Two operatic visits to the Conservatoire
Royal Conservatoire Glasgow - 01/12/22 & 02/12/22
Scotland is very fortunate to have one of the top Conservatoires in the world in the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow. It is regularly rated in the top five in the world. So for the Edinburgh Music Review regular visits are essential. Recently Donal Hurley reviewed this term’s opera production ‘Marilyn’ and ‘The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat’. Last week it was two end-of-term operatic events.
On the Thursday evening we had some opera scenes, staged by the Masters students under the direction of Mark Hathaway, and accompanied by some very good piano playing from José Javier Ucendo Malo and Michal Gajzler. First up was part of Act 1 of Humperdinck’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’ with lively performances from Nikki Martin as Gretel and Charlotte Bateman as Hansel, ably backed up by Rosie Lavery as the Mother and Pawel Piotrowski as the father. This was followed by the lovely music by Donizetti for ‘L’elisir d’amore’, with Alina very sweetly sung by Audrey Tsang and Nemerino very well sung by Daniel Gray Bell. Next came an unusual work, in Britain anyway. It was the German version of Shakespeare’s ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ by Nicolai, which is still regularly performed in Germany although Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’ has supplanted it elsewhere. Anyway it was quite fun to hear this different interpretation, well sung by Rosie Lavery, Flora Birkbeck and William Costello. Next came one of Joan Sutherland’s favourite operas, Donizetti’s ‘La fille du régiment’, with Clare Hood as Marie and Pawel Piotrowski as Sulpice bringing out the fun in this opera. Next another less usual work, a scene from the ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ by Janáček, with Clare Hood as the Vixen and Charlotte Bateman, after playing a boy in Hansel now playing a fox and doing it very well. Next a scene from Handel’s ‘Serse’ which I remember as one of Janet Baker’s great triumphs at the English National Opera back in the day; Audrey Tsang and Nikki Martin weren’t quite Janet Baker but gave a good account of Romilda and Atlanta. The best came last - the great final scene of ‘Carmen’ when she dies at the hand of Don Jose outside the bull ring. Flora Birkbeck, who was suffering from a cold, gave a very powerful performance as Carmen and Daniel Gray Bell gave a good performance of Don Jose; they were well backed by Pawel Piotrowski as Escamillo, Audrey Tsang as Frasquita and Charlotte Bateman as Mercedes. There were a number of promising young singers on display and of course they will mature as singers and actors in time, but they will remember these scenes as an important part of their career.
The next day on Friday lunchtime a group of singers further on in their career: from Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artist programme with four promising young singers already being blooded into Scottish Opera performances. The opening singer was baritone Colin Murray singing Butterworth’s Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’. Although only twenty-four Murray already has a very mature baritone voice and shows great promise. Zoe Drummond, a young Australian soprano, sang ‘Quatre chansons de jeunesse’ by Debussy. She has a very sweet pure voice, but not quite enough depth yet - I’m sure the voice will mature. Both the first two singers were well accompanied by Kristina Yorgova on the piano. Then Welsh tenor Ossian Wyn Bowen sang four Welsh songs; he certainly had plenty of power, but maybe lacking a little refinement at times - again the voice will mature. Finally Lea Shaw a fine young mezzo, whom I first heard in a master class at last year’s Edinburgh Festival and more recently with Scottish Opera. She sang four Spanish songs by Xavier Montsalvatge with great command and maturity. The singers came together at the end with Derek Clark on piano (who also accompanied Lea Shaw and Osian Wyn Bowen earlier). They sang two Lieder from Brahms, though I’m not sure they quite got it together in harmony for these songs. Also I would have preferred a little opera to test them out; this is after all an opera company and while I know Lieder and other songs are important for a career, opera should be the base. Finally only one out of the four singers was Scottish; again I know that opera is an international art form and Scottish singers like Beth Taylor will get work abroad, but surely it is partly the job of Scottish Opera and indeed the Conservatoire to nurture Scottish talent?
