Messages

Many may be interested to know that cpo have now issued the Dessau performance of A Santa Lucia on CD, with complete libretto and a (sort of) English translation. Although it's certainly a verismo libretto (and was written to order for the soprano who created Santuzza) the music doesn't sound remotely as up to date and simply direct as Mascagni's masterpiece or Leoncavallo's second-rate imitation in Pagliacci. It's more like stuffy Ponchielli in style. Good to hear once, though!

As a heads-up, the Rozhdestvensky performance of Servilia was broadcast (twice - afternoon and evening) on Maryinsky Radio on May 3rd:

https://www.mariinsky.ru/fm/

The quality was tremendous - much better than the other available complete performance we can hear on YouTube - and there must now be renewed hope that this performance, following the conductor's death, will be issued on commercial disc.

>As far as I know, it's only available as a DVD / Blu Ray combo, not as a CD. Still worth it.

The DVD is a lacklustre Kirov effort, though the singing is very good. Much better is the classic Bolshoi recording under Nebolsin (1950s) which has been available on Melodiya 2-CD recently. If that's hard to source, then the Aquarius label's 2-CD transfer is just as good - and cheaper.

The Aquarius Moscow website has all the classic Rimsky opera Bolshoi performances available, and then some. They're good to deal with, ship the CDs quickly, and I really can't recommend them highly enough. All quality, mainly with English notes too.

http://aquarius-classic.ru/?ver=eng

Happy New Year to all! For me 2018 has been the year of Spohr (at least so far as 19th century discoveries are concerned). He's a composer I've been meaning to devote some time to for quite a few years, and I am glad to have made the effort.

The Symphonies (NDR Radiophilharmonie, c. Howard Griffiths, cpo 5-CD box) are an extraordinary treasure trove, not least as a demonstration of the way symphonic music might have developed from Mozart onwards if it hadn't been for the Beethoven-Brahms alternative. Everything is clear, beautiful and balanced, intellectually watertight, with feeling kept securely in check. Nearly all these ten symphonies - perhaps especially the ones with literary or poetic programmes in the manner of Richard Strauss's larger tone poems - make fascinating listening, and no two are the same size or shape.

Many of them were hailed at the time as masterpieces, and his contemporaries had no doubt that Spohr was one of the greatest composers who had ever lived. Our aesthetics moved away from his harmonious balance in favour of conflict and contrast, but and his work fell totally out of favour; yet though it is impossible to put Spohr back on the pedestal he once occupied - we just don't think like he does any more - I can see why his contemporaries found this music engrossing as well as technically astonishing and lovely to listen to.

Same with the operas and big choral works: Faust and Jessonda inhabit a different world from Weber and Wagner, much closer to the enlightenment ethos of Mendelssohn's operas and Schumann's lovely (and highly rarified) Genoveva. They lack the 'common touch' of Wagner; but once again offer a beautiful alternative 'take' on romantic opera, one which I warm to considerably. Nobody would want to revive them today, as they are so far from our contemporary patterns of thought and theatre, but they are 'quality' works just the same.

One way and another, I am delighted to have finally got to know Herr Spohr a little better. His memoirs - free to download for Kindle - are a fascinating read, too, giving a vivid picture of his itinerant life as a virtuoso, his opposition to Beethovenian egotism (which he saw as artistically destructive), and the ethos of the musical world of his time. Highly recommended!

Seconded (or thirded!) I sat down to listen to Act 1 this afternoon, and ended up listening to the whole opera in one fell swoop.

It's a young composer's opera, impassioned, urgent and rather overscored - but although it is far from perfect, the two main roles are absolute corkers, the libretto is most interesting (the Loreley WINS for goodness sake!) and there is a lot of highly imaginative music.

I look forward to getting to know it better and regret the lack of an online vocal score (there's only the Prelude on IMSLP) to see what - if anything - is missing from this fiery and committed reading.

Relating to The Travelling Companion (an intriguing piece), there are also performances of this New Sussex Opera staging in Lewes and Eastbourne (November 21 and 22) before the London night, and one in Saffron Walden after it (on December 2, when it will be recorded for CD release).

There is also a substantial feature article about Stanford's published and unpublished operas in the November issue of Opera magazine, for those who subscribe.

For what it's worth, there is another positive Raymond & Agnes review (online only) here:
http://www.planethugill.com/2018/08/a-real-discovery-loders-english.html

We must hope the Retrospect recording sells well, as it deserves, to enable them to continue their good work. Ethel Smyth's opera Fete Galante is next on the stocks, I understand.

Alan, thank you once again for your most interesting response. There is of course a huge difference between what we might say in personal correspondence and what we might say in print - that is sometimes not a question of courtesy, so much as a defence against legal liability!

JBS was of course a great teacher as well as a great vocal critic: he was in the business of encouraging divergence of thought, not uniformity; and his watchword was never "this is what you should think", or "this is objectively true", but rather "what do you think?" and "give reasons, boy!". He was (as you rightly say) never afraid to make judgements, but though they were always backed up by (brilliant) observation, they were in print at least never dictatorial in tone.

Coming back to Loder, none of the great singers you have compared against Milhofer (who is perhaps a "merely" good one) have ever sung a note of his work, so it behoves us to be grateful for what we have. The fee the superlative Michael Spyres might have claimed to sing Raymond (a breathtaking idea, I agree) would I dare say have far outweighed the entire budget available to Retrospect Opera, even if he could have made himself available at a few months' notice for a week in a Manchester recording studio.

We are very lucky to have this revealing recording of an important - and previously all but unsung - 19th century opera, and we should rejoice that the cast under Richard Bonynge managed the project so well. The majority of reviews reflect that graciously "half full" attitude, and quite right too. Mark Milhofer isn't Heddle Nash, of course; but he has the virtue of being alive, and able to sing the role of Raymond in clear idiomatic English, intelligent vocal style and (for many of us) in a thoroughly pleasant way while he is about it.

Now (as you rightly say) back to the music!

Alan, thank you for this. But I am not sure why Milhofer's Mozart singing is relevant to Loder, so we must agree to differ. As I have said, if one reads descriptions of the kind of tenor voice audiences for English opera expected in the 1850s (the "García" style, tone and vocal projection, in essence) the intelligent Milhofer gives us a very good approximation of the technique and qualities needed. It is very far from a Mozartian style, much closer to the tenorial style Sullivan was to demand.

There is no "right" and "wrong" here, merely questions of personal taste. We come at our vocal judgements from our own knowledge - and instincts, doubtless - as well as our experience of the repertoire.

I too am very much a discipline of JBS, my own tastes and critical faculties have been largely moulded by his "new criticism" methods and standards. We cannot say what he might have thought of this particular cast - I only wish that he were still here to tell us! - but if there is one thing I hope I have learned from him, it is to express reservations as "constructive criticism" and make sure to articulate the good qualities we hear, as well as the less appealing ones.

I believe we should try to follow JBS's lead in that courtesy. Loder's music is not easy to sing - quite the reverse, the mezzo role in particular makes impossible demands - and we need to give praise where it's due, and certainly couch our criticisms with respect.

I am surprised at the gulf between your precise characterisation of Mark Milhofer's sound, Alan, and the high praise he has (for me rightly) won from the reviewers. Thinking about it, I suspect the 'problem' here may lie in the kind of voice which Mr Milhofer's detractors are expecting to hear in the role of Raymond.

Stylistically, it needs precisely the kind of lyric tenor with a cutting edge and fast vibrato which he provides - certainly nothing more Verdian or Italianate. The whole point is, that this opera is a growth from the native (ballad) tradition, which needs lighter singers, not an Italian (or German) one manqué. That's why Milhofer is, for me, spot on, and his fellow principals far less so. And whatever you think of his tonal quality, at least this recording catches the voice in its prime (which is something that can't be said for either Cullough or Greenan, sympathetic though their performances are.)

We all find certain voices inimical, which is a good thing: otherwise there would be one, perfect interpreter (generally the one we happened to hear first in a role and "imprinted") leaving the rest in the shade. Long may debate continue!

Most of the printed reviews thought Mark Milhofer excellent. In Opera Magazine, for instance, Christopher Webber wrote:

"I was most taken with Mark Milhofer's sweetly personal Raymond, strikingly different from his austere St. John Rivers in Joubert's Jane Eyre [July 2017, pp. 852-53] but equally well-sung and acted."

I must say that he was the stand-out for me, at least. Chacun a son gout!