The Blagovest Ensemble & Last Night of the Proms

So as it turns out, I'm not really that good at this blogging business...I sort of forget to write things down as soon as I think them. Play me a good tune and I'LL TALK ABOUT IT IN CAPS LOCK WITH YOU FOR AN ETERNITY - but give me time for it to all sink in and I get a bit boring and pretentious. So here's to trying again - I am determined to not let this fail!

As it turns out, not even sitting cosy with a cup of tea watching the well known Conservative propaganda called 'The Last Night of the Proms', can keep the classical music lovers of the tiny little village of Belbroughten away from a bit of the live stuff. The Blagovest Ensemble from Russia for some reason included the Holy Trinity church in their UK tour - and as the translation of Blagovest may suggest, it was 'good news' for all who attended - including the youngest members of the audience - my good friend Anna and myself.

With a mixed programme of Russian Orthodox sacred music and folk song, the 6 singers worked wonderfully together - especially after the interval, when someone must have suggested to the mezzo to turn the volume down. I just LOVE the Bass in Russian music, it's so rich and colourful, which works so wonderfully with the pious sacred music; the two seem inseparable - the rich sound conjuring images of the ornate interior of a Russian cathedral so vividly - even in a tiny protestant church in the West Midlands. The single Bass in this ensemble was fantastic. Though it has to be said, the highlight where he was concerned was simply hearing him speak - NO ONE has a speaking voice lower than Miroslav Alexeev. No one.

As we drove home from our Russian experience, constantly pressing replay on a 27 second clip of Joyce DiDonato singing some Rossini, it dawned on us just how cool we really are. ESPECIALLY as our night wasn't over...that a recording of the Proms was waiting for us at our destination! Ah, technology... As expected, all of Renée Fleming's contribution was just wonderful; my general disdain for the Proms and all things British turning into a faint flame of patriotism with her rousing rendition of Rule Britannia.

So from a truly ancient, exotic and Orthodox tradition, to a very British, unruly and Tory one...who can guess who comes out on top I wonder...

Giulio Cesare Glyndebourne 2006

So from the shortest piece in the whole entire world, we move onto a full 295 minutes of pure genius, perhaps the finest opera seria ever written; Handel's Guilio Cesare.

I sat down this morning fully intending to watch half an hour of the recorded opera on TV...but with a steady supply of coco pops and aria after aria, delight after delight - I couldn't take my eyes off it.

The opera itself runs like a 'Handel's Greatest Hits' and this particular award-winning production from Glyndebourne is both magical and imposing; transferred to the 20th Century British Empire, but with definite elements of visual fantasy. If I could, I'd just paste the entire opera on here, it's THAT worthy - but I'll have to choose my top-favourites...

1)

First is Sarah Connolly's (aka Giulio Cesare, the tyrant himself) first real beast of an aria Empio, diro, tu sei which he breaks into upon being presented with the head of his defeated enemy Pompey. Real typical Handel 'angry' aria, but its wonderful all the same - perfect angular line for the strings, with ample opportunity for a few vocal runs for old Cesare. Connolly is supremely convincing too - great acting throughout this - with subtle changes in the vocal colour to just give us a bit more extra meaning...that's all it takes! Only two unsettling things about this clip:

1) She looks suspiciously like Stephen Fry in the Giulio get-up

2) Sound's like she's singing about Gnocchi in the second phrase...which just makes me hungry...

I'm disproportionately annoyed that my favourite Sesto clip (L'angue offeso mai riposa) doesn't appear to be on youtube...so I shall have to in fact settle on my 3rd favorite...as I've already written about Cara speme. All the same...its ACTUALLY amazing...

2)

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is showed off wonderfully here, and someone is really banging out that harpsichord, which can only be good news. Nice example of the de capo (ABA) aria here as well, with an eerie little return of a melodic idea from Cara speme in the middle section. Angelika Kirchschlager is also completely believable as the pre-pubescent Sesto; artificially it may be the lovely bowl haircut, but it's more likely to be that lovely, innocent clear tone, a bit reminiscent of a boy soprano.

3)

This melody is heartbreaking. And there's something that I can't quite put my finger on about the orchestral accompaniment that's truly magical...it might have something to do with the fact that it's quite sparse and that Handel was THE genius of chordal progressions. Also, watching this is like a master class in how to breath properly - which was definitely what the costume designers had in mind when sketching up the possibilities -or lack of them- for this scene...

You wouldn't believe how long it took to whittle this down to a mere 3 peices...and I'm even saving Piangero, la sorte mia until after I've learned it, in the hope that I'll have a bit more insight. But to sum up, I am NEVER deleting this recording from my sky+ library...unless of course someone would like to buy me the obscenely priced DVD? Any takers?

Deh, prendi un dolce amplesso

It seems that this is 1 of 1 mezzo-mezzo duets. And it's ABOUT 30 seconds long. This makes me disproportionately sad, as there is no better voice in the world than that of a mezzo! Seriously, being a mezzo is the ONLY way to maintain a bit of dignity - they're not screaming around desperately trying to hit the pitch that only dogs can hear, nor are they dying of inexplicable ailments, they're often the third 'most important' performer...basically - they're subtly awesome and therefore a bit more modest - so we can let them go a bit crazy if they ever stumble across Carmen or Amneris .

I like Mozart though...not just for his general genius, but for this snippet of rare amazingness...

Effort = 5 gold stars (only a few for the boy Mozart, he probably knocked this out in the time it takes to sing it)

Harmony = 4,394,032 gold stars. Wolfgang, you absolute beast. This is gorgeous - the lower line caressing the upper one and mirroring it to ACTUAL perfection. Simple, yet supremely effective.

Duration = -12 gold stars. This may just be a passing declaration of loyalty, but NOTHING in opera is duration realistic, we all know how long it can take those sopranos to finally pop their clogs.

So overall that's 4,394,025. Not half bad, WE JUST WANT MORE OF IT PLEASE MR. M!

Also a note to the set designer - office blocks + harpsichord aren't a great anachronism...but overall bravo! for a seriously ace production.