Love the opera!

I've just returned from Victorian Opera's double bill production of William Walton's The Bear and Jacques Ibert's Angelique. For me it was yet another successful journey into the world of opera.

Ten years ago, having read several of Oliver Sacks' books I attended my first opera - Michael Nyman's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. I don't remember much about the production except that I lost track fairly quickly as I wasn't used to deciphering operatically-sung English and unfortunately there were no surtitles. Perhaps most memorable was that my mum and I sat in Horti Hall, which was set up cabaret-style on a table with a very engaging 30-something proudly Socialist couple. This story did not go down well with my grandmoher the next day who thought I was being turned into a dreaded Commie.

My second dip into opera was at the Liza Lim production The Navigator at the Melbourne Arts Festival a few years ago. I'm sure in industry circles it must surely acquired the moniker of 'show with the fake penis' for it's weird costumes, brazen nudity, sex scenes and entomological references. The music was particularly avant-garde and I left the show not feeling satisfied - it didn't connect with me.

So, it's therefore much more exciting and romantic to say that I really first went to the opera in December 2009 when I saw the Metropolitan Opera production of Tristan & Isolde in New York. I lined up for a ticket right at the back of the stalls for $35 and was mesmerised. Although I did doze for a few moments I saw the majority of the 5-hour epic and marvelled at Daniel Barenboim's conducting. It was somewhat of an operatic baptism of fire to get through it, but it was a remarkable experience.

Next I had the incredible good fortune of going to Opera Australia's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk last year with a friend & colleague who is very much involved in the opera world. I love Shostakovich at any time of day in any setting, but Lady Macbeth was mindblowing. The rawness, the scathing humour and parody was absolutely brilliant.

The same friend decided that evening to become my opera buddy and initiate me into the joys of the artform. We next hear Victorian Opera's Xerxes which was of course an entirely different affair. I loved the purity of the countertenor sound the irony of the gender-swapped roles and the simplicity of the music that so aptly and beautifully supported the story.

By all accounts I was due to hear an Italian opera next, but tonight's production came first. The Bear was fantastic. I loved the set which reminded me a lot of the Met's one for Tristan. The characterisation of the widow was so clear. Her main aria had a definite Weill/ Hindemith feel to it and she hammed it up to well. The Bear was equally amusing. The music was much
more dissonant than I would have expected from Walton, but then I am really only basing this judgement on my knowledge of Crown Imperial March!! It was premiered in 1967 so I shouldn't be surprised. The comments it seems to make about Feminism would be ripe for a historical analysis...perhaps even a comparison with Shostakovich.

Angelique was really a farce, a man at the cloakroom called it a 'pantomime'. Nevertheless it was all done in very good fun and acted very well. There was comparatively little music in it, with long chunks of spoken dialogue. I probably mist enjoyed the regular interjections of the gossipy neighbours. As base as this description may be there were moments where it conjured a concept of 'Desperate Housewives' the opera - however that's not meant to be denigrating. These performers had the caricatured nosy neighbours down pat. The larger-than-life costumes (mostly comprising enormous padded hairpieces and bellies, but also a hilarious Italian codpiece) really kept the whole thing lighthearted.

On a different note it was great to see so many young musos I know in the orchestra. Conductor Olivier Phillippe-Cunei seemed to do an excellent job.

Basically, the moral of this extraordinarily long post is that with every production I become increasingly enamoured with opera. I love everything about it-the sets, the costumes, the make-up, the drama, the music, all of it!

With any luck the next stop on the opera train will be Tosca and Brett Dean's Bliss before Threepenny Opera. Can't wait!

Martin Bresnick Lecture, the MSO on Friday

Last Friday I was extremely excited to attend the first Fridays @ 3 presentation at ANAM. They're free lectures presented every fornight, usually by artists engaged at the Academy that week. I've been to a couple in the past, which were really interesting. It was packed, which was fantastic to see. The lecture 'Hidden Meaning in Music' was presented by composer Martin Bresnick (Professor at Yale) and his wife, the phenomenal pianist Lisa Moore. They opened with a performance of several movements of Robert Schumann's Album for the Young. Her playing was absolutely beautiful and riveting. Bresnick went on to explain Schumann's various sneaky devices, hidden messages to Clara, the pictures painted that contradict the titles etc. Very interesting. I was so moved I went straight to the VCA library and copied the pieces she played to analyse them. Turns out some of them are simple enough that even I can play them! Which has a dual purpose in improving my keyboard skills with something that sounds beautiful. The little electric keyboard at home doesn't quite do Schumann justice, but hey.

Friday night saw me go the MSOs concert which was: Faure - Requiem, Debussy - La Mer and Rachmaninov's The Bells. There were very interesting colours created in the Bells, which I hadn't heard before. But Lisa Moore's piano was the highlight of the day.

Randomly, I'm very much looking forward to all the upcoming opera: La Bear/Angelique and Bliss in particular (as well as the production of Tosca mentioned in a previous post).

The 10 Commandments of Conducting

At the end of last year our conducting teacher gave us a final assignment of writing our own '10 Commandments of Conducting' based or Richard Strauss' rather amusing and outdated list which includes such gems as (and I'm paraphrasing):

Never look encouragingly at the brass

If you think the brass are too soft, bring them down another level

The conductors left hand should only ever stay in his pocket

The conductor should never work up a sweat conducting, only the audience should perspire

Needless to say mine aren't quite as pithy...but here's my two cents. I'd been brooding over it for the whole summer and now I think I'm satisfied that this list encompasses everything I learned last year, as well as everything I try to be when I get up on the podium...

(NB. as you may gather, some of these are in direct contravention of the words of Herr Strauss!)

The 10 Commandments of Conducting

By Ingrid Martin

1. The phrase is of the utmost importance. By showing the phrase many other things will fall into place. Rehearse, conduct and speak with this in mind. Analyse to this end.

2. To convey any sense of phrase or momentum the beats must convey the light & shade of the music – they must be different weights.

3. Give musicians space to express themselves – donʼt dictate everything. By forming a space in which the musicians and conductor can collaborate a wonderful and unique partnership emerges at every rehearsal and performance.

4. The mind must direct the movements of the body. If the concept of the music is kept present in the mind it will flow through to the gestures and to the musicians.

5. Keep the score in your head and your head out of the score. The majority of any conductorʼs musical message is portrayed through the eyes and face. To deny this to the ensemble means the message becomes is lost, incomplete or confused.

6. Speak clearly, deliberately and honestly to the ensemble from the podium.

Only give criticism or praise when it is deserved – this respect for the ensemble garners respect for the conductor. NB. Remember – no one is ever deliberately making mistakes, donʼt treat them as if they are.

7. Be the music – show it in your whole connected body. Conducting is a full body sport!

8. All parts of the body must have the flexibility, grace, control and independence akin to that of a dancer.

9. Ancora imparo – I am always learning. Watch as many conductors as possible, listen to as many performances of as many types of music as you can afford, read widely and immerse yourself in life & culture in every way possible. The more experiences you have the more you can bring to the podium to enrich your music-making and relationship with the musicians.

10. Know the score – everything else is for nought if this isnʼt in place. Know it intimately and keep learning it over and over again in the joyful hope that a new treasure might be revealed to you at each reading!

My head is so full of scores!

My conducting bag was extremely heavy yesterday - more so than normal - and I wondered how many scores I was actually carrying around - 29! (Plus a couple I'm not actually doing at the moment that are for later in the year). No wonder I can't stop the tunes going round in my head, much less heave the bag into my car!

The repertoire takes most groups up to the end of March with the exception of MSW, who will play these pieces until the end of May:

MSW

Under the Sea	Alan Menken arr. Jerry Nowak
Pirates of the Caribbean	Klaus Badelt arr. Ted Ricketts
Of Sailors & Whales	W. Francis McBeth
The Water is Wide	Rick Kirby
Variations from the Northern Sea	Ito Yasuhide
Bayou Breakdown	Brandt Karrick
American Riversongs	Pierre La Plante
Ye Banks & Braes O’ Bonnie Doon	Percy Grainger
Reflections in a tidal pool	James Bonney

FSO

The Gypsy Baron Overture	Johann Strauss Jr.
Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor	Camille Saint-Saens
Violin Concerto in E minor	Felix Mendelssohn
Oboe Concerto	Cimarosa arr. Arthur Benjamin
Symphony No. 8 – ‘Unfinished’	Franz Schubert
Fugue in Bb	Johann Sebastian Bach arr. Larry Daehn

School

Shepherd’s Hey	Percy Grainger
Black Saturday	Mike Fitzpatrick
With My Swag	Sean Thorne
Selections from Les Miserables	Claude-Michel Schonberg arr. Warren Barker
Chorale & Shaker Dance	John Zdechlik
First Suite in EB	Gustav Holst
Nett Interference	Taran Carter
Esprit de Corps	Robert Jager
In Stillness	Brian Hogg
Don Ricardo	Gabriel Musella/Rick Rodriguez

SEBA

Fanfare & Processional	Brian Hogg
Overture for Winds	Charles Carter
On A Hymnsong of Phillip Bliss	David Holsinger
Hot Latin	Various arr. John Moss
The Tide Rises the Tide Falls	Frank Erickson

A five concert week...phew!

Normally such jam-packed weeks involve me playing in lots of concerts, but this week it was my turn to sit in the audience.

Wednesday night was one of the MSO in the Bowl concerts with Ben Northey conducting. They opened with A Midsummer Night's Dream which was fascinating in that it was accompanied by a live Twitter stream which consisted of comments about the drama portrayed by the music as well as 'insider' type tips on parts which were difficult for the orchestra or showcased particular players. The Bowl was quite full so I'm estimating there were at least 5000+ people there, but only about 80 Twitter followers. I followed and added my two cents, but it became distracting (but this was probably due to the fact I'd never really used Twitter before, certainly not on my phone). Overall a great concert though. Rebecca Chan played the Bruch Violin concerto - she was stunning. Really captivating playing - she totally went for it! Till Eulenspiegel rounded out the program which was fun & lively. I got the most awesome surprise when Shostakovich's Festive Overture was the encore - one of my favourite pieces, and so good to see it conducted in 1, as it should be.

Friday night was a totally different affair with some students playing as a support act at the Corner Hotel. It was ridiculously loud but I was too self-conscious to wear my Musicians Earplugs, but I really should have. I'm not sure how to classify their sound...but indie/rock/psychedelic might somehow place them correctly. Either way their songwriting was fun and their orchestration interesting.

Saturday night was the next Bowl concert - Opera Highlights conducted by Richard Gill. The highlight for me was definitely the tenor singing an aria from Tosca. I had never heard anything from this Opera before and I was totally moved by it. I will have to see the upcoming Opera Australia production. It was such sensational music and he sang very emotively.

Melbourne Musicians - This was the first concert I'd been to in this group which I went to because a friend was depping. The ensemble was much smaller than I expected - I had thought it would be a full orchestra, but the strings were 3.3.3.2.1 with all wind parts covered as necessary. The program consisted of the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 (Ian Holtham, soloist), the Barber Adagio for Strings and Mozart Symphony 39. The Chopin was played very well, however the balance of the strings suffered at times, I think just because the wind scoring was quite full in tutti passages and it was just a struggle to hear 3 first violins. Other than that it came across well. Although I really like the Adagio as a piece I wasn't completely engaged by it for some reason. The Mozart was great and really worked for that size orchestra. The first movement Introduction seemed to start quite fast and then the Allegro seemed comparatively quite slow - in 3. But as a tempo itself it actually worked as the movement got further along. The second movement had a nice lilt to it and the forging ahead nature of the third movement was also good. Now, a few days later, I can't remember what I thought of the last movement.

The BEST Concert of the week (and possibly the month - even though it was only on the first day!) was Camerata Melbourne at the Abbotsford Convent. This was the first concert of a new orchestra set up by Roy Theaker, Co-concertmaster of the MSO. Most of the players are MSO members, casuals, ANAM graduates and the like.

The venue was small but again excellent for a small ensemble. The program - as discussed by the host - was to showcase classic chamber style works as well as present playable, listenable new music.

It opened with Company by Phillip Glass which I really engaged with. Immediately recognisable as Glass it brought back many fond memories of our Music History class last year - a moment that made me really glad I learned and studied all that I did last year. The piece was in several short movements, unconducted, for string ensemble. It's one I'll definitely be hunting for a CD of. I could imagine it being really good driving music - and I don't mean to degrade it in saying that - it would just be meditative. Then there was the Mendelssohn Octet, which I hadn't heard live before. It was well nuanced and all the interrelationships were brought out really well by excellent players. Seeing the communication was lots of fun. The second half was Schubert 5 which I thought was outstanding. Despite the small room the balance was great, the architecture (of the music) made exceptionally clear and I particularly liked the dynamics. Roy Theaker gave short introductions to the concert and each work - he spoke clearly and passionately and his brief insights really illuminated the works for the listened and gave more meaning to the music.

Their next concert is going to be Dumbarton Oaks, Piazzolla and something else so, purely to hear what I think will be a marvellous ensemble do the Stravinsky, I will be there with bells on.