Cinderella Review

Alexei Ratmansky’s new production of Cinderella is a winner. This is a brand new production, made on the Australian Ballet, with the score by Sergei Prokofiev (played excellently as always by Orchestra Victoria) the only thing left from the ‘traditional’ versions. There were no tutus, no pumpkins or mice or singing birds. There was still the original story of girl abused by stepmother and stepsisters, helped by Fairy Godmother (who rather strongly resembled Nanny McPhee, and was played by the ever wonderful Lynette Wills), goes to the ball, falls in love with Prince, loses shoe on way out at midnight, finds Prince at end.

Leanne Stojmenov and Daniel Gaudiello as Cinderella and the Prince at the ball

The story was set in a sort of post-war Europe, so the costume and set designs (by Jérôme Kaplan) echoed somewhere between there and those of the Capitol from The Hunger Games. The colour palette used for the sets and costumes was beautiful, rich, autumnal colours, with the only black being wore by the Fairy Godmother. Projections were also used throughout the performance, mostly to great effect. I have found some projections in other works to either be tacky or gaudish or simply don’t work with the piece, but I thought that they all worked well in Cinderella, and added to the whole effect.

The mice/pumpkin, etc were replaced by the planets and various other intergalactic things, with this scene taking place at the end of the first act. I found this part very reminiscent of Act II of The Nutcracker when Clara watches the Flowers/Candy canes/Cossacks, etc dance around while something magical happens, but it was just nice and takes you away to another, more magical world, which, surely, is the purpose of the ballet.

Amber Scott was beautiful as Cinderella, and she suited the part perfectly. This is the perfect role for her and I don’t think I have ever seen her dance better or have enjoyed her performance more. Ty King-Wall was terrific as the Prince, and Amy Harris was brilliant as the Stepmother (she’s my favourite dancer to have playing ‘evil’ roles. Her Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty is still one of the best portrayals of a character I’ve seen to date), and Ingrid Gow and Halaina Hills were very funny as the ditzy, tantrum-throwing stepsisters.

Daniel Gaudiello as the Prince

Cinderella has now closed in Melbourne, but will be playing in Sydney later in the year, and in Adelaide in 2014. An excellent night at the ballet. Don’t miss out.

★★★★☆

These photos (and more!) at The Australian Ballet’s Facebook page.

Ingrid Gow, Amy Harris, Halaina Hills as the stepmother and stepsisters at the ball

Last Night of the Proms Review

“Good evening and welcome to the party!”

So here we are, Prom 75: The Last Night of the Proms (LNOP). The BBC Symphony Orchestra, along with the BBC Symphony Chorus, soloists Nigel Kennedy, Joyce DiDonato and Iestyn Davies, conducted by Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct Last Night, all took to the stage in this marathon concert, with a running time of over three hours. It’s challenging enough to listen to via iPlayer, which you can pause whenever you please for food/toilet breaks, so it is an amazing feat for the Prommers to stay in such incredibily high spirits that whole time. The audience in the Royal Albert Hall were in high spirits from the very beginning and completely mad by the end.

“It is not just an end-of-term party, it is also a wonderful celebration” and that it is, with LNOP featuring pieces from birthday boys Wagner, Verdi and Britten, violinist Nigel Kennedy, who also performed in Prom 34, and world and British premiere pieces.

Be warned, there will be superlatives by the bucketful!

Act 1:

1. LNOP began with the final world premiere for the season, Anna Clyne’s party piece Masquerade. It sounds quite like something out if a film soundtrack and makes full use of the big orchestra. A great piece to start LNOP, and one of my favourite world premieres this season.
2. Bicentenary man Richard Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg – overture. Overtures like this almost seem tailor made for Last Night, both musically, and in this case, titularly (though it’s more of a case of the Mastersingers of the BBCSC!). Excellent.
3. The stage then was reset for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which is a bit of a change of pace. Counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and the singers of the BBCSC were really beautiful in this piece.
4. Ralph Vaughn-Williams’s The Lark Ascending, featuring Nigel Kennedy as the solo violin. I really like this piece, it’s so very English, and as it’s so calming and beautiful, quite an apt piece for the first half of LNOP, before the madness of Act II. Kennedy played beautifully, and listening to this piece on a Sunday afternoon, with the sun streaming in through my window, looking out on the green Australian countryside, everything felt rather perfect.
5.  Centenarian Benjamin Britten’s The Building of the House. This piece shows off the chorus wonderfully, and they do sound fantastic.
6. 7. & 8. The final three pieces of Act I were all sung by soprano Joyce DiDonato, accompanied by the BBCSO. In order, they were Massenet’s Chérubin – ‘Je suis gris! je suis ivre!’, Handel’s Xerxes – ‘Frondi tenere e belle … Ombra mai fù’, and Rossini’s La donna del lago – ‘Tanti affetti in tal momento!’. These were very well sung, but I think I preferred everything else in the first act, rather than these three pieces, as I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I’m just not the biggest fan of opera.

So far, over £82,000 have been collected for the Proms Musical Charities.

Act II:

The second half began with two pieces from Bernstein’s Candide, the Overture and ‘Make our Garden Grow’. I particularly loved the overture, it is quite a famous piece, but it’s a great one, too. The chorus were again sublime in ‘Make our Garden Grow’. I will keep going on about how great the BBCSC are, because they really are absolutely fantastic.

The BBCSC again got to shine in the other bicentenary man Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Va, pensiero’ (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco. This is probably one of the most famous opera choruses, and I must say, I operatic pieces sung by a chorus, rather than a soloist.

Between pieces you can hear all the party-poppers going off in the crowd. This has been happening since the very beginning.

Joyce DiDonato then returned to sing Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. This was a properly beautiful rendition of this song.

Nigel Kennedy then returned to play Monti’s Csárdás. This is obviously one of those pieces that you miss quite a bit from when you can’t actually see it, as a number of times throughout this piece, the audience laughed. I don’t know why, as us poor iPlayer listeners aren’t treated to such information, but it was amazing playing by Kennedy anyway, who brings such energy and enthusiasm to his playing. I think in the end Kennedy was just improvising, as there were definitely the opening cords from Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony and some other pieces thrown in there. That was brilliant.

Next Joyce DiDonato took to the stage again, this time to sing the traditional Londonderry Air (Danny Boy). You can actually watch this here, and it was great to be able to see the RAH and what everyone looked like! It would be nice if the full stream was available internationally, but, alas, snippets are all we get. This song was beautifully performed. Very, very good.

Singing voices at the ready, here we go!

Joyce DiDonato sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.  I was also able to watch this here. I had the sound on my laptop turned up to full-blast, but it loses too much sound quality, so I ended up putting headphones in. At least then I can’t hear myself singing (though the rest of the family are probably thinking what is she doing?!). I love this song. I love 6000 people singing along to it. It’s brilliant.

With hardly any break, the orchestra went straight into Granville Bantock’s Sea Reivers, which started a bit of an maritime-themed trilogy. This was a great piece, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve really enjoyed all the Bantock pieces played during this Proms Season, and I hope to hear more of him, because all of his works have been wonderful.

The maritime theme continued with the UK premiere of George Lloyd’s HMS Trinidad March.  I love a good march, and this is clearly one of them. I found myself bopping away to it. Very cheerful, very good.

Voices at the ready – the maritime theme concluded with Thomas Arne’s Rule, Britannia! You can watch this, Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem here. Words fail me. There is nothing I can say about this. Brilliant. Amazing. The best. An encore. Of course.

Marin Alsop kept the Prom moving after the encore, plunging straight into Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 in D Major (Land of Hope and Glory). Again, what can I say. Watch it. Encore of the chorus. So much energy from the RAH audience.

Parry (arr. Elgar) Jerusalem. Ibid. Full encore.

Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of the British National Anthem (God Save the Queen). Even HM the Queen herself has said that she likes this version of it (which is saying something, since she’s rather well acquainted with said song!). It is a very good arrangement, and such a great way to conclude the Proms.

And of course, the unprogrammed Auld Lang Syng, when the audience take over.

This has probably been the best LNOP that I’ve heard. I’m at a loss for words. I can’t possibly listen to any more music for probably the rest of the night now. That was just so good and I wasn’t even there.

There is nothing like the Proms, and nothing like Last Night.

“Thank goodness for the BBC Proms.”

(Photos from the BBC Proms Facebook page)

Prom 72: Verdi & Tchaikovsky Review

Prom 72 included two of this Proms Season’s theme: Verdi 200 and the Tchaikovsky symphony cycle. The Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi made their Proms debut with conductor Xian Zhang.

The first half was a celebration of one of this year’s birthday boys, Giuseppe Verdi. It was a compilation of some of the best bits from Verdi’s operas, with the pieces played in the following order:
La forza del destino – overture
Attila – ‘O dolore! Ed io vivea’
I vespri siciliani – ‘À toi que j’ai chérie’
La traviata – Prelude (Act 1)
Simon Boccanegra – ‘O inferno! … Sento avvampar nell’anima’
Aida – Triumphal March (Act 2)
Luisa Miller – ‘O fede negar potessi … Quando le sere al placido’
Rigoletto – ‘La donna è mobile’
Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, who was heard on Last Night of the Proms last year, returned to the Royal Albert Hall to sing the arias. All of these Verdi pieces were, of course, very well played by the OSMGV, as one would expect when they take their name from the composer in question! As much as they were well played, and seemed to be wildly enjoyed by the Royal Albert Hall audience, they didn’t do a lot for me, mostly as I’m not a big opera fan. I do always enjoy the Aida – Triumphal March however.

The second half of Prom 72 concluded this Proms Season’s cycle of the Tchaikovsky Symphonies, ending with his un-numbered Manfred Symphony, which Tchaikovsky wrote between his Symphonies Number 4 and 5. Considering what absolute symphonic gems the 4^th and 5^th symphonies are, the Manfred is a bit of a letdown. This work does divide conductor’s opinions – it seems to be a very love or hate work. I just feel a bit eh about it. It was good, but it’s far from being one of Tchaikovsky’s best works. The OSMGV performed a very energetic encore Rossini’s William Tell overture. Huge cheer from the audience at the end, very well deserved.

Prom 68: Tchaikovsky, Szymanowski & Rachmaninov Review

Prom 68 was a bit back-to-front in terms of concert arrangement – it started with a symphony for the first half, a concerto following interval, and then some symphonic dances. Well, it’s good to mix things up I suppose! Prom 68 was performed by the Olso Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

The cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies continues with his Symphony No. 1 in G minor ‘Winter Daydreams’ begins Prom 68. Tchaikovsky wrote this symphony almost as soon as he’d finished university, but it is not an obvious student piece. I love that even though this is the first symphony Tchaikovsky wrote, it’s still so obviously his work. Love the first movement. Around the 24:30 minute mark, that crescendo  – wow.  That was brilliant. And the ending is a proper big, all-in finale. This symphony is not played nearly enough in the regular classical repertoire, and it needs to be. It is amazing and every bit as good as the later Tchaikovsky symphonies. More ‘Winter Daydreams’ please!

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with soloist Baiba Skride, making her Proms debut, was the first piece of the second act. This piece was nice and quite pretty, but after the fantastic Tchaikovsky symphony before interval, it felt a bit eh. The piece just doesn’t quite have the oomph of the Tchaikovsky.

Finally, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances concluded this Prom. Whereas the Tchaikovsky was the first piece he wrote out of school, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances was the last thing he wrote. I quite like this piece and it was played wonderfully by the Oslo Philharmonic. The beautiful 100 ‘Welcome with Honour’ (English translation of a Norwegian piece)  was played as an encore.

And if you haven’t, check out Becky’s blog on her Proms experiences here – she’d actually attending the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, unlike me, 10,000 miles away down here in Australia listening in on iPlayer!

Prom 64: Bantock, Prokofiev, Sibelius & R. Strauss Review

Prom 64 featured the London Philharmonic Orchestra with their chief conductor Vladimir Jurowski. I saw fortunate enough to see the LPO with Jurowski in Melbourne a few years ago when they were touring out here, and they are a fantastic orchestra (they also record a lot of film scores, including, most famously, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy). The LPO did a wonderful job performing in this Prom, I just didn’t enjoy the program in this one as much as I have in others. It was ok, but I wasn’t blown away by anything.

Granville Bantock’s tone-poem The Witch of Atlas kicked of Prom 64. It was very pretty, and very easy to listen to, but not my favourite piece of Bantock that we’ve heard this Proms season (Bantock has been the featured British composer this season, hence why a piece by him pops up every week or so, despite his works not featuring quite that often in the usual classical repertoire).

This was followed by Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, played by Proms debut soloist Anika Vavic. Very good ending to the first movement. There were some good, some obviously very challenging/quick parts with. Vavic played very well, and it was good, but I didn’t think that the orchestra featured very much after the first movement, and I’ve enjoyed other piano concertos more.

The second act included two tone-poems, the first being Sibelius’s Pohjola’s Daughter. This piece was nice, but I didn’t feel that it was anything overly special.

The final piece of Prom 64 was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. The opening of this piece is very famous, most notably for being the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as the theme music for NASA’s Apollo program. The LPO sounded terrific performing this, and it was definitely my favourite piece of Prom 64.

Prom 22: Naturally 7 Review

Prom 22, a late-night Prom, was something a bit different, but very, very good-different. This is not the sort of music that I usually listen to, and, I have to admit, I had not heard for Naturally 7 before, but, less than five minutes in, and I am loving what I hear! These amazing vocalists produce every sound themselves. It sounds like instruments. It’s amazing. I’m quite blown away. And I’m not even seven minutes in!

It’s a bit unbelievable, really.

Ok, that’s all for the live-writing.

The song, I think that is called ‘Run Away’ starts around the 39 minute-mark on iPlayer, and was one of my favourite songs from this Prom. The famous few bars of ‘Rule Britannia!’ are around the 44 minute mark.

The sounds that these seven guys make really are amazing, and, just listening, it’s almost impossible to believe that there is nothing but the seven of them (and some microphones so they can be heard throughout the Royal Albert Hall!). They make the sounds of scratching, drum kit, harmonica, brass, electric guitars and bass, all with the human voice. If you want something very different (from the usual classical Prom, in particular), then have a listen to this. The music these guys make is fantastic.

Prom 12: Viva Verdi! Review

Prom 10‘s all-Verdi line up tonight was to celebrate the great operatic composer’s 200th birthday earlier this year. There’ll be more Verdi featured later in this year’s Proms season, but tonight showcased some of his great sacred music.

First up was Verdi’s String Quartet (version for string orchestra) (arr. C.Hermann). This was the only string quartet that Verdi wrote, and I’m not sure why, because it’s quite good! It is quite different from the Verdi that everyone’s used to: that is, big, bold and operatic, but it’s very good. I like the quick tempo and I thought that the Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia,  the same orchestra as for Prom 10, played this very well.

The second piece was Verdi’s Ave Maria. There are a number of settings of Ave Maria, but this was not one I can recall hearing before, probably because, as the Proms team wrote on their Twitter account, this is the ‘rarely heard Italian Ave Maria‘, which would explain why I don’t recall having heard it! This was short and sweet, and soprano Maria Agresta sang well.

The third piece of the first act was Verdi’s Requiem – Libera me (original version). I’m not sure why, but I thought this was going to include this (footage from Proms 2011 season). Had it not been in the ads for this Prom on BBC Radio 3? Or perhaps the full Verdi Requiem was going to be on ABC Classic FM, so I’d heard ads featuring it on there? I’m not sure. Anyway, I did enjoy this, and the Chorus of the AoSC did very well (they were also excellent in Act II).

Act II featured Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces. I used to not be a very big fan of sacred/choral music, mostly because I didn’t understand it. However, when I went to England and went to the big old Cathedrals/Abbeys, and heard Choristers rehearsing in York Minister, I suddenly ‘got’ it, and now quite enjoy it when in the mood for it. The Four Sacred Pieces were beautifully performed by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academy of Santa Cecilia. Music like this is lovely to listen to on a cold old Sunday afternoon. Just lovely.

Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano

Prom 9 – Stenhammar, Szymanowski & R. Strauss Review

From the outset, I thought that Prom 9 was set to be a good one, full of beautiful Romantic-era music, culminating in Richard Strauss’s brilliant Alpine Symphony. I’m glad to say, I wasn’t let down. It was conductor Thomas Søndergård’s first outing at the Proms, and tonight he was conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, who we previously heard on Saturday night at the Doctor Who Prom.

First up was Wilhelm Stenhammar’s overture Excelsior! Any piece called Excelsior! and come complete with an exclamation mark is bound to be good, and this certainly was. It was mentioned in the notes on BBC Radio 3 before the piece began that it sounded much more Germanic than Scandinavian (Stenhammar was Swedish), and I found this to be very much the case. The stings and woodwinds in particular were quite sublime. This piece is very much of the Romantic era, and I really enjoyed it. Also, it has a pretty great ending.

The second piece of Act I, Karol Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, ‘The Song of the Night’, was a bit of a change of tune. It was quite different from the Stenhammar, and sounded more like the music from Prom 8. This piece was good, and very well performed by the BBC NOW, BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC Symphony Chorus and tenor Michael Weinius, but it just didn’t do it for me the way the Stenhammar did.

Finally, after interval, we reached Richard Strauss’s fabulous Alpine Symphony. This symphony was performed at Prom 75 last year by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and I mustn’t have been the only one who enjoyed it, with it being performed again this season. This symphony really is quite something, and the BBC NOW played it as well as ever. I love when it builds around the 1:42:00 minute mark on iPlayer. A beautiful symphony.

A lighter, happier Prom tonight, and a lovely way to conclude the first seven days of the 2013 Proms season.