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***** (5 stars)

“Utterly Gorgeous!” 

Scottish Opera have done it yet again: an enchanted and enchanting evening with Stuart Stratford, the incredibly talented Scottish Opera orchestra, and a small group of soloists held us spellbound – lucky Usher Hall audience!

Interesting that the programme mentioned heroes – not quite sure who these were at times…  Marvellous heroines, though – strong, determined even in adversity, passionate in both loving and suffering, pouring out their emotions in a stream of some of the most glorious music Tchaikovsky ever wrote.

We began with Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, a work new to me.  Natalia Kutatdeladze had us gripped from her first notes as the young Joan bade a passionate farewell to her rural homeland, loving the familiar landscape and knowing she will never see it again.  The orchestra gave us both a perfect soundscape of the countryside and the throbbing of Joan’s heart – her sadness mixed with the intensity of her yearning to do God’s will.  Later in the opera Joan is torn between her love of God and the vow of chastity she has made, and her growing realisation that she is in love with her enemy, Lionel of Burgundy.   When Lionel arrives and declares his love for Joan, they sing a passionate duet, unaware of the tragic fate that awaits Joan.

Many years ago, Opera North performed the one-act Iolanta in conjunction with Adventures in Motion Pictures’ ground-breaking Nutcracker [the earliest example of Matthew Bourne’s genius].  Both pieces were truly memorable, so I was delighted to be reacquainted with some of this opera about a blind princess who is unaware that she is blind until two knights blunder into the secluded garden in which she lives.  One of them is Robert, Duke of Burgundy, to whom Iolanta has been betrothed since she was young.  He’s not keen on the match because he’s fallen in love with another woman, about whom he sings enthusiastically.  His companion, Count Vaudémont, says his idea of love is very different.  He’s smitten with the beautiful young girl he finds sleeping: the very personification of his ideal.  He’s so loud in his praise he wakes her up, and in the ensuing conversation he slowly realises that Iolanta is blind.  He sees it as a terrible handicap: she doesn’t – all her other senses make her fully aware of the glories of creation around her.

We didn’t get to see the end of the opera, but for once it ends happily.  We did get to see and hear tenor Robert Lewis, baritone Josef Jeongmeen Ahn and soprano Lauren Fagan as Vaudémont, Robert of Burgundy and the eponymous princess.  We’d already heard Josef Jeongmeen Ahn as Joan of Arc’s would-be lover – a gorgeous voice in a slightly restrained manner [not helped by the physical distance between the two lovers].  Here he waxed lyrical and became very enthusiastic at the thought of his love, Matilde and somewhat suspicious of the situation in which the two men found themselves – he was sure there was hidden danger.

Robert Lewis has the perfect voice for pouring out Tchaikovsky’s passionate melodies – it was a joy to see and hear the ease with which the long flowing vocal lines expressed his overflowing emotions.  Lauren Fagan’s expressive voice matched perfectly with his, and she perfectly conveyed the gentle Iolanta’s confusion at her visitor’s remarks before pouring out her hymn of praise to God’s magnificent creation.

And then we got some of the best bits from Eugene Onegin – though honestly, the whole opera is ‘best bits’ and I would simply love to hear this fabulous quartet sing the whole work.   Natalia Kutatdeladze joined the other three singers in the wonderful quartet – though sadly, as Olga, she had very little to sing.  Robert Lewis’ Lensky poured out his love for Olga, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn’s Onegin was dryly, languidly, bored with existence and not really attending to Lauren Fagan’s Tatyana as she shyly tried to explain her inner thoughts to this god-like embodiment of all her romantic imaginings.

This led into the fabulous letter scene: Tatyana can’t sleep, prey to a mass of conflicting, turbulent emotions.  She simply has to defy convention and pour out her feelings to the stranger with whom she’s fallen in love – and this Lauren Fagan did so breathtakingly brilliantly I don’t have the words to express just how good she was.

At the ball to celebrate Tatyana’s birthday Onegin is bored and decides to flirt with Olga: what he intends as a mild diversion escalates into a violent quarrel between himself and his friend Lensky.  The only possible outcome is a duel, preceded by Lensky’s heartbreaking celebration of the beauty of the world he is aware he might be about to leave.  He wonders if Olga will come and shed a tear on his grave: alas, Pushkin’s poem on which the opera is based makes it clear that she will very soon forget him and marry another…  Onegin appears, late and unapologetic.  The two men’s duet, using the same words and melodic phrases, underlines how far apart they are – and yet how very near – if only they could reach out to each other.  No. No. No – they fire and Lensky falls dead.

Both voices were superb – the whole scene was simply glorious – and I have to give a shout out to the third character on stage at this point.  Emerging Artist Daniel Barrett had already captured my attention with the two superb performances he gave in Scottish Opera’s recent double bill of L’heure espagnole and The Bear.  Here, as Zaretsky, Lensky’s second in the duel, he was completely unawed by the excellence of his fellow-singers and commanded the stage superbly.  I look forward to seeing him again very soon!

The Scottish Opera orchestra now got a chance to shine [plus giving us a welcome breather after all that emotion!] in playing the Polonaise which introduces the third act of Eugene Onegin.  Tatyana is now married to Prince Gremin and moves in the highest ranks of St Petersburg society.   She and her husband are attending a grand ball which Onegin attends.  He’s just returned from extensive travels, trying to forget Lensky and the fatal duel.   He sees Tatyana and is overwhelmed to realise that he loves her…

The next day he arrives at the Gremins’ house and declares his love, demanding that Tatyana leave her marriage and go with him.  She resists, asking him if it’s her high position in society and her wealth that now make her desirable?  He pours out his love for her – but it’s too late: what might once have been is now not possible.  Tatyana leaves him to his self-pity.

It was a fitting climax to an incredible evening, and quite rightly the Usher Hall audience burst into extremely loud and prolonged applause.  There’s something so special about the way Tchaikovsky expresses love and longing and the huge range of other emotions to which humans are susceptible.  His orchestration is superb, his depiction of these emotions in both vocal lines and orchestral underpinning is shatteringly good.  I ended the evening an exhausted emotional wreck, but an exhilarated one.

Bloody marvellous is all I can say.

Scottish Opera, Tchaikovsky’s, Heroines and Heroes, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, RUN ENDED

***** (5 stars)

“A Fabulous Treat”

Last year I waxed lyrical about the superb banquet served up for us by Ariel Lanyi: this year I need to get out my box of superlatives and search through for some more to try and describe what a fabulous treat the Northesk audience had this Tuesday lunchtime.

I think the biggest compliment I can pay Ariel is that I came to hear him despite knowing that he was playing Schumann, one of my least favourite composers – and that I really enjoyed his rendition of the Fantasiestücke Op 12.  This collection of ‘fantasy pieces’ runs the gamut of emotions: romantic swooning, furious outbursts, jolly dancing, reflective questioning, happy skittering about and solemn, hymn-like declamation.  They showcased Ariel’s power and delicacy of touch and his ability to make a melody sing out above a tumultuous undercurrent of emotions.  The silence that held us at the end of the final Ende vom Lied [end of the song] was a testament to the way he had drawn us into Schumann’s music and held us entranced.

Debussy’s second book of Preludes formed the second part of Ariel’s programme.  He told us that these are rarely performed as a complete set – and far less frequently played than those in the first set of preludes.  This second set, he said, is almost a compendium of everything Debussy was interested in, and has a strong narrative sense linking them together.

Once again I had a fabulous, nearly front-row view of the keyboard.  It was a joy to see the delicacy, the almost floating hands as Ariel caressed the keys.  Here were clear, almost transparent watercolours, in strong contrast to the robust oil paintings of the Schumann: yes, there was power too, but somehow more refined, restrained and all the more glorious to hear.

Each of the preludes was different in character, and I loved them all – exquisite contrasts of feeling and atmosphere.  We had mist, dead leaves, Spanish gypsies, dancing fairies, the eccentric Genéral Lavine, a moonlit terrace, a water sprite, a very British homage to Charles Dickens’ Samuel Pickwick, and an ancient Egyptian burial urn.  Les tierces alternées [adjacent triads] was a scintillating display of technique – fingers moving so fast there seemed to be at least ten on each of Ariel’s hands as they played on top of each other in joyful competition.  My favourite prelude was Bruyères [heather the plant or the heath on which is grows].  It began with a simple folk tune, and my notes continue lovely warm chords and growing melody, glorious gleaming tone, delicate filigree decoration and ends Love song – woo me…

Debussy’s set of preludes ends with feux d’artifice – fireworks.  It’s the perfect way to end a recital, an aural description of a firework display – bangers, sparklers, catherine wheels, rockets and much much more.  Joyful cascades of brilliance filled the church before a final few splashes of colour faded into the darkness.  And again there was that silence of deep content, which means so much more than the loudest applause, before we showed our appreciation of this wonderful music.

Warm applause greeted Ariel as he came out to play this afternoon – so many of us who remembered his 2024 recital were absolutely delighted that he was with us again.  Our final appreciation of this young man’s artistry almost raised the roof!  Ariel says he loves coming to play at Northesk: we return the compliment and say we so love hearing him that we are already eagerly hoping that he’ll come back next year.

Music at the Brunton – bite-sized concerts, Ariel Lanyi, Northesk Parish Church, Musselburgh, Run Ended