Review of the Month

Joshua Kosmon of the San Francisco Chronicle attended a concert of songs by Philip Glass to texts by Leonard Cohen. L'essential:

"'Book of Longing,' which opened the new season at Stanford Lively Arts, is an evening-long song cycle that weds Glass' music with the words of songwriter Leonard Cohen. It comprises nearly two dozen numbers, performed without intermission by a quartet of singers and an eight-member instrumental ensemble, and there is scarcely a moment in the piece that doesn't inspire shame.

"Long, tedious, witless and numbingly repetitive, 'Book of Longing' is a sort of perversely virtuosic display of awfulness. The only thing keeping it from being utterly negligible is its unshakable air of grandiose self-importance."

Snap! Worth reading the whole thing.

Review: Philip Glass takes on Leonard Cohen. Big mistake.

Florez, Recitalist

Florez's Paris recital disappoints Le Monde's critic. His singing is faultless; but his program includes pieces--songs by Tosti, the Duke from Rigoletto--best suited to other tenors.

Le Monde.fr : Un ténor un peu trop tiré à quatre épingles

Young Conductor Watch

Philippe Jordan (IMG Artists), whom I have heard at the Met twice, most recently conducting Le Nozze di Figaro, and whose conducting I disliked quite vehemently, is the latest young conductor (and IMG artist) to get a big post, as music director of the Paris Opera. Please tell me this means he won't appear as much at the Met.

PlaybillArts: News: Philippe Jordan Named Next Music Director of Paris Opera

See Me

My panel last week for The Best American Science Writing 2007 was video-recorded by the good people at Seed magazine, and you can see it, if you are interested, here.

The panel included Robin Marantz Henig, Sylvia Nasar, and Patricia Gadsby, and we had a lot of fun. You'll learn about what the brain is doing when we lie, the world's most reclusive genius mathematician, and the best way to boil an egg.

Me and Marcel P.

Listening last night to the third act of the Met's live broadcast, on Sirius, of Lucia, I thought about Marcel Proust, who, about a hundred years ago, subscribed to a service that allowed Parisians to listen to performances from the stage of the Opera in Paris over their telephones. Must have been the perfect entertainment for the reclusive opera lover in his cork-lined room. And here I was, a century later, listening over (DSL) phone lines to live opera.

One question, though: Is there something about the microphone placements or the netcast-sound quality that makes every singer sound like their vibrato is a mile wide in the upper part of their registers? That is how it's sounded to me the last two nights that I've listened, and without a reality check in the hall, it's hard for me to be completely sure of what I heard, so I'll go easy on questions of vibrato.

With that qualification, let me say that I thought Dessay sang with great security and her usual ability to invest every note and ornament with purpose. Giordani sounded fatigued--yes, it's easy to say that, given his heroics over the weekend. Still, his voice was hoarse and sounded effortful--although he was able to command some melting tone and Corelli-like diminuendi. (And had no pitch problems.) Heretical as it may be to say, I wonder if they couldn't have given Giordani a break and dispensed with the Wolf's Glen scene.

It's probably not fair to judge a performance on the basis of one act, but I thought Levine did a swell job. The orchestra sounded much better last night than I'd heard in a while--maybe they're on their best behavior with the music director in the pit? He brought a nice sense of detail to small moments, without being fussy. I loved, for instance, the way the orchestra echoed precisely the inflection of Raimondo's "Eccola" at the start of the Mad Scene. Also, kudos to the decision to do away with the flute obbligato that echoes Lucia's cadenza. To quote from Ashbrook's Donizetti and His Operas:

"Nor should it be assumed that the established tradition of a cadenza with flute obbligato at this point stems from [Fanny] Persiani [the first Lucia]; according to [19th-century music critic and writer Henry] Chorley, she altered her cadenza depending on her vocal health and mood, and since the flute participation must be fixed in advance, it would be highly unlikely that she used it." (Cambridge University Press, paperback edition, 1983, page 376)

How much more haunting is it to have Lucia's solo voice at that moment!

For me, the secret to conducting Donizetti is not to hold the reins too tightly or too slackly. OK, that's a little too easy to say, and I guess the same could be said about many composers. But what I mean is that if you conduct Donizetti's music too vigorously, as though it's prototypical Verdi, it will buckle under the assault. And if you leave out the rhythmic point, then it's simply boring.

Levine knew exactly how to play it, giving flexibility and scope to the singers while still maintaining the music's thrust. The storm that begins the Wolf's Glen scene was not overly wild, burnished even, but still dramatic. The introductory music to the mad scene was not goosed to sound pregnant with meaning. There wasn't the clattering and banging that some conductors bring to scores of this vintage.

I'm looking forward to listening to Annick Massis's Lucia on Otober 25th--she is an impressive coloratura soprano, who sang a wonderful Giullietta with OONY some years ago, and whose performances on various Opera Rara recordings of lesser-known Donizetti scores are superb.

Another Young Conductor Gets a Big Post

The conductor youth movement continues, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra announcing the appointment of the 28-year-old Latvian Andris Nelsons (Konzertdirektion Schmid) as their chief conductor. (Via ArtsJournal.)

Getting to Ys

Le Figaro sends its envoye special to Toulose for a rare revival of Lalo's masterpiece, Le Roi d'Ys. Mezzo Sophie Koch (IMG Artists) gets special praise.

Le Capitole ressuscite "Le Roi d'Ys" de Lalo