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Posts Tagged ‘Frank Brangwyn’

The Rest of February

Posted in Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Film, Opera, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2017| 1 Comment »

Contemporary Music

Richard Thompson’s solo acoustic concert at Cadogan Hall was a real treat – one guitar, no time-wasting and a selection of songs from his entire career. He responded to an audience request for Fergus Lang, his song about Trump’s (mis)adventures in Scotland before he put himself forward as a candidate and updated it, though as he said it needs updating daily! There was excellent support from Emily Barker; one to watch.

This was the first time I’d attended the Transatlantic Sessions at the Royal Festival Hall, the ultimate folk & roots supergroup with a core of players and guest singers, but it won’t be the last. The sound wasn’t great (sixteen players / singers in the mix) though it got better and from half-way through the first half it took off with lots of real highs.

Classical Music

Jonas Kaufmann‘s recital at the Barbican Hall was my first live experience of this much lauded tenor and he didn’t disappoint. I thought it was a well selected programme of Schumann, Duparc and Britten sung in German, French & Italian. Gorgeous.

Opera

Royal Academy Opera’s Orpheus & Enefers at Hackney Empire was enormous fun, but also of the highest quality, with the stage and pit bursting with talent, brilliant design and a conductor who was visibly having the time of his life in the perfect venue. Welsh soprano Alys Roberts as Eurydice is a real find; a future star if ever I saw one.

Adriana Lecouvreur was the best thing I’ve seen at the Royal Opera for some time. It’s astonishing that this was only the 15th performance of this underrated Pucciniesque 115-year-old opera. The design was sumptuous and handsome and in period and the four leading roles were stunningly sung. American tenor Brian Jagde was new to me and he was sensational. Angela Georgiou was excellent, but I do wish she didn’t milk her bows so much!

My February visit to WNO in Cardiff was a Puccini sandwich with Vin Herbe filling. First up was a revival of their lovely La Boheme which was even better second time round, largely because of faultless casting. This was followed by Le Vin Herbe, the UK stage premiere of Swiss Frank Martin’s take on Tristan & Isolde. He wrote it to reclaim the folk tale from the Nazi hijacking of Wagner’s opera. It was sung storytelling with the chorus centre stage, an unusual piece but it captivated me. The second Puccini was their 39-year-old production of Madam Butterfly. The design might look a bit dated, but everything else was fresh, with beautiful singing and playing. A terrific trio.

Film

I loved 20th Century Women, a quirky, very un-Hollywood film set in a Bohemian home in California. Annette Benning and her screen son were superb.

Hidden Figures had the usual dose of American sentimentality, but it seems timely to be reminded that segregation in the US was still there just fifty years ago, and the film does it very well indeed.

Fences was the least cinematic film I’ve seen in ages, feeling much like watching one of those NT Live screenings, but the direction and performances were stunning and August Wilson’s story was as intense and gripping as it was on stage.

Moonlight was my 7th Oscar Best Picture nominee. A beautifully crafted film; a compelling watch. Of course, like the other five, I didn’t think for one minute that it would beat La La Land, so the following morning I was both surprised and delighted that it did.

Art

The Paul Nash exhibition at Tate Britain was thoroughly comprehensive and mostly gorgeous. He lost me a bit with the still life’s and early ventures into surrealism, but on the whole a real treat.

Sculptor Richard Wilson is a real favourite. His Annely Juda exhibition was taxing on the brain, but worth the trip, with more David Hockney prints of his iPad drawings downstairs a real bonus.

The Gavin Turk retrospective at his chum Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery had its moments but you end up concluding he’s more of a minor than major contemporary British artist. I thought the ‘homages’ to Warhol and Pollock were lazy art and the final room of rubbish, well rubbish.

The late Zaha Hadid‘s exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery was a very pleasant surprise. A very beautiful selection of art meets architecture digital works which are technically accomplished but also very pleasing on the eye.

Anselm Kiefer‘s Walhalla exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey was vast, extraordinary and on the last weekend so popular you had to queue for a few minutes (I’ve never seen so many people in a private gallery). Mixed media and immersive art at its best; he shot up in my estimation.

The small Frank Brangwyn exhibition at the William Morris Gallery explored his Japanese influences and his relationship with a Japanese artist who made gorgeous woodcuts from some of his works. It really whetted my appetite for my visit to Brangwyn Hall in Swansea later in the same week.

Small too was the Australian Impressionists exhibition at the National Gallery, with only 41 pictures by 4 artists, some of which I’d seen the year before last in Melbourne and Sydney, but the quality more than made up for the quantity. Gorgeous.

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The Rest of April

Posted in Architecture, Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Dance, Opera, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

MUSIC

Rufus Wainwright’s solo show at Sadler’s Wells took place on the stage of his opera, which opened there the night before. In the first half we were asked not to applaud as he walked on, during the set and as he walked off. He entered bedecked in a cloak with a train longer than the stage, walking as if leading a funeral procession. What followed was effectively a requiem for his recently deceased mother – the whole of the new album played in near darkness against a backdrop of giant projections of his eyes covered in black make-up. The voice still extraordinary, the piano playing with the power of an orchestra, this staging was deeply moving, very sad but musically stunning. In the second half he was back to his charming knowingness playing a real ‘best of’ set chosen by fans voting on his web site. He ended with his mother’s ‘Walking Song’ but couldn’t complete it without a tear – and some of us who loved his mother’s music shared it. He forgot his words or notes rather more than was acceptable, but in the end you only remember the wonderful songs, gorgeous baritone voice and rich piano accompaniment. Surreal but sublime.

At the Royal Court, they sometimes showcase work-in-progress and I went to Ten Plague Songs (actually, I think there were 16), a song cycle about the 17th century London plague by young musicals composer Connor Mitchell and playwright Mark Ravenhill. The singers included 80’s pop star Marc Almond, modern opera favourite Omar Ebrahim and musical’s veteran Nigel Richards and it was staged by opera director Stewart Laing, but I’m afraid it did little for me. The music was rather inaccessible and the lyrics not particularly striking. The last song (before the epilogue) was terrific, but by then it was a bit late.

Paul Brady’s London concert was his first in what seems like ages. What I remember most about the last one was how he annoyed much of the audience by banging on about how Irish immigrants were treated by the UK; on this occasion he prefaced the same song, Nothing But The Same Old Story,  with a rather defensive ‘this could be any country….’! This is one of his best songs; unfortunately, it showed up almost everything else as bland MOR music, a transition to which has been going on for years but now seems complete. He’s certainly lost his edge and I suspect I won’t be seeing him again. Judging by his inability to fill that many seats at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (they closed the second and third levels completely) I suspect I’m not on my own.

OPERA

I Saw Rufus Wainwright’s first opera, Prima Donna, at the Manchester International Festival last summer (see July 2009 archive) and thought it was an impressive debut. This new production at Sadler’s Wells improves on that staging but if anything it’s slipped back musically, particularly in the first act. The new tenor isn’t good enough for the part, and Rebecca Bottone is again sometimes shrill and sometimes inaudible over the overloud orchestra which the new conductor fails to deal with. The second act though is masterly, there’s some gorgeous music, Janis Kelly is even better than before and the ending is now terrific. For his second opera, lets see something just as romantic but also more dramatic; there’s not a lot of story here for 130 minutes playing time.

DANCE

I’ve seen Mark Morris’ masterpiece L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato three times in the last 15 years but the last was 10 years ago, so withdrawal symptoms had set it. Despite the fact that he created this 22 years ago, it’s still the most uplifting show – a gorgeous Handel oratorio, beautifully played and sung, with designs in primary colours and costumes in pastel chiffon and dancing that is flowing, funny and bright. Bring on No 5…..

Pictures from an Exhibition is a hybrid theatre / dance piece given a couple of nights at Sadler’s Wells following a longer run at the much smaller Young Vic last year. Based on and featuring Mussorgsky’s music, with the composer as a central character in what appears to be a biographical piece, it’s rather hit-and-miss. There are some great moments, but there are lots of almost silent interludes too and it just doesn’t flow. It seemed like work-in-progress to me and a rather slight 60 minutes.

 OTHER

A visit with the RA friends to Skinner’s Hall was a rare opportunity to see Frank Brangwyn’s murals. I got really interested in this Welsh artist when I went to a museum in Bruges devoted to him – he left much of his work to his adopted city rather than his home city of Swansea, which seems to me to be a shame as I’m not sure many people ever go to see it! Anyway, they were fascinating and the rest of the hall and the history of this livery company were bonuses.

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