Low expectations as the new normal

Since “freedom day” our performance spaces have reopened and most have refused to take any serious precautions to avert further spread of Covid, egged on by an incompetent government that has made inaction and doing the absolute minimum is good enough.

All around Europe over the last six months it has been standard policy to require audiences to have proof of vaccination, to have recovered from or have a recent negative test before entering. In England currently it’s essentially free for all, just a few hand sanitising stations and leaving mask wearing to the audience’s “common sense”. Unfortunately this has been led from the political leadership of DCMS who want to keep pretending that the pandemic is dealt with and still treating the stalled vaccination programme as a panacea. They willfully ignore the very fact that this virus is airborne. As a reasonable person I feel uneasy that our performance companies are happy to sell full capacity auditoria without any tangible mitigation strategies in place.

Last year I was hugely disappointed to miss out on The Rake’s Progress and Fidelio at Glyndebourne and Jenůfa at the Royal Opera House. When they were all reprogrammed for this autumn I booked hoping that we would be dealing with a socially distanced set up. But it wasn’t to be. Glyndebourne disappointingly dropped the plans to check vaccination status for all patrons… presumably because of pressure from DCMS/Arts Council who helped them financially last year and also sponsor the Tour. Jenůfa was a horrible situation with around 30% of the audience bothering to wear any face coverings which at this stage in this pandemic is utterly childish and thoughtless. And yet the Royal Opera House allowed many of us and their own staff to be in a more precarious situation that we had to be. Can imagine after firing most of the front of house staff early on in the pandemic (what a shoddy employer they really are) the staff that was rehired, presumably with worse conditions, felt less at ease to push back at the lack of safeguards for their daily interactions with the largely unmasked punters.

I did write to both institutions and repeatedly tweeted them my disbelief for being so irresponsible, all I got back was just cut and paste DMs and emails that said very little. They clearly didn’t think trying to mitigate spread was part of their planning in restarting live performances. Somehow making many of us complaining feel as if we are overreacting. Even when we bring up the example of most other opera companies around the world being much more cautious and proactive we were faced with a wall of silence. We’ve even had newspaper published critics mentioning how unsafe they felt at the opera house…and yet apparently nothing to see there.

The feeling was particularly compounded by spotting the CEO of the Opera House, Alex Beard sitting and chatting in the company seats at the back of the Stalls as if nothing is happening. When at all entry points they have massive signs “encouraging” people to keep their face coverings on. It’s all a total joke when the leadership are happy to be seen maskless when apparently they take the pandemic “very seriously”. I’m afraid in order to believe it, dear ROH, I’d like to see some tangible effort.

I’m sick of it and was rather tickled to see ticket holders for upcoming events at Covent Garden being sent messages for seating areas that had been declared into compulsory mask wearing areas to protect their staff and artists. So clearly the unions must have got involved at long last and got the management to acknowledge that they don’t do enough to enforce the absolute minimum mitigation measures that are in place. Another thing that it makes clear is that they essentially acknowledge that they are not enforcing mask wearing and from my first hand experience I’d say the vast majority is not bothering.

But in the same week when the Prime Minister visits a hospital and is pictured maskless next to fully masked doctors and nurses. It gives an implicit permission to other public institutions to be negligent and to just keep pretending that they have done all they can. I would largely attribute it to the handouts through the #hereforculture scheme from the Arts Council via DCMS that came with lots of caveats and in essence has tied our performance spaces and companies to the purse strings of the government. So the fact they all reflect their utter incompetence is not a huge surprise. But it is disappointing to see the performance company bosses be much more subservient than their equivalents in the visual arts, who have largely kept their stricter mitigating measures in place, despite their venues being inherently safer than a crowded, airless auditorium. I know from experience this government has long been trying to wrestle control of institutions they are only a minority funder of. But the pandemic offered them the golden opportunity to push further with their agenda while so many income streams dried out over three lockdowns, their demands being much harder for the institutions to deflect.

Until any of the above changes for the better, I refuse to book tickets for any performances and I would ask anyone who is agreeing that they are not doing enough to look after their audiences and staff, to join me. We should be demanding better from the companies that our taxes fund. We have all had a tough twenty months and would love to support some of our favourite artists but not at the expense of keeping the infection rates at the current humongous levels. It is not possible to ignore what’s happening around us while we sit down in our velvet seats and take in a show, if we do, then we are part of the problem.

Fight for relevance

Yesterday morning as I was scrolling lazily my Instagram timeline came upon a brilliant opera singer being all happy to be promoted as the Beyoncé of opera.

After the initial flutter of excitement that an opera singer gets featured on a mainstream media outlet (coverage is that rare, to make any reference becomes a cause for celebration), started to wonder why once more the mainstream has to equal the achievements of opera singers to pop ones.

Why couldn’t they refer to the scores of amazing women of colour that have treaded the boards of opera houses the world over and forged careers that lasted longer than Beyoncé’s whole life? And why are PR people, record companies and artists happy to conform to this dialectic? Why don’t they have some fight in them to go against that populist nonsense.

Why shouldn’t mainstream publications know who Marian Anderson, Shirley Verrett and Leontyne Price have been in the classical world?
With such well documented careers it’s never too late to educate others and keep those fantastic artists relevant as a historic reference and also as the important pioneers they were.

Accepting the status quo of media coverage is to accept that opera is no longer relevant and it doesn’t have its own heroes to offer to the mainstream. Which on its own is too depressing to contemplate.

Exclusion by design

Was looking at the future programming of the Barbican Art Gallery this morning and was amazed to find out that their Box Office has gone cashless on the 1st of November. I find it extraordinary for a major venue subsidised both by the Arts Council and The City of London to instigate this measure under the guise of speed of transactions and/or safety. Surely in the middle class bubble the management of the Barbican operates in, nobody is without a bank account…but looking further afield and it was reported in 2017 by charity Toynbee Hall that 1.7 million people don’t have a bank account and crucially:

• 94% of people without a bank account have a personal income of below £17,500 per annum, and 91% live in households where the total income is £17,500 per annum.
• 55% are in council housing, while 24% are in the private rental sector
• 31% are between the ages of 20-29 and 26% between the ages of 40-49.
• 70% are recorded as having nothing in savings, while 20.5% have between £1-100.
• 73% primarily use another financial product, such as a Post Office Current Account or credit union, while 27% are cash-only.
• 5% are recorded as saying they get to the end of every month without any money while 35.5% are recorded as doing so fairly regularly.
• 42% currently use, or have previously used, debt advice services.
• 53% are either “very confident” or “fairly confident” using email and social media websites, and leaving feedback on shopping websites.
• 44% use a smartphone

It’s clear the demographic the Barbican is excluding is near the poverty line and their life must be hard enough to not be allowed to use any pocket money they have to buy a cinema ticket, theatre or concert ticket at the Barbican. Why this form of social apartheid is allowed to go on unquestioned is stunning to me. If the small cushion of public funding is meant to encourage venues to be as open as possible to all, that surely means people without a bank account should have a way to access their services too.

Please consider writing to the Barbican to voice your opposition to this blatantly exclusionary policy. Their contact address is info@barbican.org.uk and ask them to forward your message to Sandeep Dwesar their Chief Operating & Financial Officer.

The notice on the Barbican website explaining the change of policy

2017, my musical year in review

The last time I wrote a blog post, Donald Trump had just become President of the USA, which pretty much prefigured the chaos and confusion of the last twelve months. But being on the door step of a possible nuclear obliteration is a good time to look back to all the joyful artistic experiences that made it from bearable to outright gorgeous.  Since I lazily put together a short list of favourites from the last twelve months in response to Fiona Maddocks’ review, thought I’d publish them here with a few additions. In many ways it has been a remarkable year and have been very lucky to have been to so many stimulating performances.

The programming of the Royal Opera left quite a lot to be desired for half of the year which brought down the number of performances attended considerably. Also managed to be at Semiramide on the night that Joyce DiDonato was unwell, which made it a rather staid evening. Sadly with the crazy prices I didn’t manage to see it another time. 

Also promised myself not to darken the doorstep on ENO until the utterly useless leadership steps down, I’m getting my wish next year so will be keeping an eye their way and hopefully see them make progress and who knows maybe one day they will manage to perform a bit more frequently as the current status quo is a long term road to oblivion.

The smaller companies made quite an impact, Welsh National Opera was programming a lot of crowd-pleasers aside to more esoteric repertoire showing David Pountney’s capability in keeping a company in the black but also making sure it offers something for the neophyte but also adventure to the seasoned punter.

Scottish Opera seem to be out of the woods artistically after a couple of challenging years. The two performances I attended were absolutely gripping, the appointment of Stuart Stratford is clearly making a difference. 

Grange Park semi-built a new opera house in the enchanted surroundings of a 17th century manor house, even if the dreadful Joanna Lumley was needed to cajole more money for their new toilets. Based on the description by Wasfi Kani I’m expecting a miniature Roman Coliseum with urinals.

Over at Glyndebourne I managed to compress my three customary visits to a long weekend but was rewarded by some exceptional performances that even made me ignore the absolutely pointless staging of Ariadne auf Naxos that despite prior announcements, not many changes happened and we ended up with the most glorious singing in the service of a production that is both obvious and totally missing the dramatic arc of Strauss’ masterpiece.

Holland Park Opera put another strong season with very well cast younger singers making their stage bubble with enthusiasm. 

•Le Grand Macabre with the LSO and Rattle in January was a fantastic way to blow away the cobwebs with Simon Rattle conducting a blistering account of this demanding score with a London Symphony Orchestra rewarding him with pinpoint accuracy and crystalline clarity. 

•Bryan Hymel’s blistering Turiddu and Canio on the opening night of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at Covent Garden. When I saw him two weeks later he was even better!

•Elīna Garanča‘s very intense and in many ways against the grain Santuzza was a revelation in Cavalleria Rusticana who added much needed nuance to this fantastic production.

•Lisette Oropesa’s turn as Lucia bettered what can be done with Katie Mitchell’s production bringing clarity and vocal prowess. Her Lucia was young, but deep, and as far removed from pointless vocal pyrotechnics and “identikit madness” acting as possible. 

•The spectacular young cast including Natalya Romaniw, Jason Bridges and Nicholas Lester for Welsh National Opera’s Onegin was a joy, bringing back that most important ingredient of Tchaikovsky’s immense achievement, youth, to the foreground. 

•Lise Davidsen’s dark hued Ariadne at Glyndebourne was definitely a confirmation of great promise and an unforgettable evening. Her magical performance made us forget about the truly pointless production which deserves to be shelved without trace. 

•The unbrittled orientalism with a side of contemporary criticism for Cavalli’s Hipermestra at Glyndebourne made the unfamiliar accessible and gave a great vehicle for with many young singers, including Emőke Baráth, Benjamin Hulett, Anthony Gregory and David Webb making their mark.

•The luxurious Magda of Elizabeth Llewellyn at Opera Holland Park’s La Rondine was balm for the soul on a warm summer’s evening. A tremendous singer that gives insightful readings of roles wrapped up with her sparkling personality.  

•The brutal Jenůfa at Grange Park was a great achievement, a true psychological thriller from start to finish. The intensity of Natalya Romaniw and the set chewing vim of Susan Bullock made this a true highlight of the year.

•Another Holland Park triumph for the great singing actress Anne Sophie Duprels in Zazà. She is truly the house diva and she delivers in spades every time. Have never walked away from one of her shows less than shaken. Make sure you catch her when she returns in Mascagni’s Isabeau. 

•Brett Dean’s Hamlet at Glyndebourne was blessed with an amazing cast including Allan Clayton, Sarah Connolly and Barbara Hannigan. I was not quite as enamoured with the ridiculous writing for the Counter-tenors but the overall effect was one of a major new work that would benefit from some small revisions to make it dramatically even tighter.

•Joyce DiDonato’s intimate concert at the Wigmore Hall with the Brentano Quartet was a suitably magical end to the year. A programme that included Strauss and Debussy was crowned by Jake Heggie’s song cycle based on the life story of sculptor Camille Claudel written for her in 2012. It was musical communication of the highest order, every breath mattered and it added meaning to every word. Have a listen to the two encores I recorded on the night to have an idea of the level of engagement and togetherness of audience and performer. 

 

Thanks for reading and I will wish you all a tremendous year ahead, even if we have to make even more concerted effort to make it so.

 

A bass with no balls

This morning was a strange one, watching the smug permatanned face of Donald Trump pretend to be presidential for five minutes before returning into the usual idiotic drivel in his acceptance speech. As I drunk my cup of coffee and ate the sad remains of a slice of carrot cake I thought I’d catch up with Instagram.

One of the first posts to see was by Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov. A triumphant photo he took with Trump, congratulating him, with prerequisite misplaced Americanism, for his election. After over 100 likes, the comments from disaffected fans mentioning Trump’s record on LGBT issues started coming in, the post was unceremoniously deleted. Isn’t it wonderful when anyone thinks that in this day and age simply deleting a post on social media will make it go away.

Sorry Ildar in order for you to have that post ready to go the moment Trump won, you are indeed a big fan of his. Which in itself is fine. But at least have the balls to back up your belief in him when the going gets hard. Deleting it was really stupid. You are a good singer but proved to be a spineless human being in this instance.

Lack of ambition never saved anyone in trouble

The rigmarole about English National Opera’s finances continues. The board seems to be incapable to bring anything of value to the table since their only solution to the brutal fiscal realities is to scale down ambition and erode standards of performance.

The stories of the folding of New York City Opera and the current slow death of Scottish Opera teach us one main lesson. If you scale back activity you become so irrelevant that nobody cares if you survive or not.

ENO needs people in charge that have imagination for programming and a flair for fundraising. Yesterday’s update from Cressida Pollock the CEO of the company. In response to the current troubles and the all out assault her management has received in the press and social media was like a speech by Margaret Thatcher when she was selling off the family silver in the 80s. She presents her position as if the whim of the gormless Arts Council England is the word of God and must be adhered to. This slavish reliance to ACE is part of the historic issues they have to deal with.

How about ENO grows a pair and instead of trying to whore itself to a cretinous ACE they do all they can to prove them wrong. The only way out of trouble is to remind everyone what a vital service the company offers when at its best and to properly fight for survival. But reading between the lines of Pollock’s carefully worded statement she doesn’t believe in her own product very much. Her tone verging on the utterly defeated and going through the motions.

They could try to perform more alongside with cutting production costs with reviving many classic productions that haven’t been staged since John Berry took over. But the implication is that the Board don’t believe that they will take enough at the box office to make it worth a try. And of course with that lack of faith in their own product they will find it much more difficult to attract funding from benefactors as they wouldn’t want to be associated with a sinking ship.

Instead they ruin their permanent Chorus by making their jobs essentially freelance. If they want to call themselves a national opera company they should shout out loud and clear why they are different and worth surviving. Not just retreat into a cave and await slow death. Nobody in the arts is having a great time right now but we all start from one basic tenet we believe in our product and advocate with the loudest voice why the arts are important to the UK. Being visible in that live discourse is important and opera companies seem all too happy to live in their parochial bubble. Be part of the wider conversation on the vital contribution ENO makes or can make to British life not just cling to the purse strings of ACE. The breast feeding phase has passed it’s time to start walking.

Let’s all support the Chorus of ENO in their struggle against this myopic management and hope there is a way out of the current mess. We do need this ensemble to survive and to offer hours of joy to anyone willing to listen.

Fat gate mark 2

Being a performer is tough. You are exposed to criticism at every turn and it is expected. But it was horrendous that the Evening Standard would go on to body shame Allan Clayton less than two years since the uproar at Glyndebourne. Whilst it is fine to criticise all aspects of a live performance in a professional manner to make disparaging remarks on the bodily appearance of the performers most certainly isn’t.

Barry Millington wrote in his review of the Magic Flute last night 

Not least that of Tamino, sung by Allan Clayton, who is vocally in excellent trim but needs to spend more time at the gym if he is to be stripped regularly to his boxers.

It had never occurred to me that Tamino was meant to be a male model type and it seems absurd why bad looking critics in their 60s obsess what an extraordinarily talented singer like Allan Clayton looks like in his pants on stage.

As long as a singer’s physical state doesn’t affect their performance it is nasty to body shame the person in the spotlight, particularly when they have sung excellently. As Richard Morrison’s and Rupert Christiansen’s comments about the looks of opera singers were brushed away with merely a flutter of an apology I think venues should go nuclear on reviewers that keep on making such needless comments.

After all the opera companies have a duty of care to their performers and should do something about rogue reviewers that use their press ticket privilege to offend.

Barry Millington @standardnews can fuck off. pic.twitter.com/K0uecP3uxu

— Allan Clayton (@fatboyclayton) February 10, 2016

Reading Clayton’s tweet this morning brought a lump in my throat…we have all been there, on the receiving end of a bully at some point in our lives. We also probably told them to fuck off too…but it should not be left unchallenged.

Bullies like Millington should be stripped (pun intended, dear Barry, boy) of free access to performances if only to make them realise that it is not a valid line of enquiry in a review to suggest a singer visits the gym more frequently. Our society is obsessed enough with looks as it is, we should not be giving a free pass to critics to add another burden on the already pressurised life of opera singers.

The whole point of beautiful singing is its transformative quality, if a 50 year old soprano can convince me she is a 15 year old geisha then I have no problem with a Tamino having a bit more meat on the bone. Actually the whole insidious barihunk lark is acting as an acceptable form of body shaming apartheid that has been trickling like poison in operatic circles. The very idea that an exceptional singer won’t get cast because of the lack of musculature should be an alien concept but sadly it isn’t.  

Yes, I’m a gay man…I enjoy the nude male form but I’ll be damned if I enjoyed more a singer’s performance because they have a six pack. Singers have enough issues to obsess about as it is. Critics, back off and can we all please stop and think how normalising fat shaming on stage is bad for the art itself. 

2015, my operatic year

Dear readers…I have been a bad boy this year and my blogging was rather infrequent. Mind you, if you follow me on any social media you probably have heard more from me than you’d like to…but thanks for persevering.

2015 has been an unremarkable year for opera in Britain, mainly due to companies feeling the squeeze on budgets which for most meant a retreat to standard rep and taking few chances. The much derided Royal Opera diet of Traviatas, Bohèmes and Toscas has become a joke that keeps on giving over the last three seasons. Thankfully smaller companies have emerged as the places to find more challenging material and more imaginative interpretations. The largest cloud cast has been again the pitiful state of Scottish Opera and the continuing upheaval at English National Opera. The year’s major highlights were provided by Glyndebourne, Opera Holland Park and Welsh National Opera.

The ups

Glyndebourne + On Tour / Saul
Barry Kosky’s exuberant production displayed a sure hand in blending the drama of Handel’s music a bleak dark grey stage and mountains of props. Never wavering from the emotional heart of the piece he put unremitting focus on the acting and how the high emotions were projected to the auditorium. It was impressive to listen, a sleek spectacle and an imaginative retelling that left no doubt in my head that he just gets it. A great moment for Glyndebourne and a production to be remembered for a very long time.

OHP / Flight
Holland Park did Jonathan Dove proud for staging his cheeky little opera in a straight but not boring way. It was not the hottest ticket of their season, but the young cast brought tones of brio to this tightly woven tale of human relationships.

SO / Inés de Castro
Scottish Opera brought out the baroque aesthetic of the work in a very simple staging by Olivia Fuchs that afforded ample opportunities to show off the singers. Stephanie Corley was a force to be reckoned with as Inés. Just wish SO spent more time sorting its administrative and financial side and championing more Scottish composers and their output. This was a gory triumph.

ENO / The Indian Queen
Peter Sellars is the proverbial mad man of the operatic village. This production of this work by Purcell was exhausting to watch but the sheer maximalism of the additions to the score and text made it one of those memorable failures that one tries to unpick in their memory months later. It was baffling and extraordinary, sublime and odd. Lucy Crowe in glowing voice under the baton of Laurence Cummings was superb. And was allowed mercifully the stage to herself to show everyone how it is possible to fill the expanse of the Coliseum with her voice that fills one’s heart with content.

Birmingham Opera / The Ice Break
My third opera excursion to Birmingham and another unqualified success. Tippett is criminally neglected these days and this production set in an airport resonated with the migrant crisis unfolding across Europe and has worsened since this productions saw the light of day. It crackled with energy and presented opera making as collaborative activity. Requiring active involvement by the cast, community chorus and all of us watching.

ENO / Queen of Spades
David Alden’s production had a lot of holes in the narrative continuity but it was worth the price of admission for the extraordinary conducting by Ed Gardner and the magisterial, otherworldly Countess  of Felicity Palmer. Who still has incredible reserves of voice and a stage presence to obliterate anyone else. Pure magic at work. 

OHP / Il Trittico
Holland Park was very ambitious to present Puccini’s triptych and it was a spectacular success. Most memorable the shattering interpretation of Suor Angelica by Anne Sophie Duprels who distilled the dramatic potential to unbearable intensity. Incredible to think this was her debut of the role…hope she gets to sing it many more times.

Glyndebourne / Poliuto
The return of Michael Fabiano to Glyndebourne with this infrequently performed tenor vehicle. He was eminently watchable and sang with great clarity and passion. The conducting of Enrique Mazzola brought restless energy to Donizetti’s score and softened the blow of a rather pedestrian production by Mariame Clément. 

Blackheath Opera / Idomeneo
A bracing community opera that brought the work to its basics. It had all the fizz the recent Covent Garden outing lacked. Kirstin Sharpin was spectacular in her description of the turmoil of Elettra, white hot intensity at its very best. 

SWP / Arcangelo: Lacrimae with Anna Prohaska
Not strictly an opera performance but worth mentioning for the sheer delicacy and charisma of Prohaska. Myriads of colours engulfed us. Her Purcell arias were particularly impressive each one a small acted drama. She is definitely one of the most compelling musicians working today. 

Wigmore Hall / Anna Caterina Antonacci + Donald Sulzen / La voix humaine
A sublime afternoon and if strictly speaking it was a concert. Antonacci is a dab hand in breathing life into the damaged woman of Poulenc’s work. Every word mattered, every gesture, every look. We have to be thankful that Radio 3 relayed it live so we have for posterity a document of this great artist at work. 

WNO / I Puritani
Welsh National Opera has been a great company to follow for all lovers of bel canto. After presenting Donizetti’s three queens last year they offered a rather beautifully stark production by Annilese Miskimmon of Bellini’s masterpiece. Carlo Rizzi conducted with true flair and Rosa Feola’s Elvira was a stunning stage creation. Balancing this figment of the gothic imagination perfectly. She displayed great taste and all the coloratura became a descriptive part of the heroine’s disturbed mind and mood changes. Bringing to Bellini’s score the depth of insight it deserves. Not a performance for the canary fanciers of old, but a romantic personage of true richness. 

ENO / The Force of Destiny
The production by  Calixto Bieito was probably too subdued for some, but made excellent use of the limited stage resources of ENO and endowed us with a stunning debut of the year, Tamara Wilson. Her opulent Leonora was stunning. A big voice with a warm enveloping sound and enough agility to overcome Verdi’s many hurdles. 

ROH / Andrea Chénier 
Was disappointing in the production value stakes. A dull “period” production by McVicar was cumbersome but at least it didn’t ruffle many feathers. But it remains memorable for the truly brilliant singing of Jonas Kaufmann this was probably the first time I enjoyed his singing so much. Up to now I was one of the doubters finding his sound not Italianate enough but he was exceptional as Chenier and was ably supported by Željko Lučić and Eva-Maria Westbroek. Tony Pappano’s conducting was too episodic and frankly lumpy to make sense of the whole instead giving us disconnected arias making the evening feel unusually long.  

ROH / The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
That was one production that was roundly unloved by the press but was definitely sleek and particularly its integration of projections was very accomplished. And let’s be frank any production that gives me the chance to see Anne Sofie von Otter on stage is worth seeing no matter what. Above all Weill is worth a resurgence Mahagonny is so much more than just the famous tunes. 

ROH / Madama Butterfly
Everyone was predicting doom (aka a cancellation by our diva), as I was scheduled to attend the final performance of the run with Kristīne Opolais. This was the performance that totally changed my mind about her. She sang with such great warmth and attention never wavering on her interpretation of Cio Cio San portraying her naivety in a subtle way that we could all empathise. This was the opposite of the maudlin mess that this opera can be, it was a glorious evocation of a broken life. Simply superb. 

ROH / Król Roger
And when we thought we’d never see a good production by Kasper Holten at Covent Garden, this production happened. Very rarely has set gigantism been deployed to such remarkably subtle effect. The spectacular performance by Mariusz Kwiecień was the corner stone of this sophisticated production. 

ROH / La Bohème
My main reason for bothering to book for that rusty old Copley production was Anna Netrebko and Jennifer Rowley. Thank heavens they were both superb the former a surprisingly subtle Mimi and the latter an all out sass pot as Musetta. The same can’t be said for our Rodolfo who bleated his way through the part in his usual unattractive manner.   

The downs

ENO / Pirates of Penzance
It was rather stodgy for my taste even if it was not short on spectacle. The humour somehow didn’t work for me. A shame as it was my first G&S work. 

SWP / Farinelli and the King
This amalgam of stage play and recital wrapped up in one was unsatisfying in both counts. Iestyn Davies was wonderful as usual filling the Wannamaker Playhouse with his lustrous voice. The play itself was totally innocuous. At no point cared very much for the King and his mental instability. 

ENO / Between Worlds
A confusing mangle of many good ideas topped with a counter tenor shaman figure presiding. Making an opera about the attack on the Twin Towers was always going to be a polarising enterprise and the resulting piece was sensitive and at times touching. If it had stayed naturalistic it could have been an altogether more welcome addition to 2015. But it felt overworked and overstretched, no amounts of commitment by its music staff could redeem it into a satisfying well balanced piece. 

 

 

Just don’t mention Rieu

Another week another fawning article about André Rieu and what we can learn from him to spice up our boring conventional concert experience. His form of entertainment is a very old type of  frothy intellectually disengaged affair. It is a sort of idolatry, a cult of forced entertainment. Somehow the only way to enjoy it seems to be by suspending critical faculties and giving in to the kitsch.

I rather like Viennese polkas and waltzes as background music, but with the visual arts background I have, I cannot possibly ignore the awful presentation of his orchestra. His female players enrobed in acres of cheap looking taffeta in colours that would make Walt Disney go blind. Whipped up in a meringue consistency its stiffness would make Yotam Ottolenghi scream with joy. The whole spectacle, a tasteless, sexless environment for him to preside over , curiously dressed in fitted black tails. I find the whole aesthetic repulsive, and I would really love to read an article with a feminist angle on the outfitting of his orchestra and making adult musicians look like followers of the cult of My Little Pony.

So please stop patronising us that Rieu’s way is the only way to populist relevance. As most orchestras have great community and outreach programmes and diversify in more imaginative ways already. The main difference being that the programming by professional orchestras has an intellectual and aesthetic motivation, it doesn’t just operate on the currency of popular fads and easy listening radio station playlists.

Rieu’s anti-intellectual mush programming of popular tunes and advert-worthy bleeding operatic chunks indulges the lowest common denominator of performance as empty spectacle. That he is phenomenally successful at selling his brand doesn’t automatically make him the shining light everyone should emulate. His abysmal, retrograde presentation is decades behind current norms but rides on that saccharine nostalgia vehicle his public personal depends on to sell tickets in droves.

So give me a world class orchestra dressed in black, making the music they perform the main reason to be there. Instead of the sweet shop horror of Rieu’s crew, resembling a megalomaniac’s idea of a golden past that never existed.

My radio début…

Worth warning you that tomorrow afternoon I will be a guest on The Opera Hour hosted by Richard Scott.

In a previous life I had appeared as a TV interviewee but never on radio. So tomorrow will be at my best behaviour chatting all things opera and playing some favourite arias…no panic it’s just live radio! Hopefully I will make some sort of sense…but certainly fun will be had.

So tune in online on Resonance FM at 16.30 BST or if in London on your FM radio. The programme is also repeated on Monday at 10.00 or listen on demand right here.