Carl’s Classic Coffee Break

Havergal Brian’s immense Gothic Symphony performed at the Proms (sorry – the BBC Proms) on Sunday night.  You had to admire the perfomers. It must be a desperately difficult work to pull off.  Conductors are always telling amateur choirs to watch the beat and follow it. Those at the far end of Sunday’s 800 strong chorus would probably have needed a telescope just to see see it. 

It is, it has to be said, something of a curiosity, more a museum piece than a living piece of music – a mish-mash of styles that has some great moments (the magnificent xylophone solo will live long in the memory) but little overall coherence.  Perhaps another fifty years or so would be too long to wait for the next performance but one per generation would seem about right.

I listened to the second half of the broadcast on a a freeview television set. It was interesting to note that the BBC’s screen text gave the name of the piece and the composer and a plug for the proms website but did not mention any of the performers – not even Martyn Brabbins whose control of the vast forces was simply astonishing.

However the blurb did single out one important name for special mention. On a page all by itself it said “presented by Tom Service”. What a strange sense of priorities!

In a welcome move today Opera North has announced that the community opera, Beached, by Harvey Brough to a text by Lee Hall, is continuing as planned.  The company had been accused of failing to support the composer and librettist after a patricipating school tried to have references to the sexuality of the principal character removed from the libretto.

Today Opera North said:

We have been at pains to work closely with the writers at all times, and have supported their rights of artistic expression throughout. We have also worked equally hard to ensure that the schools and community groups involved in the project have positive feelings of ownership and identity within the production. Thankfully rehearsals have been taking place throughout the week.

We have been able to keep this project on track thanks to intense negotiations behind the scenes with all parties.

We are delighted that we can now move forward to perform the piece next week; over 400 participants from Bay Primary School and the community groups established as part of the residency have been working and rehearsing very hard and are extremely enthusiastic about the project.

At its core, Beached is not simply about sexuality, it is much more about the life and community of Bridlington, and other similar towns and communities in the UK. It is fiction, but it speaks directly, and often with humour, about the experiences of the community, its joys and its tensions.

Opera North has a highly regarded track record for commissioning new work for young people and community groups; Beached was commissioned for the young people and communities in Bridlington and the choice of writers was in itself a bold step to create an exciting and visionary work.

The result is a superb, inspirational and ground breaking new community opera. We have enormous admiration for Harvey’s and Lee’s work, which we believe will prove a fitting culmination to Opera North’s Bridlington residency.

Our two year residency in Bridlington has celebrated the joys of singing and performing and we hope that it will be an inspirational experience for participants and audiences alike.

Beached will be performed on Saturday 16th July at 2.00pm and 6.00pm

Royal Hall, The Spa, Bridlington Box Office: 01262 678258

Of course I’m queer
That’s why I left here
So if you infer
That I prefer
A lad to a lass
And I’m working class
I’d have to concur.

So ran a few lines from Lee Hall’s libretto for Beached, a new community opera due to be performed in Bridlington in mid-July with a cast involving 300 children from a local school.  Hall explains that the plot “revolves around a single father who, having been made redundant, is forced to take a holiday at home instead of in Ibiza. However, he is completely unable to have a quiet day beside the sea as he is assailed by schoolchildren on a biology field trip, local yobs”.

The production had been in rehearsal for six months when the school involved raised objections to some of the language – the use of the term “pee-pee” for example or calling people “stupid” as an insult.  Hall, and composer Harvey Brough, worked with the school to modify the libretto, addressing the concerns but the lines quoted above proved a sticking point.  Hall would not change the character’s “straightforward defence of his sexuality” and the school decided to withdraw all 300 children from the project.

It is a perplexing decision.  The school insists that it is not being homophobic but feels that the lines are too difficult and confusing for primary school children.  Surely it is the school’s role to help children make sense of things that are confusing – not to sweep them under the carpet.  The result of their decision is that 300 children will lose out on a great experience.  The offending  lines may or may not be are too difficult for children to understand – but there can be no doubt that they will not understand why something they have worked hard to prepare for has been unceremoniously snatched away from them.

Opera North has cancelled the performance (it didn’t really have much choice) but it has won no friends through its  apparent lack of support for the librettist, who says that the company repeatedly asked him to excise these references to the adult character being gay.

Watch the BBC news coverage

It seems outrageous that this project now has to be cancelled, with the complete loss of the poublic funding that supported it.  Although everyone concerned says they are not being homophobic it is difficult to believe that any objections would have been made ir the character had been heterosexual. The decision is, at best, political correctness taken to ridiculous extremes or, at worst, completely unacceptable bigotry.

A solution to the impasse may lie with the parents, who do not appear to have been consulted at all.  Perhaps they will rebel against the school and the LEA and insist that their children should take part in defiance of the official diktat.  It would be a victory for music, tolerance and common sense.

I have been reading Carolyn Beckingham’s book Moribund Music – Can Classical Music Be Saved over the last few days. She makes the sensible argument that classical music can be challenging and the challenge is part of its essential appeal.  Endlessly presenting it in simplified versions (The Only Classical Album You’ll Ever Need) reduces it and, in the long run, will contribute to its death.

Nobody can doubt that classical music has ceased to command the place in our cultural life that it used to occupy. Simply bemoaning the fact will not change it – but presenting music with imagination might make a start.  Try this enjoyable advert from Konzerthaus Dortmund and see if you agree.

Fast Tube by Casper

I was at Cardiff’s  Gate Arts Centre last Tuesday for an evening of short operas presented by a group of students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The main work was an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s tale The Nightiingale And The Rose with music by Tom Floyd to a libretto by David Spittle.

The piece is Floyd’s first work on this scale and  its easy lyricism disguises a great deal of expertise. He writes for his chamber orchestral forces with imagination and skill, creating a soundworld which, while reminiscent at times of Benjamin Britten’s chamber operas, is distinctively his own.  Best of all he has a natural feel for the needs of his singers. His  fluid vocal lines allow the young cast to show off the expressive and dramatic capabilities of their voices  while ensuring that the words of the libretto, which carries the dark drama of Wilde’s tale, are always audible.  The Nightingale and The Rose is a promising beginning to a career as an operatic composer, although I could not avoid the feeling that a tighter musical structure and some juducious editing would have made for a more satisfying dramatic experience.  One can perhaps forgive some self-indulgence in a first major piece but Floyd would do well to keep a tight rein on it in the future.

The second half was made up of  short operatic scenes by Alexander Thacker, Stephen Benson and Rebecca Jayne Clarke whose Awakening was the highlight of the whole evening.  The awakening in question is that of a woman who has been in a coma for twenty nine years and the opera examines her confused emotions as she struggles to comprehend that she is no longer sixteen and the doctor’s ambigious relationship with his patient.  The austere musical language and minimal forces (two characters and four instrumentalists) draw the audience into a dreamlike scene where nothing is clear or certain. A moving and powerful piece and a composer to watch with interest.

The whole event was produced not by the college but by the students themselves.  It had a freshness and enthusiasm that were totally engaging and some individual performances that shone.  Tom Bates’ supple counter-tenor made light work of the challenge the contrasting roles of the white and yellow rose trees – his exuberant performance as the latter brough him the biggest cheer of the night.  Rhiannon Llewellyn, deeply touching in the part of  the nightingale, has a clarity and intensity in the upper register that would be the envy of many established sopranos.  The middle and lower registers have yet to develop the same intensity but no doubt this will come in time.

But the performance of the evening was Shoshana Pavett’s all too brief appearance as Sylvia Plath in Stephen Benson’s Ariel and the Crow.  Her powerful, dark-toned soprano voice is even and well-integrated from top to bottom of a wide vocal range and she met the demands of the part with a musical and dramatic maturity well beyond her years.

Ten golden rules from Richard Strauss (1920)

1. Remember that you should make music not to amuse yourself but to delight the audience.
2. Only the audience should get warm – you should not perspire when conducting.
3. Conduct Salome and Elektra as if they were fairy-tale scherzos by Mendelssohn
4. Never look encouragingly at the brass, except for brief glancs at important cues
5. Never let the horns and woodwind out of your sight – it you can hear them at all they are still too loud.
6. If you think the brass are playing at the right volume turn it down another notch or two.
7. It is not enough that you can hear every word a soloist sings. You should know it be heart anyway.  The audience must be able to follow without difficulty. If they cannot then they will go to sleep.
8. Always accompanysingers in such a way that they can sing without effort.
9. When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo double the pace.
10. If you follow these rules carefully you will always be the darling of your listeners.

There was a time when great singers made music that carved a pathway through our senses to touch the heart.  Most were not well known outside the world of classical music lovers – only occasionally did a Caruso raise his head above the parapet to become a household name.

Then along came the three tenors and the media circus began in earnest.  First it was great singers staking a claim for popular interest, and of course the high fees the new popularity could bring them.  Then a spate of lesser voices sought to cash in on the new interest in opera excerpts. Singers with no operatic experience, limited training and no depth of musical background were promoted as “operatic” superstars.  These people do not touch the heart – they just mimic musicians who do.

BBC ‘s Maestro series gave the impression that all you had to do to be a conductor was to wave your arms in time to the music.  ITV seems set to provide the same level of insight into the world of opera singing.

The making of a great classical singer requires not only exceptional talent  but also years of study with expert teachers.  In a travesty of this process ITV have announced a “reality” series that claims, in one short series, to turn pop stars into opera stars.  Among the mentors will be Kathryn Jenkins, a prime example of a singer who mimics an operatic style without genuine experience or understanding of the real thing.  By itself that might make you think that ITV classical music team had completely lost the plot. Confirmation comes with the list of judges including such notable opera experts as Meat Loaf and Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen.

There is a well-known argument that any promotion of classical music is praiseworthy if it brings new listeners to the genre. But the ridiculous absurdities of programmes such as Pop Star to Opera Star and BBC’s Maestro promote nothing but misunderstanding of a great art form.  Surely there must be a better way to bring people to a love of wonderful music.

Best...flame war ..Ever (still)

Today I visited the Eddo Stern exhibition at Cardiff’s newly refurbished Chapter Arts Centre. This American/Israeli artist explores the interface between real and virtual worlds. His animated shadow puppets, made from modern materials and casting moving coloured shadows onto the wall, were visually engaging. But for me the highlight of the show was the computer animation Best…flame war ..Ever (2007).  This re-creation of an on-line war of words between two computer gamers is not only visually stunning, as was all the work on show but also creates a thought-provoking allegory about the development of conflicts from seemingly trivial beginnings.

If you are within striking distance of Cardiff this exhibition is well worth seeing – but it’s only on at Chapter until November 29th so hurry!

If you can’t get to Chapter then you can see Eddo Stern’s work at www.eddostern.com  or go straight to  
www.eddostern.com/flamewar.html to download Best…flame war ..Ever

A refreshing alternatve to summer pudding – this can be made with any combination of dark fruits and berries.

50 ml orange juice
60 ml crème de cassis
3 tablespoons clear honey
450 gr stoned black dessert cherries
225 gr trimmed blackcurrants
225 gr raspberries
2 tablespoons pine nuts

1. Mix the orange juice and cassis.  Add the honey, stirrring until it has dissolved completely.
2. Mix the fruit and berries.  Pour over the cassis mixture and chill for at least three quarters of an hour.
3. Serve with a scattering of pine nuts - and some plain yogurt or crème fraîche if desired.

Serves 4 – 6

Joyce Hatto was in her seventies when she released a stream of recordings of major piano works that drew such critical acclaim that one pundit describer her as a “national treasure”.  Her recorded legacy was considered quite remarkable - until the day when a music fan noticed that when he copied one of Hatto’s CDs for use on his iPod it revealed that the recording was, in fact, made by the Hungarian pianist Laszlo Simon.

From there the story of how Hatto’s husband, a recording engineer, had “harvested” the work of other pianists, subtly altering the performances before releasing the recordings in his wife’s name.

Channel 4 is showing a documentary about the scam on July 31st.  It should be well worth watching.  In the meantime you can read the story at the Daily Mail.