Vocal - my/maSCENA

David T. Little JFK: Politics, opera, and the evoking of emotion

By Charles Geyer on 4 December 2017 Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

Composer David T. Little’s wildly rampant mane of curly hair could pass for an out-of-control Afro. Add a Mephistophelean goatee and broad moustache and you might have a rocker or radical campus agitator. In conversation, though, one meets an erudite, articulate, and very down-to-earth classicist teddy bear of a guy from New Jersey (who also just happens to be a rocker and a radical, too, in his own way). “I always wanted straight hair,” Little says. “But this is what I’ve got, so I just sort of let it go crazy. It’s been organic — like my composition process.” It’s…

Yannick and the Orchestre Métropolitain: A Grand Finale in Paris

By Arthur Kaptainis on 4 December 2017 Art Song, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic, Strings

PARIS – Ever seen a conductor cry on stage? I mean, other than Leonard Bernstein? We can add to this exclusive list the name of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who was seen wiping his eyes discreetly on Sunday after Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a performance that marked the official conclusion of a six-city, seven-concert European tour by the Orchestre Métropolitain. There would be an encore: Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, done in the supplest tones imaginable. We must resist the temptation to deem the last thing heard as the best. But goodness, what a sound. And what an ovation from the Parisians, who packed…

Gerald Finley 20 years later

By Adrian Rodriguez on 3 December 2017 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

It has already been 20 years since we first interviewed Canadian baritone Gerald Finley (see Philip Anson’s article). Then, Finley was a rising star specializing in Mozart operas and German lieder. Looking back, he says, “I was 37 and singing Papageno in The Magic Flute. It was seen as a good role to introduce young baritones to the house and to the acoustics at the Met, where of course big voices are the standard.” Finley is back at the Met this autumn, singing an acclaimed Athanael in Thaïs. “I’m working with the same director, John Cox. Back then he felt…

OM Concert at the Elbphilharmonie was Hamburg Heaven

By Arthur Kaptainis on 2 December 2017 Art Song, Canadian Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral, Romantic, Strings

HAMBURG – “Suche Karte.” Seeking ticket. This is always a good sign, quite literally, in German-speaking lands, where it is common to advertise your unhappy condition with two words writ large on a piece of cardboard. Sure enough, a visit to the box office of the Elbphilharmonie confirmed that the fifth installment of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s tour of Europe was quite sold out. Eight thousand requests, 2,100 seats. Suche Karte. The huge demand cannot be reconciled with the usual explanations. Soloists Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Jean-Guihen Queyras are reputable enough, but hardly the stuff of a sellout. Yannick Nézet-Séguin is recognized everywhere.…

Hot Saint, Holy Sinner – Massenet’s Thaïs at the Met

By Charles Geyer on 2 December 2017 Concert Reviews, Opera

REVIEW: of the Metropolitan Opera presentation of Thaïs by Jules Massenet and Louis Gallet (viewed November 22, 2017). A colorful operatic mélange of piety and exotica, Jules Massenet’s 1894 Thaïs reemerged this season at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in a remounting of a glittery production originated as long ago as 2002 at Lyric Opera of Chicago. At that time, the work was promoted as a showcase for soprano Renée Fleming in the title role (a role that had afforded like ostent earlier for sopranos Beverly Sills and Leontyne Pryce in the 1970s). This time, the courtesan-turned-saint at the center of…

John Blow’s Ode to the Death of Purcell

By Norman Lebrecht on 1 December 2017 Baroque and Early, Lebrecht Weekly, Vocal

John Blow: An ode on the death of Mr Henry Purcell (Hyperion) For a brief window in the 1690s – until the night Mrs Purcell shut her husband out in the cold – London was the go-to place for young composers in search of top tuition and an appreciative audience. Italians like Arcangelo Corelli were keen to study with Henry Purcell and English composers grew in confidence. Then, one November night in 1695, Mrs P decided not to stay up til her old man got back from the theatre and poor Henry caught cold and died, or so the story goes.…

Kings College Choir Delivers Uplifting English Brahms Requiem

By Norman Lebrecht on 24 November 2017 Choral, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

Brahms: An English Requiem (Delphian) Mary Bevan, soprano Marcus Farnsworth, baritone James Baillieu and Richard Uttley, piano Choir of Kings College London, conductor Joseph Fort This has to be the least expected record of the year – a performance of Ein deutsches Requiem in the original English, at least in the texts of the original English Bible. The work was so popular on reception, at a time when Bismarck was planting German boots all over Denmark, Austria and France, that London impresarios felt it might be prudent to produce it in a less contentious language. Since Victorian concertgoers knew their…

The last night in the life of the president America has never forgotten

By Newswire on 23 November 2017 Newswire, Opera, Vocal

JFK by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts January 27 and 30, and February 1st and 3, 2018 at 7:30 pm Montreal, November 20, 2017 – Once again this year, the Opéra de Montréal is continuing with the breakthrough portion of its program by presenting another new work, the opera JFK by American composer David T. Little and Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek. Praise for this opera—jointly commissioned by the Fort Worth Opera, the American Lyric Theater, and the Opéra de Montréal—which premiered in Fort Worth in April 2016, has been unanimous: the work is “ravishing”…

Riccardo Chailly conducts Andrea Chénier at Teatro alla Scala

By Newswire on 17 November 2017 Newswire, Opera, Vocal

Giordano’s masterpiece returns to La Scala for the Opening of the 2017/2018 Season in a production staged by Mario Martone with sets by Margherita Palli and costumes by Ursula Patzak. The title role is played by Yusif Eyvazov, Anna Netrebko is Maddalena di Coigny, and Luca Salsi plays Gérard. The Première is dedicated to Victor de Sabata on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Once again this year, the Première will be broadcast live on RAI 1 and in cinemas around the world. The 2017/2018 Season at Teatro alla Scala opens on 7 December at 6 pm with Andrea Chénier…

Lebrecht Weekly on the Fence with Barloli’s Dolce Duello

By Norman Lebrecht on 17 November 2017 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Opera

Cecilia and Sol: Dolce Duello (Decca) Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo Sol Gabetta, cellist I am about to break another of my hard-and-fast rules. A while back, I swore never to give another three-star review as long as lived on the grounds that such things are cop-outs for critics who cannot make up their minds, one way or another, about the recommendability of a record. One way or another, I stand by that judgement. So why the exception? The present album brings together the super-mezzo Cecilia Bartoli, the highest-selling diva on record since Callas, and Sol Gabetta, an Argentine cellist of mostly…

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