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Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. Canadians in Oper Frankfurt’s 24-25 season; three top women conductors who are on the move and how Canadian artists are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Symphony #9.
Canadian singers at Oper Frankfurt in 24-25
Baritone Iain MacNeil. Photo: Barbara Aumueller
Oper Frankfurt, one of Europe’s busiest opera companies, has announced its 24-25 season which includes an impressive 11 new productions. The German company has long been a home to many ex-pat Canadians, and 24-25 is no exception.
Canadian baritone Iain MacNeil joined Oper Frankfurt’s Studio in 2017-18, and became a permanent member of the company in 2019. Since then, he has steadily built his repertoire, taking on more and more principal roles. Next season, he’ll appear in new productions of Wagner’s Parsifal (Klingsor) and Henze’s Der Prinz von Homburg and in revivals of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Verdi’s Aida (Amonasro) and Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress.
Tenor Josh Lovell appears in Handel’s Rodelinda, and bass-baritone Joel Allison in Adam’s Le postillon de Lonjumeau.
You can view the entire 24-25 Oper Frankfurt season here.
Women conductors on the move
Conductor Gemma New. Photo: Roy Cox
In the past few weeks, two prominent conductors of Canadian orchestras — Gemma New and Holly Mathieson — have ended their tenures at the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia respectively. New conducted her last concert with the HPO on May 4th, which included Beethoven’s Symphony #9 and Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child. The New Zealander made her unexpected San Francisco Symphony subscription concert debut on May 10 and 12, leading a program that includes Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony and Elgar’s Cello Concerto.
Fellow New Zealander Holly Mathieson recently announced she would take a break from conducting after she steps down at Symphony Nova Scotia, where she has been Music Director since 2020. In a letter from the orchestra’s board, as reported by Slipped Disc, “the pandemic gave Holly a chance to reevaluate. To that end, she plans to take a step back from full-time conducting to expand on arts strategy and governance work, enjoy a slightly more calm and consistent family life, and continue to pursue a lifelong interest in software engineering.”
American conductor Marin Alsop is currently leading performances of John Adams’ El Niño at The Metropolitan Opera. A recent New York Times profile speculated as to whether Alsop might soon be offered a post at a major American orchestra. “To me, it’s a great pity,” said David Foster, Alsop’s longtime manager, now president emeritus of Opus 3 Artists. “Because she’s about as qualified to be a music director in North America in the early years of the 21st century as just about anyone on earth.” Alsop was Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony for 14 years, having left that post in 2021.
Beethoven 9 @ 200 – Canadian highlights
Ludwig van Beethoven
May 7, 2024 marked the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The iconic work with its inspirational final movement featuring four vocal soloists and choir is understandably in heavy rotation at orchestras around the world.
Canadian highlights include performances by the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Alexander Shelley on June 19 and 20 (soloists not yet announced). Earlier in May, Gemma New led the Ninth for her last “mainstage” concerts as leader of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. The Saskatoon Symphony also performed the work, under the baton of Judith Yan.
As musicologist Robin Elliott recently wrote in an article for the Institute for Music in Canada, “the first opportunity to hear Beethoven’s Ninth live in Canada seems to have occurred in Montreal on April 8th, 1897 … The performance was given by the Montreal Philharmonic Society under the guest conductor Emil Mollenhauer from Boston.”
Toronto filmmaker Larry Weinstein’s Beethoven’s Nine: Ode to Humanity recently premiered at Hot Docs. The film follows the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, led by Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, as it mounts the Ninth for performances and recording in 2023.
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