Diderot String Quartet. June 26, 2022.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University.  Balcony (Center Left, Row 2, free).

The Art of the Fugue, BMV 1080 by J. S. Bach (1685-1750).

    Contrapunctus I, II, III, IV, V, VI in Stylo Francese, VII per Augment et Diminut;

    IX alla Duodecima.

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

    I. Adagio - allegro vivace; II. Adagio non lento; III. Intermezzo;

    Allegretto con moto - Allegro di molto; IV. Presto - Adagio non lento.

After a hiatus of two years, the Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts series has resumed this year - its 55th.  Our travel schedule allows us to attend only this one and the one on July 8.

The quartet was formed in 2012 by musicians trained at Oberlin and Julliard, with an emphasis on historical performances.

Scholars are uncertain what Bach had in mind when he composed this music.  It is incomplete, and not scored for specific instruments.  So people have adapted it for instruments ranging from harpsichord to orchestra.  Today we heard the quartet version; I am told VIII was written for three voices, and is thus excluded in today's performance.

As an exercise in composition, one could imagine Bach trying different techniques to see how things turn out, all "limiting" himself to the fugue structure, and the same theme.  If no one had said anything, I would have called the set variations on a theme, since I may not identify readily the fugue format.

Two things of note said during the introduction by the cellist Paul Dwyer.  One is that in one fugue the different instruments go at different tempos (VII), and the other is there is one with an inverted theme.  I got both.  Not a given as it took me a while to figure out the one in Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Paganini.

For the Mendelssohn, they changed their bows and kept their instruments.  I had not encountered this quartet before (remember: not a great chamber music enthusiast), and wished they had performed on the "modern" instrument instead.

The Mendelssohn works that come to mind are the Scottish Symphony, The Fingal's Cave Overture, Midsummer Night's Dream, and - particularly relevant for comparison - the Violin Concerto.  I never encountered, and never expected to encounter, a performance of a Mendelssohn piece that didn't use modern instruments.  Imagine the violin concerto played without vibrato.  And if one wants to be scholarly about it, the "modern violin," at least early versions of it, was around in Mendelssohn's day, so one could argue he composed with that sound in mind.

As it was played today, the piece lacked the tension and excitement I generally associate with Mendelssohn's work.  And sitting in the balcony, I had trouble hearing some of the passages.

I do wonder, however, that if composers like Handel and Bach had the modern instrument at their disposal, would they write very differently?  People are limited by the times they live in, but that doesn't mean they won't embrace what happens later.  To me it is interesting academically/intellectually to imagine how the composers heard that in their minds, but one should feel free to bring current practices into the performance.

We went to the concert with our college friends David and Vivien, and had coffee and cake afterwards.

Coffee and cake at Chez Alice.

Deutsche Oper Berlin. Andrea Chenier by Giordano. June 23, 2022.

Deutsche Oper Berlin.  Parkett 1 Left (Seat Series 9, Rank 22, 82 euros).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor - John Fiore; Andrea Chenier - Martin Muehle, Carlo Gerard - Juan Jesus Rodriguez, Maddalena di Coigny - Arianna Manganello; Madelon - Stefanie Toczyska.

The last Andrea Chenier we saw was in London, in 2019, and the headliners were Roberto Alagna and Sondra Radvanovsky.  That was a great performance, and I didn't expect tonight's show would top that (or what I remember of it).  It didn't, but came close though.

Taken from Opera's website.  Top one shows Chenier being tried and sentenced to death.

How the rich lived before the revolution.

While I suspected there is a sound enhancement system at the State Opera, there is no doubt that here there is none.  Given our proximity to the stage, I was quite surprised at how weak some of the singers sounded if they were in the "wrong" place acoustically.

Fortunately, they all came through when it counted.  Watching it for the third time, I did more than just wait for "la mamma morta" to come out.  Both Gerard and Chenier have some memorable arias and both singers did very well.  Maddalena didn't disappoint either.  She first did that lying on the floor and slowly worked herself off the floor as the aria continued.  It made for a great effect.  Madelon's giving up her grandson to the revolution was quite moving (as opposed to what I saw at Covent Garden).  Perhaps the political climate today is very different from that of three years ago?

The set was very simple.  Basically a raised platform with a sofa.  The sides are either decorated with curtains, or with the words "Equality, Fraternity and Justice" on the walls.  People came out from under the platform, and the area also doubled as a prison.  Whatever budget they had was blown on the costumes the elite wore at the beginning of the opera.

Yesterday at Staatsoper we were surprised there was no applause after some well-done arias.  The music and action continued without any break.  Today there were many instances of the audience applauding after an aria; the one after "la mamma morta" was so long that I thought there would be an encore.  I boldly attributed Staatsoper is in the old East Berlin while Deutsche Oper is in the West.  (I could be wrong, of course; my 2019 entry for Deutsche Oper Berlin also noted the lack of applause.)  What's equally puzzling is the cost of our tickets yesterday was about twice as that of today's, for about the same seat (category 2 pricing).

With the Reign of Terror lurking in the background, it would be very easy to have a lot of blood and gore should a director choose to do so.  Not today.  If I remember correctly, the Met showed the shadow of a guillotine, Covent Garden had Chenier and Maddalena carted off to be executed, tonight we just had the curtains closed from the side showing the couple standing there, and a third curtain with a slanted edge coming down to close the set.  For Turandot in 2019 there was manufactured violence.

Chenier, Maddalena, and Gerard.

Curtain call at the end of the performance.

During intermission we went across the street and bought some chilled coffee and a pastry, and enjoyed them in the nearby park.

So on this trip we saw the Passion Show and five different operas.  The Passion Show and the two Wagner operas are rare events (Passion Show once a decade, for instances), and I am glad we got to see them.

Staatsoper Berlin - Puccini's Turandot. June 22, 2022.

Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, Germany.  Parkette Links (Seat Reihe D, Platz 5. 162 euros.)

Story.  See prior entries.

Conductor - Zubin Mehta; Turandot - Elena Pankratova, Timur - Rene Pape, Calaf - Yusif Eyvazov, Liu - Aida Garifullina.

These are screenshots from the Staatsoper website.  In the above middle frame, instead of hitting a gong, Calaf turns on the giant light bub.  In the lower frame, Turandot's father appears in military gear; I am not sure that's the best idea.

By this time the marionette has lost her legs, but grown two more pairs of arms.  (Top frame).  In the bottom frame, Ping, Pang & Pong dancing on a mound of skulls.

In the middle frame, Liu stabs herself.

Turandot coming out of Turandot.

It was only on the day of the concert that we realized it would be Zubin Mehta conducting, and that Rene Pape would be singing the role of Timur.  Other than that, I didn't know any of the artists.

The set was dominated by (for lack of a better term) a marionette of Turandot.  Anne read somewhere that it was supposed to represent the different moods of Turandot as they evolved during the show, although it would take a mind-reader to understand how they correlated.  Her dress would open and close as needed to bring singers onto the stage, and that's how Turandot first appeared.  As the opera progressed, the marionette's legs fell off, and she grew three pairs of arms.  Her hair also fell off, and then her face - which exposed a skull.  No idea what was being said, still somewhat fascinating.  The rest of the set was quite simple and straightforward.

It was a good performance.  The auditorium is quite small (capacity of 1300 per Wikipedia), so sound shouldn't be a problem.  It wasn't, although I have a strong suspicion that it gets enhanced.  Our seats were "hemmed" in by the balcony, so that perhaps amplified the sound in a strange way.

Liu as usual is the character one is most sympathetic with.  There was no pretense that Garifullina isn't Chinese; Liu has long blonde hair and wears something that is at most remotely oriental.  In any case, her singing was simply superb.  "Signore ascolta" was moving, my only wish is that she should take advantage of the small hall and soften her voice a bit.  There is PLEADING, and there is pleading.

Indeed, with the exception of Pape, the different principals seemed to try to outshout one another.  The opera could use a bit more introspection from an acting point of view.  "Nessun dorma" was tackled, seemingly effortlessly, a tribute to the quality of the tenor Eyvazov.  [I found a YouTube video with him singing, most probably at the Met, in 2020; he had a softer take on the aria.  Wonder how much is decided by the conductor.]

Chorus master and the chorus.

Curtain call.  From left: Ping, Pang & Pong, Calaf, Turandot, Chorus Master, Conductor Zubin Mehta, Liu, Timur, and the Emperor.

During our 2019 visit to Germany we remarked to ourselves the tendency of Germans to make things brutal.  In fact the last "live" Turandot we saw was at Deutsche Oper Berlin, where Liu was hung in effigy for a good part of the performance.  The dark portrayal of Peter Grimes in Nuremberg somewhat confirmed our view of the German school of interpretation.

And how did the 86-year old Zubin Mehta do?  We couldn't see him, but if the sound was any indication, he did great.

So we were quite surprised that no heads were lopped off, no people were graphically tortured; even Liu's suicide was done with only a little blood (she stabbed her own heart).  The only twist was that towards the end Turandot drank poison, she dies at the end - though not before she belted out a few arias, though.  In some way this might be a better ending (not that another person dying is a good thing) in that Calaf - so heartless in his complete indifference to Liu's love - ended up not getting what he wanted.  

The opera started at 7:30 pm, so ended just a bit after 10 pm.  There was still quite a bit of light out for us to find our way back to the hotel.

Oper Leipzig - Das Liebesverbot by Wagner. June 21, 2022.

Opernhaus Saal.  Parkett Links (Seat Reihe 16, Platz 37, 114 euros).

Story.  The English title provided on the Leipzig Opera website is "The Prohibition of Love" or "The Novices of Palermo."  The setting of the story is in Palermo, where the King of Sicily leaves to visit Naples, and leaves a German Friedrich in charge.  Friedrich uses his power to reform the capital into a moral state.  The chief constable Brighella is the one tasked with the mission. Claudio is caught up in this, and is to be executed because of his indiscretion with his fiancee.  His only hope is his sister Isabella, a novice in a convent, can convince the tyrant to change his mind.  Isabella befriends Marianne, who is abandoned by a person in high position, who turns out to be Friedrich.  As the trial of Claudio is about to come to an end, Isabella meets Claudio and eventually charms him.  He promises her anything she wants in return for her body.  When Isabella calls for the crowd, Friedrich denies that's what happened, and turns the table on Isabella.  Isabella hatches a new plan and tells Friedrich she would send a messenger to tell him where they should meet at the Carnival.  Isabella then goes to visit Claudio in prison, even though he disappoints her, she still decides to save him.  Marianne is asked to go in Isabella's place.  Meanwhile, Friedrich cannot resist the temptation, and is willing to be tried for the act he is about to commit.  Friedrich, with Marianne by his side, is caught by Brighella.  Friedrich is ready to be tried by the King and executed, but Claudio, now freed, states death is not the penalty for a love-offence.  The King returns, and everyone goes to greet him in their Carnival wear.  Friedrich marries Marianne, and Isabella marries Luzio.

Conductor - Matthias Foremny.  Brighella - Stefan Sevenich, Luzio - Dan Karistrom, Claudio - Mirko Roschkowski, Friedrich - Tuomas Pursio, Isabella - Manuela Uhi, Mariana - Nina-Maria Fischer.

Some screen shots from the Leipzig Opera website on the performance.

About the story, it is mostly based on the Wikipedia article on this opera.  The synopsis was translated from Wagner's own description of the opera.  Many other web references to the opera refer back to this article for the synopsis.  The story is a bit more complicated than the way I described it; for instance, there is a side story between Luzio and Isabella that I can't quite manage to incorporate in the above.

Frankly, the story line was quite confusing, even though I read the synopsis before the performance.  There was simply too much happening to catch it all.  After having seen the opera, the story is indeed quite coherent.

I have always had trouble understanding Shakespeare, and most of what I understand came from watching operas - Otello, McBeth, The Married Wives of Windsor, and even Hamlet come to mind.  This opera's plot is based on Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," and I must say it didn't clear things up at all for me.

Compared to the set of Die Feen, things are a lot simpler in this opera.  Often walls consisting of white blocks with numbers written on them in sequence are used; Anne read that is to denote law and order.  Fair enough, but puzzling to those who haven't read up on it.  Our seats today in the parkette section gave the stage a difference perspective: it seemed a lot smaller.

End of Act 1 for the 2-act Opera.  Notice the white blocks with numbers on them.  Also, the guards are all wearing masks.

Curtain Call with Conductor.

The opera premiered in 1836, but it wasn't performed in the UK until 1965, by a semi-professional group.  Evidently the Leipzig Opera performed this about 10 years ago.

There seems to be more analysis of Die Feen, being the first, than this second opera.  As a stand-alone piece I found it quite enjoyable.  The cast for tonight probably helped, as they all sang well.  On the other hand, it will not find itself in any lists of "must-see" operas, not for the work itself, nor for the purpose of understanding Wagner as an artist.

The opera is relatively short.  It started at 5 pm, and we were out by 8:30 pm.

Oper Leipzig - Die Feen by Wagner. June 20, 2022.

Opernhaus Saal.  Rang Rechts (Seat R3-P11, 145 euros).

The stage seemed bigger than I remembered it.

Story.  As the child of a mortal and an immortal, Ada is immortal.  She and the mortal Arindal fall in love, and the Fairy king demands that Ada keep her identify secret from Arindal for eight years; if she succeeds, she will also become mortal.  If she does not, then she will turn into stone for 100 years and then return to immortality.  Ada's two maids Zemina and Farzana try to dissuade her from staying with Arindal.  Arindal is king of an earthly kingdom, in his absense his sister Lor and her friend Morald help defend the kingdom.  On the last day of the eight years, however, Ada is supposed to cause all kinds of trouble for Arindal, and he must not curse her.  On that day, Arindal thinks his two children are killed by Ada, and his army is wiped out by Ada's duplicity.  So he curses Ada, and she disappears.  The last act first sees Arindal hallucinating about killing Ada, then he is given a shield and a sword with he overcomes obstacles to rescue Ada.  In seeing that, the Fairy king blesses Arindal with immortality, and Arindal's kingdom is handed over to Lora and Morald.

Conductor - Matthias Foremny; Ada - Kirstin Sharpin, Zemina - Athanasia Zohrer, Farzana - Sandra Maxheimer, Lora - Viktorija Kaminskaite, Drolla - Olga Jelinkova, Der Feenkonig & Groma - Sejong CHang, Arindal - Marc Horus, Morald - Nikolay Borchev, Gernot - Randall Jakobsh, Gunther - Patrick Vogel, Harald - Roland Schubert.

Over the course of three weeks, Festival Wagner 22 will have staged all 13 of Wagner's operas.  The first three, Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot, and Rienzi are three operas I have not seen before (and had never even heard of the first two).  I got tickets for the first two; Rienzi was sold out by the time I checked.

Frankly, my expectations were not high. Operas are not staged for a reason: not enough audience to justify the huge costs associated with new productions.  And I usually need to see each of Wagner's operas a few times before I understand them.

I was pleasantly surprised on multiple fronts.

First, the production was a lot more elaborate than I expected, even more so considering how austere the prior operas I had seen at Leipzig Opera seemed.  Raising and lowering of stages, a monarch butterfly with a throne hanging from it, fancy costumes, and even set rotation are all used in this production.  Generally to good effect.  There are three "levels" of beings: fairies, Medieval humans, and a modern family. Perhaps due to our seats in the balcony, the stage seemed larger than I remembered it.

The modern family aspect may be a bit puzzling and far-fetched.  It happened during the overture (rather long at about 10 minutes), and the host was seeing his friends off after dinner, and the maid starts to clean up.  When the overture ends, a set was dropped showing the fairy world, with the host - who is now Arindal - still wearing his shirt and vest, which he will wear during the whole performance.

There was a comic scene of jealousy between Lora and Morald that was nicely done: the dialog, the music, and the acting.  However, it wasn't really necessary for the development of the story, and I am not sure the opera - even though it could be classified as a comedy - benefited from that level of comic relief.  Anne overheard during the break someone thought it sounded Puccini-esque.  Wagner wrote this at age 20, so around 1833, Puccini was born in 1858.  Perhaps more like Rossini (Barber of Seville comes to mind).

While the sets generally look elaborate, I am disappointed at the props Arindal used to overcome obstacles on his way to rescuing Ada.  They were supposed to be a shield and a sword, and we have a throw pillow and a piece of wood that looks like a table leg.

With the notable exception of Arindal, the singing was good all around.  That of course is helped by the size of the auditorium.  Arindal (and we are not sure if he was a last minute substitute or not) was just weak, and he never seemed to get into the plot.  The other incongruent aspect was his in "modern" dress while most everyone else was either medieval or supernatural.

The story ends with Arindal being granted immortality.  However, what we saw on stage was Arindal reuniting with the maid at the beginning of the opera.  One could scratch one's head, or decide the maid represents Ada.  That association would still have a lot of issues as they don't look immortal at all.

Photos from the Opera Website.  Yes, the lady on the left has her glasses on.

The surtitles are in both German and English.

The role of Arindal wasn't played by the gentleman in this photo.

The 3-act opera is about 3 hours long, with two intermissions we were out at around 9:15 pm.  It was still light out, sun sets at around 9:30.  Many a musicologist has analyzed this work to understand its place in Wagner's evolution as a composer.  A few things I note: he already wrote his own libretto; he clearly sounded traditional in many places, like the duet between Lora and Morald; redemption as a theme; and (this one I had not read, but probably not original) the different beings in the story (in this case fairies and humans, this production divides humans into medieval and present-day).

After Act 1.

Curtain call.  Instead of Ada turning into stone, she was locked up in the cage.

It was David Y who reminded me a few months ago about this Festival (I had told him a couple of years back); he and Vivien have been to Leipzig several times for the Bach Festival, but they are not quite ready to make plans that (a few months ago) are subject to change because of changing pandemic travel restrictions.  Of course for now nearly all restrictions have been lifted.  As recently as May 31 FFP2-level masks were mandatory; now those who wear any masks inside the opera house are few and far between.

Nuremberg State Theater - Peter Grimes by Britten. June 19, 2022.

Opera House, Nuremberg State Theater, Germany.  First Rang Mitte Loge.  (Row 4, Seat 685, 77.6 euros)

Opera House at Nuremberg State Theater.

Story.  The fisherman Peter Grimes gets exonerated in the death of his apprentice.  He wants to get another apprentice so he can go back to his job, wanting to make enough money to get married to his girlfriend Ellen.  Grimes eventually finds John as the new apprentice.  After being seen abusing Ellen and John, Grimes runs off with the boy to his hut.  When the mob nears, Grimes hurries off to start his fishing trip, asking John to be careful climbing down the cliff.  John trips and dies.  The mob doesn't see Grimes or John, so they disperse.  A couple of days later, Ellen and retired skipper Belstrode exchange observations that cast suspicion on Grimes.  That is overheard by Mrs. Sedley who whips up another mob.  Grimes flees, and meets Belstrode who suggests that he sail into the open sea, which Grimes does.

Conductor - Lutz de Veer; Peter Grimes - Peter Marsh, John the apprentice - Oliver Hedrich-Gehring, Ellen Orford - Emily Newton, Captain Balstrode - Sangmin Lee, Auntie - Almerija Delic, First niece - Chloe Morgan, Second niece - Nayun Lea Kim.

The website says there are German and English surtitles.  Only German was offered.

Tickets can now be put in Apple Wallet.

It took us a while to find these seat numbers on the top of the back of the chairs.

Most people know Britten's Four Sea Interludes, which comprise of four of the six interludes in the opera Peter Grimes: Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight, and Storm.  The other two interludes are a passacaglia and the scene change in Act 3.  I have heard The Four Sea Interludes in concert multiple times.

As to the opera itself, this was my first live encounter with it.  During the pandemic I caught a Princeton Summer Festival broadcast of the opera, but don't remember much of it.

The story I put together is a pretty good summary of the plot.  It doesn't talk about characters such as the Methodist priest, the nieces and the bar owner.  However, today's presentation had quite a few major deviations from that "standard" synopsis.

The most obvious one is in the character of Peter Grimes.  In the "original" he is hapless and reckless, making wrong decisions that end up ruining his life.  In the Nuremberg version, he is a child abuser, murderer, and a pedophile.  In the scene that supposedly shows him as having a nightmare about the death of his first apprentice, here he is kneeling over a blood-soaked John.  There is a scene which implies Ellen as being shocked at the images she sees on Grimes's computer.

The next one would be the character of Ellen.  While she is the long-suffering girlfriend in the original (reminds me of Michaela in Carmen), here she eventually falls for Belstrode, so one could interpret their scheming together for the demise of Grimes.

There is also a surreal element in that Peter Grimes had a double who showed up at a scene.  Even though I had no idea what it meant, I was expecting other similar situations but didn't observe any.

Britten wrote the role of Grimes with his partner Peter Pears in mind.  I wonder if today's portrayal would make Britten spin in his grave.  Would the Grimes today be a role he would write for Pears?

The website describes this opera as sung in English, with German and English surtitles.  Well, no English surtitles.  English when sung in opera is generally difficult to get, and I am not being particularly critical here if I say there is a lot of accent.  Peter Marsh as Grimes was the most intelligible.  Emily Newton (Ellen) is from Texas, yet her words were difficult to make out (and it's not because of the southern drawl).  For a while Anne actually thought they were singing in German.

Our prior encounters with operas in Germany led us to believe they like in-your-face type interpretation.  Today's show confirmed that, it was violent, hard-edged, and overly so.  Grimes came across as someone worthy of despise and hatred, rather than someone to feel sorry for.  Being "out there" does not equate to making the show more enjoyable.

Setting all that aside, the singing was uniformly good in this 1300-person (my estimate) theater, and - to the extent we understood what was happening - the acting was good.  There was a quartet in the middle of Act 2 that was quite exquisite.  The Sea Interludes made a lot more sense in context.

Richard Wagner Platz right outside the opera house.

I snapped this just as the first half (in the middle of Act 2) ended.

I cannot name all the principal singers.  To the conductor's left are John, Peter Grimes, and to the right are Ellen and Belstrode.

With one intermission, the opera was just about three hours long.

The primary reason for this Germany trip is because of the Passion Play.  We managed to find five operas in the cities we plan to visit.

[Note: I notice today the opera website added the phrase "Note: The production focuses on pedophilia and violence against children.  However, no explicit acts of violence against children are depicted on stage."  I supposed they got quite a bit of "feedback" on this issue.  And the disclaimer is only true if you don't count a blood-soaked child's body as an explicit act of violence.]