Time flies when you’re having Wagner. Our two months in London are over now, just like that (in fact I’m already writing to you from New York) and in the last four weeks I managed to see something like six performances of Parsifal at the English National Opera. And nor was I just doing my duty for the Tenor In My Life (dare I acronymise him? TTIML?). It turns out I really, really like Parsifal, which before the start of this year I’d never heard in its entirety. The circumstances helped, of course. Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production, which had its start at the ENO and then traveled the world, is evidently regarded as one of the great Wagner stagings of recent years, albeit not by absolutely everyone; during this season I think we probably averaged about one reviewer who didn’t love it to every couple who did. And that’s fair: it’s fairly austere and a bit alienating (deliberately) and thus not to everyone’s tastes. Then again, what is? I certainly have no objection to seeing a super-pretty super-traditional Parsifal — actually I’d quite like to — but I found Lehnhoff’s production ultimately quite captivating. Not sure I quite fathomed all of…

Today at the Con, Italian composer Ezio Bosso spoke at a seminar for composition students. Readers of Limelight may recognise his name from Emma Kean’s March article on the Sydney Dance Company. Ezio has collaborated with choreographer Rafael Bonachela on LANDforms, a new work that will be premiered by the SDC later this month. Ezio spoke about the process of collaboration, as well as his approaches to finding inspiration for his compositions. One central message of his talk was that “we find ourselves through collaboration”. He urged us to never avoid collaborating – explaining that you will learn nothing if you confine yourself to your desk and your score. I wholeheartedly agree with Ezio’s sentiments. I recall that when I started telling friends about my decision to return to uni to study composition, I was occasionally asked whether a degree was really necessary to be a composer. And, while the answer is probably “no”, I had no doubt that immersing myself in a collaborative environment would be far more beneficial than reading scores, listening widely, and working in private. But, I digress. A former pupil of Phillip Glass, Ezio has worked in film as well as dance. He discussed one…

Elena used the lecture (which was the first in this year’s Alfred Hook Lecture Series at the Con) to share with us the various ways in which she uses events, objects and ideas to inspire her compositions. These inspirational sources vary greatly – perhaps best demonstrated in Elena’s newest piece Setting Out, which was premiered (also at the Con) on Sunday afternoon. The concerto for bassoon contains movements inspired by Elena’s experience catching public transport, and one based on the surname of artist Martin Sharp. I was most interested, and moved, to hear Elena explain the way she has used Schizophrenia as inspiration for her work. Elena’s son suffers from the disease and much of her work has been aimed at providing Alex with some respite from the internal voices with which he must constantly struggle. In order to do this, she transformed her musical style from that point on – abandoning avant-garde complexity in favour of harmonic simplicity (see Eliza Aria, below). While Elena didn’t spend a great deal of time discussing this very personal source of inspiration on Friday, some independent research led me to this interview from a few… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4…

I don’t know about you, but I always find it hard to resist the siren song of YouTube’s “Suggestions” column, that never-ending stream of related videos which ensures I can never just watch the clip I came for and leave — there’s always something else tempting to click on, something I haven’t heard of or need to see again. Hours pass, my bandwidth allowance taps me nervously on the shoulder, but I still have to watch just one more before wrenching myself away. This is what happened to me yesterday afternoon, when I went to dig out the link of a clip I’ve watched dozens of times, one of my very favourite moments of operatic humour — Beverly Sills’s appearance on the Muppet Show. What ensued was a veritable gala of opera through a Jim Henson filter, and now I feel the least I can do is share with you some of the highlights. This was the first revelation to me. An appearance on Sesame Street by bass-baritone Samuel Ramey, smack bang in his vocal prime, singing a Bizet-inspired paean to (what else?) the letter ‘L’. I love that he sings with as much commitment as if this were the…

There has been a pretty big gap between the writing of this and my previous post. Today I will try to explain why and, in the process, to discuss a recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony. (Limelight editor) Francis Merson gave me the disc, knowing I’ve been struggling to formulate my thoughts. “The Adagio is the most famous part of the work,” he said. I nodded, as though I knew what that meant. Let’s just get it out of the way: I don’t know what “adagio” means. I wouldn’t know the difference between a cantata and a canon if the conductor – whose job, frankly doesn’t make much sense to me – and a contralto were holding hands with them on (in? during?) a cadenza. Should this be driving me crazy? I don’t know. Is it? Absolutely. I like to be right. I correct people who call the AK-47 a machine gun (it is an automatic rifle) and hold court on frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet sphere at the drop of a dime. I like to think it’s part of my charm but have been told it’s kind of annoying. I say this to…

There is a growing group of scientists who are convinced that technology will advance so far beyond our comprehension that the world as we know it will be completely transformed: they call this the “Singularity”. Ray Kurzweil, an American futurist and co-founder of Singularity University, has gone as far as to predict the year that these changes will take place: and it’s less than 35 years away. Kurzweil has observed that computational speed is growing exponentially. At the same time, the technology we are creating is getting “smarter”. So, the range of tasks that a computer can carry out faster than humans, and without their intervention, is growing. The expectation of Kurzweil and other Singularitarians is that, one day, those tasks will include the development of even smarter technology – computer programmers will be usurped by the very systems they have created. In other words: robots will learn to procreate (so to speak). They call this the “intelligence explosion”. OK, so the world will one day be ruled by super-intelligent robots. But, I hear you ask, what impact will this have on classical music? Even if the Singularitarians are right, and artificial intelligence… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from…

Searching for a birthday present for a tech-savvy sound engineer, and not wanting to come across as a Luddite, I stumbled upon a nifty CD. Well, not quite a CD: like much of the music we hear on ABC Classic FM, my purchase is housed in a jewel case, but the mechanism inside this flimsy, plastic, hinged container allows the music to exist, defines its sound world, and gives it life. American composer and artist Tristan Perich has programmed his First Symphony. It comes packaged in a CD case, the listener plugs headphones directly into the case, flicks the ‘on’ switch, adjusts the volume dial embedded in the case, and – hey, presto. A symphony. Perich’s 1-bit Symphony is an electronic composition in five movements, programmed onto a single microchip designed to ‘perform’ itself when switched on. His compositional techniques are electrical pulses and assembly code; the electronic circuit mounted in the jewel case is the composition. Electronic and electroacoustic music has experienced a long evolution in 20th-century classical music dating back to Varèse and the European avant-garde, but it’s never been presented in this form, as a sort of pocket sound installation. With digital downloads encroaching on physical CD…

Mark-Anthony Turnage’s operatic take on the rise and decline of Playmate, billionaire’s widow and tabloid darling Anna Nicole Smith has been heavily hyped by The Royal Opera, who commissioned it, pretty much from the day it was announced, and more intensely still in the weeks leading up to its world première. They’re even hyping it to those who’ve already bought tickets and shown up to see it – on Anna Nicole nights, promo shots of Eva-Maria Westbroek as Anna Nicole smile at you from every portrait frame on the wall, every bust and statue, even from the spot above the stage where you expect to see the queen. Even the curtain is now hot pink instead of red. At some level it does please me to see an opera company get so desperately into the spirit of things but this is probably overkill, and it risks undermining the opera before it’s even begun to treat it as an Event in this way. Particularly if it’s an opera which sets out to move its audience as well as amuse them, which I think Anna Nicole does. At least, it gets all serious in the last half hour. Whether it is indeed…

After all the excitement of the Classic 100, the Classic 100 Ten Years On and the First Time Classics, I think it’s time for nominations for Music You Never Want To Hear Again, and I have a few ideas to get things started. 1. Anything by the composer Samuel Scheidt. Apart from having a most unfortunate name, this composer was forgotten for hundreds of years for a very good reason. He is boring. I played a Fantasia of his on ABC Classic FM a little while ago and it sounded like a piece of Monteverdi with all the grace and intelligence sucked out of it. So goodbye Scheidt, you had your chance and now it’s over. Same with the equally unfortunate Anton Ferdinand Titz. 2. The tradition of the singer holding the last high note in a Rossini aria. The music is powering along, we know we’re going to finish, we’re excited about it and suddenly the singer decides to stop and admire the view from a high B-flat. Rossini never intended it to be this way, it kills the drama and the excitement, and it should be banned immediately, or at least the singer should be fined $3,000 for…

Yesterday afternoon, I strolled down to the Sydney Opera House for Great Opera Hits – a concert performance featuring four of Opera Australia’s finest young singers. While I’m not here to review the concert, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and gladly recommend it. I experienced those sought-after “chills” on more than one occasion – and, if you read my Valentine’s Day blog, you’ll understand the kind of forces that must be engaged for that to occur. All performers were great. I was particularly amused by baritone Andrew Jones’ super-hammy presence. While I’m no expert, I expect he’ll do quite well for himself. As I say, I’m no opera expert (I feel I’m cutting Sarah’s grass a little with this blog). I’m not even a huge fan, but that may be gradually changing. Yesterday’s concert was essentially an operatic highlights reel. My short attention span was grateful. The most powerful moments from the most popular operas delivered in succession and, while there was no storyline with which to engage, the music was beautiful and entertainment enough. As always, I was amazed by the talent and physical strength possessed by opera singers. It is, therefore, a shame that I…

Reviewed: Sydney’s adventurous young chamber opera company does Dostoevsky When: Feb 17, 2011 Where: Cell Block Theatre, Forbes St, Darlinghurst, New South Wales Web: https://sydneychamberopera.com/ I can see how Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground would appeal to Sydney Chamber Opera, the newly founded troupe of ambitious twenty-somethings, as the basis of their inaugural production. The novella’s stream-of-consciousness diatribe is constructed as the writings of a raving recluse taking refuge from the world at large in his own internalised ‘underground’. Penned in 1864, this strikingly modern study of existentialism broods in the shadows, shunning the 19th-century Romantics. With that grim premise for a new opera by young composer Jack Symonds, concert-goers and opera buffs might be expecting an indulgently angst-ridden affair from recent graduates and wannabe-enfants terribles. But, having seen Britten’s Turn of the Screw staged last year by members of the dynamic new group (in an earlier incarnation as Sydney University Opera Company) I knew to expect a polished, atmospheric and thought-provoking piece. I had no idea, however, what to expect in terms of a plot. How to write an opera based on a hazy philosophical rant, with an alarming (to most theatre directors) lack of action or drama? Librettist…

It was a bit of serendipitous timing to find myself in the right city at the right time for the service of thanksgiving held at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday in honour of Dame Joan Sutherland.  I had the privilege of writing a profile of Dame Joan for Limelight‘s extensive tribute, and it was wonderful to have this chance to further celebrate not just a great Australian singer, but one of the greatest singers anywhere, ever – and a great lady to boot. We arrived at 10:15 for a midday start and already there was a crowd milling at the entrance, where a large white security tent had been set up – HRH Prince Charles would be there, representing the Queen and Prince Philip, so security was tight, with most attendees required to undergo a bag and identity check. We went on a search for fortifying hot beverages and returned at 10:40 to see this… And there was still another 90 minutes’ worth of people to arrive, so I don’t know how much longer that queue got – but nevertheless, we were all inside and in our places by noon, with suitably glorious music to welcome us. A selection of organ…