Retrospect - June in pictures

June was a busy month for us with the start of our ninth season at Opera Holland Park, a UK premiere of Gluck's Il trionfo di Clelia at the Royal Opera House and several education projects inbetween. We started the month in good spirits celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in style with our friends at Piano House and finished by humming along to Donizetti, Mozart and Puccini.

Here's a few pictures from the past month...

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Gillian and Alex raise their cups for the Diamond Jubilee

 

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Watching Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor which opened this year's Opera Holland Park 2012 season

 

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Gillian, our Education Manager, received a new instrument to add to her collection

 

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A few of our players performing at Great Ormond Street Hospital

 

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Preparing the set for Clelia at the Linbury Studio Theatre, downstairs at the Royal Opera House

 

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Rehearsing for Il Trionfo di Clelia

Gen up on your Gianni

For the next edition in our trivia opera guide for novices and opera buffs alike, we take a look at  Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi.

  • The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico (The Triptych)—three one-act operas. When Il trittico premiered in New York, Rome and London, Gianni Schicchi was an immediate hit and by 1920 Puccini had given his reluctant consent to separate performances. Gianni Schicchi has subsequently become the most-performed part of Il trittico and has been widely recorded
  • The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's The Divine Comedy

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  • The world premiere took place at the Metropolitan Opera (above image) in New York unusually without Puccini being there
  • Woody Allen directed Gianni Schicchi for Los Angeles Opera in 2008
  • Gianni Schicchi was to be the last opera Puccini ever completed


Gianni Schicchi is in rep at Opera Holland Park until 14 July.

Check out our Opera Holland Park Pinterest Board for more interesting facts on this year's season.

Trivia per tutte

Here's the next edition in our trivia opera guide for novices and opera buffs alike. Cosi fan tutte is one of Mozart's most well known and popular operas, but did you know...

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1. Così fan tutte is rarely referred to in English, probably because it is tricky to translate! The complete title is Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti: “Thus do they all [women], or The School for Lovers” but is usually shortened to “Women are like that”.

2. Mozart’s life was in some ways similar to the story of Così fan tutte.  Prior to marrying his wife Constanze, he was interested in her sister Aloysia!

3. It was discovered in 1994 that Mozart’s contemporary Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) had also attempted to set the libretto of Così fan tutte to music, but did not complete his work.

4. Così fan tutte was rarely performed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries as the storyline was considered to be rather risqué.

5. Since 1784, Mozart had been a member of the Freemasons and wrote several cantatas for their ceremonies. It is rumoured that he may have been killed because his opera The Magic Flute revealed the society’s secrets.

Mozart's Cosi fan tutte runs until 7 July at Opera Holland Park 2012.

Looking into Lucia

Last night saw the opening of Opera Holland Park 2012, where we are resident orchestra for the ninth year running. There are six operas this season which runs until 4 August. Throughout the season we'll be finding some fun facts on each opera to educate both opera novices and experts alike. This week we look at the opening opera, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

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1. The libretto for Lucia di Lammermoor, written by Salvadore Cammarano, was loosely based on The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott, a historial novel based on true events.

2. One of the most famous moments of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is the mad scene in Act III, where the main character Lucia eventually descends into madness. Donizetti himself went insane towards the end of his life and spent a few years in an asylum.

3. The mad scene was originally written for glass harmonica, but is often replaced by two flutes. This unusual instrument consists of a collection of glass bowls and the sound is created through the friction of the player’s fingers against the rim of the glass.

4. There is also a less regularly performed French version of this opera, Lucie de Lammermoor, which opened in Paris in 1839, four years after the Italian premiere in Naples.

5. The popular ‘Lucia Sextet’ melody from Lucia di Lammermoor has been used in many films and cartoons, including an unusual interpretation in Disney’s The Whale who wanted to sing at the Met.

Tales from Tower Hamlets

Here’s a small insight into the education work that we do with some photos from our Key Stage One Tower Hamlets Project that finished this month.

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Claire Bloor, our workshop leader, reading the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. 

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Our brass players Nick, Steve, Martin, Dan and John.

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Claire Bloor in action during Chariots of Fire, and Nick Betts, our principal trumpet player.

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Dan Jenkins, our principal trombone player, explains how his instrument works.

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The children watching our brass quintet in action.

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Waving goodbye!

We are glad to be able to continue our education work in Tower Hamlets for another year thanks to a grant of £15,000 from Youth Music. Read more about this project from our Education Manager Gillian Hunter and workshop leader Claire Bloor, on the Youth Music Network.

Flashback: Introducing 4-Beat

We’re often asked what our logo represents and so for this episode of Flashback we take a look at how it was designed thirteen years ago, explaining the ideas behind it and how it represents us.


Extract from CLScapades newsletter

Introducing 4-Beat

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The City of London Sinfonia has a new image! The launch of which coincides with the start of the Orchestra’s Autumn season of concerts at the Barbican Centre, London.


The fresh new visual identity is centred around the new logo: 4-beat. With a brief to create an image that reflected both the creative nature of the Orchestra and its high artistic standards, Mackerel developed a design which illustrates the rhythmic movement of a conductor beating 4/4 time. In reflecting the fun and vibrancy of live classical music, 4-beat appeals to everyone.


Mark Davis, Creative Director of Mackerel commented “the vibrancy of live orchestral music is depicted through the movement and energy of 4-beat; and in appealing to audience of all ages, the enjoyment and inspiration that is key to the Orchestra’s work, is now reflected in the CLS brand.”

Summer 1999

CLoSer - the final review

We asked Anna our new Marketing Intern to give us her review of our final CLoSer this series...

The final instalment in this year’s first CLoSer concert series at Village Underground, Shoreditch, brought together a great selection of jazz inspired repertoire performed by our multi-talented musicians and conducted by Clark Rundell. As the title suggests, the CLoSer series enables the audience to get up close and personal with the players, both during and after the performance, in a less traditional concert setting.

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The dimly lit venue was the perfect location for this jazz finale which featured Darius Milhaud, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Gwilym Simcock on the programme. With two of the three composers present (I’m positive that Milhaud would have shown his face had he been alive!) this really was a special and intimate evening. The informal and relaxed surroundings encouraged audience members to prop themselves up against the wall, perch on seats, lounge on cushions and lean against the bar, creating the perfect atmosphere for the music to follow.

Opening the programme was Milhaud’s jazz inspired La Création du Monde. Based on African folk mythology, the music was powerful, evocative and, at times, pleasantly chaotic. This was followed by Turnage’s masterpiece for viola, Eulogy. If anybody could make the viola cool it would be Turnage, most recently known for his opera on Anna Nicole, along with our  principal viola and soloist for the evening, Fiona Bonds. With intriguing and beautiful melodies, the music lured the audience into a more tranquil state.

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There were obviously many fans of the Mercury Prize nominee and jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock in the room, all eagerly waiting to hear his new composition Move, written specifically for this occasion. The three-movements were appropriately titled Clunky, Columns and Industrial, which Gwilym noted were comparable to the underground brick location in which he was performing. His mesmerising playing and brilliant improvisation skills were totally mind blowing creating a buzzing high on which to end the evening.

Described by audience members as the “best club-classical experience so far”, the first CLoSer series has been both informative and inspiring, and the next series looks to be equally exciting.

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CLoSer 19 September, 7.30pm
Village Underground, Shoreditch

Music by Copland, Stravinsky & Piazzolla
Michael Collins, conductor/clarinet
Katona Twins, guitar duo

BOOKING NOW OPEN: 020 7377 1362/spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
Tickets: £15 or Early Birds £1

Images: James Berry

 

Spotlight on...Mark-Anthony Turnage

Our final CLoSer concert on Wednesday 25 April includes a performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage's masterpiece for viola:Eulogy. But who is this most prolific of English composers? Here's a quick snapshot:

Name
Mark-Anthony Turnage 

Age
51 

Nationality
British

Background
Studied at the Royal College of Music where he met composer and conductor Oliver Knussen, who was to become his tutor, Won a scholarship to study with Gunther Schuller and Hans Werner Henze at Tanglewood in America.

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Breakthrough moment
Greek, his first opera, which received a triumphant premiere in 1988 and his many ensuing productions worldwide established his international reputation. However he is probably most widely known outside of classical music for his opera Anna Nicole, which tells the story of the rise and fall of the late glamour model, which was staged at the Royal Opera House in 2010. 

CLoSer performance
Eulogy
A miniature viola concerto accompanied by small ensemble. Turnage is known for his complete absorption of jazz elements into a contemporary classical style as this piece reflects. 

Listen to our Turnage greatest hits playlist on Spotify.

CLoSer: Jazz Finale
Weds 25 April, 7.30pm
Village Underground, Shoreditch

Tickets: £15 (includes a free drink)
Box Office: 020 7377 1362/spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk

 

Spotlight on...Darius Milhaud

Our final CLoSer concert on Wednesday 25 April has a distinct jazz flavour to it and includes a performance of Darius Milhaud's jazz inspired La creation de monde. But who was this most prolific of twentieth century composers? Here's a quick snapshot:

Name
Darius Milhaud

Age
120 (if still alive today)

Nationality
French

Background
Born in France and spent time living abroad in Brazil during the First World War. When the Nazis occupied France early in World War II, Milhaud, a prominent Jew, was forced to flee to the US. He had developed severe rheumatoid arthritis, which often confined him to a wheel chair, which compounded the need to escape the Nazi regime. 

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Known as..
A “member” of Les Six - an informal group of six composers working in Montparnasse, whose music came to be seen as a rejection of prewar impressionism, and particularly the musical style of Richard Wagner and the impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Repetoire
Wrote music for nearly every genre imaginable.  His major works span several ballets and operas, to more commercial film and theatre scores. He also composed twelve symphonies and eighteen string quartets.

CLoSer performance
La création du monde
The Creation of the World uses ideas and idioms from jazz, and was originally cast as a ballet in six continuous dance scenes. It tells the story of creation through African folk mythology. The piece is highly influenced by the then newly arrived American jazz scene.

Listen to La création du monde on our Spotify playlist.

CLoSer: Jazz Finale
Weds 25 April, 7.30pm
Village Underground, Shoreditch

Tkts: 020 7377 1362/spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk