Brian Dickie

Suffolk

I will be spending New Year in Suffolk - a special place for so many reasons.  Not least of these is that it was the home of and inspiration for one of the centanarians we will be celebrating in 2013.  More of this tomorrow.

Christmas/New Year opera project for you all!

In 2003 Nikolkaus Lehnhoff directed a magnificent production of Tristan und Isolde at Glyndebourne.  I had brought Lehnhoff to Glyndebourne in 1988 for the first of what turned out to be a series of Janacek productions. He had a series of huge successes for the house so he was the logical choice for this great project.

The Tristan was the fulfilment of a dream that the Sussex festival had harboured for generations - to bring Wagner to Glyndebourne.  We had even, around the mid 1980s, put the orchestra through its paces in the old house with a memorable "rehearsal" of the Prelude and Liebestod conducted by Bernard Haitink who was Music Director at the time.  It was agreed that we should wait for the new house to be built before having another go at realising the original vision of John Christie.

Between now and January 6 you can see a streaming of the performance recorded during the 2007 revival with the superlative Nina Stemme as Isolde, and Robert Gambill a Tristan perfectly scaled for the house.  And by the way René Pape as King Mark, Bo Skovhus as Kurwenal, and Katerina Karneus Brangaene.  Not shabby casting!  The conductor is the Czech Jiří Bělohlávek eliciting marvelous playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

This is all courtesy of The Guardian.  You can see a short clip by clicking here.  Otherwise go to the Guardian website and make time to watch the whole performance over the New Year holiday period. 

Photo © Mike Hoban

2011 in Chicago

A triumph of creative minimalism - Médée at COT 2011

By the time we had to finalize the planning of the 2011 Chicago Opera Theater season the world was in a deep long tunnel of financial darkness with so sign of light in the future.  This would have been around the autumn of 2009, the last moment really to make adjustments to a season which would be announced in February 2010 to go on sale later that spring.  We were faced with profound disagreements at board level with doves and hawks squabbling as rarely seen before.  The whole purpose of the company appeared to be discussion - bad stuff indeed!  It was, maybe, a micro version of the "fiscal cliff" discussions now being battled out in Washington.

We were committed to a programme which fulfilled our pledges to the Mellon Foundation - the source of a $500k grant for the years 2010-12.  These included the continuation of our trilogy of operas featuring Medea - Charpentier's Médée was due up second.  And we had been committed partners of Tod Machover and MIT in the creation of Tod's Death and the Powers which had been due for production in September 2009 in Monte Carlo but which, in the event had been postponed to 2010, just six months before it was scheduled for Chicago. But it was a central plank of our plans which had received such endorsement from Mellon.

A chief casualty of all this financial hassle was the creative team for Médée, Justin Way and his magnificent design team of Andy Hays and Kimm Kovac. They had served us magnificently with productions in 2006 and 2008 and had kicked off the Medea trilogy with Giasone in 2010. But there it was - the need to save a massive 20% on our production costs - and for many even that was not enough.

But we did it and during the process discovered, or maybe even created, a new talented director/ designer team - James Darrah and François-Pierre Couture. With Christian Curnyn once again in charge in the pit, and another classic COT cast we had a fantastic and surprising success on our hands.  It was a revelation indeed for the Chicago opera public, on a level with their discovery of Orfeo in 2000.

Colin Ainsworth (Jason) and Anna Stéphany (Médée)

Death and the Powers had received its first performances in September 2010 in the lovely Garnier opera house in Monte-Carlo.  It was an odd setting for such a piece - but it was a great opportunity to develop Tod's remarkable opera for its eventual performances in Boston and Chicago.  And I think that COT benefited hugely from both those performances and the series that was done in Boston just weeks before Chicago under the auspices of A,R,T. which by this time was being led artistically by our old friend Diane Paulus.

James Maddalena in the title role of Death and the Powers COT 2011

The audience responded with genuine enthusiasm to the magical mix of technology and music and it is only a matter of regret that this piece has not been seen again since our performances in 2011.  But I understand that the Dallas Opera will mount it in 2014.  Worth the trip!

Sara Heaton (Miranda) and Hal Cazalet (Nicholas) Death and the Powers Chicago 2011

So that was just two operas - and we made up the subscription package with a reduced price show - semi-staged performances of two song cycles - Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben, and Janáĉek's Diary of One Who Disappeared.

Joseph Kaiser was magnificent in the Janáĉek, and Jennifer Johnson Cano fulfilled the promise of her previous appearance with COT, in Owen Wingrave, with gorgeous sound and great intelligence and sensitivity in the Schumann.  And they could not have had a finer partner than Craig Terry.

So it was a season of a mixture of great pleasures - and really no disappointments although losing the third opera was a blow.  But Schumann and Janáĉek were a bonus........

Next week I will complete this little chronicle.  I hope to publish on Wednesday - but I may be a few hours later! 

Christmas in Sussex

The Village Store - Firle, Sussex December 26 2012 12:30 pm

I lived and worked in Sussex for nearly 30 years so spending Christmas there is hardly a new experience.  But it was a real treat after so many years to be back there for family festivities.  And the ritual of a good Boxing Day walk before lunch - nearly two hours of traipsing over sodden countryside - was a hearty pleasure and worked up a good appetite for the Christmas leftovers.......

We decided to go to Firle where we had lived for a couple of years forty two years ago before buying an old farmhouse in Barcombe Mills. It was, and remains, a delightful feudal village - essentially unchanged. It was also at one time or another home to Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell, Katharine Mansfield and John Maynard Keynes.

St Peter's, Firle December 26 2012

A walk past St Peter's church was a nostalgic moment.  We lived in a small house just off to the left of the picture above- I walked up that path every day all those years ago.  Vanessa Bell, Quentin Bell and Duncan Grant are all buried in the church yard.

The Ram Inn was and remains a favorite and extremely successful place of refreshment.  It has kept up with the times and draws its customers from a wide area around, including many of course from nearby Glyndebourne.

I am now back in London and will be publishing my COT 2011 chapter tomorrow morning.

Happy Christmas everyone

I am having a few days off the blog I think....but I will do my next instalment of my personal record of my Chicago years in time to publish on Friday.  You must all have a wonderful holiday and eat and drink as much or as little as you like.  This rather ghastly year is coming to an end.  That may be something additional to celebrate.

Callow's Christmas Carol

Simon Callow, the original Mozart in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus at the National Theatre in 1979, is a versatile actor, writer, and opera director as well as much else.  Indeed his talents are broad and deep - we saw him most recently in Chicago doing his Shakespeare show.  And once again this Christmas he is presenting at the Arts Theatre his amazing one man Christmas Carol show, immediately following his run his Charles Dickens one man show.  The man is indefatigable........

We went en famille, well five of us, yesterday afternoon.  And we met up with other Callow fans, the two great singing dames Felicity Lott and Janet Baker, as well as Jane Glover and pianist Imogen Cooper. And after a thrilling 100 minutes of Simon, in brilliant full unstoppable flow, we repaired to the Club at the Ivy for afternoon tea (what else?!) to meet up with Simon and his director Tom Cairns.  This was the finest possible prelude to the Christmas season for the children, as well as the rest of us who have seen more Christmases than Charles Dickens ever did. 

Now for the Sunday before Christmas - a big family lunch in London before we disperse to the country.

Parrot fashion

What a treat this morning as I went out up the King's Road to do my absolutely last bits and pieces of Christmas shopping.  It must be the first time I have completed it before Christmas eve in living memory.  Anyway - what?? Yes, a parrot on the bus.  Another first for me..........and really very sweet.  Didn't say a word!

I then went for a lovely pre-Christmas lunch with my dear old friend and colleague Anthony Whitworth-Jones. We went to a new discovery - Brasserie Zédel just off Piccadilly Circus in a splendid old building.  And I had a Choucroute Alsacienne of some authenticity. Not easy to find in London.

Try it - its a lovely place but do not try to speak French.  Our waiter was half Croation and half Greek-Cypriot. Good job though, good food, and very reasonable prices.

Tomorrow I am taking the family (those that can manage it) to The Christmas Carol - Simon Callow doing his immensely successful Christmas show again.  More about that tomorrow evening.

Almeida and Riverside

There are a good many performance spaces in London which have history of distinction going back decades.  And I have been to two of them in the last 24 hours.

Last night it was the Almeida.  It was founded by our friend and colleague Pierre Audi who has been director of the Netherlands Opera since 1988.  The direction of the Almeida was then taken over by Ian McDiamid, the great Scottish actor whom we saw as Timon of Athens in Chicago in the spring of 2012, and Jonathan Kent, a distinguished South African actor and director who has done wonderful work in opera.

Since 2002 the Almeida has been directed by Michael Attenborough.

Yesterday evening I had an unusual and extremely enjoyable discovery in the play at the Almeida - Nick Dear's The Dark Earth and the Light Sky.

This was an evening of theatrical pleasure as well as, for me, an introduction to a poet, Edward Thomas, unknown to me.  And there was a lovely portrayal of his friend and inspiration, the great American poet Robert Frost, by Shaun Dooley.  Richard Eyre, former director of the National Theatre, and known to our American opera friends for his work at the Metropolitan Opera, directed.  This was good stuff.........

And this afternoon there was something completely different and somewhat bizarre though extremely enjoyable - a revival of a real period piece, Julian Slade's Salad Days, at the Riverside Studios.  We were thrown back to the 1950s - eight years after the end of the Second World War.  Here was a charming form of escapism from what I remember as a child as being a period of some post-war deprivation, rationing of food and clothes, and decidedly unglamorous life.  The whole affair was accomplished in a sweetly innocent fashion by a cast that somehow also managed to reproduce the amazing RP accents of the English upper middle classes of the period.......that must have been hard work given the ubiquitous descent into the flat vowels of late 20th century English. Rather wonderful really - however don't expect a profound life changing experience.  But you may enjoy it - I did!

In 1954 when it opened in London the reviewer in The Guardian wrote: "There is no pointed satire, only a passable line of wit, but the effect is one of genuine high spirits and those who liked it on Thursday were ready to call it the gayest piece of entertainment since The Mikado. Others were heard to compare it to a children's party, meaning that they found the fun jejune, 'undergraduate,' and limited."

Last three years

We have now arrived at 2010 in my weekly selected (and selective) memories of my time in Chicago.  We had just received an award of $500,000 from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to support a three year program which included a three opera cycle of works featuring Medea at various stages in her "career" - and also 20th and 21st century operas to be given their first performances in Chicago. It was an endorsement of our recent achievements and an indispensable support to enable us to provide a degree of serious curatorship of the operatic repertoire. 

The Medea cycle, featuring operas by Cavalli, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and Handel turned out to be a winner in every respect.  They were surprise hits with the public as well as being serious and important contributions to the knowledge and understanding of a neglected area of the repertoire.

Franco Fagioli (Giasone) and Sasha Cooke (Medea) in Cavalli's Giasone COT 2010

Giasone was the first professional production of a Cavalli opera in Chicago.  And hugely popular it turned out to be.  A brilliant production by Justin Way who had given us Entführung on 2006 and Orlando in 2008, and outstanding conducting from a newcomer, Christian Curnyn, when combined with e wonderfully talented cast, gave the work the best possible lift off.  The Shakespearian blend of serious scenes with comic interludes enchanted the audience who were confronted with a series of wonderful musical and theatrical surprises.  It was a great experience for us all.

Julius Ahn (Demo) and Tyler Nelson (Delfa) - Giasone COT 2010

The postponed production of Rossini's Mosé in Egitto originally scheduled for 2009 was at last produced.  And again it was something of a delight to have a success with one of the rarely performed serious operas of Rossini.  Of course it is very much about the singing - and we had found a remarkable tenor in Taylor Stayton (he has gone on to great things) and a fearless soprano in Siân Davies.

And there were fine contributions from Andrea Concetti (Mosé) and Kathryn Leemhuis (Amaltea).  Leonardo Vordone was the genuine Italian maestro in the pit!

Kathryn Leemhuis (Amaltea) Taylor Stayton (Osiride) Siân Davies (Elcia) and Jorge Prego (Aronne)

I had been to the premiere of Jake Heggie's Three Decembers in Houston in the spring of 2008.  It was a wonderful vehicle for the remarkable Frederica von Stade whom I had known since her first audition for me in New York Town Hall in 1970, and who then appeared at Glyndebourne as Cherubino and later as Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria.  She was on the verge of retiring after a remarkable 40 year career and I leaped at the chance to bring her to COT in the Leonard Foglia production from HGO.  So our beloved "Flicka" made her final Chicago operatic bow with COT and a few weeks later made a last appearance in Chicagoland in a concert performance of Cosi fan tutte in Ravinia.

Frederica von Stade in Three Decembers - COT 2010

Jake Heggie was with us for the production and played the piano in the small orchestra.  And we provided Flicka with two adorable "children" - our Owen Wingrave Matthew Worth, and an exceptional soprano Sara Jakubiak whom I had heard when she was a graduate student at Yale.

Matthew Worth and Sara Jakubiak - Three Decembers Chicago 2010

So in spite of considerable financial deprivations, mercifully alleviated to an extent by the Mellon grant, we pulled off a pretty good season in 2010.  My corner cutting philosophy requires that one can only do it if it is both invisible and inaudible.  We managed to develop further our "creative minimalism" technique - because we had to.  The staff and all the creative people we assembled were amazingly resourceful under these trying circumstances.  So we lived to fight another day!

A note for the immediate future.  I will not get the record of 2011 up on the blog next Wednesday.  It will be delayed until Friday given the copious demands of the Christmas season.  I hope to keep the blog going however notwithstanding the abundant consumption of turkey and Christmas putting, Stilton and mince pies......but that is not until next week.

Cecil Beaton

Imperial War Museum 12 noon December

There is a wonderful exhibition until the end of this month at the Imperial War Museum of all places - not one of my favourite places I am bound to say.  But it is beautifully set in an otherwise ugly part of south London, near Lambeth North underground station.

Cecil Beaton was renowned in the US the Academy Award winning designer of the movies Gigi and My Fair Lady.  And we in the opera world were grateful to him for his Turandot at the Met, which was subsequently reproduced with some changes at Covent Garden where I saw it with Birgit Nilsson and James McCracken in 1967.

The exhibition at the Imperial War Museum does more than chronicle his remarkable work as an official photographer in World War 2 - we also see his life as an artist before and after the war and thus get a more complete picture of Beaton the man and the transforming nature of his work in 1940-45.

We also see the contribution his visit to China made to his Turandot designs!

There is not much time to see this before it closes on January 1 - but try to see it of you are in London.  I think you will enjoy it - a side to an exotic figure in the history of British fashion and social life that you may not have known about.