John Fisher to leave WNO in summer 2011 ... and time to man the barricades!

Photo from the Telegraph

I had planned on returning to proper WNO blogging on September the 1st but the news that John Fisher is to leave his post as Chief Executive and Artistic Director when his contract runs out next summer had me deciding not to climb the last ten metres of Everest and return to base camp prontissimo.

A quick call back to my associate confirmed the reports and with it a sense of ?!!? set in. Although any opera company should be judged on the work of many people, and not just a small few, there is no getting away from the fact that John Fisher has played an important role in the company's recent history. I've no idea why Fisher has decided not to renew his contract, and quite frankly it's none of my business to make wild guesses.

What I am sure of is that it will take some scouring of the globe to fill his position and I hope that an appointment isn't rushed through to the detriment of WNO. Of course it would be nice to think that Fisher would change his mind, but it seems highly unlikely he will. As yet there are no whispers of where he will head to next, but a man who has the Met, La Scala, La Monnaie, De Nederlandse Opera, La Fenice, the Pesaro Rossini Festival and Deutsche Grammophon on his resume is hardly going to be struggling for work. Who knows – he may be heading for his native Scotland. Wherever he ends up I would like to think that WNO's followers would wish him good luck in his next venture.

Time for statements and then something extra…

In a statement John Fisher said:

"It has been a privilege to lead WNO over the last five years, and I am very proud of what we have been able to achieve.

"It is a wonderful company that is a great asset for Wales and the world of opera.

"In the next few years WNO will face very significant challenges, but I am confident that when I leave next summer the company will be in the hands of a very strong and accomplished team."

It seems that the parting of the ways is amicable with WNO Chairman Geraint Talfan Davies speaking of Fisher in glowing terms:

"Over the last five years John has made an enormous contribution to the development of the company through raising its musical and vocal standards to the highest level, and attracting to WNO the very best talent.

Many fine productions culminated in a truly outstanding Die Meistersinger that will always have an honoured place in the company’s history.

We are hugely grateful to him for all that he has achieved.

We now look forward to those productions that he will oversee during the remainder of his time with us.”

Now, I'll go on a slight walkabout tangent here so get ready for some (slight) Braveheart moments. Not being in position to get my hands on the full press statement from WNO (no sign of it on their website as I'm typing this in my tent) I've had to make do with two news sources – BBC Wales and WalesOnline. Both of which have more or less published the same quotes, apart from the closing comment in the BBC Wales article:

"The finest tribute that we can pay John is to do everything we can in the challenging climate ahead to sustain the standards that he has set," Mr Talfan Davies added.

There is no denying the fact that severe budget cuts are going to affect many aspects of society in the coming years and the arts will suffer significant cuts to budgets that are already small, despite what critics of the arts would have you believe. So to hear Fisher and Davies respectively refer to significant challenges and a challenging climate is a worrying echo of Dennis O'Neill's recent comment in the August issue of Opera Friend (Friends of Welsh National Opera magazine):

Andy Taylor (Editor and Friends of WNO Manager) This will be a difficult few years for the arts?

Dennis O'Neill Financially this is an opportune time for people who never wanted opera in the first place. Houses will try to make their work more accessible and will try to pare back costs. The risk is that we dumb down. On the contrary, this is the time when we have to be at our very best. Meistersinger couldn't have come at a better time for WNO.

There are inevitably going to be tough times ahead for many opera companies and I fear that WNO, despite the wonderful Meistersinger, will unfortunately not be immune to the cuts that are being proposed in the coming years. In my opinion it would be wise for those bodies responsible for the funding of WNO protect it as much as possible from any proposed cuts as it provides world class productions to people who are unable to reach the bright lights, and even brighter prices of London.

Many aspects combine to make worthwhile societies and despite what critics would have you believe the arts do make a telling and an essential contribution to everyday life and as such should not be allowed to become the preserve of the financially secure few. I have no doubts that WNO will survive the proposed cuts, but in what shape it survives is open to debate.

But this is where WNO's audience has an important role to play in ensuring a healthy future instead of a malnourished one. At the end of the day money is what makes our human world revolve and it's up to us, the bums on the seats to support WNO with as much financial rocket fuel as we can afford to. I'm not suggesting people wear rags and denote a hefty percentage of their income to WNO. I'm thinking more along the lines of becoming semi – opera geeks and catching more than one performance of a production if you normally only take in one show. You'd be surprised how much the same opera can be different from night to another – a change of seat allows you to see things you hadn't noticed before, a singer may be on better form from one night to another, that irritating sweet sucker you wanted to throttle one night won't be there the next. You don't have to cough up big bucks at WMC either - £5 for a ticket that would normally set you back £60 at Covent Garden is a bargain in most eyes. Then there are things like buying programmes and using the numerous bars / cafes in the WMC and other places WNO visits that will help to show healthy figures both for WNO and the venues it plays in. You could even join the Friends of WNO with benefits ranging from early booking to a healthy discount on performances that can be spread over many months with a direct debit.

But if these are beyond your financial situation you can still help by simple word of mouth. I think WNO, given its genuine long standing involvement with communities, would rather a following of the many rather than the few. Friends, family, work colleagues, mortal enemies – they're all potential bums on seats. And it's not as if you're selling them a timeshare on Alderaan.

WNO can only do so much – they need our support for them to continue giving us experiences as compelling as The Queen of Spades, as entertaining as Falstaff, and as thrilling and joy filled as Meistersinger. It's up to us to make sure it's allowed to continue creating these moments. So nag your friends, take in an extra performance, slurp an ice cream, buy a programme. Because as the Beastie Boys put it...

Fidelio Yourself for Free

Photos taken from Lucerne Festival Website

Just a quick post from my desert island; I am on holiday after all. For those of you who are taking in WNO's Fidelio this autumn but who have not yet heard Beethoven's sole opera then you can treat your ears this Sunday (15th of August). Schweizer Radio DRS 2 will be broadcasting a concert performance of Fidelio from the Lucerne Festival recorded on the 12th of August. It boasts a cast including Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan, Nina Stemme as Leonore / Fidelio and Christof Fischesser as Rocco. The unboasted cast is pretty special too. Waving the baton is Claudio Abbado with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at his disposal backed up by the Arnold Schoenberg Chor. A musical oohgasm could be on the cards.

It kicks off at 8.00 pm UK time (9.00 pm Swiss) and ends roughly two hours later if my stereotypical stereotyping of Swiss precision is to be believed. The folks at SRDRS have kindly provided an official Lucerne Festival downloadable programme including English language notes on Fidelio and info on the cast. There's also a German language libretto included in the download but sadly no English libretto. For an English libretto you could always have a look at Simon Rattle's EMI recording of Fidelio and click on sung texts. But that's up to you.

There will now follow a bit of technical info for those of you who have no German to fall back on and are willing to trust to luck (i.e. my guesswork)

Once you've clicked on the SRDS 2 link you need to click on the Radio ein button like the one below, but don't click the one below as it's only a jpeg.



A new screen will pop up where you choose DRS 2, which should do the trick. Happy listening and hopefully you'll be in the groove come this autumn.

Meistersinger Quiz - The Answers...

How many did you get?

It was the question(s) that had audiences in Cardiff and Birmingham rattling their brains, Googling their fingers or merely making up names. Who were those people on the front cloth? Well, you need not worry anymore for I, Hair Man at the Opera, can now proudly lay claim to knowing all the answers! It took me a while, but after burning the midnight oil until dawn took hold of the clock I eventually cracked the quiz.

I'm lying. I managed roughly fifteen names; one of whom turned out not to be Karl Marx but Johannes Brahms. I blame my ignorance on the beard. For the full list and a handy names by numbers PDF download head on over to WNO's website.

Just look at the beard and don't tell me you weren't thinking Karl Marx as well...please?

Meisterdämmerung

I'd planned to be ensconcing my bum and hair at the Royal Albert Hall for the final performance but mice, men and best laid plans had a convention and discussed matters thoroughly with the outcome being I ensconced my backside and hair in an armchair, pipe in mouth and maroon slippers on feet at 4pm. By 4.02pm I was donning trousers and shirt to fend off tiny clinkers that were sizzling on my skin. By 4.06pm I remembered I hadn't eaten a morsel since 11.48am so I trotted off to the kitchen to slave over a hot stove. I decided to watch the 7pm BBC4 broadcast instead.

At 6.58pm, backside and hair once more ensconced, pipe in mouth, slippers on feet, clothes on body and finger poised over the record button on DVD remote. Up popped BBC4, down went finger, up went cry of, "Why aren't you recording?" followed by frantic button pushing…

Okay readers, he's off on one again so put upon monkey is taking over before he bores you with every tiny detail he can dredge up. I've accompanied my supposedly more intelligent owner with the opposable thumb to a couple of the Meistersinger performances at WMC so I know roughly what he'll want to say in half the time he'd take to say it.

It seems a long time since that first show, and longer still to the beginning of opposable thumb boy's fascination with Meistersinger, making Saturday's Prom a farewell of sorts to the piece. A farewell, that is, to WNO's take on the piece. Quite a few feelings were floating around the room as Stephen Fry appeared on the screen – but most of them were wanting the company to do themselves justice. After such an acclaimed run it would have been a shame if the only televised performance had fallen flat.

The tiniest of breath holds pffted out of existence as Lothar Koenigs pressed the PLAY button on the orchestra and a sense of calm took over the room – especially since I'd taken over the remote and pressed the correct button. OTB had been pressing the red digital button.

The immediate difference between Saturday's Prom and the WMC performances was of course seeing orchestra, chorus and cast up on stage together – a part of me was pining for some costume action but for reasons beyond my understanding this was to be a concert performance. Not that it was your typical stand and deliver concert that invariably sucks the life out of a performance. With seven full performances, and numerous other dress and piano rehearsals under their belts in recent weeks, the cast went with their characters minus their costumes.

From handily placed informants in the hall I discovered that the BBC sound engineers had done their usual job of distorting a performance – but for once it seemed for the better as the RAH's acoustics were doing their best to mangle things for those inside. I have to admit that the acoustics were a fear of mine before the concert – the RAH isn't thought of as being a place all that friendly to voices and being the size of a James Bond baddie's rocket lair acoustics were always going to be a problem on the evening. Shorter pieces will invariably stand a better chance for singers who can blast away, but given that pacing is key to Meistersinger singing for all you're worth is not really an option over such a length of time. What I heard on TV was more akin to the balance of the WMC performances, without the obvious thrill of being there. Terfel, Purves, Roocroft, Very, Tortise, Burford, Sherratt and Soar were as I heard them in the opera house – with an odd tired note hear and there which is understandable given the length of the run, the hourage of show and size of cow barn they were singing in.

Did it work for me? I would say yes. With bells on. The tingles from the WMC were there with the chorus and orchestra the heartbeat of the performance that allowed the principals to add the colour to the overall work. I'm loathe to highlight specific performances as this is really a work that depends on the work of many, and not a few but Bryn Terfel and Christopher Purves make a wonderful Odd Couple duo. Beckmesser had the obvious advantage of being the easiest of the characters to transport from the staged production and Purves entertained the audience with Beckmesser's smugness - was it me, or has there been a touch of Jack Lemmon in Beckmesser's vocal / nasal clearings throughout the run? Bryn Terfel's continuing work on Sachs was never more evident than in the heartbreaking tone he achieved for Euch macht wird es leicht, mir macht ihr's schwer... in response to the choral power blast he'd recieved of Wach auf - but I dare anyone who caught WNO's chorus not to have been moved to something approaching tears, or at least a sense of electricity dancing through every fibre of your being. But then I would say all of this – wouldn't I? For those of you living in the UK you can judge for yourselves with the BBC4 broadcast on the iPlayer. For those of you living outside the UK, unless you know of someone who could burn you a copy of the BBC4 broadcast you'll have to settle for the BBC Radio 3* broadcast on the iPlayer, and hear exactly why Lothar Koenigs was making this face during Wach auf.




A medley of thoughts…

Big slap on the back goes to WNO's make-up department for their work on the staged show as I was surprised by the age range of the apprentices – but in a way this is also a case of back slapping for the apprentices too as they had me hoodwinked with their voices.

Could the Albert Hall invest in some form of air conditioning? Performers will always build up some sort of central heating when on stage but in all the performances I saw at WMC Bryn Terfel never once came close to losing his voice but it was evident that he was owning the soggiest handkerchief in London on Saturday and that his voice was crying out for less Saharan air – it's bad enough to sing for five plus hours but to have to contend with a mini heatwave is asking a bit much.

Shame on BBC for not showing us an evidently moved Stephen Fry at the end of the evening – it's rare to see unadulterated joy on TV these days. No, TV talent show winners are excluded.

S4C – why oh why?

Best wishes to David Soar as he leaves WNO's Associate Artist programme and heads off to pastures new. The Salzburg Festival and ROH are two of his first stops so things aren't looking too shabby. Looking forward to his Ferrando in next year's Trovatore.

A big thank you to WNO assistant stage manager Katie Jones, and journalist Robert Butler (aka Meistermole) of WNO///3 for their generous insights into the creation of the production.

And that's about it folks – summer is here and WNO will soon go into a brief summer break, and so will I. Whatever you get up to I hope you have a relaxing time before the opening of WNO's new season with Fidelio on the 17th of September.


* Conflicting reports about the radio iPlayer - some outside of the UK can use it while others can't...

Once More With Feeling...

And so WNO's Die Meistersinger has its final outing at the BBC Proms this coming Saturday (17th of July). After months of living and breathing Nürnberg the cast and crew must by now have delusions of shoemaking – a shame then that it appears as though my premonitions of S4C filming the production were about as close to the mark as a Wile E. Coyote piano drop. Having caught the Saturday WMC performances I spied nothing beginning with TV Camera – and I've heard no rumours from midweek performances so my optimism has been downgraded to Wild E. Speculation. I'm hoping I will be proved wrong, but my feeling is that the boat has been missed and the horse is on board.

But...there is an opportunity to catch the last performance of the run at the Proms. If you're in the vicinity of the Albert Hall you can always test your standing power by truly proming it with a standing ticket. If listening is more your thing BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting it live from 4pm. Meanwhile for those of you who prefer to see the beard on Hans Sachs BBC Four is beaming a delayed broadcast to your televisions at 7pm with guest presenter Stephen Fry joining Charles Hazlewood. Sadly for those of you who live outside the UK the TV broadcast will not be available on the BBC website – although the radio broadcast should be available via the i-Player in addition to the live transmission.

For another blogger's (ever so slightly more educated) take on Meistersinger you can pop on over to Intermezzo who caught one of the Birmingham performances. Unlike Mr Lazy, hairs truly, Intermezzo also carries a camera so you can ooh and ahh at the cast.

Concert in Memory of Philip Langridge

This coming Sunday (4th of July, 7.30pm) the opening concert for London Master Classes at the Royal Academy of Music is dedicated to the memory of the late tenor Philip Langridge, who taught at LMC. The concert will feature internationally renowned artists Nelly Miricioiu, Rosalind Plowright, Norma Fisher, Ralph Kirshbaum, Benjamin Zander, Ian Partridge and Sir John Tomlinson.

The tickets priced at £25 are available at the door, by email or by calling 020 8346 7088. All proceeds will go to the London Master Classes Bursary Fund. For further information about the evening you can pop over to the London Master Classes website.

Welsh Singers Competition

Following on from Natalya Romaniw will be...well, read on MusicWeb International

Funny how time flies. One moment you’re in the shower thinking you have plenty of time to get somewhere, two hours later you’re feeling every tic of the second hand has it in for you as you try to break the land speed record held by Bernie Quicklegs who dashed home from the train station to make it to the toilet at an average speed of 5mph. Official sensors on my heels clocked me in at 4.5mph last night as I was nearly late. Again.

Another example of time flying was the face of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009 winner Ekaterina Scherbachenko on the back of the programme for last night’s Welsh Singers Competition – the event that provides the Welsh competitor for the biannual event. A year ago she was holding the glass bauble up as champion, a year later and she’s Tatianing it around the globe. A year from now there’ll be another name on people’s lips and the first to enter the frame was the winner of last night’s final.

Deciding to splash out more than usual I opted for a stalls ticket instead of my customary cheapest of the cheap up in the rafters close to humming pieces of machinery. Which seemed like a good idea a couple of weeks ago apart from two things. Firstly, as tickets weren’t shifting to appropriate levels the ticket prices were lowered to £5 a pop across the house if you paid at the door. Secondly, in a break with the usually comfortable seats at St David's Hall I managed to choose a seat with a burgeoning lumpiness. Imagine old train seats that were once comfy and you’ll roughly know what I’m blabbering about.

In case you are wondering, no, I haven’t forgotten why I began writing this post.

The finalists. And if you are a finalist, related to a finalist or are friends with a finalist keep in mind that my musical credentials are written on the back of a soggy piece of the thinnest cardboard ever made.

Split between a mezzo, baritone, soprano and tenor the four finalists each sang four ditties in the worryingly (for me) first part of the evening. Nothing quite strikes fear into my heart as an announcement that the interval will take place after everyone has sung when I’ve just dog gulped a bottle and a half of water. Concentration and minimal movement would be the key to the evening.



Rebecca Afonwy-Jones MusicWeb International

Handel - Giulio Cesare Vani sono i lamenti ... Svegliatevi nel core
Bizet - Carmen Près des remparts de Séville
Berg - Seven Early Songs Die Nachtigall
Rossini - La Cenerentola Nacqui all'affanno ... Non più mesta

Backed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales the first competitor was mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones. It’s never easy (or so I’m told) to sing first at these things but Afonwy-Jones got on with it with no signs of nerves. Very easy on the ear with true mezzo low notes as well as a strong and clean top I was quite taken with her performance. Die Nachtigall was my favourite of her quartet and she left the stage with a solid programme behind her. My only quibble was that some of the tempi with the faster numbers were a bit too slow for my liking.



Samuel Evans MusicWeb International

Handel - Agrippina La mia sorte fortunate
Wagner - Tannhäuser Wie Todesahnung ... O du mein holder Abendstern
Finzi - Earth, Air and Rain The Clock of the Years
Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro Hai già vinta la causa! ... Vedrò mentr'io sospiro

Next up was baritone Samuel Evans. I’m guessing that singing to a panel of judges that happens to include of one of the world’s all time top bass-baritones would freak out the most laid back of characters but to be fair to Evans he got on with the job with little fuss. As with Afonwy-Jones it was a balanced programme with the highlight being the Finzi in which Evans excelled in his story telling. His singing in general was clean and elegant, but a heft was missing that would have had me marking him down as my favourite for the title – this was most evident in the Mozart where I wanted a touch more authority in the voice.



Catrin Aur Davies MusicWeb International

Richard Strauss Vier letzte Lieder Frühling
Catalani La Wally Ebben? Ne andrò lontana
Walton Troilus and Cressida At the haunted end of the day
Verdi La traviata È strano! ... Ah fors'è lui ... Sempre libera

Representing the sopranos of Wales Catrin Aur Davies brought a strictly orchestra only programme to the stage, forgoing the piano of the first two competitors. A force of nature is the best description I can muster for Davies. A brave choice of programme had the audience cheering and some on their feet at the end of her programme. If it’s tormented heroines you want then the next couple of years may see Davies doing the biz to good effect. My only quibble was that there was a tiny lack of colour in her voice at times and that the programme was too similar.



John Pierce MusicWeb International

Mozart Die Zauberflöte Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön
Massenet Manon Instant charmant ... En fermant les yeux
Verdi La traviata Lunge da lei ... De' miei bollenti spiriti
Puccini La bohème Che gelida manina

Last to sing was tenor John Pierce. Opting to begin with the Mozart he introduced himself to the audience in a gentler manner than his fellow competitors had done, and although he too opted out of any lieder singing there was a nice balance to his programme. A sweet sounding voice he sent the audience tenor crazy as he finished. Being slightly less in love with the tenor voice I wasn't so sure. But then he was the only competitor all night to do the hair raising bit with his Manon so I was none the wiser.

Thankfully the jury were pretty sprightly on their feet so the Gordian knot I’d wound myself into was quickly hacked clean and I sped off to the loo – this may not be that important to you, but it certainly was to me and let anyone be forewarned if they fancy popping along next time they might consider dehydration as valid preparation.

But on to the result...

I’d rummaged in my mind over what I’d seen and after debating with myself I decided that my favourite was the mezzo, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones. She’d given a well balanced programme that showed off many aspects of her voice and I never felt that she was struggling with the material. I would have liked a touch more agility with some of her singing, but overall I felt that she had a lot to offer. Though I wouldn’t have been storming the stage if any of the others had been chosen as it had been a close run thing throughout the evening.

Up came the jury and numerous sponsors, with Hans Sachs (Bryn Terfel) sporting an impressive suntan bringing up the rear. After he’d felt the love coming from the audience he got down to business and we discovered that the winner was...dun-dundun-duuuuuuun...John Pierce! As most people were working on the labels mezzo, baritone, soprano and tenor it took an instant for name recognition to kick in. All I knew was that I’ve never met a mezzo called John so my choice wasn’t the winner.



John Pierce and some bloke looking for a Facebook profile pic BBC

Cue wild clapping – some jigging in the stalls by family members (you can’t really get a hip shaking groove on when surrounded by furniture and strangers) – and a beaming winner. Cue more clapping for the other finalists who joined everyone in singing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau with the memorable experience of having Hans Sachs singing proudly beside the still beaming winner.

It was a result that I couldn’t argue with as Pierce had been the only singer all evening to make my hair dance and he certainly feels the music he’s performing. So we have the first name for next year’s competition. All that remains is for the remaining twenty-four to be added.

If you fancy hearing last night’s final BBC Radio Cymru are repeating it again this coming Sunday though there seems to be a slight confusion as to when it would be broadcast. I'm sure my ears caught the time of 4pm last night, but checking on the BBC Radio Cymru website the time is for 2.30pm.