Detroit Symphony officially cancels 2010-11 season due to ongoing contract impasse

It's now official: the 2010-11 Detroit Symphony Orchestra season is dead -- not that it really ever started, thanks to a musicians' strike.

Here are the first few paragraphs of a press release from the symphony's management:

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) announced today that due to the rejection of its final offer by the Musicians, it has reluctantly released artists and conductors from their contracts and suspended all remaining orchestral concerts through June. Prospects of rescheduling concerts originally within the season, resuming the 2011 Summer Orchestral Season and announcing a 2011-12 calendar remain possible pending a settlement. 

The decision comes at the close of a week filled with earnest negotiations, assisted by community intermediaries that began last Friday and included a series of proposals and counter proposals exchanged on both sides. Management’s final offer, which was modified to meet many of the Musicians’ requests on a wide range of issues, was made on Tues., Feb. 15 with a request for a vote from the members.

You can read all the details, from management's perspective, here.

Judging from the well-organized musicians, who have set up their own independent concert series, and who have outlined in detail their objections to DSO proposals, this situation isn't about to get resolved soon.

You can read all the details, from the musicians' perspective, here.

Three Torontonians led by director Joel Ivany in finals for European opera prize

Photo: John Terauds

Young Toronto director Joel Ivany (pictured above) and his creative team of set and costume designer Camellia Koo and lighting designer Jason Hand have made it to the final round of the sixth biennial Europäischen Opernregie-Preis (European Operadirecting Prize) competition.

They and three other teams of finalists will travel to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in early March to present their proposals for staging Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi to the competition jury.

"We feel honoured to have made the finals.  I'm not sure how many Canadians have ever made it thus far in the history of the Prize," Ivany wrote in an email.

The winning team gets a cash prize of 15,000 euro (nearly $20,000 cdn), but the real interest is in getting the winning production produced at at least one of the 100 opera houses that are members of the Opera Europa association. There is also a guarantee that the production will be seen in the season following the prize at one of four participating houses in northern Italy (Brescia, Como, Pavia or Verona).

According to the competition organizers, 181 applicants out of a total of 213 from 25 countries made it into the competition, which was launched by Camerata Nuova in Wiesbaden, in 2001. Competitors have to be aged 35 or under (Koo is just barely scraping in under the deadline).

Ivany & Co.  -- who have never worked together on a production before -- are up against three other teams, representing the U.K., France and Italy.

The winners will be announced in Wiesbaden's town-hall square on Mar. 13.

It's a busy time for Ivany, who is currently assistant-directing a new production of Rigoletto at the fab new opera house in Oslo. It opens Mar. 24. His most recent project in Toronto was directing the Canadian Children's Opera Company premiere of an opera adaptation of Pierre Berton's children's classic The Secret World of Og last May (I took the picture above, during a rehearsal).

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In case you need an introduction to Bellini's take on the rivalry between Shakespeare's Capulets and Montagues, here is a great "opera in 10 minutes" clip from YouTube:

The Necessary 100: We can't ignore Franz Schubert's contributions to music for our living rooms

I narrowed down my suggestions regarding Franz Schubert's contribution to the Necessary 100 list to two, both from his syphillis-addled later years (he was only 31 when he died). Schubert wrote operas (now forgotten) and symphonies (which are still well-loved), but his most significant contribution to posterity was in chamber music and art song -- music that we can play and sing in our living rooms:

Die Winterreise
Schubert composed the 24-song second cycle based on poems by Wilhem Müller in two bursts in 1827. It contains everything we should know and hear about the master of the German art song, as well as the many ways of translating the affairs of the heart into music.

I've heard Winterreise sung by baritone and tenor (Schubert's original setting). But I've never heard anything that has moved me as much as tenor Christoph Prégardien singing a version for chamber ensemble, with the group Pentaèdre (unfortunately, I can't provide a sample here).

Here is Prégardien singing Frülingstraum (Dream of Spring) with guitarist Tilman Hoppstock, followed by baritone Matthias Goerne singing Erstarrung (Numbness) and Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree) with pianist Alfred Brendel:

String Quartet No. 14, in D minor, "Death and the Maiden"
The composer stared death in the face and this is what he saw. The title comes from a poem Schubert had set to music 17 years earlier (when the composer was 17), and which is the theme for the second of the four movements. Schubert wrote it in 1824 and performed it for the first time with amateur-musician friends at a private home in 1826. Schubert died in 1828, and the quartet was not published until 1831.

Here is the Alban Berg Quartet playing the second and third movements:

 

Seeing staged opera in 2-D would impress me far more than Met's forthcoming experiment in 3-D

Further to the Metropolitan Opera 2011-12 season uneiling yesterday is this bit of news from the New York Times. I've reproduced the first section of the article:

Purveyors of entertainment, in the ever-urgent quest to grab audiences’ attention, have used 3-D imagery in movies and, more recently, television. Now it is coming to live theater.

In a rare case (at least in modern times) of technical innovation born on the opera stage, the Metropolitan Opera said it planned to introduce 3-D projections for its production of “Siegfried” next season, the third installment in its new “Ring” cycle, directed by Robert Lepage.

If the technology works as advertised, the singers will appear to move inside a three-dimensional world created by projections. But tuxedo-clad operagoers will not face the indignity of wearing goofy 3-D glasses. The creators say that the complex mathematical formulas used to create the three-dimensional effect will obviate the need for glasses.

The technology was developed for Mr. Lepage, the Canadian stage and opera director. His “Ring” is the most technologically intricate production yet put on the Met stage. The scenery consists largely of sophisticated projections cast onto a 45-ton set composed of two dozen giant planks that rotate on a single axis and move up and down.

For years, digital artists, computer programmers and lighting experts have worked to project lifelike imagery on stage. Few people have seen samples of the new technology, and it has been tested only on scale models of the set.

But according to those who have worked on it and witnessed it, the new technology represents a notable advance in the richness of detail, shadows and shading in the images projected, and the ability of the images to move and interact with singers and actors on the set.

“I’ve been in this business for 35 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Roger Parent, the president of Réalisations, the Montreal company that is supplying the digital technology for the “Ring” productions. “You get a realistic sense of 3-D without the drawbacks, without the glasses.”

Mr. Parent said he planned to use the technology in his company’s other work: creating digital effects for Cirque du Soleil and for theatrical productions, and in architectural and interior settings. “But I want to make sure the Met has the first bang,” he added.

Olivier Goulet, the president of Geodezik, a multimedia company that creates video special effects for stage shows, including those for pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Pink, saw a demonstration and came away impressed. He plans to use it, he said, in work he is doing for a rock group, which he declined to name. For example, Mr. Goulet said, a singer might walk up a tilted stage and would appear to be trekking up an imaginary 3-D mountain or through a splashing waterfall.

Its use at the Met, so far, will be limited to forest scenes in “Siegfried.” It will not be employed in the final work of Wagner’s cycle, “Götterdämmerung.” Inevitably, it will give more ammunition to Wagnerites and critics who view Mr. Lepage’s sophisticated electronics as a distraction from the drama and the music.

I can see the fascination with 3-D in movie theatres and for television, because they present images on a flat surface. But a theatre stage is already a three-dimensional environment.

I was prepared to accept Lepage's Ring as a 21st century version of the Baroque fascination with stage machinery. But I think this little bit of overkill might push me over the edge into full-out, arms-crossed skepticism (but is it a real edge, or just a projection?).

I think it would be far more challenging to try and make a regular, 3-D opera production as flat as possible, asking the singers never to turn sideways. Or perhaps one could try some sort of marionette work with cardboard cutouts of the characters.

Opera in 2-D! THAT would be novel.

Metropolitan Opera announces operas to be broadcast in HD during 2011-12 season

The Metropolitan Opera announced its 2011-12 HD broadcast lineup on Wednesday. The announcement included mention that there are now 1,500 theatres hosting the broadcasts in 46 countries, up by 25 per cent from last season. Gross ticket revenue from these broadcasts in 2009-10 was $48 million (U.S.), of which half went to the Met.

The announcement also sais that, to-date, 7 million Met opera HD broadcast tickets have been sold.

Here are the relevant passages from the press release regarding next season's productions and broadcasts:

The 2011-12 season of The Met: Live in HD will feature 11 transmissions, beginning on October 15 with Anna Bolena and continuing with Don Giovanni (October 29), Siegfried (November 5), Satyagraha(November 19), Rodelinda (December 3), Faust (December 10), The Enchanted Island (January 21), Götterdämmerung(February 11), Ernani (February 25), Manon (April 7), and La Traviata (April 14).

Here are the details on the new production that will be shown on the HD broadcasts:

Anna Bolena – Gaetano Donizetti (Live in HD: October 15 at 1 p.m./ET)

The season opens with the Met premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, starring Anna Netrebko as the young queen of the title and conducted by Marco Armiliato. Elīna Garanča is Giovanna (Jane Seymour); Stephen Costello is Lord Percy; Ildar Abdrazakov is Enrico (Henry VIII); and Tamara Mumford is the queen’s page, Smeton. Generally considered one of Donizetti’s finest operas, Anna Bolena was the composer’s first international success. Though never performed at the Met, the opera was famously revived at La Scala with Maria Callas in the 1950s. Anna Bolena is the first of a trilogy of Donizetti’s operas based on the lives of Tudor-era queens that David McVicar will be directing at the Met in coming seasons. Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux complete the trilogy, each with a different design team. All three operas will be Met premieres.

David McVicar, whose 2009 production of Il Trovatore earned critical and audience acclaim, has said that his staging of Anna Bolena will “embrace the romanticism of the piece.” His production team is led by set designer Robert Jones, an Olivier Award-nominated English designer of opera and stage productions; costume designer Jenny Tiramani, who previously served as Director of Theatre Design at Shakespeare’s Globe; lighting designer Paule Constable, a three-time Olivier Award winner whose credits include War Horse on Broadway and Satyagraha at the Met; and choreographer George Andrew. Jones and Tiramani are making their Met debuts with Anna Bolena. The production is a gift of Mercedes and Sid R. Bass.

 

Don Giovanni – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Live in HD: October 29 at 1 p.m./ET)

Tony Award winner Michael Grandage directs a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for his Met debut. Grandage has a multifaceted impression of the title character: “Don Giovanni has a charismatic lust for life, but he’s not just some serial seducer; he’s a dark, complex individual.” The cast, conducted by James Levine and led by Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role, features the Met debuts of Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna and German soprano Mojca Erdmann as Zerlina. Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, and Štefan Kocán as the Commendatore sing their roles for the first time at the Met, while Barbara Frittoli and Joshua Bloom reprise their performances of Donna Elvira and Masetto. Grandage’s production marks the Met debuts of Tony Award winner Christopher Oram (set and costume design) and Ben Wright (choreography), with lighting design by Paule Constable in her second new Met production of the season. The production is a gift of the Richard and Susan Braddock Family Foundation, with additional funding from Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha.

 

Siegfried – Richard Wagner (Live in HD: November 5 at 12 p.m./ET)

            Maestro Levine also conduct’s Robert Lepage’s production of Siegfried, starring Gary Lehman in his first Met performances of the title role. Singers from earlier operas in the Ring cycle also appear, including Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde, Patricia Bardon as Erda, Bryn Terfel as the Wanderer, and Eric Owens and Gerhard Siegel as the greedy brothers Alberich and Mime. For this third installment of Wagner’s great epic, Lepage introduces a new 3D technology as part of the projections that transform the set into startlingly dramatic images that readjust as the scenery moves and changes shapes. Developed by Réalisations.net, the innovative software, called Maginaire, programmed by Alexandru Duru, has never before been used in a theatrical presentation. Siegfried is the only opera in the new Ring to make use of this technology, which will be utilized to create an enhanced sense of theatrical realism for Siegfried’s forest dwelling. “When you come to Siegfried,”Lepage says, “you can fully appreciate the complexity and genius of the leitmotifs Wagner has used to create another world. That is what we must do onstage as well—create an organic world of dragons and bears and insects and other creatures, where Siegfried can prove himself the strong, fearless, virile hero.” The production team also includes associate director Neilson Vignola, set designer Carl Fillion, costume designer François St-Aubin, lighting designer Etienne Boucher, and video image artist Pedro Pirés. The production is a gift of Ann Ziff and the Ziff family, in memory of William Ziff, and is presented in collaboration with Ex Machina.

 

Satyagraha – Philip Glass (Live in HD: November 19 at 1 p.m./ET)

            Philip Glass’s Satyagraha has its first Met revival in Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s innovative production, conducted by Dante Anzolini, who led the opera’s Met premiere. Richard Croft will reprise his lead performance as Gandhi, with Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlessen, Kim Josephson as Mr. Kallenbach, and Alfred Walker as

Parsi Rustomji. The visually extravagant staging, praised by the Washington Post as “a profound and beautiful work of theater,” features the designs of Crouch (sets), Kevin Pollard (costumes), and Paule Constable (lighting), with video design byLeo Warner and Mark Grimmer of Fifty Nine Productions. Satyagraha is a co-production with English National Opera, in collaboration with Improbable.

 

Rodelinda – George Frideric Handel (Live in HD: December 3 at 12:30 p.m./ET)

            Stephen Wadsworth’s much-heralded production of Handel’s opera features Renée Fleming in the title role of the Queen of Lombardy. Kobie van Rensburg and Stephanie Blythe sing Grimoaldo and Eduige, with countertenors Andreas Scholl (as Bertarido) and Iestyn Davies (in his Met debut as Unulfo) and bass-baritone Shenyang (as Garibaldo) completing the cast. Harry Bicket, who led the opera’s Met premiere, conducts. Wadsworth’s staging, created in 2004 for the first-ever Met performances of the opera, has been hailed as a “landmark production…seldom has Handel’s inexhaustible imagination seemed as miraculous as in Rodelinda” (The New York Times). Rodelinda features set design by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski.

 

Faust – Charles Gounod (Live in HD: December 10 at 1 p.m./ET)

Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff (Met debut) has set his new production of Gounod’s Faust in the first part of the 20^th century. McAnuff is interested in the opera’s philosophies of “personal responsibility…I think that’s the Faustian journey right there. It’s trying to escape from ultimate knowledge, which includes evil.” Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings his first Met performances of the title role, opposite Angela Gheorghiu as the innocent Marguerite, Michèle Losier as Siébel, Russell Braun as Valentin, René Pape as Méphistophélès; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who led the new production premieres of Carmenand Don Carlo in recent seasons, conducts his first Met performances of the opera. Theatrical designers Robert Brill (sets) andPaul Tazewell (costumes) make their Met debuts with this production, which also features lighting design by Peter Mumford, video design by Dustin O’Neill, choreography by Kelly Devine, and fight direction by Stephen Rankin. Faust is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and the English National Opera, where this production premiered earlier this season.

 

The Enchanted Island (Live in HD: January 21 at 1 p.m./ET)

The Met will present The Enchanted Island, a world premiere creation using Baroque music set to an all-new English-language libretto by Jeremy Sams, who collaborated with Baroque specialist William Christie, who conducts. Works by George Frideric Handel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Antonio Vivaldi make up the majority of the score with smaller excerpts of pieces by André Campra, Jean-Marie Leclair, and others. The opera combines characters and plot elements from two Shakespeare plays: the four mismatched lovers from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on an island where The Tempest’s Prospero and Sycorax are embroiled in a supernatural battle. The starry cast includes Danielle de Niese as Ariel, Lisette Oropesa as Miranda, Joyce DiDonato as Sycorax, David Daniels as Prospero, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Ferdinand, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban – with a special appearance by Plácido Domingo as Neptune. Director Phelim McDermott, associate director and set designer Julian Crouch, and costume designer Kevin Pollard, the team behind the Met’s production of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha, have created an opulent, imaginative showcase for this 21^st-century interpretation of an 18^th-century pasticcio. Lighting designer Brian MacDevitt, choreographer Graciela Daniele, and animation and projection design company 59 Productions help to create the magical world of The Enchanted Island. 

As an operatic pasticcio or pastiche, The Enchanted Island harks back to the 18^th century when adapting new words to music from various composers to create an altogether new theatrical piece became standard procedure in opera houses. According toThe New Grove Dictionary of Music, the tradition began in late 17^th-century Italy but flourished particularly in London, where Handel himself was a prominent practitioner. “We wanted to create a modern vehicle for Baroque music featuring artists who are virtuoso performers of this style, so I turned to Jeremy Sams and William Christie,” explained Gelb. “I believe this hybrid creation will showcase some of the great music of the period in a way that will honor the Baroque tradition, yet be modern in spirit – especially with a creative team led by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch.”

 

Götterdämmerung – Richard Wagner (Live in HD: February 11 at 12 p.m./ET)

Robert Lepage’s production of the final opera in the Ring cycle, Götterdämmerung, will also be conducted by Maestro Levine. In the cycle’s thrilling conclusion, in which deception and greed lead to a global cataclysm, Deborah Voigt and Gary Lehman again sing Brünnhilde and Siegfried. The cast also features Eric Owens as Alberich, Waltraud Meier as Waltraute and, as the Gibichungs who scheme to destroy Siegfried, Hans-Peter König as Hagen, Wendy Bryn Harmer as Gutrune, and Iain Paterson as Gunther. “Götterdämmerung is different from the other Ring operas because it is about society,” Lepage says. “The more the story progresses, the more it moves away from the realm of the gods to focus on the power and ambition of human beings. Götterdämmerung is about Brünnhilde in society, her journey as a character, and her role as the heroine who must restore balance to the world.” Lepage’s design team from Siegfried reassembles to create the visuals for the final segment of the Ring. The production is a gift of Ann Ziff and the Ziff family, in memory of William Ziff, and is presented in collaboration with Ex Machina.

 

Ernani – Giuseppe Verdi (Live in HD: February 25 at 1 p.m./ET)

            Verdi’s Ernani, conducted by Marco Armiliato, will star Salvatore Licitra in his first Met performances of the title role. As Elvira, the woman Ernani loves, young American soprano Angela Meade will star in her first Live in HDtransmission. Consummate Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Carlo) and Ferruccio Furlanetto (de Silva) complete the principal cast. Verdi’s early romantic tragedy, a tale of hot-blooded passion adapted from a popular 19^th-century stage drama by Victor Hugo, contains some of the composer’s most thrilling arias. Ernani will be seen in Pier Luigi Samaritani’s grandly-scaled production, which features set design by the director, costumes by Peter J. Hall, and lighting design by Gil Wechsler.

 

Manon – Jules Massenet (Live in HD: April 7 at 12 p.m./ET)

Anna Netrebko opens her second new production of the season, portraying the impetuous, tragic title character in Massenet’sManon for the first time at the Met. Also making Met role debuts are Piotr Beczala as Manon’s lover the Chevalier des Grieux, Paulo Szot as her cousin Lescaut, and David Pittsinger as the Comte des Grieux. Met Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi conducts his first house performances of the work. Laurent Pelly’s stylish production, starring Netrebko, premiered to outstanding reviews at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2010. Pelly says that his production of the opera will provide “an adventure that amuses, moves, and frightens” the audience. The production reunites Pelly’s design team from 2008’s La Fille du Régiment: Chantal Thomas (sets), Pelly (costumes), and Joël Adam (lighting). French choreographerLionel Hoche makes his Met debut with this production. Manon is underwritten by The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund and is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse.

 

La Traviata – Giuseppe Verdi (Live in HD: April 14 at 1 p.m./ET)

Natalie Dessay makes her Met role debut as the tragic courtesan Violetta in Willy Decker’s innovative modern-dress staging of La Traviata, which “delivers style, sparkle, and stirring drama…it demands to be seen” (Los Angeles Times). Matthew Polenzani, who starred in the new production premiere this season, will reprise his Alfredo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky will sing the role of his disapproving father, Giorgio Germont. Met Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi leads his first Met performances of the opera. This transmission is the Live in HD premiere of this classic Verdi opera. Decker’s production features the work of set and costume designer Wolfgang Gussmann, lighting designer Hans Toelstede, and choreographerAthol Farmer. Original production of the Salzburger Festspiele; with thanks to De Nederlandse Opera.

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There are also 19 revivals as part of the Met's new season. Here are the words from the company's press release:

The Met’s 2011-12 season will feature 19 revivals, ranging from standard repertory productions with starry casts to revivals of rarely performed operatic masterpieces. Philip Glass’s Satyagraha will have its first Met revival in Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s innovative production, conducted by Dante Anzolini, who led the opera’s Met premiere. Richard Croft will reprise his lead performance as Gandhi, with Rachelle Durkin, Kim Josephson, and Alfred Walker in principal roles.

            Janáček’s The Makropulos Case will return to the Met for the first time since 2001, with Karita Mattila in the starring role of the supernaturally youthful diva Emilia Marty and Janáček specialist Jiří Bělohlávek conducting. Kurt Streit and Johan Reuter (in his Met debut) are two of Emilia’s admirers and Tom Fox is the skeptical lawyer Kolenatý.

            Another 20^th-century opera, Britten’s Billy Budd, has its first Met revival since 1997, with Nathan Gunn singing the title role for the first time at the Met. John Daszak makes his Met debut as Captain Vere and James Morris sings the villain John Claggart in Britten’s adaptation of the classic Melville novella, conducted by David Robertson.

            Handel’s Rodelinda will return to the repertory, with Renée Fleming again singing the title role of the Queen of Lombardy, and Kobie van Rensburg and Stephanie Blythe as Grimoaldo and Eduige. Harry Bicket, who led the opera’s first performances at the Met, returns to conduct. Countertenors Andreas Scholl (as the usurped king Bertarido) and Iestyn Davies (in his Met debut as Unulfo, Bertarido’s friend) and bass-baritone Shenyang (as the evil Garibaldo) complete the cast of Stephen Wadsworth’s acclaimed production.

            Russian opera is represented this season by Mussorgsky’s dramatic historical epic Khovanshchina, not heard at the Met since 1999. Anatoli Kotscherga and Misha Didyk make their Met debuts in the roles of Ivan and Andrei Khovansky, surrounded by an outstanding cast of Russian and Georgian artists that includes Olga Borodina as Marfa, Vladimir Galouzine as Vasily Golitsin, George Gagnidze as Shaklovity, Ildar Abdrazakov as Dosifei, and conductor Kirill Petrenko.

            Puccini lovers will hear revivals of the composer’s three most popular works. Madama Butterfly, in Anthony Minghella’s stunning production, will star Liping Zhang and Patricia Racette in the heartbreaking title role, with Robert Dean Smith and Marcello Giordani as the callous Lieutenant Pinkerton. Maria Zifchak returns to the role of Suzuki and Luca Salsi and Laurent Naouri (in his Met debut) sing Sharpless. Plácido Domingo, Marco Armiliato, and Yves Abel will each conduct performances of Butterfly in the coming season.  Carolyn Choa, the production’s original choreographer and associate director, returns to stage the revival.

            Racette will also sing the title role of Tosca, a part that earned her tremendous acclaim when she first sang it at the Met in 2010. Two tenors will alternate as her lover Cavaradossi: Roberto Alagna, who made an unexpected Met role debut in the part in the current season and Aleksandrs Antonenko, singing the role for the first time at the Met. Scarpia will be sung by George Gagnidze and James Morris. Young Finnish conductor Mikko Franck makes his Met debut.

            Puccini’s enduring classic La Bohème, in Franco Zeffirelli’s spectacular staging, will return next season with Hibla Gerzmava and Hei-Kyung Hong as Mimì and Dimitri Pittas as Rodolfo. Susanna Phillips reprises her winning portrayal of Musetta and Alexey Markov, Patrick Carfizzi, and Matthew Rose (in his Met debut) comprise Rodolfo’s circle of bohemian friends. Louis Langrée conducts his first Met performances of the opera.

            Bartlett Sher’s rollicking production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia returns to the Met for an extended run, with two casts of stars conducted by Maurizio Benini. An October revival will star Peter Mattei as Figaro and Isabel Leonard in her Met role debut as Rosina, with Javier Camarena making his Met debut as Count Almaviva, Maurizio Muraro as Dr. Bartolo, and Paata Burchuladze and Samuel Ramey singing Don Basilio. A spring run will feature Diana Damrau as Rosina, with Rodion Pogossov as Figaro, Colin Lee as Almaviva, John Del Carlo as Dr. Bartolo, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Basilio.

            Two Donizetti comedies will join Barbiere on the lighter side of the season. L’Elisir d’Amore has a glittering cast of bel canto stars: Diana Damrau as the beautiful Adina, Juan Diego Flórez as the bumbling Nemorino, Mariusz Kwiecien as the cocky Belcore, and Alessandro Corbelli as the elixir-dispensing Dulcamara. Donato Renzetti conducts.

            Laurent Pelly’s production of La Fille du Régiment returns for a third engagement, with Nino Machaidze making her house role debut in the title role and Lawrence Brownlee returning to the high C-laden role of Tonio. Kiri Te Kanawa will again grace the Met stage in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp, while Ann Murray and Maurizio Muraro sing the comic roles of the Marquise of Berkenfield and Sulpice. Yves Abel conducts the opera for the first time at the Met.

            Verdi operas are heavily represented in the season, with five revivals of the composer’s works. Natalie Dessay sings her first Met performances of Violetta in Willy Decker’s innovative 2010 production of La Traviata, conducted by Met Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi, with Matthew Polenzani reprising his portrayal of Alfredo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Giorgio Germont. Thomas Hampson makes a house role debut as the title character in Macbeth, opposite the Lady Macbeth of debuting soprano Nadja Michael. Verdi specialist Gianandrea Noseda conducts.

Sonja Frisell’s grand production of Aida will feature Stephanie Blythe in her first Met performances of Amneris, opposite Violeta Urmana in the title role and Marcelo Álvarez as Radamès. Ernani will star Salvatore Licitra in the title role and Angela Meade—in her first full run of Met performances—as Elvira, with Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Carlo and Ferruccio Furlanetto as de Silva. Marco Armiliato will conduct both revivals.

The biblical epic Nabucco returns for 12 performances, with Maria Guleghina and Marianne Cornetti singing the role of Abigaille, and Željko Lučić in the title role. Tenor Yonghoon Lee, whose Met debut in the title role of Don Carlo was much admired this season, sings Ismaele and Paolo Carignani conducts. 

 

Important, engaging Canadian critical voice gone with the passing of Ken Winters, 81

It's been a very sad morning, learning of the death last night of Globe and Mail music critic Ken Winters.

Here is the obituary I've filed to the Star (with two subsequent corrections). But, just before it, I've added a link to a beautiful tribute prepared by CBC Radio. Check it out here.

Ken Winters, multifaceted chronicler and critic of Canada’s 20th century musical coming of age in the classical field, died at his home in Orono on Tuesday night. He was 81.

His writing and the music documentaries, concerts and programs he hosted over nearly four decades on CBC Radio accompanied several generations of Canadians on an exciting road of musical discovery.

Winters had a clear, polished way of speaking on the radio that exuded authority, enthusiasm and deep love of the art, in equal measure. His voice was equally distinctive in print.

“Ken was a stickler for precision in how he expressed his ideas on music,” said longtime friend, retired CBC Radio producer Tom Deacon. “He didn’t like things that were casual.”

According to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Winters wrote his first review for the Winnipeg Free Press in 1956. He moved to Ontario in 1966 to become the music critic for the Toronto Telegram. Since the mid-1990s, Winters had worked as a freelance music critic for the Globe and Mail. His final review appeared on Monday.

The writer’s most tangible legacy is the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Winters contributed many articles and acted as English editor for the first edition.

Winters’ professional life mirrored the tremendous flowering of Canadian musical talent as well as the rise of a new generation of authentically Canadian composers and compositions in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

Winters was there for the world’s discovery of pianist Glenn Gould, singers Maureen Forrester and Lois Marshall, for Expo ’67, and the building of new arts centres, concert halls and opera houses in Toronto and other Canadian cities. Winters put the events and artists of the day into critical and historical context.

I was intimidated when I first met him 10 years ago. I was a rookie, part-time critic when he smilingly extended his hand to introduce himself.

Crowned with a full head of impeccably groomed salt-and-pepper hair and wearing a trademark cardigan, Winters turned out to be a kind, generous father figure.

The man Deacon described as “a national treasure” was cheerful, polite and deeply interested in everything to do with music. Winters was someone who wanted you to explore, but always do it for the right reasons and the noblest of intentions.

This was, ultimately a man of few words. I confessed to Winters one night, several years ago, how I wasn’t able to remember some of the concerts I had reviewed in the past.

 “If you could remember them, you’d go crazy,” was his pithy retort.

There was more to Winters’ life than music: He was also a breeder of champion Peckinese dogs. According to Deacon, he was tending to the needs of a dozen of them in the basement of his house in Orono just a few days ago.

Kenneth Lyle Winters was born into music in Dauphin, Man. , on Nov. 28, 1929. His mother was a pianist and organist. Winters studied piano, voice and composition before turning to writing for the Winnipeg Free Press.

“I think he considered the highlight of his life to have been the time he spent with Nadia Boulanger,” said his wife, Anne Gibson. Winters took a year off to study with the famed Parisian composer and teacher in 1959. “That time gave him a platform to think from,” added Gibson.

Winters met Gibson, then a CBC Radio producer, in 1985, over the preparation of  concert broadcasts and documentaries for the tercentenary celebrations of J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel.

They bonded over a mutual love of music and married shortly thereafter. It was rare not to see them together at Toronto concerts several times a week. Winters, who never became computer-literate, wrote his reviews by hand. Gibson would transcribe them and email them in to his editor.

Gibson said on Wednesday morning that there are plans to organize a public celebration of Winters’ life.

My greatest joy is in knowing that Winters’ final concert experience, a performance of J.S. Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass by Tafelmusik on Sunday afternoon, was of the kind that anyone would be happy to take to their grave.

He wrote in the Globe and Mail:

“[Tafelmusik’s] account of the sublimely terraced supplication of the opening Kyrie, perfectly paced by [conductor Ivars] Taurins, had me, like Toscanini, weeping the hottest tears of my life. The trumpets in the Et ascendit in coelum stood my hair on end. The Confiteor was absolutely thrilling. The serene, massive closing Dona nobis pacem moved our very foundations.”

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Here is a modern-classic interpretation of the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem movements from Bach's B Minor Mass, at the hands of Concentus Musicus Wien and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt:

The Necessary 100: Even choosing 8 pieces doesn't begin to do Beethoven justice

I've spent the last week agonizing over which pieces of Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) should be on the Necessary 100 list of pieces of music that we cannot live without.

One day, my list skews this way. Then, the next day, I change my mind. All in the name of my little game. Surely I have better things to do with my time (and yours).

Well, to mix clichés, I have to stop waffling and draw a line in the sand.

I'm going to distill matters to the point of oversimplification (as is my wont). Beyond writing a library-full of impressive music, Beethoven accomplished three great things, which need to be reflected in the Necessary 100:

Symphonies
Beethoven helped shape the modern symphony and there is something special in each of Nos 5 to 9 that makes it a valid candidate for inclusion on the list. I'm choosing three:
-Symphony Nos 5 & 6: It's hard to believe Beethoven premiered these two pieces on the same night -- Dec. 22, 1808. The Fifth is angst-filled and mocks all sorts of Classical-era musical conventions. The Pastoral is a gorgeous example of thematic development joined with an evocation of mood and landscape. Together, these two works encapsulate everything that's important to the Romantics, in terms of self-expression and worship of nature, and beloved by 21st century classical music listeners. Like many other pieces I've put on the Necessary 100 list, these symphonies are over-played and over-recorded. But that doesn't take away from their value.
-Symphony No. 9: The Fifth and Sixth only hint at what was to come in the Ninth, which had its premiere in 1824. Everyone thinks of the final-movement vocal/choral setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy, but there are three complex and challenging instrumental movements before that. There isn't a dull moment here for anyone on stage -- or anyone listening.

Piano
Beethoven's piano sonatas really pushed the boundaries of the instrument as well as playing technique. The piano concertos do the same. I'm picking three pieces covering the span of Beethoven's lifetime:
-Sonata No. 8 (C minor, Op. 13). The publisher called it the Pathétique in 1799. The minor-key opening heralds drama that takes the music well beyond the Classical-era sonata form.
-Piano Concerto No. 5 (E-flat Major, Op. 73). The Emperor (also named by the publisher) appeared in 1809 and was premiered in 1811. This is a concerto on a symphonic scale.
-Sonata No. 32 (C minor, Op. 111). Oh gosh, it's 1823 and we're still in C minor. Or is it C Major? No, it's C minor. No, it's C Major.... Two movements contain a world of difficuties -- and a wealth of rewards. 

Strings
There are many chamber pieces that should be on the list. I've chosen one of the string quartets and, changing my mind, joining Larry Beckwith in putting forward the violin concerto. 
-String Quartet Op. 132 (No. 15, in A minor). This piece is titled "Heiliger dankgesang" because Beethoven wrote it while recovering from from illness in 1825. There is an intense intimacy to much of this quartet, which also offers layers and layers of musical structure to appreciate. It's my favourite of a fantastic collection of string quartets.
-Violin Concerto (D Major, Op. 61). Here's another work from the composer's rich middle period (1806, in this case). The piece is a microcosm of everything Beethoven does best: unexpected drama, masterful development of themes, quiet lyricism and, even, dancing.

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Rather than posting video clips from all of these well-known pieces, I thought I'd post something truly special: a 7-minute section from a three-year-old Beethoven-heavy film, Lesson 21, by Italian director Alessandro Barrico. We are hearing the third of five movements (Molto adagio; Andante) from the Op. 132 String Quartet, as played by Marco Rizzi, Danilo Rossi, Fabio Paggioro, Mario Brunello:

Chamber music from turn of the 19th century gets glowing interpretations on three recent CDs

I'm now limited to a single classical CD review per week in the Star, which is making for a bulging pile of great candidates.

Today's paper has a review for a new disc by the Tippett Quartet, but there are three more chamber-music albums that have impressed me in recent weeks. For details, click on the artist names, below. All deserve ***1/2 (out of 4):

EYBLER QUARTET & JANE BOOTH
Backofen & Mozart: Theme & Variations (Analekta)
Clarinettist Jane Booth and Toronto's Eybler Quartet, one of the few such ensembles in the world to work on period instruments (violinists Aisslinn Nosky and Julia Wedman, as well as violist Patrick Jordan belong to the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and cellist Margaret Gay is a frequent guest), bring an affecting elegance to this album that features two quintets by Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen (1768-1839) -- one for basset horn and strings, the other for clarinet and strings (where Max Mendel sits in as extra violist) -- and Mozart's A-Major Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581. Booth's seamless, silken woodwind solos glide over the strings with uncommon grace. The combined effect on is an almost supernatural translucence. This is music of the ether, not the earth.

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AMES PIANO QUARTET
Mozart, Hummel & Beethoven Quartets (Dorian)
The veteran Ames Piano Quartet is earthy, not etherial, but no less satisfying in its vigorous interpretations of three quartets: E-flat Major, K. 452, by Mozart, G-Major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and E-flar Major, Op. 16, by his contemporary, Beethoven. All three pieces are pretty, but Beethoven's is the most compelling.

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ARTEMIS QUARTET
Beethoven String Quartets Op. 18 No. 1 & Op. 127 (Virgin)
In its 20-year-history, Germany's Artemis Quartet has built a reputation for solid, spirited musicmaking that's gorgeously laid out in two quartets from opposite ends of Beethoven's life. They play the first one, in F Major, as if it were a big, serious, late work. They play the other, in E-flat Major, with an underlying lyricism. The juxtaposition makes these pieces -- both unconventional in their day, yet written nearly three decades apart -- sound more alike than I expected. This is a disc to listen to again and again.

 

O Sing Me the Truth About Love, Mr. Auden

When in doubt on Valentine's Day, turn to poet W.H. Auden, writing "O Tell Me the Truth About Love" in the mid-1930s:

Some say love's a little boy,  And some say it's a bird,  Some say it makes the world go around, Some say that's absurd,  And when I asked the man next-door,  Who looked as if he knew,  His wife got very cross indeed,  And said it wouldn't do. Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,  Or the ham in a temperance hotel?  Does its odour remind one of llamas,  Or has it a comforting smell?  Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is,  Or soft as eiderdown fluff?  Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?  O tell me the truth about love. Our history books refer to it  In cryptic little notes,  It's quite a common topic on The Transatlantic boats;  I've found the subject mentioned in Accounts of suicides,  And even seen it scribbled on The backs of railway guides. Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,  Or boom like a military band?  Could one give a first-rate imitation On a saw or a Steinway Grand?  Is its singing at parties a riot?  Does it only like Classical stuff?  Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?  O tell me the truth about love. I looked inside the summer-house;  It wasn't over there;  I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,  And Brighton's bracing air.  I don't know what the blackbird sang,  Or what the tulip said;  But it wasn't in the chicken-run,  Or underneath the bed. Can it pull extraordinary faces?  Is it usually sick on a swing?  Does it spend all its time at the races,  or fiddling with pieces of string?  Has it views of its own about money?  Does it think Patriotism enough?  Are its stories vulgar but funny?  O tell me the truth about love. When it comes, will it come without warning Just as I'm picking my nose?  Will it knock on my door in the morning,  Or tread in the bus on my toes?  Will it come like a change in the weather?  Will its greeting be courteous or rough?  Will it alter my life altogether?  O tell me the truth about love.

Here are three musical settings -- classical, jazz and rock: Benjamin Britten's (the first of his set of Cabaret Songs), sung by Alessia Mankovskaya and accompanied by Andrea Kmecova (the best of a sorry lot on YouTube); one performed by Cleo Lane and John Dankworth in Melbourne 39 years ago; and something idie-rock-like:

 

Amici Ensemble ready to serve three warm, sweet treats at this afternoon's Glenn Gould Studio concert

Vienna and Prague conjure up impressions of fine music and sweet treats. This afternoon, Amici Ensemble, which draws heavily from membership of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, offers both rolled into one. It promises to be a fine Valentine's day prologue.

The concert starts at 3 p.m. at the Glenn Gould Studio (250 Front St. W.). Tickets are $10-$45.

Here are the program details:

W.A. Mozart Quintet in E flat major, K. 452 for piano and winds
-Sarah Jeffrey, oboe
-Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet
-Michael Sweeney, bassoon
-Neil Deland, horn
-Serouj Kradjian, piano

Bohuslav Martinû Duo No. 1 (1927) for violin and cello
-Yehonatan Berick, violin
-David Hetherington, cello

Zdenek Fibich Quintet in D major Op. 42 for piano,violin, clarinet, horn and cello
-Serouj Kradjian, piano
-Yehonatan Berick, violin
-Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet
-Neil Deland, horn
-David Hetherington, cello

And here is a free sample: two of the four movements of the gorgeous quintet by Fibich (he died in 1900 and was popular and prolific in his day, but isn't heard much anymore). The performers aren't credited on the video clips, but I think it's the German Ensemble Villa Musica: