JUKE BOX 1 (Royal Opera)****

 

By Tommy (and some of the younger bloggers)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04nppOsfdig

Available until: The video will be available for about a month. However, if you wish to vote, you’ll need to do that before midday on Thursday 29^th October.

The Royal Opera has had a Young Artist programme for most of the current century. A small group of talented young singers spend two years working at the Royal Opera House, singing small roles (and occasionally leading roles) and understudying others. They also have a concert at the end of each year and certainly, in the past, they have been given the opportunities to perform recitals at the opera house too.

But one very important event in their calendar has been a week of concerts and recitals, early in the season, which gives audiences the opportunity to get to know the new singers and see a little bit more of those that have moved into the second year of the programme.

The event being reviewed here is Juke Box 1, an annual event in which each Young Artist whets our appetite by singing the beginning (and only the beginning) of three vocal works. These are usually from operas, but not exclusively. It is then the job of the audience to vote for which of the three works they would like to hear in its entirety at the Juke Box 2 concert.

Traditionally, it is the attendees of the concert who vote. This year, it was not feasible to invite audiences to the Royal Opera House in order to see these events, but the vote is being conducted online, through youtube and facebook. I gather youtube and facebook accounts are all that is needed – and I am reliably informed that I am probably the only person in the world under eighty who has neither so I am sure almost everybody who wishes to do so will be able to vote.

Usually at Mobile Theatre (so-called both for its focus on plays which can be watched on a mobile phone and for the opportunity online theatre offers to those with mobility problems who find it difficult to attend a theatre), one person is assigned to each review. On this occasion, eight of our younger bloggers have been paired up with the eight singers featuring in this concert. They will briefly review the three songs performed by their singer before giving their verdict on which one should feature in Juke Box 2.

I will now hand you over to our young bloggers.

 

German Alcantara  - reviewed by Cal

I should say first off that German is not a current member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme – he graduated in the summer but is back for this concert. Here are the names of his three works.

Or dove fuggo io mai… Ah per sempre from I puritani by Vincenzo Bellini

Zaza, piccola zingara from Zaza by Ruggiero Leoncavallo

O vin dissipe la tristesse from Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas

This was really difficult! I enjoyed all of these. German presents the characters so well and I almost forgot I wasn’t really at the opera. I can imagine that the popular arias tend to win the vote in a situation like this and I think it’s great that German has gone for two quite rare ones and one very rare one. I am not familiar with the opera Zaza so I am very tempted to hear the end of this lovely aria. I like Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci and I think his La boheme is much underrated (I don’t know about you, but I blame Puccini). I puritani is another opera I enjoy, though I’ve only heard it on CD, and German gave a very passionate performance, completely in character. But I love the story of Hamlet, and German performs this aria so brilliantly and I love his interpretation of Hamlet. So ‘O vin dissipez la tristesse’ is my choice. By a millionth of a millimetre.

 

Alexandra Lowe – reviewed by Alan

Nun eilt herbei from Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor by Otto Nicolai

Beim Schlagengehen from Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss

So we’ll go no more a-roving by Valerie White

I think I’m a bad person to review this singer but I’m the 2^nd oldest so I’m reviewing the 2^nd singer. I like opera a lot because it has good stories but I haven’t got into recitals yet. But I want to because Cal says songs are like short stories and I like short stories so I need to listen to more songs but I don’t feel like I understand them yet. The Strauss song was all in German so I didn’t understand any of it but I like how it sounds and the song in English is beautiful. But I’m choosing the Merry Wives of Windsor song. I know the story and the character and I like the music and how Alexandra Lowe played the character.

 

Blaise Mataba – reviewed by Louise

King René’s arioso from Iolanta by Pyotr Iliych Tchaikovsky

Banco’s aria from Macbetto by Giuseppe Verdi

Se il cor guerriero from Tito Manilo by Antonio Vivaldi

I think Mr Mataba has put together a really brilliant programme. The arias are all in different styles and from different times, but they’re all styles Mr Mataba is able to sing. He is already very versatile and I think he will have a really exciting career. King René’s arioso had a wonderfully rich tone and I would love to hear the rest of it. Banco’s aria has a really wonderful feeling of excitement in it so I would love to hear that one too. But I am voting for the Vivaldi because I don’t know the opera at all so I have no idea at all how it ends. I really like early music and it was very intense and so beautifully sung.

 

Filipe Manu  reviewed by Arran

Dies Bildnis… from Die Zauberflote by W. A. Mozart

Eflati, peau ogno’i vale by Tatu

Ideale by Paolo Tosti

I feel like I should choose the Tatu or the Tosti because I have not heard them before. Mr Manu accompanies himself on the ukelele (I think) in the Tatu and they are both beautiful songs. But I am going to choose the Magic Flute aria because it is one of my favourite operas. It is very nice and calming and I really like the way Mr Manu acts it.

 

Ksenia Nikolaeva – reviewed by Imogen

Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera by Maurice Ravel

Lyubasha’s Aria from The Tsar’s Bride by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix from Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saens

Ksenia has chosen 3 different styles and I think that is good but it is very obvious which one I will choose. She has a very rich, low mezzo and some might describe her as a contralto but it is still a beautiful and feminine sound. She also has the best dress. I see this as an opera concert for opera fans so I think the Vocalise etude doesn’t really belong in this concert no matter how well it is sung. I would like to hear that one at the Wigmore Hall instead. The other two are very good but I think Dalila is so much more sensual than Lyubasha which I think would make her a lot more fun to sing.

 

Andres Presno – reviewed by Jack

Te Quiero by Alberto Favero

E lucevan le stelle from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

Ah, inferno… from Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi

I think the first 2 are a bit slushy really. Very well sung but a total slush fest. The third one is by Verdi so that probably is too but at least it has a bit of drama. So I’ll chose that one.

 

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha – reviewed by Angel

Song to the Moon from Rusalka by Antonin Dvorak

Thula, Thula, Traditional

Toi qui sus le neant from Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi

I’m not exactly an opera expert but I could tell these songs don’t all sound the same and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha sounds like a quality singer as well as a versatile one. The Traditional one is a bit too slushy for me but I really like that she sang it. It’s good to do something different that isn’t usually heard in an opera house. The Verdi one was better than I expected, I thought it would be slushy but it’s got some good chords. But I’m going to go for Song for the Moon. I’m quite into astronomy (but NOT astrology) and I think this song is sort of mysterious which is exactly what the moon is. I could imagine this being used as a soundtrack for a film about the moon.

 

Stephanie Wake-Edwards – reviewed by Megan

Unbewegte laue Luft by Johannes Brahms

Funeral Blues from Cabaret Songs by Benjamin Britten

Pauline’s Romance from The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky

I think this is a really beautiful programme. I watched Ms Wake-Edwards’ online recital with Allan Clayton which Arran reviewed and I loved it. Ms Wake-Edwards made all these songs so exciting and beautiful. The Brahms is so gorgeous but she sang it in the Wigmore Hall concert and I’d like to hear her sing something new. I find it hard to understand Britten’s music sometimes but Ms Wake-Edwards makes it all make sense and it sounds beautiful. It’s really really hard but I’m going to choose Pauline’s Romance just because I have never seen Ms Wake-Edwards sing opera before so I am extra excited to see how she performs the rest of it. It was really beautiful and it made me feel all shivery.