Ping pong between the divine and earthly and how to end up envying a certain tenor…

Thanks to camilla0690 for the video :-)
Messa da Requiem Verdi. Teatro alla Scala 18 novembre 2009J.Kaufmann, Dir. D.Barenboim Giuseppe Verdi
Messa da Requiem
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala
Conductor..............Daniel Barenboim
November 20th 2009

Barbara Frittoli, Soprano
Sonia Ganassi, Mezzo-Soprano
Jonas Kaufmann, Tenor
René Pape, Bass


This post has been almost ready for a few days, but I couldn’t resist to dip my finger into the Carmen the other day, so now I am catching up :-)…..

………

So there was this requiem I left you all thinking about :-) And yes, been there done that.. just not as I was planning to or hoping to…

Trip from Alto Adige on two trains, buses and taxis went fairly well, if we ignore Friday double dose of passengers, most of them blasting tunes from their ipods, generously sharing the charts from their …um… headphones. I could have maybe dozed off through that… if it hadn’t been for the constant ringing mobiles! And of course because the ipods were on max volume so were there phones.. otherwise how can one be expected to hear them?? So bum bum bum went the iphones, rrriiiiiiing riiiiing the phones… pronto pronto, blabla bum bum… more riiiing riiing… well, you get the picture. So much for disconnecting from the work week and winding down for some serious music. But then again nobody said there ever was anything divine about travelling ;-)

Taxied from station, washed, fed, dolled up I was ready to celebrate stepping on “sacred” Scala grounds :-) I even got tempted into being unusually stylish and wearing heals…. I should have known that greeting a requiem with an ear to year smile and unusually high spirits is not the right way to go about it! Proudly showing off my ground floor loge ticket to the ushers I get pointed down a corridor and I walk and walk and finally see the last door and open it… Luckily the heels prevented me from falling on my tush… I turned on said heels and marched back to the ushers with a very convinced: there must be a mistake! But he looked at my ticket and said no no, that is it! I needed more than just a breath of air to make myself march back to that… cave!! I am a bad photographer, but i needed the pics to convince myself that this was not twilight zone I had stepped in. Yes what you see is what I saw sitting down… in the loge BEHIND the orchestra, shaking hands and handing the percussionist his sticks. Second row of course… hanging on to the edge of my chair. Um… stool I should say as it had NO backrest. Imagine a kind of a poncy boudoir chair in red satin, just high enough that when you sit on it you can’t quite reach the RED BRICK floor (no, no carpet), so you are precariously resting your weight on the tip of your healed shoes. Alternatively you can lean you back…side on the edge of the chair and fully step on your feet… but beware the chair my slip away.. Neither alternatives being very appealing half way through I decided it was safest to stand.

The only clear sound was the percussion, because that reach above the head of the two people sitting in front of me. The rest past before the opening of the cave, not really entering it. Which meant that some of the music was difficultly audible… while almost inside the orchestra. As you can admire for yourselves looking into the Scala is quite breathtaking… looking at the backs of the singers is less so… and have them sing a coupe of meters in front of the orchestra towards the hall, therefore away from you is …well, weird to put it mildly.

If you think my initial reaction was over the top... think 140 euro ticket…. I never for a millisecond thought about the price until that door opened, all I thought was wow, La Scala, this is kind of celebration, even if late, etc , pat on the shoulder to myself and all that. I’m afraid my respectful and composed mood and my attempt to feel the divine air went up in the flames of hell in a instant… I beat Superman himself in the speed i jumped from the bottomless pit where my heart sank to the pure red rage that exploded into my brain. I’m sure I discovered a new cause for self combustion… It is only basic education that clenched my teeth and kept my mouth shut.

I’ve probably watched too much Discovery channel in my life because figure this…. Instead of walking out of there, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to sit thought it, or stand when sitting became too complicated and literally just see what this would turn out to be. Needless to say emotional connection was not going to happen, but I found it interesting enough to watch every movement made by the percussionist and his neighbours and watch Barenboim conduct the requiem for the hour and a half it lasted. Fascinated to have every note, every share anticipated in front of your eyes and be able to make a uninterrupted connection between the conductors intention the music that is then created by every instrument. And to see how few gestures are actually necessary to determine rhythm, intensity, etc. You’d be surprised how much of a team player Barenboim really is. Yes, a leader, but a caring kind of one, who definitely gives the message that this is a team game. Before coming on stage he gave every single a big hug :-) (The things you see when practically on stage… ;-))) All the way though he smiled encouragingly to them and all the members of the orchestra and chorus individually. In a short break he even worried if they were comfortable and got the tenor to shove his podium aside a bit for the same tenor to have more space. He’s got a kind of fatherly vibe off him, which I guess is very effective in achieving his vision of the piece conducted. I’ve read people say that his restrained conducted might be confusing. Absolutely not, if you’d see him from the other side, face to face it is clear as if he would spell it out all the way. Of course... he actually sings along! I heard him loud and clear all throughout, louder than in some cases the singers themselves…

It was in a way refreshing to see how the people go about their business playing their instruments, continuously toning them to make sure every sound comes out just the right way, how every pair of eyes is glued to the conductor, how many different kind of sticks one can use in percussion, etc :-) But seeing too much of the kitchen behind the music somehow takes the magic out of it and you see that it really is work. Fine-tuned, high level and wonderfully skilled kind of work, but work nevertheless. It really is a fine orchestra, no sound was amiss, nothing too much or too little, the percussionist is beyond excellent!! The chorus deserved all the applause and more, absolutely first class really! And it definitely became a pleasure to sit to close and watch how it is done with the certainty that it is the right way to do it. Total concentration from everyone, it was clear this was serious business after all. Barenboim clearly was the one having even more fun than everyone else. His face said just how much he likes the music, which made the sound even more predictable ;-) His face said soft even before the sound came, his brows said forte before the chorus erupted in sound.

Unfortunately because i sat somehow outside the sound wave I was unable to appreciate all the dynamics, it sounded much quieter than it must have been in the hall itself. Whereas the quiet parts themselves were too close to me to be really quiet.
As to the singers themselves, concentrated 100% and sung so close to perfection it was amazing. Barbara Frittoli clearly put all her heart in her singing and it is a pity that her voice suffers from a slight wobble because the right intention was there all the time. Sonia Ganassi has a pleasant even voice, and she flowed through her registers smoothly and securely and again the gravity of the text came through in every word. I personally might prefer a deeper shade of voice, to create a greater contrast to the soprano, but the execution cannot be faulted in any way. I had never heard Pape before and the opportunity to hear him definitely added to my excitement about the requiem. Not the best first experience to sit behind him, still I was surprised by how relatively light the voice is and at the same time impressed by how melodic and elegant it flows. Endless breath and harmony make his voice so wonderfully pleasant to listen to. In the ensembles it shone even more almost than in the solos. On the few occasions his voice intertwined with Jonas’ I could help but smile at how beautiful they sounded. The youtube video will give you an idea of how Jonas sang his Ingemisco, although it is from the 18th, not the 20th which is the one I saw. He did it even better on the 20th :-) I know I go on and on and on about his piani, but it is not just the piani in itself, but the use of his amazing dynamic range at just the right time. This Ingemisco was different from the one I heard a year ago in Zurich (conducted by Gatti) and the plea in the Ingemisco was both more humble and more ardent. I know it is Latin and most of us in the audience will not understand every single word, however I had the feeling from all of them that they sang much more than the notes, that everyone truly engaged with the text, in the intention behind it.

It felt polished and highly classy and elegant, a requiem thought through and amazingly executed in all details and with infinite refinement. It is definitely true that such complex interpretation, such shaded approach can only be done with an orchestra, a chorus, a conductor and singers who are all exceptionally good, and these all were.

It truly hit me in the Ingemisco and only got more evident with every note.. I didn’t regret being there , no, but I felt robbed. Like a child that you sit in front of the shop-window of a candy store but who will not get any candy. I heard them all sing, but especially Pape, and extra-specially Jonas and my mind went… God, listen to this, just listen to how they sing, how so much more than good, listen to what they are able to do with their voices and how much there are putting of themselves in each word… And then being out of reach and only hearing some kind of leftovers of sound… it hurts, plain and simple.

Or it could have been just my feet that were killing me (I would have gladly walked back barefoot to the hotel, had it not been too cold. So much for suffering for beauty, definitely not for me!)… or the thirst drying my throat! I wore a nice new blouse, short sleeved, but covered up with a jacket thinking that it is winter after all! Well not inside the Scala, more like hot as hell, ready to sit in your bikinis! So I leaned on the brick wall, parched throat and all, shooting green arrows of envy at a certain tenor’s back who sat on a nice, comfy plastic chair (with backrest!!), and who was calmly sipping from a glass of water every now and then….

Short sidetrack --> I’m sorry to say I am to this day still plagued by the green monster as I also realised later looking at the Carmen dates that the certain tenor would also get the chance to see the Domingo special gala where he will be singing, yes the Walkure act, with oh yes!! Nina Stemme herself! An the wonderful, amazing Stemme will also sing Isolde’s Tod I think (Barenboim also conducting). Since the certain tenor obviously has the night off on the day I can bet he will be there enjoy the treat…. So you see, more reasons for “green” thoughts…. (well, maybe because he was poorly for the anteprima I’ll control the green monster and wish him good health, in bocca al lupo for Monday and loads of fun on the Domingo gala on the 9th instead ;-)))

Back on track and back to the requiem -->

Of course I am reasonable and realise that a seat somewhere at the back of the hall on the 4,5 level will naturally have better acoustics…. However, I also think it is absolutely unacceptable in a concert such as this that for seats like I had, there is no notice of the fact that orchestra arrangement will place you behind the action. Or that with such impaired visibility and especially acoustics no reduction of the full price is made… Of course they get away with it because they can, demand for tickets at La Scala will almost always exceed the available tickets, especially in such events. But that does not make it right or fair or respectful to their customers. Were such a thing to happen at the ROH (unthinkable, but if…) I would demand a full refund and an apology for false advertising.

With the Scala all I can say is beware of how you spend your money, visibility is only decent in first rows of loges or downstairs, loge’s second and third rows have only chairs with no backrests and for 1st row it is always full price you pay. There is little split in terms of price categories as it is, and also expect to pay 20-24 euro just handling fee on top of the price of your ticket, even when buying on the internet from the site of the house itself. It is what it is….. On the upside it is a good orchestra and acoustics are also generally good.

I guess I am only one of many more who see their admiration of the theatre’s past and the enjoyment of current shows somewhat thwarted by the definite feeling of being ripped off and not being respectfully treated. Of course it would matter much less if I didn’t think of la Scala as being LA SCALA, if you know what I mean…. It is silly I haven’t been able to throw away the ticket, although I never keep any, but I still get that buzz looking at that logo, that I would be able to recognise in my sleep… But I don’t think the institution these days should bank too much on my operatic nostalgia and sentimentalism. I don’t actually travel for past history ( not that I wouldn’t give an arm and a leg to travel to the past to hear Corelli and Callas and Bastianini sing live on stage :-)) but for current enjoyment and on the long run I’d rather not have the little that I can do of all that is out there further impaired by pesky “non-musical” matters. Then I will take my business, insignificant as it is, somewhere where the joy is multiplicated rather than diminished. But I could write a whole book about the constant conflict between the attraction to what happens on stage and how the institutions sell it and the shocking things we are willing to put up with as customers….

So, yes, a beautiful requiem, with some singing that was close to divine, but unfortunately heard at an earthly distance which kind of took away the spine tingle and the goosebumps I had been looking forward to.
…….

Well, at least my home-improvement project is progressing. After 12 hours travels back from Italy I deeply inhaled the welcoming wafts of oily paint. My builders had been hard at work as interior designers and they favoured open spaces in the sitting room , as in just a sofa to sit on and cosy in the bedroom with 2 tables, 3 stands of drawers plus two nightstands and two wardrobes neatly squeezed in. But you know us women! It is all about redecorating, redecorating, redecorating. So I proceeded to dump my suitcase in the bathtub (free space generously left available) and to take all drawers out of various pieces and drag them around to the sitting room, where I also decided I’d rather eat then in the bedroom so maybe table was preferable to carpet. At some point close to midnight I made a comfy pile of the curtains pulled down in a dusty cloud and put my feet up on the sofa… only to realise I could get myself kinked out of the L shape my back now favoured…. Ups! That meant that I could not play puzzle as planned with my wardrobe, who’s inner walls had been conveniently stacked together and piled on top of the drawers, ready for my spare time puzzle fun… It is almost as if they had a crystal ball that told them how much fun I had hammering together another similar piece of furniture from Ikea more than a year ago in Edinburgh. And no, that wasn’t new either, the wardrobe just decided one day that it preferred horizontal to vertical. Which is when I bought my well beloved Bosch electric screwdriver (God bless them!) …sadly after I had blisters to all fingers from some 10 screws and more nails..

About 10 days later I am back to vertical myself ! The stretching and balancing on toes on the edge of the chair while doing push-aways from the wall to rehang the cleaned curtains did the trick! And I saved the money for the physiotherapist and can now splash it on Xmas presents, isn’t that grand? And looking forward to attack the wardrobe with the Bosch next! :-) After which more aerobics to hang a new lampshade are scheduled… and I think I should take up plumbing after that as the flush in the loo has developed a temperament …

PS You should try and listen to opera while doing housework, definitely increases productivity, I tell ya! More on my current playlist soon ;-)

Carmen La Scala amuse-bouches

Update article Il Giornale here about the past and the present. Lucky young audience will see today the ante-prima :-)




All images copyright Teatro alla Scala from a theatre handout

Conductor Daniel Barenboim
Staging and Costumes Emma Dante
Sets Richard Peduzzi
Lights Dominique Bruguière

Cast
Carmen Anita Rachvelishvili
Don José Jonas Kaufmann
Escamillo Erwin Schrott
Micaëla Adriana Damato
Mercédès Adriana Kučerová
Frasquita Michèle Losier
Le Dancaïre Francis Dudziak
Le Remendado Rodolphe Briand
Moralès Mathias Hausmann
Zuniga Gabor Bretz

As most of you already know the premiere is on the 7th of December and many lucky ones will be able to watch it live in the cinemas (some over 200 of them world wide in some 25 countries, plus everyone who is ale to receive ARTE TV).
There is an amazing degree of media attention in the Italian press, but not only :-) So here are some bits and bos for you, all in Italiano :-)

Interview Jonas Kaufmann

Interview Anita Rachvelishvili

Interview Erwin Schrott

Interview Emma Dante

And HERE on Sky Italia a short video interview with all of the above, Sky Italia will also air the premiere live on TV.

And you can google.it for much much much more...

Then there are of course the photos :-) Enjoy!

First, the models of the stageing




Then ... Jose meets Carmen...
And she throws him La fleur....


Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime; Si je t'aime, Prends garde à toi!


Parle-moi de ma mère! (photo from Reuters)



La taverne de Lillas Pastia


Then there was Escamillo ... Et que l'amour t'attend. Toréador, l'amour, l'amour t'attend


La raison c'est qu'en ce moment ...

.....Je suis amoureuse.

et voila... le Dragon :-)
Je vais danser en votre honneur Et vous verrez, seigneur, Comment je sais moi-même accompagner ma danse, Mettez-vous là, Don José, je commence. La la la la la la la la la la la la …


JOSÉ violemment: Tu m'entendras! Oui, tu m'entendras! Je le veux, Carmen, tu m'entendras!


Pour t'emparer de tout mon être, Ô ma Carmen. Et j'étais une chose à toi. Carmen, je t'aime!

Mais..
Le ciel ouvert, la vie errante, Pour pays tout l'univers Pour loi ta volonté, Et surtout la chose enivrante: La liberté! La liberté!


And the last ones (finally an Escamillo to put the right balance to Jonas' Jose :-)!)
..A ce jeu de couteau /Je suis trop fort pour toi. ... Tout beau. Ta vie est à moi, mais en somme J'ai pour métier de frapper le taureau, Non de trouer le cour de l'homme...



And because at the end of the day it is all about the music, let's indulge! I know you all want to hear this :-))))



Thanks for the video leonorafl

Turning the screw in search of good luck...

I had two alternatives: either write some dark poetry and keep it all to myself, bottled up and all, or, (preferably since I don’t fancy an ulcer) vent, complain, whinge at leisure :-) The good thing about this is that I can write and have a fit and you don’t actually have to read it ;-)))

I should have paid attention to signs…. A couple of weeks ago when it turned out that work had changed my plans again I should have known it was unlikely to end there. So no first time visit to the place where Lipatti played, because you can’t be one evening in the Pleyel and the next morning beam yourself to Italy for work. You’d think Italy for Paris, not a bad trade after all…

Except you wouldn’t know somebody planted this industrial district in Northern Italy if it wasn't for the guys wearing sunglasses in pitch darkness at 8pm. Or if the mobile network wasn’t busy all the time because everyone is on their frigging phones!

Then about 10 days before this exciting business trip, my landlord decides November is as good a time as any to have the whole flat painted and while at it, have some building work done at the walls. First glad I was out of there, I suddenly realised it was too late to change my flights and I would have to come back during the weekend in the middle of the building site. Not to worry they said, we will keep one room to the end… ( word of advice, ALWAYS worry when somebody assures you not to!)

So I switched the planned celebrations from the weekend in the town of romance for dark ghosts in the town of rain and spent spare time resulting from switch with the form boosting activity of moving my belongings into pretty orange recycle bags. I’ll come back to the ghosts as they definitely were the less tingling events of the week..

4am Monday morning up, 4,45am Heathrow , 5,30 morning 2km run through T1 completed, including barefoot gymnastics at security check point. 2h flights, 10 am Milan. 25min wait for 10 suitcases, 20 min playing find the right bus-ticket sales point, 10 min play find the bus which matches your ticket, rush into bus as driver says it leaves in 5 min, 15 min later busride to Milan starts, trying to snooze – no can do, everyone is chatting on their mobiles, benvenuti a Italia! 1h later Milano train station, new game – find the right ticket machine to extract tickets purchased on internet followed by 5 min find the working ticket machine among the lot. 5 more minutes run with obstacles to platform, finally on train nr1 and one more transport mean down. 1h, 30 min later benvenuti a Verona, 20 min later ciao Verona (no Romeo or Juliet in sight..), switch to train no2.. welcome to regional trains in Italy. Sweet memories of childhood! In as they haven’t been scrubbed since my childhood…. 2h later destination.. or almost, after another 30 min taxi ride. I realised I skipped the boat and the balloon ride in this trip, must put them on the list next time! 4pm, 12h after getting up, reach destination! God, the Alps are beautiful, especially the tips covered in snow, this will surely make for one breathtaking view from the office window.

So we get shown around the offices and finally to our room… my mouth opens and says: Where are the windows?? Answer : finger pointed towards the sky…indeed two wholes looking out on a grey patch of sky… nops, no Alps. Uh-oh…

You’ll be thinking, well, at least the food is nice in Italy… yes, but in this industrial district there is a choice of 2 eateries – 1 is a McDonald’s and the other is the hotel restaurant with a total of 16! Items on the menu, including starters and desserts. No pizza, no tiramisu but yes to steak and chips at 15euro starters, 25 euro mains, 10 euro desserts = the price in London of a 3 course meal in a Michelin star restaurant… and people think London is expensive! But, you get to choose – you can have your meals in your room while relaxing in front of tv , ammm, for 25 euro extra charge that is, or speed-eat through the pasta in the drafty restaurant.

At least I became good friends with the Ms mozzarella di bufala…

B-day approaching I get careless… and naïve, trip up to next town to get a hair cut, after all cute little village in Italy should still have good hair stylists. If price is an indicator they do… the cute little salon said 100 over the phone and it turned out 130 in practice. I managed to translate in Italian what I wanted and specified : please, I don’t want to come out looking like my mother! Couple of hours later and I look back into the mirror into a transformation of one of those posh ladies I saw in Firenze, all dolled up, minus fur coat and sadly, also minus nice Italian jewellery… Eduardo caro! ( my cute Italian hair dresser in London, half the age of Fernando in North Italy ) I hereby solemnly swear I will never ever be unfaithful again!!! It wasn’t disastrous, but it was clearly one of those things that would not withstand a night’s sleep…. Which meant on b-day I would be back to my normal, un-posh self… but 130 euro poorer! (and Eduardo is cheaper than Fernando, AND he throws in the bottles that make me look every day just like when his fingers worked their magic..)

Come b-day… my colleague comes back from day trip for work and greets me in hotel lobby with these kind words: My God, you look even more tired than me! ( geeeeez and I managed to avoid the visible signs of ageing until that hour!) and later at dinner goes : Like your hairs! ( oh jolly!)… you look exactly like my mother!! ( BUGGER! I kid you not, those were her exact words). So much for that. Rest of the evening was spent explaining to various well wishers that no, I hadn’t received any cards, but not to worry I would survive… even if the Royal Mail strike took care of that anticipation fun as well. My boss got particularly generous and meant : treat yourself (I saw cheques in my mind)… have a dessert or something sweet! All right then…. No, not fancy icecream at 5 degree outside, no, neither the semi freddo which I had tried and knew to be hard as stone and beyond freddo. And since there was no cantucci with vin santo I decided a double shot of caffeine went better with the ever so slight irritation…

B-day finally off the calendar, 12 h journey of looking forward to a quiet weekend in my own flat. If only…. Bingo, forgot the building works: generous powdering of dust everywhere, kitchen in a WWII decoration, unusable, sofa under dust, books and stuff piled on sofa, piled on more dust. Painting white, wasn’t it supposed to be blue? Aaaaah, but never mind! They threw in my own personal mud-bath at no extra cost! 20 sqcm under the shower, extend your foot beyond that and dunk your toes in the muck, back to shower, step out, slap on more muck, back to shower… etc. Since I love quizzes, I invented my very own – How to come out of the flat clean? You’d be surprised the stuff I came up with!

By the way, it turns out that in the meantime cards arrived, but also packets, including some of early Xmas presents I had to order due to not being in London for reasonable shopping time before Xmas. In their good intentions ( which the road to hell is paved with…) these good people switched from Royal Mail to things like DHL… And since painting is such a noisy job, my builders and neighbours did not hear the postman ringing not twice, but 3 times! With it being DHL , instead of the trip two streets down to pick up the stuff I had to trek half way across London… Sunday was a marvellous day! Sunny, bright, just gorgeous! Guess how Saturday was? Yep, rainy and 50 miles/h wind. The kind of wind that almost pushed me off the sidewalk several times and I am no feather! But at least I got to said depots in time before they closed at noon, due again to the generous help of my builders: 7,45 am Saturday morning they decided to pay me a visit : Surpriiiiseee!!!! we are the builders, we came to work! And yes, I am a mean witch and I did not let them in!

Finally week 1 of the adventure ended with some fish and chips and a big glass of cider in a pub, a premium to myself for yet more ingenious solutions of how to bring the xmas presents back unharmed by the bucketing outside.

Sunday, with the relaxing weekend rest almost over, I decide to pack for una settimana in Italia nr2. Only to find out that my mobile charger had committed suicide! Ok, you darn thing, you will just get replaced! … if only…. 5 am on Monday morning and 2 airport shops later and two “Sony Ericsson???? Nooo, we don’t have thoooose!”the answer is NO, ain’t gonna happen. And... it turns out mobile crazed Italy does not have shops with gadgets like that in either airport or train stations. But they have … sandwich-dispensers!

But wait, that’s not all… just when I thought we were done with the “surprises” Monday morning 4am while trying to lift a clean suitcase down the stairs I suddenly find myself holding ..just it’s handle. Now it not only can’t be pulled ( that bit got stuck the week before), but it will only be lifted sideways. Blasted thing couldn’t spare me 30 more minutes and hang itself by the hand of a Lufthansa baggage handler! With no time to spare I shove the darn case into the taxi realising that through the seam of the zipper I have just touched the clothes inside! Uh-oh… I still thought this had a fix, and promptly marched with it into the airport luggage shop. They offered “cheap” 180 bucks Samsonite thingys but I fell in love with a black slidy piece which goes by the name of TUMI. Unfortunately, my pocket developed an instant dislike for its 5-0-0 GBP pricetag! I do get brownie points though for now dropping my jaw open and my eyes on the floor at the price and instead sweetly saying: Ok, I’ll take it when I’m back and elastically making an elegant retreat out of the devil’s trap.

And more brownie points for bravely putting a distracted look on my face while all the time trying to avoid weird side glances from all too fashion conscious Italians, who’s sense of style seems to be somewhat offended by the state of my limp travel accessory. Given recent events, what do you think my chances are of it making it back to the Uk in one piece?( to search for a replacement at a price for putting clothes in it, not wanting to live in it!)

But until it ends, rewind to the musical beginning of this story… The Turn of the screw, my first live Britten opera and the first one where the original language is English. Not a favourite party piece, that’s for sure! Fascinating music nevertheless, so much so that I could not help but strangely empathise with the story of the lonely governess and her malicious ghostly encounters :) Britten definitely proved to be my “thing” and although the darkness of the story is not my choice of moods, I couldn’t help but listen with a combination of attraction and revulsion to the ever increasing spiral of tension that builds when the story gradually unfolds.

Once again I was fascinated by David McVicar’s ability to bring images alive, to build the atmosphere for the story with few but very detailed items. It seems realistic and sometimes it may come over as traditional, but it definitely is not. On stage bound by physical limits he and his set designer seem to be able to create the fluidity typical for movies. And he can induce natural acting in even the most inhibited singer. Not that this was the case here :-) I loved the transparent moving panels, which effectively transported us from rooms, to gardens to the lake and back, loved, as always the detailed and realistic period costumes, loved the black shiny surface of the lake, the muddy gap covered by dead leaves from which the ghosts seems to emerge. Loved the rocking horse, which moved with eerie elastic but totally silent swings.


And what to say about the singers, the orchestra and the conductor, our very own Sir Charles Mackerras. Bravo indeed! It is not the typical big score piece, it feels more like a chamber opera, where you have to listen to every note and concentrate on every next note. If you loose concentration you will have lost an important step in the spiral and it can indeed be difficult to catch up. It builds very slowly during the first part, only to speed full power towards the climax in the second. Beautiful piano scores and some totally unforgettable ghostly musical lines. I could have hardly imagined a more chilling and seductive “Miiiiiiiiiiiles! Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiles!” Like a silk cord that twists and twist and twists around you until it has you trapped.

Rebecca Evans governess had some wonderfully secure and still warm high notes, as well as perfect diction. I couldn’t see the subtitles from where I sat, but I almost never needed them anyway. Ann Murray’s Mrs Grose was totally in character, and some slight wobbles were in tune with the character and did not distract from the music. Charlie Manton as Mils proved to be a brave and very talented young man. Cristal voice with that slight edge of coldness and secrecy to make you wonder and wonder about the character. Amazing this performance and the guts to slips into this character. Michael Colvin was the one who delivered those “Miiiiiiiiiiiles” that have branded themselves forever in my musical memory. Good performances from Nazan Fikret as Flora and Cheryl Barker as Miss Jessel. This is vocally a difficult score for everyone and it was more than well delivered, it was exciting and colourful and properly frightening.

Well done indeed in captivating my attention for a subject and a story from which I would naturally run as fast as I can!

ENO Benjamin Britten: The Turn of the Screw

Governess: Rebecca Evans;
Mrs Grose: Ann Murray;
Peter Quint/Narrator: Michael Colvin;
Miss Jessel: Cheryl Barker;
Flora: Nazan Fikret;
Miles: Charlie Manton.
Director: David McVicar.
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras.
English National Opera, London Coliseum.

6th November 2009.


And to keep with the “cheery” theme I hope to conclude the celebrations with chants for the dead, well a requiem in effect. Hopefully these sombre musical brackets will properly encapsulate these mad days and lead the way into luckier hours ;-)

But if you do have spare good luck charms, feel free to send them this way ….. because this morning we started the day with the funerals of the newly deceased laptop of my colleague ..and now we are sharing mine… which by the way has a broken screen and a power-cable bravely hanging on by the shreds of scotch tape I have bandaged it with….

I fear… this is to be continued…

Reminder: Don Carlo ROH, Saturday BBC Radio 3

Update: the microphones were stuck to the border of the stage, above the orchestra, that is why you can at times hear the orchestra, especially horns, flutes etc and percussion louder and you can also hear Simon's decided steps ;-))) And Jonas singing from Popy's lap as if he was singing into you ear...

Gorgeous isn't it? Ahhhhhhhh..... reliving it exactly as i remembered it ... http://operaismagic.blogspot.com/2009/10/don-carlo-roh-from-heart.html

Can't wait for the La pace dei sepolcri!!!! ;-)
PS BBC stream seems to be good and holding up to the international "attack" ;-)



Photo: Catherine Ashmore Marina Poplavskaya (Elizabeth de Valois) and Jonas Kaufmann (Don Carlos)

On BBC Radio3 at 18:00 UK time ; 19:00 CET (Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Austria, etc), 13:00 US East coast (New York), for other locations and times, this is a useful site.

On the BBC Radio 3 page, there are also some longer interviews with Semyon Bychkov and Jonas Kaufmann, to listen click HERE (there is also some more information as well as pictures).

For those who couldn't listen to the JK interview on line, here it is:

To listen tomorrow evening to the broadcast on the internet click HERE or HERE.

To listen with surtitles click HERE.

Jonas Kaufmann and the Barcelona connection

A little gift from dear friends in Barcelona :-)
Click on the photo above and you will be taken to Joaquim's wonderful blog where you will be able to listen to excerpts from the Dusseldorf concert :-)))

Jonas has many admirers in Barcelona and some where lucky to see him in Dusseldorf!! And they tell all about the experience in the comments on Joaquim's post :-))More comments to be read on Jonas there as well :-) In case you didn't know there are more Wagnerians in Catalunya ( and Spain) than in Bayreuth ( well, almost ;-)))) But from what i read in Barcelona they like Jonas singing in general, not only his Wagner...
AND... from reading the comments, there is a bit of news for meus amics in Barcelona... apprently there is a good possibility that Jonas might do a Lieder recital in Barcelona in either 2010 or 2011 ( i would think given official schedule, 2011 is more likely, but we will see). That would be great, their wish and my wish come true! :-)

So, click and enjoy!
For a translation to Spanish of Joaquim's blog press here or for an English version press here.
Moltes gracies y molts petonets pels meus amics de Barcelona <3

Erfullung der Sehnsucht - Jonas Kaufmann in Dusseldorf

Photo Susanne Diesner from the Rheinische Post via Marion's page.



Programm:Jonas Kaufmann
Staatskapelle Weimar Dirigent: Michael Güttler
11.10.09 Düsseldorf Tonhalle

1. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 1827) Coriolan op. 62 Ouvertüre
2. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 1827) Fidelio Gott, welch Dunkel hier! ... In des Lebens Frühlingstagen Szene des Florestan 2. Akt
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 1791) Don Giovanni Ouvertüre
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 1791) Die Zauberflöte Dies Bildnisist bezaubernd schön Arie des Tamino 1. Akt
5. Carl Maria von Weber (1786 1826) Oberon Ouvertüre
6. Carl Maria von Weber (1786 1826) Der Freischütz Nein, länger trag ich nicht die Qualen! … Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen Rezitativ und Arie des Max 1. Akt
PAUSE
7. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Lohengrin Vorspiel zum 3. Aufzug
8. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Parsifal Amfortas! Die Wunde! Szene des Parsifal 2. Aufzug
9. Franz Schubert (1797 1828) Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern D 797 op.26 Zwischenaktmusik Nr. 3 B-Dur
10. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Die Walküre Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond Liebeslied des Siegmund 1. Aufzug
11. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Lohengrin Vorspiel zum 1. Aufzug
12. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Lohengrin In fernem Land Gralserzählung des Lohengrin 3. Aufzug

Encores:
1 . Giuditta, Lehar – Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert
2. Tosca, Puccini – E lucevan le stelle
3. Carmen, Bizet – La fleur
4. L’Arlesiana, Cilea – Il lamento di Federico



Don’t worry I will not write this post in German, although I am very tempted ;-)
Sehnsucht… in English “longing”, is, as most of you probably know, the title of Jonas Kaufmann’s latest CD. Well, at least in Germany it has that name… in the Uk it’s anonymous.. No comment on that…. I was going to do a post about the CD itself at some point, and I might get round to doing it. Still, in light of the “live” event, the whole thing has taken on a new twist for me.

I should really say that I have had the CD now for … a little over 4 months. I usually tend to grow tired of CDs, that is I listen and then end up parking them away on a shelf, or in some corner of my mp3 player and switch to a different one. I might come back randomly to various older ones, but I am not normally a serial listener of anything. Curiously, this one is still on my active playlist and I find myself going back to it again and again. And enjoying it with the same or mostly, multiplied pleasure. So far so good, it really is a good CD, the sound has been cared for and the repertory is generally newer to me than many other things.

In Jonas’ case for me it was also particularly interesting to listen to it, as except for the Fidelio I had no memories of live experiences to fall back to and some were totally new for him as well. Still, Cds are just impressions of a moment in time and they can give you a taste of the music, but they can’t really replace the live rendition. Having said that, I really love the music on the CD and some are real treasures, like Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella or Wintersturme. To the point that for the first time in my life I have a personalised ringtone on my handy :-) It has just become a bit tricky to explain to people why I don’t tend to pick up the phone until it has rung at least 4-5 times… Can’t really tell one’s parents or one’s boss that you keep them waiting on the line because you want to hear Jonas sing Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond …. one more time ;-)

But however much I like this CD it is full of those deadly arias that make or break a night at the opera in a live performance. It is definitely not a CD that translates easily into a concert recital. I am also one of those funny people who prefers a full opera to aria recitals. So here I was trying to make up my mind about definitely going to Dusseldorf or not. In the end the agenda made the choice easy, since it was the only one on a weekend it was going to be either this one or none :-( And I wasn’t going to accept “none” as a valid choice.

Then of course I started wondering what the program would look like. You could mix and match from both CDs… but that would just be a style salad, didn’t think that would be the case. Sehnsucht needs its integrity to be what it is and say what it means to say… but come on… even Wagner only put one of those stones on the tenor’s shoulders in an opera…this CD had a whole mountain worth of them…. At the same time I was dying to hear things like Wintersturme live! Then I saw the program and half of me was scary excited with the prospect of hearing most of them live for the first time and the other half of me was… just plain scared ;-) Can anyone be expected to sing all that in under 2 hours? Can Parsifal and Florestan coexist in such a tight space in time? Can Tamino emerge fresh from Florestan’s hallucinations? Well actually the question wasn’t really “can it?”, I know in Jonas Kaufmann they can …. And “Sehnsucht” proved they can :-) what gave me the jitters was the “how?” I knew the CD had, willingly or not, created a certain imprint in my ears and of course I realised the live experience would be different, the unknown was of course how different?

Anyways, since I was only going to get one shot at this, on the day I parked jitters aside and went for the Wilhelm Tell approach , put the apple on my head , sat completely still, opened eyes wide and trusted the archer’s skills :-) Well, in practice wriggled myself into my first ever front row seat at a concert, almost dead centre, knees almost touching the stage and eyes at .. well, shoe - level for artist, conductor and orchestra…. Yes, really, that close! And no, I’m no advocate of half measures as you can tell ;-))) A bit too literal on the “laying stuff at somebody’s feet” thing for my taste ;-) And talking about strange, have you ever had music being created literally at the top of you head? If not, you should try it sometimes :-) Like snorkelling but in music, not water :-)


The program itself turned out to be very well conceived, the orchestra pieces were really enjoyable and naturally linked the arias together , or rather formed natural bridges in-between. It’s been ages since I last heard Beethoven’s Coriolan and it was the perfect start. Not that all the pieces were perfectly played… generally well, but Mozart’s Don Giovanni lacked a bit of agility and precision and some of the others had a bit too much oomph. Nothing too disturbing though and their enthusiasm was refreshing.

We were off to a relaxed start when the conductor discovered he had forgotten the Fidelio score and was off to fetch it. Tenor was left alone on stage and decided to share a confession about how he thinks he is getting old ( wha??? Yep, really ;-)))) because for some arias he feels he needs the score close by for added comfort. Fair enough, we all giggled :-) several people made sympathetic observations about Wagner arias being waaaaayyy loooong :-) Old or not ( baaahhh!! Quatsch!!!!!) he must have really good eyes, because from where the scores where laid on a low stand I couldn’t have seen any of the text, never mind little black dots on lines…. No luck with me prompting anything either I’m afraid because I had not done my homework, besides I’m awful at learning text by heart ;-) Conductor was back with score and bang we were thrown right into Florestan’s cell! Unbelievable, but it was from giggles to chills in the blink of an eye. And right above my head a wonderful thing happened… I got to hear and feel that Gooooooooottt being born, exactly that Goooot that made my jaw drop all those months ago when i first heard it live in Zurich… Oh my God….. It made the air around me physically vibrate and I felt it up to the little hairs in my ears…. Guttler took the first part pretty slow only to kick into hurricane speed at the end. But I got mein “Das Masss der Leeeeeiiiiideeeeeennnn” as intense and heartfelt as I could have wished it!!!! Jonas reached up to the “fuhrt mich zur Freiheit ins himmlische Reich” as if carried by the „sauselnde Luft“.. .what an accomplishment at that hallucinating speed!!!! It was clear he was in excellent form and even though at such closeness I was wondering whether I wouldn’t hear the sounds being produced rather than just the voice itself, no such thing happened. It is not a bad thing even if it does, like the orchestra sound becoming a kaleidoscope of instruments, rather than one flow of sound, it’s just different from what one is used to. Amazingly enough emerging from a meter and so above my head the voice sounds as perfectly tuned and honed like from the back of a hall or the top of the amphitheatre. Maybe this is boring to explain for you, but I found it amazing :-) This is how it must sound from the stage, heard by colleagues only normally, absolutely fascinating. Close up the nuances are amazing, the passes quicker and smoother than one could imagine. It’s so incredibly agile, like a race horse really :-) And you can’t hear a single breath!!! I could hear the conductor , even instrumentists, but not Jonas breathe….. all you heard was clear musical line and round, soft, full words.

Don’t for a second think that I was analysing all this while he was singing.. God, no!!!! it just suddenly hit me somewhere in the middle of some ouverture :-)

The orchestra hopped through the Don Giovanni and then there we were, to be or not to be…. Tamino? And there he was, right in front of us, youthful, enthusiastic, open to the world and falling for his Pamina…. I thought the full-bodied voice was a suiting expression of Tamino’s overflowing longing for love and life in general. But it came enveloped in such tender innocence and softness, one couldn’t help but smile. I liked Florestan but I was even more touched by Tamino. It was all I had expected and so much more! I know this is a point of dispute for many, but I believe people let themselves be blinded somehow by the tone of voice and forget to listen to how and what he sings. All the feelings and hopes Tamino has were there :-) For those who doubt it they should have listened to the nuances of the Liebe as expressed by Tamino versus the Liebe in Siegmund’s aria…nobody but Tamino can cherish that last “eeevig ware sie dann meeeeeein” in such an almost reverent way!

On to Weber’s Oberon, obviously enjoyed by everyone present, as I was saying during this concert there never was a dull moment, never a feeling of wanting to speed things up, on the contrary a feeling of wanting to make time last to enjoy it longer.

And Jonas became Max! I am soooo glad my suspicions last year that this had been left out to join the Sehnsucht “crew” were right :-) I can’t imagine a better musical bridge between Florestan, Tamino and Parsifal. It was simply electrifying, the romantic moments , the curt, intense phrases towards the end, the hair-raising high notes and the deep drop on Spott! There was a feeling of invisible crescendo in the atmosphere, some kind of expectation. I was really stunned! It felt like a rhythmic series of musical punch lines that picked on your heartbeat and accelerated your pulse to follow the music.

Needless to say, knowing what would follow from that kept everyone adequately wired :-) Although I have to say much of the audience either had to check their programs to identify the pieces or simply didn’t know what was being sung. And still the electricity in the hall proved that even though the audience maybe wasn’t fully aware of the difficulty of what was presented, the singing which appeared to be so easy and natural was rather extraordinary :-)

The Lohengrin Vorspiel only contributed to the heightening of the festive feeling, I for one was almost holding my breath. Jonas came back jokingly arranging the score and before I even had time to say to myself and now… it hit me: Amfooooooooortaaaasss!!!!!! …. Die Wuundeeee….. The fact that he can literally laugh one minute and then turn one inside out in two words is witchcraft!!!!! I’ve ducked this a couple of times when listening to the CD.. no idea why really, probably chicken! Well there was no escaping there….. nowhere to hide from its impact, no way to shield oneself against its burn. Nothing could have prepared me for it…..It’s great on Cd but as I now know, you haven’t heard Parsifal until you’ve seen and felt the wounds live. That knowledge and the rejection in “dieser Kuss” and the definitive “ewig von mir!!” I can’t begin to explain the wealth of nuances, colours and dynamics, the intentions dripping from very word! I know now that Parsifal has become one of my favourites from the CD, if not the absolute favourite :-) Sunday in the hall I was literally fighting for air amidst a sensation of “what was that????? ” I’m sorry to say I didn’t manage to get one note from Schubert’s Rosamunde, which I am sure is a perfectly lovely piece, but I was busy gathering my wits….

Especially since somewhere in the middle of it, realisation hit me again…. Wintersturme!!! My first Wintersturme live ever was next on the menu….. By this moment I had forgotten that this program is difficult to sing, bla bla bla…. Never mind the tenor! He’s doing just peachy!! It’s me I was worried about…where is the oxygen in this place???? The women behind me goes : “Kommt da noch was?” In an almost doubtful and surprised tone… she too felt it had been quite a lot.. well lady, you have no idea!!!! Check out this one!!

Well… if you think the one on the CD was good… I think it was definitely meeehhh compared to the one live… exuberant, just overflowing with passion… I felt like “jauchzen” myself! And I’ve never seen anyone transform themselves so completely from Parsifal’s restraint and disciple, decided containment to such open, almost explosive and definitely contagious joy!! He IS Siegmund!!!! it was just a dream! And his entire being, his melancholic smile, his every pore seemed to exude Liebe und Lenz.... just.... unbelievable!!!! I mean the difference between Parsifal and Siegmund couldn't be wider in terms of mood of the aria, colour of voice, everything... and yet it happened, there , live in a matter of minutes! I don't think Wagner ever sounded so enchanting, so full of life and almost divinely beautiful!

Thank God some kind soul put Lohengrin’s Vorspiel next, to let me gently float back to earth, I’d have broken more than just my heart being knocked back to the ground after that…. I had no voice to shout Bravo with the rest of them…

I somehow had a feeling the In fernem Land would start within the music, with no interruption and not surprisingly I was right. I’m boring myself by now by saying this every new time I hear him sing it : it is the best of all the Gralserzahlungen he’s sung…. Well, it was! I could go on and on about the Taube, Gral, Retter und Lohengrin genannt… but there is not point in chopping to pieces something so beautiful!

The audience, we all went wild… shouting, clapping, the lot!

So he just sang more… 4 more!!!!! Honestly, went he sang E lucevan I thought to myself … La fleur is next ;-))) And I was really thankful because he restored this for me where I have struggled through another quite disappointing one recently… It was that incredible situation which can almost be described as : well, he just did Sehnsucht for the main program and RA for encores!!!

I think it is amazing he sang those encores... and every single one of them was excellent... but for me right there with the last note of Lohengrin i had just lived through one of the most amazing nights in my life... i have never before and i don't know if i will ever hear anyone sing like that ever again...well, maybe except Jonas himself ;-))))

The music and the standing applause went on and on and we almost got encore nr 5 when they realised he would loose the last flight back to Munich, where he had to be the next morning for a Lohengrin rehearsal. He politely excused himself for not being able to do the programmed signing session and we finally released the still buoyant tenor and the already half dead conductor into the night…

I am so in awe you wouldn't believe it... i mean i saw the entire Carlo run..... and one week later i come out of this concert turned somehow upside down and inside out.... i've never ever experienced such a thing.... nor did i ever expect to be so touched by a concert… I thought i knew how Jonas sounds and what he can do.... i am so glad he proved me wrong again!

The memories of this night are tucked away in a place deep inside to be cherished forever :-) After all, it is the day I discovered Jonas Kaufmann… again :-)

Berg's Wozzeck with Salonen and Keenlyside

Simon Keenlyside as Wozzeck © Opéra de Paris / Ruth Walz 2008
Alban Berg's Wozzeck
Royal Festival Hall
Thu 8 Oct 2009 7:30pm
Berg - Wozzeck (semi-staged)


Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Simon Keenlyside Wozzeck
Katarina Dalayman Marie
Hubert Francis The Drum Major
Robert Murray Andres
Peter Hoare The Captain
Hans-Peter Scheidegger The Doctor
Anna Burford Margret
David Soar First Apprentice
Leigh Melrose Second Apprentice
Ben Johnson The Idiot
Philharmonia Voices

Jean-Baptiste Barrière video direction

If you want to get a bit of a feel of what last night was like here a small video courtesy of PhilharmoniaLondon




.......Every now and then my ears need a breath of fresh air and I generally need to do, see and hear something “new”. And after an intensive Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Berlioz treatment Alban Berg does seem like sparkling fresh and new :-)

Well, ok, not all new… I had read Georg Buchner’s “Woyzeck”, albeit many many years ago and at least the main singer of the evening is all but novelty to my ears ;-) But, I had never been to the Southbank centre before, I had never crossed the Hungerford bridge before.

To be honest on paper it looked like just as much pleasure like going to the Barbican, that is .. none! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some wonderful evenings at the Barbican but getting there and out of there I hate, it is almost creepy if you have to do it like me on foot around the area. But I was intrigued by the music, wanted to hear and see Esa-Pekka Salonen conduct it live and wanted to understand why Simon Keenlyside is such a big fan of this particular opera and role. So I rushed through the working day, literally put trainers on while dashing out on the street to make sure I could make it fast enough to the underground and armed with a mental image of the tfl journey-planner hurried into the unknown …And that is all the preparation I had time for, no pre-listen, no browsing the libretto, not even a lazy reading of the synopsis…

It is beyond odd that I came out of a most depressing piece with a feeling of accomplishment and almost elation. And it is entirely due to the fact that the quality of playing and singing on the night was exceptional!

Berg’s music is these days less of a surprise to newcomers as it has actually been around for almost 100 years. To me it sounded much smoother than I expected although full of contrast and colour. It doesn’t flow harmonically in a traditional sense, but changes abruptly as do the feelings of the main characters. It spite of it’s apparent harshness and abrupt twists and turns it does not estrange you, but on the contrary traps you, engages you. Salonen created with the Philarmonia a sound that while precise and extremely well coordinated was never detached, but profoundly touching and emotional, lending the piece a strange, almost romantic feel at times. Curious, because I had to think back to the Damnation at the Barbican last month and precisely this kind of feeling was not always present there. The final musical attack on the death scene was marvellously violent and obliterating:-) It gave that almost cleansing feeling, I guess an almost cathartic release from al the pain and torture, at least that is how it felt to me.
(Esa-Pekka Salonen in a Figaro photo from this interesting article on Wozzeck in London and Paris and his work with the Philharmonia Orchestra. And here you also have an interesting article from March 2008 when Simon Keenlyside made his debut in the role at the Opera de Paris (in French). )


The singing was under the strenuous score amazingly lean and clear and also in character. Peter Hoare’s Captain was appropriately sharp and hysterical with some nerve tingling top notes and Hans Peter Scheidegger’s earthy bass come over convincingly scary as the crazy doctor. Katarina Dalayman’s Marie infused her interaction with her son with warm sadness and some gorgeous low notes and at times of remorse conquered with her Wagnerian panache the piercing top notes. The Philarmonia Voices provided the edgy, strong and chillingly “happy” and contrastng chorus interludes before the final resolution. Everyone’s diction was good, at least good enough for me to be able to understand the text without having to look at the surtitles to my upper left, which would have been immensely distracting.

In fact the semi-staged performance work really well, with everyone to only being well suited to their parts from a musical point of view, but also providing reliable acting. So much so that the visual display to my left behind the orchestra on the big street proved more of a distraction than an addition. The interaction between the characters, even if only on a meter wide band around the orchestra and confined to a few chairs, was captivating enough, that one didn’t want to look away. I suspect this was less of a problem if seated in front with everything going on in front at various levels. But sideways, after I while I stopped looking at the screen when singers were on stage and only looked back during the musical interludes. I ignored the surtitles altogether, even if I missed the odd word here and there, too much neck-twisting!

I think the visuals were not a bad idea, but sometimes too repetitive and probably would have worked more in a completed non-staged performance, concert with singers on stage most of the time. With the acting and singing going on and the orchestra on display on stage, it was too much to focus on. However, I have to say I appreciated the almost static (by comparison to the rest of the images) red moon among trees at the end. Effective for the completion of the “bloody” mood.

The major reason why I don’t believe this particular performance benefitted from the creative visual is… Simon Keenlyside. It would have been an absolute shame not to focus on him while he was on stage…. No image, no matter how ingenious is better than that! I’m starting to grasp maybe not all why he loves the part, but just how much he does! It was heart wrenching and scary to watch his Wozzeck. So obviously the physically fittest of all the cast he managed to “brake himself” to the point of complete merger with the character. The gestures, the poses, the steps where so incredibly natural it was chilling. I really wonder how he does it, is it choreographed? Does he do it mostly spontaneously, is every movements carefully placed? Having seen him as Posa so recently, this was a total revelation of what he is able to do. Did he look and sound crazy… yes and no… is Wozzeck the crazy one or is he rather the temporarily sane one in a screwed and screwed up world? I guess it isn’t about certainty with either Berg or Keenlyside as Wozzeck, it is about the questions he makes you ask yourself. It is very touching how he hangs on to every shred of sanity and logic and belief to prevent the slide towards the abiss, but everyone inevitably pushes him nearer to the edge. I personally like the fact that the others seemed madder than Wozzeck, that his thoughts seemed sometimes to come from introspection rather than a wild mind. However the gestures and movements enforced the sensations that lucidity is ever farther away… Keenlyside is too sophisticated an artist to be just the object of abuse of doctor, captain, lover …. He lends his Wozzeck a touch of Hamlet at times I felt, which managed to draw you in even more than being a mere onlooker of a poor man’s unavoidable decent into death and /or madness, whichever you feel has come first. It’s even more admirable that his voice sounded in this ruptured part generally even smoother and cleaner, warmer and easier handled than in his recent run of Posa… figure that…

He’s left me wondering what he can do with other characters, amazed by what he can create outside his voice and, to be honest, almost frightened of how deep he is able tor reach within with the characters he portrays. I hope he can rid himself of them as soon as he steps off stage :-) And it has left me also strangely looking forward to hopefully heaingr him in a liederabend where he is not a single character, but many, all filtered and contained within the artist, the Simon Keenlyside I can recognise as himself and where the voice is the impulse that drives the stories.

There were of course 10 minutes of very very enthusiastic applause for everyone!
And I’ll be definitely looking forward to more Salonen and Philarmonia Orchestra in the near future! It seems to be a an exciting and dynamic match :-)

The Royal Festiva Hall at the South Bank centre at night, photo on Panoramio.com by paulie455

So I left the Royal Festival Hall with a smile on my face and crossed the bridge back to the underground under the crisp winds. I stopped in the middle of the bridge to listen to the melancholic jazz music that came from a saxophone player, to smile at the city lights under the huge bright moon on what was a wonderful night over the Thames…. Lingering along the bridge I suddenly realised how beautiful London can be at night and while i looked at the people filling in the streets towards Covent Garden for the first time I felt like I belong here and I’m really happy to be here :-)

And all that thanks to an evening with Berg’s Wozzeck… now how weird is that????

This concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast in Performance on 3, at 7.00pm on Thursday 15 October.

Reviews:

What'sonstage

MusicOMH

Telegraph

And some interesting contributions from bloggers (including a few photos from last night):

Entartete Musik

Classical Iconoclast

Framescourer