Opera is often hailed as a fusion of disparate art forms: words, music, action, and design. Yet “fusion” is often too neat a word for what can prove, for better and for worse, a complex tension that borders on civil warfare. The words and music can pull us in opposite directions, sometimes wonderfully. In many productions, the stage action pulls us in a third and maybe a fourth. When this multi-layered experience succeeds, we’re caught in a thrilling crossfire of separate meanings.
It doesn’t always succeed in Katie Mitchell’s split-focus Covent Garden production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, new in 2016, but it’s remarkable how some of the staging’s original features enter into both your nervous system and the opera’s. Every scene becomes bifocal: action in Donizetti’s dramaturgy is balanced on the other side of the stage by some intimate scene for other characters. Private life, especially the private life of the heroine, is a matter of evading near-constant surveillance.
You can say that Lucia has always been a feminist opera: it shows, very clearly, how men’s inconsiderate mistreatment of the heroine drives her to both madness, murder, and death. But this feminist Lucia shows how Lucia is the latest in a tradition of the oppression of women: one of her ancestors was murdered (for love) by one of her lover Edgardo’s ancestors, her mother is only recently dead – and both these silent female ghosts haunt the action. Lucia and her companion Alisa have to don male attire to get away to meet Edgardo (they look like Laurel and Hardy), but we also suspect from the first that Lucia is pregnant.
By the time Lucia’s cruelly obsessive brother Enrico bullies and cheats her into agreeing to marry another man (Arturo), she is visibly coping with morning sickness. When Edgardo turns up at her enforced marriage to Arturo, she rejoices to share the news with him that she is with child; but then the same Edgardo, appalled to discover she has actually married Arturo, curses her. The prospect of the bridal night with Arturo (played in this revival by the corpulent Andrés Presno) is so repellent that she, aided by the trusty Alisa, kills this husband on the bridal night. And it’s evident that she, actively luring Arturo with sex games before blindfolding and stabbing him, is far from bonkers.
Trying to dispose of his body, however, she has a miscarriage. Now her mental health does indeed become problematic. As she enters the house’s all-male billiard room, she sees both her spectral ancestress and Edgardo (they’re both present onstage, but both as passive wraiths) rather than the many wedding guests. Finally, in her bath, she slits her wrists; Edgardo, already preparing to die in the family crypt when he hears of her demise, rushes to her bathroom, caressing her corpse before slitting his own throat.
How much plot can you handle? As you watch all this (and I’ve missed out plenty of narrative), it’s not hard to be irked by its excesses and clutter. (Mitchell’s 2016 premiere was apparently more excessive yet. The current revival is directed by Robin Tebbutt.) Scenes that are written as private dialogues involve up to eight characters. With so much else going on across the stage, it’s easy to take your eyes off whoever’s signing for whole minutes. (And in the famous sextet it’s anyway impossible to see one of the six singers, Alisa.) The emphasis on women’s suffering – not wrong but heavily emphasised – eventually turns into a form of theatrical passive aggression that diminishes the story’s pathos.
But nothing here is boring or mimsy or evasive. This Lucia matters: it goes head-on for much that is usually left offstage. Other Lucias will be haunted by what this one makes important.
In this revival, it helped that Giacomo Sagripanti took everything at a terrific lick, while allowing the three leading singers to add some unprecedented high notes. Words are admirably bright all round. The American soprano Nadine Sierra, who used to sound pretty but callow, has recently broken through to fresh layers of intensity and poignancy. As Lucia, she holds nothing back, though she doesn’t quite convince in this version’s too-rapid transition from uxoricide to miscarriage to nervous breakdown. As a coloratura, she’s unremarkable in rapid passagework; her strengths are in fully sustained top notes, expressive trills, and fine staccati.
As Enrico, the Polish baritone Artur Ruciński has qualities that recall his compatriot Mariusz Kwiecień (who left the stage in 2020, due to recurrent back problems): an easy stage presence and a dark arrestingly vibrant voice capable of fire and anger. He sustained some climactic top notes for all they were worth (including a top B flat); he’s not especially original or imaginative, but he’s certainly a force for good.
Making his Covent Garden debut as Edgardo is the Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga, a wonderful discovery for many of us. Can a voice be huggable? His has warmth, sweetness, and immediacy, at one point rising to a high D – and yet it here beautifully expresses tragic passion and despair. (He most nearly resembles Javier Camena in sound, but takes more naturally to painful emotion.) Anduaga is still in his twenties. Casting such as this makes one hopeful for the future of Italian opera.
Although he does not become music director for another couple of years, Gustavo Dudamel is keeping close watch on events at the New York Philharmonic.
Next week, April 25-27, he’s jumping in for an unwell Juanjo Mena to conduct a program of Latin-themed music. It consists of Ginastera’s violin concerto and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy, soloist Hilary Hahn, along with Ravel’s Rapsodie espanole and Boléro.
That’s in addition to the orchestra’s Spring Gala on April 24.
The artist and photographer Normany Perryman, source of some wonderful music murals, has reached his tenth decade and decided to cut back on some activities.
First to go is the blog he has been running since 2012.
In his final post Norman writes: ‘Yes, at 90, life seems to be passing by faster than it used to be and I’m reflecting a lot about this. But rather than dwelling on regrets, I’m inspired to use my remaining time to celebrate the beauty of the transient….’
New on David Krauss’s weekly podcast is Louis Cato, one of the most televised musicians on earth.
Cato is band leader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
He acquired his skills growing up in a tight-knit church community where he wasn’t exposed to pop, rock, or jazz music. ‘I landed where the world made sense to me,’ he tells David.
You gave me sound advice, which I was in the process of putting into practice when the asshole did it again – right in front of two other women in my section. And offered to do the same to them.
So what now? I told you I’m north German. We’re fairly direct up here.
Next day I came well prepared. In rehearsal break, I smeared the inside of the mouthpiece of his instrument with a thin scraping of dogshit.
He put the instrument to his mouth. Couldn’t work out why it tasted different. When he did, he let out a yell that could be heard all the way to Berlin.
He immediately filed a complaint against me. I have been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation. I have not admitted the offence.
Should I?
Dear Should I?,
Ok. Before we say the obvious, I want to say l really like your style. It’s funny, to the point, and downright disgusting. Kudos to you! It’s going to go down in perpetuity in your orchestra lore.
It reminds me of things I used to do in high school. Once I left a paper bag of dog poop on someone’s front door. I also filled someone’s letter box with lentils and tied someone’s house together with rope (they had a completely square house with from door and back door on the same level). It was hilarious seeing them try to push the door open over and over again.
Back to reality. Oops. Of course you shouldn’t have done that.
Don’t say a word at orchestra. Don’t admit anything. Don’t respond to questions. Stay away from that grabby, despicable bag of hot air.
Get a lawyer and follow their advice to the letter.
They will most likely have you file your own official complaint, detailing both incidents and naming the witnesses. Don’t go to those people directly, just follow the lawyer’s advice.
Should I?, we all have gotten carried away in certain circumstances. That’s human. You will get out of this. But no funny business from here on out. Nose to the grindstone.
Please let us know how it goes,
Your fan, Alma
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week: There was a time when I could not get through the month without experiencing Elgar’s music in the flesh. So English, so reassuring, so easily chiming with a young man’s frustrations and aspirations. These days, there is much less Elgar about, and I have no idea where one
might turn for instant comfort. The arrival of two Elgar sets in the same week is both encouraging and challenging: might there be two paths to Elgar in a century of cultural retrogression?
The Manhattan School of Music this morning quietly placed Liang Wang on leave, updating its website.
Wang has been suspended as principal oboe of the New York Philharmonic while an investigation is conducted into historic allegations of involvement in rape.
He remains on the faculties of New York University, Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His lawyer has told the New York Times that the ‘only person accused of misconduct in connection with that matter’ is Wang’s friend, the associate principal trumpet Matthew Muckey. Muckey’s lawyer said: ‘our client was cleared of any wrongdoing.’
The Mozart concerto due to be played three times in May by the suspended principal oboist Liang Wang has been dropped from the concert, which is conducted by Jane Glover.
In its place, soprano Karen Slack sings the Beethoven aria, ah, perfido!
The Theater an der Wien, back home after a two-year exile, has unfurled a season of 13 new productions.
They include a role debut for Asmik Grigorian as Norma, a piece called Voice Killer by the Czech composer Miroslav Srnka and a rare sighting of Prokofiev’s Betrothal in the Monastery.
Vienna, with a population below 2 million, has three fully functioning opera house. London, pop. 9 million, has just Covent Garden, open ten months of the year.
The Chopin Competition winner resumes his career this Sunday in Vienna after prolonged sanctions by the Chinese authorities.
Yundi has a 3-CD Mozart sonata deal with Warner but is still a long way from getting back to the highway.
Sunday, April 21 at 7:30 pm in the Musikverein (Great Hall) in Vienna.
The Anton Bruckner private university is to open a Nikolaus Harnoncourt Centre next month in St Georgen im Attergau, the village where the influential musician died eight years ago.
Press release follows:
Linz/St. Georgen im Attergau (LCG) – 2024 wäre Nikolaus Harnoncourt 95 Jahre alt geworden. Sein Lebensweg führte ihn von seiner Geburtsstadt Berlin, über Graz und Wien nach St. Georgen im Attergau, von wo aus er eine musikalisch wie künstlerisch weltweit wegweisende Wirkung entfaltet hat. Harnoncourt war eine herausragende und inspirierende künstlerische Persönlichkeit von Weltruhm, dabei immer auch ein engagierter und beherzter Förderer des Kulturlandes Oberösterreich, vor allem des künstlerischen Nachwuchses in unserem Land.
Die feierliche Eröffnung des Nikolaus Harnoncourt Zentrums in St. Georgen im Attergau während der fünften Harnoncourt-Tage (3. bis 5. Mai 2024) hat daher eine besondere Strahlkraft: Beim Festakt zur Eröffnung durch Landeshauptmann Thomas Stelzer am Freitag, den 3. Mai 2024, ab 13 Uhr, wird auch die von Marie-Theres Arnbom kuratierte Ausstellung „Nikolaus und Alice Harnoncourt: Musik ist eine Sprache“ eröffnet. Arnbom portraitiert darin den Lebensweg des Ehepaares Harnoncourt, sowie die Pionierreise ihrer Entdeckergemeinschaft und bietet Einblicke in Harnoncourts Arbeitsweise, seine musikalische Entwicklung sowie in das umfassende Archiv der Familie Harnoncourt. Die Ausstellung ist von 3. Mai bis 15. September 2024 in der Landesmusikschule St. Georgen im Attergau zu sehen und macht von 21. Oktober bis 6. Dezember 2024 an der Bruckneruniversität in Linz Station.
Weiteres Highlight des Eröffnungswochenendes ist die erste Denkwerkstatt des Nikolaus Harnoncourt Zentrums in der Landesmusikschule St. Georgen am Samstag, den 4. Mai 2024, ab 11 Uhr. Bei dieser von Florian Boesch kuratierten Diskursreihe werden Persönlichkeiten aus Kunst und Kultur, Wissenschaft und Philosophie eingeladen, sich in kulturphilosophischen Podiumsdiskussionen mit aktuell brennenden gesellschaftlichen wie philosophischen Themen auseinanderzusetzen. Podiumsgäste der ersten Denkwerkstatt sind Philosoph Wolfram Eilenberger und Florian Boesch, moderiert wird diese von Judith Hoffmann. Der Eintritt ist frei.
Based on Oscar Wilde’s play, Strauss’s landmark opera was greeted with shock, horror, excitement, awe, respect, censorship, scandal, condemnation – just the kind of responses that fill theatres and cinemas to this day, brought to Slippedisc subscribers courtesy of OperaVision. The music, sweet, sour, erotic, often dizzily thrilling, has not been blunted by time. This is no overture. A rising arpeggio on the clarinet launches Narraboth into his rapturous vision of Salome and, from there to the end, there is let-up in the intensity and tension of the score. Composed in 1905, Salome is still one of the wildest and most rewarding rides – at times of overwhelming intensity – to experience, and one of the most challenging in the repertoire for the lead soprano. It never fails to challenge the imagination of headlline writers. (Ours is borrowed from the New York magazine Forward.)
Sinéad Campbell Wallace singing the title role, complete with its 20-minute final aria that moves from animal frenzy to demented erotic yearning. Irish National Opera’s acclaimed new production is directed by Bruno Ravella and conducted by Fergus Sheil.
The Plot: a king who desires his wild and wilful step-daughter. Her erotic fascination with a condemned prophet. Salome is a study in obsessions, with lust and death at every turn.
