DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Grigori Frid. Edinburgh Fringe August 2016

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, by Grigori Frid.
About Turn Theatre Company, directed by SEBASTIAN UKENA 
Singer POLLY OTT (shared with VERA HILTBRUNNER)
Pianist STAVROULA THOMA


This opera based on the Diary of Anne Frank is a very sparse staging by director SEBASTIAN UKENA.

 One woman (POLLY OTT when I saw it, she shared the role with VERA HILTBRUNNER) sings the role of Anne Frank, starting on her 13th birthday, which is when she gets the diary. 

When it opens, she and her family cannot guess the fate that is in store for them, and so the first scene is a happy young girl, just emerging from childhood, enthusing over her lovely birthday presents. The change from the happiness and security of childhood to insecurity, fear, and finally going into hiding, is movingly depicted in the music of GRIGORI FRID, which is more than an 'accompaniment;. but music as an integral part of the drama, depicting the emotions that words can't quite accomplish (so Wagnerian in effect, if not in scale!!) The piano was played by the excellent and talented STAVROULA THOMA.

Anne's experience is tied up with all the varied and turbulent emotions of adolescence, and leads to a heart-rending scene in which she prays almost inaudibly for help, or perhaps just the strength and courage to continue. Then this is followed by a comic scene in which she narrates a quarrel between the Van Daans, the other couple sharing their hideout. No-one was a saint, and the pressures of living like this must have been incredible, but she manages to extract humour from this situation.

It is the story of one young girl who never survived into adulthood, as the voice of a generation of victims and sufferers, and during the performance she fills the stage with photographs of other victims of oppression and persecution. Anne never lost her faith in the basic goodness of humanity, though, in spite of everything.

Joyce DiDonato in Edinburgh

Edinburgh International Festival 2010

Usher Hall, Sunday 22 August

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

David Zobel, piano

Three Centuries of 'Amore'

        

A very interesting and unusual programme - this is what I love about Edinburgh, the chance to hear music one might not otherwise have come across. As the title implies, all the songs are about love in all its manifestation - and they are not all about unhappy or unrequited love! 

             The first set of songs date mainly from the 18th century, although there is one by Caccini (Amarilla mia bella) and one by Luigi Rossi (1597-1653), Se tu m'ami is attributed to Pergolesi, but the attribution is uncertain.

              The first song in the first group was Danza, danza, fanciulla gentile, by Franceso Durante (1684-1755). It's a light-hearted exhortation to a girl to dance - the lovely rippling piano accompaniment, brilliantly executed by David Zobel, indeed exemplifies the spirit of the dance. The second song was an equally light-hearted song in which  a girl tells her lover that she's sorry if he's suffering for love, but she's not obliged to love him alone. DiDonato presented these in a graceful, charming way, appropriate to the subject, but she was equally at home in the more serious songs which followed - the repetition of the name Amarilli in Amarilla mia bella sounded especially heartfelt.

               The second group consisted of Italian songs set by Beethoven, including La Partenza, to a text by Metastasio - a fairly simple text, in which the lover wonders how he will live when his beloved is gone; Beethoven elaborates upon the simple lines of the text, especially in the piano part. The Beethoven set also contained two settings of the same song, L'amante impaziente, obviously an exercise in vocal and pianistic virtuosity; the words are the same ("What is my lover doing - she obviously likes to make me wait"), but it is first set in a jaunty major key, implying that he knows she won't keep him waiting long, and the second is a mournful, slow setting, implying that he thinks she's deserted him.

             The final piece before the interval was the Willow Song from Rossini's Otello. The introduction, originally for the harp, translates well to the piano, especially under the expert hands of David Zobel, and DiDonato really got to the heart of Desdemona's grief and forebodings of death....heartbreaking!

            After the interval, the programme continued with songs by 20th century composers, many of whom are hardly remembered today - such as Francesco Santoliquido (1883-1971) (yes, that was his name; DiDonato made a plea from the stage not to succumb to the temptation to call him "Frankie Holywater"!!)  She sang four songs by this composer, all poems he had written himself. I especially liked the first songs, L'assiolo canta (The horned owl sings), which is a song a lover sings on a serene summer's evening...it's a perfect blend of words and music. The longest song, L'incontro (the meeting) about two lovers who meet again after a long time apart, had perhaps less individual character than the previous songs, sounding rather like a blend of Puccini and Richard Strauss - none the worse for that, of course! - giving the singer a chance to shine in soaring cadences.


          This was followed by a setting of Leopardi's Oscuro e il ciel by Ildebrando Pizzetti, which is a sublime blending of words and music, expressing passion and yearning as much with the piano as with the voice.


         The final group consisted of songs by Italian composers about foreign, 'exotic' climes, such as Leoncavallo's Serenata francese.

          After the recital proper, when Joyce DiDonato returned for her encore, she spoke in tribute to the late Sir Charles Mackerras. She had originally come to Edinburgh to sing the role of Idamante in Idomeneo under him (in the event, Sir Roger Norrington conducted). She then sang 'Voi che sapete' as a sort of farewell to Sir Charles, and concluded the evening with an extract from La Donna del Lago.

Sarah Connolly sings Jazz in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh International Festival 2010

 Saturday 21 August, THE HUB, Castlehill

Jazz Recital by Sarah Connolly and John Horler.

Sarah Connolly is one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos of our time, and now she has shown that she is equally gifted in the jazz repertoire (In fact, she did perform some jazz numbers at the Last Night of the Proms last year). Judging by this, she could have had an equally distinguished career as a jazz singer....but then we would never have had her Giulio Cesare, Agrippina, Maria Stuarda or any of the many other roles in which she has shone. (My particular favourite among these is Giulio Cesare).

They presented a programme of songs from the 1930s, some really well-known, such as The Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, some less familiar.There were some well-known Gershwin numbers, of which I particularly enjoyed her performance of Treat me Rough, which was sung in a very tongue-in -cheek, flirtatious way, just as it should be.

The programme began with Skylark which was written for Judy Garland by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael. It's a lovely song with beautiful lyrics, and an elaborate piano postlude. 

John Horler is a very talented jazz pianist, who worked as pianist to John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, and it was as much a pleasure to listen to him play as it was to hear Sarah Connolly sing. In fact in jazz, as in Lieder, the piano is as important as the voice, and many of the songs have very Schumann-esque piano postlude.

Horler also played a solo - improvisation - which further demonstrated his skill at the keyboard.

The lyrics to the jazz songs are amazing - witty, sophisticated, tender or ironic...sometimes within the same song.

For the recital Sarah Connolly was wearing a black off-the-shoulder dress, with very high-heeled black shoes...she looked stunning and sophisticated, just as a jazz singer should!