Opera Australia’s production by Gale Edwards of La bohème — reportedly the first new production initiated by incoming Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini — opened in Melbourne last month, to great critical and audience acclaim. Conductor Christian Badea was kind enough to answer a few questions about the experience, and about what has made La bohème so beloved of audiences for so long. La bohème is one of the best-known and most frequently performed and recorded operas in the repertoire. How do you go about keeping it fresh and exciting for audiences who may have heard it dozens of times? La bohème is one of those musical scores which have endured the test of time because they are so strong and true and they connect instantly with the audience. I always study the score like it is new every time I conduct it, trying to bring out all the details and the composer’s intentions, and I make sure that it relates to the theatrical production on stage. How do you find the balance between orchestra and singers in a piece which is so character-driven and intimate, but full of such lush orchestral writing? Has the challenging acoustic of the Melbourne Arts Centre affected your approach to the…

Reckon you know what’s worth knowing about the European music scene?

As I mentioned in my last blog, a short piece I composed for duo Zentripetal a few months ago was being performed at a recital in New York on April 24. While I couldn’t be there, for obvious reasons, I just received a link to the video – so here it is (I’m not sure how long it will be there for): To recap, the invitation was to compose a 60-second piece for violin and cello. As you can see by the video length, it was performed a bit below tempo – but nobody’s perfect. I welcome any feedback.

It must have been a tough decision for the royal couple: commission some new music for the wedding, or snub the present complement of British composers in favour of the proven performers of yesteryear? Either choice ran the risk of embarrassing the current crop in a service that included Parry’s I Was Glad, the incomparable hymn Jerusalem, and whose full musical programme showcased the who’s who of early 20th-century composers from the Isles. With admirable courage, the pair went for the first option, and so two new works sounded forth in the Abbey on Friday: the anthem This is the day which the Lord hath made, by John Rutter, and Paul Mealor’s motet on the Ubi caritas text. We begin with the Rutter: Many will disagree, but to me Rutter really is the most insubstantial of British composers. Like Ross Edwards and Morten Lauridsen, he writes the same tired piece over and over again. This is the day features all his usual tricks, which are pretty easily listed: 1) naïve and clammily diatonic melodies and chord progressions; 2) the use of broken chords in the organ to disguise a strikingly minimal command of choral textures other than simple homophony; 3)…

For the past week i’ve been fortunate to have participated in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Chamber Players program. I auditioned for this program as a member of the Sydney Camerata String Quartet and we were excited to be one of five quartets and three piano trios selected for a week of performances and intensive masterclasses with some of the finest chamber musicians coming to Sydney for the Musica Viva Festival 2011. I’ve taken part in this AYO program twice before in Brisbane and Armidale but, unlike this year, previously auditioned as an individual cellist and came to the program to be placed in a quartet of musicians who had never played together before. Those experiences were invaluable but this time having a pre-formed quartet gave a completely different focus. Having the opportunity to rehearse before meeting our mentors meant that we could really use the valuable time at the program to work on more advanced musical ideas. Our assigned mentors for the week were Dene Olding and Irena Morosova, two members of the Goldner String Quartet and two of the most inspirational musicians I have had the pleasure of meeting. We prepared the Ravel String Quartet and Haydn’s String Quartet…

I had the pleasure of watching a performance at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music recently. It was a particular pleasure to see a good friend, Glenn Christensen, play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra. In this moving performance Glenn appeared right at home on the concert hall stage and I think his brightest light shone in the cadenza of the first movement. His success was a tribute to immeasurable hard work and commitment, not to mention guidance from his teacher Michelle Walsh. Glenn is a great example of one of the many enthusiastic and talented musicians emerging in Australia. Some readers may be aware of our ensemble Sydney Camerata, but for those that aren’t: it’s a unique group predominantly run by the musicians themselves with members drawn from all states in Australia. The purpose behind the group is to give emerging musicians – many of whom have just recently graduated from various Conservatories around the country – opportunities to perform, collaborate and learn independently while bringing a fresh, vibrant approach towards classical music to a broader audience. Directed from the violin by Liz Gormley, the core sextet of string players garnered the Musica Viva Award for Chamber…

There’s far more out there, of course, than I could ever hope to catalogue here — whole books have been written, dedicated to doing exactly that – and, incredibly, there are still movies in existence which nobody has uploaded to YouTube. But it’s still a treasure trove of operatic footage. Here’s another handful of highlights. We might as well begin with the king and queen of onscreen operetta: Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Here’s a moment from that masterpiece of Canadian exoticism (yes, there was a time when the Rockies qualified as exotic) Rose-Marie. Never trust a baritone to deliver you safely into the arms of an Italian tenor. Eddy is most famous for this sort of light opera, but had some serious baritonal credentials and often dipped into the full-blown repertoire, both in concert (where he only sang his movie songs as encores) and in the movies. Here he is as Escamillo, in a cobbled-together Carmen medley from a film called Balalaika. It also features one Ilona Massey as Carmen, and I should warn you: this is pretty much what I imagine it will look like if Katherine Jenkins ever carries out her threat to sing the role. I have…

During the break at the orchestral call yesterday afternoon, a violinist whom I have known for some time and have performed with many times came up to me and said that she wanted to stop and get up halfway through the first chorus to tell everyone how privileged she felt to be playing this music. As she spoke of her love of the Passion, tears welled up in all our eyes as she articulated how we all feel about Bach and this work in particular. The first general rehearsal ended with our principal oboist saying, “I could just play this music all day”. Such is the preciousness of this repertoire. Bach holds a special place in most musicians’ hearts. In our second orchestral we concentrated more on the arias; always a question of balance and tempo. In many ways Bach does play itself if these two issues are addressed. It became apparent at this call that one of our soloists was having some vocal issues. This is always your nightmare that at last minute you may have to replace a soloist. My belief is that you should never go on stage if you are not going to perform at your…

I grew up about a 15-minute walk from the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and its great dome filled with incandescent projections of the skein of the cosmos instilled in me from a young age a love of all things astronomical. All of that goes towards saying I think the shoe may very well fit with this one. All right, the Holst. It begins with MARS, The Bringer of War, which is a straight rip-off of the music playing during that scene in Star Wars where Darth Vadar first steps onto the flight deck of the Death Star. John Williams should seriously consider suing this guy. “Luke…. I am your composer”. Okay, we’ve moved on to VENUS, The Bringer of Peace and I think Francis may be messing with me. Is this not actually the soundtrack from Star Wars? I’m pretty sure this is from the really gross part where Luke and Leia kiss (SPOILER ALERT) before they know they’re brother and sister. It is fairly beautiful, though. MERCURY, The Winged Messenger next. This is marginally less Star Warsy than the first two. Although, let’s be honest: close your eyes while listening to it and it’s not hard to imagine R2-D2…

The orchestra played very well yesterday at the first rehearsal led by Fiona Ziegler, one of the best violinists in Sydney. Today we concentrate on the arias and it is our last chance to focus in on just orchestral matters, as tonight is a full run – all choruses, recits and arias in order. All the soloists are now in Sydney with Sara Macliver joining us from Perth. We had a brief rehearsal last night between calls with the orchestra and chorus but we have now worked with each other for so long that we could probably walk on stage on Saturday night without consultation and just do it. She is a marvelous singer. Tonight is the first full run at the Sydney Opera House. This is about everyone getting used to the pace of the work and adjusting to the acoustic of the hall. I have some last minute changes to some parts to write, a few tweaks to the stage plan and a pair of shoes to buy… so here ends the blog for today.

For various reasons, I’ve neglected this blog for the past two weeks. Firstly, I, like most local uni students, have been frantically trying to combat the usual bombardment of mid-semester assessments. Secondly, the days seem to be getting considerably shorter. Thirdly, and probably most importantly, I’ve been trying to compose. Outside of these activities (and the odd work commitment), I’ve tried to sleep. Right now, though, in a fortunate turn of events, I’m unable to get to sleep. So, it seems a good opportunity to share some recent musical discoveries. To provide some background: the goal I’ve set myself this semester is to explore texture through my major compositional work. In the past, I’ve tended to focus on issues of pitch, rhythm, even articulation and dynamics – but I’ve never made texture a primary tool of musical interest. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that concepts of texture are harder to wrap one’s head around. You can sing a melody, tap a rhythm, etc. But when it comes to understanding and explaining mass sound events, things can get confusing. One composer I’ve been listening to in an attempt to get the creative (and analytical) juices flowing is György Ligeti. Ligeti…

Coffee – start the day Email – quick check to see of there is anything urgent Viola parts – must get them finished Hayfever – damn… Rehearsing recitative – essentially spoken text inflected on pitch and accompanied by a few instruments – is a very exhausting process requiring a great deal of concentration as decisions have to be made as to where you place the chords, how long they should be, who should play them and at what level of intensity. Sometimes the instruments are functional, telling the singer what pitch to speak the text on. At other times, they take on an interpretive function to highlight the injustice of an action, the frustration of a character or a metaphorical rendering of an idea. Bach essentially left a blueprint for the recitative and all of these aspects are worked out over the course of the recitative calls. The process is as follows: the conductor sends out a marked up score with his suggestions; in the first rehearsal they are refined, discarded, added to and then, over the course of the next three days, they are repeated so that they sound free and spontaneous. This is what happened yesterday in the…