SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Introducing the Bayreuth Bursary Competition: ’The Mastersingers Company’ with a recital of duets and arias by ’Wagner’s Gods’ and a recital by Miranda Keys (soprano) with Phillip Thomas (piano): Linbury Studio Theatre, London 27.10.2007 (JPr)

I had enjoyed a recent ‘Wagner Rarities’ evening (see review) in the ROH2’s ‘series of Events Around the Ring’ and returned to the Linbury Studio Theatre in high expectation for The Wagner Society’s Bayreuth Bursary Competition  introductory event from ‘The Mastersingers Company’ and a recital by Miranda Keys. While I did enjoy the proceedings, my overall pleasure was diminished by a careless and slap-dash presentation.

It began well enough. Between the semi-final of the singing competition held privately that morning and the late-afternoon final an illustrated lecture on ‘Wagner’s Gods’ was put  by ‘The Mastersingers Company’. This organisation aims to promote the operas of Richard Wagner and the development of young Wagner singers has an almost incestuous relationship with The Wagner Society as its artistic director, Malcolm Rivers, is also now chair of that Society.

Although eventually   Wagner began to consider that French and Italian Opera were debased entertainments (‘tinsel opera’),  during his early career he conducted much of the French Opera that was in vogue at the time (Méhul, Boieldieu, Auber, Hérold) and his first significant composition was Rienzi written in French Grand Opera style. In typical Wagner fashion - because he did not achieve the success from this that he felt he deserved -  he abandoned this style to seek one that would bring him greater recognition.

David Edwards is a distinguished freelance director and productions director of ‘The Mastersingers Company.’ Informally, he  narrated the story of Wagner’s early life and his conducting career in a programme that had been artfully devised. It was set against the background of Wagner's early musical influences such as some of those French ones, Italians (including Bellini and Rossini) and Germans (including Gluck, Mozart, Marschner, Weber and Beethoven). David Edwards was at pains to explain that although Wagner ‘borrowed’ music from his predecessors he was not an ‘imitator’ because he ‘transformed it through his genius’ and made it his own.

It was fascinating to hear a recording of Klemperer conducting Wagner’s arrangement of Gluck’s overture to the 1773 Iphigénie en Aulide which  led directly  into live performances of much music important to Wagner. This included duets from Auber’s 1828 La Muette de Portici through which Wagner met his first wife, Minna, who played the ‘mute’ of the title, to another from Bellini’s 1830 I Capuleti e I Montecchi in which Wagner first saw one of his muses, the soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient as Romeo. Fascinatingly,  we were told how the Auber work was intrinsic to the Belgian rebellion against the Dutch in 1830 which began after one of the Auber performances.

This history lesson  was interrupted from time to time by readings from Wagner's own words. Thes quotes were often most appropriately chosen but were spoken in baleful tones by Malcolm Rivers more appropriate to Dr Watson than Wagner and much intentional humour was missed. Unfortunately he also made an aside whilst reading a remark by Wagner railing against having to coach ‘unmusical singers’ when in fact one of the next singers (who will remain nameless)  to perform was indeed very ‘unmusical’.

It was good to hear some of these rare items and the spirited six-strong ensemble did their best to match the limpid accompaniment of Anthony Legge (music director of The Mastersingers Company) in often very unfamiliar music. More could have been made of the connections between what we were hearing and Wagner’s operas although one fascinating link  illustrated was how a tremulous open fifth is common to Weber’s Der Freischütz, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Der fliegende Holländer.

For some reason an already overlong first half was made longer by the bolting on of an Act II scene between Ortrud and Telramund from Lohengrin. Quite what this had particularly to do with anything that had gone on before was not explained as by this time the stage was just left to a causally dressed person who never introduced himself but fulfilled a number of roles; controlling the visual presentation at a laptop, turning pages at the piano and  shifting music stands and chairs … as well as announcing. Much better would have been to offer the Quintet from Die Meistersinger to show how this evolved from the ‘Mir is so wunderbar’ quartet from Fidelio which we had previously heard. Mind you,  the singing of Kerri Eaton (Ortrud) and Robert Presley (Telramund) was the most characterful so far presented and Anthony Legge was a much happier and more supportive accompanist than before.

Bayreuth Bursaries are awarded annually by the Bursary Foundation based in Bayreuth to young singers, instrumentalists and stage designers who might be Wagnerian artists of the future. They receive tickets for performances at the Festival and the chance to meet other Bursary winners from groups who are members of the International Association of Wagner Societies. Noted previous winners for The Wagner Society include Robert Hayward, Bryn Terfel and Christine Rice.

After the morning’s elimination heat five finalists remained; two mezzo-sopranos, two sopranos and one tenor. Helen Johnson (mezzo) began with ‘Schmerzen’ from the Wesendonck Lieder and Waltraute’s narrative from Götterdämmerung (misspelt on the handout). She sang the lied as a full-blown aria and showed little Wagner style.  Cara McHardy (soprano) looked lovely as a cross between Veronica Lake and Vampira; she had a smallish voice and never revealed the radiance of what she was singing in her face. This was important for ‘Du bist der Lenz’ (Walküre) and ‘Dich, teure Halle’ (Tannhäuser). The tenor, Philip O’Brien, came next singing through two arias from Lohengrin to  reveal  a voice with Wagnerian potential but he aimed too high and should have stuck with some repertoire from Loge, David, Siegmund or Parsifal.

My two real contenders were,  first Laura Hudson a soprano whose ‘O Sachs, mein Freund’ from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (also misspelt on the handout) was all sound and no diction, but for me she redeemed herself with a wonderful Elsa’s Dream from Lohengrin when she was the first singer heard so far to tell a story by her voice and face.

The final singer was Kim-Marie Woodhouse a very experienced mezzo soprano and without wanting to be too indiscreet she must only have just made the qualifying age of 36.     Hers was a voice with a rich timbre throughout ‘Weiche, Wotan, weiche’ from Rheingold but she spoiled it all for me by singing ‘Stehe Still!’ from the Wesendonck Lieder , once again far too operatically.

Very disappointingly,  none of these singers were announced nor was what they were singing introduced. This was a bit of a slight to the artists including their valiant pianist Kelvin Lim (the 2007 Bayreuth Bursary winner) who was left to slink off at the end, scores in hand, unacknowledged and a bit of a conceit that the audience, such as it was, knew these pieces intimately and could know whether the singers gave a good interpretation of them.

Who won, I shall leave that till later. For one of the best sections of the whole event came now while the adjudicating panel (Graham Clark, Dame Anne Evans, Neil Howlett and Lionel Friend) deliberated : this was a short recital by the soprano  Miranda Keys, accompanied by Phillip Thomas at the piano.

The auditorium was now completely dark and unfortunately I had not read about the songs beforehand. It was too dark to do so now but again there was no introduction. Of course,  two of Barber’s Hermit Songs were not a problem and she particularly expressed well Agee’s text ‘I weep for wonder, wandering far alone …’ in ‘Sure on this Shining Night’. A Sibelius song ran the gamut from smiles to high drama as a young girl finds she has been cuckolded but what the other songs were about - the audience were not given the words -  was difficult to  appreciate completely, regardless of how excellent the singing was particularly in the wonderful long Straussian musical lines in ‘Befreit’. I know they were about the ‘fantastic’ or ‘love’ because I read that in the programme … afterwards. I also found out that the other composers from whom we heard songs  were Mendelssohn and Türe Rangstrom, a Swedish composer.

Miranda Keys has a powerful voice and is very reminiscent of her Australian compatriot, Lisa Gasteen, a current Brünnhilde - just as Miss Keys will undoubtedly be a future one. Both came to the fore through the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Miranda Keys has a most engaging personality on the platform and this was revealed by her stopping her recital to ask if her ‘bling was shining in peoples’ eyes?’ She said ‘it’s Monsoon, it’s not posh!’ Ms Keys would have been the ideal person to set her songs in context. She sang  a Walton song delightfully as a well-deserved encore giving us a wink at the end and later acknowledged the enthusiastic applause for a splendid recital with a thumbs-up. Throughout she had received well-nuanced support from her piano accompanist, Phillip Thomas.

So who won the Bayreuth Bursary? Well not surprisingly, and quite worthily, it was Kim-Marie Woodhouse who has appeared many times for Opera North and throughout the UK in oratorio and recitals. Graham Clark , the incomparable Loge and Mime of his generation.  was asked to sum up the competition and give some advice for future years and this summary of his words is very enlightening.

He said that for himself and his fellow panellists it had been a ‘Joy to hear new voices but Wagner is hard to sing. We wanted them to give us a performance. Since they were all singing in German, for those who do not understand German and even Germans themselves need stories explained to them … (They had) been disappointed by the articulation ... This is because English is a lazy language ... (He had) learnt from Horst Stein who had explained how to use vowels and consonants to make a singer express themselves in a language not their own and make the music sing. It is no good singing just sound but it is important to make the text work ... (He had) had long sessions at Bayreuth on use of language … (in conclusion he wished) all the finalists the best for the future.’

Very important words here for all young singers and their teachers. It is partly the role of ROH2 to educate - just  as that is one of the aims of ‘The Mastersingers Company’ and The Wagner Society. The thin audience in the Linbury Theatre were poorly educated for the most part about what they were hearing and the words of Graham Clark should be heeded:  ‘The Mastersingers Company’ might use their influence to proselytise more on communication and performance practice then they currently might be doing.

Jim Pritchard

Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page