I felt it was about time to go to the opera again, and although the piece isn’t a favourite of mine I went to WNO’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Bristol Hippodrome, that being what I could get to easily. Another opera with a contorted plot to go with the Trovatore I saw there last time.
I’d heard this opera on the radio and never been able to follow what was going on in the Prologue. When it’s seen on stage it becomes more comprehensible as it’s possible to disentangle the two unrelated groups of people sharing the same space. As for the ‘opera’ in the second act, to start with I have to back Zerbinetta against the Composer; I’d find it pretty tedious without her intervention, at least until Bacchus appears. We were especially impressed with Bacchus (Peter Hoare); overall, I felt I was slightly unlucky with the night I went to (some performers are only doing some of the performances in the run). The Guardian’s review, with which I’m not going to argue, is here.
Meanwhile Advent began with a big service in Bathwick. This included Naylor’s Vox dicentis. I have only performed this once before, in a concert in Canterbury on tour with the choir of St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge; it’s long, and I don’t usually make Cathedral visits in Advent so I’ve not had an opportunity since. It’s a preposterous piece really, but ubiquitous at this time of year; I’ve heard it on Radio 3 twice since I sang it (the second performance, on an evensong broadcast, is still available online at the time of writing). Another ubiquitous piece we sang was Bruckner’s Virga Jesse, which I’m doing again elsewhere in a week, and have heard in person at Bath Abbey and on a broadcast on Radio 3. There seems to be general disagreement about whether it should be conducted in 2 or in 4. I haven’t sung it for a very long time, but I attribute its reappearance in multiple places to European Sacred Music rather than morphic resonance.
Our Bathwick Advent service also included two pieces totally new to me: Händl’s Ecce concipies and Javi Busto’s Ave Maria. Busto is a Basque composer whose music seems to be practially unknown in the English-speaking world, to judge by an internet search I did on him.
Things are happening thick and fast. Next up for me is an Advent broadcast of the Morning Service with the Exultate Singers in Berkeley Castle which will go out on Sunday December 12th at 8.10 on Radio 4. Music mostly by Praetorius, with brass ensemble. [2006 – as this is some time ago I can reveal that this broadcast was actually recorded a few days beforehand and broadcast as if live. The Sunday morning service on Radio 4 is now so early that it is hard to assemble performers and set things up otherwise.]