What's on this week? (May 10th 2021)

This blog is now turning to focus on the Vic Opera performances of modern Australian operas this year.

But what about the service we've provided for anyone needing an opera? Since early 2020, we've been listing operas available in free live stream every day from round the world.

These splendid donations to our enjoyment are fewer now, but haven't stopped. So we'll point to the offerings in a separate post each week.

For a start, check OperaVision, which always has a range of operas streaming.

And the regular screenings from the Met opera continue. Readers of this blog are getting good at following links, so each week, I'll put up the link and you can go check out the Met offering (just remember it's a day later our time). Want a review? Google the opera name and date and you'll always get several.

The upcoming list is here on the Met Opera site, as usual. With a fine sense of humour they're currently showing a 'Happy Mother's Day' collection of operas about appalling mothers!! You've missed Thomas's version of Hamlet with Simon Keenlyside 'who, for a while, made this role his own and gives a memorable performance here. ' Thus spake Bachtrack. We hope it will be screened again - and meanwhile, here's Keenlyside's performance of Thomas's version of 'To be or not to be'. But still to come on Monday 10th for us is Handel’s Agrippina

with Joyce DiDonato's stunning performance of possibly the historically most awful mother in opera. Did you miss it last year? Here's our blog then.

Mother& son, both awful: Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey,

And next week? Check out the list of varied offerings here. My vote is for next Monday's production, of Donizetti's

Roberto Devereux. Sondra Radvanovsky and Elīna Garanča, are brilliant as the two women. Our blog post on the Tudor Queens of Donizetti is here.

Those women: Elīna Garanča & Sondra Radvanovsky as Elizabeth I in Roberto Devereux

Lyn, 9 May 2021

Viva Vic Opera!

Curtain up to our term 2! We have a new focus, on contemporary Australian opera, generously supported by Victorian Opera.

During this term, we'll view in class and discuss the three Vic Opera productions available by digital subscription, as well as other operas by the same artists. And amazingly, all the members of our class will be able to view each of the full operas in their own time because Vic Opera has organised complimentary digital subscriptions for every member who had not already subscribed. It's an extraordinary benefit - we won't be restricted to understanding an opera by what can be crammed into snippets shown in class!

Our grateful thanks to the company for this assistance.

We start our term as Vic Opera started its season, with a double bill of recent Australian works about ancient myths centred on themes of power and gender (how contemporary!) Both are commissioned by VO, which this year offers the world premiere of four new Australian operas. (Richard Mills says: “A commission is a promise to the future. It is a demonstration of faith in the creative and particular faith in the creatives invited to make the new work.") More information about these productions and the others in the season is on the VO website. You can download the 2021 season brochure here.

Four of the new works will be our digital fare: Cassandra (Simon Bruckard), Echo and Narcissus (Kevin March) and Parrwang Lifts the Sky (Deborah Cheetham AO). We'll finish our term with Richard Meale’s Voss.

Reinterpreting Cassandra

This week, it's the first of the opening double bill - Cassandra. There's a trailer and introduction to the young Australian creators of this opera here.

Remember Cassandra? The age-old story of vulnerable woman and powerful man, but with a shocking twist. The young princess was gifted by Apollo (aiming to seduce her) with prophecy, then cursed, (when she rejected him), never to be believed. She went on to predict (without being believed) inter alia the contents of that wooden horse gifted to Troy and the murder of Agamemnon.

Composer Simon Bruckard and librettist Constantine Costi have taken the story into a current scene, presenting it starkly in modern discourse, inviting reflection on its current relevance, and setting it to contemporary music, lit cleverly. The constraints on orchestra size gave Bruckard a chance to create dramatic sound with unusual combinations. - four musicians do it with two grand pianos and two Saxophones (alto and baritone) as well as a formidable array of percussion.

There's a full synopsis and supporting material for the opera here.

And the lead part? Cassandra is played by Shakira Dugan, whose career with both VO and OA was rudely interrupted in 2020. Want to know more about this young mezzo from Gippsland who has already starred in VO productions? There’s a 15min interview with her during lockdown here. And a briefer but much less entertaining interview here.

The opera - and its stablemate Echo, won enthusiastic praise in reviews. Here's Barney Zwartz in SMH. . Here's an account of the impact of the opera from the Limelight review.

Mezzo Shakira Dugan’s Cassandra is an assured modern woman who resists tenor Samuel Sakker’s entitled, sleazy Apollo. His response to rejection is a powerful man’s smug, casually cruel revenge. Priam is interpreted by baritone Simon Meadows as a man-child with serious mood swings. They all ably tackle this opera’s technically demanding sung-spoken, atonal style, but it’s what Bruckard has written for the itty bitty orchestra that’s really compelling. His score for two pianos, a baritone saxophone and array of percussion, including several from the xylophone family, oscillates between darkly moody to vigorous, sometimes violent energy. Lyn, 6 May 2021.

What's different tonight?

Here's a different, modern Don Juan. Opera Vision is offering Don Giovanni from the Liceu, Barcelona, free livestreamed till 4 June CET (5th here.) . Christof Loy's production stars Christopher Maltman as Don Giovanni, portrayed as 'a desperate and lonely anti-hero, always eluded by success'. Which doubtless fits Mozart's idea of the character better than the more glamorous versions we've seen. Go here to stream it.

(Remember the Barcelona opera house season launch, where the audience consisted of potplants to be distributed to health workers? They've progressed to distanced humans.)

Other offerings are on OperaVision here.

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And then here's a very old, precious production from home of Verdi's brilliant opera of love and hate, Il Trovatore.

Sutherland's Leonora framed in Nolan's strange ball of Spanish sun

Yes, Opera Australia is still livestreaming some classical productions for free. They're hard to find but include some gems.

Gem of the week is their production in 1983 of Il Trovatore starring Dame Joan Sutherland. Richard Bonynge conducts this dark and moody production by Elijah Moshinsky . And Oh the voices of the past! Kenneth Collins is Manrico, Jonathan Summers is a splendidly evil Count di Luna), Lauris Elms has the voice and spirit for Azucena, Donald Shanks is Ferrando.

And the sets? They are by Sidney Nolan - superb colours and moods.

You can watch the full opera on their free streaming service, at

https://tv.opera.org.au/programs/il-trovatore.

Lauris Elms as Azucena in Nolan's red gypsy world

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Elsewhere, the choice is narrowing, if you want free livestreaming, as the opera companies desperately seek revenue. San Francisco Opera is taking a break from livestreaming, promising to be back in the summer.

But the Met, which carried us through lockdown with an amazing array of performances livestreamed for free, continues the stream of livestreams. Understandably, the productions are now repeating. But there's always an excellent one and I'm posting the schedule here for those who suddenly need an opera tonight and want to know what's on.

The Met's UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Week 58 Moral Authority

Tuesday, April 20 Wagner’s Lohengrin Starring Eva Marton, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hofmann, Leif Roar, and John Macurdy, conducted by James Levine. Production by August Everding. From January 10, 1986.

Wednesday, April 21 Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito Starring Lucy Crowe, Barbara Frittoli, Elina Garanča, Kate Lindsey, Giuseppe Filianoti, and Oren Gradus, conducted by Harry Bicket. Production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. From December 1, 2012.

Thursday, April 22 Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West Starring Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani, and Lucio Gallo, conducted by Nicola Luisotti. Production by Giancarlo Del Monaco. From January 8, 2011.

Friday, April 23 Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra Starring Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Vasile Moldoveanu, Sherrill Milnes, and Paul Plishka, conducted by James Levine. Production by Tito Capobianco. From December 29, 1984.

Saturday, April 24 Philip Glass’s Satyagraha Starring Rachelle Durkin, Richard Croft, Kim Josephson, and Alfred Walker, conducted by Dante Anzolini. Production by Phelim McDermott. From November 19, 2011.

Sunday, April 25 Beethoven’s Fidelio Starring Karita Mattila, Ben Heppner, Falk Struckmann, and René Pape, conducted by James Levine. Production by Jürgen Flimm. From October 28, 2000.

Monday, April 26 Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites Starring Isabel Leonard, Adrianne Pieczonka, and Karita Mattila, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Production by John Dexter. From May 11, 2019.

Week 59 City of Light

Tuesday, April 27 Puccini’s La Bohème Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Susanna Phillips, Michael Fabiano, Lucas Meachem, and Matthew Rose, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Franco Zeffirelli. From February 24, 2018.

Wednesday, April 28 Lehár’s The Merry Widow Starring Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Gunn, Alek Shrader, and Sir Thomas Allen, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Production by Susan Stroman. From January 17, 2015.

Thursday, April 29 Giordano’s Andrea Chénier Starring Maria Guleghina, Wendy White, Stephanie Blythe, Luciano Pavarotti, and Juan Pons, conducted by James Levine. Production by Nicolas Joël. From October 15, 1996.

Friday, April 30 Massenet’s Manon Starring Lisette Oropesa, Michael Fabiano, Artur Ruciński, and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Maurizio Benini. Production by Laurent Pelly. From October 26, 2019.

Saturday, May 1 Verdi’s La Traviata Starring Ileana Cotrubas, Plácido Domingo, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Levine. Production by Colin Graham. From March 28, 1981.

Sunday May 2 Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur Starring Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczała, and Ambrogio Maestri, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Production by Sir David McVicar. From January 12, 2019.

Monday May 2 Puccini’s La Rondine Starring Angela Gheorghiu, Lisette Oropesa, Roberto Alagna, Marius Brenciu, and Samuel Ramey, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Nicolas Joël. From January 10, 2009

Lyn, 22 April.