CityLife

Classical highlights: July 2 to 8, 2010

The Hallé Proms are here again: this year on three Saturdays in July, plus the Last Night (Sunday, August 1) and an extra in the form of Sir Mark Elder’s Summer Concert on Thursday, August 5.

Tomorrow’s opening night is conducted by Wyn Davies and includes favourites by Rossini, Grieg, Dukas and Sibelius, with Llyr Williams the soloist in Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto.

A week on Saturday there is Beethoven’s fifth symphony, preceded by Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave overture and Bruch’s violin concerto no.1 (soloist Sophia Jaffé, pictured above).

That is conducted by Rory Macdonald, and so is the opera night on July 24, when soprano Rebecca Evans and tenor Ji-Min Park are joined by the Hallé Choir.

*****

The Buxton Festival is 32 years young, and kicks off with Verdi’s Luisa Miller on Wednesday, followed by the other fully-staged home production, The Barber Of Baghdad, by Peter Cornelius.

Luisa Miller (like Maria Stuarda, by Donizetti) is based on a play by Schiller: in this case Kabale Und Liebe.

It was one of the first German ‘domestic tragedies’ – a family drama in a recognisable, realistic setting.

It’s been hailed as Verdi’s first great success in a style that went on to include La Traviata and Rigoletto.

It is about young love across a social divide being finally destroyed by the suffocating influence of the couple’s fathers.

Festival artistic director Andrew Greenwood (also the conductor) says its fascination is that it’s ‘on the cusp’ in Verdi’s work – both in the popularity stakes, as it’s not as well-known as some of his other works, and because it’s at the transition from his early to middle periods.

“I know it will fit Buxton Opera House perfectly,” he says.

“It’s an intimate drama and also a rather strange piece – I’ve worked on it before in a Covent Garden production.” Taking

the title role is Susannah Glanville, who sang it for Opera North near the beginning of her career.

David Kempster is the old soldier, Miller (her father), and Stephen Medcalf directs.

The Barber Of Baghdad is a comedy, and even more of a rarity – but its composer is known to most music-lovers, and for just one piece: the haunting Three Kings From Persian Lands Afar, featured in many a King’s College carol service.

“I don’t think it’s ever been done in this country,” says Greenwood, “but it was the most successful operatic comedy in German in the second half of the 19th century.

“It’s a comic opera, rather than an operetta – but it has the potential to be really funny.

“Cornelius was a disciple of Liszt, and his style is heading a bit in the direction of Wagner, so it’s really rather quirky.”

The story has a tenor (Nureddin) in love with Margiana, the daughter of Baba-Mustapha, who’s a schemer.

The Barber (Abdul Hassan) is a big comic role, and at Buxton will be sung by a big character, baritone Jonathan Lemalu, who is performing on stage for the festival for the first time (he’s appeared in recital before).

The opera is performed in a new English translation by Hugh Macdonald, and directed by Alessandro Talevi, who is ‘very enthusiastic about it,’ Andrew
reports.

*****

There are 28 members of the William Byrd Singers chamber choir, so when they spend a day on Tallis’s 40-part motet, Spem In Alium, they are going to need some help.

That’s what their annual open workshop, Sing Joyfully, is all about – it is tomorrow at Sale United Reformed Church (10am to 4.30pm).

“Wonderful music in a friendly atmosphere” will be led by Keith Orrell, with an informal performance at the end.