There have been critical cheers across the board – 5 stars in the Times, 4 in the Telegraph – for Scottish Opera’s revival of Osvaldo Golijov’s neglected opera Ainadamar.
It might well be the UK’s best contemporary opera of the year.
But how did it come about?
The hand behind the venture is John Berry’s. John’s fundraising organisation Opera Ventures has previously organised productions of Mark Turnage’s Greek and Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking The Waves in Scotland.
John is former chief executive of English National Opera. He has international backers.
ENO is floundering.
John Berry’s independently financed operas are flourishing.
Lessons to be learned?
Not in London, apparently.
For the first time since the Putin invasion of Ukraine, a Russian musician has reached the final of a major competition.
The four finalists of the Concours de Geneve are:
Sergey Belyavsky (28 years old, Russia)
Kevin Chen (17 years old, Canada)
Kaoruko Igarashi (27 years old, Japan)
Zijian Wei (23 years old, China)
The Argentine-US composer Osvaldo Golijov has been struggling with his muse for the past two decades. But a revival of an early work at Scottish Opera has rekindled excitement.
Hugh Kerr of Edinburgh Music Review watched the return of his Lorca opera, Ainadamar:
‘Ainadamar’, Scottish Opera Theatre Royal Glasgow, 29/10/22
What a sad day it was in Granada, the stones began to cry
‘Ainadamar’ is an Arabic word meaning “fountain of tears” and as Scottish Opera’s excellent programme notes tell us, it is one of the names of a natural spring located in the hills above Granada. This is the site where the great Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca was executed by the fascists in 1936. So ‘Ainadamar’ is a work which attempts to evoke the spirit of Lorca through the eyes of his favourite actress, Margarita Xirgu, who wisely escaped to Cuba to survive the Franco regime. It is not quite a traditional opera as we might expect, more a multi-media performance involving ballet, flamenco singing and dancing, news broadcasts, operatic arias, backdrop projection and great lighting and music. The good news is that it worked and Scottish Opera have created an opera which will bring it credit not only in Glasgow and Edinburgh but in Wales, Detroit and the Metropolitan Opera in New York where this coproduction will be seen. It is a sign that Scottish Opera, even if they have a limited budget, have broad ambitions in creating new work, as well as performing traditional favourites like ‘Carmen’, their next opera. This evening was a pleasure after my recent bad experience in Berlin with ‘Regietheater’ i.e. directors determined to modernise traditional works such as Wagner’s Ring and destroying them in the process. This in contrast was a production which enhanced the work and brought us the spirit of Lorca, as they say in Andalusia the ‘duende’. The first night audience gave a rapturous reception to the work and the audience member in the seat next to me, a student seeing her first opera and taking advantage of Scottish Opera’s £10 ticket offer, loved it.
This is not the premiere of the work. It was composed by Argentinian born composer, Osvaldo Golijov, with a libretto by American Asian writer David Henry Hwang, and first performed in Tanglewood in 2003, then heavily revised at Santa Fe Opera in 2005 by American director Peter Sellars. This new production is directed by Brazilian choreographer and director Deborah Colker and there is a very good interview with her by Mark Brown in the Sunday National on the 30th October which explains her philosophy about the work; in particular she says the fact that it is told from a female perspective i.e. from the actress Margarita Xirgu, sung by the Australian soprano Lauren Fagan, reinforced by Lorca himself being sung by a mezzo soprano, American Samantha Hanley. Both were excellent singers and were backed up by a good ensemble of singers and dancers and the orchestra under the baton of conductor Stuart Stratford who brought the work vividly to life. It was a striking evening of sound and colour, from the plaintive sound of the flamenco singer, to the colourful dancers, choreography by Antonio Navarro, great lighting by Paul Keogan, video work by Tal Rosner, sound by Cameron Crosby and the overall design by Jon Basour. But above all this was a work directed by Deborah Colker. As she danced her way on the stage to take her bows at the end of the evening, you had no doubt this was her vision of Lorca. Was Lorca a revolutionary or a socialist? Well of course he was executed by the fascists but maybe that was as much to do with his sexuality as his politics; homosexuality was heavily frowned on by the Falangist regime. Of course since Lorca’s death he has become a symbol of repression by the Franco regime and this work contributes to the myth of Lorca and does it very well. The opera continues in Glasgow on the 2nd and 5th of November and in Edinburgh on the 8th,10th and 12th of November – don’t miss it!
A month ago, it looked all up for ENO.
Arts Council England, facing the need to make cuts of between 10 and 20 percent, had earmarked London’s second opera house as a prime target. ENO, it was argued internally, had ceased to be a full-fledged opera company, renting out the Coliseum for much of the year to stage musicals. Its infrequent productions were unimposing, its management style abrasive and its public profile invisible. Cut.
In a last-ditch effort to save its grant, ENO disposed of its chief executive Stuart Murphy, a long, slow farewell that will resolve nothing. Fault for the decline lies with the board, chaired by Harry Brunjes, and no heads have yet rolled around that table.
The question that keeps arising at ACE is: what is ENO for?
It is not, as intended, a Komische Oper on the level of Vienna and Berlin. It is not national because it never leaves London and it is hardly doing any opera. Nor is it finding the level of private support required to sustain it without state funding. As for being a finishing school for promising UK singers, few in recent years have come through its crucible.
The best opera brains in Britain are now pondering how ENO might be bailed out or reconfigured.
They have until Friday, judgement day, to come up with a convincing plan.
For those readers worldwide who are unable to get to the London Coliseum to see the English National Ballet’s captivating version of the world’s most popular ballet, truly worthy of the overused expression ‘iconic’, here it is On Demand, along with a number of other full-length productions from the ENB. Beloved for its superb dancing, beautiful sets and Tchaikovsky’s glorious music, played live by English National Ballet Philharmonic, Derel Deane’s Swan Lake is a thrill for dedicated fans or first-time ballet-goers alike. Ballet lovers are never bored by the romance of Prince Siegfried’s love for the Swan Queen Odette and the drama of their battle against the evil sorcerer Rothbart. For those who can’t resist the magnificent sight of dozens of ballerinas in white tutus moving in unison, this timeless classic is your treat.
Opera North’s adventurous new production of an ancient tragedy is told through a meeting of the worlds of Indian and western baroque classical music. Streamed on Slippedisc courtesy of OperaVision. The bowed strings of the violin and the tar shehnai, the hammered strings of the santoor, the plucked strings of the harpsichord and sitar, and the rhythms of the tabla shape a unique musical encounter. Laurence Cummings, who also conducted Garsington’s Orfeo, is here joined by Jasdeep Singh Degun as co-music director to weave together their respective traditions of Indian classical and western early music. An onstage orchestra of 19 players includes a baroque ensemble of violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, percussion, harp, harpsichord, lirone and theorbo, as well as Indian classical instruments including sitar, tabla, santoor, esraj and bansuri. The cast includes performers trained in western and Indian classical traditions, with tenor Nicholas Watts singing Orpheus and British-Tamil Carnatic singer Ashnaa Sasikaran singing Eurydice. Sung in Italian, Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali, Panjabi, Hindi, Tamil.
In this meeting of East and West, OperaVision closes a month dedicated to opera’s ongoing fascination with the myth of Orpheus.
The Plot: The wedding of the year is here as Orpheus, the musician of mythical power, marries graceful Eurydice. When the newlyweds’ joy is shattered by the sudden death of Eurydice, our heartbroken hero sets off on a mission to the underworld to rescue his bride, certain that his love will overcome adversity. Can Orpheus conquer fate, or will his heart be broken for a second time?
Jasdeep Singh Degun discusses how he approached the challenge of combining Eastern and Western music:
Available from 31 October 2022 from 1900 CET/ 1800 London/ 1300 New York
A man who hurled verbal abuse at other operagoers before La traviata and then proceeded to disrupt the performance was eventually removed by police and arrested.
The disrupter was a German national, male, 55 years old.
A police officer in the house requested support, which arrived after 30 minutes. The man was removed bodily and is still being held.
The latest edition of Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition, held in Latvia, has ended in the judges being unable to reach a clear decision, splitting their votes in a manner that benefits no-one.
Here are the so-called results:
1st Prize
Juliana Grigoryan, soprano, Armenia (pictured)
Anthony León, tenor, USA
2nd Prize
Serena Sáenz, soprano, Spain
Duke Kim, tenor, USA
Nils Wanderer, countertenor, Germany
3rd Prize
Maire Therese Carmack, mezzo-soprano, USA
Youngjun Park, baritone, South Korea
Jongwon Han, bass-baritone, South Korea
Birgit Nilsson Prize
Serena Sáenz, soprano, Spain
This is about as poor a judging outcome as we can remember.
Both of the first-prize winners are represented by Domingo’s grandson, Dominic Domingo, who works for the London agency AskonasHolt.
The Mariinsky conductor, banned in most of the world for being Putin’s baton, is just back from a tour of the frozen east – six concerts in Salekhard, Krasnoyarsk, Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk and Naryan-Mar.
He says:
‘It is very important that we preserve the traditions of such performances in Russia. For example, we have been to Khanty-Mansiysk dozens of times already, and we feel at home there. This time we gave two concerts in the city, including a daytime concert for young people. Prior to that, we visited Surgut, the festival in memory of Dmitry Hvorostovsky in Krasnoyarsk and Salekhard.
‘And we ended this tour with a concert in Naryan-Mar, where we performed for the first time. The hall was also attended by children from local art schools and music schools.
‘For this tour, we have prepared a program that includes works by the greatest Russian composers and several wonderful works by foreign authors. In addition to the pleasure that these works can give the listener, they once again demonstrate the boundless power of music that overcomes any barriers that do not really exist.’
Starting next Sunday, Rainer Hersch and I aim to bring sunlight into the November gloom with a weekly chat and send-up of the major issues that are troubling classical music and the performing arts.
Scene Unseen is a cutting-edge new online musical about identity, sexuality, and what makes us who we are. An hour-long song-cycle weaves a path from cabaret artist Jessica Walker’s emotionally complex childhood right up to her very particular wedding day, with songs about early gender confusion, sexual assault, first love and betrayal, and family secrets. It is a powerful, personal story with universal themes, expressed through Atkins and Walker’s uncategorisable musical mix of humour, classicism, torch, and a touch of Eighties synth. This is the world premiere of an intimate cabaret by Jessica Walker and Joseph Atkins, directed for film by James Dacre with illustrations by award-winning illustrator Thomas Hicks and cinematography by David Lefeber.
A co-production with English Touring Opera (Jess’ background is as an opera singer), Scene Unseenis available to watch online on English Touring Opera’s video platform, ETO at Home until December for £5.
In a NY Times op-ed today, conductor John Mauceri argues that serious music really matters to both sides – and to the outcome.
There is a trope often heard in discussions about culture that classical music is irrelevant — an elite and moribund art form disconnected from contemporary life.
If the trope were true, however, would Russian soldiers have assassinated a Ukrainian conductor in his home after he refused to conduct a concert celebrating Russia’s “improvement of peaceful life”?
Mauceri goes on the ocntend that Ukrainian refugees laid the foundations of American music.
Much of the music we think of as American was composed by the children of Ukrainians who escaped another kind of terrorism — anti-Semitism. Our country was the safe harbor for many who escaped the pogroms that surely would have killed them. And who were some of their children, their American children? Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, Alfred Newman, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin.
Any time you hear the music of “West Side Story” or “Rhapsody in Blue,” or watch “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Psycho,” “The Ten Commandments” or “The Magnificent Seven,” you are hearing the sound that freedom gave back to us and to the world.
