Performances to Stream July 29-30, 2023
This weekend brings us many festival performances from London, Auckland, Aberystwyth, Bayreuth, Heidenheim, Schwetzingen, Kilkenny and Louisville.
Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt from the Auckland Town Hall on Radio New Zealand Concert
Perhaps more famous in his lifetime for his film score work following his emigration to America, Korngold was also quite the opera composer. Like the other late Romantic era composers of the day, his music relied on lush, sumptuous scores to accompany gorgeous melodic lines from the vocalists. Borrowing from the verismo style of opera, Korngold’s plot revolves around a very real experience for ordinary people; in this opera it is coming to terms with losing a loved one. In the opera Paul loses his wife Marie, but he cannot accept the fact that she is gone. To cope with the loss, he creates a shrine in their home of her effects and even a lock of her hair to keep her memory alive. Upon a friend’s visit, Paul’s friend encourages him to move on with his life as Marie would have wanted, but Paul will have none of it and responds that Marie yet lives. Indeed, Die tote Stadt is truly an opera for a modern world.
The cast features the talents of Aleš Briscein as Paul, Manuela Uhl as Marietta/ Marie, Richard Šveda as Frank/Fritz, Deborah Humble as Brigitta, Julie Lea Goodwin as Juliette, Brigitte Hauser as Lucienne, Oliver Sewell as Victorin, and Andrew Grenon as Count Albert. Giordano Bellincampi conducted this performance from July 8, 2023. This broadcast will air at 7:00 AM GMT on Radio New Zealand Concert on Saturday, July 29, 2023. It will not be available for listening following its initial airing.
Richard Wagner’s Siegfried from the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on BR Klassik
From the opera house built to Wagner’s specifications and desires, we have the third opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle from the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. Siegfried deals with the coming of age story of Siegmund and Brünnhilde’s son as he starts upon his journey to disrupt the order of the world by fulfilling the curse of Alberich’s ring. In this opera Siegfried crafts a new sword from the shards of Nothung, kills Fafner in his dragon form to obtain the Tarnhelm and the ring, defies Wotan and breaks his staff, and falls in love with Brünnhilde after he rescues her from her eternal slumber. All of these events set into motion the events of the fourth opera in the series.
The cast in this delayed broadcast showcases Andreas Schager as Siegfried, Arnold Bezuyen as Mime, Tomasz Konieczny as Der Wanderer, Ólafur Sigurdarson as Alberich, Tobias Kehrer as Fafner, Okka von der Damerau as Erda, Daniela Köhler as Brünnhilde, and Alexandra Steiner as Waldvogel. Pietari Inkinen conducts. This broadcast airs on BR Klassik at 4:00 PM on Saturday, July 29, 2023. It may be available to stream courtesy of the Konzertvideos section of the BR Klassik website; there are currently other Bayreuth Festival performances available there.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco from the Heidenheim Festspielhaus on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
If one thinks of a composer best suited to composing a lyrical drama around one of the most cherished female heroes of the entire world from the Middle Ages, Verdi has to immediately spring to mind as an obvious candidate. As it turns out, he did put forth an opera based on the Maid of Orleans, St. Joan of Arc. The operatic story is not quite based on history, and it has never quite become part of the standard repertoire despite the fact that Verdi composed it. In the opera Verdi styles Charles as in love with Giovanna and depicts her father as the one who first offers her to the English as a prisoner. In Verdi’s version she also does not die at the stake; instead, her father, realizing the error of his ways, helps her escape from her bonds, and she returns to a battlefield to help the French obtain victory, but she succumbs to a wound received in battle and ascends into heaven.
This opera is presented as part of the Opernfestspiele Heidenheim and our cast stars Sophie Gordeladze as Giovanna d’Arco, Héctor Sandoval as Carlo VII, Luca Grassi as Giacomo, Paulo Paolillo as Delil, and Rory Dunne as Talbot. Marcus Bosch leads the Brno Czech Philharmonic Choir and the Cappella Aquileia in this recorded broadcast from July 22, 2023. This broadcast airs at 5:00 PM GMT on Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s Oper on Saturday, July 29, 2023, and may be available for listening following its initial airing.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah from the Royal Albert Hall on BBC Radio 3
As Mendelssohn brought the music of Johann Sebastian Bach back into the realm of studied and performed music, he also aspired to compose a great oratorio like the Baroque masters had done before him. He settled upon the subject of the Old Testament prophet Elijah and the work premiered in 1846. It has remained popular ever since then with choirs and orchestras around the world. While some critics were cool toward the work for it appearing too old-fashioned, it is widely regarded as Mendelssohn’s magnum opus today.
For this performance from the BBC Proms, our soloists include sopranos Carolyn Sampson and Rowan Pierce, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, tenor Andrew Staples, and baritone Roderick Williams. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus are led by maestro Maxim Emelyanchev. This live broadcast airs at 5:30 PM GMT on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday, July 29, 2023, and it will be available for listening again following the broadcast.
George Friedrich Handel’s Semele from the Watergate Theatre on RTÉ Lyric FM
This performance of Semele is from last year’s Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland. Since we just heard this opera two weeks ago from Munich, I will tread lightly with history and plot. The work premiered in 1744 during the season of Lent, and it was not well received by the public or critics. Timing was probably very likely a factor as audiences expected a Biblical theme for an oratorio for Lent. Instead, what they received was s drama from the pages of Roman author Ovid about the origin of Bacchus from the seeds of jealousy and vanity. One can understand how this might have been contrary to what audiences expected of Handel’s oratorios when one remembers it was he who also composed Messiah.
The cast of soloists includes Kelli-Ann Masterson as Semele, Andrew Gavin as Apollo/Jupiter, Edward Hawkins as Cadmus/Somnus, Gerben van der Werf as Athamas, Dominica Williams as Juno, Jade Phoenix as Iris, and Fionn Ó hAlmhain as High Priest. Andrew Griffiths conducts Sestina and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. This broadcast is scheduled to air at 6:00 PM GMT on RTÉ Lyric FM’s Opera Night on Saturday, July 29, 2023. It will be available for future listening following the broadcast’s airing.
André Grétry’s Zémire et Azor from the Schloss Schwetzingen on SWR 2
For this week’s selection I have never heard, we have this French opera from the Classical era from Belgian composer André Grétry. I was unaware that there was an opera based on Beauty and the Beast, but this is it! It premiered in 1771 and was a favorable staple of French opera until the 1820’s. It was performed in London, Saint Petersburg, Drottingholm, New York, Philadelphia, and Havana all before 1800. In this opéra comique Sander and Ali are shipwrecked and happen upon a palace where they find a feast in waiting for guests. Unable to find the owner of the palace or anyone there, they eat and make themselves merry. Sander admires the roses in the palace garden and picks one to take home to his daughter Zémire. Azor appears to Sander and Ali and tells them it is he who owns the palace. The penalty for taking one of his roses is death, but he agrees to spare Sander’s life if one of his daughters take his punishment. Zémire volunteers herself upon hearing the news, and she goes to Azor’s palace where she meets a life with the beast Azor instead of death. Azor proves a kind companion, and he even allows Zémire to return home to see her family if she will promise to come back to him. When she greets Azor again after her visit to her delighted family, he transforms into a handsome prince.
The second of this weekend’s broadcast performances that are accompanied by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, this performance stars Amelia Scicolone as Zémire,
Patrick Kabongo as Azor, Raphael Wittmer as Ali, Thomas Berau as Sandro, Seunghee Kho as Fatima, and Maria Polanska as Lesbia. Bernhard Forck conducts. This performance was recorded on May 26 & 28, 2023, but it is scheduled for broadcast on SWR 2 at 6:00 PM on Saturday, July 29, 2023. It will be available to stream following the broadcast.
The Gesualdo Six at the BBC Proms from Aberystwyth Arts Centre on BBC Radio 3
Renowned chamber vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six have a reputation as a sextet specializing in Renaissance works; however, director Owain Park leads them into the 20th and 21st centuries on this program as they commemorate anniversary composers Byrd and Weelkes alongside Ligeti. Other composers on the docket include Palestrina, Gibbons, Monteverdi, Arcadelt, Marenzio, Casulana, Weir, and even a world premiere commission from Sarah Rimkus. This live performance airs at 1:00 PM GMT on Sunday, July 30, 2023, on BBC Radio 3 and will be available to hear after the initial airing.
The Festival of American Music from the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts on LPM Classical WUOL
I may be American, but it is not any secret that I am not the greatest fan of American classical music. Nevertheless, if soprano Amanda Majeski is a scheduled soloist on a program of American works, my interest is thoroughly piqued, and how can I resist exploring some music from my country then? This concert with the Louisville Orchestra and the Louisville Chamber Choir presents Olga Neuwirth’s Masaot/Clocks Without Hands, Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish,” and the world premiere of TJ Cole’s Phenomenal of the Earth. This performance airs at 11:00 PM GMT on Sunday, July 30, 2023, on LPM Classical WUOL and will not be available for streaming following its airing.