I'll sleep when i'm dead!

Merci beaucoup Esti pour cette extraordinaire video!!!

Reading the title you will either have a tune bouncing around your ears….or you’ll be clueless and then I guess you’ll just have to read this boring post till the end to find out what that is all about :-)

Last week ended last night and the title should be reversed, if I don’t get some proper sleep soon I might as well be dead!

I couldn’t resist temptation and I have started this post predictably with yet more Werther! No I don’t feel guilty about it and if you feel you’ve overdosed, then look away... I dare you! (But you should know that the above video is the “Pourquoi me reveiller” from the 29th, filmed from the side of the stage itself by Esti and it was so far the best performance of the run according to people present live :-)… )

Ok, so the reason why there wasn’t much going on around here this week is not because I have drowned my sorrow in absinth, whisky or tea (not even chocolate!) but… my venom of choice was .. music :-) Loads and loads of it. Seeing as I was unexpectedly bound to London this week, much more than initially planned as gaps were filled by the generosity of a friend who shifted onto me a number of Barenboim tickets. So proceedings went something like this:

Monday … my body craving sleep, my heart still in Paris, my mind hard at work, basically preparing for Tuesday;
Tuesday – battling with internet connection for smudges of sound of Werther broadcast (we shall not speak about the work bit from here on as the week only ended on a zero balance due to induction of high positive doses of music)
Wednesday – visit to new place – King’s Place in fact, Weimar Voices, Helmut Deutsch and Christian Immler- as I will explain in a bit more detail a most fulfilling, entertaining and puzzling evening of song, brilliant! Outside the Werther by far the best bit of the week!
Thursday – Wigmore, Joyce DiDonato, David Zobel and canzone d’amore – I’m finding myself more and more often drawn to the Wigmore for the gems they have on offer
Friday – Royal Festival Hall, Barenboim and Berlin Staatskapelle first take and the most amazing almost full moon over the Thames at Southbank!
Saturday – ROH, yay.. let the new year finally begin! I swear I had a trickle of emotion going for the first time this year through those revolving doors…. That was until I stopped in shock at the display window of the ROH shop! Ah by the way, the piece was Rake’s Progress.
Sunday- take two on Barenboim, Berlin Staatskapelle, Beethoven and Schoenberg. And an amazing full moon over the bridge which is becoming kind of a theme, it was full moon when I was there last and I keep having these moments on that bridge where I just have to stop, breath in the wind, wonder at the clear night and feel lucky because it isn’t raining and because I am in London!! Strange déjà vu, but of the very pleasant kind; I’ve promised myself that I will go back during the summer and just sit on the Southbank terrace with music and a book and enjoy the place properly rather than steeling a moment of the night.

Was it all worth it? Definitely and I would do it again. Because it is not often that I get to be in London to enjoy a lot of what is on offer. So, even if I have to catch up on sleep during weeks to come, there is a lot I learned this week and thus a lot to be thankful for:-)

Less and less surprisingly to myself I really like 20th century music. I know I can’t throw everything in a pot, but I like the structure in destructuring, the wittiness and irony that runs through much of it, the surprise element that keeps you on your toes and challenges you to listen carefully and unlock the riddles. A bit like solving math problems back in school, as crazy as this may sound. I’m not sure it is the kind of music I would listen to again and again and again in my own time, because it doesn’t really provide the escapist element one sometimes craves when delving into music, but live it can provide a much more inspiring evening than quite a few better known tunes. I think what I am trying to say is that I need and enjoy both, I need my Massenet, Verdi, Wagner, etc but I also need Stravinsky, Korngold, Messiaen, Schonberg, etc. I find they kind of make each others qualities and uniqueness stand out more and you return to the others with a refreshed ear and mind :-) Because I listen to all, each time I come back to one of them I fall in love all over again.

Let’s start by the end, the Barenboim concerts:

Royal Festival Hall
Daniel Barenboim with Berlin Staatskapelle
Friday 29 January 2010
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1
Arnold Schoenberg: Pelléas et Mélisande
Sunday 31 January 2010
Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)

Hands down for me on both nights Schoenberg wins over Beethoven, at least in this interpretation. It’s where I think the true colours of the Staatskapelle shined though as well as Barenboim’s talents as a conductor. The two Schoenberg pieces could not more different, one powerful and overwhelming (Pelléas et Mélisande) and the other almost delicate. And still in both excellent and very effective play with dynamics was obvious. In fact the ebbs and explosions in Pelléas et Mélisande reminded very much of recent vocal performances I had heard…. It’s a pity on the second night they decided to install cameras in several places in the Hall and I had the unfortunate “pleasure” of sitting high up in the hall and having one fanning at my back, quite loudly. Probably this concert will figure on a future documentary, but I think they should have checked the noise level before installing them there. There were moments where the fans were literally louder than the orchestra sound!

The Beethoven concertos very enjoyable and quite original in interpretation, but I wouldn't really say they were memorable. It simply does work better in terms of harmony when conductor and pianist are not the same, especially because a conductor not busy playing the piano might have accommodated the inspiration of the pianist even better :-) I am really glad I went because the Schoenberg is a rare treat, especially treated with such care and attention. But I am left wondering about the general reaction of the public: how much reflected the impact of what was heard on the night and how much did the “fame” element come into play? Do people applaud the Beethoven concerto no5 because it is a well know, exquisite piece of music or because they like this particular version they have just heard? In some respect the reaction of the audience on Friday when Schoenberg ended the concert on a high seemed to be more tuned into the performance than the once on Sunday. It’s also true that the Beethoven played with a downsized orchestra would have been maybe more enjoyable from closer to the stage, whereas the Schoenberg , even the delicate pieces flowed freely and expanded into the hall :-)

In any case you will be able to enjoy them yourself and make up your own minds as BBC3 will air the concerts this week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qxx51

Saturday, in between the Barenboim concerts I went to the ROH –
The Rake's Progress
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Composer Igor Stravinsky
Director Robert Lepage
Revival Director Sybille Wilson

Set Designer Carl Fillion
Costume designs Francois Barbeau
Lighting Designer Etienne Boucher
Video Boris Firquet
Choreography Michael Keegan Dolan
Performers
Conductor Ingo Metzmacher
Trulove Jeremy White
Anne Trulove Rosemary Joshua
Tom Rakewell Toby Spence
Nick Shadow Kyle Ketelsen
Mother Goose Frances McCafferty
Baba the Turk Patricia Bardon
Sellem Graham Clark

This is a wonderfully constructed opera, with perfectly timed tension and I am grateful as a first time listener to have had the Insight lend a hand in additional understanding :-) Best thing by far on the night the witty and lively sound that came from the pit by the hands of Ingo Metzmacher! The score is so interesting and catching that I think I could easily listen to it without the singing, or at least on this night it felt a bit like it. I wish I had heard the cast to years ago to have some kind of comparison… I was almost tempted to say that judging by the other night English is a particularly difficult language to sing opera in… BUT, I would be wrong, as I have heard opera in English before and never had this impression. And also during the Insight evening I heard the same arias delivered with panache, total security and spot on articulation! Whereas on the night I was forced to glance to the surtitles many more times that I would have wished. This sounds to me like a highly entertaining but also highly difficult piece vocally and this case some lack of power in the voices was not helped by the production. Fun to look at sometimes, whoever the gags were not the brightest I thought and placing the singers mostly in the second back half of a deep stage did not help a bit, but rather made singing and especially hearing in the hall a challenge at times. (If I compare to the Tristan and Isolde, with more powerful voices by far and they were always brought towards the front and never left with a gaping empty space behind them for long…)

I understand about the desire of director to create visually flashy productions and make a statement, but I don’t like the feeling I am getting with Lepage that no matter how ingenious and gimmicky the production, it doesn’t really mould well over the music. And it favours big picture over character definition in my opinion too much, It did in this case by caricaturising a bit too much and in the Damnation from the Met I saw in the cinema there was no character definition to speak about (loads of visual effects with singers being tied to a two dimensional balcony/grid). I’m not saying the public did not enjoy it, but how many times can you see this production and enjoy it as much and what will distinguish one viewing from another? I like to remember revivals of productions also by the impact individual singers and their personalities left on the whole and I am not sure this is happening here. Anyway, matter of taste I guess.

Having said that the cast themselves got better during the evening and in the second half singing really started to come together with a unusual high point in the moralising quartet at the end (déjà vu Mozart anyone? ;-))))

Basically I really really liked the music and Anne’s I go to him! Is among my very favourite bits! I’d loooove to listen t this again, preferably not in this production, but it will do as well if no choice.

My return “home” to the ROH came with the obligatory detour by the shop and I did manage to come out empty-handed … but stopped dead at the sight of this in the display window!!! Now, I don’t care or mind which opera singers CD they display and definitely encourage the happy expectation of Rolando’s come back to the stage, hopefully to the ROH one as well.. BUT… what is the other thing doing there????? (and even with Rolando they could have displayed the latest CD…. Not that they are in the habit of doing that always… during the Don Carlo several of the singers had just had CD issued, but none where displayed there until much much later…. )

The issue I have is with singers being advertised there who have never sung on the ROH stage a whole role( or anywhere else as a matter of fact)…and with the combination having an air of publicity for a certain TV show which has nothing to do with this institution. I am disappointed to be honest… I may understand the monetary reasons, but one of the reasons why I myself support with my own money the ROH is because I admire and respect the high standards of the institution and it’s elegancy and style in public dealings with its own image. Having this in the display window is in my opinion not congruent with my expectations.

If that artist is worthy being advertised there I would expect to see the artist as part of future ROH schedules, and I have a suspicion this will not be the case anytime soon. And until this artist has an operatic career at the standards usually displayed by this institution I do not expect to see them advertised again within the building. As a friend of the ROH I do not support the decision to have this kind of publicity within it’s shop, money matters aside. Because at the ROH standards do matter, I still hope so.

So far for today, to be continued with more on the wonderful recitals (I’ve left the best for last :-))

Until then I will not keep the…”suspense” any longer about the title.. here they go:



Well, yes of course it is BON JOVI! And yes, i own almost all their CDs, it's not an isolated incident at all :-)