Telphone , Thief, Maid and Mistress: Opera at Castalia 2015:

Cast The Old Miad and the Thief : Frances Marshall Photography

Frances Marshall Photography

Rory Musgrave and Laura Gilsenan : Frances Marshall Photography

In a nice nod  to  local passions,  Ben (Rory Musgrave) wielding a hurl  and in  full Kilkenny kit arrives on stage at Castalia Hall,  bearing a gift, a pink sliother. ( Irish readers will know of course that Kilkenny natives spend at least some part of their adolescence with one arm permanently attached to this wooden sporting accoutrement). His amour {Laura Gilsenan) looks pleased if a little bemused and he is all set to pop the question but somethig thwarts his plans.  The plot of Gian Carlo Menotti's charming  one act domestic drama, The Telephone rings a bell with a  21st century audiece as distracted with a multitude of connecting devices as Laura  is with her elegant 1950's model.  And so begins a highly entertaining evening  at  Opera at Castalia 2015, a weekend festival dedicated to  one act opera under director Alan O Conchubhair.  The staging is simple but effective   The standard of singing is high end quality  with a mix of established professional singers and students at an advanced stage in their studies.  This year, there was no litany 
of woe and all three works were  bright and breezy works in a comic vein.

The second Menotti work was the meatiest work of the evening. Directed by Owen Gilhooly of Mid West Opera, The Old Maid and the Thief is said to be the first peice commissioned for radio performnce. Dara McMahon and Muireann Mulroney are the old maid and busybody Ms PInkerton. Highlights are "What curse for a woman, is a timid man (Steal me, sweet thief)," an extended aria where Laetitia (Maria McHugh) sings of her affection for Bob. Baritone, Tim Shaffrey shines in "When The Air Sings of Summer ' when Bob contemplates hitting the road.

McGrann Noonan France Marshall Photography

If Menotti's work springs from the opera buffa tradition, La Serva Padrona was one of the original Gerry Noonan's exasperated Pandolfo had us laughing out loud. Maria McGrann's was a powerful minxy maid. Tenor Andrew Gavin made the most of his cameo as a hip swivelling Elvis impersonator.
templates. Notorious for sparking the guerre des bouffons, a 18th century controversy on the merits of Italian comic opera versus French grand opera, Liz Ryan's contemporary production made this Baroque gem sparkle set between the two Menotti's .

listen to ‘Baritone Rory Musgrave on his next opera project KAF 15’ on audioBoom

While the spotlight is on the singers, one of the most impressive aspects of performance is the support given by all three pianists who bear the onerous task of single handedly providing the musical scafford to elevate their singing colleagues. The trio who made light work of some tricky parts were; harpsichord major, Adam Collins for The Telephone and Niall Kinsella served in The Maid as Mistress. Michael Young was a powerhouse in Menotti's Old Maid and the Thief.

Given the skill level and calibre of the event, |I find it extraordinary that this event appears to survive merely on good will of the participants and receives no funding.  It is still relatively young endeavour. It began in 2012  an initiative of the late Brendan Mills and Alan O Conchubhair. I hope it will become established as an annual event. The talented team under director Alan O Conchubhair provide terrific entertainment and a valuable platform for Irish singers and musicians. Next year, a work by composer Fiona Linnane is scheduled to receive a premier. Opera at Castalia ticks lots of boxes and is worthy of support.

The venue. Castalia Hall is part of the Camphill Community campus  near Callan in the heart of County Kilkenny. It is an unusual ceilinged octagonal space with an adjacent outdoor amphitheatre .

Bravo tutti!

Niall Kinsella

Afam Collins 

Michael Young

One Act Operas at Castalia

There is a lot to be said for one act operas. If you don't like them, they won't trouble you for very long. I note that Kilkenny Arts Festival has programmed two works this year. I enjoyed an evening devoted to one act works in Kilkenny last year. My report is here . This year's programme looks attractive, a Menotti sandwich with a Pergolesi filling and there are super young singers lined up and some big names scheduled for the Sunday Recital. Here is founder Alan O Conchubhair's programme note I note that baritone turned tenor Owen Gilhooly is director for one of the works Note the early start time of 7pm



'Opera at Castalia, Ireland's one-act opera festival takes place in July each year in the beautiful surroundings of Castalia Hall and Amphitheatre at the Camphill Community, Ballytobin, Callan, Co. Kilkenny. In its four year history this little festival has produced operas by Mascagni, Menotti, Sullivan, Walton, Rameau and Holst. Last year along with Riders to the Sea by Vaughan Williams, they presented two European premieres, In the Shadow of the Glen by Nancy van de Vate and The Bay of Fundy by Fiona Linnane. The last year has been a sad one for the Opera at Castalia family following the death of beloved co - founder, Brendan Mills.

Brendan's husband, Alan O'Conchubhair has said that Brendan's philosophy was that the show must go on and so on July 11th Opera atCastalia 2015 will present The Telephone and The Old Maid and the Thief both by Gian Carlo Menotti. Sandwiched between these two classics of 20th century opera will be an English language version of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona. The cast includes Maria McGrann, Gerry Noonan, Andrew Gavin, Laura Gilsenan, Rory Musgrave, Dara McMahon, Maria Hughes, Muireann Mulrooney and Tim Shaffrey.
The Sunday Recital the following day at 1pm will feature young tenor, Andrew Gavin singing Dies Natalis and a preview of a scene from Composer in Residence, Fiona Linnane's new opera, The Breakfast Table, which will receive its World premiere at Opera at Castalia 2016. The recital will conclude with a musical tribute to Brendan Mills with contributions from Imelda Drumm, Laura Gilsenan, Virginia Kerr, Sandra Oman and Cara O'Sullivan.
The 11th and 12th July promises to be a wonderful weekend of music in rural Kilkenny. Why not come along and listen to some 'little operas with big heart'.

Composer Fiona Linnane

A Feast of Faust at the Everyman

Faustian Pacts loomed large on  Friday with the metaphor featuring in the Irish Times leader. In Cork, the curtain opened   on the much anticipated production of Guonod's Gothic morality tale based on the ill-fated philosopher who sells his soul to the devil in return for youth. The blend of fine bel canto singing with Victorian kitsch served up in three generous hour long plus  helpings brought the first night audience at the Everyman Palace Theatre to their feet..
Here are some  thoughts  on this production.


The Orchestra: In a change to his more usual modus operandi of using an on stage mobile chamber ensemble cum actors, John O  Brien here uses an expanded static orchestra, dressing them in 18th century quasi military  jackets. 42 pieces even in a standard opera house would be feast enough for any Faust. The relatively intimate space served to intensify the impact of the large ensemble. Strings filled the pit space, wind and percussion were embedded in the set and brass colonized the off stage  boxes. The excellent orchestra playing under leader Ioana  Petcu Colan did justice to the colour in Guonod's 19th century score We particularly liked the  terrific organ timbre  from the pit evoking the  Gothic mood in the  third act, Dies Irae.

The Cast: There was fine singing all round from the cast of Irish and international artists. Korean tenor, Jung Soo Yun was a tortured Faust, Julian Tovey a dastardly Mephistophiles and Cara O Sullivan  a warm and stately Marguerite . It was in the smaller roles that most got under the skin of the smaltzy melodrama. Sandra Porter in the character cameo role of  Dame Marthe brought a welcome shot of humour to the sludgy libretto. Owen Gilhooly as the valiant Valentin brought a degree of stagecraft that upped the dramatic ante in any scene he appeared in. The  spirited third act trio with  Gilhooly,  Tovey and Soo Yun, Redouble, O Dieu Puissant  was a vocal and dramatic  highlight of the evening. It was good to see Cork baritone Brendan Collins in the role of Wagner.  Anne Gill was the faithful Siebel.

Top Brass: The Barracka :
Anything is better with bit of  brass: The cast were upstaged (literally if not metaphorically) by the Barrack Street Brass Band. The full complement of the Cork institution filed in to fill the standing space at the back of the stalls to give a stirring rendition of the Soldier's Chorus accompanied by a male chorus to give a thrilling surround sound stereo experience. Quite the high point of the  evening. Long as the evening was, I would love to have heard an encore.

The Chorus: The ladies and gentlemen sang well and  were  animated and  lively  thoughout.


Set design:   Designer Lisa Zagone's set design for Pagliacci remains one of the most memorable of recent years. Here she  sets the action amid the Gothic wooden arches and dusty book shelves of a library, adding items like a suspended stain glass window  and a tomb stone to denote a church and garden. in later scenes  This worked fine for a first act but the unchanging backdrop  added to a samey-ness  to the production and induced a degree of cabin fever . Book stacks and on stage stairs made the stage area seemed cluttered and  constricted physical aspects of the performance, cramping the style of the choreography.

Costumes  were  monochrome  in  19th century Victorian style  serving  to enhance Mephistophiles dashing red rig out complete with top hat in the style of a Victorian music hall MD.


Programme, . The 16 pages A4 did not include a plot synopsis or any insight into the staging or anorak details like the edition..  It rather presumed that punters would a be  au fait with the Goethe's yarn or would take the trouble to look it up before the show.

Stage direction did not fully bring out some of the more sinister details of the plot. Marguerite's baby only becomes apparent to me when she picks up a Moses basket.

Running Time With curtain up at 7.30 and coming down at about 11.15, it did make for a long sit. While not of Wagnerian proportions, you will need  the stamina of the Victorians to last the duration. I could cheerfully have lost 30 minutes or so of the score and not feel short changed. Best to approach it  having had  a nap and your tea before the show


The Gothic horror vein has proved a rich one for the Cork Operatic Society.  Although not as much fun as Der Vampyr, I enjoyed their production of this  stodgy Victorian melodrama with it's catchy hit tunes. The music and singing is first class and well delivered here by the Cork Operatic Society under director John O Brien.

Faust runs at the Everyman Palace   4 more performances until Feb 28th

Review Orpheus http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2013/09/everyman-orpheus.html

Review Pagliacci
http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2012/06/pagliacci-for-everyman-cork-midsummer.html

63rd Wexford Festival

I spent a couple of days in Wexford at the 63rd Opera Festival. My reviews on two of the main house productions are filed with The Irish Examiner .. My review of opening night went into print on Saturday and a second review  will be in Wednesday's edition. I may not have been ''Wilde; about a French version of Salomé but  it looked gorgeous and a Silent Night from across the Atlantic was all the things that made for a thrilling evening of opera and lived up  to high expectations. Both Mark Campbell and composer Kevin Puts were in Wexford to add a bit  of transatlantic pzazz to the occasion. Campbell tells me  he has no less than 13 opera libretto projects on the go at the moment. Clearly a very busy man. It was good to read Tom Mooney's moving piece Forgotten Voices on the Wexford men who went to war including the Wexford Echo editor's  own grandfather.

Salomé Beautiful ciaroscuro effects Lighting Design DM Wood

Marty with Silent Night team

After a couple of ho hum years, it was good to see a festival buzz back in the foyer in Whites Hotel with the Lyric FM crew ensconced in a corner. Liz Nolan in pearls and little black dress added glamour chatting to the stars and Marty Whelan looked sartorially splendid with lilac  tie  matching the station banner. Such attention to detail . We like it ! Good also to see the short works reinstated here after the years of grim exile in a local school hall. I saw a terrific double bill of English works. The cast of a G&S piece, Trial by Jury hammed it all up beautifully and the ensemble at full throttle sounded like a much  larger chorus . Holst's  The Wandering Scholar was a hoot and the cast extracted every ounce of the comedy with energetic madcap performances.  Musical director, Janet Haney's piano accompaniment was light and sparkling. An afternoon tea-time delight. .

The international contingent were well represented. Remarkably, critic, Michael Kennedy was attending for his 63rd time having attended every festival. 

Heather Humphreys was back in Wexford to announce the anointing of the house as the National Opera House to great cheers. ( I commented on the minister's rather anticlimactic post curtain call address after the IYO production last month in my Examiner review here. Little did we realise what a harsh spotlight would be shone on the Arts Minister in the week's that followed.)  Quite what the designation as national opera centre will mean in practice, nobody was quite sure. One thing puzzled me though about  the announcement quoted here. 

 And I am delighted to be able to give my full support tonight to the renaming of Wexford Opera House as The National Opera House. I have asked my officials to work with Wexford and the Arts Council to put this into effect, in recognition ofWexford’s position as the home of Ireland’s only custom built Opera House.

Now where have I seen that phrase or something very like it before? This is the description on the website of Cork Opera House '

'The Cork Opera House is the only purpose built Opera House in the country'

''only custom built opera house in the country

'only purpose built opera house in the country;

Purpose built / custom built. If there is a distinction, it seems very subtle. I do hope for the Minister's sake that the Leesiders won't take umbrage.

I didn't see Don Bucefalo, a comic opera but I gather it was great fun. It will be broadcast on Saturday on LyricFM. Silent Night goes out on the 8th November also on Lyric FM .

Wexford Festival continues with all sorts of fringe  activities to suit high and low brows from Singing Pubs, short operas, art exhibitions and recitals in addition to the three  main house productions. 

Related posts on Cathy's Reviews 

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/10/wexford-festival-2011.html

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2012/11/the-trimmings-wexford-festival-opera.html

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2013/11/mighty-mighty-wexford.html

Cathy's Reviews: Maria at Wexford Festival Opera 2011

Nov 07, 2011

Having successfully dipped into the fringe events earlier this week I returned to Wexford Opera House for one of the main events and attended the last night of Maria by Polish composer Statkowski. Some very useful context ...

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/

Wexford Festival for Comic Opera, Cava and Canapés

Oct 27, 2010

Wexford with its attractive seaside port position looks very pleasant in the autumn sunshine. The first sounds ... The fringe festival is what brings me to Wexford annually and there is plenty to amuse and entertain . One of the ...

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/

Cathy's Reviews: Love Hat: Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze ...

Oct 24, 2013

The 62nd season of opera productions at Wexford opened in fine style with Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze, a fizzy light hearted comedy from the 20th century Italian composer, Nino Rota, better known for his film scores than ...

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/

Cathy's Reviews: Review of the year 2011: A Magificent Seven

Feb 18, 2012

I loved the quirky production of Dido and Aeneas at Cork Opera House but if I have to choose one of the shorter works I enjoyed the opera production of Gianni Schicchi directed by Roberto Recchia at Whites Hotel,Wexford.

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/

Toscanissimo: La Boheme at Gran Theatro all 'Aperto Giacomo Puccini

While Wagner fans contemplate  the holy grail of  a trip to Bayreuth, Puccini fans make a  pilgrimage to Torre del Lago, the final resting place of the Tuscan composer near the Italian seaside town of Viareggio in Tuscany. This year the Puccini Festival celebrates 60 years with four productions under the title L'Amore Trafigge, 'Love Pierces the heart' . On a balmy Saturday evening,  pilgrims converged on the Gran Theatro all' Aperto for a performance of La Boheme by all manner of transport. Buses and cars gave way to a throng of bicycles and mopeds. The audience of mixed ages seemed to represent a  cross section of Italian society and the atmosphere was not unlike that of  a build up to a big match with street vendors selling refreshments, programmes and Puccini memorabilia  lining the route.

Director, Ettore Scola a veteran of Italian Cinema played it straight,  avoiding the temptation to  modernise using the tricks of his trade and we got a sparkling traditional production. He is quoted in a local paper . I include a translation here- 'Revisions, updates, upgrades, contributions in video and in digital, strobe effects, endless possibilities to 'modernize' the opera crowd his restless mind. Then, fortunately, everything falls humility and common sense remind him that modernity is already in all those works, in music, in feelings, in the soul that made them eternal ...'

There is a murmur of approval and a round of applause when the set for Momu's Café is revealed. and there is a collective gasp at snowflakes flurry  in Act 3. Of course, one doesn't expect the acoustic of a major indoor theatre but the sound was quite good from the lower tiers and if it was less so at the top, you had  a backdrop of stunning lake views to compensate.

Conductor Valerio Galli (a local from Viareggio ) was  almost balletic in his podium presence  with his energetic and graceful conducting style compelling attention. With five performances over weekends in July and August, there is some rotating casting.  Italian songbirds, Danielle Dessi as Mimi and Alida Berti as Musetta had the audience hooping and hollering. There was a lovely moment in Mimi's aria when a lake bird could be heard in a brief duet around the vocal line. It was the bonhomie and sonority  of the gentlemen that  generated the warmth and charm.in this production  Alessandro Luongo as Marcello and Fabio Amiliato as Rudolfo made a very well matched  tenor/ baritone  blend. Marco Spotti  was a rich and sonorous Colline, Frederico Longhi as Schunard completing  the bohemian quartet Have a listen in the video of Spotti singing the same role at Orange  and see if you agree?  It was all beautifully done and the audience responded enthusiastically as they would in support of a home team on their local turf.
As  I watched an impossibly good looking, elegantly dressed Italian couple don  helmets and scoot off  on  a Vespa in the warm night air, it felt like a silver screen  moment from La Dolce Vita.
There are some festivals that one feels very fortunate to have  visited once and there are some that you  would love to return to. The Puccini Festival is definitely one of  the latter.

listen to ‘Curtain call for La Boheme by Puccini at Torre de Lago 2014 Tescany, Italy’ on Audioboo

How to get there?
I made the trip by special bus service from Viareggio.  Torre del Lago is less than 20km from Pisa and Lucca. There are regular flights to Pisa from Shannon and Cork with Ryanair until October.

Related posts Toscanissimo A Day at Wexford Opera   Includes my interview with Pisa baritone, Alessandro Luongho

All Europe's a Stage: Six Top European opera festivals to visit this Autumn http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/six-of-europes-top-opera-venues-to-visit-this-autumn-276846.html

Musings on the Southern Opera Scene

My review of Clonmel Junction Festival's production of  Orfeo and Eurydice is in yesterday's Irish Examiner. Aside at all from the splendid musical strengths, this was a production that could be  proud of it's Tipperary input. It had an exotic international  element in the extraordinary counter tenor Roland Schneider and  Austrian conductor, Elizabeth Attl. You can hear Attl talking about the festival production in the video below. But this was a production  firmly rooted in the commissioning region. Local involvement is a cornerstone of the Junction Festival which includes a participation consultant on it's team list. The Clonmel Orfeo was an excellent vehicle for  local choristers and showcased one of the impressive rising professional stars from the county in Jennifer Davis.

Local involvement was lamentably limited in a recent opera project in the South East. Theatre Royal Productions crowd funding campaign to 'Adopt a Soprano' highlighted the fact that not one local singer was engaged  after the initial workshop and funding campaign stage. Moreover, it seems production team, cast, the musicians, even the sets were sourced outside the region for their recent production of The Invader, a new work by Eric Sweeney and Mark Roper. With the exception of choreographer Libby Seward,  there was no local participation once the production moved beyond the initial workshop pilot phase. Whatever about the undisputed  merits of the work and I thought it was a super piece (my review is here), I feel that this is not as it should be in a county with a third level music degree, a strong choral and theatre tradition  for a production in receipt of  significant civic funding.

Next year's project in Clonmel,  is a setting of work by poet Michael Coady from Carrick on Suir (Coady  contributed programme notes for Orfeo).  As part of the the participation programme, the festival choir usually  invite experienced choristers to join them for a week of rehearsals in advance of the performance. So if you fancy a week of choral, singing in Tipperary bear it mind for next year. Based on Friday night's experience, that looks a very attractive proposition. Link to choral project information

ps I met Catherine McGuiness recently, the distinguished Senator, when she was a guest speaker at the Waterford 1100 talks. During the Q&A she quoted choral singing as her favourite pastime and is a committed member of the Culwick Choral Society.

Review of Cork Operatic Soc Orpheus  http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2013/09/everyman-orpheus.html

 (My piece on Clonmel native  Kelley Lonergan is here )

Opera flicks in Waterford

Just in from a night at the my local cinema. Not for a Hollywood blockbuster but a live relay from the Royal Opera House, London  of a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. It isn't the same as being at Covent Garden  Nah, of course not -in many respects, it is better. 

For starters, you get to see opening action in the pit. What an interesting baton technique Nicola Luisotti had in the overture. (Don't be  confused by the feminine ending)  And we get Bryn (sigh!) as warm up man.  During the interval he conducted a blokey interview with Danish director and CEO Kaspar Holten. On Met Live relays, I have never understood why Renée Fleming or Deborah Voigt are allowed to conduct interviews with characters in costume moments after they step into the wings having committed dastardly deeds thereby spoiling the illusion somewhat.  Interview directors, set designers etc. by all means but let the performers enjoy their fag break, I say. 

There is a roundup of the broadsheet reviews here  I agree with Kasper Holten.  Don Giovanni looked like Johnny Depp. While there was splendid singing from all principals,  my favourite performance was Elizabeth Watts . She was perfect as Zerlina ! Cast details here http://www.roh.org.uk/showings/don-giovanni-2014

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The production was interesting with extensive use of projected images which I liked for the most part. The camera work was good. You get to see the faces without peering into your opera glasses. the ending was somewhat anticlimactic and I longed for some deus ex machina to add some drama to the finale but all in all this was a terrific evening's entertainment for a modest fee without the obligation to dress up. 

Note to Odeon Cinemas : Why aren't you promoting this fantastic entertainment more actively. You have to know what you are looking for when searching your website as it is hidden away in special screenings. I found one tweet about a week  before the event on the Odeon twitter feed.  I missed screenings I would love to have attended because even though I checked the website, I couldn't easily find the information I needed. And why no wifi in the cinema?

It would have been nice to share in the #rohdongiovanni  twitter experience in the interval.

Mighty Mighty Wexford !

I've been many times to the Wexford Opera Festival but this year I saw it from a different perspective as correspondent for The Irish Examiner. My roundup of the 62nd season is here 

Impressive as the main productions were, there was loads to enjoy at the  fringe festival. I saw two of the short works which are terrific value at €25 and if you don't like them are not going to detain you too long. The one act comedy, The Sleeping Queen by Irish composer, Balfe was given a quirky Glee Club/ Horrible Histories treatment and was pleasant enough if not compelling.


 I loved Richard Wargo's Loser's.  Director, Conor Hanratty  created a familiar stage set for the tale of small town Irish life in the 50's that is right out of the  amdram world of John B  Keane complete with pictures of the Sacred Heart and Pope John. In this work, Wargo had worried less about setting Friels' text and the results were   more engaging than his setting of Winners, an earlier work based on of another  Friel story. 'I grew up with the music of Puccini and Britten and the theatre of Rogers and Hammerstein' said Wargo when I spoke to him briefly after the performance  and all those elements can be heard to in this work. The pair of settings, Winners and Losers known as Ballymore should make a very suitable work for an Irish company.  This work was one of my highlights of the festival. I was  sorry to miss Back to  Titanic, a nostalgic selection of music played on the ill fated liner. It featured Kelley Lonergan, a young singer from Clonmel one of the rising stars of the Irish operatic scene. I interviewed Kelley and hope to bring that interview on a later post.

Author Eoin Colfer 

The short works were again staged in the Presentation School Hall. This space leaves me cold. I don't find it convivial The seating is not comfortable and the view from the back of the hall is not great. I have seen local musical societies work harder to make this sort of space work. Temporary tiered seating is surely worth considering and why not a  display of old programmes and posters to liven up the foyer / school corridor.  Without the short works going on in Whites as in former years, that hotel does not  appear to be the lively festival hub it once was.

The weather was mixed this year. Racegoers had to brave the rain and wind but there was a lovely fine evening for the opening fireworks. The poetic litany in Eoin Colfer's launch speech must have included every denizen of the town and is powerful stuff. You can hear it in this link here. 

There is no doubt that Wexford do what they do very well indeed.  It might not have the heat of an Aix en Provence but it does have charm and a great range and breadth of events. I met many patrons from overseas who travel here year after year drawn by these elements . Some I spoke to expressed alarm about  the bringing forward of priority booking dates for the 2014 festival.  Prices for the main productions may not be high relative to London prices at €100 or so  but are relative to other arts experiences in Ireland.  Whether they can attract sufficient Irish patrons to ensure the near capacity houses they need to be viable will be a challenge.

listen to ‘Pete Lennon at Wexford Opera Festival’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Helen Gaynor at Wexford Opera’ on Audioboo

Love Hat: Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze opens 2013 Wexford Festival

The 62nd season of opera productions at Wexford opened in fine style with Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze, a fizzy light hearted comedy from the 20th century Italian composer, Nino Rota, better known for his film scores than grand operatic works.

The farcical plot hinges on the frantic road trip of a desperate groom followed by his unsuspecting wedding entourage in the hunt  for a very particular style of straw hat which he must be replace exactly to avert a duel and be reunited with his bride. This was great fun, a stylish production delivered with panache by the large cast, chorus and orchestra.
What were the elements that added to the sugar rush of this entertaining theatrical confection.

The Music: The music isn't so much in the style of the his 20th century film music but more retrospective, a sort of mélange of  Rossini  and Verdi. Throughout, the Spanish conductor, an assertive Sergio Alapont set an energetic bouncy pace that didn't let up . The orchestra led by Fionnuala Hunt responded with verve, the  strings veering from strident heavy vamping rhythms to lush sweeter sonorities and  there was some lovely solo work from solo wind timbres.

The Cast: Among the large cast, there was a native Florentine tenor with Filippo Adami replacing Davide Giusti originally cast. While all made the most of the comic element of the roles, two performances stood out for me . Claudia Boyle as Elena looked and sounded stunning . Filippo Fontana as jealous husband Beaupertis brought an extra edge to the madcap proceedings .


The chorus: The show was stolen by the Ladies Chorus. The catchy Milliners'  chorus at the opening of Act Two was the highlight of the show with the pizzicato string bass  accompaninent perfectly complimenting the on stage sewing motions .


The Costumes. Director Andrea Cigni sets the action in 1950's Paris. The bright colourful dresses and morning suits evoked the era of the MGM musical world of Gene Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.


The Set: The set was relatively unsophisticated . The heavily raked stage meant we could see the large cast easily but did give you the feeling that the action was happening on the rooftop . The painted billboards reinforced the Hollywood Musical theme but the staging didn't help to convey the sense of the action moving around to different locations and was for me the least satisfactory aspect of an otherwise sparkling production.

The Horse of Course Finally -that white horse I expected to see galloping across the stage in Maria on my last trip to Wexford in 2011? --- Well, to cap it all.  a white horse put his head in for a cameo appearance at the finale.


Related Posts Maria Wexford  2011 

Off the Ball: Bust The Soccer Opera

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'Playing in the green shirt

Scoring goals for Ireland

This is how it feels'

Mentioning that I had been out to see a new opera drew polite responses from family members who at the moment have  only Déise Hurling concerns uppermost in mind. But dropping the fact that the libretto for composer, Ben Hanlon's new work  was inspired by the real life story of footballer, Richard Sadlier and suddenly they were all ears and pleading for more details.

Waterford has a thriving choral scene that on occasion throws up some cutting edge experiences. Waterford man Bryan Flynn has given us the epic All Star Wars, the hurling musical. Could Bust be the world 's first  soccer  opera. I went along to a workshop preview of the work at De La Salle College Chapel on Friday

       Richard Sadlier

The librettist Alec Mc Alister was inspired by an article on the young footballer whose playing career came to a premature end when he broke his leg in a heavy tackle. Sadlier now turns up regularly as a pundit on radio programme Off the Ball and others. The plot  follows the trajectory of the main protagonist, Joey Power's career from excited young hopeful setting out from Dublin Airport through the high points- making the  team, playing for Ireland and the fateful day and finally the return home. Add in a dollop of a love story and there was plenty of emotional turbulence to sustain the hour long work. 

There are five main singing roles, Joey, his mam and dad, Robbie, a football manager and his daughter, Jenny. The young cast were superb. Most of them I gather are 3rd level music students.  Every syllable was audible and there was throughout  a terrific range of dynamics in the singing to effect dramatic expression. Joey's part played by Glenn Murphy was so high that it veered into counter tenor territory at times. Emma Power's clear soprano voice soared effortlessly above the chorus lines with no unruly vibrato.  Fergal Kelly as Dad was impressive.  Robbie was sung by Aaron Mooney and Ann O Brien sang the role of mother.  The chapel acoustic was excellent for singers and even the quietest pianissimo was clearly audible. The principals were supported by a chamber choir who managed some very challenging parts with aplomb. Composer,  Marion Ingoldsby, conducted with quiet authority. 

The musical style was modern  with some atonal sections that at times were heavy going, but then so is Phillip Glass and there was enough melodic interest to satisfy more conventional tastes. There was some lovely writing for the piano, expertly executed by Billy O Brien and generally I felt that  the composer did a excellent job in charting the mood whether ecstatic jubilation or abject despair. I was drawn in and cared about the characters and how often can you say that about an opera. It would fit very nicely into the short works programme at Wexford Opera Festival.

Bust will be performed for two nights at Garter Lane Theatre on 13 and 14 September as part of the Waterford Harvest Festival.

     Composer Ben Hanlon

Related articles

All Star Wars A Hurling Musical at Cork Opera House

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/05/all-star-wars.html

Come The Sails Launch of Tall Ships Waterford A View From The Plaza

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/06/tall-ships.html

Midsummer Memory Orchestra: Maria de Buenos Aires in Cork

Musical director, John  O Brien has been pivotal in spectacular and innovative opera productions in Cork in recent years. Pagliacci was a highlight of 2012 season and we also loved the heavy metal Dido and Aeneas for which, I gather, he also designed the sets. So we made a bee-line for Maria de Buenos Aires part of the Midsummer Festival programme at Cork Opera House for which he was part of the directorial team. On paper, the work subtitled 'A Tango Opera' by Argentinian composer Piazzolla seemed to have all the ingredients to  make it a hat trick of thrilling opera productions from this director.  And  there were indeed many enjoyable and  incredible aspects to this Maria that made it a very interesting evening  but it won't feature in my top picks of the year.  Why did the whole did not add up to the sum of the parts. Here is  my best and the rest of Maria de Buenos Aires at Cork Opera House.

The thrills:

The international ensemble of musicians performed the most amazing feats of memory and skill and as in the aforementioned productions, playing without the aid to memory of notes and moving around the stage as part of the action. Cork percussionist, Alex Petcu created the dream like mood on marimba. Ville Hiltula from  Finland added the hallmark bandoneon part. Niwel Tsumba was a lynchpin on  guitar. There were just two singing roles, both in the lower registers adding to the darkness of mood. Both were compelling, doing justice to Piazzolla's strange and beguiling score, combining traditional elements of the dance form with modern compositional techniques. Portuguese baritone, Nuno Silva had a beautiful and unusual voice and together with local girl, Una Palliser's sensuous violin lines, would have been worth the excursion alone.  The lighting  and set effectively transported us from the murky Leeside evening to a sleazy Latino waterfront bordello and the sound was perfect, amplification effective but not obtrusive. So far so sizzling. So why did it all fail to catch fire for me?

The spills

To misquote Emperor Franz Joseph-, there were just too many words.  The plot could be summed up in a few lines.  Maria, embodiment of the spirit of the tango is born in the slums, seduced by the dance, led astray by it, meets a bad end, dies and is reborn. Or something to that effect. To convey this flimsy plot we have seemingly endless declaimed monologues by actress, Olwen Fouere   in full Beckettian  mode in  the androgynous role of  El Duende, a mythical poet narrator figure. A case of too 'much a Duende  about' too little plot, for me, I fear. I did love her bar room soliloquy to Maurice Seezer's piano in the second half which reminded me a little of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is' but less of this aspect of the production  would  have been more.

The  choreography in an effort to blend contemporary, ballet  and traditional forms resulted in the tango ingredient being somewhat decaffeinated  and not quite the central element I might have anticipated given the subtitle of the work. 

 So to sum up -seductive singing , mesmerising musicianship but too much talking and not enough tango action  on the dance floor for me from this Latin Maria but  well worth seeing .

Promotional video for Maria de Buenos Aires  from Cork Opera House in the link here.

My review of Pagliacci at the Everyman here http://cathydesmond.blogspot.de/2012/06/pagliacci-for-everyman-cork-midsummer.html

Huntsmen, Soldiers, Priests & Pilgrims: Waterford Opera Gala

 

WMVC Opera Gala photo from choir Facebook page 

Huntsmen, Soldiers, Priests and Pilgrims: Summer Opera Gala in Waterford

 Thursday 30^th May was, it was generally agreed, the first glorious day of Summer 2013.  The sighting of sunshine in Phoenix Park was a rare enough event to warrant mention in morning news reports on the opening  day of Bloom Garden Festival where a Waterford garden  took first prize. That evening, I was in the violin section of the WIT Symphony Orchestra for the season finale concert of the Waterford Male Voice Choir. The house was sold out days in advance -another rarity.  The concert marked the farewell to the ensemble of Niall Crowley who has steered the ensemble since its inception twelve years ago. There was a strong element of collaboration in the venture as the choir invited singers from local ladies choirs, Voci and Edmund Rice to join them for the final chorus of this auspicious occasion.

Auxilliary Percussion  The Anvil 

The programme of operatic repertoire was bookended with numbers from, Maritana by William Vincent Wallace, the Overture and the Angelus Chorus. Wallace was born in the Suirside city and local cognoscenti have never let the minor detail of him moving before he'd had a chance to take his first faltering footsteps on the Quay or learned to butter a blaa, deter them from claiming him as our own.  His bust presides over the forecourt of the Theatre Royal, drawings of him adorn hotel lobbies and no gala  is complete without something from his Victorian oeuvre adding a grand  dollop of nostalgia to any such occasion. Guest soloists,  Bridget Knowles, Roisin  O'Grady and Eoin Power presented well known arias and duets from the standard repertoire. The gentlemen of the choir were variously soldier, priests and pilgrims in operatic choruses by Guonod and Mozart and Wagner. A highlight was the Huntsmen Chorus by Weber with splendid playing from the quartet of French horns. Star of the show  was a real life anvil for the famous chorus from Verdi’s Il Trovatore. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anvil in the flesh so to speak and my only quibble is that such a novelty could have been more clearly displayed and afforded a more theatrical flourish.

I rarely get  the opportunity to play grand operatic repertoire and very much enjoyed working with Niall Crowley on this project.  It was good  to reconnect with friends and  former colleagues in the orchestra led tonight with her customary authority by Teresa Costello.   Niall passes the baton to Cian O'Carroll and we wish this ensemble of stouthearted men and their new director well in their next season of musical endeavours.

Related articles  Wallace Recital at Wexford Festival Opera 2012 

Sunday Roundup from New Ross Choral Festival 

Come the Sails. Launch of Tall Ships Waterford A View from the Plaza 

Verdi Nights at Bavarian State Opera

Thanks for watching #Turandot! Our next streamings will be THE #NUTCRACKER on Dec 13 and Verdi's #RIGOLETTO on Dec 30: staatsoper.de/tv
— BayerischeStaatsoper (@bay_staatsoper) November 25, 2012

Rigoletto Chorus with onstage brass band 

Vassallo front Dean Power right

The weather in  Munich was unseasonably mild and sunny  where I enjoyed a Verdi splurge at the State Opera House at two quite different productions in  the composer's 200th anniversary year . The cameras  were in place on Sunday night for the free live transmission of the performance of Rigoletto via the world wide web, a very welcome development. Nothing though can beat the live experience and although the house was sold out for weeks for this much anticipated new production,  I went along 'on spec' to see could I find a seat on the night. There was no returns queue but about an hour and a quarter before curtain up, about a dozen or so punters appeared in the gloaming and hovered on the front steps near the Maximillian Strasse end, doing a little circle  dance around each other to see who was buying and selling, the more seasoned punters  holding up signs declaring 'suche karte'. When at  last one of the huge doors ( the second door in  for future reference)  opened to admit opera goers, I made a bee line for the Abendkasse and soon after, I was on my way to a seat underneath the ceiling with a birds eye view of the fabulous retractable chandelier.

Post Show Analysis

The singing  was superb. Baritone  Franco Vassallo imbued the title role with great pathos. Star tenor Joseph Calleja lived up to expectations and soprano Patricia Petibon  glided  angelically around the upper register. Clarecastle tenor,  Dean Power  had a notable stage  presence  in the role of courtier Borsa Matteo.  Even at a distance, a sense of verve and dynamism emanated from the lively dancing baton of musical director, the ubiquitous Marco Amiliato .  

While the singing did not disappoint, the production lacked a certain theatricality.  The huge 100+  male cast and chorus in cream linen mounted on a tiered steps looked like a photo shoot  for  an M&S summer suit collection. Nor did the Duke look very menacing dressed more  for an autumnal day of gardening  than a spot of philandering in cosy beige cardigan and matching track suit bottoms. One can't help wondering did the Maltese tenor raise an eyebrow when he was handed a flowery dressing gown for his tryst with blue jean clad Gilda. (You knew the Duke had had his wicked way when Gilda appeared in the next scene in the same robe).  An antique wheelchair was assassin  Sparafucile's (Dimitry Ivashchenko) prop to convey his victims to the the next world. Sit in for a spin and you were doomed. Nothing in the lighting or staging  made you shiver at  the sinister  elements of the plot. A gigantic prancing horse made a brief appearance and looked impressive but it's relevance  was lost on me 

The opera house has such  splendid glittering  halls for promenading about  that  I was almost  sorry there was only one interval each evening, There was great style, lots of family groups and quite a few drindel dresses and the dress code was relatively formal. On our way out I noticed a gathering of  patrons  for a Q&A  with a representative of the team.  I  would love to be able  report the nuance of the debate but even without a grasp of German, one could guess by the tone and body language that these were somewhat disgruntled patrons. My source, a seasoned punter whom I met  on the steps earlier. told  me that the general tenor of the discussion was that although very musical, it had been a concert performance and not  quite living up to the hype and expectation of a generous six week rehearsal schedule. 

Aida was altogether a more theatrical affair although a similarly nuetral  palette of black, cream and white prevailed with  a smattering of gold for royalty.  The on stage trumpets looked and sounded splendid Sandra Radvonosky as Aida was impressive and I liked the Finnish bass, Mika Kares as Ramfis.  Robert Dean Smith as Radames sounded grand but didn't quite have the look of a battle honed warrior despite the costume. The battle scene was brief and  a little perfunctory and the choreography of the dance elements was in a  modern dance  style that jarred a little with a traditional look and feel to the production

Look at those shoes!

Programme Cover
Aida 

 While top price stalls tickets are over €100, I purchased a standing room  ticket online for  €11.50 which is incredible value by any reckoning. But addicted now to the  element of chance and the thrill in picking up a last hour ticket on the steps, I sold my ticket and traded up to  the relative comfort of a seat in the second balcony. I  had a fairly restricted view but for the price of little more than a cinema ticket at €14 one couldn't feel too hard done by. What did baffle me were the choice of photos in the background programme notes. Where I expected maybe a montage of great artists or historic figures of the past, instead there were rather grungy photos of bare torsoed young males that looked more like  adverts for a brand of jeans or underwear than images for a premier  opera house production. 

Set Aida Staatsoper 

The dates for the next free live screenings are below.. I will be linking up my laptop to the telly for these dates and if it won't be the same at least I can put my feet up and  switch on the English subtitles







Scene photos from Staatsoper website www.staatsoper.de   Related posts A Night at the Bavarian State Opera 2010

Live Opera Broadcasts to an Armchair near You

Aida Cast

Conductor Paolo Carignani 
staging Christof Nel 
Conceptual consulting Martina Jochem 
stage Jens Kilian 
Costumes Ilse Welter Fox 
Choreographic work Valenti Rocamora i Torà 
light winter Olaf 
Choir Sören Eckhoff 
dramaturgy Olaf A. Schmitt. 

Amneris Anna Smirnova 
Aida Sondra Radvanovsky 
Radames Robert Dean Smith 
Ramfis Mika Kares 
Amonasro Michael Volle 
The King Goran Jurić 

March 9, 2013
Leoš Janáček
Jenůfa

April 20, 2013
Richard Wagner
Der fliegende Holländer

May 11, 2013
Giuseppe Verdi
Macbeth

June 1, 2013
Terence Kohler
Helden

July 2013
Stream from the Munich Opera Festival
To be announced