Susan Graham, Now Met Opera’s Rosenkavalier, Will Be Purcell’s Dido in West Coast Concerts with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

By -

Susan Graham is garnering exceptional reviews for her return to the Metropolitan Opera as the 17-year-old Count in Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier. The New York Times declares the role of Octavian “one of Ms. Graham’s signature achievements”; the New York Post states that her “honeyed tone and smooth vibrato suggest a young man’s androgynous voice”; and, according to the AP, she “surpassed herself, singing with compelling urgency and aching beauty of tone, and creating an endearing portrait of an impetuous youth.” But the Queen of Carthage is waiting in the wings: the versatile Graham’s next engagements are concert performances of the oldest English opera in the repertoire, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which she’ll sing six times in November in the Bay Area and Los Angeles with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra led by Nicholas McGegan.

Graham’s 2004 Virgin Classics recording of Dido and Aeneas earned praise not unlike that for her latest Octavian. The New York Times wrote of the CD: “‘When I am laid in earth’ is as wrenching an account as you’ll find on disc,” while Classics Today observed: “Susan Graham blends her signature warmth with a great deal of sweet wistfulness, particularly in the famous aria ... in which her melancholy is matched by a chromatically descending bass line.”

Immediately after her six concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque, a resident favorite in the Bay Area, Graham gives two recitals with her longtime piano collaborator, Malcolm Martineau. In Carmel, California and St. Paul, Minnesota, the two return to another area of repertoire with which Graham is very comfortable: French song. Last season, on their CD Un frisson français and the accompanying tour, they traversed French songs by nearly two dozen composers, earning enthusiastic reviews at home and abroad. Whether for the concert performances or the album, these reviews were all but interchangeable; a comment in London’s Sunday Times is representative:

“Graham’s superb pianist, Martineau, is the begetter of what he calls a menu gourmand, and with the help of Graham’s velvet mezzo and beautifully enunciated French, it is served up sumptuously.”

On New Year’s Day 2010, Susan Graham returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Octavian.

Performance Dates

November 5
San Francisco, CA
Herbst Theatre

November 6
Palo Alto, CA
First United Methodist Church

November 7 and 8
Berkeley, CA
First Congregational Church

November 11
Los Angeles, CA
Walt Disney Concert Hall

November 14
Davis, CA
Mondavi Center

November 29
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Sunset Cultural Center

December 2
St. Paul, MN
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Acclaimed Fauré Quartett returns to Deutsche Grammophon with their first recording of Brahms

By -
Image
The Fauré Quartett continues to add authoritative recordings to the chamber music catalog with their new recording of two Brahms quartets, available from Deutsche Grammophon on January 12, 2010. These large, some say symphonic, works test the limits of technical and musical capabilities, and the Fauré Quartett once again proves why they are one of the most acclaimed ensembles performing today. Within a short period of time the Fauré Quartett has conquered the great concert halls of London , Paris , Berlin , Amsterdam , Brussels , Geneva , Hamburg , Frankfurt, Milan , Buenos Aires , Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. “They attract superlatives wherever they go,” wrote The Strad following a concert at London ’s Wigmore Hall, while the Süddeutsche Zeitung praised them for a performance that “brought tremendous pleasure by highlighting interpretative details that had scarcely ever been heard before”. The Fauré Quartett strives to achieve a unique sound for Brahms (as indeed for every work)
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more