Performances to Stream for July 1-2, 2023
Today's entry comes a trifle later than anticipated due to my cousin giving birth to a daughter last evening. Performances hail from Germany, Italy, France, England, and Spain this week.
Robert Schumann’s Genoveva from the Kulturpalast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Hearing an opera from Robert Schumann these days is about as rare as finding a hen’s teeth, so this is a marvelous treat for the opera aficionadi among us. Schumann set to work on this score in 1844, and the opera premiered in 1850 in Leipzig’s Staadttheater with the composer on the podium. The story takes place in the 8th century AD and begins with Siegfried, Count of Brabant, rising to the call of joining Charles Martel’s crusade against the Saracens. Siegfried entrusts the protection of his wife Genoveva to the care of his young servant Golo, but, unbeknownst to Siegfried, Golo is enamored with the Count’s wife. With Siegfried gone on the business of the defense of Christendom, Golo seizes his opportunity to make advances on Genoveva, which she steadfastly refuses. Golo is infuriated at his lack of success in making a mistress of his noble lord’s wife, so he hatches a scheme to exact a measure of revenge. He sneaks one of the old stewards into Genoveva’s room at night to stage an affair for the other servants to witness. When Golo brings the others to the scene, they are too quick to believe his version of events and are incited to murder Drago and imprison Genoveva. Word is sent of his wife’s imagined misdeed to Siegfried, and he responds that Golo must execute her for her sin. Before this can be accomplished, the ghost of Drago appears before one of the servants who knows the truth, and it tells her that she must reveal the actual turn of events from that fateful evening or else face her own death. Golo dispatches men to execute Genoveva, but a deaf, mute boy manages to save her from the jealous punishment of her husband’s lecherous servant. Siegfried learns the truth and what his servant had conspired to accomplish and brings about a happy ending at his return.
This performance from the Kulturpalast in Dresden from June 4, 2023, stars Carolyn Sampson as Genoveva, Marie Seidler as Margaretha, Marcel Beekman as Golo, Johannes Weisser as Hindulfus, Bischof von Trier, Cornelius Uhle as Drago, Haushofmeister, and Yorck Felix Speer as Balthasar, Diener. Aapo Häkkinen leads the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Arnold Schönberg Chor in this performance. This broadcast is scheduled to air at 5:00 PM GMT on Saturday, July 1, 2023, on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. This concert from the Dresdner Musikfestpiele 2023 will be available for listening following the broadcast.
Johann Sebastian Bach Cantatas from Regensburg on BR Klassik
In my estimation one of the most awe-inspiring pieces of trivia concerning Bach’s output of composition comes from his cantatas. When Bach started his career at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, his responsibilities consisted of composing new music for each week’s service and all holy days, copying the parts for all of the ensemble members, leading the choir, and teaching a school of musicians at the church. Bach composed over 300 cantatas while in Leipzig, and we still have over 200 of them with us today. While Handel is well known to have heavily recycled his work among his compositions, Bach did so to a far lesser extent, which is another facet that makes his output of work all the more grand to his many admirers.
On this concert, we have soprano Hannah Ely, countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Dijan, tenor Thomas Hobbs, bass Romain Bockler with Alia Mens performing these selections:
— Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben, BWV 8.
— Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 690.
— Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, Wie furchtsam wankten meine Schritte, BWV 33.
— Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13.
— Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott, BWV 127.
Olivier Spilmont conducted in this performance from May 28, 2023. This performance will air at 4:00 PM GMT on Saturday, July 1, 2023, on BR Klassik. The performance may be available for future listening on the site’s concert catalog.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore from the Royal Opera House on BBC Radio 3
Perhaps the greatest opera composer of all, Verdi’s works are a staple of any opera house’s season, and their popularity can be attested by the fact they have never left the operatic canon since their premieres. Il Trovatore is a regularly performed work heard and seen around the world each year. I gave a detailed synopsis of this opera last week, so as a refresher I will keep this week’s account of the action short for the sake of brevity and the numerous other selections I must cover for the weekend. Il Conte di Luna loves Leonora, but Leonora has lately become interested in a traveling troubador named Manrico who is not from their region of Spain. Di Luna challenges Manrico to a duel in which he loses, but Manrico spares his life. Manrico turns out to be the long lost brother of di Luna, and, when di Luna captures and imprisons Manrico and his “mother” Azucena, Leonora takes poison after making a deal with di Luna to marry him if Manrico can be set free. Il Conte di Luna reneges on his promise and kills Manrico following Leonora’s suicide, and Azucena reveals that a curse put upon the two boys from their childhood has come to pass.
The cast for this recent performance includes Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Leonora, Jamie Barton as Azucena, Roberto Massi as Manrico, Ludovic Tézier as Conte di Luna, Roberto Tagliavini as Ferrando, Luna's sidekick, Gabrielė Kupšytė as Ines, Michael Gibson as Ruiz, John Morrissey as Old gypsy, and Andrew O'Connor as Messenger. Sir Antonio Pappano led the orchestra and chorus. This performance airs at 5:30 PM GMT on Saturday, July 1, 2023, on the BBc Radio 3’s Opera on 3. It will be available for future listening.
Christoph Willibald von Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice from the Teatro Lirico on RAI Radio 3
Regarded as the first “modern” opera, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice revolutionized opera by taking the focus away from the star singers of the day and shifting it to the whole production. One of the changes Gluck made was to do away with da capo arias that could continue for as long as a soloist wanted to bask in the adoration of the audience. This innovation dramatically shortened operas on the heels of the Baroque era. While we tend to think of Orfeo ed Euridice as “old,” it was composed after the death of Bach, which puts it in the realm of the Classical era in music; however, when you listen to it, you will still hear many traditional Baroque compositional techniques that had not quite yet fallen out of favor in France. Premiered in 1762, it exists as something of a crossover between the Baroque and Classical eras. The story follows the classical tale of Orfeo’s attempts to retrieve his wife Euridice from the underworld. He is granted the chance to do so, but he must lead her home without every turning around to look back upon her. Unfortunately, his resolve is not quite enough to prevent him from gazing upon his wife’s beauty just before they emerge from the underworld, and she is dragged back to an existence with Hades, leaving Orfeo destitute and sad for his second loss of his wife.
The cast for this performance boasts the talents of Michela Guarrera as Orfeo, Chiara Notarnicola as Euridice, and Olga Dyadiv as Amore. Enrico Pagano leads the performance from April 15, 2023. It will air on RAI Radio 3’s Il cartellone at 5:55 PM GMT on Saturday, July 1, 2023. It will be available for listening following the broadcast.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s Manru from the Opéra National de Lorraine on France Musique
Paderewski is perhaps best known to us today as a virtuoso concert pianist of the highest order. However, during his lifetime, he was well known as a contemporary composer and even a respected diplomat. He became the 3rd Prime Minister of Poland in 1919 and represented his home country in singing the Treaty of Versailles to end the first world war. Manru is the composer’s only opera, and it premiered in Dresden in 1901. It was performed in English the following year at the old Metropolitan Opera in New York. This performance from a French opera company is a rarity, for this opera is not known to have been performed outside of Poland after 1945, but this quote comes from an historical voume from 1978, and I have not exhaustively researched to confirm or deny this as of yet. As with many operas, our story revolves around a love triangle, and the title character is a gypsy. He leaves his own nomadic lifestyle to marry a local village girl named Ulana. Ulana’s mother is extremely displeased by this and disowns her daughter while Ulana and Manru are forced to live a life of poverty behind the village in a hut they have made for themselves and their newborn child. Urok, a local drug dealer or apothecary depending on how you look at it, delivers to Ulana a concoction that should keep Manru enamored with her, but he also loves Ulana himself. The concoction fails to keep Manru by her since it makes him disoriented, and he leaves for his people’s village. Unfortunately, his own people consider him a traitor, as well, but they devise a plot for him to prove his loyalty and to achieve their freedom from their leader. If Manru will kill Oros, he can be chief of the gypsy nomads. Manru accepts the offer, and Ulana is saved from suicide by Urok reminding her that she has a child for which she ought to care.
The cast features Janis Kelly as Hedwig, Gemma Summerfield as Ulana, Thomas Blondelle as Manru. Gyula Nagy as Urok, Lucie Peyramaure as Asa, Tomasz Kumiega as Oros, Halidou Nombre as Jagu, Heera Bae as Young Peasant, Jue Zhang as Young Peasant / Voice of the Mountains, Yongwoo Yung as Voice of the Mountains, Artur Banaszkiewicz as violin, and Ariane Castell Prono as Ulana and Manru’s daughter. Marta Gardolinska conducts this performance. Manru is scheduled for broadcast on Saturday, July 1, 2023, at 6:00 PM on France Musique’s Samedi à l'opéra. It will be available for streaming following the initial airing.
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major, Symphony of a Thousand from the Auditorio Nacional de Música on Radio Clásica
When one discusses the expanse of an orchestral sound, they are usually referencing one of three composers, and Gustav Mahler is often the one heard outside of opera aficionado circles. While Mahler is responsible for the modern expansion of the orchestra, this specific piece receives its unofficial moniker from the massive assembly of choral forces it requires, which is 8 soloists, two full choirs, and a children’s treble choir. On large stages it is easy to boast in excess of 200 performers for both the orchestra players and singers with choirs of 40 voices each and fewer for a treble choir. The work premiered in 1910 in Munich with the conductor at the podium. Its American premiere arrived in Philadelphia in 1916 under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Notably, the Philadelphia Orchestra was augmented to 120 orchestral players for this work and took its show on the road to visit the audiences of New York at the old Metropolitan Opera that same year.
This performance stars sopranos Antara Korai, Susanne Wegener, Serena Sáenz, mezzo-sopranos Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Alice Coote, tenor Simon O'Neill, baritone José Antonio López, and bass Christoph Fischesser under the baton of David Afkham. This live performance is scheduled for Sunday, July 2, 2023, at 9:30 AM GMT on Radio Clásica’s Magazine de verano. It will likely be available for future listening following the broadcast.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Elias, Op. 70, MWV A 25, from the Musik- und Kongresshalle Lübeck on NDR Kultur
Mendelssohn is largely responsible for the endurance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works into the modern repertoire. While Handel’s music was never completely forgotten in England, Bach’s contributions to composition began to be erased from memory shortly after his death. Famously, in 1829 Mendelssohn gave the first performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, since the composer’s death. Mendelssohn himself desired to compose an oratorio in the styles of Bach and Handel, and this would finally manifest itself in Elias, which premiered in 1846 at the Birmingham Festival, a mere three years before the composer’s early death at 38 years of age. This oratorio tells the story of the Biblical prophet Elijah attending to the work of God found in the chapters of 1 and 2 Kings.
Star singers soprano Christina Landshamer, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Andrew Staples, baritone Michael Volle, and boy soprano Florian Markus are the soloists, and the appear with the WDR Radio Choir, the NDR Vocal Ensemble, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert. This live performance from the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival will air on NDR Kultur at 6:00 PM GMT on Sunday, July 2, 2023. I do not know if it will be available for future listening afterward.