Vocal and Choral

Britten – Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach
Alan Oke; Giselle Allen; Britten-Pears Orchestra; Steuart Bedford
ArtHaus Musik 102179

The troubled Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes has rowed home at last in a unique production presented on the pebbly shores of the Suffolk village by the festival that Benjamin Britten established there in 1948. Lacking a facility large enough in the town to accommodate the large chorus and sets for the presentation of this most celebrated of Britten’s stage works, Aldeburgh Music boldly proposed to celebrate the centennial of the composer’s birth with ”Grimes on the Beach.” Compromises aside (a pre-taped orchestra and headset microphones to amplify the soloists), the weather co-operated and the risk proved well worth the effort.

The three evening performances of June 2013 have been expertly assembled by Margaret Williams into a cinemascope format film which amplifies the concert experience with close-ups, cutaways and specially commissioned atmospheric videos accompanying the four orchestral interludes. The title role is sung by the redoubtable Alan Oke in his first appearance in this role, ably abetted by Giselle Allen as the ever-sympathetic Ellen Orford. The cast also includes David Kempster as Balstrode, Robert Murray as Bob Boles and Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Mrs. Sedley.

Britten stalwart Steuart Bedford pre-recorded the students of the Britten-Pears Orchestra in a raw yet energetic studio session. The excellent chorus is drawn from members of Opera North and the Guildhall. The static, multi-purpose set consists of a number of oddly angled fishing boats that serve as pub, church and shacks as needed while the costuming is vintage 1945 dowdiness. The overall solidity of the vocal ensemble and the exceptionally clear diction make for a most engaging evening best enjoyed indoors, comfortably far from the crashing waves and pesky seagulls of the rugged North Sea.

George Benjamin – Written on Skin
Christopher Purves, Barbara Hannigan; Bejun Mehta; Victoria Simmonds; Allan Clayton; Royal Opera; George Benjamin
Opus Arte OA 1125 D

Composer George Benjamin and British playwright Martin Crimp’s latest project is the opera Written on Skin, produced to great acclaim in 2012. It recounts the legend of the 12th century Catalan troubadour Guillem de Cabestaing and his fatal ménage à trois, represented here by the principal roles of The Protector (baritone Christopher Purves), his wife Agnès (Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan) and The Boy (countertenor Bejun Mehta). The Protector has hired The Boy (incongruously much balder than his employer in this production) to craft a manuscript about this medieval lord’s mighty realm and deeds (“written on skin” refers to the vellum upon which medieval calligraphers crafted their illuminated manuscripts). Soon enough Agnès and The Boy fall in love and Agnès realizes how cruel her husband really is. The Protector himself also falls under his erotic spell. The affair ends quite messily with the husband killing The Boy and serving up his heart to his wife, who elects to throw herself off a balcony rather than submit to her misogynist husband ever again.

To the left of the stage a group of contemporary scholars in lab coats act as puppet masters, putting these characters from the past through their paces. The narrative of this psychodrama is abstract and freely poetic, with the characters referring to themselves in the third person throughout and the action shifting rapidly between past and present. Benjamin’s chromatic vocal writing is consistently mellifluous and his sensitive and radiant orchestration never fails to impress. Mehta’s eerie male soprano perfectly conveys his otherworldly, angelic character, Purves’ insightful interpretation lends an element of humanity to his nefarious character and Hannigan’s moving portrayal of a woman coming to self-awareness is both vocally gorgeous and dramatically incisive.

In an age when contemporary British operas too often resort to shock-and-schlock tactics it is a pleasure to encounter such a concise and sophisticated jewel of an opera.

Editor’s Note: Composer George Benjamin and soprano Barbara Hannigan will be the featured guests at all three concerts of next year’s Toronto Symphony Orchestra New Creations Festival where an opera-in-concert version of Written On Skin will be performed with surtitles on March 7, 2015. 

Salieri – Falstaff
John Del Carlo; Teresa Ringholz; Richard Croft; Stuttgart RSO; Arnold Östman
ArtHaus Musik 102306

This recording is not exactly new. It gives us a live performance from the Schwetzingen Festival, which dates from 1995. The DVD was first released in 2000 (it is still available in that format). So we are dealing with what is essentially a repackaging.

Although in the early 17th century Monteverdi’s opera had both serious and comic elements, in the 18th century these tended to be divided between opera seria and opera buffa. That division was not absolute and several of Handel’s operas (most notably Partenope and Serse) were in part comic. It was not until Mozart, however, that the serious potential of comic opera was brought out. Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff was first performed in January 1799, a little more than seven years after Mozart’s death. Yet it is a comic opera that shows little of the complexities which we find in Don Giovanni or Così fan tutte. Nor is Falstaff’s story as interestingly treated as it is by Verdi, Nicolai or Vaughan Williams.

I found much of Salieri’s opera decidedly unfunny and much of the music rather routine. There are a few exceptions such as Mr. Ford’s jealousy arias (beautifully sung by the tenor Richard Croft) and the final scene in which Falstaff is confronted with a ritual scene of torment (with the soprano Teresa Ringholz very fine as the Queen of the Fairies). It is not a coincidence that it is exactly those scenes which carry a threat which move beyond what is merely comic. 

Haydn – Lord Nelson Mass
Mary Wilson; Abigail Fischer; Keith Jameson; Kevin Deas; Boston Baroque; Martin Pearlman
Linn CKD 426

Written when Haydn was in his mid-60s and at a time of great uncertainty for Europe, the premiere of this mass must have been an emotionally charged one for the citizens of Vienna – the threatened invasion by Napoleon’s army having been recently thwarted by British Admiral Horatio Nelson. With the start of the Kyrie featuring a terrifying military outburst of trumpets and timpani followed by a jubilant rejoicing choir, the audience must have been deeply moved by the dramatic effect. Two years later, Haydn presented this work to the conquering hero when he visited the Esterhazy palace.

Boston Baroque certainly captures the character of those times, deftly alternating huge dynamic ranges that switch from jubilant and boisterous celebration to reflective and prayerful gratitude. And the current day performers were affected by equally upsetting events. Rehearsals for the recording took place at the time of the Boston Marathon bombing, giving a much too realistic experience of the original title of the work (Mass in difficult, uncertain or anxious times). Particularly poignant is the soloist’s quartet for the Agnus Dei. Following the Mass on this recording, Martin Pearlman leads the orchestra in a lively, fast-paced and vigorous rendition of Haydn’s Symphony No.102, another exuberant offering most welcome and uplifting to the spirit.

Verdi – Messa da Requiem, Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Di Giacomo; DeYoung; Griglo; D’Arcangelo; Los Angeles Philharmonic and Master Chorale; Gustavo Dudamel
Cmajor 714708

Young Dudamel’s idea of bringing Verdi’s Requiem into the open air, to an unlikely venue with questionable acoustics was a risky undertaking. It was riddled with technical problems from the very beginning, but somehow it came off surprisingly well and turned out to be a huge success. And with good reason too.

Young he may be yet he is not a showman, but a very serious, dedicated and astute musician. He conducts the entire mass without a score and without a baton, using his hand gestures (like Karajan did), not at all easy when controlling the vast forces at his disposal. He says he wants to have the piece in his hands, close to his heart. Using carefully maintained slow tempi ensures every detail is moulded to perfection, but he never lets the tension sag – Verdi would have hated that! He is also fully aware of the tremendous dramatic aspects of the work: witness the sudden deep silence after the gigantic outburst of “Dies Irae” when the clouds disperse to open up to clear blue sky, with trumpets sounding from high above and one really feels God is coming to pass final judgment.

There is a fine quartet of soloists, each having their memorable moment: Juliana Di Giacomo is heartbreaking in “Libera me,” the part actually written first where the soprano reigns supreme; Michelle DeYoung shines eternal light in “Lux Aeterna.” Vittorio Grigolo is certainly no easy-going Duke of Mantua (where I saw him last) but deeply moving in his tenor solo at “Ingemisco” and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, with his very suitable name, is a seasoned veteran in the basso role who provides a solid foundation to the numerous solo assemblies Verdi had always excelled in writing.

Busoni – Doktor Faust
Henschel; Begley; Hollop; Jenis; Kerl; Fischer-Dieskau; l’Opéra National de Lyon; Kent Nagano
Erato 2564 64682-4

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was celebrated by his contemporaries as an astounding pianist and valued teacher but considered himself above all a composer. It was not until the 1980s however that his compositions began to attract the international attention they deserve. Busoni rightly considered his opera Doktor Faust as the summation of his life’s work. His interpretation of the Faust legend takes its inspiration not from Goethe but from the origins of this mythical figure in Medieval puppet plays. He wrote and published his own libretto in 1916 and devoted the remainder of his life to its composition. Sadly, he died just short of the completion of his masterpiece, which he entrusted to his student Philipp Jarnach to fulfill for the 1925 premiere.

In 1982 the musicologist Anthony Beaumont reconstructed two more scenes intended for the ending of the opera from previously unavailable sketches and this “complete” version was issued on the Erato label in 1988. The Erato firm was absorbed by Warner Music in 1992 and this important recording became unavailable. Happily, further corporate restructuring has brought it back to life in Warner’s new “Erato Opera Collection” launched in 2013. This reissue features the Opéra de Lyon production under the direction of Kent Nagano with Dietrich Henschel in the lead role, Kim Begley as Mephistopheles and Eva Jenis as the Duchess of Parma among others. Though the interpretations are immaculate and the sound is very fine the repackaging offers only a brief synopsis and no libretto is provided, though with some sleuthing an English translation of the Jarnach version can be located on the internet.

The incomparable Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau first made this work famous in a compelling 1970 recording conducted by Ferdinand Leitner with the Bavarian RSO on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Fischer-Dieskau (Henschel’s teacher from long ago) also appears in the cast of the Erato production, though his is merely a speaking role at this late point in his career. The landmark DG recording has also long been in limbo though I am happy to report it too has resurfaced in digital form on iTunes. Were it not for some major cuts to the score (not necessarily a bad thing) and the damage done by the woefully wobbly Hildegard Hillebrecht as the Duchess it would still stand as my preferred interpretation of this strangely beautiful drama.

The Beaumont additions are provided as fillers at the end of the third disc of the Erato set, with suggestions of programming the tracks to either avoid or include them clumsily sketched out, though there is no discussion of the history of the reconstruction in the documentation. Rather than ending with the melodramatic death of Faust in dismal E-flat minor the Beaumont version ends with his mystical redemption through reincarnation in a luminous C major. Take your pick then, though it seems to me that on the opera stage death wins every time. The Beaumont edition has evidently failed to catch on; the recent 2001 Metropolitan Opera and 2006 Zurich Opera productions revert to the 1925 Jarnach version. Both featured baritone Thomas Hampson in a temperamental interpretation of the title role, with the latter performance available as an ArtHaus DVD previously reviewed here by yours truly (March 2008).

Honegger – Jeanne d’Arc au bucher
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR; Helmuth Rilling
Hänssler Classic CD 098.636

German conductor Helmuth Rilling is known here mainly for his authoritative performances of Bach. But his repertoire is, in fact, remarkably broad and adventurous, and his recorded output is prodigious. In this live recording he undertakes a magnificent work whose rarity in our concert halls is baffling.

The two leading parts, Joan and Brother Dominic, are spoken rather than sung. But for the rest, French composer Arthur Honegger drew on a mixture of musical styles, from jazz and folk song to Gregorian chant and Bach chorales. These make for many wonderful moments, but the most moving is near the end, when the Virgin, sung by Canadian soprano Karen Wierzba, soars radiantly over the huge choir and orchestra as Joan is burned at the stake and ascends to heaven.

Rilling brings out the disparate moods of the work – the irony, absurdity, humour, mystery and profound spirituality. But these disjointed elements don’t always come together in the unified vision that Honegger and his librettist Paul Claudel sought.

Sylvie Rohrer as Joan and Eörs Kisfaludy as Dominic are affecting but unidiomatic, and momentum is sapped by the slow pace of their extended dialogues. It’s the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, founded by Rilling in 1954, that steals the show, especially with the soloists frequently overpowered by the massive forces behind them.

The booklet essay and soloist biographies are in French and English, but the libretto is given only in French, without even a synopsis in English.