Hairman at the Opera

WNO - The Vimeo Years

2011-09-29T21:21:00.005+01:00

A bit like digging around in a supermodel’s knickers draw, WNO’s Vimeo page has a couple of natty things to pique your peeking interest. Don Giovanni leads the way, with director John Caird and designer John Napier talking about their involvement in the production, followed by a snippet of dress rehearsal footage.

Not to be left out of the limelight, unlike the saggy, but strangely comforting pair of pants / knickers to be found in most folks underwear draw, The Barber of Seville gets to show off its frillies, with Christine Rice singing Una voce poco fa during the dress rehearsal.

John Caird Talks Don Giovanni

John Napier on Designing Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni Dress Rehearsal Footage

Christine Rice as Rosina (Dress Rehearsal)

The Barber of Seville - Wales Millennium Centre, 22nd of September 2011

2011-09-25T23:50:00.004+01:00

Borrowed from WNO

Figaro - Jacques Imbrailo
Count Almaviva - AndrewKennedy
Rosina - Christine Rice
Doctor Bartolo - Eric Roberts
Don Basilio - Clive Bayley
Berta - Megan Llewellyn Dorke
Fiorello - Philip Lloyd-Evans

Conductor - Alexander Polianichko
Orchestra and Chorus of WNO

Director - Giles Havergal
Designer - Russell Craig
Lighting Designer - Gerry Jenkinson

I’m holding my hands up, and typing this with my bose. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to tripping out to see The Barber of Seville, partly because WNO perform it in English, but mainly because it would have been my third serving of Giles Havergal’s production in recent seasons. If you’ve seen it, chances are you’ll have liked the self-conscious nature of the production, with its very own onstage stage and audience – you even have caped conductor Alexander Polianichko swapping a few words with cast, and crew (dressed up as busty wenches) before a single note has been played. It is an entertaining production - but see it too often and the enjoyment can wear off. To counter familiarity WNO came up with a smothering of canny casting for opening night, helping to turn a ho-hum evening into an enjoyable one.

Jacques Imbrailo’s Figaro is an elegant creature, maybe not the rambunctious character you’ll meet most days in Rossini’s masterpiece, but he proved to be a winning performer. The strength of his performance lay in his lyrical baritone, which stood up to the vocal demands of the role. As his employer, Andrew Kennedy gave the turn of the evening as Almaviva. Like Imbrailo before him his singing was seemingly effortless, and he was a joy to listen to – a smidgen too sober for my liking in the drunk scene, he garnered the cheer of the evening at the curtain call.

Christine Rice made for a formidable Rosina, perhaps too formidable in the first act where I would have liked a touch more guile to her portrayal. Although her top was a tiny petal short of full bloom on the evening, her lower register was 88% cocoa and was a welcome reminder that mezzos should be more than sopranos with a low register. And on a purely puerile level, she is a very fine looking Rosina.

Of the boo brigade I felt that Eric Roberts was curiously off form as Doctor Bartolo. He has been one of the highlights of this production in recent revivals, and I can’t help but think I caught him on an off night. Clive Bayley played his partner in slander with arid, malevolent magnificence; pale of face and green of coat, his Don Basilio was the calculating git he should always be.

Stepping up from the chorus Megan Llewellyn Dorke brought character a-plenty to the role of Berta – as did fellow chorus escapee for the evening, Philip Lloyd-Evans (Fiorello). Their lowly colleagues in the chorus shone, as is their wont.

In the pit Alexander Polianichko, conducting the piece for the very first time, brought a sprinkling of new ideas to the score – but nothing obtrusive. Once or twice the unison between stage and orchestra felt strained, though in general the performance of the orchestra was, as ever, sumptuous. It would be interesting to catch a later performance to see how Polianichko's take on the score develops.

Far be it of me to suggest to a professional opera company what works they should, and shouldn’t, perform – but I would like to think that WNO's Barber would be given a few seasons off following this run. You can’t always strike it as lucky as WNO have with this cast, and should it return in the near future casting would be more crucial than ever. My moan out of the way I’ll get around to spreading the word that this is a show worthy of opening your wallets to. Kennedy gives a Golden Lock of the Night Award ™ winning performance, and is surrounded by a well oiled cast and production that can silence even your noisiest neighbour (yes, you with the bloody whispering and sweet unwrapping). Details of when and where to catch the opera with the zippiest overture in opera can be found here.

Don Giovanni - Wales Millennium Centre, 16th of Sepetember 2011

2011-09-18T17:27:00.002+01:00

Photo - Wales Online Don Giovanni (David Kempster) gets to know Donna Elvira (Nuccia Focile)

Don Giovanni – David Kempster
Leporello – David Soar
Donna Anna – Camilla Roberts
Don Ottavio – Robin Tritschler
Donna Elvira – Nuccia Focile
Zerlina – Claire Ormshaw
Masetto – Gary Griffiths
Commendatore – Carlo Malinverno

Conductor – Lothar Koenigs
Orchestra and Chorus of WNO

Director – John Caird
Designer – John Napier
Assistant Designer - Yoon Bae
Choreographer – Kate Flatt
Lighting Designer – David Hersey
Fight Director – Kevin McCurdy

Another new season, another new Don Giovanni. Does the world need a fresh retelling of Mozart’s hell bound opera? Probably not. Does WNO’s new production shed new light on the only man in operatic history to have RSI of the groin? Again, probably not. Is it worth you travelling out to see? Definitely yes.

John Caird gives us a traditional telling of the opera – good and bad are clearly drawn, the humour in the work is played for laughs, not for introspection. Salzburg audiences would more than likely turn their noses up at it, but judging by their fashion sense a Salzburgian disapproval would surely count as a vote of approval elsewhere. I’ve seen many different takes on Don Giovanni, all fascinating and striving towards an exploration of the protagonist / society – and quite often they succeed, but Caird has given us something just as equally important as a deconstruction of the text, and that is to give us a Giovanni of enjoyment, a Giovanni that Mozart would recognise. In this, he is ably assisted by John Napier’s foreboding, yet beautiful designs – a set of moveable walls, inlaid figures echoing classical images of hell with their tormented poses. Apart from being a feast for the eyes, the walls allow a visible refreshing of scenes, and avoid playing against a blank canvas that can often be the case with many Mozart operas, given the nature of their numerous, and rapid, scene changes. Central to the design, indeed, the genesis for the design as a whole, is a scaled up version of Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, which open up and take Don Giovanni to an effective flaming hell, ultimately giving Star Wars fans a nice Han Solo ending for our anti-hero.

Photo - The Arts Desk © Richard H Smith Leporello (David Soar) and his boss (David Kempster)

With the scene, and directions set, the next piece of the puzzle is the cast, led more than ably by David Kempster’s devious Don. Devilish, with a hint of malice, he was convincing in the role, switching from heartless to horny with his generous baritone conquering (nearly) all the women in his path. As with any great role versatility is required, and Kempster displayed plenty with Fin ch'han dal vino and Deh vieni alla finestra sung with ease. A nice touch by Napier and his team had the Don dressed in white clothing, turning the idea of a knight in shining armour on its head. His reward for giving such an accomplished performance was to be roundly booed at the curtain call, a sure sign from a WMC audience that you’ve played a good baddie.

The task of playing the Don’s put-upon servant fell to David Soar. Long time readers of the blog will know that I’m a big fan of his, and his Leporello did little to diminish his rising stock – following appearances at Covent Garden and Salzburg he is due to make his Met debut in the 2012 / 13 season. Caird had him play Leporello as a wannabe Giovanni, coming to his master’s aid in the opening duel (enabling Giovanni to kill the Commendatore) and looking to have his wicked way with anything in a dress at the drop of his worn, cavalier style hat. Throughout the evening he made light work of the quick fire demands made on him vocally by the role with superb enunciation, and the money aria for any Leporello (Madamina, il catalogo è questo) was munched nicely by his dark chocolate bass of a voice.

So the bad men covered themselves in glory – but what about the “good” guys?

Donna Anna’s owner for the evening, Camilla Roberts, put in a shift and a half as the wronged woman with vengeance on her mind. It’s easy for Anna to be seen as little more than a beige background to Giovanni’s antics, but Roberts breathed a tumult of emotions into the character, never allowing any hint of apathy to be directed towards her by this particular audience member (he’s a truly nasty piece of work, but sometimes I can’t help but want the Don to escape the mob’s clutches). It’s often said (by me) that you need a four seasons in one-day kind of a voice for Donna Anna, and Roberts carries a waterproof coat, a pac a mac, sunglasses and a winter coat throughout her performance.

Despite the numerous impressive performances, the revelation of the evening (for me) was Robin Tritschler’s Don Ottavio. I’ve seen Tritschler a few times, and though I’ve always liked the beauty of his voice I’d found, until Friday, it suffered in the volume department. On opening night it was as if Tritschler had discovered a booster button, crucially without affecting the light natured timbre of his voice, and it gelled well with his firm middle and he gave a gloriously well-rounded performance both vocally, and visually, achieving the impossible in having me look forward to Don Ottavio’s arias – who surely is one of the most boring characters in opera. For this, Tritschler receives my Golden Lock of the Night Award ™.

Photo - The Arts Desk © Richard H Smith Donna Anna (Camilla Roberts) and Don Ottavio (Robin Tritschler)

For his second role with WNO Gary Griffiths was inch perfect as Masetto. His effortless baritone swayed this way and that with Masetto’s ever changing love-addled emotions, capturing the audience’s heart, judging by his reception at the curtain call. Like most voices of depth he is blessed with an imposing frame, which was put to great use as his Masetto couldn’t help but whisk his Zerlina off her feet with gentle precision throughout the performance.

Claire Ormshaw was her usual pocket rocket self as Zerlina. Coy, artful and heartfelt she wrapped Masetto around her little finger as easy as she reached her creamy high notes. I get the feeling Mozart would have loved the sight of the diminutive Ormshaw becalming Griffiths’ imposing Masetto as she sang Batti, batti, o bel Masetto.

Only the casting of Nuccia Focile as Donna Elvira chimed at odds with the rest of the production. With her sparkling, flighty voice, and her undoubted skills as a comedic actress, the decision to make Elvira a far more comic role than I’ve seen before could have been the icing on the cake, but despite her succeeding with the comedy, I felt the role didn't suit her vocally, which is a shame as I’ve enjoyed Focile in every other role I’ve seen her in.

The job of dragging Giovanni to hell was given to the impressive Carlo Malinverno. The Commendatore has to be the greatest part-time gig in the whole world of opera, with the showstopper of all showstoppers in the shape of Don Giovanni, a cenar teco. I’ve seen quite a few Commendatores sink beneath an orchestra, so it was particularly thrilling to have a bass who could go deep sea fishing with the score.

Adding their support the chorus were boringly excellent as usual (have an off night so I can moan about you once in a while) – the male section getting to dress up as hooded monks who roamed creepily about the stage throughout the performance.

Lending superb support throughout the evening was Lothar Koenigs and his band of merry men and women. If any of you haven’t heard these folks in action you’re missing out on a real treat. Supple, muscular, chilling and thrilling, Koenigs led the orchestra and singers through the score, allowing both to shine – winds of all names, strings of all sizes, brasses with fire in their arses and percussions of the kitchen and beyond brought Mozart’s music to life, reminding you, if you didn’t need reminding already, just how brilliant this music is.

The ovations at the end of the evening told the story of this premiere. John Caird and his team have given us a Don Giovanni that, while traditional in its presentation, is an eerie feast for the eyes. The performers cannot help but give memorable performances, with solo and ensemble singing to die for, aided by Lothar Koenigs’ dazzling orchestra. There will be starrier productions of Don Giovanni hitting stages, and cinema screens, around the globe in the coming months, but you would be hard pressed to find a more satisfying cast, and production, than WNO’s. With Davids Kempster and Soar leading a cast of genuine substance you would be doing your ears, and the devilish part of your souls, a great favour in catching a performance, either in Cardiff or on its travels.

I Read the News Today

2011-09-16T11:36:00.003+01:00

To mark the opening of WNO’s new season Wales Online have a pair of articles worthy of your perusal.

Director John Caird talks to Mike Smith about how Rodin’s sculptures have influenced his team's approach to Don Giovanni. A spoiler alert if you are going to see it in the flesh – some details of the production appear to have been let out of the bag like a cat on a moped.

The second article sees David Pountney, WNO’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director, chatting with Karen Price about his role with the company, “there’s room for more excitement in the artistic planning and that’s why I’m here really,” his part in introducing Lothar Koenigs to WNO, and his ideas about possible future productions, “I’ve never done a Ring…I always have an interest in new pieces and unknown pieces.”

Read, and enjoy!

Zom Giovanni

2011-09-14T17:53:00.010+01:00

Borrowed from WNO

You’ll all be familiar with the plot of Don Giovanni (murderous lounge lizard gets his comeuppance at the hands of a zombie), so I’ll crack on with some DG musical highlights in anticipation of WNO’s new production, which opens the 2011/12 season this Friday.

Jimmy L and Met Orchestra giving it some welly.

Leporello explains how many hot dinners his boss has had. (1.53)

Don Giovanni in action. Smooth operator.

Donna Anna cottons on to Don G. Wants blood.

Despite being on the run he just can’t help himself. He should really be on the Jeremy Kyle Show.

Zombie gets its man.

Cineworld Cardiff to Show Anna Bolena

2011-09-08T08:30:00.005+01:00

Lovers of aural gratification in Cardiff will be pleased to learn that the Met Live in HD broadcast of Anna Bolena on the 15th of October, starring Anna Netrebko and Ekaterina Gubanova, will be beamed to Cardiff Cineworld after all. A plain old error updating the cinema’s original advance booking page led to the date being left off the list. To book the performance, click here.

Don Giovanni Tweets For Your Eyes Only

2011-09-07T08:26:00.001+01:00

Original photo Brian Tarr

Have you ever wondered how a singer prepares for the bad boy role of Don Giovanni? Does he listen to recordings? Maybe he talks to other singers who have played the role? Or does he just spend a week in Amsterdam with Charlie Sheen?

Answering these, and other (more intelligent) questions, will be David Kempster, WNO’s Don Giovanni in their forthcoming new production, as he tweets live from rehearsals this Friday for @WNOtweet.

If you have an itch to scratch about Don Giovanni, or if you want to ask Don Kempster any other opera related questions, all you need to do is tweet a question to @WNOtweet between now and Friday.

If tweeting isn’t your thing you can always email a question to marketing@wno.org.uk and the best questions will be passed on to the Don himself. If you haven’t got the time to follow the tweets in real time WNO will be rounding them all up and publishing them next week.

And just as the Don roamed the globe in search of his 2000+ conquests, WNO would like to hear from tweeters and emailers from all around the globe, so shake a question loose from your mind and ask the Don a question he can't refuse.

I'll now stop with the Don references before I slip in a Dom DeLuise reference by mistake...

Met Live in HD Broadcasts Return to Cardiff

2011-09-05T21:04:00.008+01:00

Photo

Good news for opera lovers in the Cardiff area – the Met Live in HD Broadcasts are returning for another season at Cineworld Cardiff. The first broadcast is scheduled to be Mozart’s Don Giovanni (29th of October), starring Mariusz Kwiecien – a former Cardiff Singer of the World finalist.

There are ten broadcasts in all, spread over the coming months, with the likes of Bryn Terfel, Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Natalie Dessay, René Pape and Joyce DiDonato singing for your pleasure.

Tickets cost £15 for adults and £12 for children, seniors and students.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a blog post without a moan, and this time it’s the news that Anna Bolena, starring Anna Netrebko and Ekaterina Gubanova, is not scheduled for broadcast at Cardiff. I’ll dig a little deeper and see if I can clear this up.

The Cineworld Cardiff broadcasts in full…

Don Giovanni – Saturday, 29th of October (6pm)

Siegfried – Saturday, 5th of November (4pm)

Satyagraha – Saturday, 19th of November (6pm)

Rodelinda – Saturday, 3rd of December (5.30pm)

Faust – Saturday, 10th of December (6pm)

The Enchanted Island – Saturday, 21st of January 2012 (6pm)

Götterdämmerung – Saturday, 11th of February (5pm)

Ernani – Saturday, 25th of February (6pm)

Manon – Saturday, 7th of April (5pm)

La Traviata – Saturday, 14th of April (6pm)

Boomerang 'Burgs Are Back - Mariinsky Opera Returns to the WMC

2011-09-04T14:39:00.008+01:00

Photo

Feeling like a cad* with a spiffing moustache, my first post-summer post has yours sincerely drawing your attention to the return of the Mariinsky Opera to the WMC next year.

In keeping with its last appearance, St. Petersburg’s finest opera company blasts a bit (or more frankly, a lot) of Wagner, with a full concert performance of Parsifal on the 31st of March. The following day sees Mahler’s Symphony No.8 being given an outing. No word yet about the soloists, but both concerts will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Judging by the fact that a libretto will be available from the WMC website in February of next year, it appears that surtitles will once again be absent from the concerts – a significant gripe among concert goers after the previous visit by the Mariinsky.

Tickets are now on sale from the WMC, with prices raging from £18 - £49 for Parsifal, and £15- £39 for the Mahler. The usual concessions are available, including a generous £10 selected seat offer for beings aged 26 and under. For those of you who want your tickets to arrive at the speed of light I’m afraid that you will have to wait until March 2012 for them to arrive.

* WNO blogging will resume shortly.

Haute Couture Papageno

2011-08-16T20:43:00.006+01:00

Birds on Street Corners by Ani Stafford-Townsend

A bear has interrupted my summer recess with the following message about WNO's milliner extraordinaire, Ani Stafford-Townsend...

To vote for Birds on Street Corners click here! But hurry up – voting closes on the 18th of August (Thursday) at 6pm UK time!

If you are reading this at a later date the competition will have finished, but you can still visit Ani-Stafford Townsend's website to see other examples of her work.

WNYO - The Sleeper's About to Wake Up

2011-07-09T15:15:00.003+01:00

WNO (Image - David Massey)

With less than a week to go preparations are in full swing for The Sleeper, a Welsh National Youth Opera commission, written by poet Michael Symmons Roberts (The Sacrifice), and composer Stephen Deazley. Set in a future where sleep is a thing of the past it promises to be an opera experience with a difference.

The performances, which take place within several venues at The Coal Exchange, are designed to give a Total Opera experience and involve a bit of promenading from the audiences’ point of view – so you’ll have to leave your heels at home, whoever you are.

The Coal Exchange is a stone’s throw from WNO’s home and directions can be found by visiting its website. But if you’re feeling too lazy to click on the last link the satellite photo below will show you how close it is if you’re umming and ahhing over going.

The Sleeper runs from the 15th of July until the 18th of July for eight performances. Tickets cost £11 and £6 (Under 30s) and are only available by ringing WNO on 029 2063 5030. There's a free post-performance talk after the Friday 9pm performance, to attend ring 029 2063 5030 to book your place. Performance length is approximately 75 minutes.

For those of you in the London area the production transfers to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith for two performances on Saturday the 13th, and Sunday the 14th of August. Tickets cost £6 (£4 concs) and can be bought by clicking here, or by ringing the Box Office on 020 8237 1111.

If you’d like to learn more then click here to visit WNO, or if you feel like contributing your own take on sleep you can visit WNO’s digital arm (WNO///3) at The Archive of Sleep.

Librettist Michael Symmons Roberts chats about the opera with glimpses of the set designs and rehearsals in the video beneath these words.

And so it begins...

2011-07-08T13:12:00.002+01:00

Following last week’s take on La Traviata, this week sees the unveiling of my, as yet untitled, work / novel / story / yarn in progress. In a shameless effort to attract more readers to this post I will now type Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, News International, Rebekah Brooks, News of the World, David Cameron, exclusive, the truth, tap dancing monkeys and free bacon butties if your name is Smith.

To read Chapter One click here you phone hacking sexy things. Seriously you can.

Coming soon... an actual post about WNO!

Hot Off the Press

2011-06-30T19:20:00.000+01:00

Apart from WNYO’s upcoming The Sleeper things are generally winding down for the summer at WNO (or at least they are for me) so I thought now would be the ideal time to announce a new sideline from Hairman Enterprises®™.

After two years of offering uninformed, vague, quite often embarrassing and wayward criticisms of singers, conductors, orchestras, directors and other audience members I felt it only fair that the tables were turned and I faced the music, which is why I am announcing the creation of two ugly sister blogs to the one you are currently reading. Collected under the titles Hairman Writes a “Proper” Story and Hairman Does a Bit of Poetry they’ll subject readers to examples of the finest writing money can’t buy, because no-one will publish them.

Hairman Writes a "Proper" Story will be published once every two weeks, taking in a chapter of Hairman’s new (circa five months) work in progress, a story with no title but a “fluid” plotline.

Hairman Does a Bit of Poetry will also be published once every two weeks, taking in Hairman’s stab at poetry – but with a slight difference. Shelving odes to hair curlers Hairman will re-imagine (and update) famous, and not so famous, opera characters. He might even take requests, but as this is poetry it could get a bit downbeat.

For those not too taken with swearing Hairman does drop the odd **** and ******* here and there in his writing. And no, his characters aren’t representative of his outlook on life.

Your reading shall begin with...

WNO's Le Nozze di Figaro Available on S4/Clic

2011-06-26T10:48:00.006+01:00

Rosemary Joshua (Susanna) and David Soar in the 2009 production - photo

In the build-up to Cardiff Singer I rather irritatingly missed S4C broadcasting WNO’s 2009 Le Nozze di Figaro starring David Soar, Rosemary Joshua, Rebecca Evans and Jacques Imbrailo. To make matters worse I even managed to miss the repeat broadcasts, and the behind the scenes documentary. Fortunately S4/Clic have got the whole caboodle to watch, although it will vamoose in twenty days or so. Click here for a crazy day and here for the documentary.

English and Welsh subtitles are available, and while the streaming quality isn't up to BBC iPlayer standards it's watchable enough. Although, just like the iPlayer, I'm afraid it's only available to view in the UK. Lluís Pasqual's inventive, if uneven, production returns to the WMC stage early next year with Soar and Evans reprising their roles and Elizabeth Watts (Susanna) and Dario Solari (Count Almaviva) joining the cast.

Lock up your Sons & Daughters! Artists of WNO Live and Unleashed...

2011-06-24T13:09:00.009+01:00

You tell them the time, but a few will still insist on missing the bus - photo

Just a tad late in the writing, this post is here to let you know all about the World’s Best Chorus™ current tour to, in the immortal words of East 17, "the North, to the South, to the East to the West" of Wales. They'll be offering up bits and pieces from the worlds of opera, operetta and musicals. You can groupie to your heart’s content at the following venues (all concerts start at 7.30pm):

William Aston Hall, Wrexham 24th of June
Coliseum, Aberdare 25th of June
Galeri, Caernarfon 29th of June
Taliesin, Swansea 1st of July
Torch Theatre, Milford Haven 2nd of July

But that's not all. WNO, currently gigging in Wrexham, begins a celebratory residency at RWCMD to mark the opening of the college's new recital hall. The concerts run from the 28th of June until the 6th of July. Tickets and further information can be found here.

Hey, Sucka's! The Plan's Come Together!

2011-06-23T17:46:00.007+01:00

The briefest of posts to let readers outside of the UK know that all the performances from BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 have now been uploaded to You Tube. And my laptop has pulled a groin muscle in the process.

Hope you all enjoy!

The Digitally Replastered Director's Cut

2011-06-22T16:39:00.004+01:00

Over the coming days, in response to the many requests I’ve had from distant shores, I’ll upload all of the competitors performances from BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 to my brand new, and more than likely soon to be neglected, You Tube channel. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my technological ken, you’ll have to put up with my box like uploads, which you can stretch with that arrow sign thingy on the bottom of the player. They don’t don’t call me George Lucas for nothing.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 - The Grand Final

2011-06-20T20:20:00.010+01:00

Meet the finalists - Meeta Raval, Valentina Naforniţă, Andrei Bondarenko, Hye Jung Lee and Olesya Petrova.

Final day is a funny old thing at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. For the past week you’ve left reality behind and entered your own magical kingdom where music is all that matters, the nitty shitty gritty of the grown-up world a grey Otherplace where dreams go to wither the moment they are dreamt. And then comes Sunday. You’re aware that your idyll is about to become dreamland and that Otherplace will soon become reality, but you ignore the unavoidable future and cling for a few hours more to your singing pie in the sky land.

Apart from the bittersweet emotions there is another tell-tale sign that it’s Grand Final day, and that’s the increase in audience numbers. Having trotted along to the preliminary concerts I can say that the hall was roughly nine tenths full every night, with only the upper winged tiers not in full occupancy, which I didn’t mind as it gave me ample opportunity to roam around in – there are benefits to be had in being less flashy of the cashy, although whoever designed the hall obviously thought little of the little people as you have to abseil down to the previous floor for the loos. But come final day and suddenly the hall is bursting at the seams, even the iron bladder pauper section. Hardy folk we be.

Another handy aspect of being strapped into the heavens is that a) You get a wonderful balance between voice and orchestra b) You get to nose in on the rest of the hall, including the BBC presentation area manned by Petroc Trelawny. Apart from eye-spying his guests (tonight it was Nicole Cabell and Joyce DiDonato) keeping an eye on PT’s spot was also very handy for knowing when the singers or jury would be about to appear, as after he’d done his duty he’d speak into his mic and hey presto – action would break out onstage. Oh, and there’s also a c) You can spot the competitors turn up throughout the week to watch their fellow combatants when they’ve got free time, and then en masse for the final. I’ll now get a tiny bit sentimental. It’s a funny thing, but at the start of the week you hardly know these singers who come from all over the world, but by the end of the week you can recognize them from three levels (and much plumbing) away. And whatever your sex, you even begin to develop maternal feelings for them, and it’s at this point I’ll move quickly on…

Meeta Raval (England)

Timor di me? ... D'amor sull'ali rosee (Il trovatore) - Verdi
Sola, perduta, abbandonata (Manon Lescaut) - Puccini
Beim Schlafengehen (Vier letzte Lieder No 3) - R Strauss

It’s fair to say that the first finalist, Meeta Raval, was the surprise choice of the jury for the final, with some (at times) (overly) impassioned debates raging online about the worthiness of her inclusion that could only have heaped a lot of unwarranted pressure on the shoulders of a young singer. Saddled with this burden (I’m not sure if she knew about it, but for the sake of drama jump on board my train of thought with me) she was loaded down with yet another heap of responsibility, opening the final as she did the second concert. Now, personally speaking, I’d have been a bag of nerves and would have squeaked and squawked my way through the experience, but thankfully Raval isn’t me. Her performance in the final was an impressive step up from the Tuesday concert. The first thing that struck me immediately was how more at ease she seemed with her characters, drawing the audience in to her performance. Her Verdi was superb, deploying her big voice to great effect before paring back for the quieter passages all done with a great security and confidence. The same could be said of the Puccini, although she sounded dangerously close to over singing at a few points, although not on the marquee moments of the aria which were weighted with great precision. Her final choice, one of Strauss’ final songs, was a brave one considering what she had sung before. This really is glorious music, and she did it justice, though on occasions it felt as though she was losing steam as words were gripped instead of caressed. All in all it was a magnificent start to the final, and shows just what this singer is capable of doing now, with plenty more years in the tank to hone her skills.

Olesya Petrova (Russia)

Nyet, bit' ne mozhet! (The Tsar's Bride) - Rimsky-Korsakov
Re dell'abisso, affrettati (Un ballo in maschera) - Verdi
Voi lo sapete, o mamma (Cavalleria rusticana) - Mascagni
Habañera (Carmen) - Bizet

Luscious voice, with range aplenty Olesya Petrova had the audience in the palm of her hand in the opening concert, and so it proved again in the final. Being my personal favourite for the title I was relieved to see that my ravings of a few days ago hadn’t been blown out of all proportion, she really was this good. The opening Rimsky-Korsakov was a superbly sung introduction to her programme, bathing the audience with her substantial, yet lyrical mezzo. The thing I find so appealing about Petrova is that she’s so comfortable throughout her voice, from top to bottom and in her Verdi she showed off her chest singing to great effect. The Mascagni continued the great dramatic vein Petrova had decided on for her programme, and in lesser lungs cracks would have been appearing, but Petrova’s effortless technique was holding more than firm. Her final aria, chosen as something of an antidote to the angsty nature of her programme was sung with panache – never once did you fear she’d topple off her thoroughbred of a voice. But I was hoping for something else. Something more akin to her Saint-Saëns earlier in the week that would have allowed her to sing with freedom. But it was a glorious performance from start to finish.

Hye Jung Lee (South Korea)

Tornami a vagheggiar (Alcina) - Handel
A vos jeux, mes amis ... Partagez-vous mes fleurs! (Hamlet) – Thomas

The midway point of the final greeted Hye Jung Lee, performer of possibly the best performance of any aria throughout the competition with her take on Adams’ Mdm Mao. The last of the singers to cement her place in the final she must have had an action packed few days. She took on Handel with sprightly ease, her voice as precise as a sparrow navigating the canopy of a beech tree. Pleasant enough, I felt that it was more of a holding pattern of a programme choice before she tackled the Thomas, a reverse of her heat when she started off big and ended up small. I’ll be honest and admit that Thomas doesn’t appeal to me as a composer so I was less disposed towards her second choice of aria. But my likes and dislikes aside she was fearless once more in her approach, living very high in the air and it was only at the end, when tiredness began to creep in with the odd curtailed note, that her form dipped, not greatly, but enough to take her out of the running after what had been a week of extraordinary singing from her.

Andrei Bondarenko

Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo (Così fan tutte) - Mozart
O Carlo, ascolta ... Io morrò - (Don Carlo) - Verdi
Fin ch'han del vino - (Don Giovanni) - Mozart
Ya vas lyublyu (The Queen of Spades) – Tchaikovsky

The Song Prize Winner, Andrei Bondarenko, was the next to perform and an eager audience greeted him, Bondimania is going to be around for a long time. For many he has been the most complete package in this year’s competition, his acting and singing balanced wonderfully in service of the characters he plays. His first take on Mozart was what we had come to expect of this enviably talented 24 year-old and soon the hall was under his spell once again with Verdi, sung with his now customary intelligence and a voice that seems to do whatever he wants it to do. Before popping off for a quick drink he dropped in a sparklingly sung Fin ch'han del vino. The audience were suitably impressed and he left and returned to the stage with huge applause. Now, there is one thing that I didn’t take to with his singing on first encounter, and the same thing reoccurred again and that’s an exaggeration of his flickering vibrato when singing in Russian. It didn’t really put me off his Tchaikovsky but it did make itself aware to me. At this point I had him neck and neck with Petrova.

Valentina Naforniţă (Moldova)

Regnava nel silenzio (Lucia di Lammermoor) - Donizetti
Song to the Moon (Rusalka) - Dvořák
Je veux vivre (Roméo et Juliette) - Gounod

The final competitor was the soprano who I thought had won the third concert but who had been overtaken, in the ayes of the judges, by Bondarenko. For those of us lucky enough to have been in the hall that evening we sat with bated breath as it felt as though everything was going to come down to the wire, especially with her opening Donizetti. If I was going to parachute from outer space I’d at least do a few warm up jumps, but Naforniţă made a bold choice and started off with her toughest sing of the competition. As I’d said before her purity of tone, allied to a seamless transition made her something special in the first concert and she was in the same vein of form here once more. Her Dvořák was sumptuous, though not as sumptuous as I hoped it would have been. She ended with the Gounod, and like the previous two arias she appeared to be perfectly at home. In her first appearance on St David’s Hall’s stage she had bewitched through beautiful singing, and she had done the same again, but his time with a lot more variety in her programme. I had a three way tie in my head.

Off went the judges, and so did the flood alert call in Cardiff’s sewerage system when slightly large queues built up for the toilets – well, someone has to mention this side-effect of TV on the live studio audience strapped to their chairs for over two hours. Wandering around the bars I was hardly surprised to hear the same three names cropping up time and time again. I was running through a plethora of possible outcomes, secretly preferring it if either Petrova or Naforniţă were to win as Bondarenko had already pocketed the Song Prize. Then the Moment was upon us. Called back to our seats we had a fairly chunky medium sized wait until the jury made their way onstage. After a brief flirtation with one of those rambling speeches that can derail the best of parties the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize was awarded to Valentina Naforniţă. No sooner had she left the stage than John Fisher raised heart rates throughout the hall by saying, “And the winner is...” pause, “Valentina Naforniţă!” I don’t think there was a gasp of amazement in the crowd, as much as a slight gasp of welcome surprise at the result, not because that she wasn’t a worthy winner, but because sometimes being a bit good looking can go against you on times. No, I don’t speak from personal experience.

Then the bit you never get to see on TV – the singing of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, which the BBC always want to pretend doesn’t happen. It’s one of my favourite moments in that for a few minutes the audience gets to sing for the competitors who’ve given so much throughout the week. It never fails to warm my curly locks to see the singers smiling (I assume) in appreciation at the sound of a few thousand voices aimed towards them, and knowing the kind of flower power gal that she is I guessed that Joyce DiDonato would as well, and sure enough, she had a rather large smile on her face.

Anthem done, it was time to leave, and after the customary log jam on the stairs, where we were treated to a close-up appearance of the winner (yes, she’s as jaw droppingly beautiful as she appears to be on TV) I made it out and headed back home in the Hairmobile, a mixture of happiness and sadness swirling around my bouncing curls. The week had been the oasis of joy it always is, made so by my fellow audience members and, of course, the singers. I was still mulling over the decision as the sun hit the mountains away in the distance (I’m going to get all sentimental from here on in) wondering how they had chosen between the three standouts in the final. And then, avoiding a lumpy looking pothole something that Mary King mentioned earlier in the week about not breathing when listening to a singer came to mind (not sure if it was Naforniţă) and I had a brief flashback to a moment during Naforniţă’s performance when I realised that I had been holding my breath for a while and it was then that I think I understood why it was the judges went the way they did. I would gladly listen to Bondarenko, and especially Petrova many times over, but on the night, for a few seconds, Naforniţă didn’t have me listening to her, she had me believing in her and the music in a way that I was no longer consciously listening, but simply feeling, and experiencing what it was she was doing.

And so it’s all over for another two years. A great week of singing, and making new discoveries, new points on the map to follow as careers take shape over the coming years, new bits of music that will blossom into new operas to be sought out and all thanks to the twenty fantastically gifted singers who flew into Cardiff from all over the globe. As I write the weather is closing in (again) and a steady drizzle is falling on the garden. Summer looks as though it’s taking another year’s leave of absence. But if I close my eyes and think back over the past week, catch threads of voices, remember a phrase turned this way or that way then the drizzle can meander as much as it likes, because thanks to what I’ve been given over the past seven days I’m singing in the rain.

BBC Cardiff Song Prize Final

2011-06-20T01:43:00.005+01:00

It’s more than likely you’ll know the result of Friday’s Song Prize Final, but in case you don’t, here's a condensed version of the concert for your perusal, including the all-important decision. As (ill) luck would have it I couldn't make it on the evening, but you can pop over to Intermezzo to see what her reader, Carole, made of the final. And very soon, connection willing, I’ll upload bits from the Grand Final coupled with my thoughts on events.

Enjoy!

Who's your Money On?

2011-06-18T14:10:00.007+01:00

The five finalists; Olesya Petrova (Russia), Andrei Bondarenko (Ukraine), Hye Jung Lee (South Korea), Meeta Raval (England) and Valentina Naforniţă (Moldova)

It goes without saying that my Cardiff Singer post today is lacking in something, a review of last night’s Song Prize Final, which I contrived to miss – short story, not worth going into at this moment in time. I’ll be settling down to watch it on BBC4 tonight at 7.30pm, but if you prefer to get (what I assume to be) the full version then BBC Radio 3 are broadcasting the final from 8pm, running a whole hour longer than the TV broadcast.

But it’s tomorrow’s final that I know endow with my slapdash attention, and sentence structure. As is custom, the final is shown live(ish) on BBC 2 and BBC Radio 3 from 5.30pm to 8pm UK time. TV viewers, and Petroc Trelawny, will have a trio of musical divas on hand dispensing wisdom and thoughts on the proceedings in the shapes of Mary King, Nicole Cabell and Joyce DiDonato. Radio listenes will have the double act of Donald Macleod and Iain Burnside.

In a rare act of You Tube bravery I’ve uploaded all the broadcasted performances of the five finalists from the preliminary rounds, this is for the aid of opera folkies outside of the UK who will be listening to the BBC Radio 3 broadcast tomorrow to give them some idea of what to expect. But it would really be handy if BBC considered making the competition available to followers outside of the UK. One look at my blog stats for this week would convince the Powers that Be of a huge potential audience away from these Sceptered Isles, or as I like to call the place, the Humpbacked Pig, for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. In these days of global communications it’s odd that the last word in the title isn’t as fully embraced as it should be, but perhaps it could be by the time the next edition rolls around – the 30th anniversary of its inception. In order not to have BBC lawyers geting in touch I'll be taking the videos offline in a few days time, so catch them while you can.

Anyway, before I fall off my soapbox and fracture a follicle, here are your five finalists hailing from Russia, England, Moldova, Ukraine and South Korea. I hope the sound quality does the singers justice since stuck, as I am, with my laptop speakers for company, I can't really tell if the sound is bravo! or buffo!

Who’s your favourite? I’m up in the air. At the start of the week I felt that Petrova would take some beating, and even though I still think that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two others pip her to the post - but it'll be some pipping to the post!

Brrrrrrring! Brrrrrrring! Time to Get Out the Vote!

2011-06-17T16:40:00.017+01:00

Telephone lines have opened for UK viewers who want to have a say in who is their favourite singer at this year's BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Renamed the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize in honour of the competition's late patron calls cost 15p from BT landlines, with a voting limit of five votes per household. Lines are now open and will close on Sunday at 11am. The winner will receive £2000 and a trophy. You can find the numbers for each competitor below, and full t&c here. To refresh your memory I've embeded the clips from the BBC website below. Who's your favourite?

The embed function isn't working on Meeta's video, so click here to see it.

The embed function isn't working on Susanne's video, so click here to see it.

Yup, the embed function isn't working on Helen's video, so click here to see it.

The embed function isn't working on Hye's video, so click here to see it.

Cardiff Singer of the World - 4th Concert & Fab Five Announcement

2011-06-17T12:57:00.010+01:00

I miss Take That. There, I've said it in public. I miss those daft lads and their enjoyable tunes. I miss their hordes of fans. Most of all I miss the giant kick up my backside they’d given me over the past two days, because without the terrifying thought of being stuck in traffic trying to find a parking spot I'd been in situ with plenty of time to spare. Tonight, with little worry in nabbing a parking space, I was just a bit late in getting to the hall, nearly missing the opening contestant.

But got in, I did, and so it was another night, with another new seating preference – but one with an obscured view of the big screen and I had to settle on using my own pesky eyesight for the final preliminary concert.

The singing was brought to the hall tonight by...

Enzo Romano (Uruguay)

È una cosa incredibile (The Italian Straw Hat) - Nino Rota
Non più andrai (Le nozze di Figaro) - Mozart
Bottom's dream (A Midsummer Night's Dream) - Britten
La calunnia (Il barbiere di Siviglia) – Rossini

Looking like David Villa’s older brother, Enzo Romano from Uruguay is that most unappreciated creature of the opera world, the character singer. His opening Rota was a shuffling, wise cracking character (or at least he seemed that way from my perch on high) from an opera I know absolutely nothing about, but after Romano’s performance I think I’ll try and track down a copy of it. While there is plenty of character in his singing, it lacked a tiny bit of strength, especially with his Figaro. And, as much as I enjoyed his acting, I felt that this strength was also a weakness. By this I mean that as his performance continued I didn't get a sense of differentiation between the characters he was singing, with his hunched shoulders and swivelling head on show for all numbers. Reading through all of this again you may think that I didn't enjoy his performance, but actually I did – I found him to be an engaging performer, and if he can tweak little bit here, and a little bit there he, could progress into being a more rounded performer.

Máire Flavin (Ireland)

Nobles seigneurs, salut! (Les Huguenots) - Meyerbeer
Parto, parto (La clemenza di Tito) - Mozart
Cara speme, questo core (Giulio Cesare) - Handel
Sein wir wieder gut (Ariadne auf Naxos) - R Strauss

Máire Flavin was the second of this year's competitors I'd had the opportunity to hear beforehand, with good impressions made that had me looking forward to her set. I’m not sure if nerves got the best of her to begin with, or if I was just a bit listless, but I didn’t catch on to her until the Handel when my attention was fully engaged. I’ve heard quite a bit of baroque rocking this week and this was up there with the best interpretations. But the topping on the cake came with her Strauss. Wonderful diction and carried easily over the orchestra to where I was sitting. And more on voices carrying later on in this post.

Leah Crocetto (USA)

Che il bel sogno di Doretta (La rondine) - Puccini
Sombre forêt (Guillaume Tell) - Rossini
Hear ye, Israel (Elijah) - Mendelssohn
Timor di me? ... D'amor sull' ali rosee (Il trovatore) - Verdi

The last competitor before the interval was the strongly fancied American soprano, Leah Crocetto. I will now utter the stupid comment of the day, so look away now if you don't like to see someone making a fool of themselves. Crocetto's voice struck me as being one of the most emotional I've heard all week. Not that other singers haven't touched me, but I had the impression the music she was singing meant a great deal to her, which will sound strange when I now go on to say that it wasn't until the Mendelssohn that my ears settled to her voice, an agile and burnished quality to it, almost with a hint of jazz to it. If there’s one thing I’d like to happen, it’s for her vibrato to straighten a touch, not much, just a tiny bit.

Davide Bartolucci (Italy)

Di Cupido impiegio i vanni (Rodelinda) - Handel
Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo (Così fan tutte) - Mozart
Bella siccome un angelo (Don Pasquale) - Donizetti
Una voce m'ha colpito (L'inganno felice) - Rossini

After the interval Davide Bartolucci took to the stage, in what appeared to be his big brother’s tails. It’s hard not to warm to Bartolucci, as even from my pigeon nest view he came across as an affable performer. He’s penned in as being a baritone, but I think that could be suffixed with bass as well as he struck me as having depth to his voice. Sticking strictly to Italian language operas he didn't do himself favours in the language department, but then other singers have done the same in the past so it wouldn’t have counted greatly if he had the lungs to make up for it. Unfortunately, tonight he didn’t quite have it. Pleasant to listen to he was missing that spark that make’s you really sit up. But give him, like many other singers in this year’s competition, a few years and he should develop into an interesting singer.

Hye Jung Lee (South Korea)

Grossmächtige Prinzessin ... Als ein Gott kam Jeder gegangen (Ariadne auf Naxos) - R Strauss
I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung (Nixon in China) - John Adams

The act of closing out the preliminary concerts fell to South Korean soprano Hye Jung Lee. With echoes of last year's eventual winner, Ekaterina Scherbachenko, Lee gambled on a lesser program quantity wise, although not as much as the Russian. What to say about the Strauss? Superb. She tackled the notoriously difficult aria with a light, laser like voice, but without any of the shrieking that can come with such an instrument. But for me, the highlight came with her Adams. While the Strauss had been stratospherically soaring, her Adams was a punchy, defiant piece of singing that never once wavered in her attack. The house was duly brought down.

Off went the jury to do their deliberations, this time with the extra weight of having to choose not only the night’s winner, but also the make-up of the final, with all 20 singers, regardless of if they had won their concert, or not, eligible for the final selection.

It's at this point I will now wander into the field of idiocy. Reading comments on Twitter and other blogs, I've been struck by the sheer dumbness of a few quotes aimed at some of the singers, and I thought I'd draw attention to the fact that watching on the TV and in the hall are two separate things entirely. Watching on TV you get to hear the singer in minute detail. Flaws in techniques, or simple mistakes are magnified tenfold, but what some TV viewers don't appreciate is that a TV audience aren't hearing a faithful representation of the performances, as the singers have a whacking great big orchestra right behind them. Watching concerts on TV, which I’ve attended in the flesh, I've been struck time and again by how quiet the orchestra are on the box, when in the flesh they are naturally playing far louder (not that they’re making gargantuan noise), which the singers have to contend with. In addition there is the obvious fact that nerves will undoubtedly be playing a big part for some singers. And lastly, these are young singers who are competing, not singers with twenty or thirty years worth of experience to call upon and to criticise them for failing to produce faultless singing is liking asking a 12-year-old athletics fan why they can't run a marathon faster than Geoffrey Mutai. As my old mentor, June "Touch my Curling Tongues and you Lose a Fingernail" Peters, used to say to me whenever a client criticized her cutting technique, “If they were so bloody great at cutting hair I’d be knocking off banks for a living.” I haven’t seen June in a while.

But back to announcement time. After a long delay, during which the eighteen competitors present (Anna Leese and Vazgen Ghazaryan were gigging elsewhere) were brought on stage and presented with a crystal bowl / vase, the jury returned with John Fisher saying, “And the winner is, Hye Jung Lee!” A fair result on the evening. Up until she sang I had Leah Crocetto in the lead but Lee’s performance was superb.

And then, without much further ado John Fisher announced the following names as finalists for Sunday’s big day…

Olesya Petrova (Russia)
Valentina Naforniţă (Moldova)
Meeta Raval (England)
Hye Jung Lee (South Korea)
Andrei Bondarenko (Ukraine)

I have to admit that I, like quite a few in the hall, was extremely surprised not to see one of Anna Leese (New Zealand), Şerban Gheorghe Vasile (Romania), Susanne Braunsteffer (Germany), Helen Sherman (Australia) or Leah Crocetto (USA) make the final, but as it always says in the fine print, the judges decision is final.

Best of luck to all five finalists for Sunday!

Cardiff Singer of the World - 3rd Concert, "Better than sex in chocolate wellies!" says excited punter...

2011-06-16T13:30:00.002+01:00

Captains log, star date 1506.2011.

I am currently floating in the troposphere around a planet called Utopia, a by-product of tonight's mission to the Bloody Great Music Nebula. Star Fleet had received reports of dangerously addictive music making taking place in the region and dispatched the USS Sloth to investigate and I, the commanding officer of the one-man crew, duly slumped out of bed in time to beat the pesky galaxy wide menace known to all as Take That groupies to a parking space in John Lewis.

Memorising the basic combat manual written by Capt James T Kirk, including the definitive Star Fleet guide to Maraca-Do – the ancient art of Klingon barroom fighting – I left the safety of my reconnaissance shuttle and headed out into the maelstrom of female groupies, making sure that the words Take crap are That stayed firmly within the confines of my mind. Then I...

...simply dropped the egotistical vein of writing and got on with telling the tale of a wonderful night, beginning with...

Susanne Braunsteffer (Germany)

Il est doux, il est bon (Hérodiade) – Massenet
Temerari ... Come scoglio (Così fan tutte) – Mozart
Un bel di vedremo (Madama Butterfly) - Puccini
Mercè, dilette amiche (I vespri siciliani) – Verdi

Hearing a fifth soprano in less than 24 hours (circa) could seriously damage your appreciation of the voice, unless you happen to run into a singer like Susanne Braunsteffer. From her first notes the audience settled in an oooh state of mind. Mixing culinary metaphors we were treated to a creamy, full-bodied voice with a homely top. It was difficult not to be reminded of another German soprano who'd competed here over a decade ago, and chances are she could be heading in the same direction careerwise. If there was one tiny drawback it was with her relative lack of low notes, most noticeable in the Mozart, but as I'm trying to remind myself, sopranos make their living in clouds, not on mountain tops. Glorious.

Helen Sherman (Australia)

Sta nell'Ircana (Alcina) – Handel
How can I sleep? ... At the haunted end of the day (Troilus and Cressida) – Walton
Una voce poco fa (Il barbiere di Siviglia) – Rossini

The unenviable task of following Braunsteffer fell to the Australian mezzo, Helen Sherman. Surefooted as an elegant, fire juggling, Olympic gold medal winning mountain goat in the boxing competition she took on Handel and more than lived to tell the tale. Her Walton served notice of her dramatic abilities, which ended with a much deserved pin drop hush. And to finish off she revealed yet another sphere of her repertoire with a spiky Rossini. Applause galore.

John Pierce (Wales)

Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön (Die Zauberflöte) - Mozart
Una furtiva lagrima (L'elisir d'amore) - Donizetti
Lunge da lei ... De'miei bollenti spiriti (La traviata) - Verdi
Je suis seul! ... Ah! fuyez, douce image (Manon) – Massenet

Next up was the endangered species of the opera world, a tenor. But just not any tenor, the home crowd's tenor, in shape of John Pierce. This is the third time I’ve seen him sing, so I already knew what to expect, a sweet voice full of character. One of my private reservations about his voice has been a lack of power (only by a few tenths) when the orchestra cranks up to 11, but tonight there was a noticeable change in this area, without losing the sweetness in his voice. His best moment came with the Donizetti, a role that appears to be well within his grasp as a performer. If there's one thing I would love to see him do more it would be to relax a tiny bit more when he's onstage, and to simply sing his character.

Valentina Naforniţă (Moldova)

Egli non riede ancora ... Non so le tetre immagini (Il corsaro) - Verdi
Glück das mir verlieb (Die tote Stadt) - Korngold
Amour, ranime mon courage (Roméo et Juliette) - Gounod

The Commandments of Hairman.

1) Valentina Naforniţă should be allowed to develop at a natural pace.
2) She shouldn’t be saddled with the “Next Netrebko” tag.
3) Peter Gelb should not be allowed to sign her for the next twenty years.

Unfortunately, with the exception of number one (she’s based in one of the meccas of soprano singing, Romania), the next two commandments will probably be broken at some point in the very near future. Going all Vogue magazine, the moment Moldova’s Naforniţă stepped on stage looking like Audrey Hepburn wearing Marilyn Monroe’s Seven Year Itch white dress, there was a palpable sense that she could be something special and I, along with the rest of the audience, sat for three unbelievably beautiful arias. Big sound. Delicate sound. Pure tone sound. She has it all. Judge for yourselves tonight on BBC4. I wonder if she likes Milk Tray?

Andrei Bondarenko (Ukraine)

Hai già vinta la causa ... Vedrò mentr'io sospiro (Le nozze di Figaro) - Mozart
Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen (Die tote Stadt) - Korngold
Vy mne pisali ... Kogda by zhizn domashnim krogdom (Eugene Onegin) -Tchaikovsky
Quella è una strada (Le maschere) - Mascagni

As emotionally exhausted as a eunuch in a Miss World competition, I applauded the Ukraine’s Andrei Bondarenko to the stage, and a sense of no more please! erupted within me as his booming, tailored baritone brought Almaviva to life on stage. Korngold was dispatched with romantic ease, Tchaikovsky the same, finished off with Mascagni’s Quella è una strada, probably not the most sensitive of aria’s to be written but one which allowed Bondarenko’s effortless comic skills to be added to his more dramatic acting abilities. If there’s one tiny criticism I can make, is that his fast, flickering vibrato, which I noticed (strangely enough) most of all in the Onegin, might not be to everyone’s taste. But ****, what a performer!

Time for my meandering thoughts as the jury go off to pick a winner for the evening. Tonight’s thoughts revolve around audience members. Particularly ones who decide to wear jewellery that makes you think a herd of opera loving reindeers are in the hall with you. This type of jewellery would be okay if you had your arm in a sling, or had covered it with three scarves and a winter woolly, but loud and proud on your wrist the sound carries. A lot.

Another thought is for audience members who like to WHISPER. Again, this type of behaviour is great if you’re in a pub discussing the whereabouts of sunken treasure or your career as an investment banker (ooh, look at me, so topical by a year!), but in a concert hall your WHISPERS aren’t VERY QUIET. In fact, they’re BLOODY IRRITATING and might garner you a visit from an Aeronautically Challenged Programme. But less of my moaning. Forward to the winner!

The heavy mob, led by Kiri D, make their way onto stage and with a few brief words in Welsh and English (peace out to my Welsh brothers & sisters for taking my words into consideration) Jonnie F says, “And the winner is, Andrei Bondarenko!” Cheers, applause galore, very happy baritone waving a crystal mug about onstage.

Was it the correct decision? Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery hard to say. Wild west fistfights could have taken place on the stairs out of the hall if sardine tin mode wasn’t in effect judging by some of the conversations that were taking place. I’d say what probably clinched it for Bondarenko was the make up of his programme. It took in many facets of his character as a singer and showed him at his best. However, as I write this I can still hear Naforniţă’s Amour, ranime mon courage in my ears and I would be very shocked not to see her in Sunday’s final, and perhaps even one more from this evening’s concert.

Musical heaven.

Cardiff Singer of the World - Ding! Ding! Seconds out, round two!

2011-06-15T13:28:00.012+01:00

Due to popular Pre Middle-aged Manband Take That playing the Millennium Stadium for two nights, I arrived in Cardiff at 4am to avoid the crush for parking places, armed with a few Paul Henry books, a traditionally stale batch of New York Bakery bagels, two bananas, a litre of water and a set of maracas to do some busking with.

Fifteen hours later and I lumbered into the hall, carrying the books, one stale bagel, a teensy-weensy bit of water, one maraca and £7.59 in busking royalties. I'd had to fend off a pack of profoundly inebriated Take That fans who’d mistaken me for Gary Barlow in Boots and lost the other maraca in the process. I wouldn't have minded if it had been Howard…

With the weekend crowds staying away there was room enough to do some limited roaming and I settled on a new vantage point for the second concert, this time with the Orchestra of WNO providing the backing tracks for the night, with Lawrence Foster at the helm.

Plying their for the evening trades would be…

Meeta Raval (England)

Signore, ascolta! (Turandot) - Puccini
La mamma morta (Andrea Chénier) - Giordano
How can I sleep ... At the haunted end of the day (Troilus and Cressida) - Walton
Mercè, dilette amiche (I vespri siciliani) – Verdi

Singing for her supper first of all Meeta Raval brought an array of characters to the stage, backed up by that most wonderful of things, an infectious personality. Her opening Signore, ascolta! was as daring a choice as fellow soprano Anna Leese’s the previous night. Mess it up and she’d be playing catch-up for the rest of the evening, but she negotiated it with aplomb, including the shrinking money note. And it was this sense of control that impressed me most about her performance, she was never tempted to sing beyond her voice, which would have been an easy thing to do in the circumstances.

Wang Lifu (China)

Hai già vinta la causa ... Vedrò mentr'io sospiro (Le nozze di Figaro) - Mozart
Der Tamboursg'sell (Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit No 2) - Mahler
Per me giunto ... Io morrò (Don Carlo) – Verdi

Waving the flag for China, and more importantly, for masculinity!!, Wang Lifu was the sole baritone blokey competing amongst a sea of hysterical sopranos. A wonderful tone to his voice he set off well with the Mozart, but then undid his good work with the Mahler. Yep, I’m going to talk about programme choices here. I can understand the temptation to sing the piece as the opportunity to sing it won't come around as often as a Marcello or a Figaro, but in a competition you need to keep good vibes going and I felt that he shot himself in the foot choosing the Mahler. Having said that he got back on track with the Verdi. Overall I enjoyed his performance, and think that with experience and more age in his voice he'll be a singer to look out for in the years to come.

Sasha Djihanian (Canada)

Da tempeste (Giulio Cesare) - Handel
Ach, ich fühl's (Die Zauberflöte) - Mozart
Me voilà seule ... Comme autrefois (Les pêcheurs de perles) – Bizet

The second soprano of the evening brought a broad programme to the stage, and the nicest dress of the competition so far I was told (eavesdropped) by a fellow audience member. Now, I come to most of these singers never having heard them before and I base my thoughts on what I hear onstage, which I guess is as it should be, so I found it curious to see Sasha Djihanian singing a Handel piece that I felt didn't suit her voice, making her sound quite lethargic. The Mozart was a different thing altogether, and I felt quite drawn to her full(ish) rich(ish) voice at this point, as I felt did the audience as a whole. However, the Bizet never caught fire for me, which was a disappointment as Djihanian quite obviously possesses a beautiful voice given the right material.

Olga Kindler (Switzerland)

Dich, teure Halle (Tannhäuser) - Wagner
Il est doux, il est bon (Hérodiade) - Massenet
Ritorna vincitor! (Aida) – Verdi

The third soprano of the evening was also the competition's Wonder Woman as until last week she wasn't penned in as a competitor, but due to Poland's Szymon Komasa being taken unwell she came to the rescue, and has done more than make up the numbers by progressing to the Song Prize Final on Friday. How would she fare on the big stage? Her Wagner was clean and direct, her Massenet wandered slightly – although this may well have been due to the fact that I wasn't overly familiar with it. Her Verdi was probably a mixture of the previous two arias. I'm not sure if nerves, an understandable lack of preparation or a running out of adrenaline after the past few days took hold but I felt that Kindler was a level or two beneath what he can be.

Marcela Gonzáles (Chile)

Bel raggio lusinghier (Semiramide) - Rossini
Crudel, l'immergerò pria nel tuo seno ... Barbara! (Alcina) - Handel
Je veux vivre (Roméo et Juliette) - Gounod

Blingtastic with a necklace that blinded me from 99 levels away Marcela Gonzáles, the last competitor of the evening, took to the stage with a slightly large handicap in that she was soprano number four and, worse still, very much under the weather having had to pull out of the Song Prize competition. So it wasn't unsurprising that her performance was a notch or two below that of the others, as she pushed her voice in compensation for her illness. I understand that this is a competition, and that judgements have to be made on what is heard on the evening, but it would have been a nice touch if the organisers had announced to the audience beforehand that Gonzáles was singing whilst unwell, after all this is what is done for singers in the opera house when they sing with infections. This wouldn't have had an effect on the overall outcome as the judges are far too experienced to be swayed by audience behaviour, and would have allowed the many audience members unaware of Gonzáles predicament.

And so that was it. Off went the jury members, and the audience began their own deliberations. I was stuck between two of the singers, Miss England and Miss Switzerland. Not sure of who I thought would win I began to do some star spotting in the audience below, catching sight of Gwyn Hughes Jones, Wynne Evans, Llŷr Williams and (I think) Nigel Kennedy, or someone who looked like him. Okay, so they might not be Beonce or Rihanna but they’re stars to me and if you disagree I'll take you on in a Permathon Challenge.

Anyway, also in the house was WNO’s new Grande Fromage, David Pountney as a guest alongside Mary “Hand me a Hankie” King for BBC4’s coverage. Future guests include Mark Padmore, Gerald Findley, Sir Thomas Allen (Song Prize Final) and 2005 Winner Nicolle Cabelle will be joining forces with Joyce DiDonato for Sunday’s final. (In case you're wondering I've decided to only bold the competitors, as it's the 20 singers who are the stars of the competition after all.)

After gleaning all this from the programme I pricked up my ears at the sound of applauding as the jury made their way onstage. John Fisher got straight down to the all-important announcement, “The winner of tonight’s concert is…Meeta Raval!” Cue cheers and applause and a visibly delighted Raval hitting the stage. It was, on reflection, the correct decision in my eyes as I trundled out of the hall, because, of all the competitors on the evening she was the one who gave me that most precious of things…sheer enjoyment.

Time for me to pack my maraca and bagels. Take That Pt II is on again this evening.

Cardiff Singer of the World - Round 1

2011-06-14T12:06:00.012+01:00

As some of you may have noticed I haven’t been posting for a while, this is due to an old hairdressing injury that’s being a bit of a bugger. Unfortunately I’ll have to put the blog into long-term hibernation, but I thought I’d go out with a tiny bang and do some waffling about goings on in deepest, darkest Cardiff. However, please be aware that these ramblings may be cut short without any notice. And they’ll be even rougher than usual. But less of me, and more of…

The football season has finished, so has the rugby, the NBA finals have concluded and the Stanley Cup Final might well be about to finish if the Canucks can see off the Bruins in six, which leaves your average sports fan with a gap in the calendar. Usually this void until the Tour de France begins would be filled with flirtations with fitness, but thankfully this is the year of the odd (number) and so attention turns towards Cardiff, and their Singer of the World competition.

In attendance at the competition will be agents, and representatives of the big houses throughout the world, all on the lookout for future opera stars. Also in attendance will be a judging panel will know a thing or two about singing. As will the audience.

And then there will be me.

Or I should say, and then there was me, because I've just got back from St Davids Hall and I'm busy writing this with the aid of a bowl of cornflakes and a mug of Horlicks. So, the first night – what was it like I’m hearing you say as you sense a lot of meandering words coming from my keyboard. The answer, unsurprisingly, was very good. Very good indeed Mr Ambassador, because with these singers you spoiled us.

Tonight, the runners and riders were...

Anna Leese (New Zealand)

Song to the Moon (Rusalka) - Dvorák
Donde lieta uscì (La bohème) - Puccini
L'altra notte in fondo al mare (Mefistofele) - Boito
Mercè, dilette amiche (I vespri siciliani) - Verdi

First up Anna Leese. Let’s face it, who wants to open a singing, or any other competition? The audience is at the start of a mammothish week, your nerves are going to be playing havoc with you and by the time the 20th singer has sung you’ll be “What’s her name, the one at the beginning…” Oh, and you’ve just opened OHP’s Euegene Onegin the night before. Fortunately for The Leese she should be well remembered by the audience. The key, apart from a beautiful clean, clear soprano was her well-balanced, and slightly brave programme. I say brave because if you want to stamp your mark on a competition and announce your arrival most people would be inclined to go for a HELLO I’M HERE kind of number, but the choice of the Dvorák demonstrated a singer confident in her ability to take an audience with her, which she did with ease. My only tiny quibble would be that the lower part of her voice wasn’t quite enough to carry some of the lower passages, especially at the end of the Russalka.

Okay, I fell asleep and it’s now Tuesday. And I’m in a bit of a rush…apologies for the munchkiness nature of the following reviews.

Vazgen Ghazaryan (Armenia)

Il lacerato spirito (Simon Boccanegra) - Verdi
Son lo spirito che nega (Mefistofele) - Boito
Ves' tobor spit (Aleko) - Rakhmaninov
Studia il passo ... Come dal ciel precipita (Macbeth) - Verdi

Second up was Armenian bass, Vazgen Ghazaryan, with a mouth watering programme of some highlights in the bass repertoire. Owning a deep end of the pool bass he had a wonderful range, coupled with a chocolate chewable texture. An expressive performer he took well to the characters he had to perform, although his stunt whistling needs some looking at. Overall a very enjoyable singer, and one with lots of promise, but I would have liked a touch more variety in his programme to showcase his undoubted talents in a way more beneficial to him.

Olesya Petrova (Russia)

Adieu, forêts (The Maid of Orleans) - Tchaikovsky
Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila) - Saint-Saëns
Acerba voluttà (Adriana Lecouvreur) - Cilea

I’m not one to shy away from making a fool of myself, but I think the winner may already have stepped on stage in the guise of Russian mezzo soprano, Olesya Petrova, the last competitor before the interval and the traditional breakdancing throwdowns took place on level 99. I’m going to bang on a lot about programme choice this week and Petrova’s was a master class in making all the correct decisions before a competition. That said, she could have sung the Spice Girls’ B-sides and still sounded sensational. For voice aficionados my quick breakdown – 20 Tog voice, breadth of range like the Veldt (low notes to mmmmmmmmmmmm for) and a voice so effortlessly natural it could get you arrested in Scotland. Any quibbles? She could have sung for another hour.

Maria Radoeva (Bulgaria)

Agitata da due venti (La Griselda) - Vivaldi
Bel raggio lusinghier (Semiramide) - Rossini
Quando m'en vo' (La bohème) - Puccini
Alleluja (Exsultate, jubilate) - Mozart

Once the block rockin' beats had died down it was time for Bulgaria’s Maria Radoeva to strut her soprano stuff. And strut it, she did. If I was to name her programme I would have called it Coloratura Mashup. Her breath control during the Vivaldi had me looking for an oxygen tank at the back of the stage and she’ll certainly be baroquing at a place near you in the future. My Negative Comment from Talentless Critic moment would be that I would love to see a touch more relaxation in her shoulders, which could allow a greater freedom to her sparkling voice – although this could understandably be put down to nerves.

Şerban Vasile (Romania)

Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo (Così fan tutte) - Mozart
Vien, Leonora (La favorita) - Donizetti
Vy mne pisali ... Kogda by zhizn domashnim krogdom (Eugene Onegin) - Tchaikovsky

Closing out the evening was Şerban Vasile, a Romanian baritone, from…Romania. I don’t know if he's a betting man, but if he is I hope his luck is better than it was last night. On most nights he would have been the winner, as he gave an assured and entertaining performance. His programme choices fitted him like a glove, especially the Donizetti and I would have no quibbles in dipping my hand in my pocket to see him on stage. Quibbles? His luck.

And so, as the jury went off to have a cheese and onion buttie and a flat can of Strongbow, the crowd sat and waited for the judgement. This interlude will allow me to point out a new development for the audience in the hall, and that's the introduction of a whacking great screen behind the orchestra, allowing you to see the competitors in close-up during their performances. This is good in one way as it’ll save a lot of neck craning and give you an idea of the performers acting skills. Buuuuuuuut, on the other hand, this could be a disadvantage to those singers who aren’t as clued up in the acting stakes as some of their fellow competitors. Just a thought.

But, lo and behold, the jury are now out on stage. John Fisher’s doing his bi-lingual bit*, now he’s bringing the house down with a short story about a vicar, a lion tamer and a stripper called Johnny Tripod, and now the percussionist is drum rolling with his kettle drums Roman galley stylee…the winner, is…, …, …, Olesya Petrova!

Not much guess work needed really. Despite the great performances of the other competitors there was only ever one name to be called out. You can catch her performance this evening on BBC4, or you can catch her now on the iPlayer with BBC 2 Wales’ nightly highlight shows, live from level 3 – the sea level level. Unfortunately for folks outside of the UK the iPlayer still isn’t available to you (I know), although you can (I assume) listen to a delayed recording of Friday's Song Prize Final on Saturday (and catch the Song Prize concerts on BBC Radio 3 beginning with the first concert) as well as listening to the final live on Sunday.

*Please, please can Welsh speakers not clap after every bit of Welsh. I’m a Welsh speaker but I’m aware that an English version will appear straight away, and it’ll save a lot of bulging bladders if we all applaud together instead of separately.

Going for Gold

2011-05-11T17:03:00.000+01:00

Photo courtesy of Opera Omnia Productions

Congratulations to soprano Natalya Romaniw (Welsh 2009 CSW entrant) on winning the Guidhall School’s Gold Medal. Taking on fellow students – Ashley Riches, Victor Sicard and Koji Terada in a no-holds barred singathon, Romaniw, rich in Ukranian and Welsh heritage, was given the nod by the judging panel - a dodgy looking lot comprised of Jonathan Vaughan, Sian Edwards, Dame Janet Baker, Edward Gardner and Edward Seckerson – a case of two Ed’s better than one! Boom-boom! #TumbleweedMoment…

Romaniw follows in the footsteps of other Welsh winners, including Bryn Terfel and Gary Griffiths – soon to be making his professional debut as an Associate Artist of WNO in the role of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte later this month. I wonder if a dynamic, wandering pitch hair expert will make the grade next time around?

"Tonight, Simon and Big Hair, I'm going to sing..."

2011-05-09T19:15:00.000+01:00

If you want to know who is singing who at BBC CSW 2011 then you're in luck my lovelies. Individual programme details are available to peruse at your hearts content by visiting the competitors individual pages. However, despite my hopes, no-one is taking on Lorenzo Da Ponte's translation of a true classic...

It's Just Like Reading Geoff Hamilton - David Pountney Blogs

2011-05-05T10:25:00.000+01:00

And God created Gardening God

Following in the footsteps of other artistic luminaries such as Katie Price (Paradise –shortlisted for the Tango Prize), Naomi Campbell (Swan – longlisted for the Joan Wilder Prize) and Sharon Osbourne (Revenge – nearly listed for the Senokot Prize), David Pountney declined my offer of coaching as he embarks on blogging the eponymous David Pountney’s Blog*.

Whether or not he comes to rue his decision depends on how much he would miss having to fend off accusations of stupidity, and slack use of the comma. As it is, the man with the arguably the best Rabbie’s in opera, has made an interesting foray into the world of blogging. And, to the best of my knowledge**, is the only head of a major opera company who has taken to blogging while in office.

His first instalment – the first of many I hope – is refreshingly honest with his thoughts on WNO’s financial situation, while at the same time brimming with excitement at moving the company forward, and also includes an interesting sideline in horticulture.

*Please note Daily Mail journos – this, of course, is an attempt at humour, not a statement of fact.

**I haven’t got a clue.

What's on in Cardiff (sort of) in May

2011-05-01T17:08:00.006+01:00

May sees WNO's own Benjamin Davis directing a brand new Così fan tutte, and Christopher Alden's critically acclaimed Turandot returning to the stage. With generous casting, both promise to close the season in fine style.

Also gigging at the Armadillo will be 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prize Winner, Andrew Kennedy, appearing with BBC NOW. And while ballet isn't my thing, Scottish Ballet’s Alice brings more than just Lewis Carroll colour to the Centre.

St David's Hall gets to see John Pierce (the Welsh entrant for BBC CSW 2011) in a lunchtime concert, while it also plays host to the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dante Quartet, The Sixteen, BBC NOW and the nodding dog / goldfish / Marty Feldman hybrid of the classical world that his Lang Lang.

Cineworld Cardiff rounds off events with a 3D Simon Rattle & the Berlin Phil co ncert, followed by the Met's Live in HD broadcast of Die Walküre, mit Terfel, Kaufmann, Westbroek und Voigt.

As usual, an UPDATE - Catrin Finch will be performing with Sinfonia Cymru at The Gate.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Master Classes

2011-04-29T09:17:00.001+01:00

Photo

Details have been released for this year's BBC CSW Master Classes. Shared between the New Theatre, and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, the classes will take place on Saturday, the 18th of June. The classes, as usual, will overlap, so unless you are Hiro Nakamura, or own a worryingly nuclear powered car, you can only make it to two classes.

11 a.m. Kiri Te Kanawa & Håkan Hagerård (New Theatre)

12.30 p.m. Bengt Forsberg (RWCMD)

3 p.m. Marilyn Horne & Dennis O'Neill (New Theatre)

4 p.m. John Fisher (RWCMD)

Tickets for each class cost £8, and the sessions will run for over an hour. You can book tickets for the RWCMD sessions through St David’s Hall website. Tickets for the New Theatre sessions can only be purchased through ringing 029 2087 8889.

WNO Offers Galore

2011-04-28T11:37:00.005+01:00

Who loves ya baby? Well, WNO of course.

Tomorrow's concert at St David’s Hall sees the return of WNO's Up Close initiative. For £3 audience members under 30 will get a ticket for the concert, and have the opportunity to chat with orchestra members after the concert about the concert itself, or about classical music in general. If you fancy taking up this offer e-mail Ed.Newsome@wno.org.uk with your details, and WNO will get back in touch with you.

The second bout of WNO loving you is an invitation to the unveiling of Project Electroclassic's Dust to Dust, taking place at the Weston Studio (Wales Millennium Centre) next Tuesday, the 3rd of May. The event begins at 8 p.m. with the performance, and subsequent panel discussion, expected to run no later than 9 p.m. If you fancy popping along for the event e-mail david.massey@wno.org.uk to add your name to the guest list.

Orchestra of WNO Hit the Hall

2011-04-27T12:44:00.000+01:00

Photo Brian Tarr

Friday, unless you didn't know (where have you been?), sees the final installment of the Orchestra of WNO’s series of concerts at St David’s Hall this season. Lothar Koenigs conducts a programme made up of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, and Bruckner's 7th Symphony. Given the sheer enjoyment of the previous two concerts ticket sales have been surprisingly slow, so it would be nice to Usain Bolt the rhythm of events.

Now that I've encouraged you to come along I may now dissuade some of you. It seems that the front of house customer lift is out of order at the moment, which has led St David's Hall to offer refunds if you rely on using the lift to get into the hall. It's the one great weakness of the building that when it was originally built there should have been more than a single customer lift incorporated into the design, but hindsight is perfect (and usually moany), and I can't remember the last time it went down with an injury.

Project Electroclassic

2011-04-25T22:44:00.008+01:00

Image Jo Fairfax

While Taxation Law is a sorry minefield of clauses, sub-clauses, basement clauses and offshore deep shaft clauses, it essentially lacks the romance of a far more profound legal question - Who owns a work of art? The creator? The collaborator? The middle man? The consumer? Luckily, those intrepid folks at WNO///3 have taken it upon themselves to consider this question...

Project Electroclassic is a special commission by WNO///3 into the tricky world of Intellectual Property. Composer Jessica Curry, along with sonic artist Michael Fairfax, visual artist Jo Fairfax and soloists from the Orchestra of WNO have combined forces to explore the fundamental intricacies of what it is to create a new work of art, and who, if anyone, owns it.

In the course of creating a new work of musical and visual art, the yet to be officially performed Dust to Dust, the team has incorporated, among other things, a reworked two chord adagio from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.3, a response to a Charles Tomlinson poem about bees and Bach, a line from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and video images of the soloists wearing gas masks and evening wear.

But don't take my word for it. Project Electroclassic has been documenting the creation of Dust to Dust in a blog where you can read the thoughts of the contributors as they journey along the creative path, and consider the realities of creative ownership. Click here to go to the archive page.

Not wanting to sound like the overbearing know-it-all in your life I suggest you read the entries bit by bit so you can best gain a sense of the time and space required for the creation process. But you don't only get to read; you get to hear and see the work in creation, including a new discovery for me – the graphic score. The finished project will be unveiled at the Weston Studio (WMC) on the 3rd of May, and will be filmed and uploaded to WNO///3.

In the meantime you can listen to Jessica Curry and Michael Fairfax talking about the project on last week's Music Matters by downloading the podcast of the April 16th edition (Maazel). It's available to download for a further 21 days as I type this. The interview, and subsequent discussion on IP, takes place 24 minutes into the show.

And now, dear readers, if you'll indulge my ego for a short while, here's my take on things Project Electroclassic...

One morning, while waiting for the work train, I found myself whistling a tune I had conjured the previous evening. It was a simple, if slightly melancholic, melody that helped pass the time. As usual there were four of us waiting for the train. Though we had spent countless hours together we had never spoken to each other, always waiting quietly until the train arrived and we'd take our separate seats. That day, in keeping with tradition, we didn't speak to one another, and when the train arrived I got onboard whistling my little creation.

The following morning I arrived at the station and joined my taciturn companions. Except, on this day, all three were more animated than I had seen them before. One was humming a tune that sounded familiar to my ears. Another was whistling a melody that my memory also found comfortable to be around. The third was sketching all four of us waiting for the train, surrounded by what I took to be crows. By now the humming and whistling were encircling each other, and I gradually began to realise I was hearing variations of the tune I had created.

With a slight hesitation I asked the first man what he was whistling. He replied he wasn't sure, but he thought it was from a song he'd heard on the radio. I asked the second man if he could tell me the name of the tune he was humming. He said he'd heard me whistling it the previous day and he couldn't get it out of his head. Could I tell him what it was? I told him I had made the tune up myself. As soon as I'd spoken these words the third man told me I was mistaken, but the tune was an old folk song his grandmother used to sing to him when he was a child. He showed us his drawing, pointing each of us out in turn, and then motioning with his nibbled pen towards what I could now see weren't crows, but musical notes. This, he told me, was the tune I had been whistling the previous morning. I was convinced he was mistaken, and I told him this, but he refused to be persuaded otherwise.

The train arrived and we got on board, and this time we took a table seat. I, the whistler, the hummer and the sketcher continued our discussion about the tune which I said was mine, which the whistler had heard on the radio, which the hummer had acknowledged was my creation and which the sketcher was adamant was the echo of an old folk song.

To this day we still discuss the tune on our way to work, except now the tune is the whistler’s, the sketcher has heard it on the radio, I’ve acknowledged it as the creation of the whistler, but the hummer tells us it’s an old hymn his grandfather used to sing to him as a child, and he draws a sketch of the four of us waiting for the train, the notes rising above our heads as witnesses.

Margaret Price Documentary on S4C

2011-04-19T17:51:00.001+01:00

Celebrating Margaret Price's ROH debut as Cherubino

In case you missed it when it was broadcast on the weekend, erm...just as I did, S4C are reshowing a tribute to the late Margaret Price tomorrow evening at 11.10 p.m.

If you still manage to miss it you can catch it on S4/Clic for the next 33 days. Those of you unfamiliar with Welsh can access English subtitles through clicking on the owl. Unfortunately the documentary is only available in the UK.

Contributors include the likes of James Lockhart, Bryn Terfel, Dennis O'Neill, Placido Domingo, José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa.

"I'll tell you exactly what happened..."

2011-04-13T11:29:00.007+01:00

We've all been there, trying to explain to a friend what happens in the Ring, or even just Die Walküre, and realising after half an hour all you've managed to get across is No, that was Apocalypse Now, not Tropical Thunder...uhm, Tropic Thunder.

Yes, opera plots are confusing, barmy, bizarre, idiotic things - in this way they mirror life more than we'd care to admit. But perhaps they're not as confusing as we make them out to be - in this way they make anything I've written with a philosophising slant in the previous sentence a little pile of ramblage.

Perhaps you can cut to the chase of a plot in less time than you think you can (a bit like me with this post). Maybe you can do it with 140 characters, or even less. The third edition of The Omniscient Mussell’s Twitter based #operaplot competition / festival is (already) up and running with the competition due to end on the 15th. Yes, I know, I've been late with this post.

There are a multitude of goodies on offer, and this year WNO have joined in zee fun and are offering two tickets for any production from their 2011 / 12 season for the best #operaplot tweet in the WNO touring region. The FAQ's of the competition can be found here, and for a little more on the competition here’s this year's judge Eric Owens...

Keep on Running

2011-04-10T17:46:00.006+01:00

I believe that marathons are best eaten, not run, but apparently some people disagree with me on this matter and next Sunday they'll be taking to the streets of London in a televised example of communal masochism. Some will be running to win (cue Brendan Foster’s Lament of the Disappearing British Distance Runner, coupled with his attempt to break the Guinness record for most frequent use of the name Paula within two and a half hours), some will be fulfilling a lifetime's ambition, a few will be wanting to resurrect their careers (celebrity, not sporting) and others because they fancy running around dressed as a pantomime horse.

Oh, and then there will be those running for causes great and great. Among this last category will be two masochists currently working with WNO...

Running to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society will be WNO's own Katie Heath-Jones. Stage managery creature by day, her backstage navigational skills will come in useful during the inevitable carnage caused by a celebrity interview about a pulled calf muscle (circa) 200 meters into the race. To sponsor the Mesotronic Managing Marauder KH-J click here.

Running for children’s charity, Sparks, is WNO’s current Eisenstein, Mark Stone. There’s no word yet as to whether he will continuously sing Largo al factotum from start to finish, substituting Figaro with Paula in an attempt to take on Brendan Foster, but you never know. To sponsor the Sizzling Sussex Speedfreak MS click here.

If you’re still reading this then I guess there’s a part of you saying I'll be tucked up in bed next Sunday morning, and then there will be another part of you saying shall I sponsor one of them? How about both? Okay, so that's me pretending to be you (badly), but now I've planted the (un)subliminal thought you may find yourself clicking one of the above links before the week is out...before the week is out...before the week is out...

What's on in Cardiff in April

2011-04-05T16:43:00.009+01:00

Pass the sledgehammer, I'm going in...

There's not much going on operawise in the flesh in Cardiff in April, but there are plenty of bits and bobs to distract you from your Easter eggs, and your subsequent mission to get fit (for the second time this year).

The first port of call is St David's Hall, which welcomes a variety of orchestras from less slightly afar to even less-less slightly afar. The LSO rumble into town on Friday with Julia "Smokin' Fiddle" Fischer riding shotgun*. A week later and the BBC NOW conjure up some Berlioz magic with Romeo and Juliet with the aid of Susan Bickley and Jonathan Lemalu. In a lunchtime concert Peter Jablonski travels from Haydn to Copland / Bernstein. And closing out their very enjoyable three date gig at the hall the Orchestra of WNO play some Wagner and Bruckner.

Hoddinott Hall welcomes its resident orchestra, the BBC NOW, in addition to the likes of BBC New Generation Artist Francesco Piemontesi, flautist Emmanuel Pahud, cellist Alban Gerhardt and the National Youth Wind Orchestra Of Wales.

The Met Live in HD broadcasts continue at Cineworld Cardiff with Le Comte Ory (Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Florez), Capriccio (Renée Fleming and Sarah Connolly) and Il Trovatore (Marcelo Alvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sondra Radvonosky).

And although it isn't in Cardiff, despite its name, Showcase Cinema Cardiff will be showing Cavalliere rusticana / Pagliacci from Barcelona's Liceu (Ildiko Komlosi, Ángeles Blancas, Marcello Giordani, Marco di Felice, Luciana D’Intino, Inva Mula, José Cura and Andrzej Dobber).

*Unfortunately Julia Fischer has had to withdraw due to injury, but LSO concert master, Roman Simovic, has come to the rescue and will be performing the Sibelius.

Rattling a Tin 21st...Century Style

2011-04-04T12:13:00.008+01:00

Okay, so my last post wasn't about how you can help WNO but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. And now the flow is taking me back upstream to remind you of how you can help out WNO in a financial kind of way.

First up you can contribute without actually spending any money by using the easysearch.org.uk search engine, which is like a 70's supergroup combining search results from Bing, Ask.com (formerly known as Ask Jeeves) and Yahoo!

The next way you can help is by doing your online shopping through easyfundraising.org.uk. This is a devilishly simple idea where retailers donate a certain percentage of what you spend with them towards WNO. The variety of retailers is too large and varied for any succinct reportage but, as I'm not a professional journalist, I feel it's my duty to amateurs the world over to barge on ahead regardless of brevity with an alphabetical tour of a to z...

Amazon – British Gas – Crotchet Classical – Disneyland Paris
Eurostar – Fitness First – Genes Reunited – Hilton
iTunes – John Lewis – KLM – Love Film
Musicroom
Nigel’s Eco Store – O2 – P&O Ferries – Qantas
RAC Insurance – Sainsbury’s – Tesco – uSwitch
Viva La Diva – Wallis – Your Golf Travel – Zone Alarm

It's quite simple to use, all you have to do is create an account for yourself and remember to login before you make purchases. And yes, I know, X is missing.

If you would prefer you could donate directly to WNO in a variety of ways, including helping to support next year's new production of La bohème. And, of course, there's the age-old way of donating and that's to put your bum on a seat for WNO performances when they tour close to your stomping ground.

David Pountney to be WNO's Chief Executive and Artistic Director

2011-04-01T13:12:00.011+01:00

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Outside of a Van de Graaff there aren't many things in life that can give you a free perm - but today my hair was given a truly worthy curly wurly with the news that David Pountney will be WNO's new Chief Executive and Artistic Director. Currently the Intendant at the Bregenzer Festival Pountney will take up his position with WNO in September of this year, combining both roles until he steps down from his Bregenzer role in 2013.

Having worked with Scottish Opera and English National Opera he is no stranger to the opera scene in the UK and his vast experiences abroad with the likes of Zurich, Vienna and Bavarian State Opera promises much excitement for WNO’s future. He’ll be working closely with Music Director Lothar Koenigs and they should be quite familiar with each other given that Koenigs has conducted at the Bregenzer festival, so the Poutney directed Lulu in the spring of 2013 promises to be an exciting production.

Speaking about the appointment the Chairman of WNO, Geraint Talfan Davies, had this to say...

"We are truly delighted to have found someone of David Pountney’s experience and stature to lead WNO for the next five years. With his substantial track record for innovation and excellence, he will reinforce the international standards and the sense of artistic ambition on which the company’s reputation has been built..."

The man himself had this to say...

"I am really thrilled to have the chance to return to lead a company that has long been very close and important to me - a national and international company that has enormous potential to be a powerful creative force on the European opera stage. That potential stems from its secure base in Wales, from which it derives its deeply grounded musical tradition. I particularly look forward to nurturing that tradition alongside my friend and colleague, music director, Lothar Koenigs."

----------------------------------------------

UPDATE

David Pountney will be talking to Petroc Trelawny on this evening's In Tune on BBC Radio 3 from 5pm. If you miss it you can catch it on the BBC i-Player for a further week - fast forward to 1:42:25.

ACE Funding & WNO

2011-03-30T11:45:00.005+01:00

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Well, it could've been a lot, lot better but all the same it could have been a lot, lot, lot worse. Arts Council of England today announced their enforced funding decisions for 2012 to 2015 and WNO will continue to receive ACE backing. The funding, to begin in April 2012, represents far less than what they would have expected a year ago but given the current climate it's reassuring to know that funding will continue up until 2015. And before you think that WNO has been treated unfairly consider the fact that ROH and Opera North have both suffered the same -15% cut to their funding while other organisations have had their funding cut completely.

For those of you interested in figures:

Funding for Previous & Current Years

2010 /11
6, 761, 196

2011 /12
6, 294, 674

Funding for Future Years

2012/13
6, 011, 414

2013/14
6, 149, 676

2014/15
6, 315, 102

The % Lowdown

Cash change -6.6%
Real terms change -15.0%

Now, as you may have guessed, I'm not that hot on figures but even to my eyes there will be a significant drop in funding income which, combined with the age-old fact that inflation always tends to inflate, means that WNO will need to increase revenue from other areas in order to maintain the current level of investment. Where this money can be found is anyone's guess but the first thought that comes to mind is an increase in ticket prices – but ticket price sales alone won’t cover the funding gap.

Another possibility has to be finding more partners. Businesses that sell the idea of Cardiff as being a young cosmopolitan city could consider combining forces with Cardiff Council and fill the funding gap - nothing says cosmopolitan more than an internationally renowned opera company. Last year's production of Meistersinger gained genuine worldwide interest with people flying in from all corners of the globe (the Wall Street Journal sent a journalist to cover the event) and was a great example of what WNO does so well.

Despite perceived negative notions the arts contribute greatly towards local, and national economies. Hotels, restaurants and countless other business enterprises benefit greatly from having links to areas where WNO performs. And let's face it, it would be an embarrassment to a nation that prides itself on being a Land of Song if it was unable to support one of its cultural jewels in its own capital city.

Inevitably the number of new productions will surely decrease, and if it means that jobs are saved then I would gladly put up with no new productions for a while. This doesn't mean that WNO's quality of work should dip - on the contrary if ever there was a time for WNO the show what it can do it is now. However, ambition comes in many flavours and surely the management of WNO should have the preservation of the status quo cappuccino in mind before embarking on any major projects – Scottish Opera produced a marvellous Ring Cycle but look at what's happened to it since then. But less of my fanboy meanderings, what does WNO have to say about today's announcement?

"Welsh National Opera is very pleased that we continue to be recognised as part of the national portfolio of arts companies in both England and Wales.

Although we are naturally disappointed that there will be a second year of reduction in the grant from ACE, we understand that this is in line with the settlement for other large scale companies.

Despite the considerable challenge that this presents, the company is confident that it will continue to achieve the highest artistic standards."

Next post:

What you can do for your opera company.

Cardiff is the new Vienna!

2011-03-29T12:45:00.005+01:00

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From tonight students on the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's new MA Opera Performance course are presenting their take on Die Fledermaus at the Weston Studio (WMC). Running for three consecutive nights the production follows hot(ish) on the heels of WNO's run of Fledermaus - but judging by the disclaimer on the RWCMD’s website of the production containing some scenes of a sexual nature comparisons with John Copley's production may be few and far between.

To book your tickets click here, but you'd better rush as there aren't many left.

When Koala's Meet Dreams

2011-03-24T12:51:00.005Z

Koalski of Canberra about to unleash the Windmill

Have you ever fancied getting that dream about chess playing koalas wearing matching orange corduroy trousers and jacket who hustle you out of all that you own off your chest? If so then you can unload the traumatic nightmare at The Archive of Sleep, set up by WNO’s digital arm (WNO3) in celebration of WNYO’s new production The Sleeper. You can write, draw, film or tra-la-la your dreams on to the website.

But remember - fear the koala.

If George Orwell Composed an Opera...

2011-03-21T12:26:00.005Z

Tickets go on sale next week (28th of March) for Welsh National Youth Opera's brand spanking new opera The Sleeper. A collaboration between librettist Michael Symmons Roberts (The Sacrifice) and composer Stephen Deazley The Sleeper is set in an unspecified nightmarish future where sleep is unattainable and a group of young people have a secret to protect, but the military are closing in...

With a running time of 75 minutes performances take place at The Coal Exchange in Cardiff Bay. Word from The Man is that The Sleeper is a promenade performance so hold the stilettos for the ladies and ban the 9-inch Cuban heels for the gents. Another word from The Man is that you'll be close to the action so don't shush! your neighbour if they start singing as chances are they'll be members of the cast.

The eight performances will take place from the 15th to 18th of July and begin at 6:30 pm and 9 pm (except for the 17th July when start times are 3:30 pm and 6 pm). Tickets cost £11 and £6 (concessions for under 30s). If you're feeling a tad Scrooge-like tickets for the final performance are all £6. Tickets are sold directly by WNO and you can get yours by ringing 029 2063 5030 (Monday to Friday 9:30 pm to 5:30 pm). One final word from The Man is that the performances may not be suitable for under 12s.

The Class of 2009

2011-03-17T22:09:00.000Z

Photos nabbed from BBC

With attention soon to be focused on June's biennial edition of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a look back at the previous competition's competitors and see what they've been up to since Ekaterina Scherbachenko hoisted the crystal vase aloft and declared, in a Scottish brogue, “I am the only one!"

You'll notice that some are still studying, others are dipping their toes into the pool of professional singing for the first time while a few are not in Kansas anymore and are hitting the opera circuit all on their ownsome. All I can say is good luck to all twenty-five of them!

So read on to see what's become of your favourite singers from the Class of 2009...

Marc Canturri (Andorra)

Regular appearances on Spanish stages, including Dancaïre in the recent Bieto Carmen at the Liceu.

Fernando Javier Radó (Argentina)
Divides his time between his native Argentina and Europe, where he took part in the Neue Stimmen Master Classes last year.

Katharine Tier (Australia)
Completed her Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera before joining the ensemble of Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Emiliya Ivanova (Bulgaria)

A finalist in Placido Domingo's Operalia 2010, she has joined the ensemble of Theatre Bonn.

Etienne Dupuis (Canada)

Burgeoning international career, future engagements include Opéra de Montréal and Opéra de Tours.

Javier Arrey (Chile)
After being chosen to join the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices in San Diego, he is now in his first season with the Domingo– Cafritz Young Artists Program of Washington National Opera.

Tomislav Lučić (Croatia)

Joined the ensemble of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden.

Jan Martiník (Czech Republic) Song Prize Winner

Continues to sing with the Komische Oper Berlin, has signed with Askonas Holt agency.

Anna Stephany (England)
Enjoying growing international career with future appearances at Concertgebouw, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and with CBSO.

Csaba Szegedi (Hungary)

Continues to sing with Hungarian State Opera.

Helen Kearns (Ireland)

Continuing her studies as an artist in residence at Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel.

Claire Meghnagi (Israel)
Continues to sing with Les Arts Florissants, will be making her role debut as Susanna this summer with Opera Holland Park.

Giordano Lucà (Italy) Audience Prize Winner
Recently made his operatic debut (be warned – nakedness on show) singing the role of the Duke (Rigoletto) at Teatro Verdi di Padova.

Eri Nakamura (Japan)

Joined the ensemble of Bayerische Staatsoper.

Ji–Min Park (Republic of South Korea)

Signed for Askonas Holt agency, and embarking on international career.

Dana Bramane (Latvia)

Continues to sing with Latvian National Opera.

Octavio Moreno (Mexico)
Graduated from Houston Grand Opera Studio's young artist development programme and continues to sing with the company.

Wade Kernot (New Zealand)

Joined the ensemble of Theatre St Gallen.

Izabela Matuła (Poland)
Continuing her concert / operatic career. Currently touring the US with Opole Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

Dora Rodrigues (Portugal)

Continues to sing with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos.

Dawid Kimberg (South Africa)

In his final year as a Jette Parker Young Artist.

Yuri Minenko (Ukraine)

Signed with Askonas Holt agency, enjoying growing international career – appearing with CBSO in June.

Vira Slywotzky (USA)
Graduated from Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program and divides her time between opera and concert performances as part of The Mirror Visions Ensemble.

Natalya Romaniw (Wales)
In final year of studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Appeared in, and co-presented, the BBC 4 documentary Chopin: The Women Behind the Music.

... and of course...

Ekaterina Scherbachenko (Russia) 2009 Winner

Best to let her tell you what she's up to...

"The experience of competing in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009 was priceless... I now have a great agent, with offers from opera houses around Europe... The people who supported me during the competition were incredible, from the conductors, pianists, and organisers to the backstage staff... For me, being in Cardiff was the most valuable experience I've had...

This season, I will make my debut as Liù in a new production of Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich under the direction of Zubin Mehta. I will also debut at the Metropolitan Opera (Micaela), the Monte Carlo Opera (Tatyana), the Glyndebourne Festival (Mimì) and the Teatro alla Scala (Liù). I would not have had these opportunities without BBC Cardiff Singer of the World."

WNYO Looking for Young Musicians

2011-03-12T16:18:00.005Z

Fancy throwing a TV out of a hotel window, flying in a hairdresser from Sydney or demanding 159 1 ltr bottles of Evian encased in pomegranate candyfloss? If the answer is yes then you might like to audition for one of twelve places in Welsh National Youth Opera’s band for their World Premiere performance of Stephen Deazley's and Michael Symmons Roberts’ The Sleeper in July.

WNYO are looking for percussionists, violin & viola, cello & double bass players, along with flute doubling piccolo and clarinet doubling bass clarinet players. All you have to be is 16 to 25 years old, Grade 8 standard, Welsh or have received a sizeable chunk of your education in Wales.

The deadline to register your interest is the 16th of March, with auditions being held at Wales Millennium Centre from the 18th to the 20th of March. If you are interested then contact Paula Scott on 07896 960023 or by email paula.scott@wno.org.uk to book your audition place.

For further details click here.

Die Fledermaus - Die Dress Rehearsal

2011-03-11T15:40:00.006Z

Photo Clive Barda

To post or not to post that is the question, whether it be nobler to shut one’s trap or make worms meat of a performance meant to be hid from popular eyes is the weighty millstone that drags mine eyes from Venus to Vista*. T'would be fair to report a facsimile or should I bid goodnight to Turner’s companion?

Usually I would avoid reviewing a dress rehearsal, as they are essentially a fine-tuning performance for the production team before the first night. Mind you, I haven't yet been to a dress rehearsal that was nothing less what you would experience on a paid night so I’ll full steam ahead with this belated review of the dress rehearsal of WNO’s Die Fledermaus. (In case you're wondering why I am reviewing the dress rehearsal it's because an old hairdressing injury from my days as Aberaeron's only 24-hour one –manned salon flared up causing me to miss the whole of WNO's Die Fledermaus and Il Trovatore Cardiff runs.)

I'm figuratively holding my hands up and admitting that I wasn't ecstatic at the thought of seeing Die Fledermaus, not out of dislike of operetta (I'm partial to Offenbach) but due to a general antipathy towards the characters, especially Eisenstein. Okay, mainly Eisenstein that smug so-and-so. But pushing my dislikes to one side I headed off to the Armadillo on a Tuesday afternoon...

With John Copley running the show I was expecting, and received, a spirit of the piece production. The direction is clear and uncluttered, aided by handsomely designed sets (Tim Reid) and sumptuous costumes (Deirdre Clancy). This Fledermaus invites you to sit and be entertained, only coming unstuck in the notorious third act where, despite Desmond Barrit’s (Frosch) admirable efforts, Strauss manages to stall his own work with the baffling inclusion of the jailer's sketch. It's a mark of how good a performance Barrit gave that I wasn't squirming in my seat feeling sorry for him.

And the rest of the cast? Nuccia Focile (Rosalinde) appeared to be having a whale of a time playing prima donna to her real life husband’s (Paul Charles Clarke) primo divo Alfred, who never shies away from belting out the catalogue of tenor favourites or certain adverts. Joanne Boag was a creamy voiced Adele demonstrating her comedic skills once more after her turn as Echo in the recent Ariadne. David Stout gave a suave performance as Falke. Warden Frank was played by Alan Opie, his diction clear as a bell and his character playing spot on. Helen Lepalaan made for a bright toned and dashing Orlovsky. But what of Mark Stone as Eisenstein? Would he have me wanting more or less of Fledermaus? The answer is a surprising yes. I still find the character to be irritating but Stone persuaded me to let go of my irritation for the afternoon with his generous performance.

The orchestra, under the direction of Viennese native Thomas Rösner, played marvellously and the chorus, doubling as waltzers, filled the air with a warming rendition of (the admittedly) schmaltzy Bruderlein und Schwesterlein.

In closing this smallest of reviews, and with Fledermaus already hitting the road, the news from the dress rehearsal is/was that WNO's new production is/was three hours of musical fun and enjoyment, shaped marvellously by John Copley and his team, allowing the cast to do what they do so well.

*Okay Windows 7 - but which sounds better?

Margaret Price In Conversation with Edward Seckerson

2011-03-05T19:03:00.005Z

In January came the sad news of Dame Margaret Price's death at the age of 69. I can't lay claim to have seen her perform in her heyday or any other of her days, so my appreciation is a second-hand one, based on decades-old recordings and little else. By little else I mean that my enjoyment of her voice is purely down to the quality of her singing alone, which is as it should be. But never quite is. Unlike some singers (especially sopranos ) I've never encountered an overenthusiastic / rabid set of fans where Margaret Price is concerned and for this I am grateful*. At the end of the day it's what a singer can do on stage that matters to me, the rest is just magazine fodder. Sometimes entertaining magazine fodder, but fodder still.

But less of my pontificating, and more from MP herself. Make yourself a cuppa, grab the biscuits, and put your feet up for the next forty minutes and watch as Edward Seckerson of The Independent conversed with Margaret Price at Wigmore Hall several years ago. Conductors may want to walk on by this one...

*Okay, so they might exist - but I've never run into them.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 - The Competitors

2011-03-03T22:38:00.007Z

Photos

The runners and riders for this year's BBC Cardiff Singer of the World were announced today bringing to a close an auditioning process that included 600 singers, 45 cities and 36 countries. The all-important number (for now) is 20. You could, if you wanted to, fracture this number into smaller chunks such as:

12 Europeans, 2 North Americans, 2 South Americans, 2 Southeast Asians and 2 Australasians.

Or you could chunkify it another way:

1 bass, 6 baritones, 3 mezzo-sopranos, 1 tenor and 9 sopranos.

Or the most obvious quantifier of chunkage would be:

8 guys and 12 dolls.

But I prefer to stick with 20 individual singers.

Starring in alphabetical order...

Davide Bartolucci (Italy)
Andrei Bondarenko (Ukraine)
Susanne Braunsteffer (Germany)
Leah Crocetto (USA)
Sasha Djihanian-Archembault (Canada)
Máire Flavin (Ireland)
Vazgen Ghazaryan (Armenia)
Marcela González (Chile)
Szymen Komasa (Poland)
Hye Jung Lee (Republic of Korea)
Anna Leese (New Zealand)
Valentina Naforniţă (Moldova)
Olesya Petrova (Russia)
John Pierce (Wales)
Maria Radoeva (Bulgaria)
Meeta Raval (England)
Enzo Romano (Uruguay)
Helen Sherman (Australia)
Şerban Gheorghe Vasile (Romania)
Wang Lifu (China)

Of course with competitors you need a jury or, as is the case with BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, you need two of them. Entering the fray for the first time is the competition's new patron Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (Cardiff Singer), as are conductor Alexander Polianichko (CS), pianist Bengt Forsberg (Song Prize) and director Lorenzo Mariani (CS). Making return visits are Håkan Hagegård (both), Dennis O'Neill (CS), Adam Gatehouse (SP) and Marilyn Horne (both) with John Fisher once again the chairman of the board of both competitions.

The bands playing the grooves are BBC National Orchestra of Wales (cond Jac van Steen) and the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera (cond Lawrence Foster). Tickling the ivories are accompanists Simon Lepper, Gary Matthewman and Llŷr Williams.

The competitors will be battling to be one of the five finalists and the chance to win not only the competition but also pocket a handy £15,000. In addition to the main prize there is also £5000 at stake with the Song Prize competition and, in a nice touch by the organisers, there's also the renamed Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize voted for by members of the public worth £2000.

For the full lowdown pop on over to the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World website where you can find full biographies of all the competitors and jury members and also the concert schedules.

And if this has tickled your fancy why not come along to the whole shebang – tickets are still available for all the concerts, including the final (although they are going fast).

Tickets Still Available for BBC CSW Final

2011-03-02T15:59:00.005Z

Photo BBC

Public booking for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 opened yesterday with most of the hall already booked during subscription booking, but fear not ye late comers there are still tickets available for the final in blocks 9 and 13. But if I were ye I'd not be leaving it any longer to book as these tickets'll be rarer than a parrot with a wooden leg tapping the theme tune to Crimewatch me hearties!*

*I think I may need to stop mixing my viewing of The Sea Hawk and Wycliffe for a while.

WNO@WMC 11/12 Performance Times & Dates

2011-03-02T13:14:00.006Z

Photo

With public booking for WNO @ WMC 11/12 opening at the end of this month (25th of March) it's been drawn to my attention by reader Vecchio John that specific times and dates for performances aren't available online for those of you wishing to plan your bookings. So having consulted with my guru I thought it best to rectify the situation and take the morning off from Split Ends 101.

Although performances tend to take place during the evening there are Sunday matinee performances of Don Giovanni, Beatrice & Benedict and La bohème. It goes without saying that Tristan und Isolde has a start time of 5pm for all performances.

Autumn 2011

Don Giovanni (performances start at 7pm) – September 16th, 23rd, 25th (4 pm) & 30th; October 5th running time approximately 3 hours 25 min with one interval.

The Barber of Seville (performances start at 7. 15pm) – September 22nd & 24th; October 1st & 7th running time approximately 2 hours 50 min with one interval.

Katya Kabanova (performances start at 7. 15pm) – October 6th & 8th running time approximately 2 hours with one interval.

Spring

La Traviata (performances start at 7. 15pm) – February 11th, 18th & 29th; March the 2nd running time approximately 2 hours 40 min with two intervals.

Beatrice & Benedict – February 17th (7. 15pm) & 26th (4pm) running time approximately 2 hours with one interval.

Le nozze di Figaro (performances start at 7pm) – February 25th & 28th; March 1st & 3rd running time approximately 3 hours 25 min with one interval.

Summer

Tristan und Isolde (performances start at 5pm) – May 19th & 26th; June 2nd running time approximately 5 hours 40 min with two intervals.

La bohème (performances start at 7. 15pm) – June 1st, 3rd (4pm), 6th, 8th & 9th running time approximately 2 hours 20 min with one interval.

Wave your daffs in the air like you don't care!

2011-03-01T15:29:00.006Z

Calm down Wordsworth, calm down...photo

It's that time of year when Welsh people feel the urge to wear flowers and vegetables on their clothes. I myself am wearing a genetically modified creation called a Daffeek, which is the brainchild of Professor Jones app Afal. Apart from wearing garden produce we also like to sing, sometimes in Blackadder's roaming packs, sometimes in single formation.

For the sake of the following singers I have decided not to include my deeply praised rendition of O sole mio (widely considered to be the definitive performance). Instead I shall let you feast your ears on messrs and miss'ssss Evans, Jones, Evans, Terfel and Manics.

Geraint Evans sings Mahler

Gwyneth Jones sings Beethoven

Anne Evans sings Wagner

Bryn Terfel singsPuccini

Manics sing Manics (operatic in its emotional string pulling)

Alive and Kicking

2011-01-31T11:04:00.006Z

There's little more than 24 hours to go until the curtain goes up on Dragon Opera’r Ddraig's The Marriage of Figaro. The award winning company, fairly unique in being run by young people for the benefit of young people, is based at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. It aims to show audiences usually inclined to running 26 miles and 385 yards at the thought of going to the opera that it isn't the snore-fest it's sometimes made out to be.

Running for four performances (Feb 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th) at The Gate, the cast and crew are drawn mainly, though not exclusively, from students at RWCMD. Tickets are an affordable £10 (£6 concessions) and are available by ringing 02920 48 33 44 or by following this link.

One, two, buckle my shoe

2011-01-25T17:28:00.024Z

John Fisher, Bryn Terfel and Lothar Koenigs with award presenter Lesley Garrett Photo Ian Gavan/Getty Images Europe

Following on from its recent success at the TMA awards in November WNO has picked up a second award for its 2010 production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The Richard Jones directed show that had critics raving, and this already raving blogger raving even more has won Best Opera category at the revamped The South Bank Show Sky Arts Awards.

Featuring Bryn Terfel, in his role debut as Hans Sachs, the production held off stiff competition from ENO and Glyndebourne to win the award. Readers with access to Sky Arts can catch the awards ceremony on Sky Arts 1 from 9pm this evening.

Readers without access to Sky Arts can gobble up some clips of the BBC Proms performance*, an excerpt from the actual production from WNO, a pair of Bryn Terfel interviews (also from WNO) and watch Stephen Fry chatting with Hans Sachs prior to his Proms performance right here (sort of). So buckle up and let the Orchestra and Chorus of WNO, led by Lothar Koenigs, take you back to Johannistag one more time.

Prelude to the whole thing

Stage excerpt from Act II (via WNO)

Prelude Act III

Wach auf!

Finale

Stephen Fry talks to Bryn Terfel

Bryn Talks Meistersinger Part 1 (via WNO)

Bryn Talks Meistersinger Part 2 (via WNO)

*In defence of Bryn Terfel, who was battling the Royal Albert Hall’s unique airless conditioning system, in the three performances I saw at the WMC he never once came close to losing his voice.

Robin Tritschler at Wigmore Hall

2011-01-25T10:34:00.011Z

Photo © Sussie Ahlburg

Former WNO Associate Artist Robin Tritschler returns to Wigmore Hall this Sunday (4pm London Time) to recitalise his way through a programme including (among others) Mozart, Poulenc, Schubert and Head.

Accompanying the Irish tenor will be pianist Graham Johnson. Tickets are a very affordable flat rate £12 (£10 concessions) throughout the hall for a prizewinner from Wigmore’s 2007 International Song Competition.

It's one of those if I could I would recitals - but unfortunately I'll be sat (I assume) roughly 180 miles to the left of the Wigmore.

Croeso Cynnes Dame Kiri Te Kanawa!

2011-01-22T00:37:00.023Z

Photo

With BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 little over five months away a changing of the guard has taken place within the competition. As you will know, the competition’s Patron, Dame Joan Sutherland, sadly passed away last year. It goes without saying that she has left an enduring impression on the competition both in her role as a jury member, and also as Patron. So how do you replace someone of such stature? With great difficulty, although I guess La Stupenda would gently suggest I’m talking rubbish. And I’m guessing she would also say something along the lines of that we should remember the love she had for the competition, but that life must always move on. And I'm also guessing that she would be correct in saying all of this. And another and - and I guess she would be rather happy as to the identity of her successor.

So to the very welcome news that the competition has a new Patron. Funnily enough she too hails from the Southern Hemisphere – this time from New Zealand. And funnily enough, she is also a soprano, and a Dame – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. I’m assuming I don’t need to add a hyperlink to Wiki for anyone? It goes without saying that if I had been given a choice of who I would have wanted as a new Patron Kiri te Kanawa was a name that would have fallen rather easily from my lips. As well as acting as the competition’s Patron she will also be sitting on the jury where she will join John Fisher (Chair of the Panel), Dennis O’Neill, Håkan Hagegård and Marilyn Horne. The rest of the jury has yet to be named but Fisher, Horne and Hagegård will also sit on the Song Prize jury along with Bengt Forsberg.

Speaking to BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Dame Kiri had this to say:

“It is a thrill and honour to be asked to be Patron and jury member for this year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition...The event is of great significance to the Opera world, giving young talented singers the opportunity to perform in the beautiful St David’s Hall in Cardiff, where they will be heard on BBC radio as well as viewed by millions on television."

And also this:

"From my own early experiences of studying at the London Opera Centre in what is now the National Opera studio, I understand how essential it is to be given such a unique opportunity as this at the outset of one’s career. There can be no doubt that the 20 singers will have a unique opportunity to be assessed by professionals from the world of music during the week, with each event presenting high standards of singing. It is an occasion which will reveal the finest quality of singers and I am very pleased to be a part of this extraordinary competition.”

Given her long standing commitment to nurturing young talent Dame Kiri's appointment is a reaffirmation of the competition's fundamental aims of encouraging young singers from all over the globe and shining a light on their talents. In short(ish), it's a competition headed by singers for singers.

Full details of the 20 competitors, and the two juries will be released in March. If you're interested, and itching to attend the week long celebration of singing you can download a pdf booking form from the BBC or if you prefer you can email cardiff.singer@bbc.co.uk with your name and address and they will send you a brochure / booking form in the post. If online isn't your thing you can write to St. David’s Hall, Cardiff CF10 1AH with your details and they will mail you a brochure / booking form. Remember, all applications are to be made by post only and should arrive at St David's Hall no later than the 4th of February.

Prices range from £50 to £190 and include tickets for all the preliminary orchestral concerts, Song Prize Final and the Main Prize Final - all to be held at St David's Hall. Subscriptions for the Song Prize Recitals preliminary concerts held at the New Theatre Cardiff are £24, while tickets for the Master Classes held at the New Theatre Cardiff, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on the 18th of June are £8.

Telephone, online and in person booking will be available from the 1st of March, although to guarantee your ticket for the final it's a good idea to book a subscription for the week.

So it's a croeso cynnes to Kiri Te Kanawa, and the other jury members!

Opera - TNG

2011-01-20T20:04:00.015Z

Next Friday (28th of January) BBC Hoddinott Hall, hidden Tardis-like at the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC), will play host to the National Opera Studio (NOS) and some of its current trainees. Acting as a link between music colleges and the six main opera companies in the UK the NOS plays an important, if unheralded role, in the development of young singers and repetiteurs. Graduates include the likes of Gerald Finley, Kate Royal and Ivor Bolton.

Among the singers scheduled to appear are John Pierce, this year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Welsh representative and, recent RWCMD graduate, mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė. Lending orchestral support will be the Orchestra of WNO under the direction of Jeremy Silver.

But this is no belt an aria evening, if the dry run of this Tuesday’s (25th of January) upcoming recital is to be believed, with the emphasis placed on ensemble singing with, among others, the Act 1 duet and trio from L’elisir d’amore (Adina, Nemorino and Belcore) and the sextet from Così fan tutte.

Tickets are £10 and are on sale from WMC. Those of you who are unfamiliar with Hoddinott Hall might like to take a gander at the BBC NOW introductory video to the hall and its inner workings. And don’t be afraid, but you will run into some Welsh, which isn’t the pebble-dashing language you’ve been led to believe it is.

Feel the Beet for £3

2011-01-19T11:12:00.006Z

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Have you got a spare £3 burning a hole in your pocket? Are you under 30? Are you harbouring a hidden interest in classical music? Perhaps you’ve already got a thang for Beethoven and Bach?

If this sounds like you then why not take advantage of a generous offer from the Orchestra of WNO to take in this Friday’s concert at St David’s Hall and chat to orchestra members before, and after, they take to the stage, all for £3.

If you're interested then use that new fangled electronic message device and email lisa.bowen@wno.org.uk with your details so your seat(s) can be reserved and that they can send you more details. For further information you may like to click on this link.

WNO 2011 / 2012 Season

2011-01-18T03:43:00.010Z

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Most Mondays my post consists of takeaway leaflets and little else. If I’m lucky the odd car insurance offer will park itself on my mat (I can’t drive) or some journal I subscribed to for a year in 1998 will try and lull me back by offering half a year for free (if I was bored of it then, I’ll be bored of it now). But generally speaking it’s normally just the takeaway leaflets. I’ve often thought that there was an unwritten rule that on Mondays only businesses would get their post and that we, the unknowing masses, would have to wait until Tuesday for our letters, parcels and more takeaway leaflets.

In a break with weekly tradition, this morning’s post brought me something other than Ninety-One Ways to Encourage Heart Disease. By the distinctive shape of the envelope, and WNO’s logo emblazoned on it, I knew straight away that it was the subscription booklet for the 2011 / 2012 Season. I felt a sizeable colony of butterflies migrate to my stomach and in time honoured fashion I tore the envelope open and partially ripped the booklet.

Letting my eyes do their manic devouring of the covering letter, I tiptoed around the highlighted sentences because I wanted to hold off from knowing all about the season like a child keeping their biggest parcel until last of all on Christmas morning. I settled for the morsels of booking dates...until I could wait no longer and plunged into the booklet proper.

And without further hesitation, here are WNO’s offerings for 2011 / 2012...with my thoughts on each of the season’s strands.

Autumn 2011

Don Giovanni (Mozart) New Production

Conductor Lothar Koenigs
Director John Caird
Designer John Napier

Don Giovanni David Kempster
Leporello David Soar
Donna Elvira Nuccia Focile
Donna Anna Camilla Roberts
Don Ottavio Robin Tritschler
Zerlina Claire Ormshaw
Masetto Gary Griffiths
Commendatore Carlo Malinverno

The Barber of Seville (Rossini)

Conductor Alexander Polianichko
Director Giles Havergal
Designer Russell Craig

Count Almaviva Andrew Kennedy
Figaro Jacques Imbrailo
Rosina Anna Grevelius
Bartolo Eric Roberts
Basilio Clive Bayley

Katya Kabanova (Janacek)

Conductor Lothar Koenigs
Director Katie Mitchell
Designer Vicki Mortimer

Katerina Kabanova Amanda Roocroft
Kabanicha Leah-Marion Jones
Tikhon Stephen Rooke
Boris Peter Wedd
Dikoy Clive Bayley

Hairman Says…

An astute opening to the new season with a strongly cast Don Giovanni leading the way.

I’m slightly frothing at the mouth with the thought of Davids Kempster and Soar sharing the stage in Don Giovanni, and that’s before I get around to thinking about Focile, Ormshaw, Tritschler and Griffiths turning up as well. Throw in the fact that it’s Lothar Koenigs conducting and the never less than brilliant team of Caird and Napier creating the new production and this could well be the highlight of the season.

The casting is also strong for the Barber, which is a good thing as it’s the third time Havergal’s production has been seen in recent years. Much will depend on the performances of Kennedy, Grevelius and Imbrailo but with Roberts and Bayley teaming up there should be plenty of know-how on show to avoid familiarity breeding boredom. Curiously this will be conductor Alexander Polianichko’s first time conducting Rossini’s comic masterpiece.

Finishing off the Autumn strand of the season is another well cast production of a composer I have a lot of time for. Thankfully audiences will get to hear Roocroft, Jones, Rooke, Wedd and Bayley (yes, him again) singing in the original Czech. Lothar Koenigs’ conducting and Katie Mitchell’s acclaimed production give me some justification for complaining about Katya Kabanova’s very limited two date run at the WMC.

Spring 2012

La Traviata (Verdi)

Conductor Julia Jones
Director David McVicar
Designer Tanya McCallin

Violetta Valery Joyce El-Khoury
Alfredo Carlos Osuna
Giorgio Germont Jason Howard
Baron Douphol Eddie Wade

Beatrice et Benedict (Berlioz)

Conductor Michael Hofstetter
Director Elijah Moshinsky
Designer Michael Yeargan

Beatrice Sara Fulgoni
Benedict Robin Tritschler
Hero Laura Mitchell
Claudio Gary Griffiths
Ursula Anna Burford
Somarone Donald Maxwell

Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart)

Conductor Anthony Negus
Director Lluis Pasqual
Designer Paco Azorin

Figaro David Soar
Susanna Elizabeth Watts
Countess Almaviva Rebecca Evans
Count Almaviva Dario Solari
Cherubino Cora Burggraaf
Dr Bartolo Henry Waddington
Marcellina Sarah Pring

Hairman Says…
Three revivals make up the offerings for a thankfully full Spring season.

I’m a big sucker for La Traviata so I’m looking forward to the return of David McVicar’s production. The added interest comes in the shape of the young leads, El-Khoury and Osuna, respectively contracted to the Met and Wiener Staatsoper. Throw in Jason Howard as Giorgio Germont and Julia Jones making her company debut with the baton and this could be a surprise hit. As much as La Traviata can be a surprise hit.

I’m now holding my hands up and admitting I’ve never heard a single note of Berlioz’s B&B. The cast (Fulgoni, Tritschler, Mitchell, Griffiths, Burford and Maxwell) offer a healthy mixture of experience and youth but someone had better air the costumes as it’s the first time in over a decade that WNO is performing the Moshinsky directed piece. Conductor Michael Hofstetter returns to the company for the two Cardiff performances.

Lluis Pasqual’s inventive, if uneven take on the Mozart / da Ponte classic sees Soar (Figaro), Evans (Countess Almaviva) and Pring (Marcellina) return from the original Cardiff cast with Watts (Susanna) and Burggraaf (Cherubino) getting to show off the stuff they, erm, showed off on tour last time around. Dario Solari debuts as the Count while WNO’s Anthony Negus conducts.

Summer 2012

Tristan und Isolde (Wagner)

Conductor Lothar Koenigs
Director & Designer Yannis Kokkos

Tristan Jay Hunter Morris
Isolde Ann Petersen
Brangaene Susan Bickley
Kurwenal Phillip Joll
King Marke Matthew Best
Melot Simon Thorpe

La bohème (Puccini)

Conductor Carlo Rizzi
Director Annabel Arden
Designer Stephen Brimson–Lewis

Mimi Anita Hartig
Rodolfo Alex Vicens
Marcello David Kempster
Colline David Soar
Schaunard Gary Griffiths

Hairman says…
A stirring end to the season!

Judging by the excited squeals I made when I saw it was listed Tristan und Isolde will surely herald a new bout of Wagnermania at the WMC in May 2012. Making their UK debuts American tenor Morris (Tristan) and Swedish soprano Petersen (Isolde) are joined by Bickley (Brangaene), Joll (Kurwenal), Best (King Marke) and Thorpe (Melot). There are only three Cardiff performances (for obvious reasons) so tickets will surely be at a premium to catch Lothar Koenigs conducting his first ever T&I.

The second new production of the 2011 / 2012 Season sees Annabel Arden taking on Puccini’s ultimate tearjerker. Given her past record expectations are riding high from where I’m sitting. The cast is internationally diverse with Romanian soprano Hartig (Mimi) succumbing to many things, including Spanish tenor Vicens (Rodolfo). In a bookending stroke of fortune Davids Kempster (Marcello) and Soar (Colline) are reunited with Griffiths (Schaunard) adding more lustre to the lads. No word yet as to who will be singing Musetta. Former WNO Music Director Carlo Rizzi conducts. As a point of interest the production is to become the focal point for WNO’s first ever audience appeal in helping to create a production. For more information on how you can donate click this link.

And that’s it.

Despite the recent sense of doom and gloom that has settled on the arts the season looks to be well balanced and, more importantly, peppered with enticing productions. At first glance the standouts are Don Giovanni, Tristan und Isolde and the new Bohème, but rather quickly other works are added to the list of must sees. It goes without saying that I’m very pleased to see David Soar’s name attached to several productions and I have to admit I’m interested in seeing Gary Griffiths in the several roles he takes on as a WNO Associate Artist. Probably the most pleasing aspect of the season is seeing the number of operas rise to eight, as in recent seasons the number had dropped worryingly. Of course, I’m not wearing too rose tinted spectacles to assume that the addition of Barber to the calendar might have been at the expense of another new production – pure conjecture I admit, but I feel it in my hair.

Ticket prices for WMC have remained fairly similar with prices stating at £5 and going up to £39. But there is a different pricing structure for Tristan und Isolde - £5 to £50.

If you’re thinking of taking in a few operas it could be worth your while to take out a subscription to the season. Book 7 or 8 operas and you save 30%, book 6 operas and you save 25%, and save 20% if you book 5 operas.

Subscriptions are available by post only. To get hold of a form you can ring 0800 328 2357, email marketing@wno.org.uk or to get hold of a brochure (and I assume a form) email lisa.bowen@wno.org.uk.

Booking Dates

Friends Subscription Priority Booking Period - From now until the 14th of February.
Public Subscription – 14th of February onwards.
Friends Individual Opera Priority Booking Period – 14th to the 24th of March.
Public Online, Postal, Phone and Counter Bookings – 25th of March.

All these dates and prices are for Cardiff only - I'll add news about the other WNO venues when concrete info becomes available.

The Boys (and Gals) are back in town!

2011-01-17T09:17:00.008Z

The photographer quickly regrets offering to buy the first round. Photo

And stretch! And relax. And stretch! And relax.

Now shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.

And stretch! And relax. And stretch! And relax.

Oh, hello there dear readers. You've just caught me shooting my new Extreme Hair Care Survival DVD. It's something I like to do at this time of the year when many in the Northern Hemisphere are suffering from centrally heated frizz bombs. It's an all round programme designed by yours truly, encompassing modern, and not so modern, treatments and exercises to keep the shine in your hair. But less of my philanthropic deeds, I've got a concert to tell you about.

I'm not sure about the state of their hair but the Orchestra of WNO are tripping out to St David's Hall this Friday with a quartet of pieces spanning over 250 years of music making. Joining the orchestra and WNO's Music Director, Lothar Koenigs, for a bite of Bach, a bit of Bartók, a kernel of Kurtág and a bulk of Beethoven is pianist Peter Donohoe.

You can listen to brief clips of what to expect via WNO's website, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard sheds more light on the Kurtág on You Tube. The concert begins at 7.30pm and tickets are available from St David's Hall with prices ranging from £10 - £32.

Orchestra of Welsh National Opera
Conductor/ Lothar Koenigs
Soloist/ Peter Donohoe, Piano
J. S. Bach /Brandenburg Concerto No 3 10'
Bartók /Piano Concerto No 2 25'
Kurtág/ "... quasi una fantasia ..." 10'
Beethoven /Symphony No 7 40'

Cardiff Cineworld Shindig

2011-01-07T15:55:00.005Z

Anna Netrebko is still spotting my golden locks

Before I return to a more regular schedule of rambling / blogging this is a quickie post for readers in the Cardiff area to remind them that Cineworld are showing the Met Live in HD Broadcast of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West tomorrow evening at 6pm (UK).

The cast includes Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani and Lucio Gallo. Extra bits, pieces, odds and some bobs for this yee-ha! opera can be found on the Met's dedicated Fanciulla page.

In Praise of Sherry

2010-12-23T20:43:00.005Z

From the Mince Pie Club, yes, the Mince Pie Club.

Ah well, it’s that time of the year when I break out the good shampoo and conditioner in readiness for a season of being merry. I’ve been scratching my head in ponderation of what to bring you by ways of Christmas greetings and, after battling over the merits of numerous composers, singers, and productions, I decided to play it safe by insulting Wagnerians, Verdarians, Puccinarians and Mozarians everywhere by going with something completely different. But if you are looking for a seasonal bit of unpublicised opera related broadcast fare (a sentence as thick as my mince pies) – then S4C are showing Nadolig Bryn Terfel (Bryn Terfel’s Christmas) on Christmas Eve at 9.00pm, with a repeat showing on Boxing Day at 10.35pm.

Trying not to don a schmaltzy tone of scribbling I’ll move on to my gift, from me, to you, dear readers. I believe that music is a universal language, one that can unite people from different backgrounds, cultures, religious beliefs, or no beliefs like no other thing on this planet. As I sit in my armchair, the open fire basking me in its warm warmth, I take a sip of sherry and wonder what it is I want to say next. After a few seconds I remember, then wonder where my sense of tense has gone. Maybe it’s the rereading of If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler that is playing tricks with me, or more likely it’s the afternoon I spent preparing sherry trifles with a bottle of sherry and no trifles. But I digress.

He may never win the Leeds International Piano Competition, and chances are that he’ll have failed to make it past the audition stages for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011, but Bruce Springsteen gives you, and I, the generous gift of music with Thunder Road.

Pass the schmaltz jar, I’ve got a few quid to add.

Wherever you are reading this, be it West, East, North, South or Mid Earth I wish you all a Nadolig Llawen – Merry Christmas – Happy Holidays – Happy Holidays to Come in the Next Few Months!

It’s Ungreased Lightning!

2010-12-20T16:26:00.005Z

Banger

Before you decide to make an inspired commentary on the decay of technology by letting the grass grow over your unwanted vehicles (i.e. do a Paul Calf with your bangers and carras and leave them to rust in a neighbour's garden) you may like to take up WNO’s offer of taking them permanently off your hands.

The company are looking for a caravan, pick up truck, estate car and a hatchback all dating from the late 80s or early 90s to use in one of their new productions. A word of warning – if you are Paul Calf thinking that you could make a few quid by borrowing a neighbour’s car without permission you’ll be put off by the fact that WNO are looking towards the kindness of strangers for free vehicular donations.

Engines, MOTs and fluffy dice aren’t required. For further information say Ford Capri and click on me.

ACW Increases WNO's Funding

2010-12-16T10:26:00.005Z

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News has finally reached the salon of WNO’s funding from the Arts Council of Wales (ACW). Bucking the recent trend of gloomy financial news WNO have seen their funding increased by £250,000 to the tune of £4.7 million for the period 2011 - 2012. However, in real terms the increase from ACW only claws back half of the £500,000 drop in funding from Arts Council England (ACE) for the same period, but in the current environment beggars can’t be choosers. In reality there was little doubt ACW would pull the rug from under its marquee Revenue Funded Organisation (RFO), but all the same, it’s very welcome news for the company.

Of course, with WNO’s increased funding comes the realisation that many arts groups who are as important to people around Wales as WNO is to this head of hair have suffered cuts and, in numerous cases, have had their funding withdrawn. It goes without saying that my hair finds this very upsetting but it wants to point out that WNO haven’t been the sole beneficiaries of ACW’s enforced approach to funding, with many organisations seeing significant increases in their budgets.

Attention now switches to ACE and their funding decisions for the years covering 2012-2015 in spring of next year. In the words of Alex Ferguson, that will be the true squeaky bum time. ACE is WNO’s biggest backer due to the company’s significant presence within various English regions, stretching from the south coast of England to the North West, taking in seven towns and cities, more than double the amount that WNO tours to in Wales.

Read more at Wales Online, BBC and Wales Online (again).

WNO's Digital Advent Calendar

2010-12-14T20:47:00.005Z

Sketch by Jane Webster, taken from WNO

The countdown for the big day has already begun*, and WNO are joining in the festive fun with their own digital advent calendar. Despite lacking in chocolate goodness the gifts have been varied and enjoyable. Apart from downloading the Meistersingertastic Jane Webster desktop / iPhone wallpaper sketch you can also...make a paper WNO snowman to hang on your tree, try your hand out at being a quizmaster or simply watch an interview with Die Fledermaus costume designer Deirdre Clancy. An up to date list of the digital gifts can be found here, and with regular offerings who knows what will appear next? Now if only they could have an in-depth interview with their resident hair stylist...

*Despite the quite excusable words leaving your lips the big day I refer to is, in fact, Christmas Day, not my appearance as Principal Speaker at The Healthy Hair Conference 2011 taking place in Paris in January (tickets are still available from all good ticket outlets).

Chorus blimey guv!

2010-12-10T16:54:00.006Z

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I was introduced to Handel’s Messiah many years ago by my primary school teacher who took pleasure in scaring the living daylights out of his pupils by playing the Hallelujah! chorus without warning like a Ninja DJ. Apart from imparting catlike reflexes into my evolving DNA my teacher also left me with a distinct antipathy towards the piece. I think you would too if you had stapled your finger out of fright. But I’m not one to hold grudges (often) and so this Sunday evening I’m passing up my usual Serie A match and travelling to meet the old foe when it's performed by the Orchestra and Chorus of WNO, conducted by Lothar Koenigs (with soloists Laura Mitchell, Patricia Bardon, Robin Tritschler and Darren Jeffrey) at St David’s Hall.

Of course, there are those who have had a less complicated, metallic relationship with the piece, and it’s to them I now address this second paragraph. If you’ve always fancied having a crack at a chorus from The Music That Caused Fright there’s an opportunity for you to do just that on the afternoon of the concert. From 3pm to 5pm WNO are running a Messiah choral workshop for singers of all abilities – from the tuneless to the tuneful. The crescendo of the afternoon’s labours will be a performance at 6.45pm. All they ask is that you possess a ticket for that evening’s concert, have music in your heart and that you call 029 2063 5030 to sign up. But as I’ve posted this so late on a Friday afternoon I’m not sure if anyone will be around to answer the phone. If there is no-one about I’d think the lads and lasses at St David’s Hall might be able to sort something out for you if you got in touch with them.

And in case you're wondering, there are tickets left.

Met Broadcasts at Cineworld Cardiff - As Long As You Use Them

2010-12-09T12:40:00.005Z

Anna Netrebko spots my golden locks

Taking a brief break from WNO news I thought people in the Cardiff area would be interested to know that the Met Live in HD Broadcast screenings are once again up and running at Cineworld Cardiff. Anyone who has experienced the screenings will know that they are worth the (admittedly hefty) fee of £15 for adults and £12 for seniors, children and students.

Of course, Cineworld Cardiff will only continue to show the Met broadcasts as long as there are people willing to see them, and unlike other Cineworld Venues that have the whole season available for booking, Cineworld Cardiff appears to be broadcasting on a week-by-week basis. So if you can, grab a bag of popcorn and pop along to keep the broadcasts running – it would be pretty embarrassing if the home city of WNO couldn’t keep hold of their Met broadcasts.

This week’s live broadcast from The Metropolitan Opera House in New York (always wanted to say that) is Verdi’s Don Carlo. Playing in the Italian version I can vouch for Nicholas Hytner’s production being worth the trip out having seen it at the ROH. The cast is remarkably similar to the ROH one with star turns from Marina Poplavskaya (Elisabetta), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Philip II) and WNO’s recent Rigoletto Simon Keenlyside playing Rodrigo. Changes from the ROH cast include Roberto Alagna as Don Carlo, Anna Smirnova (Eboli) and Eric Halvarson (Il Grande Inquisitorrrrrrr). Doors open at 5.00pm.

A taster of what's to come. In Estonian.

Future highlights (for my hair) include the broadcasts of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Natalie Dessay and Joseph Calleja (19th of March 2011), Rossini’s Le Comte Ory with Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez (9th of April 2011), and a season ending spectacular Wagner’s Die Walküre with Bryn Terfel, Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Hans-Peter König and Jonas Kaufmann (14th of May).

You can find the remainder of the Met Live in HD Broadcast schedule here.

A list of all UK cinemas showing the broadcasts here.

And Met Broadcasts in WNO touring regions below.

(To be on the safe side I suggest you check times and availability with your local cinema)

Aberystwyth
Birmingham
Bristol
Cardigan
Liverpool
Llandudno
Milford Haven
Monmouth
Oxford
Southampton

Cheese on Toast Donates Money to WNO

2010-12-08T13:50:00.006Z

Cheese on toast, the green stuff.

Fundraising can be tricky at the best of times, at the not so best of times it becomes tricky to the power of 5,098,456. Plus infinity. I could offer a Dodgeballesque car washing service all winter long (depending on the state of my knees and frostbite) but I doubt I would raise little more than £2.89 for WNO after deducting tax and the cost of hiring a bucket and sponge, and kitchen foil. Fortunately for WNO they have people who know how to raise some coin, cash, dosh, moolah in ways that avoid rabies shots or developing a case of housemaid’s knee, wicketkeeper’s knee, superglued to the floor by your knees knee...

So what are these ideas? And are they painless to your wallet and knees?

First up there’s easysearch.org.uk. By following the preceding link and this mention of cheese on toast you will be taken to easysearch.org.uk that gathers the results of Yahoo! Bing and Ask.com searches that will, well, I’ll let them tell you what happens:

“Use easysearch every time you search the Web and we'll give 50% of the fees paid by our advertising sponsors to Welsh National Opera.

Use easysearch instead of Google or any other search engine and you can make a real difference to Welsh National Opera. By making just 10 searches a day with easysearch, you can raise around £20 a year.”

£20 may not sound like much, but depending on the numbers that use it you never know. Anyway, it’s now Hairman’s Preferred Search Engine. To use it all you have to do is either set it up as your homepage or bookmark it.

The second way for you to donate money without actually donating money is by shopping online through easyfundraising.org.uk. Again cheese on toast will take you to a website where, after registering, you will find that your purchases will include a kickback from the sale towards WNO. Again I’ll let the professionals explain:

“We provide a FREE service where you can shop with your favourite online stores and at no extra cost raise funds for any charity, good cause or group you choose to support. You still shop directly with each retailer as you would normally, but simply by using the links from our site first, each purchase you make will generate a cashback donation to the cause you wish to support.

For example, spend £25 with WH Smith and 3.5% will be donated. You will have raised £0.88, at no extra cost to your purchase. Make any purchase from Amazon and 2.5% will be donated. Insure your car with Direct Line and raise £35.00, or purchase a mobile phone from O2 and earn £17.50, and so on.”

There’s a comprehensive list of retailers on the site (including Amazon, HMV, iTunes, LOVEFilm), but I’d like to point your way towards Crotchet Classical (I can't hyperlink to pages without signing in I'm afraid), an independent classical retailer, who offer a whopping 5% donation.

As with easysearch.org.uk this will only work if people act together – so why not mention it to your family, friends or even complete strangers who like cheese on toast. But you have to remember that for your purchases to count towards WNO you need to log in every time and follow the links to the retailers on easyfundraising.org.uk otherwise your purchases will not count towards WNO.

Happy surfing and shopping!

We're checking our lists...

2010-12-01T19:41:00.016Z

Erm, forgot where I nabbed the photo from...

If George Clooney ever gave up his day job selling coffee his next move would undoubtedly be into retailing opera companies, and where else would he be more at home than with WNO? I can see him in the twinkle of my eye walking through the doors of the WMC to the tune of La donna è mobile*, suited and booted, dancing a smile as he elegantly climbs the stairs, fending off throngs of worshippers.

But until George follows his destiny and glides along to The Armadillo on the Bay it falls to me, a man with hair, to try and fill his mighty shoes. Unlike George, I haven’t got John Malkovich to back me up, but you never know – he was once spotted on the streets of Cardiff drumming up custom for his hotel. True story. But until George, and John, both show up it falls to me, a man with yada-yada-yada...

So what am I selling today? Technically speaking I am not selling products. My role, as George would undoubtedly agree with me, is as more of a pointing man. I point towards places. This is trickier than you may think, and only after I attended a rigorous Tuesday afternoon pointing seminar was I allowed to go forth and pointify.

The pointing, of course, is mainly with a WNO finger, and in the spirit of the coming season I’ll be Ebeneezering it a little. Now rattle the change in your pocket, we’re going back to the past, which was the future at some time so feel free to hum a bit of Huey Lewis and the News.

Still with me? Good. Switch off the flux capacitor; it tends to overheat even in the coldest weather. We should have landed in the early nineties close to the time of WNO’s Pelléas et Mélisande. This beguiling bit of Debussy will be hitting the Barbican next year with Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay, and if you’ve bought a ticket you might like to refresh your memory of the work with WNO’s hugely successful production that had my Gallic frères and sœurs in egalite ecstasy. Helming the musicals was Pierre Boulez and taking charge of the visuals was Peter Stein. Luckily someone had the idea to film it so you can take a gander at the production that had baguettes wilting in adoration when the production was toured to France. I shall now apologise for lame stereotyping. If it’s any consolation I like leek soup. I often sing for no reason, and one of my grandfathers was a miner.

Sadly 2010 saw too many WNO departures from our blue marvel of a planet, including chorus mezzo Anne Morgan, whom I assume would have sung under the direction of another profound loss, Sir Charles Mackerras, the former Music Director of WNO. He made many recordings with the company, among them Jenufa for the Chandos label. I know it’s not sung in the original language, but sometimes I hang my foibles on the salon coat hanger and take in a different view of the world once in a while.

The holy grail of any opera company is surely the next generation. Yet neither Monty Python, nor Star Trek, ever succeeded in going where no man, woman or flying livestock has gone before - getting kids / young adults interested in opera. Now I can’t guarantee that Operavox (starring WNO and a raft of animators) will spark a lifelong love of opera in anyone who thinks nineteen is old, twenty-one getting on in years, thirty ancient, and forty and above truly historic, but it might be a better way of introducing them to opera than tying them to a chair on Christmas Day and acting out Wagner’s Das Rheingold dressed in a rented He-Man costume and wielding a rusty hoe. The DVD is made of six thirty-minute abridged versions of well known operas including Carmen, The Magic Flute and, of course, Das Rheingold. By the power of animation!

Oi! Leave Tiny Tim’s cake alone, next we have a date with James MacMillan’s The Sacrifice. It’s not often I can say I was at the World Premiere of anything, let alone an opera, but I was there in 2007 when the curtain went up and down for the very first time on the WNO commissioned opera. Hand on heart I have to say I wasn’t taken with the piece first time around, despite some sterling performances from Christopher Purves and Lisa Milne on the night. In the intervening years my opera going has grown at the same rate as my hair and having coughed up the dough I returned for some more sir, despite my reservations, and I’m glad that I did. It’s still a challenging piece, and you won’t be humming merrily along (I still cringe at the electric guitar bit) but if you like your plots turbulent, and your music atmospheric, then you’ll feel at home with this.

Next up is Bryn Terfel with his new CD, Carols & Christmas Songs. His backing band are the Orchestra of WNO, hence the inclusion on this list. An interesting side note is that the CD – a bilingual affair with English and Welsh versions of some of the same songs – was recorded at BBC Hoddinott Hall in the days following the end of the Meistersinger run. Not sure about the cover though – is it Brie or Gorgonzola?

The penultimate goody on offer is a book celebrating WNO’s 60th anniversary, which came out a few years ago. Full of production photos and reminiscences from WNO staff it’s the kind of book you delve into and go, Ooh – I hope they do that again soon. On an informative tangent those of you who listened to the recent BBC Radio 3 Ariadne broadcast and were trying to imagine the end of the production you can glimpse it on the front cover of the book. Prices vary, and if you’re strapped for cash I suggest heading towards Amazon’s independent sellers, who have taken a significant chunk off the rrp.

And what’s the final object of my pointing? Well, it’s not exactly WNO, but they’ll be appearing during the event next year. It’s the 20th anniversary DVD celebration of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Although it was released close to ten years ago, and misses a few of the recent winners, it’s an interesting testament not only to the competition, but also to fashion – ever wondered what Elaine Padmore was wearing in 1983? You get to see the winning performances of each competition, in addition to the Lieder prize winners, strutting their stuffs. In addition to the performances there’s a finely crafted documentary with contributions from the likes of Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel that should get you excited for next year’s event.

And there you are. A small selection of WNO orientated Christmas gifts you may like to buy for a loved one, yourself or for someone you don’t like in the hope that they throw the present back at you. Better use bubble wrap if you’re going for the third option in case you’re near a pavement, a clogged roadside drain or if you have the reactions of an inebriated turtle.

If WNO isn’t your thing perhaps you’d like to invest in a gift starring your local opera company – I’m sure they’d appreciate your attention, and in turn you can appreciate their hard work. And in the same spirit of spreading the love if Amazon are getting too big for your liking Hairman’s Favoured Sellers are Presto Classical, MDT and Europadisc. Adding a bit more mistletoe to this post I thought you’d like to check out the last posting dates involving the wee chappies and chappesses of Royal Mail.

* We all know Gorgeous George is far nicer than Il Duca, and he’ll have better hair as well, so maybe I should have chosen something more fitting for his character. Any ideas?