Carol Sams News
American composer
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2024-04-23
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2024-02-22 08:09:00
Cinderella in the gas works: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's site-specific production of Massenet's opera
[…] where suitable, and in Cendrillon there are some 17 undergraduates in principal roles (the opera is double-cast).There are usually three productions per year, staged scenes in November, a site-specific production in March and a concert performance in June. Previous productions have included Jonathan Dove's The Enchanted Pig (2023), Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen (2023), Charpentier's Les Arts Florissants and Offenbach's Mesdames de la Halles (2022), Stephen McNeff's Banished (2022), Mark-Anthony Turnage's Coraline (2021) and Jeremy Sams' Baroque pasticcio, The Enchanted Island (2020).The conservatoire does not have it's own theatre, hence offering the students the added experience of working on a site specific production (Birmingham has a rich inheritance of this thanks to Graham Vick's work with Birmingham Opera Company) previous venues have included an old button factory, and a rave bingo venue in Digbeth – the Secret Space, whilst the Moseley Swimming Baths – an architectural wonder, is a possibility […]
2023-10-04 06:42:00
Offenbach's La princesse de Trébizonde from Opera Rara performed with wit & style, you can't help but be drawn in & have as much fun as the performers
[…] the real thing, voices that are apt, fine technique allied to musical charm and great sense of the importance of the words. The chorus is on great form and has an important role, along with smaller solos including a group of pages who have a nicely bored chorus. And the orchestra perform with wonderfully vivacious style, like a pit band but very much a luxury product.The work is performed with abbreviated dialogue, edited sensitively by Jeremy Sams, so that the whole thing works as operetta rather than a sequence of musical numbers looking for a home.I must confess that when I saw the piece live, it felt like an engaging bit of nonsense, but when performed with wit and style, as here, you can't help but be drawn in and have as much fun as the performers. The appendix has eight numbers (over 16 minutes of music) dropped from the original […]
2022-07-04 06:27:07
Added depth: Julien Van Mellaerts & James Baillieu mix Die schöne Müllerin with the poems not set by Schubert, read by Christopher Purves, to remarkable effect
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland ParkSchubert: Die schöne Müllerin; Julien Van Mellaerts, James Baillieu, Christopher Purves; Opera in Song at Opera Holland ParkReviewed 2 July 2022 (★★★★½)Combining Schubert's song cycle with Müller's original poems gives added depth to a finely engaging and moving account of the young poet's journeyThis year's Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park included performances of the three great Schubert song-cycles, each taking a slightly different approach. on Friday 1 July 2022, baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Ella O'Neill performed Winterreise in Jeremy Sams' English version, Winter Journey, and on Sunday 3 July 2022, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and pianist Kunal Lahiry performed Schwanengesang in the original German with songs from Errollyn Wallen's new commission, The Lake interpolated throughout.On Saturday 2 July 2022, we caught baritone Julien Van Mellaerts (co-curator of the Opera in Song series) and pianist James Baillieu perform […]
2022-06-25 08:49:40
Obsessed by voices: pianist Dylan Perez on recording the complete songs of Samuel Barber
[…] where the operatic heroine is illuminated via the music of Ravel, Poulenc, Granados, Ginastera and Massenet, and Unsung Heroines, an evening of song by women composers as a benefit for a local women's charity, Solace Women's Aid. there are all three Schubert song cycles with a range of pianists and singers - Julien Van Mellaerts and James Baillieu in Die schöne Müllerin in the original language, Roderick Williams and Ella O’Neill in Winterreise in Jeremy Sams’ English translation, Winter Journey, and BBC New Generation Artists Ema Nikolovska and Kunal Lahiry in Schwanengesang with the world premiere of The Lake, composed by Errollyn Wallen.In response to Opera Holland Park giving the UK premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women this Summer, the Opera in Song series concludes with an American Song Gala with soprano Francesca Chiejina, mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, tenor Frederick Jones, baritone Alex Otterburn and Dylan on piano in a range […]
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