Theatre and classical music reviews
RTÉCO/Moldoveanu,Mahony Hall, The Helix
Although announced as a concert performance of Carmen, Friday's event at the Helix turned out to be only a selection of highlights from Bizet's opera, amounting to some 95 minutes of music.
Only the through-composed fourth act was almost complete.
What was left of the score was extremely well performed. Romanian conductor Nicolae Moldoveanu directed with a sure understanding of Bizet's opéra-comique style. He alternated dramatic thrust with romantic expansiveness judiciously, supported the singers enthusiastically, and inspired the RTÉCO to produce some sumptuous sounds.
German mezzo-soprano Yvonne Fontane used her assured body language and smokey contralto to give us an ideal Carmen; one, moreover, with a wry sense of humour. Her José, British tenor Justin Lavender, was a mite stiff in demeanour, but his grasp of French singing style was admirable. He managed the transition from lyrical sweetness to spinto rage adroitly, and had enough vocal clout to have avoided the off-the- note ranting he resorted to during the final confrontation.
As Micaëla, New Zealand soprano Rebecca Ryan was far from demure, and her warm tone and easy top were effective both in her tender duet with Don José and her spunky Act III aria. French-Canadian Marc Bouche sang the toreador Escamillo with a firmly focused if lightweight baritone.
The small choral content was provided by the National Chamber Choir. If the eight ladies were over-parted in the cigarette girls' quarrel, the full choir was impressive heralding the entry of the toreadors.
The short spoken links were read by a seemingly somewhat bemused Marty Whelan. - John Allen
Storioni Trio RTÉ NSO/Buribayev,NCH, Dublin.
Tchaikovsky - Capriccio italien
Kevin Volans - Trio Concerto
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2
Kevin Volans's Trio Concerto is a work of extravagant virtuosity, heard for the first time in Ireland on Friday night.
The nature of the virtuosity is the opposite of the Lisztian ideal. The music is mostly off-centre and unsettled. The challenges are not those of generating great flourishes that will bring the house down, but of rather having to work hard to fill out textures that are often graded in shades of gray.
The Storioni's pianist, Bart van de Roer, gets the occasional roulade which flashes like a spark, and the violinist and cellist, Wouter Vossen and Marc Vossen, get some long, slow-moving melodies. But Volans's pre- occupation mostly seems to be with matters of instrumental density and rhythmic dislocation, with the orchestral instruments often seeming to merge with the sounds of the trio. The composer's pre-concert talk raised a very valid question about the wisdom of placing his piece after the colourful musical travelogue that is Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien. With the first two suites from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet after the interval, the programming evening provided an extreme case of chalk and cheese. Volans's own expectation was that his piece would sound "like smashed glass" after the Tchaikovsky. With conductor Alan Buribayev hotter on the gaudy colouring of the Russian works than in any exploration of expressive subtleties, the evening was a strange meal of raw vegetables surrounded by desserts rich in E-numbers. - Michael Dervan
David McNulty (piano),NCH John Field Room.
Belfast-born David McNulty is more sparing with public appearances than most pianists of his calibre, and this concert was a rare opportunity to savour his calm authoritativeness.
The programme was a judicious selection of short works by Rachmaninov, the composer with whom McNulty has most strongly identified since his student days.
The moods ranged from tempest (a rhetorical Étude-tableau in A minor Op 39 No 6) through longing (a richly sonorous Prelude in B minor Op 32 No 10) to playfulness (a skittish Polka de W. R.).
From the Morceaux de Salon Op 10, not only the Romance (No 6) but also the contrasting Humoresque (No 5) was each in its own way grave and insistent.
But there were some deliciously light touches in the Prelude in E flat Op 23 No 6, and in Rachmaninov's transcription of Bizet's L'Arlésienne Minuet.
The compelling passage-work of the Étude-tableau in C minor Op 33 No 2, and the tenacious melody of the celebrated Vocalise Op 34 No 14, respectively made for moments of extreme bravura and concentrated introspection.
Yet both remained true to McNulty's prevailing sense of serious, thoughtful and self-possessed artistry. - Andrew Johnstone
Stars,The Button Factory, Dublin.
Between Feist, Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire, Dublin is certainly getting its fare share of Canadian gigs these days. Montreal's Stars may not garner the same headlines as those acts, but their breakthrough 2004 album, Set Yourself On Fire, was heralded as a minor masterpiece. Their new release, In Our Bedrooms After the War, provides further evidence that when it comes to chronicling the fragile realities of relationships in carefully crafted pop songs, Stars are in a league of their own.
The five-piece brought their lovelorn tunes to the Button Factory, the impressively revamped former Temple Bar Music Centre, and the fresh velvet proved a suitable backdrop. While the diminutive Torquil Campbell is the nominal front man, Amy Millan shares vocal duties, and their live appeal comes from the theatrical dynamic between the two. Bassist Evan Cranley, who along with Campbell and Millan is a frequent member of Broken Social Scene, was subdued, and the group seemed to find it difficult to connect with the audience - the chatty crowd was often audible over the music, which wasn't helped by occasionally muffled vocals - when a band writes lyrics as penetrating as Stars do, hearing the words is pretty crucial.
Their smooth, seductive melodies have a melancholic undertow, as seen in "Personal", a vintage Campbell/Millan duet in the form of personal-ad speak, ("28 and bored, grieving over loss, sorry to be heavy, but heavy is the cost") that perfectly captures Stars' favourite themes - the vulnerability, sadness and hurt that is the risk of every relationship. It wasn't until "Soft Revolution", however, that the crowd was fully roused, and by the time Campbell and Millan launched into the exhilarating "Your Ex-lover Is Dead", the audience were belting out the chorus. - Davin O'Dwyer
