Music in London and Boston

Amanda Forsythe (Éolie) and Karina Gauvin (Circé) in Henri Desmarest's Circé, centerpiece opera of the Boston Early Music Festival (seen 11 June 2023). Photo credit: Kathy Wittman. Image source: BEMF.org

My partner and I have just returned from a monthlong trip to London and Boston, and I thought I'd offer a report on some of the musical performances we attended. In chronological order:

LONDON

Michael Spyres with Il Pomo d'Oro conducted by Francesco Corti: "Tenore Assoluto," Wigmore Hall, 21 May 2023

Michael Spyres at Wigmore Hall, 21 May 2023. Image source: Conessi all'Opera

Italian operas in the 1700s were dominated by the castrati, men with voices in the soprano or alto range. Tenors were often entirely absent, or relegated to minor roles. But for this program, drawn from his recent album Contra-Tenor, Michael Spyres uncovered bravura tenor arias from operas by major Baroque composers such as Handel, Vivaldi, Porpora and Hasse, as well as by some lesser-known figures such as Galuppi, Latilla, Sarro, and Mazzoni. His accompanists were the virtuoso period-instrument chamber orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro led by harpsichordist Francesco Corti.

Spyres' voice is astonishing. He calls himself a "baritenor," and indeed has a remarkably wide range; he also has the vocal flexibility to execute rapid coloratura passages. But this concert, in which Spyres sang one fiery vocal showpiece after another, was almost too much of a good thing. For me the highlight of the evening was Spyres' first encore, "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" (I have lost my Eurydice) from Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice (1774), his French-language adaptation of Orfeo ed Euridice (1762). For this listener Spyres' moving and lyrical performance of this aria provided a grateful respite from the spectacular fireworks that preceded it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDzaD6IojIs

Lay Vicars of Westminster Abbey, First Evensong of Trinity Sunday, Westminster Abbey, 3 June 2023

The quire of Westminster Abbey looking west towards the quire screen and the nave beyond. We were seated in the back row of the right-hand stalls in the section nearest the screen but within a few feet of the choir stalls in the center. Image source: Westminster Abbey

The twelve male Lay Vicars of the Westminster Abbey Choir performed the music for this Evensong service, which we chose because of the composers represented: Hildegard of Bingen, William Byrd, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and Ivo Vento.

It was a privilege to hear this glorious Medieval and Renaissance music in this stunning Gothic cathedral in the context of a service. The Lay Vicars were split, with six singers on our side of the quire and six opposite. Aided by the reverberation of the vast cathedral, their sound was surprisingly full and rich, and "Laus trinitate" in particular was awe-inspiring. (We heard both a rehearsal of this work while we were waiting to enter the quire, and its performance during the service.)

Hildegard of Bingen, "Laus trinitati," performed at the Abbaye de Silvacane, Provence, France:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzT0VJ9bZcs

Le Concert Spirituel conducted by Hervé Niquet: George Frideric Handel, Dettingen Te Deum and Coronation Anthems, St. James's Catholic Church, 6 June 2023

Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet at St. James's Roman Catholic Church, 6 June 2023. Photo credit: Matt Crossick/PA Wire

This concert was definitely an Event. It opened with a fanfare followed by baritone Roderick Williams singing "God Save the King," in honor of the special guest sitting in the front row, King Charles III. The Dettingen Te Deum and the four Coronation Anthems are monumental Baroque, featuring trumpets, drums, and massed choruses. Conductor Hervé Niquet varied the dynamics, especially in the fourth Coronation Anthem "Zadok the Priest," which had a softer entrance of the full instrumental and vocal forces than is usually heard, building to full volume (and pounding tympani) on the final choruses of "God save the King! Long live the King!" BBC Radio 3 recorded the full concert, and it is available for listening through Thursday 6 July.

The opening of Dettingen Te Deum ("We praise thee, O God") performed by Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TQAZMytckU

BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Stile Antico, "Breaking the Habit: Music for and by Renaissance Women," Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 9 June 2023

Stile Antico at Emmanuel Church, 2023-06-09. Image source: Twitter.com @stileantico

The theme of this year's Boston Early Music Festival was "A Celebration of Women," and in this program the a cappella vocal group Stile Antico performed music composed by, commissioned by, written for, or referring to Renaissance women.

Whatever the rationale for its inclusion, the music was performed with both astonishing precision and great beauty. The program introduced us to many composers we'd not heard before, including the nuns Raffaella Alleotti, Sulpitia Cesis, and Leonora d’Este; the Habsburg regent Margaret of Austria; and the madrigalist Maddalena Casulana, who wrote and published music "to show to the world the foolish error of men who so greatly believe themselves to be the [sole] masters of high intellect gifts that these gifts cannot, it seems to them, be equally common among women." The concert was also well-structured, with different members of Stile Antico stepping forward to give brief spoken introductions to each grouping of works, and so preventing us all from floating away on the waves of gorgeous polyphony.

Stile Antico performing William Byrd's "O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth":

https://youtu.be/B2BCl4Slqls?t=97

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (The liberation of Ruggiero from Alcina’s island, 1625). Mireille Lebel (Alcina), Colin Balzer (Ruggiero), Cecilia Duarte (Melissa), other soloists and chorus with the BEMF Chamber Orchestra, Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, directors, New England Conservatory Jordan Hall, 10 June 2023

Colin Balzer (Ruggiero) and Mireille Lebel (Alcina) in Francesca Caccini's Alcina, NEC Jordan Hall, 10 June 2023. Photo credit: Kathy Wittman. Image source: BEMF.org

Francesca Caccini's Alcina is the first known opera composed by a woman, and it's remarkable that its music still exists (most of the rest of Francesca's many works are lost). Francesca was not only a composer but a multi-instrumentalist and a singer, who at age 13 probably made her public singing debut in Jacopo Peri's Euridice (1600)—the first (surviving) opera.

The story of Alcina is taken by librettist Ferdinando Saracinelli from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1532), the same source used more than a century later for Handel's opera Alcina (1735). The knightly hero Ruggiero has been seduced by the beautiful sorceress Alcina into tarrying with her on her magic island in a haze of sensual pleasure. The sorceress Melissa, in male disguise, arrives and tries to recall Ruggiero to a sense of his martial duties. Ultimately Melissa prevails, and Alcina's enchantments of Ruggiero, and of her numerous former lovers who have been turned into the lush vegetation of her island, are broken.

Alcina was cast from strength (most of the performers also sang the next day in the centerpiece opera Circé) and benefited from longtime BEMF stage director Gilbert Blin's intelligent staging, choreographer Melinda Sullivan's expressive movement, and designer Anna Watkins' effective costumes (particularly striking when the chorus, portraying the enchanted former lovers, was decked out with leaves and branches). 

If you have an interest in Monteverdi's operas or other vocal works from the first half of the 17th century, the sound-world of Alcina will not be unfamiliar. Let's hope that a BEMF recording is in the pipeline; Huelgas Ensemble's recording was one of my Favorites of 2020, and the BEMF performers offer every promise of surpassing it. For more on Alcina, please see my review of Magnificat's 2009 puppet-opera performance.

An excerpt from Act II of the 2018 BEMF production in which Melissa brings Ruggiero to recommit to his knightly purpose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztjuPzFryk8

Henri Desmarest: Circé (1694). Karina Gauvin (Circé), Aaron Sheehan (Ulisse), Teresa Wakim (Astérie), Jesse Blumberg (Elphenor), Amanda Forsythe (Éolie), Douglas Williams (Polite), other soloists, chorus, and the BEMF Dance Company, accompanied by the BEMF Orchestra, Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, directors. Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 11 June 2023

Circé at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre (seen 11 June 2023). Photo credit: Kathy Wittman. Image source: BEMF.org

Another magic island, another sorceress, and another waylaid hero. Circé's libretto (or livret) by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Saintonge is based on an episode from Book Ten of Homer's Odyssey. Sailing home from the Trojan War, Ulysses and a handful of surviving men, "worn out and sick at heart" (in Robert Fitzgerald's translation) seek respite on the island of the goddess Circe. In Gillot de Saintonge's retelling, Circé falls in love with Ulisse and turns his men into swine to prevent him from leaving the island and continuing home. Ulisse convinces Circé that he returns her love, and persuades her to restore his men to human form. But Circé learns that Ulisse really loves Éolie, daughter of the wind god Éole, and sends demons to attack her. Protected by the gods' messenger Mercure, Éolie frees Ulisse and escapes the island with him and his men; in rage and sorrow, Circé destroys her island's anchorage, forever isolating her from the human world.

Circé was a spectacular triumph for the BEMF performers and production team. French Baroque operas involve a rich instrumental palette, multiple dance interludes, and a large role for the chorus. Circé was a hugely ambitious undertaking, and the BEMF forces rose to the challenge superbly. Every element—the outstanding cast, the large orchestra (directed by Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs and led by concertmaster Robert Mealy), the staging (directed by Gilbert Blin), the dances (choreographed by Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière and Pierre-François Dollé and directed by Melinda Sullivan), the sets (designed by the apparently indefatigable Blin), the lighting (designed by Kelly Martin), and the lavish costumes (designed by Jérôme Kaplan)—combined to stunning effect.

You can experience the musical riches of this work in the just-released BEMF recording, which features the lush-voiced Lucille Richardot as Circé. Richardot was originally scheduled to portray the goddess in the staged opera, but a family health emergency prevented her from doing so. It is a testament to the deep relationships Kathleen Fay has forged over 36 years as BEMF's director that the acclaimed Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin generously agreed to step in and take on the role in the Festival performances.

From the BEMF recording, a taste of Circé's exquisite music: Acte Troisième, Scène Troisième, “Prélude pour le Sommeil—Ah! que le sommeil est charmant” (Prelude to sleep—Ah! How pleasant is sleep). Performed by Kyle Stegall (Un Songe agréable), Jason McStoots (Phantase), and Michael Galvin (Phaebetor) with the BEMF Orchestra & Chorus directed by Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdxXZFDIhyI

Favorites of 2021: Streamed performances

Soprano Mary Bevan. Photo: Victoria Cadisch

In this second year of the pandemic, streaming enabled us to see concerts happening across the country or across the world at a time of our choosing; return to a specific moment in a concert if we were interrupted, or rewatch it in its entirety; or pause to get up and pour refills of our adult beverages. Of course it's not the same as an in-person performance: the view is better, while the sound doesn't compare. But for much of the past year streaming has been the only possible experience, and it definitely has its own advantages. Many thanks to the relative who gave us a gift subscription to Boston Baroque, which inaugurated our streaming explorations.

Two streamed concert series in particular showed how it could, and should, be done: keep the cost of tickets closer to that of a movie than an in-person concert, give viewers not a specific time or only one night but rather several days or weeks over which they can view the event, and make the technical side as straightforward as possible. Boston Baroque, the Voces8 Live from London Festivals, and the Boston Early Music Festival continue to get it right, providing models for how artists, companies and audiences can benefit from the streaming format.

FAVORITES

Voces8: Live from London Festivals

Live from London is a series of hybrid online/in-person festivals of (chiefly) vocal groups and singers. Among the many participating groups and singers this year were I Fagiolini, the King's Singers, Stile Antico, and Dame Emma Kirkby. Each program included at least one collaboration with members of Voces8, the festival organizers and hosts. While the three concerts listed below were highlights, every program we saw was filled with wonderful music. The Live from London Christmas 2021 festival is now underway.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Jeremy Budd (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass-baritone), and VOCES8, with the Academy of Ancient Music, Rachel Podger, guest leader; Barnaby Smith, conductor. Premiered 4 April 2021.

Performed on Easter Sunday, Bach's monumental Mass in B Minor offered solace and uplift after a pandemic year of separation, isolation and loss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G08GdMXOcg8

All Shall Be Well
ORA Singers with Zeb Soanes; Suzi Digby, artistic director. Premiered 11 July 2021.

In 1349 the Black Death arrived in Norwich, England, about 120 miles (200 km) northeast of London, and may have killed half the population; the plague returned periodically over the next four decades. The anchoress later known as Julian of Norwich, who was six years old at the first appearance of the plague, and who over the course of her life witnessed mass death and social disruption, nevertheless would write, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

Inspired by Julian's affirmation, Suzi Digby and ORA Singers juxtaposed Renaissance works with contemporary pieces inspired by them, interspersed with texts read by BBC presenter Zeb Soanes that spanned the centuries in between.

Roxanna Panufnik's "Kyrie after Byrd," a reflection on the "Kyrie" of William Byrd's Mass for 5 Voices, commissioned and performed by ORA Singers directed by Suzi Digby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaD5R28R_Qs

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

George Frideric Handel: Heroes and Heroines (arias and duets)
Mary Bevan (soprano) and Barnaby Smith (countertenor and artistic director of Voces8) with the Illyria Consort, Bojan Čičić, director. Premiered 8 August 2021.

This program presented arias and duets ranging from Handel's very first oratorio, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Disillusionment, 1707) to his last, Jephtha (1751), and included three of his greatest operas: Rinaldo (1711), Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt, 1724), and Rodelinda (1725). The selection functioned as a kind of "Handel's greatest hits," but with music this ravishing no more overarching theme or specific focus was necessary. Bevan has an immensely pleasing soprano with a hint of darker color that was showcased in her more pensive or plaintive arias, and which blended beautifully with Voces8 director Barnaby Smith's countertenor in the duets.

"Tu del Ciel ministro eletto" from Il trionfo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3YVC58vYM8

Tu del Ciel ministro eletto non vedrai più nel mio petto voglia infida, o vano ardor. E se vissi ingrata a Dio tu custode del cor mio a lui porta il nuovo cor.

You, the chosen minister of Heaven, shall see no more in my heart a faithless wish or vain passion. And though I lived without offering thanks to God, may you, my heart's guardian, bring to Him a new heart.

Boston Early Music Festival and Festival Fringe

The Boston Early Music Festival has been presented every other year (with one exception) since 1981. BEMF also offers an annual concert season; the BEMF 2021-22 season is currently ongoing, and is highly recommended.

As with Live from London, we enjoyed every concert we saw as a part of the 2021 Boston Early Music Festival and Festival Fringe. I selected the following three concerts as favorites, though, because their programs seemed especially thoughtful.

Perpetual Night: 17th-century Ayres and Songs
Lucile Richardot (mezzo-soprano) with Ensemble Correspondances, Sébastian Daucé, director. Premiered 24 April 2021.

Programs of 17th century English songs often focus on a few major figures such as John Blow and Henry Purcell. While of course they are included here, one of the many excellences of this concert is that Richardot and Ensemble Correspondances director Sébastian Daucé have constructed a varied program that also includes less often performed music by composers such as John Banister, Robert Johnson, and William Lawes, as well as songs for both solo singer and vocal ensemble. Richardot has a striking voice with an especially rich lower range, and the accompaniments and instrumental pieces are sensitively performed. This program has also been released as an album on Harmonia Mundi, is available on YouTube or your favorite audio streaming service.

"Care-charming Sleep" by Robert Johnson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI3DJSEH1rE

Care-charming Sleep, thou easer of all woes, Brother to Death, sweetly thyself dispose On this afflicted prince; fall like a cloud In gentle showers; give nothing that is loud Or painful to his slumbers; easy, sweet, And as a purling stream, thou son of Night, Pass by his troubled senses; sing his pain, Like hollow murmuring wind or silver rain; Into this prince gently, oh gently slide, And kiss him into slumbers like a bride.

Jean Richafort: A Requiem for Josquin
Cinquecento: Terry Wey (countertenor), Tore Tom Denys and Achim Schulz (tenor), Tim Scott Whiteley (baritone), Ulfried Staber (bass), with Bernd Oliver Fröhlich (tenor). Premiered 8 June 2021.

Filmed in the Vienna Imperial Chapel and marking the 500th anniversary of the death of the composer Josquin Desprez, this illuminating program by the all-male vocal group Cinquecento is filled with gorgeous polyphony. A 16th-century document names Jean Richafort as one of the numerous 'students' of Josquin, probably meaning that he took Josquin's music as a model for his own. This program illustrates that process by presenting Richafort's haunting six-voice Requiem in memory of Josquin along with the music by Josquin that is quoted in the Requiem. This program has also been released as an album on Hyperion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBD_sMOxlbk

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Circumdederunt me gemitus mortis, dolores inferni circumdederunt me: Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem: exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Circumdederunt me gemitus mortis.

Give them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. Laments of death surround me, pains of Hell surround me. A hymn befits you, O God, in Zion, and the vow will be repaid to you in Jerusalem: hear my prayer; all flesh will come to you. Laments of death surround me.

New World Polyphony: Treasures from the Cathedral of Mexico City
Byrd Ensemble: Margaret Obenza, Danielle Reutter-Harrah, Ruth Schauble (soprano); Sarra Sharif, Joshua Haberman, Willimark Obenza (alto); Orrin Doyle, Sam Faustine (tenor); David Hoffman, Jared White (bass). Markdavin Obenza, director. Premiered 16 June 2021.

A well-conceived program of works drawn from a single source, the two choirbooks dated 1717 from the Cathedral of Mexico City. The concert opens with compositions by the Old World composers Palestrina, Victoria, and Lobo. The second half introduces works by the 17th- and 18th-century Mexican composers Antonio Rodriguez de Mata, Antonio de Salazar, and Manuel de Sumaya, who were trained in, continued and extended the tradition established by the earlier composers.

Markdavin Obenza selected the program (along with Margaret Obenza), directed the accomplished performances of these beautiful and moving works, and acts as our engaging and informative host. He also directed the concert video itself: amazingly, all of the performers recorded their parts separately and were seamlessly combined by Obenza to make it appear as though they were singing together in the beautiful setting of Trinity Parish Church in Seattle.

"Adjuva nos Deus" by Manuel de Sumaya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Jsy63sQ5k

Adjuva nos, Deus, salutaris noster, propter gloriam nominis tui. Domine, libera nos, et propitius esto peccatis nostris propter nomen tuum.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. O Lord, deliver us, and forgive us our sins for your name’s sake.

The full 45-minute-long program can be viewed on YouTube.

Cal Performances

In Spring 2021, while the UC Berkeley campus was still closed, Cal Performances made concerts available as live or recorded streams. Oddly, given the summer and fall surge in cases due to the delta and now omicron variants, it has not offered that option for performances in its 2021-22 season. For the safety of artists and audiences, I hope that decision will soon be reconsidered.

Claudio Monteverdi: Madrigals of Love and War
La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations, Jordi Savall, director. Premiered 3 June 2021.

In this concert Jordi Savall revisited Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi (Madrigals of war and love, 1638). Savall recorded excerpts from this collection in 1995 with his wife, the soprano Montserrat Figueras, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya; that album is now a classic. His interpretation of this glorious music has not changed greatly in the intervening years, nor is there any reason for it to do so.

Since video of the concert is no longer available, in its place I offer an excerpt from the 1995 album. "Lamento della ninfa" (Lament of the nymph), sung by the late Montserrat Figueras accompanied by La Capella Reial de Catalunya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBZYy4qo0tU

"Amor," dicea, il ciel mirando il piè fermò "dove, dov'è la fé che 'l traditor giurò?" Miserella. . . "Fa che ritorni il mio amor com'ei pur fu, o tu m'ancidi, ch'io non mi tormenti più." Miserella, ah più no, tanto gel soffrir non può. "Non vo' più ch'ei sospiri se non lontan da me, no, no, che i suoi martiri più non dirammi, affé!" Miserella, ah più no. . . "Perché di lui mi struggo tutt'orgoglioso sta, che sì, che sì se 'l fuggo ancor mi pregherà?" Miserella, ah più no. . . "Se ciglio ha più sereno colei che 'l mio non è, già non rinchiude in seno Amor si bella fé." Miserella, ah più no, tanto gel soffrir non può. "Né mai si dolci baci da quella bocca havrai, né più soavi; ah, taci, taci, che troppo il sai."

"O Love," she begged, gazing heavenward, rooted to the earth, "What happened to the vow of faithfulness that the traitor swore?" Unhappy girl. . . "Let my love return to me as he was before. Or kill me, so that I no longer bear this torment." The poor girl, ah, no more can she suffer so much coldness. "No more will I listen to his sighs, Unless he is so far from me, That he cannot say the things That torture me." The poor girl, ah, no more, no. . . "The more I destroy myself for him, The more satisfied he becomes. But if I were to flee, Would he then come begging?" The poor girl, ah, no more, no. . . "That woman’s eyes May be more limpid than mine, But within my breast, O Love, Lives a faithfulness more fair." The poor girl, ah, no more can she suffer so much coldness. "And that woman’s mouth will never Give him kisses as soft nor as sweet as mine! Hush! What good does it do to say more?"

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Boston Lyric Opera

Philip Glass: The Fall of the House of Usher
Chelsea Basler (soprano), Jesse Darden (tenor), Daniel Belcher (baritone), Christon Carney (tenor), Jorgeandrés Camargo (bass), with a special appearance by Sheila Vand. Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra, David Angus, conductor.

When the pandemic hit many opera companies delved into their archives and provided videos of past performances. In some cases (Glyndebourne) this was done extremely well, and in some cases (the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera) it was done poorly.

But a few companies took the pandemic as a creative opportunity. Boston Lyric Opera was one. When the planned stage production of Philip Glass and Arthur Yorinks' The Fall of the House of Usher was cancelled, BLO commissioned a film version involving hand-drawn and stop-motion animation as well as a live framing narration featuring actress Sheila Vand and a montage of found footage.

The strongest element of this mélange is the hand-drawn story of Luna, a child refugee who, together with her mother, is fleeing violence in Central America and trying to make it to the United States, an imagined place of safety. Luna's story and the found footage bring home, as it were, the United States' continuing history of racism, exclusion, fear, exploitation, environmental destruction, and injustice: the Return of the American Repressed, the sinister twin of the American Dream.

The weakest element of the whole is Arthur Yorinks' clunky libretto for the opera, which misrepresents Poe's Gothic horror story as a therapeutic narrative. The libretto regularly jarred this viewer out of Poe's doom-laden world, and is the reason this project is an honorable mention rather than a favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgC-aS_u8m0

Other Favorites of 2021:

• Live performance
• Recordings
• Movies
• Books

2021 Boston Early Music Festival and Fringe

Ensemble Correspondances performing in an empty theater for BEMF 2021

For fans of music composed before 1800, June means the return of the Early Music Festival, held either in Boston (odd-numbered years) or Berkeley (even-numbered years). This being an odd year the 2021 concerts are being sponsored by the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF). Given the COVID strictures against gathering indoors and international travel, and the lead time involved in planning a major event of this type, BEMF elected to produce a virtual festival this year, and carried it off about as well as it can be done.

Let me pay due obeisance to the truth that no recording, no matter how carefully done, can match the auditory experience of a live unamplified performance. Microphones simply can't capture the full richness of voices and instruments resonating in a performing space.

However, cameras, if they are thoughtfully directed, can provide a much better view of the proceedings than a typical concert seat can provide, and can direct your attention to key details. (Closeups of musicians playing can reveal aspects of their technique, and also the workmanship of their beautiful antique or antique-copy instruments.) As my partner points out, you don't have to worry about the tallest person in the audience or the person with the biggest hair taking the seat right in front of you. And, I might add, you don't have to put up with other people's coughing fits (always timed to occur at the most hushed and emotionally significant moments), mood-shattering cellphone ringtones (ditto), or running commentary. [1]

The considerations of viral invulnerability, the absence of audience irritants, and the sheer convenience of being able to see distant concerts from our cozy living room would be more than sufficient to convince us to watch. But in addition some groups have really mastered the medium of the video concert, offering commentary before the concert or sometimes interspersed with the musical performances, English-language captioning for vocal music, camerawork that subtly enhances the musical experience, and beautiful concert locations.

Below I've listed my personal highlights from BEMF as well as the Festival Fringe. One thing to note is that we haven't seen all of the BEMF or Fringe concerts, so I recommend exploring the offerings on your own. You'll undoubtedly find something to your taste that I haven't mentioned; full schedules are linked at the end of the post.

BEMF makes each concert available for viewing any number of times from the moment of its premiere until Sunday July 11, for the commendably affordable price of $10 per concert. It's a model that might be advantageously adopted by other performing arts groups. Fringe concerts, as well as BEMF pre-concert talks (and several BEMF events), are free. Both BEMF and many of the individual groups welcome donations.

Boston Early Music Festival concerts (turning on the captions for vocal selections is recommended):

Ensemble Correspondances with Lucile Richardot, mezzo-soprano: Perpetual Night: 17th-century Ayres and Songs

Lucile Richardot and Sébastian Daucé of Ensemble Correspondances

This exquisite concert can be viewed for free through July 11. Programs of 17th century English songs often focus on a few major figures such as John Blow and Henry Purcell. While of course they are included here, one of the many excellences of this concert is that Richardot and Ensemble Correspondances director Sébastian Daucé have constructed a varied program that also includes less often performed music by composers such as John Banister, Robert Johnson, and William Lawes, as well as songs for both solo singer and vocal ensemble. Richardot has a striking voice with an especially rich lower range, and the accompaniments and instrumental pieces are sensitively performed. Did I mention that it's free? This program has also been released as an album on Harmonia Mundi.

Cinquecento: A Requiem for Josquin

Achim Schulz, Terry Wey, Bernd Oliver Fröhlich (guest vocalist), Ulfried Staber, Tore Tom Denys, and Tim Scott Whiteley of Cinquecento

Filmed in the Vienna Imperial Chapel and marking the 500th anniversary of the death of the composer Josquin Desprez, this thoughtful and illuminating program by the all-male vocal group Cinquecento is filled with gorgeous polyphony. A 16th-century document names Jean Richafort as one of the numerous 'students' of Josquin, probably meaning that he took Josquin's music as a model for his own. This program illustrates that process by presenting Richafort's haunting six-voice Requiem in memory of Josquin along with the music by Josquin that is quoted in the Requiem. This program has also been released as an album on Hyperion.

Amanda Forsythe, soprano, and BEMF Chamber Ensemble: Handel as Orpheus

Amanda Forsythe with David Morris (violoncello) and Paul O'Dette (theorbo) of the BEMF Chamber Ensemble

Over the past decade or more Amanda Forsythe has been frequently featured in BEMF concerts, operas and recordings, and for good reason: her performances are extraordinary. This program focuses on the spectacular cantatas Handel wrote during the four years he spent in Italy as a young man. Often in the voices of mythical or legendary women who have been condemned, rejected or abandoned, the cantatas feature moving laments and florid coloratura runs signalling emotional agitation. Although none of the pieces in this program have to my knowledge been recorded by Forsythe, she has recorded an album of Handel opera arias on the theme of love on the Avie label.

BEMF Vocal & Chamber Ensemble: Tempro la cetra: I tune the lyre

Aaron Sheehan, Jonathan Woody, and Jason McStoots with members of the BEMF Chamber Ensemble

Solos, duets and trios with instrumental accompaniment drawn largely from Monteverdi's Seventh Book of Madrigals and performed by BEMF stars Teresa Wakim (soprano), Reginald Mobley (countertenor), Jason McStoots and Aaron Sheehan (tenors), and Jonathan Woody (bass-baritone). Instrumental interludes by Dario Costello and Andrea Falconieri and a sacred vocal work by Francesca Caccini are also included. (Serving as a wonderful complement to this concert is the recent Cal Performances-sponsored concert by Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations of Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals: Madrigals of Love and War, available through September 1.)

ACRONYM: Ad Astra: Music of Valentini, Bertali, Schmelzer, Rosenmüller, and others

Members of ACRONYM Ensemble

ACRONYM is a young, dynamic ensemble of outstandingly talented musicians, and this program is designed to showcase their strengths. A flourishing of creative energy followed the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 and continued for several decades afterwards. Composers of instrumental music wrote demanding virtuoso pieces exploring unusual techniques, and the ensemble attacks this music with exhilarating intensity and verve.

Fringe Concerts:

All of the groups listed below deserved to appear in the main festival; expect to see some of them performing there in the future.

Red Dot Baroque: Les Goûts-réünis: An Evening of French Baroque Music

Members of Red Dot Baroque

A range of moods (from serene to exuberant) and instrumental groupings (from string quartet to chamber orchestra) are presented in this program of works by Charpentier, Corrette and Rameau. Music of great interest, vividly played.

Byrd Ensemble: New World Polyphony: Treasures from the Cathedral of Mexico City

Members of the Byrd Ensemble

A well-conceived program of works drawn from a single source, the two choirbooks dated 1717 from the Cathedral of Mexico City. The concert opens with compositions by the Old World composers Palestrina, Victoria, and Lobo. The second half introduces works by the 17th- and 18th-century Mexican composers Antonio Rodriguez de Mata, Manuel de Sumaya, and Antonio de Salazar, who were trained in, continued and extended the tradition established by the earlier composers. Markdavin Obenza selected the program (along with Margaret Obenza), directed the accomplished performances of these beautiful and moving works, and acts as our engaging and informative host. He also directed the concert video itself: amazingly, all of the performers recorded their parts separately and were seamlessly combined by Obenza to make it appear as though they were singing together in the beautiful setting of Trinity Parish Church in Seattle.

Alkemie: Sweet Friendship: Courtly Songs & Dances from 15th-century Italy and France

Members of Alkemie

Alkemie is a group of stunningly multi-talented performers who play, sing, and dance a program of 15th-century music on the theme of love's intense pleasures and pains. Gender-bending, polyamorous, and a little racy—the secular songs of the 15th century have a very modern sensibility, enhanced in this concert by the playful English subtitles (Raphael Seligman is credited). Elisa Sutherland's videography misdirects our attention a time or two, but generally is quite striking, as you can see in the preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL5Txt7z4Qk

A reminder that all of these wonderful concerts and the others available on the BEMF website can be viewed until July 11.

For more information:

• Full schedule of BEMF Concerts 2021
• Full schedule of BEMF Fringe Concerts 2021
  
• BEMF 2021-22 concert season

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1. Other joys of attending concerts in person: encountering people who bring their takeout food into the theater and treat the lowering of the lights as a signal to noisily unwrap it and chow down (favoring everyone else in the auditorium not only with the noise but with the pungent smell of their food). Or people who, belching, generously share with their neighbors the rich aromas of their pre-concert dinner. Or people who are eager to share the concert with their friends and followers and raise their cellphones to record the entire thing as soon as the curtain is raised. (Better: people who take photos of the distant, lighted stage with their flash on. Still better: people who, when asked to stop recording/taking photos, berate those making the request for their elitist sense of entitlement.)
   
   Or people who hum or sing along with every familiar tune. Or people with major colds who insist on attending nonetheless and sniffle, snuck and sneeze throughout the performance. (Better: when it's concert by an a capella group.) Or people who think that instrumental music is simply background and blithely continue their pre-concert conversations after the performance has begun.
   
   Or people who wait for the quietest moments to unwrap the crinkly cellophane from their candies. Or people who laugh inappropriately at the performers or other audience members. Or people who fall asleep in the darkness and begin to snore. Or people who emanate a suffocating cloud of manufactured scent blanketing all seats within five rows. Or people who, as soon as the performance seems to be ending, leap up and trample everyone in their row in their haste to leave the theater. And let's not forget the people who loudly shush (or better, issue bodily threats) to those committing any of the previously described crimes. . .
   
   Not, of course, that we've personally experienced audience members behaving in any of these ways. Oh no.

Favorites of 2010-2019: Live performances

When listing my favorite live performances of 2010-2019 I wanted to focus on the performing arts organizations that have immeasurably enriched our lives over the past decade. So in alphabetical order, the organizations to which we are grateful together with a favorite live performance sponsored by each:

Rebecca Myers Hoke (Sémélé) and Sara LeMesh (Junon) in Sémélé. Photo: Gas Lamp Productions

American Bach Soloists: Under the leadership of founder Jeffrey Thomas, each year ABS produces a full season plus a summer festival showcasing young artists from the ABS Academy.

• Favorite performance: Marin Marais: Sémélé
  Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, August 14, 2015.
  
  After its initial 1709 run Marais' Sémélé remained unperformed for nearly 300 years. To have the opportunity to hear this magnificent and unjustly neglected score was truly a privilege, and Thomas and his musicians and singers performed it beautifully.

Kindra Scharich as Rosaura in Ermelinda. Photo: Teresa Tam/Ars Minerva

Ars Minerva: Astonishingly creative productions of forgotten Baroque operas rediscovered, edited, and restaged by indefatigable Artistic Director Céline Ricci.

• Favorite performance: Ermelinda
  Nikola Printz (Ermelinda), Sara Couden (Ormondo/Clorindo), Kindra Scharich (Rosaura), Justin Montigne (Aristeo), Deborah Rosengaus (Armidoro). Period-instrument orchestra conducted by Jory Vinikour; stage direction by Céline Ricci. ODC Theater, San Francisco, seen November 24, 2019.
  
  The success of Ars Minerva's Ermelinda was due not only to Ricci's painstaking archival research, but to her unerring eye and ear, her highly imaginative staging, and her ability to pull together singers, musicians and a creative team who were wholly committed to her vision. Ermelinda was a triumph.

David Hansen (Nerone) and Amanda Forsythe (Poppea) in L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Photo: BEMF.

Boston Early Music Festival: This venerable biennial festival (founded in 1980) brings the best early music performers to the Boston area for concerts and exhibitions, and to international audiences through their excellent recording series.

• Favorite performance:  The Monteverdi Trilogy
  Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, musical directors; Gilbert Blin, stage director and set designer; seen June 12-14, 2015.
  
  In 2015 the Boston Early Music Festival staged of all of Monteverdi's extant operas: L'Orfeo, (Orpheus, 1607), Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria (The return of Ulysses to his homeland, 1640), and L'incoronazione di Poppea (The coronation of Poppea, 1642). The musical and vocal performances were exceptional, and the stagings ranged from good (Orfeo, Ulisse) to excellent (Poppea); for details please click the links to my original posts. It was a privilege to be able to see these three masterpieces performed on successive days. 

Lesley Garrison and Durell R. Comedy in Layla and Majnun. Photo: Susana Millman.

 

Cal Performances is the UC Berkeley-based sponsor of concerts in the past decade by Joyce Di Donato, Philippe Jaroussky, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dorothea Röschmann, Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI, Takács Quartet, Tallis Scholars, and many others.

• Favorite performance: Layla and Majnun
  Mark Morris Dance Company, with Alim Qasimov (Majnun), Fargana Qasimova (Layla), and the Silk Road Ensemble, commissioned by Cal Performances. Seen in its world premiere performance at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, Friday, September 30, 2016.
  
  This was a very tough call because Cal Performances sponsors so many wonderful concerts each year. Layla and Majnun, like Juliet and Romeo, are lovers tragically separated by their families and united only in death. Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli's 1908 opera was adapted and condensed into an hour-long work for two singers accompanied by a chamber orchestra mixing Western, Azerbaijani and Asian instruments; Mark Morris choreographed the accompanying dances. But it was the music—particularly the melismatic microtonal mugham singing of Alim Qasimov and Faragana Qasimova—that was especially stunning.

Shreya Ghoshal

Friends of the San Francisco Public Library sponsors programs at every branch throughout the year and is a leading advocate for sustainable funding for the library.

• Favorite program: Shreya Ghoshal
  Bollywood Song and Dance with Dhaval and Gunjan and friends, Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library main branch, March 3, 2018.
  
  In a basement auditorium at my local public library one spring afternoon I happened across a performance by the playback singer Shreya Ghoshal. If you aren't a Bollywood fan, perhaps you don't realize how improbable that is. Shreya Ghoshal has performed on the soundtracks of something like 500 films, including E & I favorites Vivah (2006), Godavari (2006), Dor (2006), Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006, one of my Favorite Bollywood Films from the 2000s), Aaja Nachle (2007), 3 Idiots (2009), Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), Love U...Mr. Kalakaar! (2011), PK (2014), and four of my Top Ten Shah Rukh Khan movies: Devdas (2002, for which she won the RD Burman Award for New Music Talent and the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer), Paheli (2005), Om Shanti Om (2007), and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2009). What a privilege to be able to see her in such an intimate setting.

Cesare (Sarah Connolly), Cleopatra (Joélle Harvey), and members of the Glyndebourne Chorus in Giulio Cesare. Photo: Glyndebourne.com

Glyndebourne Festival Opera: The original country house opera festival, Glyndebourne (begun in 1934) continues to present great singers in striking productions.

• Favorite performance: Giulio Cesare
  Sarah Connolly (Giulio Cesare), Joélle Harvey (Cleopatra), Christophe Dumaux (Tolomeo), Patricia Bardon (Cornelia), and Anna Stéphany (Sesto), John Moore (Achilla), the Glyndebourne Chorus and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by William Christie, seen June 20, 2018.
  
  Director David McVicar's production of Cesare comments on the lengthy history of British imperialism in the Middle East and India. It's also very funny and moving, and with a cast of committed performers and Handel's great music the evening was, in a word, sublime.

Sylvestris Quartet performing at SF Music Day 2017. Image: Sylvestris Quartet

InterMusic SF: Sponsor of the annual free musical cornucopia SF Music Day, as well as grants and programs throughout the year.

• Favorite performance: Sylvestris Quartet
  SF Music Day, Education Studio, War Memorial Veterans Building, San Francisco, September 24, 2017.
  
  SF Music Day is an astonishing event. Each year over the course of a single day in four different venues around the vast Veterans Building, InterMusic SF presents more than 30 groups playing jazz, international, classical and/or contemporary music. On SF Music Day 2017 I was most impressed by the program of the period-instrument Sylvestris Quartet performing "250 years of French string music in 30 minutes." The pieces ranged from Marc-Antoine Charpentier's 17th-century Concert pour 4 parties de violes to a meltingly beautiful rendition of the slow movement from Camille Saint-Saëns' String Quartet No. 1 from 1899.

Kindra Scharich with the Alexander String Quartet.

Lieder Alive! supports the teaching, performance and appreciation of art songs.

• Favorite performance: The Mahler Song Cycles
  Kindra Scharich with the Alexander String Quartet, Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco, September 10, 2017.
  
  To open Lieder Alive's 2017/18 Liederabend Series rich-voiced mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, accompanied by the Alexander String Quartet, presented a program of three song cycles by Gustav Mahler arranged by Zakarias Grafilo, first violin of the ASQ. The quartet versions offered both intimacy and fullness, and Scharich's voice floated beautifully over the strings. Their recording of these works was one of my Favorites of 2010-2019: Music.

Andreas Scholl, Anne Sofie von Otter and conductor Nicholas McGegan (rear center). Image: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra: North America's premier period-instrument orchestra, directed for the past 35 years by Nicholas McGegan.

• Favorite performance: Anne Sofie von Otter and Andreas Scholl
  Weill Hall/Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, May 14, 2016.
  
  We drove 60 miles north to the Green Music Center on the campus of Sonoma State University to see two of the greatest singers of our era perform arias by Handel. But it was the second half of the program, featuring hauntingly performed contemplative songs by Arvo Pärt and Caroline Shaw, that made this one of the most memorable concerts of the past decade.

Dajeong Song (Unulfo) and Molly Boggess (Bertarido) in Rodelinda at SFCM.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music: This renowned conservatory, founded in 1917, presents an almost daily series of concerts from the next generation of musicians and singers; most are free.

• Favorite performance: Rodelinda, Regina de' Longobardi
  Karen Notovitz (Rodelinda), Matheus Coura (Bertarido), James Hogan (Grimoaldo), with the SFCM Baroque Ensemble conducted by Corey Jamason. Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, SF Conservatory of Music, seen March 11, 2018.
  
  With both Historical Performance and Opera & Musical Theatre programs, SFCM presents (at low or no cost to the audience) fully staged operas rarely produced elsewhere. Rodelinda is the widowed queen of Lombardy, who is sexually blackmailed by Grimoaldo, her husband Bertarido's usurper and murderer. But is her husband really dead. . .? Karen Notovitz gave a lovely, moving performance as Rodelinda, with excellent support by Matheus Coura, James Hogan and the other members of the cast.

San Francisco Early Music Society: Sponsors of the biennial Berkeley Festival and Exhibition of early music, plus an annual series of concerts and workshops.

• Favorite performance: England's Orpheus: Iestyn Davies & Thomas Dunford
  Iestyn Davies' sweet-toned countertenor was ideal for this program of songs by John Dowland, Henry Purcell, and George Frideric Handel, accompanied by Thomas Dunford's lute. Davies' performance as David on DVD in Handel's Saul from Glyndebourne was one of my Favorites of 2018: Recordings.

San Francisco Opera: Founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola, SF Opera approaches its 100th birthday with the difficult dual mission of remaining both artistically vital and financially viable.

• Favorite performance: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann)
  Matthew Polenzani (Hoffmann), Christian Van Horn (Councillor Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr. Miracle, Dapertutto), Hye Jung Lee (Olympia), Natalie Dessay (Antonia), Irene Roberts (Giulietta), SF Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Patrick Fournillier, stage direction and costume designs by Laurent Pelly, SF War Memorial Opera House, seen June 5, 2013.
  
  Exactly what we'd love to see more of at the San Francisco Opera: a striking production of an uncommon opera with a superb cast. Laurent Pelly's visually arresting staging of Jacques Offenbach's late masterwork employed a virtually flawless cast featuring tenor Matthew Polenzani as an ardent Hoffmann, thrillingly sinister bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the four villains, the lovely (and lovely-voiced) mezzo Angela Brower as the Muse/Nicklausse, the (almost literally) stratospheric Hye Jung Lee as the doll Olympia, and Natalie Dessay as the tragic Antonia. It's difficult to imagine a more compelling production of this dark, eerie, and beautiful work.
  
  It's easy to complain about the company's sometimes unadventurous repertory choices—and I haven't resisted the temptation. But amid the diminishing-return revivals of Tosca and Madama Butterfly in the past decade the company has mounted strongly cast and often brilliantly conceived productions of Handel's Partenope (2014 & 2019), Berlioz's Les Troyens (2015), Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (2010, 2015 & 2019), Richard Strauss's Arabella (2018), and Dvořák's Rusalka (2019). We're looking forward to the new season announcement next month.

Image: San Francisco Girls Chorus

Voices of Music: The San Francisco early music ensemble has increased the audiences for its excellent concert series by posting professionally filmed and recorded videos to its YouTube channel.

• Favorite performance: Dido and Aeneas
  Mindy Ella Chu (Dido), Jesse Blumberg (Aeneas), San Francisco Girls Chorus, Voices of Music conducted by Hanneke van Proosdij, produced by the San Francisco Early Music Society 2018 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, First Congregational Church, Berkeley, seen June 7, 2018.
  
  Henry Purcell's great tragic opera Dido and Aeneas (1688?) was written to be "perform'd at Mr. Josias Priest's boarding-school at Chelsey. By young gentlewomen." There is strong evidence that in the original performances at Priest's school the young gentlewomen took all of the roles, including that of the Trojan hero Aeneas; for a debate on this question between yours truly and Voices of Music co-director and lutenist David Tayler, please see The Mysteries of Dido and Aeneas and its comments thread.
  
  For the San Francisco Early Music Society's 2018 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, Voices of Music joined forces with the SF Girls Chorus to offer a hint of what such a performance might have sounded like. Members of the Girls Chorus took on all except the title roles, which were sung by soprano Mindy Ella Chu and baritone Jesse Blumberg. Especially delightful was Allegra Kelly's boozy Sailor, but all of the chorus members performed with exceptional skill and assurance. How closely Voices of Music and the SF Girls Chorus re-created Dido's original performances is ultimately immaterial; this production succeeded wonderfully on its own terms.

Ryan Belongie (Arsamene) and Angela Cadelago (Romilda) in Xerxes (Serse) at Berkeley West Edge Opera. Photo: Ching Chang

West Edge Opera: An adventurous company producing underperformed and contemporary operas under the artistic direction of Mark Streshinsky.

• Favorite performance: Xerxes (Serse)
  Paula Rasmussen (Serse), Angela Cadelago (Romilda), Ryan Belongie (Arsamene), Anna Slate (Atalanta), Berkeley West Edge Opera Orchestra conducted by Alan Curtis, El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater, seen November 21, 2010.
  
  WEO Artistic Director Mark Streshinsky's bold, campy production effectively emphasized the farcical elements of Handel's opera. And with internationally-acclaimed conductor Alan Curtis in the pit and a strong cast of new and established singers—Rasmussen also took the title role in what remains the best version of this opera on DVD, and newcomer Anna Slate almost stole the show—the musical quality of this production was extremely high (a standard the company has maintained since).

Other Favorites of 2010-2019:

• Movies and TV
• Bollywood and beyond
• Music
• Books

Favorites of 2015: Opera and other music

Janet Cardiff, The Forty-Part Motet, SFMOMA at Fort Mason Center (Photo: SFMOMA)

It's time once again for my post-Thanksgiving roundup of favorite music, books, movies and television shows first encountered (although not necessarily first released) over the past year.

Live performances

The Forty-Part Motet, a sound installation by Janet Cardiff of Thomas Tallis's "Spem in alium," performed by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, SFMOMA at Fort Mason Center; seen November 12.

It's a bit of a stretch to call this a live performance, but I think it belongs in this category because it's experienced in public in the presence of others. Cardiff's installation involves 40 speakers placed in a circular array in a large, nearly empty room. The speakers play, on a continuous loop, a recorded performance of Tallis's motet, with one vocal part per speaker. The distribution of the speakers in eight groups of five highlights the work's contrapuntal and antiphonal qualities.

When I first heard about it, I thought Cardiff's idea wasn't particularly transformative; in 1999, for example, we saw the SF Bach Choir under the direction of David P. Babbitt perform Tallis's motet with the choir surrounding the audience, precisely to enhance the spatial aspects of the music. The chief difference from a live performance is that at Cardiff's installation you can walk around the speakers to hear different groupings of vocalists at different times, stand by one speaker to hear one part emphasized, or sit in the center and let the massive sound wash over you. So while Cardiff's conception is not especially original, the actual experience of the piece is both meditative and exhilarating. "The Forty Part Motet" can be visited for free at Fort Mason's Gallery 308 in Building A until January 18, 2016; if you will be in the Bay Area between now and then, I strongly recommend that you not miss it.

Even in mere stereo, "Spem in alium" is overwhelming. This is my favorite recording, by the Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel, director, from the album Utopia Triumphans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncsqIe-S-Fg

Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens (The Trojans, 1858), SF Opera, seen June 7.

Susan Graham (Didon) and Bryan Hymel (Enée) in Les Troyens (Photo: Weaver/SF Opera)

In my post on Les Troyens I wrote that the production, the first at SF Opera in nearly half a century, was "superbly sung" by Anna Caterina Antonacci as Cassandre, Bryan Hymel as Enée, and Susan Graham as Didon. "Highlights included every moment the fierce Antonacci was onstage, Enée's anguished realization that he must betray Didon, 'Intuile regrets' (Futile regrets), and Didon's final lament, 'Je vais mourir' (I am going to die). The exquisite love duet between Enée and Didon, 'Nuit d'ivresse,' simply stopped time." The previous post includes performances of "Nuit d'vresse" and "Je vais mourir."

The Monteverdi Trilogy, Boston Early Music Festival, seen June 12-14.

David Hansen (Nerone) and Amanda Forsythe (Poppea) in L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Photo: BEMF)

At the Boston Early Music Festival we saw the staging of all of Monteverdi's extant operas: L'Orfeo, (Orpheus, 1607), Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria (The return of Ulysses to his homeland, 1640), and L'incoronazione di Poppea (The coronation of Poppea, 1642). The musical and vocal performances were exceptional, and the stagings ranged from good (Orfeo, Ulisse) to excellent (Poppea); for details, including the names of the wonderful BEMF singers and music from each opera, please see my original posts. It was a privilege to be able to see these three masterpieces performed on successive days.

W. A. Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786), SF Opera, seen July 5.

Nadine Sierra (the Countess) in Le nozze di Figaro (Photo: SF Opera)

In the original post on this production I wrote that "despite the miscommunication between pit and stage and the directorial and design misjudgments, this Figaro was rescued by its brilliant young cast," which included rising baritone Philippe Sly as the wily Figaro, Lisette Oropesa as his spirited fiancée Susanna, Luca Pisaroni as the lustful Count, Nadine Sierra as his long-suffering Countess, and Angela Brower as the love-struck page Cherubino. "Ultimately this production mirrored Figaro's schemes to thwart the Count: constantly threatening to slip into disaster, but in the end, a triumph." For a video of the great Lucia Popp singing Susanna's lovely aria "Deh vieni," please see my guide to Le Nozze di Figaro.

Marin Marais, Sémélé (1709), American Bach Soloists and Academy, seen August 14.

Rebecca Myers Hoke (Sémélé) and Sara LeMesh (Junon) in Sémélé (Photo: Gas Lamp Productions)

This "splendid performance" of Marais' long-neglected opera was especially notable for its rich score (which contains a vivid earthquake scene); in my original post on Sémélé I wrote that "the 30-strong American Bach Choir and the 50-odd members of the ABS Academy Orchestra created a huge and beautifully intricate sound in the relatively intimate confines of the San Francisco Conservatory's Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall. The vocal soloists, all drawn from Academy participants, were uniformly excellent; special mention should be made of Rebecca Myers Hoke as Sémélé, Sara LeMesh as Junon, and Christopher Besch as Jupiter, who handled their virtuosic roles beautifully."

Recordings

Agostino Steffani: Niobe, Regina di Tebe. Karina Gauvin, Philippe Jaroussky, and other vocal soloists. Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, musical directors; Erato.

The spectacular operatic centerpiece of the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival has been issued in a beautifully produced CD box. While I had my reservations about the dramatic and theatrical dimensions of Steffani's opera, the music—especially for Jaroussky's Anfione—is frequently gorgeous. Gauvin and Jaroussky are international stars, but there isn't a weak link in the cast. Secondary roles are taken by singers who frequently perform leading roles in other BEMF productions: Amanda Forsythe (2015's Poppea), Aaron Sheehan (2015's Orfeo), and Colin Balzer (2015's Ulisse). Niobe richly deserves the accolades it has already received, including the Diapason d'Or, the ECHO Klassik World Premiere Recording of the Year, and a Gramophone magazine Recording of the Month and nomination for a Baroque Vocal Award. Here is a sample of the music for Anfione taken from the 2011 staging:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jLIPAH6s1g

Steffani, a composer from the generation before Handel, is unjustly overlooked, and with luck projects like this and like Cecilia Bartoli's Mission (one of my Favorites of 2012) will remedy this neglect.

Franco Fagioli: Porpora Il Maestro. Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro de Marchi, conductor; Naïve.

This is the second recital disc by Fagioli to make my annual list; in my Favorites of 2013 it was his Arias for Caffarelli. In the earlier post I compared his voice to "an Islay single malt scotch for its smoky, dusky quality in the lower range," a comparison that still holds. And like Islay scotch, Fagioli's voice won't be to everyone's taste. Here is a sample: "Alto Giove," from the opera Polifemo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHce1fJybzk

For us, Fagioli's recordings are compelling because of his remarkable voice, his unusual selection of repertory, and his astute choice of collaborators.

Nathalie Stutzmann: Handel: Heroes from the Shadows. Philippe Jaroussky, guest artist. Orfeo 55, Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor; Erato.

On Heroes from the Shadows Stutzmann offers a range of Handel's arias for alto and mezzo-soprano, many of which are for male characters. Handel frequently cast women in male roles—"inventing the so-called 'trouser role,'" as I wrote in my guide to his great opera Alcina, "a convention that went on to be used by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Offenbach, and both Johann and Richard Strauss." This album is included not for the uptempo arias of rage or vengeance, which do not always display Stutzmann's voice to best advantage, but for the arias of longing, sorrow, and loss, which are powerful and deeply moving. Here is part of "Son nata a lagrimar" (I was born to weep), a duet  between the just-widowed Cornelia (Stutzmann) and her bereaved son Sesto (Jaroussky), from Giulio Cesare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unb-z1KT3_c

Interestingly, while in most of the arias on this recording Stutzmann is singing male roles written for women, in this aria it is the male countertenor Jaroussky who is doing so: Sesto was originally written for soprano Margherita Durastanti. Heroes from the Shadows is not only full of wonderful music, it raises questions about our gendered expectations about vocal types and leading roles—questions also explored this year by mezzo-soprano Alice Coote in her thoughtful article "My Life As A Man" (The Guardian, 13 May 2015). 

Dagmar Krause: Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht/Weill & Eisler; Hannibal.

This album was initially issued in the mid-1980s and contained English-language versions of songs composed in the 1920s and 30s by Kurt Weill and Hans Eisler with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. I bought this on vinyl when it came out, and thought it was great. What I didn't realize at the time was that there was an even better German-language version. Not that I speak German very fluently, but in her native consonant-rich language Krause can give these songs even more bite.

A dear friend sent me a copy of the CD re-release of Supply and Demand, which combines tracks from the two versions of the album, and I must confess that it's the German-language songs that I return to again and again. Here is the title song, "Song Von Der Ware (Angebot & Nachfrage) [Song of the Commodities: Supply and Demand]":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFMdGTjFy_g

Supply and Demand's dark, bitter cabaret and theater music seems as fitting for our tumultuous times as for those in which it was written.

Other Favorites of 2015:

Books
Classic and contemporary Bollywood
Hollywood and other movies