Opera and catch-up

 Last night Peter and I went to the Palais (Hoddle St bus) to see Idomeneo, a joint production by

Victorian Opera and Opera Australia. We dined first at Cicciolina, though could only get a small table in the back section. Still, the food was great - I had delicious gnocchi with pumpkin. We shared a tasty salad with pear, blue cheese and walnuts.

As we had a spare ticket for the opera, we were able to put our coats and stuff on the seat between us. After Nick T's comments in the morning (he left at interval) I was a bit wary. But once things started I found I was engaged - as I said later, it was a treat to be hearing a new Mozart opera for the first time. Well, new to me.

The production told the story well and used the simple set very well, with some excellent projections. Too often these are overdone - just because you can do something, doesn't mean you have to. The cast was excellent, from Steve Davislim in the title role, to Kathryn Radcliff and Catherine Carby as Ilia and Idamante. But for the standout was Olivia Cranwell as Elettra - her final aria, a true dummy-spit, had the walls covered in blood. An interesting insight into the early life of Elektra - we all know how she ended up.

Getting home was a trial. We decided on the tram along the Esplanade - unfortunately road works in Collins Street meant that the tram terminated at Batman Park. So we thought we'd walk up to Southern Cross and get the train. However that turned out not to be easy, with the work in Collins Street extending nearly to King Street.

Luckily I spotted a cab with its light on a little way further on, so we managed to get it. The trip was initially very slow as the traffic in King and Lonsdale Streets was appalling.

Today was uneventful - I managed to do a load of washing and went for a (shortish) walk in the afternoon. Back to Daybreak in the morning.

The good and the bad (no ugly so far)

Last Saturday afternoon I went to Covent Garden for a performance of Massenet's take on the Cinderella story, Cendrillon. The production was by Laurent Pelly (I have a couple of his productions on DVD, notably Rameau's Platée, which I love) and was a straightforward telling of the story, with a great deal of humour, aided hugely by the wonderful sets and outrageous costumes.

The glorious mezzo, Joyce DiDonato, sang the title role with Alice Coote as a rather believable Prince Charmant. The extraordinary contralto Ewa Podles did an a very entertaining comic turn as the evil step-mother. Musically the work is pleasant but fairly unmemorable, but the quality of the production and, above all, the performances made it a great afternoon's entertainment.

Life was entertaining in a different way this week with the direct broadcast of the appearance of James and Rupert Murdoch in front of the Parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Murdoch senior looked initially like a sad old man; junior was quite glib, if not verbose. In the long run, probably, not very much was achieved, but it was very satisfying to see. I've been in Britain at a rather interesting time, seeing a complete volte face being done by many in the public eye who had previously courted Murdoch and News; and seeing various people being caught up in their own webs of lies.

On Tuesday Paul B came over to Lewisham and we went to a local Turkish restaurant A&A had recommended. The food was very tasty, but there was so much (probably enough for four) that P took the leftovers home in a doggie-bag.

The next night I went to the Apollo Theatre to see a performance of Yes, Prime Minister. It has been up-dated to the twenty-first century (references to the Internet and Blackberries) with even references to the recent tribulations of News Corp. Like much of the television series the story revolves around Jim Hacker landing in a moral/political dilemma, from which he is eventually saved by Sir Humphrey. It won't win any awards, but was a bit of fun.

Last night's outing was to a concert to celebrate the life and works of the composer Geoffrey Burgon, most well known for the music for the TV series Brideshead Revisited. The City of London Sinfonia played well and other performers were the choir Wellensian Consort. Ex-Python Terry Jones, who knew Burgon from childhood, introduced the works including his viola and cello concertos, the latter receiving its premier public performance.

The bad occurrence this week was the cancelling of my Visa card - I'm not sure why, but my credit union said Visa claimed its security had been breached. I managed to use my alternative card (from another bank) successfully, but on the second attempt it too bombed out. Luckily I have my Cash Passport which still seems to be working OK - I just can't book anything online.

Dirt and opera

Yesterday morning I went to the wonderful Wellcome Collection. As well as a splendid permanent collection (which includes a piece of Jeremy Bentham's skin - his whole body is just down the road at University College London) there was an excellent exhibition called Dirt which looks at our relationship with the multifarious things we refer to as dirt. Some of the art works in the show were made from dirt and house dust, and the scientific displays included some fascinating old films. The film about the Peckham health centre, made in 1948, is an interesting example of propaganda for the newly-created National Health Service.

In the afternoon I went into the TKTS office in Leicester Square to see what was available. As luck would have it they had £85 tickets for the ENO's Simon Boccanegra at the bargain price of £25. A superb seat in the middle of the stalls - perfect viewing was ensured by the three empty seats in front of me.

The production is ... interesting; and not helped by huge amounts of text explaining the back story (a complicated plot à la Trovatore) being typed across the front drop. The prolog setting is a William Hopper Nighthawks style scene with a town square on the right.

The transition between the prolog and the first act was one of the most amazing things I've seen in the theatre. The crowd scene at the end of the prolog froze and this image was projected onto the front drop; the first act then starts with two characters walking in front of this image, which then starts to shrink until it is the contents of a painting on the wall ...

Anyway, the work is very sombre: lots of low brass in the orchestration and only one woman's voice; all the men's roles are bass or baritone except for the lead tenor. The performance was excellent musically, including the small parts, but the work itself is mostly without many arias, the music being mostly declamatory.

Viva Victorian Opera

Last night I met up with P&B for a quick Japanese meal before going to the Town Hall for Victorian Opera's Viva Verdi concert. The concert began with a spirited performance of the overture to La forza del destino by Orchestra Victoria.

This was followed by act one of La Traviata with Joanna Cole as Violetta , Virgilio Marino as Alfredo, Sally-Anne Russell as Flora and the energetic Victorian Opera chorus - this was a good choice as the act shows off the performers very well. Apart from a couple of squeals near the end of Sempre libera, Cole was very good; Marino's voice however didn't quite match up to Cole's.

After interval we got excerpts from Il trovatore, an opera with a convoluted plot which doesn't do much for opera's reputation. It started with the vigorous Anvil Chorus, followed by Russell giving her all as Azucena singing Stride la vampa. As Roger Howell was taken ill, Michael Lewis stepped in at the last minute to sing the role of Count Di Luna - he inhabited the role most impressively. Maxine Montgomery as Leonora sang in the final Miserere. 


As an encore Montgomery, Russell, Marino and Lewis sang the quartet from Rigoletto, with Russell's Maddalena outrageously playing up to Marino's Duke.

The rest of the soloists also acquitted themselves well; it was an extremely impressive start to the year for the company. I look forward to the rest of the season.

Vale Hugues Cuénod

The extraordinary Swiss tenor, Hugues Cuénod, has died this week at the age of 108. One of the seemingly endless list of musicians who studied with Naida Boulanger, he also sang regularly at Glyndebourne. He sang in the premiere production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Venice and made his debut at the Met in his 80s - as the old emperor in Puccini's Turandot.

His recordings of the French chanson repertoire are few, but essential listening for anyone interested in song.

Here he is in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, at the age of 69:

Vale Dame Joan Sutherland

It was announced this morning that La Stupenda, Dame Joan Sutherland, has died. She was 83 and hadn't sung for about a decade, but it's a huge loss nonetheless.

The Collaborative Piano Blog has collated links to coverage here.

I saw her perform only a few times, but was lucky enough to see her Lucia, at the Palais of all places. Despite the size of the theatre her pianissimos could be hear at the back of the stalls - she was running around the stage in the mad-scene and producing this  extraordinary sound. A truly amazing tour de force. I have a few of her recordings, though not a lot as it is mostly repertoire I've never been a huge collector of. But today I'm overdosing by listening to ABC FM which is, quite rightly, devoting much of their airtime to reminiscences and recordings.

Picture linked to at Collaborative Piano Blog

Wagner City

Tonight I went with BN and KN to the Victorian Wagner Society meeting at MLC. The speaker was Lyndon Terracini, the new Artistic Director of Opera Australia (OA). He was there mainly to talk about the recently announced Ring cycle to be performed in Melbourne in 2013 but spoke about opera in Australia in general and in Melbourne in particular.

He said there were two main reasons that the cycles will be done in Melbourne: the first is the obvious matter of a suitable theatre; the second (which surprised me) was that Terracini is of the opinion that Wagner fits Melbourne's cultural life better than Sydney's. In fact the plans are to make Melbourne the Wagner centre for the Southern Hemisphere.

The Melbourne Ring (as they are calling it) will be a tri-ennial event from 2013 to 2019 after which it is planned to have a new production. As well OA plans to include at least one other Wagner opera in each year's Spring season in Melbourne in the years between each cycle year. (I hope I'm making it clear.) They hope to form a Wagner orchestra for these performances which will give training to young players and develop a level of experience and performance practice amongst local musicians.

In response to comments from the audience about the 2011 Melbourne opera season being fairly pedestrian he made it clear that he agreed (making it clear that when he took up his position all except the new Bohème were already programmed) and said he was committed to bringing the current Sydney-only productions of Der Rosenkavalier and Peter Grimes to Melbourne in the near future. He went on to declare a commitment that the company would also produce at least one Australian work each year, including newly commissioned operas and revivals (and in some cases reworkings) of such works as Batavia, Mer de Glace and The Eighth Wonder.

In all it was a very interesting night and much more optimistic than I expected.

Yet another Ring

Last week I discovered a Ring cycle on DVD that I didn't previously know about - it's from Valencia and the production is by the amazing Catalan theatre collective Fura dels Baus. The setting is very high-tech with extraordinary projections and people being flown in and out; as well as the stunning look to the production it's also musically very satisfying with excellent singing and a great orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. Brünnhilde is the wonderful Jennifer Wilson (who did Turandot in Sydney a few years back) and the Canadian Lance Ryan does a fantastic job as Siegfried.

So far I've only got Götterdämmerung but will definitely be looking out the rest of the cycle.

A taste.

News of Peg

Mum has had a bad week and is currently in the Freemasons' Hospital. She's had some back pain caused by a crushed vertebrae and perhaps because of this had a fall on Friday morning. I got there just as the ambulance crew arrived. They got her up off the floor and after assessing her decided she was OK to stay at home. I stayed on for a while, giving her lunch before I left.

Just before midnight I had a call from her neighbour John saying that she'd had another fall; this time she had managed to remember to press her emergency button. When John called Mum was just being put into the ambulance - he told me that as Cabrini was closed they were taking her to the Epworth.

On Saturday I got up early and headed off to the Epworth. Mum was still in the emergency department, but after a quick visit to the X-ray department she was put into an ambulance and we drove to the Freemasons' where she was admitted.

I dropped in twice today and she's looking much brighter, though she has spent the last two days in bed. The doctor, who I saw yesterday and this morning, was talking about getting her to sit up for a few hours, but it doesn't seem that her passed this on to the nursing staff. Perhaps tomorrow. She's fairly bright, but cross with herself for having the falls and a bit anxious about what will happen to her - as are we.

More news as it happens.

Last night I met up with DG and we went to see Otello at the State Theatre. It's an interesting work and the performance seemed OK, but I don't really think my mind was on it. Although the Willow song was pretty amazing, though whether it was the performance or just because it's a terrific piece of writing I'm not sure.

The end of the season

Last night was the last of a month long festival of opera that P&B and I have been lucky enough to enjoy. It began with the performance of Gagliano's Dafne at the Woodend Festival and included Through the Looking Glass, The Marriage of Figaro, The Children's Bach and finished last night with a concert performance of Beethoven's Fidelio at Melba Hall last night.

The hall was a bit small for the amount of noise produced but it was a real treat to hear this wonderful score again. Overall the performance was excellent; it wasn't without a few glitches in the orchestral playing but the singers, while sometimes swamped in the noise, acquitted themselves admirably.

Last night's performance was the climax of a great day for me as after shopping we'd had a very tasty brunch at The Commoner. In the afternoon Tat took me to Preston where I spent too much money on an HD TV that's probably too big but it does amply replace my poor old warhorse. Later I met P&B at an art gallery and the three of us had a delicous pre-opera meal at Birdman Eating before heading off to Melba Hall.

This morning I went to Mum's for lunch - she's keeping well. I cooked her lunch and did a bit of cleaning up around the place for her.

Peg improves

I've visited Mum over the last few days and each time I see her she's noticeably brighter. I think the morphine she was given on Wednesday had an adverse affect on her as she was away with the fairies a bit on Thursday. She's been sitting on a chair beside the bed for a bit as a change from sitting in bed, but she's certainly still got a long way to go.

Things are up in the air at the moment (it's hard to find the right people to talk to) but she'll be assessed tomorrow and most likely moved to a rehabilitation place before spending some time in respite care. What happens after that still remains to be seen.

She's much brighter and more alert now and seemed glad to see us all yesterday, though she's looking forward to leaving hospital.

Yesterday P&B and I shopped in Fitzroy for a change after which I headed over to Cabrini. From there I took the Wattletree Road tram into the Arts Centre where I met up with DG at EQ. We had a delicious meal before heading off to the State Theatre to see Opera Australia's production of Strauss' Arabella. It was a very enjoyable night with Cheryl Barker in the title role and her husband, Peter Coleman-Wright, as Mandryka. The production was intelligent and the whole night very satisfying - I don't understand why this was the first production in Australia.

The last week has flown with rehearsals and work and German in the evenings and mostly work during the day.

The exception was Thursday, which I had off because I'm at work today (Saturday). I managed finally to catch up with DC - we've been trying for weeks but something kept going wrong. We strolled down to the Convent and had a pleasant lunch in the cafe. It was great to hear how he's enjoying his retirement - it gives me ideas.

This morning we shopped as usual and I came into town a little early to get a 1Gb compact flash card for the camera. I also popped into Discurio and found a DVD of Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein; it's from the Châtelet in Paris with Felicity Lott and Yann Beuron who I have in a very enjoyable Belle Hélène so I couldn't resist. Marc Minkowsky conducts. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Tomorrow we have an early start at St John's for the Credo of the B minor mass. I was a bit disappointed last night by the attitude of some of the young players in the orchestra who seemed mightly amused by the efforts of us in the choir. MvP was a bit scratchy too, but he's full of a nasty cold.