Pappano on Cavalleria Rusticana - Radio 4

[Conchis]

have you been to any concerts at the Anvil Basingstoke recently , Conch ?

the age profile of the audience is extraordinary.

Nowhere near my patch, I'm afraid. I hope to get there one day, as I'm a fan of the BSO.

Opera North Orchestra's concerts in Huddersfield (which is not exactly 'near' me but which I like to make a point of attending because of the often adventurous programming) drew pretty decent audiences, again with a wide age range. As Huddersfield is (officially!) an area of 'exceptional cultural deprivation', I hope these concerts continue and don't fall victim to the Kirklees authority's axe.

[Stanfordian]

Regarding audiences: when I attend the ROH (almost always in the ampitheatre), I'm impressed by the wide range of ages on display there. At 'straight' theatre events, though - especially outside London - I seem to be the youngest person in the audience (and I'm only a couple of years shy of the half-century).

I worry about the future of orchestral, opera and chamber music outside cities. I'm not one of those who believe that the people today in their 30s, 40s and 50s will suddenly ditch their popular music and suddenly turn to more serious music, for the want of a better description.

[Prommer]

Nowhere near my patch, I'm afraid. I hope to get there one day, as I'm a fan of the BSO.

I didn't realise the Boston Symphony played the Anvil...?

[aeolium]

I worry about the future of orchestral, opera and chamber music outside cities. I'm not one of those who believe that the people today in their 30s, 40s and 50s will suddenly ditch their popular music and suddenly turn to more serious music, for the want of a better description.

And yet when I was young in the 1970s, I can hardly remember any chamber music concerts in rural areas (especially where I was brought up). Now there are quite a number as well as many festivals that simply never existed then: for instance, the Wye Valley Chamber Music festival (in January!!! given by young players and attended by a far from uniformly aged audience), the Gower summer festival held in beautiful locations around the Gower peninsula, the East Neuk festival which R3 often broadcasts from, etc etc. Despite all the cries of doom, chamber music in this country seems to be in a far healthier state than in the 1970s - and so many excellent players and ensembles.

[DracoM]

Yes, indeed, but how much are the many excellent little ensembles actually taking home?

Cynically one might say that the old and bold have the money to support these younger ensembles, hence they are the organisations that get them?? Symbiotic relationships?

I'm delighted. I help to run a Festival that depends on the older generation to support, but almost all the ensembles we book are young, well, a LOT younger than the average age of the audience. The older audience these days is the new 'patron'.

What DOES concern me is who will replace the 'old'? Are there audiences in the making? Hmm. Now that IS a worry as indicated upthread.

[aeolium]

What DOES concern me is who will replace the 'old'?

More old - a rising demographic after all? That's the way it's been for generations. And there's nothing new about old people being patrons of the young - that's the way it's been for centuries if not millennia.

[Stanfordian]

And yet when I was young in the 1970s, I can hardly remember any chamber music concerts in rural areas (especially where I was brought up). Now there are quite a number as well as many festivals that simply never existed then: for instance, the Wye Valley Chamber Music festival (in January!!! given by young players and attended by a far from uniformly aged audience), the Gower summer festival held in beautiful locations around the Gower peninsula, the East Neuk festival which R3 often broadcasts from, etc etc. Despite all the cries of doom, chamber music in this country seems to be in a far healthier state than in the 1970s - and so many excellent players and ensembles.

Hiya aeolium,

I'm not sure I agree. Many chamber music circles/groups are closing as the audience and organisers get older. I have to go into a city, particularly where there are music colleges, now to attend high quality chamber music. However, there is an increase in festivals especially opera in June and July often described as "country-house opera". The Opera magazine editorial for January 2016 describes it as "the craziness of summer opera... overrun by dinner-jacketed patrons putting up with damp performances for the sake of a champagne picnic... things have become so skewed that winter is now an operatic desert..." All this when "cuts from Arts Council England have left our major professional companies in crisis." Director Graham Vick said on BBC R3 recently "that's why we're seeing the extraodinary explosion of country house opera... and the shrinking of regional opera. All our marvellous regional opera companies are in real trouble and struggling."

[aeolium]

Stanfordian, I was commenting really on the position of chamber music concerts and festivals, not regional opera which is more expensive to mount. I do think that chamber music in the regions is in a healthier state than it was 40 years ago, though public funding cuts may well have an adverse effect in coming years. Even regional opera is not so disastrous here in the south-west (Gloucestershire). WNO is still putting on fine productions, and touring, and English Touring Opera though a very small company has done some excellent work in the performances I have seen locally (at Malvern or Cheltenham). Opera companies will never be able to rely on consistent levels of funding whichever government is in power, but it does seem to me that the ROH in particular gets a disproportionate slice of the Arts Council cake (and lottery funding) and that some of that grant could helpfully be allocated to smaller regional companies.

[Giacomo]

I understand that cavalleria won't hold a lot of interest for many, but pappano's comment that the verismo style was a reaction against "lords and ladies..." opera, and an attempt to portray the lives of ordinary (let's say majority) of italians, has in it something pertinent to the evolving gist of this thread - classical music is for everyone.

I'm not sure how the Mafia and murder fits with a majority of Italians or pertains to being for everyone but carry on.

(i don't care what it's about, myths, real life, ruling class - i am totally into it.) yes, composers and librettists are in that intellectual (cognoscenti) bracket, but they have to be to create works of enduring quality. Italians don't seem to question this, but here, we seem to have a problem with it. I say we, but i mean certain parts of the popular press who make money from reinforcing class structures, "opera is for toffs". I often get the impression that some opera audience members would be happiest if their co-patrons were all from one stratum of society. Do we play up to the stereotypes?

I've never been to the ENO but that's because of what's on stage not the audience. What I know about the ENO audience is that a large part of it doesn't exist. I have a feeling I have not understood what you are saying, as I feel at ease at the ROH perhaps I am a member of a group you despise. Unwelcoming to me is Kasper Holten's attitude and talk about art.

tony pappano is doing his best to bring opera to everyone and, interestingly, he doesn't have a degree. He studied privately and learned on the job, like an apprentice. Others do it other ways. It hardly matters to me. Let's celebrate it.

If Antonio Pappano really wants to bring opera to everyone we wouldn't have had Guillaume Tell, I recognise enthusiasm but it's misguided. Yes, play to strengths, celebrate opera for what it is.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Zilio way OTT acting of Mamma, singing OK.

What?! Elena Zilio's was the best performance in Cav by some distance! Cannot wait for her return as Zita in Gianni Schicchi.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Just been rooting around the RoH website. It says:

BBC Four to broadcast Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci on 12 June 2016

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/bbc-four-to-broadcast-cavalleria-rusticana-pagliacci-on-12-june-2016

I enjoyed the production and performance in the cinema - worth watching again as far as I am concerned.

[Stanley Stewart]

Indeed, CS, I've set the DVD recorder for this outing of verismo grandeur. Last saw this double bill at Covent Garden, (late 70s?), with Jon Vickers and Josephine Barstow in particularly fine fettle.

[underthecountertenor]

Thanks for the tip-off. I'll set the machine. This one's a keeper.

[Cockney Sparrow]

We went to see the ROH production revival last night. I am very enamoured of this production – the set and the cross referencing between the two works for a start. We received this email beforehand

Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci. I am contacting you to let you know that, due to a family emergency, Italian tenor Fabio Sartori has had to withdraw from singing the role of Canio in Pagliacci for the performances on 6 and 9 December. The role will now be sung by American tenor Bryan Hymel, who will also be singing the role of Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana in a role debut.

Hymel was already on the roster to sing Turiddu. No sense of disappointment in anticipation of hearing him as Pagliacci. I've seen him in The Trojans, and Sicilian Vespers and he hasn't failed to give, dramatically and vocally, a completely committed and successful performance. I thought his performance last night was a triumph, and his rendition of Pagliacci was certainly memorable.

I think I've picked up the vibe that audiences are not over the moon about him – well, I think that's unjustified. Perhaps there are only so many major recording contracts to go around, nor does he otherwise command publicists to project him onto international “superstar tenor” status. Well, to me he is a very fine artist at the peak of his powers – he wasn't a lightweight tenor uncomfortably moving into the more demanding verismo role – he really cut it; and I have no anxieties about his vocal security. I will be very glad to see him again - another memorable evening.

Elīna Garanča as Santuzza was no doubt another draw. (I don't take Opera magazine and since the demise of the Intermezzo blog I don't have my ear to the ground these days – time is too short at present) A very strong performance from Garanca, well received – to me, slightly more focussed than Eva Marie Westbroek. Simon Keenleyside in Pagliacci is obviously a favourite with the ROH audience (“long awaited return….”) and he performed well (if in one or perhaps two corners of the Prologue he was, for a moment, under the note).

Strong casting all round, chorus with extras suitably impressive and it was good to see the dramatic contribution from Elena Zilio (as in the previous runs) as Mamma Lucia in both of the works (cf my first para above).

Its a piece I have only seen or listened to in/ as a result of these productions – cinema at first, then live. They certainly have impact and the production adds yet more. I'm glad I went (and made an exception for my self-denying ordnance of not buying programmes that “just sit on the shelves”). Still performances to go, although Garanca isn't cast on the last three (January) dates.
http://www.roh.org.uk/mixed-programm...cana-pagliacci