‘Agency’ is a current buzzword in opera, worn out but still valid and usually preceded by ‘feminine’. For a long time, it was believed that women, abused, controlled and dying, had no free will. A radical reconsideration of history as a whole and of the opera has put this expectation in the dock. One of the sharpest questioners, who scrutinizes any hardened attitude, is British director Katie Mitchell, whose work has been seen across Europe since the mid-1990s (alternative wording: “has divided audiences”).
Her production by Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), as difficult as it is unnerving and perceptive, has returned to the Royal Opera House for a second revival. Soprano Nadine Sierra excels in the title role (her compatriot Liv Redpath will give three performances). Only Sierra, who leads a uniformly strong ensemble, would be a reason to see this show. Giacomo Sagripanti conducted, with choir and orchestra in passionate form and a remarkably beautiful solo flute obbligato in the celebrated mad scene.
While the men in this opera are preoccupied with old rivalries and future fortunes, here the tragic Lucia is shown to act with an independent spirit in a way usually unseen and despite oppression from all sides. Ultimately, her sanity, which may always be weak, collapses. The work is based on Walter Scott’s 1819 novel and is a good example of the Italian ‘bel canto’, which only means beautiful singing, but encompasses an entire 19th-century Italian opera style, built around vocal fireworks, vibrant ornaments and elegance . Sierra’s fearless, golden-silver high notes and super-fast trills are combined with responsive grace and intensity by young Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga, as Edgardo, the enemy she loves. Polish baritone Artur Ruciński is rich in tone and convincing as her bullying brother Enrico.
Mitchell’s Lucia reminds us unequivocally of the etymology of hysteria (origin, uterus). The bloody midriff of the destined bride, her stomach clenching and vomiting, could indicate a shameful pregnancy or, if that adverb is admissible, menstruation, both lazily associated with feminine madness. Designed with enormous detail by Vicki Mortimer, the staging splits the action into two: public and private, outer and inner, unfolding in parallel. Sometimes the simultaneous events are distracting; easier to follow if you have purchased a program and studied the second column of the double synopsis in advance. Mitchell’s seriousness is unquestionable, if the results are ultimately too emphatic. This revival (directed by Robin Tebbutt) shows us the power of brilliant singing again and again. On opening night, the audience felt like a fourth protagonist, alert to every vocal triumph, cheering, exuberant, generous. It may be an opera of top notes, but despite all its minor frustrations, this production shows much more than that.
Two chamber concerts I went to last week acted as an unconscious prelude – more of which soon – to this year’s BBC Proms, which started on Thursday. In the first, at Wigmore Hall, Lawrence Power, the violist-in-chief, led the charge Nash ensemble for the final program of a daylong event dedicated to Australian composer-violist Brett Dean (b. 1961). Dean’s hallmark is his special gift for creating a musical atmosphere: an arrangement of music by William Byrd, in Dean’s Byrdsong Studies (2021), transported us to a haunted Tudor past, the sound of a soft, zigzagging harpsichord (Xiaowen Shang) whispering through the ages and meeting the present. Deans Approach (Prelude to a Canon), written to lead directly into Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, is a busyly contentious exchange between soloists from which Bach’s music suddenly emerges, liberated. Dean and Power also showed their virtuosity (Dean previously played in the Berliner Philharmoniker) in George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola (1997), a concise invention described by the composer as a “truly wild and ecstatic ride”. It really was.
The second chamber concert, in Milton Court, was shown Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic and a Barbican artist in residence. McGill is a consummate player who can translate a blizzard of notes into a long, poetic, lyrical sentence. Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective for Brahms’ clarinet quintet and Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Neither work, while full of rewards, felt quite embedded, with some slippage in the ensemble, but McGill’s playing was a model of poise, freedom and imagination. The clarinet movement in the Messiaen, Abîme des Oiseaux, was a masterclass in the expressive range of one line of music.
And so to the Proms. Both Power and McGill will play concerts this year – Cassandra Miller’s for viola, Mozart’s for clarinet. The backbone of the season, headlined by the 73 concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, is the centenary of Bruckner and the epic Mahler. You can write that off as conservative or you can hope that, like last year, the lure of orchestral and choral extravaganzas will draw in the crowds. They showcase the best of the Albert Hall and the Proms. For the quirky and original, check out the wider UK concerts in Gateshead, Nottingham and Bristol.
Visiting orchestras include the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the West-East Divan. The heavyweights not to be missed, each giving two concerts, are the Berlin Philharmonic with Kirill Petrenko and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with their new chief conductor Simon Rattle. The Last Night will, after eternal headaches, Rule, Britannia! The further Britain gets from ruling the waves, the fantastic idea, the less it seems to matter whether Thomas Arne’s great tune turns into an audience sing-along. But sensitivities are high and questions are rightly being asked. Soprano Angel Blue and pianist Stephen Hough are the famous soloists of Last Night. Sakari Oramo will conduct.
The Proms announcement came days after the death of Andrew Davis, 80, a long-serving, musically open-minded and popular principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was due to conduct the Proms this year. Let us dedicate the entire 2024 season to the witty and brilliant memory of Davis. If anyone can do the decent thing and repeat his unforgettable Last Night modern Major General parody, he can rest in peace, his spirit honored.
Star ratings (out of five)
Lucia di Lammermoor ★★★★
Nash ensemble ★★★★★
Anthony McGill and Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective ★★★★
Fiona Maddocks’ pick for the 2024 Proms
In chronological order. Make sure you book early; Tickets go on sale on Saturday, May 18 at 9 a.m.
Ball 4
Halle/Mark Elder (21 July)
Mahler Symphony No. 5
Ball 6
BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, Crouch End Festival Choir/Ryan Bancroft (July 23)
Verdi Requiem
Ball 15
The Swingles, BBC Philharmonic/Nicolas Collon (July 30)
Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony
Ball 21
Sinfonia from London/John Wilson (August 4)
John Adams: Harmonielehre
Ball 31
West-East Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim (August 11)
Schubert ‘Grand’ Symphony No. 9 in C major
Ball 37
London Symphony Orchestra and Choirs/Antonio Pappano (August 17)
British War Requiem
Ball 42
Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon (August 21)
Beethoven’s Ninth by heart
Proms 55 & 56
Berliner Philharmoniker/Kirill Petrenko (August 31 & September 1)
Smetana: Má vlast/Bruckner Symphony No. 5
Proms 61 & 62
Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio/Simon Rattle (5 & 6 September)
Bruckner Symphony No. 4/Mahler Symphony No. 6