Anniversaries are a blessing for the neglected, but Giacomo Puccini, who died in a Brussels clinic on November 29, 1924, aged 65, is already the king of the opera Elysium. It can’t go any higher. His works lead the rankings of opera performances (yes, there is such a thing – see Operabase). At his death, he left behind approximately $230 million by today’s estimate, as well as a string of infidelities, illegitimacy, and rumors of a butler who allegedly siphoned off the jewels and took refuge in Monte Carlo. All Puccini cared about was his last opera. Turandotit would remain unfinished, which proved the case.
The Royal Opera House celebrated its centenary by packing out its schedule without deviating too much from the norm. BohemianS, ToskaAnnual Madama Butterflybetween now and July. We shouldn’t complain either. Given the current circumstances, box office success has never been more important. These popular works are also ingenious creations. If you get tired – is such a thing possible? – the opening horseplay La bohemeListen to the beady anarchy of the woodwind instrument, or how the harp suddenly brings emotional heat to a boiling point, allowing flower embroiderer Mimì and poet Rodolfo to fall in love in a few record-breaking minutes. .
for 14 shows La bohemeIn Richard Jones’s visionary Paris arcade staging (2017), designed by Stewart Laing, ROH lined up two conductors, three actors, and – pity the logistics – an animation director, Simon Iorio. In the first of these, the Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu, fiery and bright-toned as Rodolfo, and the Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan, as convincing and warm as Mimì, were the convincing lovers, lovingly but at times slowly directed by Keri-Lynn Wilson. An effective Donna Elvira in Glyndebourne Don Giovanni He was making his ROH debut last summer. Like the combative Musetta and Marcello, Australian soprano Lauren Fagan and Russian baritone Mikhail Timoshenko enjoyed controversy as well as gaining sympathy. The chorus of Christmas Eve merrymakers, adults and children alike, rose to the challenge of the rebellious Act 2. For the most part, overall, the ensemble has been lackluster and some of the acting hasn’t yet come into its own, but it will happen. You may be too hard-hearted to bite your lip from beginning to end, but some of us are not like that.
The rest of the week was a Mendelssohn topic. London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ukrainian Natalia Ponomarchuk, performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Family Ties: Schumanns and Mendelssohns. The focus was on husband and wife Clara and Robert Schumann, and brother and sister Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn: 19th-century contemporaries, colleagues, friends. It all looked good on paper, but it made for a strangely commanding evening. Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov was the soloist in Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, followed by Robert Schumann’s Introduction and Allegro for piano and orchestra.
Neither job is easy to navigate. Clara’s dramatic, close-textured and masterful work, written as a teenager, felt unstable and its narrative insecure. Robert’s two-parter seemed more than deliberately improvised. Other studies have yielded better results. Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C major (1832), her only fully orchestral work, bursts into tremulous action after a slow introduction. The LPO kicked the collective into high gear in his brother’s Scottish Symphony, finding the traditional zest and conviction missing in the two Schumanns. Mendelssohn may be full of Scottish temperament – Holyrood, Walter Scott, “Ossian” – but his symphony can stand as the very personification of early German romanticism.
After Fanny’s untimely death, Mendelssohn wrote his sixth and final string quartet, Op 80 in F minor (1847). He called it “Requiem for Fanny”. Treske Quartet Gathering all the enthusiastic intensity needed, they completed their first Conway Hall recital with this piece. These young players from Manchester use instruments made from a single tree (by the workshop WE Hill & Sons). Whether that’s why or not, their voices are meticulously blended with the help of the hall’s excellent acoustics. Each said a few words about one of the four studies; informal, understanding, sharing their enthusiasm.
After opening with another work from the canon, Haydn’s dazzling and radical Quartet in D, Op 20 No 4, they went further for their other selections: Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914, rev 1918), tiny, glittering jewels and a work from today: Californian Gabriella Smith’s (b. 1991) humorous and strikingly adventurous Carrot Revolution (2015). Conway Hall, built in 1929 and home of the Ethical Society, has a long tradition of playing music by women, dating back to Ethel Smyth. The organization’s Sunday concerts first began in 1878 as the People’s Concert Society and were founded for the purpose of “increasing the popularity of good music by means of inexpensive concerts.” £15 per ticket (£14 online) delivers on that promise (£7 for NHS staff and other privileges). Tomorrow night: Mark Padmore, tenor and Roger Vignoles, piano, with actor-singer Hazel Holder. You can’t lose.
Star ratings (out of five)
La boheme ★★★★
Family Ties: Schumanns and Mendelssohns ★★★
Treske Quartet ★★★★
• La boheme At London’s Royal Opera House until 16 February