04 Giovanna DArcoVerdi – Giovanna d’Arco
Jessica Pratt; Jean-François Borras; Julian Kim; Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia; Riccardo Frizza
Dynamic 37676

Jeanne d’Arc, a.k.a. St. Joan, was a martyr, sold out by her own people after saving them and France from sure defeat by the British in 1430, but the young Verdi’s richly melodic, over-romanticized opera has little to do with historical truth.

At the summer festival of Valle d’Itria, a mountainous region of Puglia, southern Italy, the opera comes to us live from the open air, a rather windy courtyard of the Ducal Palace, undoubtedly a thrilling experience for the lucky festival crowd. Nevertheless this is a low-budget, minimalist production with a small chorus, small orchestra, young, talented singers and an excellent conductor. While it is musically certainly satisfactory, the overall grandeur of this opera demands a more substantial scale.

Its main strength is English-born star soprano Jessica Pratt in the spectacular title role having all the vocal requisites, especially in her ringing high registers. She has become famous in Rossini repertoire and this is probably her first Verdi role, so she is severely tested in the physical and emotional intensity a Verdi heroine demands. An exciting, radiant young tenor, Jean-François Borras is energetic and passionate, ideal for Charles VII. The third principal, the Korean Julian Kim, tries very hard to be a Verdi baritone, a fine voice, but unfortunately he is far too young for the role of the old father Giacomo, a real challenge for even a seasoned mature baritone. The young Italian conductor, Riccardo Frizza, has Verdi in his veins.

It must have been difficult to convey the event in a video, being in almost total darkness, in a video and the sound is less than ideal. Still…an interesting new issue, but no rival to the 2008 Tutto Verdi set with Svetla Vassileva (who simply is Giovanna) plus the immortal Renato Bruson as Giacomo, which I would consider as a benchmark.

05 LAiglonHonegger & Ibert – L’Aiglon
Gillet; Barrard; Dupuis; Sly; Guilmette; Lemiuex; Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Kent Nagano
Decca 478 9502

Review

Years ago, when Toronto’s CJRT-FM still broadcast classical music, I had the distinct pleasure of producing a show, Opera Obscura, dedicated to forgotten or neglected parts of the repertoire. Even then, L’Aiglon escaped my attention. I wish I had known there existed a 1957, incomplete recording of this opera by Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert. Worry no more, L’Aiglon is back on disc and it is here to stay! The oddity of two composers working together on one opera is quickly overcome by the wonder of Ibert’s waltzes (recalling some of the best of Richard Strauss’ scores) and by the rhythmicity and uncanny sense of the dramatic, Honegger’s own calling card.

The story of L’Aiglon (The Eaglet), the erstwhile Napoleon II, quickly rebranded the Duke of Reichstadt and spirited away to Vienna after his father’s final defeat, is potent opera fodder. When presented in 1936, the work was permeated with French patriotism and Gallic pride. This was a no-go just four years later, under the Vichy regime and the Nazi occupation of France. What started as wartime suppression has become a sort of long exile. The story of a consumptive boy, dreaming of restoring his father’s empire and then crushed by the gears of the geopolitical machine may seem naïve in our cynical times, but nevertheless resonates at some level even in the hardest of hearts. This is the effect of the music, modern yet nostalgic, grandiose yet somehow restrained. The exciting performances that Kent Nagano gently coaxes out of Anne-Catherine Gillet, Marc Barrard, Etienne Dupuis and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal make certain that this eagle has landed to uniform applause.

06 Schafer LovingR. Murray Schafer – Loving
Fallis; Gudgeon; MacPhail; Terrell; MacLeod; Savard; New Music Concerts; Robert Aitken
Centrediscs CMCCD 22516

R. Murray Schafer’s 70-minute bilingual “synaesthetic” chamber work Loving (Toi) was written between 1963 and 1965 (the same year he wrote the pivotal book, The Composer in the Classroom) and was first performed on the Radio Canada television program L’Heure du Concert in 1966. A few months later it was rebroadcast on the CBC English network. Over 13 years, L’Heure du Concert (produced by Pierre Mercure) brought a spectacular 133 operas and 133 ballets to CBC national television audiences. Mercure’s production of Loving (Toi) was his last, leaving several elements unfinished at the time of his sudden death at age 39. Fortunately, the Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs label recently reissued the excellent 1978 New Music Concerts recording of the first complete production that was originally released on the Melbourne Records label. It was conducted by Robert Aitken and features strong performances by the entire group, including singers Mary Lou Fallis, Susan Gudgeon, Jean MacPhail, Katherine Terrell and Trulie MacLeod, actor Gilles Savard, members of the Purcell String Quartet and Nexus, among others.

Loving (Toi) is Schafer’s first work for the stage (the 1978 NMC performance which toured four cities was semi-staged), predating the Patria series, his string quartets, and other works he is most known for. Clues that point to Schafer’s subsequent eclectic blending of multicultural mythological characters are abundant here, with Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, love, war and sex, cohabiting the work with the Greek god of love, Eros, in what Schafer calls a “confrontation between the male and female psyches.” Interspersed are the qualities and attitudes of Modesty, Vanity, The Poet, The Man and The Woman, each given supporting colouration within the ensemble (Modesty as strings plus accordion, Vanity as plucked instruments, Ishtar with percussion and Eros using bells).

Schafer’s writing is broadly expressive, a free-flowing synthesis of the avant-garde mannerisms of the epoch, warmly recorded spoken text, simple yet effective electroacoustic episodes, florid harp writing and long vocal lines that sometimes foreshadow the neo-Romanticism that dominates his later work. While Schafer describes Loving (Toi)as ambiguous and exploring the depths of the unconscious, his consideration of human sexuality now seems dated in its binary focus on masculine and feminine. Fifty years later, however, the piece retains the sense of sonic inventiveness and integrated plurality that is synonymous with his best work.

07 Schafer ApocalypsisR. Murray Schafer – Apocalypsis
Various Artists
Analekta AN 2 8784-5

Review

Canada’s R. Murray Schafer, widely recognized for composing large-scale music theatre works often set in unorthodox venues, completed his oratorio-community pageant Apocalypsis in 1980. Its elaborate, visually striking full score was hand-drawn in ink, a masterpiece of the genre.

Apocalypsis’ premiere at Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, was at the time dubbed “one of the most spectacular events in the history of Canadian music” by Toronto Star music critic William Littler. “Sounds about right,” commented London Free Press columnist and reporter James Reaney who was there, in his 2010 London Free Press article.

Then last June I attended the spectacular restaging of Apocalypsis, the centrepiece of Toronto’s 2015 Luminato Festival. Reportedly costing over a million dollars, the two concerts enacted a ritual “theatre as a civic action” for nearly 1,000 performers. They were crisply captured by CBC audio engineer Doug Doctor for radio broadcast and are presented on these two Analekta CDs.

David Fallis, the music director of the production, points out in his liner notes that apocalypsis is “the Greek word for ‘disclosure.’” This deeply mystical work certainly reveals a few of the many concerns Schafer has nurtured over a long career. His chosen texts, drawn from the Old Testament books of Isaiah and Joel and the New Testament book of Revelation, serve to anchor the turbulent, dramatic narrative of Part One: John’s Vision. It echoes with the power of dark forces and the cataclysmic end of times, brilliantly articulated by the 12 choirs, the real heart and musical stars of the performance. The large percussion and wind forces add needed texture, timbral diversity and dramatic emphasis.

The various actors and singers for the most part play supporting roles to the choirs, with the shining exception of Tanya Tagaq. Her searing vocal-stretching performance as the Old Woman serves as a reminder of the 1980 score specification that “sound (concrete) poets rather than actors” be cast in the three speaking roles, embedding sound poetry deeply in the work. It’s a stipulation elsewhere not followed in this production.

By way of contrast, Part Two: Credo, conventionally a statement of religious belief, is text-spare, adapted from the writings of the cleric, philosopher, mathematician, poet and astronomer Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). Credo is a kind of glorious exaltation of the unity of all creation, each of the 12 sections beginning with the “Lord God is universe” sung by the 12 choirs supported by 12 string quartets.

The composer writes in his notes that Credo is also his affirmation of the potential transformative power of art. It’s an affirmation many of us can also believe in.

08 Ghosts of VersaillesJohn Corigliano – The Ghosts of Versailles
LA Opera; James Conlon
Pentatone PTC 5186 538

The Ghosts of Versailles in retrospect makes for an impossible opera: a play within a play, with numerous principals. No wonder it graces the stage so rarely – it’s prohibitively expensive to produce, a fate shared with another grand opera, Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. Initially commissioned for the Metropolitan Opera’s 100th season, it arrived…eight years late. This long gestation period is partially explained by its ambition: to combine a tribute to Mozart and Rossini with the pivotal episode of the French Revolution, the so-called Affair of the Necklace, which turned the French populace against Marie Antoinette.

The way to do all this is by the means of the Culpable Mother, Beaumarchais’ sequel to the Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. Corigliano references Mozart and Rossini cleverly during the staging of an opera for The Ghosts of Versailles, Marie Antoinette, her king and court. Though ostensibly an opera buffa, the score turns darker in Act II, reflecting the horrors of the Revolution. It is hard to believe that 25 years since its premiere, this is the first full recording of the opera. The credit goes to James Conlon, the artistic director of the Los Angeles Opera, who has also committed to record rarely heard operatic pieces by Schreker and Zemlinsky. Full marks go to the extensive team of this live recording, who manage, according to the composer himself, to recapture the greatness of the Met premiere. An additional bonus is the SACD recording, delivering on compatible players, incomparable resolution and dynamic range.

01 Way of the PilgrimThe Way of the Pilgrim
Toronto Consort
Marquis Classics MAR 81465 (marquisclassics.com)

The Toronto Consort was founded in 1972. Since then it has been recognized as one of the finest ensembles in the world specializing in medieval, renaissance and early baroque music. This disc is a reissue, first released by Dorian in 2000. The ensemble is essentially the same as that performing now, with one exception: the recording was made before the soprano Michele DeBoer joined the group.

Although the title of the CD emphasizes pilgrimage, the subtitle, “Medieval Songs of Travel,” shows that “travel” is taken in a wider sense: we have here songs about the Crusades, about the miracles performed by the Virgin Mary (linked to the Spanish pilgrimage Salas), about spring and love written by wandering monks (the Carmina Burana) and about the vicissitudes in one’s own life (the autobiographical poem by Oswald von Wolkenstein, one of the last minnesingers). Making these works ready for performance would have involved a considerable amount of work. While good modern editions are available, it must be remembered that the music has come down to us in the shape of monophonic songs. Everything added to the tune would have to be added by the performer.

The performances on the CD are always enjoyable. I was particularly taken with the soprano Katherine Hill’s performances in the Cantiga Ben pode Santa Maria, mezzo Laura Pudwell’s rendering of Bonum est confidere from the Carmina Burana and with Pudwell’s unaccompanied performance Jerusalem se plaint, a lament written in response to the retreat of the Crusader army from Egypt in 1221. A lively and informative essay by David Fallis, the artistic director of the Toronto Consort, is a valuable supplement.

Concert Note: The Toronto Consort’s season concludes with performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with special guest British tenor Charles Daniels, joined by tenor Kevin Skelton and Montreal’s premier cornetto and sackbut ensemble La Rose des Vents on May 6, 7 and 8 at Trinity-St.Paul’s Centre.

02 MonteverdiMonteverdi – Vespro Della Beata Vergine
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists; Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Alpha 705

Sir John Eliot Gardiner has conducted Monteverdi’s Vespers many times. In the booklet that comes with this DVD he relates how he first conducted the work in 1964 when he was still an undergraduate at Cambridge. He also mentions that he received a great deal of cooperation from various academics. His tutor even arranged for him to have a year off from his work for the History Tripos so that he could concentrate on the Monteverdi. The performance was in the splendid late Gothic chapel at King’s College, Cambridge. Recently Gardiner was invited to conduct the work again in King’s College Chapel and the essay in the DVD booklet is clearly the program note for that performance.

Gardiner has conducted the work several times on CD and also once on an earlier DVD where the venue was the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. The venue on this recording is yet another space, the late 17th century Chapelle Royale de Versailles. That church is not as spectacular as the Chapel at King’s College or St. Mark’s Basilica but the architectural space works well. The cinematographer has also made good use of the frescos in the church to heighten the baroque ambiance in which the work is performed.

In his introductory essay, Gardiner writes that already in 1964, he foundthe smooth, polite euphony of the collegiate choral style of the early 60sunsuitable for this work. He has not changed his mind: this performance is dramatic and vigorous. Apart from some rather ungainly entrances by the solo tenors in the concluding Magnificat, it is also beautifully sung and played.

Concert Note: As mentioned above, the Toronto Consort presents Monteverdi’s Vespers at Trinity-St. Paul’s on May 6, 7 and 8.

03 Rossini MoseRossini – Mosè
Raimondi; Kabatu; Ganci; Mihai; Polinelli; Veneranca Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano; Francesco Quattrocchi
Cmajor 735308

This was one of the events specially created for the Milan Expo 2015 that coincided with the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification and what better way to celebrate than to perform an opera in the magnificent Gothic cathedral, Duomo di Milano, that took 600 years to build. The majestic interior became awash in cascading multicoloured curtains of light giving an impressive backdrop to the action.

The original opera, well over three hours long, Mosè in Egitto by the 24-year-old Rossini, was written for Naples. He later revised it for Paris and turned it into French (Moise et Pharaon) thereby losing a lot of the originality and freshness of the original. The creators of this particular event in their wisdom used this second version (translated back into Italian) and condensed it into a one-and-a-half-hour “semi-staged sacred melodrama” of overblown and repetitive religious scenes of divine miracles, dispensing with much of the love story, the human drama and the wonderful music that made this opera a success and caused it to survive for nearly 200 years. Fortunately, the immortal Prayer Scene at the banks of the Red Sea was kept, ending the show on a positive note.

This being in Italy and especially Milan, the mostly young singers are all excellent, their voices gloriously resounding in the spacious acoustics of the cathedral. Isabelle Kabatu as Queen Sinaide is especially memorable in her highly emotionally charged scene, and in the title role the venerable Ruggero Raimondi at 74, amazingly enough can still sing the role although his voice is somewhat compromised by now. The young Italian conductor Francesco Quattrocchi, well attuned to the Rossini idiom, brings out beautiful sounds and sonorities. All in all the opera is severely truncated, but still an impressive, visually resplendent show for this special occasion.

04 TannhauserWagner – Tannhäuser
Seiffert; Petersen; Mattei; Pape; Prudenskaya; Sonn; Staatskapelle Berlin; Daniel Barenboim
BelAir Classics BAC122

The exiled and penniless Wagner’s first real international break came in 1860 when Emperor Napoleon III invited him to perform his Tannhäuser in Paris, an event that became the biggest scandal in the history of opera. Riots broke out, people were beating each other up, screaming, yelling and throwing things at the singers while the Emperor and his Empress were sitting in the royal box unable do a thing. Wagner quickly withdrew the score and hurriedly left Paris.

Tannhäuser, Wagner’s tortured dilemma between physical and spiritual love, however, not only survived 150 years but is triumphantly vindicated here in Berlin. The big problem facing directors today is how to make opera relevant in the 21st century; there have been many failures, stupidly conceived updated concepts by second-rate directors. Acclaimed choreographer Sasha Waltz was the Staatsoper’s unlikely but brilliant choice to direct, and with her emphasis on the poetry of movement to underline the drama – exquisitely composed scenes with dancers mingling with the singers – there is constant motion adding excitement and visual splendour.

There is musical splendour of the highest order as well. A superb cast: Peter Seiffert, a strong heldentenor as Tannhäuser, his voice rich, sensitive and expressive with no sign of fatigue through the gruelling four hours. Ann Petersen is a glorious Elizabeth both in joy and later in her suffering. Peter Mattei, probably today’s greatest lyrical baritone is a noble, elegant and aristocratic Wolfram. René Pape (Landgraf) and Marina Prudenskaya (Venus) are also memorable in their lesser roles. Maestro Barenboim conducts the entire score from memory with forward thrust and quickening of pulse in the resplendent and joyful scenes of the second act, broadening into sustained slow tempi in the tragic but sublime third. Wonderful performance, highly recommended.

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