Jennifer Koh - Solo Violin Click here for tickets If you’re not familiar with the work of American violinist Jennifer Koh, she’s worth getting to know. Intense, confident, and expressive, she’s also accomplished enough to excel in both traditional and contemporary repertoire. Here is a solo violin performance, recorded in New York, which juxtaposes two of Bach’s landmark works for solo violin (Violin Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 and Violin Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005) with 12 micro-works that she commissioned in 2020 as part of her Alone Together project, a response to the pandemic and the financial hardship it has placed on many in the arts community. $15. Livestream Apr 11, then on demand Apr 12-18 The Seven Deadly Sins/Mahagonny Songspiel Click here for tickets Another significant performance this week is from the Royal Opera House. Young British director, Isabelle Kettle, reimagines Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s darkly satirical operas as a comment on gender politics. The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel depict a crisis of femininity and a crisis of masculinity respectively. The Seven Deadly Sins, Weill’s witty, satirical ballet chanté (sung ballet) is a work in seven scenes, following two aspects of one central character, Anna, as she embarks on a journey that reveals a new sin with every new city. Mahagonny Songspiel is a concentrated musical and dramatic encapsulation of the story about the rise to prominence and fall into decadence of an imaginary city founded on vice that Weill and Brecht subsequently made into a full-length opera – Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. This production presents rich patrons of capitalism, reminiscent of the family from The Seven Deadly Sins and what they might have become. We are warned that it “Contains scenes of an adult nature depicting sexual assault, disordered eating, substance abuse, and suicide” so I guess it can’t be all bad. £10 Until May 9. 5 Minutes that will make you love Brahms Click here to watch Another in that excellent New York Times series. Although I never needed 5 minutes to learn to love Brahms, he grabbed me at the opening bars of the Piano Quartet No 1, and still does. I fell in love with Brahms as an ignorant child and have stayed to admire and adore ever since. But, just in case you need persuading, take a listen to any, or preferably all, of these little snippets and you’ll come back to hear the whole work again and again. National Gallery – A Day in the Countryside Click here to watch I’m not quite sure what a Dorset Curator of Paintings does that’s not like what a regular curator does, but this is the title of the delightful and knowledgeable Lucy Chiswell who treats us to a day in the country via the work of three great painters and equally famous paintings – Rubens, Constable, Corot. Each of the paintings she’s chosen to tell us about illustrates, amongst other things, a particular time of day, and reflects the conditions, the colours, the direction of the sun, and the mood of place. And we learn about each of the artists something that, perhaps, we didn’t know before. Metropolitan Opera free nightly streams Click here to watch Once Upon a Time. This week’s Met Opera stream is all about fairy tales - wicked witches, fairy godmothers, and storybook princesses. My favourite mezzo, Joyce DiDonato, stars in both of the famous Cinderella operas – Massenet’s Cendrillon and Rossini’s La Cenerentola – at either end of the week and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel makes its inevitable appearance in the line-up as does Mozart’s Die Zauberflote. I’m not sure whether Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle can be classed as a fairy tale or a horror story, or Puccini’s Turandot,for that matter, but Dvorak’s water sprite Rusalka definitely fits the category. Myths and Hymns - Chapter 3 Love Click here to watch We’ve looked before at Adam Guettel’s four part song cycle Myths and Hymns, so suffice to say that, following the release of Chapter One Flight and Chapter Two Work, now Chapter Three Love of this multi media extravaganza is now ready to view. In addition to some fine graphic design and music, this one also features Tony and Grammy Award-winning theatre and opera stars, brought together by Master Voices Music Director Ted Sperling. From Apr 14. Unlocking the Passion – Rambert Dance Company Click here to watch Dame Marie Rambert (she wasn’t a Dame then) founded the first ballet company in Britain in 1926 and despite many vicissitudes, it’s still going as one of the great training grounds for dancers from around the world. This is a film displaying this remarkable company’s strengths and its support for contemporary dance and dancers. It was made by some of its youngest dancers, aged 14-16, and explores the Rambert’s emphasis on choreography, music and design in some of the company’s current and historical productions. Hymn – Almeida On Sunday, Sky Arts will be broadcasting this World Premiere play by Lolita Chakrabarti starring Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani, directed by Blanche McIntyre I don’t often recommend shows you can see on television but, in this case, this play had a short, interrupted run at the Almeida and tickets were sold out as soon as they went on sale. Many of us didn’t get a chance to see it and I, for one, felt deprived. The premise is simple: Two men meet at a funeral. One knew the deceased. The other did not. Sky Arts 18 April 9pm Outside - Orange Tree Click here for tickets. This is a reminder that, if you enjoyed Inside, the first instalment of the Orange Tree’s Inside/Outside production last month, here’s Outside, the second instalment. Inside/Outside is a collection of world premiere short plays by emerging and established writers. These three by Sonali Bhattacharyya, Kalungi Ssebandeke and Zoe Cooper, are all stories about finding connection in the darkness and coming together after having been apart. £15. Apr 15-17 Fabulous Fanny: The Songs & Stories of Fanny Brice Click here for tickets I’m intrigued to see this one-woman show about the legendary Fanny Brice, who was the original model for Funny Girl. Kimberley Faye Greenberg has received rave reviews for her interpretation of Fanny Brice, a great star of the 1910s and ‘20s. Fanny Brice became a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. She was known for her ability to thrill an audience with a comedic number and then seamlessly follow it up with a torch song, bringing the audience to tears. Her signature songs were ‘My Man’, still a classic and ‘Second Hand Rose’, now associated with Barbra Streisand but composed for Fanny Brice and sung by her until her death. From all accounts, Fanny was a truly captivating and versatile performer. Her comic facial expressions and Yiddish accents delighted audiences and built her career to the status of being the highest paid singing comedienne of her time. Fanny Brice also performed in movies, on Broadway, and on the radio as her signature character ‘Baby Snooks’. Goodness only knows what Snooks did or said but maybe Kimberley Faye Greenberg does, as Fanny continued to perform her for over 25 years until her death in 1951. This is a livestream, which means you can only watch it on the date and time you’ve booked. Apr 18-Jun 27 You’ll Never Walk Alone - Andre Rieu Click here to watch There is definitely something weird about this anthem from Carousel, no matter whether it’s sung by a football crowd of 120,000 or an operative diva exercising her chops, or an arena audience out for a good time on a summer evening. Quite simply, it makes people cry. All kinds of people. It’s a good song, certainly, but there are better songs, more wide-ranging songs, musically more interesting songs, even more tuneful songs, but this one, and only this one, has the same effect on nearly everybody. See if you agree.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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