Philippe Jaroussky in Berkeley

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor, and Jérôme Ducros, piano, appeared May 12 for Cal Performances in Berkeley with a program of songs by Fauré, Debussy, Hahn, Poldowski, Bordes, Séverac, Chauson, Honegger, Saint-Saëns, and Chabrier, all in settings of poems by Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844 – 1896).  I don't recall anything like this.  This is a very high bar to set for oneself.

This type of song is called a mélodie, and is considered to have started with Les nuits d'été  by Hector Berlioz.  It's considered the French equivalent to the German Lied.  In a Lied the piano is sharp and angular, while in a mélodie we hear much more legato and almost impressionist playing.  Enough history.

The program was performed virtually without applause.  To elicit applause he would sing something more flamboyant and throw up his arms.  At the end it was a setting of "Chanson d'automne" by Charles Trenet, the composer closest to modern times whose song sound much like a modern pop song.  The rest of the time they immediately went on virtually without pause to the next song.  Short piano solos were interspersed while Jaroussky sneaked off to the wings.

The same poems appeared repeatedly with different composers:  "Green," "Clair de lune," "En sourdine," "Mandoline," etc.  It was deeply satisfying, a marvelous exploration of a style of music heard here almost only on recording.  It suited the sound of his voice.  Yes, we were surprised how much we liked it

The last encore was the most famous setting of one of these texts:  "L'heure exquise" by Reynaldo Hahn.

Beethoven 9

Last night ended the resurrection season for the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera.  This was as close to opera as we came this season.  The first half of the program consisted of the overture, two arias and a chorus from Beethoven's Fidelio.  Jonathan Burton, tenor, sang "Gott! welch Dunkel hier!"  He has a lovely tone, very suitable for this particular aria.  Jennifer Holloway, soprano, sang "Abscheulicher" to close out this part of the program.  Our conductor was David Alan Miller.

After the intermission came Beethoven's Ninth Symphony when the solo quartet added Jeanne Ireland, mezzo-soprano, and Brandon Cedel, bass-baritone.  May 7, the date of our performance, just happens to be the anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth. 

It's good to quote a few words here:

"Joy.  All men become brothers where your soft wings hover.  Be embraced, you millions.  This kiss is for the whole world."

Some may question the value of classical music.  My only comment is that we can easily justify our case through Beethoven alone.  Hail, maestro.  For the joy that you bring us.

Il Matrimonio segreto at Sac State

Conductor and director:  Omari Tau
Pianist:  Jennifer Reason

Geronimo (bass):  Act I Roy Domoe, Act II Jordan Krack
Carolina, his daughter (soprano):  Elise Savoy
Elisetta, also his daughter (soprano or mezzo-soprano): Nicole James
Fidalma, his sister (mezzo-soprano): Monica Serrano
Paolino (tenor):  Matt Hidalgo
Count Robinson (bass): Walter Aldrich 

Last night I went to Cal State Sacramento to see Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage) by Domenico Cimarosa (1792), an opera buffa from about the same time as Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.  It also previewed in Vienna.  There is a lot of sexual innuendo such as one would find in Mozart but without the political sophistication. 

Between Act I and Act II is a short Intermezzo:  Little Harlequinade by Antonio Salieri.

Colombina:  Erin Flynn
Harlequin:  Jake Kolyoth
Brighella:  Jordan Krack

Carolina and Paolino have recently married but have not told her family about this.  Geronimo has arranged for her older sister Elisetta to marry Count Robinson, but when the count meets her, he doesn't like her.  He very much prefers Carolina.  Hmmm.  And if that isn't enough, Fidalma likes Paolino.

I very much admired how this was staged.  The cast of the Little Harlequinade are also Geronimo's servants who entertain us also in the overture and at intervals throughout the opera.  This was charming.  Since this is a student production, it provides increased opportunities for performing.

Paolino is also one of Geronimo's servants.  This explains why Carolina is so worried that someone will find out they are married.  Paolino follows his master from place to place throughout the opera.

A complex plot clearly and masterfully laid out, comic business of all kinds; who could ask for more?  The costumes were entertaining and contributed to the clarity of the plot.  They all live happily ever after.  I didn't see the need, though, for two people playing Geronimo. 

Musically we have the same things we might find in a Mozart opera:  recitative (with maybe a bit too much talking), arias and ensembles.  The ensembles were especially impressive.  There was an extended scene for two basses.  There was a gorgeous trio for the three ladies of the family.  It is probably the frequent ensembles and comic pacing that make this Cimarosa's most lasting opera.

These are large roles well handled by the student cast.

When the overhead lights are out, I could read the supertitles.  When they were on, I couldn't. 

Ranking the Simulcasts 2015-16

Every year I rank the simulcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.  This year, following my own personal tradition, I missed only Puccini's Madama Butterfly.  The buzz for this was quite good, but I cannot rank it.  First I will characterize each opera, and then I will rank them.

Verdi's Il Trovatore with Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Hvorostovsky may possibly be the greatest Trovatore in my personal experience.  More cannot be asked.

Verdi's Otello with Aleksandrs Antonenko was far from being my best for this opera.  It didn't top the previous Met simulcast with Botha and Fleming.  Antonenko sings the role well, but his portrayal begins hard and unpleasant, dulling the effect of Iago's influence.

Wagner's Tannhäuser with Johan Botha, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Peter Mattei was a wonderful experience.  Westbroek was especially affecting.

Berg's Lulu was up to the very high Met standards but avoided originality in interpretation in favor of a production that focused strictly on visual effects.  The musical standards were impressive, but best Lulu award for the year must go to West Edge Opera.

Bizet's The Pearl Fishers with Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien created a male duo made in heaven.  This was a truly excellent Pearl Fishers which led one to wonder why we don't see it more often.

Puccini's Turandot with Nina Stemme was uneven across the cast with the least interesting Calaf I may ever have heard.  Besides, I hated Nina's makeup.

Puccini's Manon Lescaut with Kristine Opolais and Roberto Alagna was lovely.  After seeing versions of this with Kristine and Jonas Kaufmann from London and Munich, it was good to hear Roberto's very different energy.  The production was iffy at best, but Fabio Luisi was the best. 

The marriage of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux with Sondra Radvanovsky's voice turned out to be prescient.  It was overwhelming.

Strauss's Elektra with Nina Stemme was unrelentingly heavy.  It's supposed to be.  I think I might have liked a little more pacing, a little less relentlessness.

So here is my ranking:

Il Trovatore
Tannhäuser
Roberto Devereux
Elektra
The Pearl Fishers
Manon Lescaut  
Lulu
Turandot
Otello

There were no out and out bombs, but then the Met doesn't really do that.

What would I buy if there were DVDs?  Probably Roberto Devereux and The Pearl Fishers.

Elektra in HD

Conductor:  Esa-Pekka Salonen
Production:  Patrice Chéreau

Klytämnestra, Elektra's mother: Waltraud Meier (mezzo-soprano)
Elektra: Nina Stemme (soprano)
Chrysothemis, Elektra's sister: Adrianne Pieczonka (soprano)
Aegisth, Klytämnestra's new husband: Burkhard Ulrich (tenor)
Orest, Elektra's brother: Eric Owens (baritone)

Two different performances of Richard Strauss' Elektra in the same month is a bit overwhelming.  The first was at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on April 7.  The second was the live simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera.  I will not be able to help comparing them.  The libretto is by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

We were told in the interviews at the beginning that this was probably the largest orchestra ever crowded into the Met orchestra pit.  The simulcasts seem to find a way around any problems with the orchestra covering the singers.  Both Esa-Pekka Salonen and Donald Runnicles are excellent conductors, though I have heard Runnicles many more times.

There is not much to contrast about the productions.  Both were drab, gray, modernized productions designed to emphasize the grimness of the story.  Elektra, Chrysothemis and Orest are all children of Agamemnon, the chief commander on the Greek side of the Trojan war.  While he is gone for 10 years fighting the war over Helen, his wife Klytämnestra takes up with another man.  When Agamemnon returns, Klytämnestra and Aegisth kill him with an ax.  Orest is banished, and Elektra spends her years wishing for revenge.

The two productions reference the ax differently.  In Berlin Klytämnestra enters using it as a cane, and she leaves it behind when she flees from Elektra who is threatening her.  In New York Elektra brings the ax out of Agamemnon's tomb where she has been keeping it.  I think the New York production follows the libretto more closely.  It is clear there that Klytämnestra is making animal sacrifices to appease the gods.  I thought for some reason that in Berlin she carried the ax around to kill people with it and don't remember a reference to animal sacrifices.  She comes to visit Elektra to ask her what she must do to stop dreaming that Orest will come to kill her.  What sacrifice must I offer?  Who do I need to kill?  Elektra's answer:  yourself.

In Berlin Klytämnestra and Aegisth were both killed at the back of the stage by Orest.  At the Met Orest's tutor kills Aegisth downstage while Orest is offstage.  For me the Berlin staging of the killings worked better.  It's perhaps a tossup.

The Elektras from both productions are the same age, 53.  The greatest contrast in the two productions was in the singing.  At the Met the whole cast were heavier voices than the Berlin cast, with the possible exception of Waltraud Meier who sang in  sweet but terrified style.  She is a wonderful singer who brings her great presence to the role.  [Was she wearing Venetian beads?]

In Berlin Chrysothemis was sung by a lyric soprano, while Adrianne Pieczonka is a dramatic and sang much heavier.  She seemed to be auditioning for Elektra.  Perhaps.  I always love and respect Nina Stemme who was simply glorious.  The intensity and drama carried throughout both productions.  In Berlin Elektra dances and then dies.

Occasionally you hear in the orchestra tiny hints of the Strauss opera which comes next:  Der Rosenkavalier.  I feel that I have had my fill of Elektra.

Thoughts

I returned from my trip to Berlin with the deep conviction that all of the great Strauss conductors are now dead.

Georg Solti.

Kurt Masur.


Bruno Walter.

George Szell.


Herbert von Karajan.


Forgive me if I have omitted your favorite.  What are we to do?  No one today goes deep enough.  I am a great believer that all the music does not lie on the page, that it lives also in the hearts and minds of those who love it.  That musicians can deepen their own understanding by listening to the interpretations of the past.

Roberto Devereux in HD

Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: David McVicar

Elisabetta: Sondra Radvanovsky (soprano)
Sara, Duchess of Nottingham: Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano)
Roberto Devereux: Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Duke of Nottingham: Mariusz Kwiecien (baritone)

Roberto Devereux by Donizetti completed Sondra Radvanovsky's tour de force trilogy of Donizetti's three queens in a single season.  For my money this is the opera that most suits her gifts.  Overheard talking to myself, "But this is a wonderful opera."  Perhaps it is wonderful because a constantly enraged queen suits so perfectly the voice of Sondra Radvanovsky.  I did not see in Sondra's portrayal the nonsensical pseudo-butch portrayal of Bette Davis, but saw instead someone with difficulty walking and deteriorating health.

Each of the four stars listed above gets wonderful music, perhaps also perfectly suited to their gifts.  Benini found the drama in the singing. 

What a mess of a plot.  Perhaps Roberto once truly loved the queen as she clearly thought he did.  And then he fell in love with the decades younger and still unmarried Sara.  He goes off to war and after clearly winning it, he is accused of being a traitor.  While he was away, Sara with the queen's help married the Duke of Nottingham because her father died. Women at that time required the protection of a man, either husband or father.  The opera opens with her clear unhappiness.  It is not clear if she is unhappy because Roberto is returning, or if perhaps it is her marriage to someone she does not love and who seems also not to love her.

The queen marches down into her tomb and dies at the end.  This is a poetic rather than a historically accurate ending.  The opera plot more closely resembles the movie The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex than it does historical fact.  It's important to remember that opera is about love, and historical accuracy is irrelevant.

Debbie Voigt announced it as a play within a play, but this is only true if you count the fully costumed chorus clapping when the audience clapped.  In the bows the characters turn and bow to the chorus.  This was all discrete and not at all annoying.  It provided a context for the frequent choruses.  In the period there would have been courtiers standing around watching.

I loved it.  It was filled with both beautiful singing and overwhelming dramatic intensity. 

And yes, that was indeed "God save the Queen" in the overture.

James Levine to Retire

It has been announced that James Levine will retire at the end of this season.  He is finally facing up to reality.  He has had a fabulous career, but it is better to leave now.  He was scheduled for at least 2 operas for next season.

Staatskapelle Berlin

On our final night in Berlin we visited Philharmonie, the concert hall for the Berlin Philharmonic. The Berlin Philharmonic was on tour, as usual, and we saw instead the Staatskapelle Berlin.  Disney  Hall in Los Angeles looks far odder on the outside, but inside this one is very confusing indeed.  In fact one of our group members got lost, and a search party had to be dispatched.  Here is the view on the inside.

It was a very wowie concert.  We started off with that rarest of pieces, the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto.  I feel fairly certain I haven't heard it before.  A piano concerto is supposed to be a  battle between equals, but in this work the piano wins hands down.  In the first movement the orchestra hardly has a chance to compete.  For the pianist it is notoriously, spectacularly difficult.  Our pianist was Daniil Trifonov, and he never stumbled once.  If you haven't heard of him, watch out.  It was marvelous.

The second half of the program was Manuel de Falla's Three Cornered Hat.  It was fun and very loud.  That might possibly be a problem with really good acoustics.

Der Rosenkavalier at Deutsche Oper, Berlin

👍🏻
Conductor: Ulf Schirmer
Production: Götz Friedrich

Die Feldmarschallin Fürstin Werdenberg: Michaela Kaune (soprano)
Der Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau: Albert Pesendorfer (bass)
Octavian: Daniela Sindram (mezzo-soprano)
Der Herr von Faninal: Michael Kupfer-Radecky (baritone)
Sophie, his daughter: Siobhan Stagg (soprano)
Valzacchi: Patrick Vogel (tenor)
Annina: Stephanie Lauricella (contralto)
Ein Sänger: Matthew Newlin (tenor)

This performance of Der Rosenkavalier has to be ranked a success, even though the much anticipated Anja Harteros did not appear. I noticed that I was hallucinating her voice throughout the first act.  For the first time the orchestra was not too loud.

Daniela Sindram projected a very boyish Octavian in a pleasing style.  The falling in love was beautifully staged in very traditional looking costumes.  Everything else seemed contemporary with the opera (1912). The opera was not upstaged by its production as is often the case these days.  The third act was not over-staged, and so remained clear.

I love, among many things, when Ochs says after finding out that Octavian and Mariandel are the same person, "I will never stop feeling astounded.  Such finesse."  He is genuinely impressed. The trio was spectacular.  At the very end the Feldmarschallin watches from a distance.

Forgive me for not writing a long essay.