Vocal and Choral

Affetti Amorosi
Bud Roach
Musica Omnia MO0805 (budroach.com) 

Whether known as a troubadour or a singer-songwriter, the concept of a solo singer providing their own accompaniment has been around for centuries, and tenor Bud Roach delves into 17th-century Italian “singer-songwriter” music with Affetti Amorosi, in which he accompanies himself on the theorbo. Performing music by seven composers, ranging from the well-known Claudio Monteverdi to the lesser-known Berti and Milanuzzi, this disc explores a range of solo vocal repertoire that demonstrates the lyrical beauty and musical inventiveness of the time.

Perhaps the most interesting facet of this repertoire is the variety of interpretive choices presented to the performer. Reconciling the lost oral traditions and conventions of the 17th century with the notated score is an objectively impossible task for modern performers, and a high degree of informed subjectivity is required of the contemporary interpreter. Even with current scholarship and research, the quest for an “authentic reproduction” remains an unattainable oxymoron.

The benefit of this historical ambiguity is that the listener gains greater insight into the uniqueness of an individual performer’s interpretations – no two recordings are alike. Roach’s approach is sustained and lyrical and utilizes both the modality of the music and the drama of the texts to great effect. By accompanying himself, Roach maximizes the potential for rhetorical invention and provides a convincing suggestion of how this music might have sounded on the streets of Venice almost 500 years ago.

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Worship in a Time of Plague
Capella Intima; Gallery Players of Niagara; Bud Roach
Musica Omnia MO0804 (budroach.com) 

In 1629, Heinrich Schütz published his Symphoniae Sacrae, a collection of vocal sacred music based on Latin texts. Influenced by his exposure to the Venetian school, Schütz set psalms and excerpts from the Song of Solomon for one to three voices, with various instruments and continuo. After a period of great productivity in Italy, Schütz returned to Dresden just before the plague outbreak which would kill one third of the population.

Capella Intima’s Worship in a Time of Plague places its focus on Venice in 1629, highlighting a selection of music which Schütz would likely have heard, as well as several of Schütz’s own works. These were effectively some of the last scores published and disseminated before the plague led to the collapse of the music publishing industry, church choirs and the opportunity for large-scale musical performances, and they undoubtedly attained even greater meaning as the opportunities for producing and publishing new music were swiftly curtailed. 

Despite the dreary temporal background of these works, each of them, from Grandi’s florid O beate Benedicte to Schütz’s sublime Paratum cor meum is a vibrant essay in the art of 17th-century composition that radiates both contrapuntal mastery and expressive piety. Capella Intima and the Gallery Players of Niagara under Bud Roach’s direction give a wonderful performance, unearthing the subtleties of the scores and ensuring that both tuning and text are executed with precision. This is a magnificent recording for all to gain an understanding of Italian vocal music of the period, especially for those who appreciate the choral music of Heinrich Schütz.

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Handel – Semele
Soloists; NZ Opera; Peter Walls
Opus Arte OA1362D (naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=OA1362D) 

Disguise is the elaborate subtext of Semele. Indeed, the same might be said of the work itself for it is an Italian opera masquerading as an English oratorio. Gone is Handel’s Biblical subject matter. In its place is the decidedly secular fable from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with a libretto by the dramatist William Congreve.

The beautiful mortal, Semele, becomes the lover of the god Jupiter, which panders to her overweening vanity. Jupiter’s jealous wife, Juno, seeking revenge, appears to Semele in disguise and easily persuades her that she too could become immortal, and so Semele asks Jupiter to reveal himself to her in his full glory. Unfortunately, he does just that and Semele is destroyed by his burning brightness. End of story. The moral? “Be careful what you wish for.”

This was exactly what happened to Handel, who anticipated – indeed expected – a glorious reception for Semele when it was premiered during the Lent of February 1744, in Covent Garden. The audience was unimpressed. In the memorable words of Winton Dean: “where they expected wholesome Lenten bread, they received a glittering stone dug from the ruins of Greek mythology.” Handel’s most secular opera, however, stayed alive thanks to Jupiter’s Act II aria, Where’re you walk. 

Emma Pearson (Semele), Amitai Pati (Jupiter/Apollo), Sarah Castle (Juno/Ino) and Paul Whelan (Cadmus/Somnus) brilliantly perform Handel’s opera around the iconic church altar marriage setting, propelling this New Zealand Opera production into the stratosphere where Semele rightfully belongs.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges – L’Amant Anonyme
Haymarket Opera Company
Cedille CDR 90000 217 (cedillerecords.org) 

With the recent release of the film Chevalier, the life of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, one of the small number of biracial early composers whose works were celebrated in the 18th century, has been thrust into the spotlight. Before Chevalier was on theatre screens, however, Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company issued their world-premiere recording of Bologne’s L’Amant Anonyme, the only one of his six operas to survive to the present day.

Often called “the Black Mozart”, Bologne’s nickname has provided his music with relatively recent recognition through its celebratory comparison, but also obscured his own originality and influence. This recording clearly demonstrates that Bologne was an exceptionally gifted composer of his own accord, and that his works merit widespread rediscovery and respect, whether Mozart is nearby or not. (Bologne was highly respected and well-connected in his day – he and Mozart were neighbours in Paris, and he commissioned Haydn’s six Paris Symphonies.)

Premiered in 1780, L’Amant Anonyme is a two-act opéra comique (it contains spoken dialogue instead of recitative) that is a striking combination of Baroque and classical forms, utilizing galant styles and earlier dance forms to create an aristocratic air that is always delightfully tuneful. Indeed, this melodic genius is even more impressive when one considers that Bologne wrote this opera before any of Mozart’s major operas, reversing the conventional understanding of which composer influenced who.

No matter how perfect the composer’s intentions, music needs performers to make it come alive, and the Haymarket Opera Company does not disappoint. Both singers and orchestra are light, agile and transparent in tone, and the tempi are neither rushed nor tardy. This disc is highly recommended for all who love the early classical repertoire, and especially for those who watched Chevalier and are eager to learn more about this unsung hero.

Schubert Revisited – Lieder arranged for baritone and orchestra
Matthias Goerne; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Deutsche Grammophon 483 9758 (store.deutschegrammophon.com/p51-i0028948397587) 

The fact that Franz Schubert was not – like Beethoven or Mozart – a virtuoso musician seemed to overshadow (even diminish somewhat) his greatest achievements as a composer. His unfettered gift for melody and attachment to classical forms didn’t help his cause either. However, Schubert helped shape the art of lieder like no other composer of his day, or after. For all he did to give wing to the poetry of (especially) Goethe (but also others), Schubert himself might easily lay claim to being a true lieder poet, great in every way as the writers whose poetry he set to music. 

More than anything else Schubert’s songs live and die with the talents of their performers. Like the plays of Shakespeare, the songs respond to a variety of interpretations while always needing the singer who can strike the right balance between characterisation and vocal beauty. Baritones like the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the Welshman Bryn Terfel and German-born Thomas Quasthoff mastered that and distilled the beauty of Schubert’s profound art with majesty.

The pantheon of great Schubert lieder interpreters must also include Matthias Goerne. His performance is truly masterful on Schubert Revisited – Lieder arranged for baritone and orchestra. Together with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen Goerne gives a particularly atmospheric and powerful performance of songs set to the poetry of Goethe, Claudius, Mayrhofer and others. Highlights include the dramatic Grenzen der Menschheit, and the wonderfully fleet-footed and joyful Gesänge des Harfners.

Puccini – Messa di Gloria & Orchestral Works
Charles Castronovo; Ludovic Tézier; Orfeo Catala; Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Gustavo Gimeno
Harmonia Mundi HMM905367 (harmoniamundi.com/en/albums/puccini-messa-di-gloria) 

We all know Puccini is one of the greatest opera composers, but little do we know that as a student in the conservatory he dabbled in orchestral and religious music. Three of his orchestral pieces are presented here and to my surprise, embedded in one of them, Capriccio sinfonico, I found the opening pages of his first breakthrough success and masterpiece: La Bohème.

On this new Harmonia mundi recording, the chief conductor of our TSO Gustavo Gimeno with his fine Luxembourg orchestra perform these works, as well as a major choral work. The Messa di Gloria is a very ambitious youthful composition, a complete five-movement Catholic Mass for chorus and orchestra with tenor and baritone soloists. 

I was truly amazed at Puccini’s budding genius in the level of invention, evocative power and passion, but also as a future composer of opera. For example, near the beginning in the Gloria section a beautiful aria, Gratias agimus tibi (We give thanks to Thee), sung passionately by tenor soloist Charles Castronovo. Later Qui tollois peccata mundi, a march with alternating male and female choruses, is very effective, but Verdi’s influence is noticeable. (Puccini saw Aida at age 18 and was very impressed.) His great talent for the dramatic (shades of the later Tosca) emerges in the deep voices of the tragic Crucifixus but we soon are comforted by the Resurrection (Et resurrexit tertia die Secundum Scripturas) with a joyful chorus of the sopranos. The two concluding sections are radiantly beautiful. Benedictus is sung by Ludovic Tézier a master of Italian bel canto baritone, who then joins Castronovo for Agnus Dei, which in a gentle rollicking 3/4 time ends the Messa in heavenly peace.

Puccini – Turandot
Sondra Radvanovsky; Ermonela Jaho; Jonas Kaufmann; Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Antonio Pappano
Warner Classics 3394009 (warnerclassics.com/release/turandot) 

Where does Puccini’s genius lie? Apart from his exceptional melodic gifts it’s his tremendous versatility and ability to create atmosphere. No other composer has been capable of conjuring up a Paris waterfront, the American Wild West or contemporary Japan, all so different, with equal ease and with music that feels fully authentic. Such is the case in Turandot, Puccini’s last and sadly unfinished opera where the scene is ancient China. The music is oriental, brutal and dissonant, heavy in percussion for the inhumanly cruel despotic Imperial Court but intense, lyrical and beautifully melodic for the protagonists, two extreme elements resolved very successfully.

In this new studio recording the obvious motivating force is Maestro Pappano, his unbridled enthusiasm, deep insight, overcoming COVID limitations yet creating an optimal sound world this opera demands. It’s beautiful to watch him on YouTube wildly gesticulating to inspire the singers who respond with equal enthusiasm, body and soul.

Turandot, the ice princess, is Sondra Radvanovsky, an American-Canadian soprano of the highest calibre who copes wonderfully with this very strenuous role full of spectacular high notes in fortissimo. Her famous aria In questa Reggia is absolutely ravishing. Her hopeful lover who has to solve three riddles (shades of Oedipus Rex) otherwise he dies, is today’s leading helden tenor Jonas Kaufmann. His faultless Italian and intense bel canto is a worthy successor to the iconic, unforgettable Pavarotti who single-handedly turned the world’s attention to opera with his Nessun dorma, the opera’s most beautiful aria. The unfortunate servant girl Liu who sacrifices her life for love is Albanian mezzo soprano sensation Emanuela Jaho. Her totally engaged emotional singing is heartbreaking and a real asset to this extraordinary recording.