#the title is from an italian aria by handel

[pseudonymphomania]

My all-time favourite DiaLuci fanfic updated and I am extremely paled by how amazing it is. It's everything I want and it feels so targeted, like it was written from a recipe written on the walls in my mind in a place I can't even reach myself.

Lascia ch'io pianga by TroglodyteMonologue

Rating and Genre: E, Dark Academia, Classical Lit, Allusions to Religious Texts (Heaven's Rebellion, Mild Gore, Hurt/Comfort, Fencing [Dueling], Sadism, Masochism, "demons falling in love in their own way"), Smut in 3rd Chapter

“Tell me, Lucifer. Do you think you could recite all ten without your mouth bursting into flame? Or are you one of the damned, just like me?”

“Enough!”

Lucifer’s blade pierces Diavolo’s chest, just left of his heart, and runs him through.

Red blooms across Diavolo’s front. He can feel the blood, warm and thick, trickling down his side and staining his thin shirt. He touches a hand to his chest on instinct and blood oozes through his fingers. The pain is mild. For a demon as powerful as himself it’s more like a slap to the face. He won’t die from it and the wound will heal the moment Lucifer withdraws his blade. But he hasn’t felt a pain that sweet in hundreds of years. His body relaxes, his mouth cools, and a sigh of satisfaction escapes his lips.

Lucifer is frozen with a white-knuckled grip on the handle as he stares at the place where his weapon met its mark. Diavolo catches a dark flicker in Lucifer’s gaze. He sees the way the tip of the demon’s tongue rests against the cut of his teeth in anticipation. He feels the heavy, impressive desire radiating from his body when shock fades.“How did that feel?” Diavolo asks.

Lucifer answers like a man who’s finally emerged from the depths of an ocean and gasped his first, relieving breath. “Good.”

A game of cat and mouse between two of the most equal beings in the universe and how they unwrap the layers between them.

[blackkudos]

Florence Cole Talbert

Florence Cole Talbert-McCleave (born Florence Cole, June 17, 1890 – April 3, 1961), also known as Madame Florence Cole-Talbert, was an American operatic soprano, music educator, and musician. Called "The First Lady in Grand Opera" by the National Negro Opera Guild, she was one of the first African American women and black opera artists performing abroad who received success and critical acclaim in classical and operatic music in the 20th Century. Through her career as a singer, a music educator, and an active member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, she became a legendary figure within the African American music community, also earning the titles of "Queen of the Concert Stage" and "Our Divine Florence."

Most notably, she is credited with being the first African American woman to play the titular role of Verdi's Aida in a European staging of the opera. Talbert was also one of the first African-American classical artists to record commercially.

After retirement, Talbert became a music educator. She taught in historically black colleges and universities such as Fisk University, Tuskegee University, and Rust College. Notably, she is credited with encouraging Marion Anderson, one of the most celebrated opera singers of the 20th Century, to pursue a career in classical music. During this time, she also composed the words to Delta Sigma Theta's official hymn.

Talbert died in Memphis at the age of 70. Although she did not receive the same fame as black female artists who came after her, such as Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price, her work in the 1910s and 1920s was instrumental in paving a path for black musicians in the classical world.

Early life and training

Florence Cole was born on June 17, 1890 in Detroit, Michigan to a family with deep roots in music and the performing arts. Her mother, Sadie Chandler Cole, was a mezzo soprano and civil rights activist, who had gained considerable recognition as a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Her father was a basso and was well known as a dramatic reader. In an interview in 1930, Talbert further revealed that her maternal grandmother, Mrs. Hatfield Chandler, was a patron of music who had founded the first "colored" Baptist choir in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Florence began her musical training as a pianist when she was six years old. This training continued even when her family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1898, when she was eight years old. By the time she was twelve, she had already started accompanying for her mother's concerts. When she was a teenager, she started attending the Los Angeles High School as the first black student to do so. There, she studied music theory with ancient and modern languages and participated in the school's music program, gaining accolades for her performances as a pianist.

She decided to become a singer, however, when she first watched a production of Aida at age fifteen. "I was impressed by the opera as nothing had ever moved me before. I sat breathlessly watching the artists, and as the opera progressed, a desire (an impossible desire, so it seemed at the time) took possession of me. I wanted to sing the title role in Aida," she said in an interview with Ruby Goodwin. Consequently, she joined her school's glee club, becoming the first black soloist to join it. By this time, she had already begun her voice training under Gloria Mayne Windsor, a soprano who performed globally. Notably, she accompanied Madam Emma Azalia Hackley, a renowned black soprano and founder of the Colored Women's League, at a concert in Los Angeles at age sixteen. Seeing her talent, Hackley encouraged her to continue her voice training. As a result, she continued her voice training under mentors like Oscar Saenger, John B. Miller, and Herman Devries. Attesting to her talent, Saenger was quoted saying, "her voice [was] a beautiful soprano, which she [used] with consummate skill," in Negro Musicians and Their Music by Maud Cuney Hare, an African American musician and musicologist. She also performed with Eusebio Concialdi, an Italian baritone, who encouraged her to specifically pursue studying Italian operatic roles. Due to her talent, she was selected as the soloist for commencement exercises at her school, becoming the first black student to partake in a high school commencement program in LA.

She began her college education at the University of Southern California College of Music, where she specialized in oratorio.

Career

In 1915, Florence left college during her senior year and started touring with Hahn's Jubilee Singers all over the U.S. and Canada. Here she also met her first husband, Wendall P. Talbert, a Hann's pianist at the time. Through her work with Hahn's Jubilee Singers, she also had the opportunity to interact with eminent musicians like Noble Sissle. By the end of 1915, she had separated from her husband, but she kept his last name for professional purposes.

In 1916, she left the Jubilee Singers and started making solo performances. Simultaneously, she moved to Chicago, Illinois to attend the Chicago Musical College. From early on, she started appearing in student programs, becoming the first black student to appear in the school's programs. In June 1916, she graduated, having completed her music education in one year instead of the typical four. At the graduation ceremony, she received the highest honor, the Diamond Medal, for outstanding achievement in vocal studies and for the highest average in her graduating class. That same year, she was featured on the cover of Half Century Magazine, which began publication in August 1916 in Chicago, in recognition of her work.

Debut and early days

After graduation, she started appearing in concerts in Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. In 1916, she was a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Within that same year on April 16, she made her New York recital debut at Aeolian Hall. Then from 1918 to 1925, she toured across the U.S., receiving critical acclaim in local newspapers and contemporary publications such as The Chicago Defender and the Competitor. In fact, the Competitor called her "An Idol of the Concert Stage."

While touring, she continued training under Oscar Saenger and shared recital programs with renowned artists such Daisey Tapley, a contralto from New York who also sponsored Cole Talbert's New York debut and represented the soprano for a while. One noteworthy collaboration was when she performed Handel's Messiah with the Howard University Choral Society under the direction of Lulu Vere Childers in 1919. Reviewing her performance, a critic from The Washington Times wrote that Talbert's "voice was pure and high and held appealing expression that was exquisite at times, then full of the sunlight of spring, or again told this gripping tale with pathos and sympathy."

Repertoire and recordings

Talbert made recordings very early in her career, starting in 1919. In fact she was one of the first few black classical artists to be recorded, unlike many of her peers whose work was not recorded due to record companies' hesitance to record black classical artists. Her repertoire was extensive and versatile—covering styles from opera arias, songs of contemporary composers like William Grant Still, to spirituals arranged by composers such as Hall Johnson. She recorded with the following labels and recording companies:

Broome Special Phonograph Label

In 1919, George W. Broome of the Broome Special Phonograph label approached her to record with them. She recorded three songs for them, including "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and "Villanelle."

Black Swan Records

She also recorded with Black Swan Records—the first widely distributed label to be owned and operated by and marketed to African Americans—thus becoming the first classical musician to record with them. In 1921, she recorded at least four titles for them, and in 1923, she recorded three titles with them, including "Bell Song" from Lakmé, "Il Bacio" by Luigi Arditi, and "The Last Rose of Summer" from Martha by Friedrich von Flotow.

Paramount Records

In 1924, she recorded two additional titles for Paramount Records. These included "Homing" by Teresa del Riego and "Swing Echo Song" by Henry Bishop.

Aida and Europe

From 1925 to 1927, Talbert studied music in Europe—specifically, Italy and France—like many artists of the times. Before she left, The Cosmopolitan Arts Society of Los Angeles organized a farewell reception on June 22, 1925. In Rome, she studied with Delia Valeri and Vito Carnevale at the Summer School for Americans at the Villa d'Este and in Milan, she studied with Julian Quezada. During her two years in Europe, some of her other teachers included Sylvo Puccetti, Mario Bellini, and Marcel Picheran of Opera Comique.

One of the breakthrough moments in Talbert's career came in March 1927. It was her debut at the Teatro Communale in Cosenza, Italy in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida. She is credited with being the first black woman to play Aida with an all white, European professional company to receive critical acclaim and success, that too, in Europe. In fact, she received critical acclaim in Paris, London, and Rome. Due to this performance, she was invited to be a member of the Facista Group of Lyric Artists. Furthermore, she was even offered a five-year contract to sing as Aida in the opera, however, she had to refuse the offer since she needed to return to the U.S. with her mother. After three performances of Aida, Talbert continued doing concerts in Rome, Southern Italy, and Paris, which were also received with critical acclaim.

Career in the U.S.

When Talbert returned to the U.S. in 1927, she continued her recitals by touring extensively across the U.S. Although she received recognition for her performances in the African American music community, she had difficulty finding opportunities in opera in the U.S. As she toured, she also started taking on voice students to mentor.

When she was on a tour in Tennessee, she met her second husband, Benjamin F. McCleave, eventually marrying him in 1930.

Retirement and mentoring

In 1930, Talbert decided to focus on teaching. She accepted her first teaching position at Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, where she was the first black director of music. In the future, she headed the voice department at the Tuskegee Institute and the Fisk University. Simultaneously, she also opened her own studio to teach students privately in Memphis, Tennessee, where she eventually settled.

During her career as a music educator, she mentored several voice artists, who went on to become renowned classical musicians in their own right. These students included:

Vera Little: she was a mezzo soprano, who debuted as Carmen at the State Opera House in Berlin in 1957.

Marian Anderson: she was a world renowned contralto, who became the first black artist to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Talbert is credited with encouraging a young Anderson to pursue a career in singing. She even hosted a benefit concert to raise money for a scholarship for Anderson's training.

La Julia Rhea: she was an operatic soprano, who is known to be the first black artist to have been granted an audition by the Metropolitan Opera. Rhea was Talbert's protege, who like Talbert, became one of the early black musicians to play Aida.

During this period of her career, she was also instrumental in bringing world-famous artists such as Leontyne Price to sing at LeMoyne–Owen College, so that young black musicians in Memphis could have the opportunity to learn about and from top class artists.

Community involvement

Throughout her career, Talbert was an active member of the African American community in addition to her contributions as a performer, musician, and music educator. In 1919, she became an active member of the National Association of Negro Musicians. As a member, she sang at annual conferences as well as served as chairperson of the Conference of Artists and the Voice Conference. She also co-founded the Memphis Music Association with Mrs. T.H. Watkins. Additionally, she was an active member and co-founder of the Christian Science Society Church in Memphis.

As the honorary member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a historically black sorority, Talbert composed its national hymn.

Critical acclaim and accolades

Talbert was widely celebrated within the African American musical community for her talent, receiving titles such as "Queen of the Concert Stage." An example of the critical acclaim she received in the U.S. was when she performed in Houston in 1930 with well known local pianist, Ernestine Covington. Critics in the Informer wrote the following about her performance, "[it was] the greatest operatic soprano the race has ever produced" and called her "among the greatest singers the world has ever known." So loved was she in the Los Angeles community, she also gained the title of "Our Divine Florence."

In June 25, 1953, the National Negro Opera Guild, founded by Mary Cardwell Dawson,—another celebrated opera singer—awarded Talbert with a Certificate of Merit, naming her "The First Lady of Grand Opera."

Legacy

Opera Memphis recently announced the McCleave Project. It includes the McCleave Fellowship for singers, directors, and coaches of color as a way to continue the legacy of Talbert. Further, through conversations, free showings of The Telephone, and other initiatives, it aims to start dialogues about how Opera Memphis can better engage with communities of color in Memphis and the mid-South to diversify their audience.

[fuckyeahfarinelli]

Co-stars & Rivals:  ANTONIO MARIA BERNACCHI

Born: 23 June 1685

Died: 1 March 1756

Voice: alto

Personality: Antonio Maria Bernacchi was an Italian castrato, composer, and teacher of singing. He studied with Francesco Antonio Pistocchi. His pupils included Farinelli, for a brief period during 1727, and the tenor Anton Raaff. Nowadays Bernacchi is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in six of whose operas he sang. Bernacchi began his operatic career in Genoa in 1703. His appointment in 1714 as virtuoso to Prince Antonio Farnese led to widespread recognition throughout Europe, and he performed in operas by various famous composers of the day, including Hasse, Vinci, and Scarlatti. He was an especially frequent visitor to the theatres of Venice, appearing in more than twenty operas in that city between 1712 and 1724. In 1729 Handel took Bernacchi as his primo uomo for the second Royal Academy, in place of the departed Senesino. For Handel, Bernacchi created roles in Lotario (1729) and Partenope (1730). Despite his fine European reputation, Bernacchi's success in England was mixed: though Charles Burney praised his intelligence as a singer, English audiences preferred Senesino. Though his natural musical gifts were not exceptional, he was renowned for technical virtuosity, especially in ornaments and cadenzas. He was accused of sacrificing expression to execution and adopting an instrumental style; his old master Pistocchi is said to have exclaimed: “I taught you to sing, and you want to play”. Bernacchi retired from the stage in 1738 and founded a famous singing school at Bologna. He died in 1756 in the city of his birth.

One fact: In 1727 at Bologna Bernacchi had a contest with the famous Farinelli in a performance of La Fedelta (the later title of Orlandini's Antigona). Though the younger Farinelli dazzled the audience with an elaborate cadenza, Bernacchi sang an even more higly embellished and polished aria that carried the day. The two castrati were rivals, yet thet become good friends and sang together frequently. Bernacchi taught some of his secrets to Farinelli, and the latter arranged a fine memorial service for his colleague after his death.

One quote: Bernacchi has a vast compass, his voice mellow and clear, but not so sweet as Senesino, his manner better; his person not so good, for he is as big as a Spanish friar. (Mary Granvile)

One hit:  Dal mio ben che tanto amai  (Demetrio)

[gramilano]

Woolf Works with Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli © ROH, 2015 Tristram Kenton

Wayne McGregor

We’re so excited to bring Woolf Works to La Scala. It’s an amazing historic stage and the work is going to be fantastic in this theatre. The company is incredible and we’ve been really pleased to work with them over these last few weeks.

I’m also excited because I made it with these two amazing Italian dancers [Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli]. I thought it would be strange to bring Woolf Works to Milan without bringing them with us, so I thank Frédéric Olivieri for letting us bring Alessandra and Fede to join the amazing dancers here.

Woolf Works was a real passion project for Max [Richter] and I. I don’t if you know that Virginia Woolf absolutely loved dance, and when she talked about her writing, she talked about it either in terms of music – trying to create music with her words – or that writing is a way of dancing. The amazing way that Woolf writes is a stream of consciousness idea that is very analogous with making dance – the choreographic process and her writing process are very similar and work on parallel lines.

Max Richter

It was a bit like receiving a Christmas present to be asked to compose a piece based on the writing of Virginia Woolf having read her as a teenager and being exposed to this extraordinary, imaginative mind at the time, and it was wonderful to revisit that. The three novels that we were working with are three different propositions about how to live: how to get through the day… why do we get up in the morning? how do we get from A to B? Virginia Woolf herself was rather troubled but one of the things I take from her work is the ability for creativity to bear the brunt of that and it enabled her to find a way to have a meaningful life in spite of it.

McGregor

Woolf had this amazing life. She was part of the Bloomsbury Set, this incredible group of artists and literati who discussed so many things – sometimes in the Royal Opera House in London, and they were also exposed to the Ballets Russes – and they had a remarkable way of looking at the world. When we were thinking of the novels we wanted to work with, we wanted novels that had the scope and span of her work over time but we were also interested in her letters and diaries, and, of course, her suicide note.

Woolf Works with Alessandra Ferri and Artists of The Royal Ballet. © ROH, 2015 Tristram Kenton.

The work is in three acts and we follow loosely the themes in three of the novels – the first is Mrs Dalloway, which is the most literal, a version of that story refracted in a prism

The music for the Mrs Dalloway section of the ballet, ‘I now, I then’, opens with a recording of Virginia Woolf herself reading the essay On Craftsmanship for the BBC in 1937.

Richter

Mrs Dalloway is a personal piece and the music has an inward quality.

Woolf Works with The Royal Ballet, Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli © ROH, 2015 Tristram Kenton

Woolf Works with Alessandra Ferri © ROH, 2015 Tristram Kenton

Alessandra Ferri

The first act, ‘I now, I then’ sees Mrs Dalloway reflecting on her life, looking inside herself, making peace with the past and letting go… learning to accept yourself, to love yourself, is part of me, it’s part of all of us.

McGregor

The second novel is Orlando, [the second act is called ‘Becomings’] a gender-bending novel that speeds through time and worlds.

Richter

The second act, the proto sci-fi Orlando, is a big set of variations.

Richter’s theme for these variations is the fragment La Folia, which has been used by many composers since the middle of the 17th century: Corelli, Lully, Vivaldi, Bach, Scarlatti, Handel…

Max Richter, photo by Rahi Rezvani

McGregor

It’s followed at the end by The Waves, [the third act is called ‘Tuesday’] the story of six children growing up and their lives together, and it’s set against Woolf’s last moments before throwing herself into the river.

Richter

The last act is a sort of a solo voice, Virginia Woolf’s own voice, submerged in water. That water symbolism in all of Woolf’s work is connected with a sense of repose; for her water represented peace.

McGregor

You can’t make a traditional story ballet with that kind of writing so what we’ve tried to do is elicit feelings and sensations, a mix-up of senses, and when I was thinking about who should compose this work it seemed so right and obvious that Max should do it. He has an incredible ability, like Woolf, to conjure memories and sensations and feelings from really economical means. He also has a phenomenal ability to write with real scale and intimacy, and Woolf’s writing has the same macro/micro feeling that we wanted to go with.

Richter

Great works are experiments really, and I see Woolf’s method of experiment to some extent, and I see this collaboration with Wayne as the next part of an ongoing conversation made of further experiments. Bringing it to such a distinguished house is again is a ‘what if’ question.

Wayne McGregor, photo by Pål Hansen

Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli were the originators of the roles they will be playing at La Scala when the work was created for The Royal Ballet in 2015.

McGregor

I’ve always admired Fede’s intelligence as a dancer, apart from his technical brilliance, so I knew what we could do. With Alessandra I went on a charm offensive, going to New York to persuade her. She is so open minded and curious and adventurous, and that’s all you need from dancers, and both of them have that quality. You make dance with dancers not on dancers – dancers are part of the authorship of the work and Woolf Works wouldn’t exist as it is if it wasn’t for these two artists and so I’m very grateful to them.

Federico Bonelli

There are never wrong answers for Wayne during the creative process – he always listens to and considers a dancer’s suggestion or comment.

I have worked a lot with Wayne over the years at The Royal Opera House and so we’ve sort of grown up together. It was the first time working with Alessandra however. When Wayne and Alessandra came together something special happened and, as a spectator, I learnt a lot from watching them.

Ferri

It’s a great emotion for me to return to my theatre especially with this ballet which opened up a new universe to me and changed my life. When Wayne asked me, it was completely unexpected. I was 50 at the time and I knew his style and the physicality of his choreography, so I thought – how? He convinced me by saying that he was looking for a dancer to play the soul of Virginia Woolf. I think that this is an extremely important piece of dance – there is before Woolf Works and after Woolf Works.

It isn’t easy to dance Wayne’s work for the first time. At The Royal Ballet the dancers are used to it but here the dancers have had to acquire a new language and slowly they have found this new way to move… they are all so eager to learn.

Bonelli

This is good for the La Scala Ballet company but also good for us, making us respond in different ways, especially as it’s such a young, vibrant company.

Richter

I’m excited to hear what this house brings to this piece and see this new reincarnation of the work.

Woolf Works at La Scala – McGregor, Richter, Ferri and Bonelli talk about making the ballet Wayne McGregor We're so excited to bring Woolf Works to La Scala. It’s an amazing historic stage and the work is going to be fantastic in this theatre.

[lopehernanchacon]

Lope Hernan Chacón: Handel’s fines arias for base voice – Christopher Purves, Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo

Handel arias from Siroe, Esther, Athalia, Belshazzar, Tolomeo, Joshua, Rinaldo; Christopher Purves, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Hyperion Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 20 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★) Christopher Purves and Arcangelo in a vivid follow-up to their disc of Handel arias

The baritone Christopher Purves has returned to Handel’s music for a second disc of arias with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo on Hyperion Records. For the new disc we get an eclectic mix of opera and oratorio arias from Siroe, Esther, Athalia, Belshazzar, Tolomeo, Joshua, and Rinaldo plus the cantata Nell’africane selve and an aria from the pasticcio Catone which is actually by Porpora.

This disc is a follow up to Purves and Arcangelo’s 2013 disc Handel’s finest arias for base voice [see my review], we also caught them performing repertoire from both discs at the Barbican [see my review].

Handel wrote for particular singers and where he had a talented bass the result could often be a striking aria. So on this disc we encounter the unknown bass soloist, with a range from bottom C sharp to top A, for whom Handel wrote the cantata Nell’africane selve in Naples in 1708, and the bass Carlo Maria Broschi who featured in Handel’s opera seasons in the 1720s and who specialised in tyrants so Handel wrote him such roles in Siroe and Tolomeo (1728). In the the 1730s Handel’s line-up featured Antonio Montagnana, another bass with a wide range (for whom Handel would write the role of Zoroastro in Orlando) and who sang in the pasticcio Catone. In Handel’s later oratorio period his bass soloists was often Henry Theodore Reinhold for whom Handel wrote roles in Belshazzar and Joshua (Reinhold also achieved success in the title role of Lampe’s comedy The Dragon of Wantley). Christopher Purves brings a strong dramatic sense to the music and a willingness to use a wide range of colours in his voice. This means that in the opening aria, ‘Gelido in ogni vena’ from Siroe the powerful and concentrated performance is complemented by the colours in his voice, whilst Gobrias’ ‘Opprest with never-ceasing grief’ from Belshazzar is sung in a very effective veiled tone and the villainous Argante’s ‘Vieni o cara’ from Rinaldo is sung in gently hushed tones supported by some lovely string textures.

But all is not hushed and veiled, Abner’s ‘When storms the proud’ from Athalia is full of engaging swagger whilst ‘Tu di pieta mi spogli’ from Siroe is sung with a wonderfully vibrant full tone. Words count for a lot too, both English and Italian, with individual words being coloured and the music generally bouncing off the text in a highly expressive and vibrant manner.

Technically there is much to appreciate, not just the impressive control that Purves displays in the passagework but the moments of fine legato and the nice ease at the top. The challenges of the cantata Nell’africane selve with its extremes of range, are brilliantly done.

For all the vibrancy and vivid swagger of some of the pieces on the disc, we end in a surprisingly intimate manner with a gentle account of Caleb’s ‘Shall I in Mamre’s fertile plain’ from Joshua, beautifully supported by rich timbres in the orchestra. Porpora’s aria ‘E ver che all’amo intorno’ has a lively bassoon part contributing to the rather charming music, and it provides a sample of how Handel’s pasticcios would mix music of different composers.

Throughout Jonathan Cohen and the orchestra provide Christopher Purves with superb support, matching him for vibrancy and vividness of performance and a willingness to colour individual lines and notes. Cohen and Arcangelo also perform Handel’s Concerto grosso in F major Op.3 No.4, in a performance which contrasts the graceful with the more perky moments.

Christopher Purves brings a very personal sense of communication to these arias, bringing the drama alive and proving a fine communicator. Certainly anyone who enjoyed Purves, Arcangelo and Cohen’s 2013 disc will want this follow-up.

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) – arias from Siroe, Esther, Athalia, Belshazzar, Tolomeo, Joshua, Rinaldo George Frideric Handel – Nell’africane selve HWV136a George Frideric Handel – Concerto Grosso in F major, Op.3 No.4 HWV315 Nicola Porpora – ‘E ver che all’amo intorno’ from the pasticcio Catone HWV A7 Christopher Purves (baritone) Arcangelo Jonathan Cohen (conductor) Recorded at the church of St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, 26-28 Feburary 2016, 6 September 2017 HYPERION CDA68152 1CD [77.11] Available from Amazon. //ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=planhugi-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B07BF3V9KQ&asins=B07BF3V9KQ&linkId=430b51aec1cfcd0386f8e505f89c685c&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true Elsewhere on this blog:

Story-telling in America: Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at Grange Park Opera (★★★★) – Opera review

Each a world unto itself: Arvo Pärt The Symphonies (★★★★) – CD review

Intimate, candid and completely fascinating: The Tchaikovsky Papers – unlocking the family archive (★★★★) – book review

Notable debuts & a veteran director: Die Entführung aus dem Serail from the Grange Festival – opera review

Vivid drama: Handel’s Agrippina at The Grange Festival  (★★★★★) – opera review

Rip-roaring fun: Elena Langer’s Rhondda Rips It Up! (★★★★) – music theatre review

Debut: Soprano Chen Reiss sings her first staged Zerlina for her Covent Garden debut  – interview

Powerfully uplifting: Bach’s Mass in B minor from the Dunedin Consort (★★★★★) – concert review

Brilliant ensemble: Cole Porter’s Kiss me Kate from Opera North (★★★★½) – music theatre review

‘A well-regulated church music’ – John Eliot Gardiner at the Bach Weekend at the Barbican  (★★★★) – concert review

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[blackkudos]

Grace Bumbry

Grace Melzia Bumbry (born January 4, 1937), an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years. She was a member of a pioneering generation of singers who followed Marian Anderson (including Leontyne Price, Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett and Reri Grist) in the world of classical music and paved the way for future African-American opera and classical singers. Bumbry's voice was rich and sizable, possessing a wide range, and was capable of producing a very distinctive plangent tone.

In her prime, she also possessed good agility and bel canto technique (see for example her renditions of the 'Veil Song' from Verdi's Don Carlo in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as her Ernani from the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1984). She was particularly noted for her fiery temperament and dramatic intensity on stage. More recently, she has also become known as a recitalist and interpreter of lieder, and as a teacher. From the late 1980s on, she concentrated her career in Europe, rather than in the US. A long-time resident of Switzerland, she now makes her home in Salzburg, Austria.

From mezzo to soprano to mezzo

Bumbry's career in the world of opera was a remarkable and long one, if somewhat controversial. Initially, Bumbry began her career as a mezzo-soprano, but later expanded her repertoire to include many dramatic soprano roles. In the mid-1970s and 1980s she considered herself a soprano; but in the 1990s, as her career approached its twilight, she often returned to mezzo roles. She was one of the more successful singers who have made the transition from mezzo-soprano to high soprano (along with her compatriot and contemporary Shirley Verrett); however, audiences and critics were divided over whether she was a "true" soprano. Nonetheless, she sang major soprano roles at most major opera houses around the world up until the end of her operatic career in the 1990s—singing Turandot at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden (London) in 1993, for example. Her operatic career spanned from 1960 (her debut in Paris as Amneris) to 1997 (as Klytämnestra, in Lyon, France).

Early life and career

Grace Bumbry was born in St Louis, Missouri, to a family of modest means. In a BBC radio interview she recalled that her father was a railroad porter and her mother a school teacher. She graduated from the prestigious Charles Sumner High School, the first black high school west of the Mississippi. She first won a local radio competition at age 17, singing Verdi's demanding aria "O don fatale" (from Don Carlo). One of the prizes for first place was a scholarship to the local music conservatory; however, as the institution was segregated, it would not accept a black student. Embarrassed, the contest promoters arranged for her to study at Boston University College of Fine Arts (1955) instead. She later transferred to Northwestern University, where she met the German dramatic soprano and noted Wagnerian singer Lotte Lehmann, with whom she later studied at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and who became her mentor in her early career. She also studied with renowned teachers Marinka Gurewich and Armand Tokatyan. In 1958, she was a joint winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions with soprano Martina Arroyo; later that year, she made her recital debut in Paris. Bumbry made her operatic debut in 1960 when she sang Amneris at the Paris Opéra; that same year she joined the Basel Opera.

She gained international renown when she was cast by Wieland Wagner (Richard Wagner's grandson) as Venus at Bayreuth in 1961, at age 24, the first black singer to appear there, which earned her the title "Black Venus". The cast also included Victoria de los Angeles as Elisabeth and Wolfgang Windgassen as Tannhäuser. Conservative opera-goers were outraged at the idea, but Bumbry's performance was so moving that by the end of the opera she had won the audience over and they applauded for 30 minutes, necessitating 42 curtain calls. The ensuing furor in the media made Bumbry an international cause célèbre. She was subsequently invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to sing at the White House. (She returned to the White House in 1981, singing at the Ronald Reagan inauguration.) Having begun her operatic career on such a high note, she achieved the rare feat of never falling back on small or comprimario roles.

Bumbry made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1963; her La Scala debut in 1964; and her Metropolitan Opera debut as Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo in 1965. In 1964, Bumbry appeared for the first time as a soprano, singing Verdi's Lady Macbeth in her debut at the Vienna State Opera. In 1966 she appeared as Carmen opposite Jon Vickers's Don José in two different lauded productions, one with conductor Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg and the other for Bumbry's debut with the San Francisco Opera. In 1967 she sang Carmen again in her debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company and returned to the San Francisco Opera in 1967 for her first performance of Laura Adorno in La Gioconda with Leyla Gencer as Gioconda, Renato Cioni as Enzo Grimaldi, Maureen Forrester as La Cieca and Chester Ludgin as Barnaba.

In 1963, she married the Polish-born tenor Erwin Jaeckel. They divorced in 1972.

Later career

In the 1970s, Bumbry—having recorded many soprano arias-began taking on more soprano roles. Her first unmistakably soprano role was Salome in 1970 at Covent Garden (both Santuzza and Lady Macbeth, which she had previously sung, can be considered 'transition' roles between mezzo and soprano). In 1971, she debuted as Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera (a performance that also marked James Levine's house debut as conductor). She also took on more unusual roles, such as Janáček's Jenůfa (in Italian) at La Scala in 1974 (with Magda Olivero as the Kostelnička), Dukas's Ariane et Barbe-bleue in Paris in 1975, and Sélika in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine at Covent Garden in 1978 (opposite Plácido Domingo as Vasco da Gama). Because of her full, dramatic soprano sound, she also began assuming such roles as Norma, Medea, Abigaille and Gioconda—roles not coincidentally associated with Maria Callas. She first sang Norma in 1977 in Martina Franca, Italy; the following year, she sang both Norma and Adalgisa in the same production at Covent Garden: first as the younger priestess opposite Montserrat Caballé as Norma; later, as Norma, with Josephine Veasey as Adalgisa.

As an interpreter of lieder she often performed with the German pianist Sebastian Peschko.

Other noted soprano roles in her career have included: Chimène (in Le Cid), Elisabeth (in Tannhäuser), Elvira (in Ernani), Leonora (both Il trovatore and La forza del destino), Aida, Turandot and Bess. Other major mezzo-soprano roles in her repertory included: Dalila, Cassandre and Didon (in Les Troyens), Massenet's Hérodiade, Ulrica, Azucena, Gluck's Orfeo (her only trouser role), Poppea and Baba the Turk.

In 1991, at the opening of the new Opéra Bastille, she appeared as Cassandre, with Shirley Verrett as Didon. Because of a strike at the opera, Verrett was unable to perform at the re-scheduled last performance (this incident is recounted in Verrett's autobiography), and Bumbry sang both Cassandre and Didon in the same evening.

In the 1990s, she also founded and toured with her Grace Bumbry Black Musical Heritage Ensemble, a group devoted to preserving and performing traditional Negro spirituals. Her last operatic appearance was as Klytämnestra in Richard Strauss's Elektra in Lyon in 1997. She has since devoted herself to teaching and judging international competitions; and to the concert stage, giving a series of recitals in 2001 and 2002 in honor of her teacher, Lotte Lehmann, including in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), London (Wigmore Hall) and New York (Alice Tully Hall). A DVD of the Paris recital was later issued by TDK.

In 2010, after an absence of many years from the opera stage, she performed in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris; and in 2013, she returned to the Vienna State Opera as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades.

Her advice to young singers is: "To strive for excellence, that's the answer. If you strive for excellence, that means that you are determined. You will find a way to get to your goal, even if it means having to turn down some really great offers. You have to live with that, as you have to live with yourself."

Recordings and honors

Of her recorded legacy, there's much from her mezzo period, including at least two Carmens and three Amnerises (possibly her most frequently performed role onstage and most frequently recorded), Venus (with Anja Silja as Elisabeth, at the 1962 Bayreuth Festival), Eboli and Orfeo. There are no commercially released complete studio opera recordings with her in a soprano role, but there are recordings of live performances of Le Cid (with the Opera Orchestra of New York), Jenůfa (at La Scala) and Norma (Martina Franca), in addition to some commercial compilations that include arias in the soprano repertoire. Interestingly enough, many of these were recorded in her "mezzo period", in the 1960s (including excerpts of La forza del destino in German, with Bumbry as Leonora and Nicolai Gedda as Alvaro). She also recorded music for the musical Carmen Jones, based on the Bizet opera; as well as operetta (Johan Strauss II's Der Zigeunerbaron), oratorio (Handel's Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabeus), and an album of pop songs.

Bumbry has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Among other honors, she was bestowed the UNESCO Award, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Academy of Music of the West, Italy's Premio Giuseppe Verdi, and was named Commandeur des Arts et Lettres by the French government. On December 6, 2009, she was among those honored with the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors, for her contribution to the performing arts.

Wikipedia

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Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd

French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky explores the arias of Francesco Cavalli on his new album Ombra mai fu, which was released digitally on 8 March and physically on CD and vinyl on 22 March.

Why Cavalli? Jaroussky says,

Beyond the great musical interest that Cavalli offers, his operas are notable for their richness and modernity, and for the diversity and complexity of their characters. Stage directors and opera houses are increasingly keen to stage his works. His operas are full of fantasy, craziness, humour and emotion. They offer a variety we don’t find in the opera seria of the 18th century.

Italian composer Cavalli (1602–1676) is an important figure in the history of opera and his works, which first experienced a revival in the 1960s, have been growing in popularity in recent years. Cavalli was the most prominent successor to Monteverdi, and active in Venice at a time when opera was moving out of aristocratic palaces and into public theatres.

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 04

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 03

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 06

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 02

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 10

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 09

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 07

Musically, his operas are notable for the fluid expression of their recitar cantando (“acting in song”), and dramatically for their variety of tone, combining noble, mythical or tragic drama with teasing or bawdy comedy.

Cavalli played a major role in establishing opera – the new genre created by Monteverdi and others – as popular entertainment. He composed many operas for the Teatro San Cassiano, which was the first theatre in Venice to stage opera.

He was also active in the field of religious music. As a boy, he had sung under Monteverdi’s direction in the choir of St Mark’s Basilica. He went on to become the cathedral’s organist and eventually, in 1668, to follow in Monteverdi’s footsteps and become its maestro di cappella, the equivalent of a modern-day music director.

When preparing Ombra mai fu, Jaroussky was able to study the manuscripts of most of Cavalli’s 37 surviving operas.

I really wanted to use the album’s playing time to show all the variety and all the qualities of Cavalli’s music. It can sometimes appear disarmingly simple, but it has a very special and distinctive melodic and harmonic flavour. The album is designed to illustrate the contrasts in his operas as they move from one scene to the next, where a lamento might be directly followed by something very humorous.

Jaroussky has chosen vocal and instrumental numbers from more than a dozen of Cavalli’s operas, ranging from comparatively well-known works such as Calisto, Ercole amante, Ormindo and Giasone, and Eliogabalo, which was recently staged in both Paris and Amsterdam, to such rarities as Statira, principessa di Persia and La virtù dei strali d’Amore.

Jaroussky is joined on this Erato recording by soprano Emőke Baráth, whose own recent Erato recital, Voglio cantar, highlighted the music of Barbara Strozzi, a student of Cavalli. Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux joins him for the comical duet ‘Ninfa bella’ from Calisto.

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 05

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 08

Philippe Jaroussky, Ombra mai fu, photo by Josef Fischnaller, © Parlophone Records Ltd 01

The title track is taken from the opera Xerse, which dates from 1654 and is set to the same libretto that Handel used for his Serse more than 80 years later.

Curiously there are similarities between Cavalli’s and Handel’s settings of ‘Ombra mai fù’ – both are quite short and in triple time.

Did Handel know Cavalli’s Xerse?

It’s a possibility. An interesting difference between the two arias is that in Handel’s version the first violin plays along with the voice. In Cavalli’s version the violin parts are higher and fill in the harmonies, changing constantly and creating a very beautiful effect of iridescence and colour.

On this recording, those violins belong to Ensemble Artaserse, which Jaroussky launched in 2002 in collaboration with other leading musicians in the field of Baroque music.

Ombra mai fu

Ombra mai fu

Xerse, act I, scene 1: Ombra mai fu

Statira, principessa di Persia, act II, scene 10: All’armi mio core

Erismenea, act II, scene 22: Recit. Dove mi conducete?

Erismenea, act II, scene 22:  Aria. Uscitemi dal cor, lacrime amare

Calisto, act I, scene 12: Intreprete mal buona… L’uomo è una dolce cosa

Calisto, act I, scene 13: Ninfa bella

Eliogabalo: sinfonia

Elena, act III, scene 1: Ecco l’idol mio … Mio diletto, mio sospiro

Ercole Amante: sinfonia

Eliogabalo, act I, scene 13: Io resto solo? …Misero, cosi va

Ormindo, act II, scene 6: Che città che costumi

Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne, act III, scene 3: Recit. Ohimé, che miro?

Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne, act III, scene 3: Aria. Misero Apollo

Orione: sinfonia

Eritrea, act I, scene 8: Ô luci belle

Giasone, act I, scene 2: Delizie, contenti

Doriclea: sinfonia

Calisto, act II, scene 1: Erme, e solinghe cime…. Lucidissima face

La Virtù dei Strali d’amore, act II, scene 4: Alcun più di me felice non è

Pompeo Magno, act II, scene 16: Cieche Tenebre

Xerse, act II, scene 8: La belezza è un don fugace

La Virtù dei Strali d’amore, act I, scene 8: recit. Il diletto interrotto…

La Virtù dei Strali d’amore, act I, scene 8: Desia la Verginella

La Virtù dei Strali d’amore, act III, scene 3: Che pensi, mio core?

Philippe Jaroussky countertenor (Tracks 1-4, 6, 8, 10-13, 15, 16, 18-26) Emőke Baráth soprano (Tracks 8, 15) Marie Nicole Lemieux contralto (Tracks 5, 6)

With the Ensemble Artaserse

Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky talks about his new album “Ombra mai fu” French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky explores the arias of Francesco Cavalli on his new album Ombra mai fu…

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Lope Hernan Chacón: Debut: Soprano Chen Reiss sings her first staged Zerlina for her Covent Garden debut

Handel: Ariodante – Chen Reiss as Ginevra – Vienna State Opera

The Israeli soprano Chen Reiss is making her Covent Garden debut on 29 June 2018 as Zerlina in the latest revival of Kasper Holten‘s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and incidentally, Chen is also making her stage debut in the role having only sung Zerlina in concert before. Having worked extensively in Vienna, Chen is excited to be making her UK stage debut and as a young singer, it was always her dream to sing at Covent Garden. I met up with Chen during rehearsals to find out more.

Chen Reiss (Photo Paul Marc Mitchell)

Chen first sang Zerlina in concert with Zubin Mehta conducting and the Covent Garden performance will be her first staging of the opera. She has seen a lot of productions, and this one is one of her favourites. She first saw the production as a member of the audience in 2014, though it has evolved since then. Apart from Mariusz Kwiecień as Don Giovanni, all the cast this time are new to the production ( Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Leporello, Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Donna Anna, Pavol Breslik as Don Ottavio, Hrachuhi Bassenz as Donna Elvira, Anatoli Sivko as Masetto and Willard W. White as the Commendatore, conducted by Marc Minkowski).

She first came to London with her mother (also an opera singer) when she was 20 and loved the Covent Garden theatre and is enjoying working there now. Not just the theatre, she comments on the vibrant atmosphere of the surrounding area, and in fact, our meeting takes place in a Covent Garden cafe with the sound of street artists performing outside.

She feels that the Covent Garden production doesn’t have a boring moment and she contrasts this with some productions where the opera feels very long. In Holten’s production, there is always something interesting and intelligent going on, and she likes the idea that it is all happening in the Don’s mind. And of course the ending is very strong, the other characters, having fallen into the Don’s trap are still living whereas he is left with his madness. Visually she finds the production very beautiful, and the way it uses a single set is very smart, you feel that the characters are lost/trapped in the Don’s world.

Chen loves the role of Zerlina and finds the character’s music beautiful but she also has half an eye on the role of Donna Anna and hopes to sing it in the future. In fact, Chen loves singing Mozart and has already sung Pamina (The Magic Flute), Illia (Idomeneo) and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), this latter role is one she has done in concert but will be making her stage debut in the role at the Vienna State Opera this Autumn.

Richard Strauss: Arabella – Chen Reiss (Zdenka), Benjamin Bruns (Matteo) – Vienna State Opera (Photo Wiener Staatsoper | Michael Pöhn)

She has quite a wide repertoire from Handel, through Mozart, to Donizetti and Richard Strauss, not to mention Puccini (she recently started singing Liu in Turandot). When I ask if she has a particular composer or style to which she is drawn, she admits to having a number. Mozart, of course, is there and Bach is a composer she favours to sing and to listen to. She adores Richard Strauss and vocally feels very confident with Donizetti’s roles. She recently tried Liu and the role felt marvellous, she comments that Italian composers often feel the most fun to sing, feeling very comfortable in the voice, whereas with Bach and Mozart you have to work a bit more.

Working a lot in Germany and Austria, Chen has experience of a wide variety of production styles, she comments that some productions can be very crazy. She is comfortable as long as the production makes sense and works with what the composer wrote, though she admits that her preference is for aesthetically beautiful and dramatically convincing productions. Where she is less convinced, is when asked to sing one thing and act something different, this is a challenge that she does not so much enjoy but she is lucky and this has not happened very much in her career. Also, she adds that singers sometimes have to work with directors who are not the most pleasant. So a singer has to be able to make things work, to fit in with the concept.

In fact, growing up in Israel she wanted to be a dancer but she started voice lessons at the age of 14 and by 16 she realised this was what she wanted to do. So though she danced for many years, she feels that the opera profession chose her! She grew up in a musical family as her mother is an opera singer and Chen started learning the piano at the age of six.

Her dance background can be helpful on stage, not just in productions like David McVicar‘s production of Handel’s Ariodante at the Vienna State Opera where there was a lot of dancing, but in generally helping Chen to feel confident on stage, in the way that she holds her body.

Janacek: The Cunning Little Vixen – Chen Reiss (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester) – Vienna State Opera (Photo Wiener Staatsoper | Michael Pöhn)

She started studying voice in her native Israel before moving to New York to continue her studies, and she found things very different in New York to Israel. Whereas Israel was great for music with a strong baroque performance tradition, she found she learned more vocal technique in New York. But she also realised quite how competitive the music profession was. In Israel, she admits that she had been a big fish in a small pond, having had success young, but the move to New York was a move into a bigger world and she realised that she needed to develop.

Following the completion of her studies, she joined the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, during the period when Peter Jonas was the Intendant and Zubin Mehta the musical director. She was part of the ensemble for three years, which she describes as a fantastic experience. She did a lot of roles, not only Baroque and Mozart but Verdi too and got her first big break singing Gilda in Rigoletto.

Now Chen does not have an official home company, but she has a strong relationship with the Vienna State Opera and spends around three months per year there. She describes the audience in Vienna as loyal, warm and involved. The productions she finds conservative, in a good sense, and she is grateful for the opportunities to work with some great directors and conductors. She performed the title role in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen in a production directed by Otto Schenk, and it was amazing to work with him. She has also developed a warm relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, performing in concert with them at the Vienna Musikverein and on tour to Japan and to Italy.

She admits that it was not love at first sight when she started working in Vienna, but she has grown to appreciate what she describes as the classical music capital of the world. It is a great privilege as a singer to work there, people recognise you in the street.

Chen Reiss (Photo Paul Marc Mitchell)

She, her husband (who is English) and their two small children divide their time between Vienna, Israel and the UK, but Chen spends a lot of time travelling. She does not just sing opera, she enjoys a lively concert career and feels that there is a great deal of concert music for her voice. Recent projects in the UK have includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the BBC, a recital at the Wigmore Hall, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the 2017 BBC Proms conducted by Daniele Gatti, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 plus Richard Strauss songs with the Philharmonia in February of this year. Another concert highlight was in 2014 when she sang for the Pope at a Christmas mass which was broadcast all over the world.

Whilst she has her eye on roles like Donna Anna and Konstanze (Die Enfuhrung aus dem Serail) she is very happy with the lyric roles she is doing now and would like to return to Gilda and to Amina in La Sonnambula. She wants to try and keep the voice young and light and comments that a role like the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly would not happen. Her voice is strong in the higher register and has developed in the middle voice, but a role like Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) is too low for her, requiring too much chest voice. As her voice has developed she is finding that she sings the same roles, but with a more meaty middle voice and it is not just about size, but colour is important too, keeping the voice’s crystalline quality.

She listens to a lot of recordings and there are many singers that she admires, including Montserrat Caballe for her impeccable technique and the beauty of her voice; Kiri te Kanawa, Chen loves the colour of her voice and the ease of her singing; Cecilia Bartoli for her expressivity and for her use of the Italian language; Edith Mathis for the German repertoire and of course male singers like Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Other musicians she admires include Daniel Barenboim whose interpretations are always fascinating.

She loves working on opera with the conductor Zubin Mehta and finds that he has a great sense of drama, and is very supportive of singers. She has done a lot of roles for the first time with Mehta and he always listens to the singers and finds just the right tempos.

In the Autumn, Chen will be singing her first Ännchen in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Vienna State Opera, in a production which debuted earlier this year, and she will make her stage debut as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro also in Vienna.

Chen also has a charitable foundation, the Friends of the Israel Philharmonic in Austria which she started 18 months ago. The foundation raises moment for the orchestras educational activities for both Arab and Israeli children, enabling the orchestra to go into deprived areas and teach the children music.

Chen Reiss on disc:

Liaisons: Arias by Mozart, Salieri, Cimarosa & Haydn – with L’arte del mondo & Werner Erhardt

Le Rossignol et la Rose / The Nightingale and the Rose – with Charles Spencer (piano)

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor ‘Resurrection’ – with Karen Cargill, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Daniele Gatti

Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem – with Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta

Strauss: Die Fledermaus – with Paul Armin Edelmann, Aga Mikolaj, WDR Rundfunk Orchester Koln, Friedrich Haider

The Royal Opera’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni runs from 29 June 2018 to 17 July, further information from the Royal Opera House website.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Powerfully uplifting: Bach’s Mass in B minor from the Dunedin Consort (★★★★★) – concert review

Brilliant ensemble: Cole Porter’s Kiss me Kate from Opera North (★★★★½) – music theatre review

‘A well-regulated church music’ – John Eliot Gardiner at the Bach Weekend at the Barbican  (★★★★) – concert review

Humanity & warmth – Solomon’s Knot at the Bach Weekend at the Barbican  (★★★★½) – concert review

Handel Sonatas for violin and basso continuo (★★★★★) – CD review

Engaging rarity: Verdi’s Un giorno di regno from Heidenheim (★★★★) – CD review

Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at The Grange Festival (★★★★) – Opera review

Seriously unusual: Stephen Barlow introduces Buxton Festival’s production of Verdi’s Alzira – interview

Second View: Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte at Opera Holland Park conducted by George Jackson (★★★★) – opera review

Sei solo: Bach’s partitas and sonatas for violin alone from Thomas Bowles (★★★½) – CD review

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