would be viable to continue with an alternative orchestra in place.

What's on in London in December

The Royal Opera House will be hoping for a Xmas tingle in the cash registers as they dust off a selection of tried and tested offerings for the festive season. First up are the faded charms of Der Rosenkavalier, tinselled up for its omgyetanother revival with Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch and Lucy Crowe. Kirill Petrenko conducts.

The syrup-drenched and even more ancient La bohème returns with luxuriously-costumed operatubbies pleading unconvincing poverty beneath its spacious mansards. Andris Nelsons, Paul Wynne Griffiths and Maurizio Benini conduct, though not at the same time, and the mix'n'match casts include Piotr Beczala, Hibla Gerzmava and Rebecca Evans amongst many, many others.

More appealing, and certainly cheaper, might be the child-friendly Enchanted Pig in the Linbury Studio, complete with starring swine flu survivor.

Otherwise it's a ballet-heavy month at Covent Garden. So where have all the singers gone? Wigmore Hall's December line up includes recitals by Christine Brewer, Christian Gerhaher, Bejun Mehta, Patricia Rosario, Sergei Leiferkus, Ewa Podles and on 22 December Julius Drake's 50th birthday concert features Sophie Daneman, Alice Coote, Joyce Didonato, Derek Lee Ragin, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Gerald Finley and Christopher Maltman. Not bad.

ENO meanwhile lumber on with their limp Messiah and ghastly Turandot before surrendering the premises to ballet for the next few months. If curiosity can't keep you away, don't pay more than £20 for a ticket.

The most promising of many competing Messiahs looks to be the Barbican's 9 December offering with the English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket and featuring Lucy Crowe, Patricia Bardon, Allan Clayton and James Rutherford.

Also at the Barbican (on 3 and 6 December) is Sir Colin Davis's eagerly-awaited concert version of Verdi's Otello with Torsten Kerl, Gerald Finley, Allan Clayton and Anne Schwanewilms. 

Birmingham Opera Company's version offers an alternative Othello for anyone willing to make the trip. With a reduced orchestra and mostly local singers, it promises an interactive experience as cast and audience are manoeuvred around a Birmingham warehouse. (The BBC's Culture Show on 3 December will delve further).

At Kings Place, the Classical Opera Company (of recent Artaxerxes fame) celebrate Handel in Italy with a selection of his vocal music including Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno on 3 and 5 December.

And the following week, Transition_Projects take over King's Place for a series of recitals under the heading Darkness and Light. Soprano Claire Booth features in several - a highlight should be her Pierrot Lunaire (left) with accompanying video on 11 December.

At the cinema, La Scala's prima, which is Carmen featuring Jonas Kaufmann, will be broadcast live to Covent Garden Odeon on 7 December. And Contes d'Hoffmann comes live from the Met on 19 December - at the time of writing the BFI IMAX still has tickets.

Unto ENO a turkey is born and its name is Messiah

Messiah - English National Opera, 27 November 2009

There are more Messiahs than brussels sprouts around at this time of year, so quite why ENO felt the need to offer us yet another one is beyond me. For a company struggling with the recession it doesn't make financial sense either. Who, aficionados aside, wants more than one Messiah per annum? And who wants to fork out up to £90 at the Coliseum when you can pay under half that elsewhere? Unlike its competitors this one is of course staged. But as Handel neither intended the magic of theatre to illuminate his artistry, nor wrote his music to accommodate such impertinence, it's an uphill struggle for Deborah Warner to make any sense of it.

Of course she fails dismally. The singers, in some artful version of their own clothes (Moritz Junge is credited as costume designer) play ordinary people doing ordinary stuff like sleeping, ironing, watching telly and loafing about. Presumably by such humble devices we are supposed to see the humanity and universality of the biblical messages. Tourists may well be intrigued by this glimpse into the everyday life of their host city, but personally I felt patronised and bored. And littering the stage with cute tots might work for the older section of the audience, but perhaps Warner doesn't realise many visit the theatre precisely to escape from that sort of thing. Some excruciatingly obvious acting-out of the birth, nativity and scourging added precisely nothing to the music.

Worse still were the attempts at narrative overlay. What makes Messiah so impossible to stage is the illustrative, discontinuous nature of the texts. Slapping on a story line where it doesn't fit just emphasises the problem. The worst culprit was a Thou shall break them made silly and ironic in order to accommodate the vicar's picnic Hallelujah Chorus which followed. One of the greatest moments in the whole work, vandalised.

The great shame was the amount of time and skill invested in this flawed conception. Elegant, minimal sets, atmospheric lighting and stunning back-projected paintings and cityscapes were only part of it. There was some fine if generally underprojected singing from the soloists Sophie Bevan, Catherine Wyn Rogers, John Mark Ainsley and Brindley Sherratt. Laurence Cummings chose stately tempos which didn't flatter the orchestra's contribution, but a fine balance was struck between period style and the need to fill the vast Coliseum. The chorus, amazingly, made every single word clear, though their sound was top-heavy and lacking in enthusiasm. I wonder why.

Still, Deborah Warner has succeeded in bringing a little festive cheer to the terminally grumpy, which must be some kind of achievement.

one director and one smart kid:

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Handel to the rescue

When the emergency bell failed to work, an 80 year old pensioner stuck in a hospital toilet knew just how to attract the staff's attention.

"I thought, oh well, it's coming up to Christmas, so I gave them the opening verse of the Hallelujah Chorus. The doors opened very quickly."

how much is Andris Nelsons worth?

£7,100 according to Ebay. That was the winning bid for an auction package which included a masterclass with the maestro and the opportunity to conduct the CBSO.

Hallelujah! More cheap seats for ENO's Messiah

For the 29 November matinee only, ENO are offering stalls seats for Messiah at £25 and dress circle at £15, a massive discount of like 3000% or something.

Go here to book.

And it still hasn't even opened.

life, art, pork

Rehearsals for the Royal Opera House's family-friendly Xmas special, The Enchanted Pig, were hampered when the singer in the title role caught, er, swine flu.

Simon Wilding, who "was really rather poorly with it" has apparently now resumed rehearsals after a period of bed rest.

high on Bach

A New Zealand woman who raised 20 cannabis plants in a secret den played them Bach to help them grow, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.