If you saw David Robertson’s masterful concert version of Tristan und Isolde with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra earlier in the year you would be familiar with the compelling singing of US soprano Christine Brewer in the title role. Here she is 13 years earlier in an equally powerful performance recorded live at London’s Barbican Centre under the masterful baton of Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles. Celebrated English tenor John Treleaven is a superbly convincing Tristan and there is a great chemistry between the pair. His is a many-layered performance as our hero runs the gamut of emotions over four exhausting hours. This stellar partnership is complemented by Czech mezzo Dagmar Pecková – a star in her own right and with an asteroid named after her to prove it – as Brangane and British bass Pete Rose gives King Mark’s big aria, Tatest du’s wirklich, a finely expressive reading with his nuanced timbre. Jared Holt makes a fine Melot as well. Israeli baritone Boaz Daniel impressed as Tristan’s faithful servant Kurwenal in Sydney and he does the same on this disc. Runnicles and the BBC Symphony are in fine form… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

Agostino Steffani (1654-1728) set words to music as only a master linguist and singer could. His beautiful chamber duets were influential on Handel’s essays in that genre, while Steffani’s sacred music and French-influenced operas seem to grow out of the duet as a fundamental unit of composition. Steffani spent two decades working in Munich and Niobe, Regina di Tebe, composed in 1687, was his final opera for that city. Based on an episode in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Luigi Orlandi’s libretto tells the story of Queen Niobe’s downfall after being handed the regency by her husband Anfione, King of Thebes. Assailed by love and hate in equal measure – Tiberino, son of the King of Alba, wants Thebes for himself; the vengeful magician Poliferno assists lovestruck Creonte in his own ambitions for queen and kingdom – Niobe ultimately succumbs to pride and is duly punished by the gods. The music is glorious, Steffani’s adroit handling of recitative and aria matched by his generous orchestrations utilising strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Captured live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, this performance conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock and featuring Véronique Gens as Niobe, Jacek… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

Jacques-François Gallay was a French horn player prominent in the middle of the 19th century, inspiring one reviewer of the time to write that he “cannot conceive of the horn without M. Gallay”. Playing the natural horn takes an already complex and difficult instrument and ratchets up the difficulty several notches. Unlike the more modern, valved instrument, notes are changed by lip tension or by hand-stopping. With a minefield of intonation and projection issues to navigate, Anneke Scott performs this repertoire with astonishing ease. However, this third volume of Gallay’s music performed by Scott doesn’t quite live up to previous discs. This has nothing to do with the playing and more to do with the music itself. Operatic fantasias are not the most substantial of genres. While they were perfect for the travelling virtuoso to show off back in the day (opera’s big tunes, combined with lots of notes!), by the time it reaches the present the music has to stand on its own. There’s an attempt to get around this issue by having soprano Lucy Crowe perform some of the original arias by Donizetti and Mercadante. While… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

Dusapin's Orphic duologue gets a welcome Aussie premiere.

The singer’s return to Covent Garden is about to hit Australian cinema screens – this time minus the prosthetic boobs. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The British classical website’s annual analysis of the musical endeavours of 2015 reflects the Aussie love of opera.

Lincoln Center’s 2015 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1951 musical The King and I was well reviewed. Ben Brantley in the New York Times called it “a colonialist-minded musical that… should probably embarrass us in the age of political correctness.” His contention was that it did not. I’m less certain. On disc the Overture reminds you immediately that this is Rodgers’ show. His ability to craft a memorably turned melody with unexpected harmonic underpinnings is superb. I Have Dreamed and Hello Young Lovers are masterpieces. Yet, as the songs progress, you can’t help feeling that Hammerstein’s work remains stubbornly of its time. Kelli O’Hara sings Anna perfectly, although her English vowels are too studied. Ken Watanabe was strong as The King onstage, but makes little impression vocally. Ashley Park’s Tuptim has all the notes, but it’s a squally voice with a fast, wide vibrato; by contrast, Conrad Ricamora as her lover Lun Tha sounds very 21st-century Broadway. Ruthie Ann Mills performs Lady Thiang’s song Something Wonderful beautifully, and it’s good to hear Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations. The Small House of Uncle Thomas is included, which is long… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

Editor’s Choice, Opera – October 2015 Jonas Kaufmann was 21 when the Three Tenors made Nessun Dorma into the most popular aria of them all by featuring it in their 1990 concert on the eve of the FIFA World Cup Final. It’s taken 25 years for the star German tenor to put it on record, saying that for a long time he hardly dared sing it because of Pavarotti and Co’s legacy. “Even today, when I hear and sing this aria, I still get goosebumps,” he says in the liner notes to his new all-Puccini album. Well, the wait has been worth it as it makes the perfect finale to this five-star feast of the finest moments from “the people’s composer”. When Kaufmann hits the high B at the climax it’s as thrilling as anything produced by any of the other great tenors, and if you purchase the deluxe version with the bonus DVD you’ll see how happy he is when he nails it. But the stellar aria is only three minutes of what is a 16-track, hour-long roller coaster of emotion, all majestically delivered in that special timbre with its baritone shading. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from…

Are we failing music students as a result of poor staffing priorities? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Covent Garden’s smart new Cav and Pag is headed south. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Kentridge and Goerne's gripping Transvaal trek both hypnotises and provokes.

The acclaimed American mezzo-soprano will play Florence Foster Jenkins, the infamously bad singer, in a new film.