BRIO Feasts on Falstaff

Brio feasts on Falstaff
Exerpts from Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor” set to music by NICOLAI, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS and VERDI
Brio Vocal Quartet
Janey MacKenzie (soprano) / Jody Orgias (mezzo-soprano)
Alison Hodge (mezzo-soprano) / Justin Pearce (bass-baritone)
with Robin Jacquiery (piano)

Flute and Piano Recital;
DOPPLER: Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise
RAVEL – Pavane pour une infante defunte
HOLST – Theme and Variations based on “Jupiter”
Yumi Ikematsu (flute) / Phillip O’Malley (piano)

St.James’ Church, Woburn, Hutt Valley
Tuesday 12th May 2009

I’d previously heard the Brio Vocal Quartet with pianist Robin Jacquiery perform their “Falstaff-triptych” presentation at St.Andrew’s on the Terrace, some time ago, so it wasn’t new to me; but my enjoyment of this cleverly-constructed intertwining of three “Falstaff” operas by Nicolai, Verdi and Vaughan Williams was nicely enhanced by a second hearing, in the more voluminous spaces of St. James Church, Woburn, in the company of a disappointingly small audience – though we tried hard, the performers certainly deserved far more than our modestly-sized appreciation! The concert as a whole wasn’t without its troubles beforehand, with an item from the second half featuring a wind ensemble having to be cancelled because of a clash of dates involving various players performing elsewhere – this was Janacek’s “Mladi”, which would have added a good deal of interest and pleasure to the concert. However, such was not to be; and after the interval we had to be content with a flute and piano recital featuring music of diverse kinds, beautifully performed, a nice “cleansing of the palate” after all the sack we’d consumed in sympathy with the fat knight of the first half’s adventures.

Brio’s strengths as an ensemble came to the fore in this presentation, the singers blending their voices mellifluously in all of the concerted pieces, duets, trios and the meltingly beautiful quartet “O sweet moon, O charming night” from Nicolai’s opera. From the outset, after Alison Hodge’s nicely-modulated spoken introduction, the trio of women’s voices “Sigh no more, ladies” took us readily into the Shakespearean ethos, with movement and gesture from the singers throughout that seemed to grow from both music and words in a way that many a contemporary fully-staged opera production could well emulate. So the concept of “opera as story” was nicely-served, here, with Robin Jacquiery’s beautifully-timed support from the piano having an almost orchestral impact and flavour into which the singers could pour their tones.

Each of the singers gave their all to their respective roles, and convinced us thoroughly and engagingly that they knew exactly what was required, even if they occasionally were troubled by either single difficult high notes or passagework whose progressions were difficult to pitch with the utmost accuracy. Such was their commitment to what they were doing that one was caught up with that feeling of artists “touching on all points” rather than concerned with surface polish as an end in itself. When bass-baritone Justin Pearce as Falstaff reflected upon “honour” in his monologue from Verdi’s opera, for example, it was his physical command of the stage and his timing of facial expression and gesture which gave his repeated “No”s debunking knightly convention such humour and relish, and a real sense of rich communication.

That same sharply-etched sense of involvement marked the work of the three women in whatever roles they sang. Janey MacKenzie’s clearly-focused and supple tones helped make the most of her comic opportunities in reading Mistress Ford’s letter from Falstaff, while her summoning of the fairies as their Queen in the Forest of Windsor demonstrated some true and sweet-toned singing, phrases nicely-turned and notes beautifully floated, with a confident vocal ascent at the end. She impressed as well with her at times spectacular high work during Nicolai’s “Alls Well that Ends Well” ending with which Brio concluded their presentation.

Jody Orgias’s mezzo-soprano, though cloudier in timbre than her colleagues’ voices, blended tones surely and securely in ensemble, while her solo work imparted that commonly-held distinction of engagement which unhesitatingly encompassed the different characters’ persona and delivered the story-aspect vividly. As Mistress Page singing hand-in-glove with her “menage a trois” colleague Mistress Ford during the letter scene, and later as Mistress Quickly, pointing and shaping with great relish her encouragements to the gullible Falstaff regarding his two “femme fatale-objects”, she did her part in bringing the story to life. Different again was Alison Hodge’s mezzo-soprano, one which delivered Vaughan Williams’s “Greensleeves” setting at the beginning of the scene of Falstaff’s laundry-basket adventures with great beauty and nostalgic longing, while adding her distinctive timbre to ensembles in a sometimes sensitive and winsome, sometimes robust and sparking way.

As with the recent Nimby Opera production of Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” here in Wellington, Brio’s presentation was a heart-warming reminder of the Shakespearean maxim “All the World’s a Stage”, in that we were provided by the group with a genuine and engaging operatic experience despite having little or none of the trappings of full-scale conventional production.

Without being exactly “Jekyll-and-Hydish” the concert did take a somewhat different turn after the interval, with Japanese-born New Zealand-domiciled Yumi Ikematsu’s warmly-modulated flute-playing breathing life into a diverse programme of music, ably accompanied by pianist Phillip O’Malley. We heard a “Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise” by Albert Franz Doppler, a gentleman whose name I knew as an orchestrater of several of Liszt’s piano solo Hungarian Rhapsodies. The music’s origins were nicely pointed by the piano’s cimbalom-like figurations, and the flute’s often spectacularly virtuosic runs, jumps and variations, expressions of energy which contrasted with episodes of folk-like melancholy and homespun fatalism. Both flutist and pianist controlled the rhapsodic contrasts of the music with admirable aplomb, and brought the piece to an exciting conclusion with an unexpectedly low note on the flute, skilfully controlled.

Ravel’s well-known “Pavane pur une infante defunte” sounded ravishing, apart from a couple of lower notes that almost seemed to “get away” from Ikematsu – but she commanded such a vast spectrum of tone and colour one wonders whether the intense frailty of the sounds at that point weren’t intentional. At times it was possible to imagine the orchestra score being brought to life once again, especially in those passages where the flute has the “big tune” in the orchestral version, and the ear filled in the accompanying instrumental textures.

We seemed to lose the programme’s last scheduled item as well as the Janacek wind sextet, an arrangement of Dvorak’s “Songs my mother taught me” – instead the evening’s music-making concluded with another arrangement, this one of part of Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” from the suite “The Planets”, predictably the “big tune” known in some parts of the world as “I vow to thee, my Country”. This was a somewhat cool and jazzy arrangement, apparently by a Chinese composer whose name I didn’t catch, but who must have listened to a lot of Burt Bacharach. It was entertaining to listen to and sounded very enjoyable to play, Ikematsu and O’Malley relishing the open, breathy lyrical flute-lines and the stylish-sounding piano modulations.

Hopefully, word will spread regarding the enterprise of Caprice Arts Trust (who presented this concert), so that performances as we heard this evening will be better supported and enjoyed by far bigger audiences. The next Caprice Arts Trust concert in June features rarely-performed works by Menotti and Weill (see the “Coming Events” page for details). Events such as these give notice regarding the astonishing depth of talent to be found among lesser-known local musicians, capable of delivering performances deserving notice and support from all music-lovers.