Cinema glamour in early Hong Kong

The Alhambra Theatre, in Nathan Road, Kowloon, opened in January 1934. It wasn't the oldest cinema in Hong Kong . The Alhambra was built by Shanghainese who were used to the cosmopolitan sophistication of Shanghai. When it opened, a local newspaper described it thus “The auditorium is fan-shaped, with seats giving an excellent view of the screen from every part, while at the same time the acoustic properties of the house are beyond cavill. The tastefully decorated lobby at the main entrance in Nathan Road covers an area of 2000 square feet. Seperate exits have been provided, so that the audience leaving the building will not crash with those waiting in the lobby. The dress circle is the largest in the Colony, having a clear span of 110 feet and a depth from back to front of 52 feet. The whole of the reinforced concrete framework passed all tests in May 1932, to the satisfaction of the Building Authority. A feature of the dress circle is that entrance is provided in the centre by a stairway to the front. The architects are Messrs.T.C. Wong and Company." The first film screened weas "Gold Diggers of 1933", straight from Hollywood. 

Below a wonderful compilation of photos of cinemas in Hong Kong.  Some still survive, used as bijou arts venues. Silent shorts were screened in Hong Kong in the 1890's,   the first "building" being a Chinese opera house, which closed down in 1912.  They were also apparently shown in pop up structures, like tents at New Year Fairs, much in the same way as Chinese operas were and still are, shown in temporary structures.  The first Chinese movie was made in 1909, but is lost. The first that survives complete is the Romance of a Fruit Pedlar (1922) about which I've written here.   There's more on Chinese film , written in English, than on most sites anywhere.  

Thank you WE Channel for another wonderful video !

Gorgeous Georgia - gemlike Tbilisi Opera House

Tbilisi in Georgia knows the value of culture and of the arts.  The refurbished Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre looks like a fabulous jewel box, overflowing with treasures. Every surface seems ornamented with mosaics, frescoes, gilding and light. What's more the wonderfully Byzantine style is apparently uniquely Georgian,. The new theatre will be a monument to Georgian art and tradition that the whole nation can be proud of. This theatre literally puts Tbilisi on the map.

After six years of restoration, the Tbilisi Opera house opens tonight with an opera, Abesalom and Eteri,  by Georgia's greatest composer, Zacharia  Paliashvili (1871-1933),  after whom the theatre is named. The performance will feature leading Georgian singers, though not Paata Burchuladze who is taking a year off  from singing to do other things, and may possibly run for political office. Read more about Paliashivili and the opera HERE.   HERE is a link to more photos. 

 In contrast, British arts policy is defiantly reductionist. In the long term this meanness of spirit could strangle creativity, killing the goose that laid the golden egg that made Britain famous.

Open Up the Royal Opera House

The Royal Opers House Open Up project starts in May. Plans were announced ages ago and now, a new section on the ROH website gives more detail. Open Up addresses the use of space within a historic site hemmed in on one side by the Covent Garden Piazza and on the other by Bow Street.

Thankfully, the revolving doors on both sides will go. They slow down entry and exit.  The Bow Street facade will be enlarged and glazed over, to make more space inside. it's good that they're improving the Bow Street entrance.   It's a primary point of access, so it would be extremely inconvenient to force patrons into the overcrowded Piazza area, when they might avoid it altogether. The ROH doesn't necessarily cater for the tourist and busker crowd! Intelligent use of wasted space on Bow Street and a nice new terrace above. Hopefully there will be more places to sit when waiting, though I appreciate that nonticket holders can colonize them, the way the old Box Office toilets became public use.

More urgently, there'll be a revamp of the Linbury Studio Theatre, which is so cramped that it's a no-go area for many. Like the Sadler's Wells Theatre it was built for dancers. Which is fine if you're under 30 and as flexible as a dancer. Most of us aren't. The seats in the present Linbury are so cramped that they drive away patrons who might otherwise enjoy being part of the audience. The industrial metal fittings will go, too, to be replaced by more acoustic-friendly wood.  Hopefully capacity will be improved, too.

More controversial is the suggestion that part of the Ampitheatre terrace will be enclosed to extend the restaurant. But isn't Covent Garden already packed with restaurants? What will a few extra covers add? And at what cost to opera-goers   If ROH restaurant goers don't like mixing with hoi polloi who go for music, that's their problem. Unfortunately, the rich expect privileges, but not all of them are actually opera lovers and many won't turn into donors.  In any case giving in to that kind of donor is dangerous. One of the mantras in arts admin is the idea that cafés are more important than performance space, hence the idea of turning the Coliseum foyer into a sandwich shop.  It's a silly short-term notion, into which companies are forced because funding bodies don't understand that the cost benefits of art don't lie simply in balance sheets.

Explosion or implosion ? South Bank Centre

This aerial photo of London's South Bank was taken only six years ago, but it's hard to recognize now. These days you can't walk for the debris,  permanent building works, trucks parked willy nilly and most of London out for the weekend. Is the South Bank consuming itself ? Read this article "Are developers destroying the South Bank?" by Ellis Woodman in the Telegraph. 

The first part of the article deals with the proliferation of office space and high rises around the area.  But scroll down to paragraph 10 which deals with the South Bank Centre. Unlike many other organizations, which object to the developments, the South Bank Centre Board has entered into a financial deal with them. Woodman concludes "Anyone who values the public life of London might also care to take issue with the proposals. The number of shops and restaurants on the South Bank was already much increased by the 2008 refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall and the prospect of another influx raises real fears about the site’s continued relevance as a space of civic inclusion."

This puts ther £120 million plan to redevelop the South Bank Centre into wider perspective. Attention has been cleverly shifted to the skateboarding community, supposedly a soft target, to deflect closer examination. But what will the extra (and expensive) space be used for?  Billy Bragg, who once had credibility on the left, thinks "local people" whatever that might mean, will benefit from new rehearsal rooms, but how so?  As Woodman says "This fully glazed space is billed as a rehearsal area but its extraordinarily prominent location is more obviously explained by its appeal to the corporate events market. A large volume of new retail and restaurant space has also been deemed necessary to balance the books. Some of this is to be housed in a new “liner building”: a narrow, three-storey slab that will extend down the side of Waterloo Bridge before cantilevering bombastically over the riverside walkway", .And how do poor working class locals benefit when the area becomes upmarket office and luxury apartment space ?

The problem with the proposals is that they're piecemeal : either not at all thought through in terms of cost benefit to the arts, or only too well thought through in terms of disguising the benefits to non arts and non local interests.Surely proposals as far reaching as these should be examined in the context of London- wide or nation-wide arts policy ?

It's not just a South Bank Centre thing. The area is unique,. Arguably it belongs to ordinary people, even arts lovers taking secondary place. As has been suggested, a proper solution might be to deconstruct the monolith of the South Bank Centre altogether. Why not decentralize, as other bodies like the Barbican are doing ? Why not shift South Bank management across town, like the London Sinfonietta and OAE ?  That would free up a whole building and packs of open space. The fact is, the South Bank area is a valuable resource. Why not turn the place into an all purpose public space and relocate the arts facilities elsewhere ? Let those who benefit, ie the rich, finance the move. This is far too big an issue to be left on this level. Isn't there any consistent arts/community policy in this country?

See also "Still fit for purpose?" The Royal Festival Hall.

More Band Aid or Surgery ? National Theatre slams South Bank redevelopment

The National Theatre has lodged a long, detailed and strongly worded objection to the South Bank's proposed redevelopment. Since the National Theatre is an integral part of the South Bank, this objection carries much more weight than most. Read the full objection HERE. The piece is a model of professional, informed analysis, backed by proper architectural and legal input. The project has such huge significance, not only for London, but for the whole country. It needs to be approached in a serious way. The South Bank site gives only a limited, biased account, which is fair enough - they want it to go through without too much scrutiny. Most of us don't have the professional expertise to comment in the way the National Theatre does, which is all the more reason we should pay heed.

"There is a common fallacy reflected in the above paragraphs: that Southbank, the brand, is synonymous with South Bank, the area. Over emphatic boundary-marking is inappropriate to the audience that comes to the arts buildings and moves easily between them, and those who simply come to the Queen's Walk to enjoy the river views and the overspills of animation".  

"In summary, we consider that the proposed development, in particular the Liner building, by virtue of its siting and scale contravenes relevant national, regional and local planning policies relating to the setting of the National Theatre, a grade II* structure; that the proposed building will abrogate the public perception of a unified cultural quarter; and that the wall effect it creates will undermine the amenity value of the National's largest public open spaces."

Under the the terms of consultation process, the National Theatre can only comment as far as the proposals pertain to itself, but the rest of us should be thinking in terms of how the proposals might work out in wider terms. The South Bank will be closed for another three years, only six years after the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall. This time, the disruption will be even greater, possibly long term. The area has grown piecemeal, without any long term strategy or vision.

"Band Aid or Surgery?"  Cosmetic patches won't solve the problems of the South Bank. The basic problem is that it is a huge, nationally important enterprise squashed into an area hardly big enough to fit a local arts centre. 

Architects design buildings, they don't design cultural policy. The responsibility for that lies not only with South Bank management but with the Arts Council. Where is the vision ? Where is the leadership?  How do piecemeal patches fit in with a wider overall strategy for the arts ?

A much more comprehensive solution to the South Bank's problems might be to diversify and decentralize. Even the Barbican is expanding to new premises and areas.  Notice that the Barbican retains core facilities like the Barbican Hall while outsourcing services that can be housed elsewhere.. The beauty of the Barbican approach is that they go into the community, rather than expecting the community to come to them.  There is no sacred rule that different facilities have to be housed in the same place.

Big scale facilities like the Royal Festival Hall can't be relocated, because they cost so much and are so specialized. But things like poetry workshops can happen anywhere. If the South Bank were decentralized, other parts of South London would benefit it things were spread around a bit. Think of LSO St Lukes rejuvenating Old Street.  It's infinitely better to do a few things extremely well than cram too much together.  There's no reason why the South Bank should become a bazaar. An arts centre should aim at excellence, rather than watering down its main purpose to look trendy. Because the riverfront space is so limited - and so unique - it should be used for prime, high-profile activities that have maximum impact. Rehearsal rooms and offices, and similar activities can be housed elsewhere and at less expense. As the National Theatre says "over emphatic boundary marking is inappropriate".

photo : Matt Brown, London

New Mariinsky II Theatre Gala Opening

The new Mariinsky Theatre, or Mariinsky II, St Petersburg, looks fantastic. It sounds fantastic too.

The design concept is so innovative that you should read the architectural specs. Here's a link with lots of photos to Diamond Schmitt Architects site.  More details on the Mariinsky site here. The new building is integrated into the historic urban landscape of the city. There's a rooftop ampitheatre with views across St Petersburg. The old building remains, linked to the new over a canal. Jack Diamond, the architect, says "we have used the elements of the old architecture, which are a masonry base and a metal roof. Instead of a classical portico, we have used great structural glass bay-windows......The public areas have an exuberance and a fun because going to the opera house today is, in a sense, in competition with people who can watch it on television, see it on their computer screen, can have videos and play them at will. The difference is that going to an event is a gregarious activity. And I often think that before the show begins, and during intermission, it is not the musicians who are the performers, it is the audience."

Anything new is bound to enrage but from what we've seen so far, the building is strikingly beautiful. The whole structure seems to glow with light and transparency.  How moth eaten and oppressive the red and gold trappings of traditional theatre seem in comparison! Now the focus is on performance, not performance space. The acoustic is breathtaking. It must be balm to sit and listen in a theatre like this, purpose built for music. Yet references to the past abound, blending clean modern elegance with references to theatre history and Russian culture in particular. The Opening Gala shows a backdrop of the "old" theatre with its Imperial Box.  A group of schoolchildren sing the Ave Maria, their young voices ringing out pure and clear: past, present and future unite in a single image.

Simplicity and extrvagance combine. A solo piano demonstrates the glorious acoustic. Then the stage explodes in a gorgeous tableaux: the opening scene of Boris Gudonov, bells ringing triumphantly. The Boyars, priests and Imperial retinue emerge from the crowd of massed peasants. A moment of sheer theatre! Yet there's no heaviness in this staging.The singing shines, not the costumes, though they're suitably "historic". Naturally, there's a political element to the opening of an extremely important new house like the Mariinsky, funded completely by the state. Yet Vladimir Putin is seen sitting in the orchestra stalls. Perhaps this is shrewd. On the other hand, it says much about the role of cultural heritage in Russia. Does art transcend petty concerns? One should sincerely hope so. The men of the Mariinsky chorus emerge from a backdrop showing the Tsar's box. They look like mafia in their dinner jackets, but the sound of their singing connects to the past, distant and not so  distant.

The new Mariinsky opens out internally, too. Although much has been written about the public face of the building, what's intriguing to theatre people is the backstage technology. This, too, must be state of the art, if the Opening Gala is anything to go by. The Mariinsky Ballet are shown dancing Balanchine against a pristine backdrop that suggests a dance studio. The backdrop them morphs into page after page of "etchings" evoking ballets past. Almost miraculously as the music turns to Carmen, the backdrop transforms into full, naturalistic colour.  Later, the Rite of Spring is recreated in Nicolas Roerich's designs and elements of Diaghilev's choreography. A "curtain" of light descends, and René Pape appears, singing Mefistofele.  This is projection technology at its finest, suggesting new possibilities, just as the advent of electric light did 100 years ago. Vivid changes of scene happen in an instant : no clunky machinery, no interruptions to dramatic flow.

Plácido Domingo sings Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond. His voice isn't what it was but who cares? Everyone loves him, and rightly so. Later, he takes over from Valéry Gergiev at the podium, and sings along from the pit. Anna Netrebko feigns surprise, but we all know she's in on the joke. Netrebko steals the entire show, singing almost non-stop for the last half an hour of the gala, often solo. Netrebko is in superb form: this evening will be one of the great memories of her life. Putin applauds with a grimace, but who cares? Gergiev, the Birthday Boy, throws his arms around her and kisses her. Surrounded by Pape, Domingo, Nikitin, pretty much the whole company, chorus and ballet, Netrebko is absolutely radiant. The girl from Krasnodar will forever be associated with the new Mariinsky.  Watch the full broadcast here, it's superb, and extremely well filmed. Beats the Bolshoi opening gala by leagues.

Band Aid or Surgery - rethinking the South Bank Centre

"The Festival Wing". That's the name for a project to revamp the South Bank by building a glass dome in the space connecting the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery.  More details HERE from Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios, the architects. The South Bank Centre also has an online exhibition HERE.  There are also plans to redevelop the area behind the RFH and Belvedere Street. There's also an article by Rowan Moore in the Observer HERE.

The South Bank Centre long ago outgrew the space on which it was built sixty years ago. Filling the gaps between the buildings make sense up to a point,. Yet those concrete wastelands between the buildings were part of the original design concept. Just as the original designers intended, the empty spaces have been colonized by "ordinary" people, though they probably didn't think in terms of skateboarders, graffiti and urine. Concrete aesthetic leads to such things.  There's nothing wrong with them in principle because it livens things up. 

But the primary purpose of the South Bank is culture. Culture does, I think, include graffiti, but a skateboard park isn't the most cost effective way of delivering culture on land as valuable and unique with magnificent views over historic London and the Thames. The proposals seem reasonable for what they are but do they really solve the long-term problems facing the South Bank? Are they band aid quickfix where major surgery is needed?
 
The problem with the South Bank is that it tries to do too much for too many  Music events of all types from orchestral concerts to pop concerts, visual arts and literature, theatre and multi-cultural events, chidren's activities, funfairs and foodfairs. Can any single venue cater to all? I'm not the only person to notice the watering-down of the South Bank's classical music services.  Once the South Bank did innovation, like the Messaien and Nono festivals. Now it does pre digested, over simplified commercialism like The Rest is Noise. Anyone could have programmed that. In an age of cutbacks why should the public purse pay for Alex Ross ?

Moreover, the South Bank is one of the few public open spaces in the area; it also serves as an important social service. Where else can Londoners take their kids, chill out and have fun in this area? It's also an escape from the office blocks and social housing in the vicinity. Restaurants and shops are an essential part of the mix, and they bring in much-needed income. Trouble is, the South Bank these days hardly resembles a cultural centre anymore, which defeats its whole raison d'etre. Parking is almost impossible, and disabled facilities poor.  Even the RFH needs a rethink, rather than cosmetic updates.

Another inescapable fact is that the South Bank can be, and should be, a national and international arts centre. That means offering top quality which isn 't available anywhere else. Then it would attract visitors from all over the country, and from abroad. It's politically trendy to be local-friendly but the Unique Selling Point of the South Bank is that it has the potential to be the flagship of British culture,  Just as the Royal Opera House puts London on the international map, so could the South Bank. Already, the Barbican is fulfilling this role with its alliances with other venues and far sighted vision. If the South Bank is to bea glorified community centre, couldn't it be a centre for a much more focussed community ?

Architects design buildings, they don't design cultural policy. The responsibility for that lies not only with South Bank management but with the Arts Council. Where is the vision ? Where is the leadership ?  How do piecemeal patches fit in with a wider overall strategy for the arts ?

A much more comprehensive solution to the South Bank's problems might be to diversify and decentralize. Even the Barbican is expanding to new premises and areas.  Notice that the Barbican retains core facilities like the Barbican Hall while outsou4rcing services that can be housed elsewhere.. The beauty of the Barbican approach is that they go into the community, rather than expecting the community to come to them.  There is no sacred rule that different facilities have to be housed in the same place. Of course there are people who turn up on the day and take whatever is on offer, but that kind of market is inherently limited,

Big scale facilities like the Royal Festival Hall can't be relocated, because they cost so much and are so specialized. But things like poetry workshops can happen anywhere. If the South Bank were decentralized, other parts of South London would benefit it things were spread around a bit. Think of LSO St Lukes rejuvenating Old Street north of the river.  It's infinitely better to do a few things extremely well than cram too much together.  There's no reason why the South Bank should become a bazaar. An arts centre should aim at excellence, rather than watering down its main purpose to look trendy. 

Of course the proposals may all be pie in the sky, since they've only secured £20 million of the £120 million they need. And let's face it, while culture may be essential to the life of a nation, so are health services, education and welfare. These proposals are all very well, but it might be more cost effective in the long term to rethink the whole concept of the South Bank in a much more radical way. Throwing money at problems doesn't make things better. Vision is what vreally counts.

Intricate Temple

Watch this full screen for AMAZING detail. It's the Chan Clan Ancestral Temple in Guangzhou, a magnificent example of Pearl River Delta architecture. Look at the carvings, and the ceramic figures on the roof lintels. The same person behind this has a whole series about the temple, showing different aspects, eg giant demon sculptures, but I specially love the intricate little figures. 

Opera as social signifier - major article

How are opera houses configured and why? A major article in the Financial Times examines how the design of opera houses has changed in response to changes in music and society. Read it here. Wonderful photos. (mine is La Fenice). It's a significant article because it shows that there's never been just one type of house or acoustic. Or opera, for that matter. The article's also significant because it states that which most dare not say. Some opera patrons could not give a stuff about music.

In Italy, opera audiences were socially diverse, though the masses were kept away from the nobs. Important consideration for health and hygiene reasons, not that the nobs washed either. English houses had a similar demographic. Nell Gwynne supposedly met the King while selling oranges (albeit at the theatre not the opera). Opera houses were ornate, not just because they catered to the rich but because they extended the idea of fantasy and glamour that made theatre an escape from brutal reality. But, as Marshall McLuhan said, "the medium is the message". Going to the opera became associated with class and wealth.  The Old Rich had nothing to prove, but the New Rich needed something to signal their status. So if you had money, you spent loads at the opera, whether or not you cared what was on.  A bit like vanity plates on cars. The really posh don't need to advertise. Opera as social signifier and opera as art aren't the same thing.

Perhaps this explains the innate conservatism of some opera audiences. A few years back there was a fuss about the number of small German opera houses (many ironically built for real kings and nobles).  "The trouble with German audiences" said some, "it that they have too many opportunities". Ergo, limiting attendance to the Met is good for art? All the more reason to read the article in the FT.

Many more posts here on architecture, theatre design etc. 

Harpa Hall, Iceland - decentralizing music venues

Quick post, as I have three fairly major posts in the pipeline. Watch this space !

New photos in of Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík, Iceland, which offically opens on 8th September. Please see HERE. The hall was planned when Iceland's economy seemed to be blooming.  Lots of countries do glamour projects like that - think Mandelsohn's vanity Dome which has fortunately been rescued, though it was a near thing. And think of the Olympics in London, on top of a war and the worst economic collapse the modern world has ever seen. So don't knock Iceland.  Consider its situation on the furthest edge of Europe. The Harpa Concert Hall is an act of faith in the counrty's ability to revive. Harpa Hall is more than "just" a concert hall, for it provides the kind of civic facilities capital cities need. Many cities don't have the luxury of numerous specialist venues like we're blessed with in mainland Europe. In a country as northerly as Iceland, it's probably good for the community to have an all-weather focus place. Photo by Bára Kristinsdóttir

Harpa Hall might also put Iceland on the international music map and do for the country what the Canary Islands Music Festival does for the islands. And Iceland does have music - Vladimir Ashkenazy is a local resident and of course Jon Leifs the composer, who should be heard more often. Ilan Volkov is the Chief Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (see HERE ) so maybe he'll develop a specialist profile. Ultimately, it's up to Icelanders, not outsiders,  to decide what they want to do with the hall. So good luck to them ! Please also see my piece on Guangzhou's new Opera House, designed by Zaha Hadid.  The future of classical music depends on places outside established centres of western music. Local customs, tastes and priorities must be respected. Places like Guangzhou (Canton) already have thriving regional cultures, so imposing from outside is a form of neo-colonialism. Guangzhou's opera house will be dwarfed by the even newer West Kowloon development in Hong Kong, of which I'll write more soon. Since the whole region between Guangzhou and Hong Kong is gradually becoming one huge conurbation of 50 million people, these venues serve a massive audience. In straitened times, thank goodness there are cities that invest in culture.

Garsington Opera starts today at Wormsley

A new era for Garsington Opera as it moves to its new home at Wormsley Park. Garsington Opera has been visionary from the start, and the tradition continues. Part of the buzz this year is the new pavilion. It was designed to solve problems. How to build a space that enhances performance even though it's open air. How to give patrons amenities of a very high standard in a temporary structure? This isn't Glastonbury, they don't do mud. Wrecks Louboutins.

Here is what I've written about the Garsington Opera pavilion, and here is what Jonathan Glancey's written. He's an architect, I'm a patron, we're both excited. Why is it that visual arts and architecture writing is usually so much better written than music? Tickets are still available for Rossini Il Turco in Italia and for the rarity, Vivaldi La verita in cimento. The popular Mozart Magic Flute always appeals, though from what I've heard thuis time not quite as much as usual. All the more reason to stick to the others !  I heard the last Vivaldi opera, L'Incoronazione di Dario at Garsington Opera  last year's delightful, vibrant Rossini Armida. Also a wonderful Britten Midsummers Nights Dream last year that's quite different from the one at ENO. Click on links. Lots more, not all on this site.  Here's a link to the Garsington Opera site.

Garsington Opera 2011 - innovative pavilion, great programme

Garsington Opera starts its first season at Wormsley Park, in even more spectacular settings.  Pictured is the new pavilion, strikingly innovative, with superlative acoustics, which could set new standards for open air theatre.  Garsington Opera's specialist repertoire is geared towards baroque and chamber opera, so naturalistic, unamplified sound dynamics are essential.

The pavilion is conceived as an elegant lightweight structure, say the architects Snell Associates, "elevated above the ground giving the appearance of ‘floating’ above the landscape". It was inspired by traditional Japanese theatres, linking performance space, function and the aesthetics of nature and gardens. Kabuki theatres, for example, use hanamichi or flower paths, extended platforms and bridges which connect the stage to the audience. The Garsington Opera  pavilion contains covered verandahs and terraces, which provide bars and spaces to linger and enjoy the landscape. In an English summer festival, the weather can be unpredictable, so if it rains, visitors won't get wet. More leg room, too ! 

Evan Green, for Sound Space Design, (Bob Essert), who created the new Garsington Opera acoustic, says "Outdoor, temporary and fabric are words not normally associated with outstanding acoustic....to enhance the feeling of being enveloped by sound, surfaces which provide reflections from the side have been created by twisting the form of the auditorium side wall panels to create so-called ‘acoustic sails’. Furthermore, the roof has been specifically shaped to provide reflections to all parts of the audience as well as back to the stage and into the orchestra pit. These reflections back to the stage are particularly important to enable the singers to experience the room and develop a strong sound. The shaping of the acoustic sails and roof together help the orchestra sound to reach the audience and provide an excellent balance of singer and orchestral sounds". Suspended above the main fabric roof, a mesh covering will drastically reduce the sound of rain.

Mozart's The Magic Flute opens the 2011 Garsington Opera season. Because it's the first opera in what promises to be a grand new era, it should be stunning. Martin André conducts and Olivia Fuchs directs, They collaborated on the acclaimed 2008 Garsington Opera  The Rake's Progress. The cast includes Sophie Bevan, Robert Murray,William Berger and many others.

David Parry, Rossini expert, who has helped make Garsington Opera's reputation in the genre, conducts Il turco in Italia. Martin Duncan directs. He did the wonderful Rossini Armida in 2010. Read about it  HERE. This is a director who understands music. He and Parry are an excellent combination. Mark Stone sings, with Ana Durlovski, Quirijn de Lang, and Geoffrey Dalton.

In the true Garsington Opera tradition, a true rarity, Vivaldi's La verità in cimento, "The truth put to the test".Vivaldi wrote about 100 operas, not all of which are preserved complete. In 2008, Garsington Opera  presented his L’incoronazione di Dario. Laurence Cummings conducts this time too, and David Freeman directs. Paul Nilon, Jean Rigby, Diana Montague and others ensure the singing will be good. The Garsington Opera 2012 season will include, appropriately, Vivaldi's L'Olympiade.

Public booking for this year's Garsington Opera Festival opens on 18th April. Tickets are still available, so please visit the website.The season runs from 2nd June to 5th July.

3 x 3 Beethoven Piano Trios new series, new ensemble, new venue

Introducing the Phoenix Piano Trio, undertaking a survey of everything that Beethoven wrote for piano trio,
containing many of the greatest works of the chamber music repertoire. Starts 10th April.

Each programme in the series is built round Beethoven's music for piano trio. A comprehensive traverse through the repertoire. Read more about the programmes HERE and also about the Phoenix Trio. .

If the Phoenix Piano Trio look familiar, well, yes they are. Impressive pedigrees! Each of them is very experienced and well-regarded. Sholto Kynoch, the pianist, plays, teaches and is a real repertoire buff - he's the creative blaze behind Oxford Lieder. Jonathan Stone, the violinist, has played in several ensembles including the Doric String Quartet.  Marie Macleod, the cellist, also plays with the Aronowitz Ensemble. Please follow the links, to read more. Chamber musicians don't usually have high public profiles, but knowing their backgrounds and networks gives a very good take on who they are. All three have worked together for years, so the Phoenix Piano Trio, though "new", comes with a long history..

What's also interesting is their interest in blending masters like Beethoven with new music that works in complement. "Beethoven was the ground breaking firebrand of his day", say the Trio, so for each programme they've commissioned a new work to fit the Beethoven. Don't let the "firebrand" tag bother you, since these are established composers. James Weeks, for example, the man behind Exaudi, one of the finest vocal ensembles around. Philip Venables, Edwin Roxburgh,  James Young (a pianist) and Cheryl Frances-Hoad. 

Five programmes, repeated in a mini-tour which starts in London and goes on to Oxford and points beyond.  In London, one of the places is The Forge, "Camden's newest hidden gem". Not yet another conversion, but a purpose built new building designed by award winning architects Burd Howard. The auditorium, seating 100, was specially planned for natural acoustics. Between the auditorium and restaurant is a big gass domed courtyard with a 6.5 metre "living wall" of plants. The outdoors indoors in the heart of town ! Read the specs for The Forge carefully as it seems like an ideal small venue for chamber and other intimate performances. Big selling point seems to be the acoustics- listen to sound samples on the website. Since The Forge is smaller than the Wigmore Hall or Kings Place, it would be a great place for conferences, weddings, parties etc. making it economically as well as audibly sound. Parking's a problem, though.Try the Holywell Music Room, Blackheath or Walton on Thames.

Guangzhou's new opera House Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid, the visionary architect at least gets recognition - in South China. Read about her stunning new opera house in Guangzhou (Canton) on the banks of the Pearl River. The building seems to curve sinuously, moving and reaching out. Imagine when it's full of people and sounds. (Cantonese talk max volume.)  Read Jonathan Glancey's article here with video and pics.

"....... this was never going to be an ordinary commission. The main building comprises a freestanding concrete auditorium set within an audacious granite and glass-clad steel frame. The exposed frame is a stunning thing, a kind of giant spider's web protruding in several unlikely directions. It seems to challenge the laws not just of conventional geometry, but of gravity itself." (More about the design in the artidle)
 
It "feels" vibrant, like China itself. The Hong Kong Cultural Centre, designed in the 1970's, was adventurous for its time, but the new Guangzhou house seems world class. There are plans to evolve the world's biggest metropolis in the region, merging all the cities between Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou,. Thus the new opera house ia a viable project, serving a hundred million people. Indeed, with several major houses in China (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou) international tours will make more financial sense. Guangzhou's main fare won't be western opera, as Glancey suggests, but Cantonese and other Chinese opera, and all kinds of concerts, much like Hong Kong where there's a  a more flexible attitude to genres than in the west. So no problem about the waterfront,  Mr Glancey. They won't be doing Peter Grimes too often.

Interesting that it takes a place like China to have the vision to commission. Ten years ago, Hadid planned something very similiar for Cardiff but it was blocked, as Glancey says by "an alliance of narrow-minded politicians, peevish commentators and assorted dullards holding the Lottery purse strings". The same negative mentality that pervades much of British society and not just the arts.  Give this nation greatness and it responds resentfully like Victor Meldrew (old curmudgeon on TV). It takes no brains whatsoever to figure why the Germans  (and Chinese) do it better. (sometimes).  
Read about Xenakis Philips Pavilion HERE about Renzo Piano's Shard in London HERE.

Elgar Gerontius Spence Bach Choir Westminster Cathedral

Hearing Elgar's Dream of Gerontius at Westminster Cathedral with Toby Spence, David Hill and the Bach Choir should have been a great experience. Only a few weeks before, the Pope himself had conducted Mass there, celebrating the beatification of John Henry Newman, who wrote the inspiring text.

David Hill is a specialist in this repertoire, as his recordings with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra attest. The Bach Choir's reliable. Yet for all its magnificence, the Dream of Gerontius rests on the tenor part. It's formidable, defying even very good singers because of its range and duration. Pity then that I couldn't hear Toby Spence's singing, even though I was in "premium" seats near the front of the nave. Spence made heroic efforts but the sound was lost in the vastness of the Cathedral's enormous dome.

It's the same problem that plagues the Royal Albert Hall.  Organ and orchestral music is wonderful, but solo voices disappear. Domes are designed so the sound of the congregation rises upwards towards God. Theology doesn't make good concert acoustics.

Westminster Cathedral is like no other. Planned in 1900, consecrated in 1910, it's a bizarre amalgam of Italianate, Greek and Russian Orthodox, Late Victorian, Viennese Secession and Arts and Crafts style. Outside, all the church buildings have unusual stripey brickwork : think Keble College, Oxford or Euston Station when it was built, the highest point of architectural innovation at the time. The architecture is surprisingly progressive and ecumenical.  Hundreds of different kinds of marble, wood and stone, creating a lively patchwork that symbolizes the diversity of the physical world. The patterns in the marble are so beautiful it's hard to believe they were made by nature, not art. God's work, so to speak. The delicate paintings which can be seen in the photo of the chapel behind where the performance took place disappear into darkness at night, but again that has theological meaning : we don't need to see them, but we know they exist.

The Bach Choir were arrayed on a platform in front of the gates in this photo, so their sound projected forward. Nice, reliable singing but more animation would have been welcome. The demons plotting in Hell could have been done with much more devilry and wit. Down to earth humour is part of the good natured vision Elgar and Newman were trying to create. Hill conducted well, the orchestra clearly audible.

If Toby Spence had been positioned in the pulpit, he would have been heard to better advantage. Pulpits are designed to project solo voices, after all.  This is such a difficult part that a tenor deserves all the help he can get. The baritone hardly sings at all.  James Rutherford's voice comes close to bass, and booms nicely so would not have been quite so lost in front of the orchestra. Patricia Orr's Angel was pretty, though again barely audible. Such lovely bouquets! Who's their florist? Toby Spence deserved the biggest one for effort. He wisely conserved himself safely until near the end  when he bravely made a big effort to project. If you were sitting at the back and didn't know the piece you might have thought it was orchestral and choral.  Please see my commentary on Newman, Elgar and the Dream of Gerontius HERE. It's a very deep and inspirational piece so without words, much of the impact is lost.

Garsington's new home at Wormsley

Garsington Opera has received planning permission for a new Opera Pavilion at Wormsley in South Oxfordshire. Vistors in summer 2011 can look forward to a structure "made from a limited palette of materials – timber, fabric and steel and it will combine transparency and lightness with a sense of intimacy. Lifted above the ground to give an appearance of ‘floating’ over the landscape, architect Robin Snell’s design takes its cue from a traditional Japanese pavilion in its use of sliding screens, extended platforms, verandas and bridges to link it to the landscape. It will be built by Unusual Rigging, the UK’s most experienced provider of stage engineering and technical solutions for the entertainment, sports, film and television industry." Hopefully legroom will be more generous, as many patrons need it.

Wormsley Estate is the perfect setting for Garsington Opera as it is not only a quintessentially English country estate with an expanse of rolling, verdant parkland, complete with lake and deer, but has extremely good road access just off junction 5 of the M40.

Entartete-Technik Kugelhaus

This is the Kugelhaus, a circular building made of steel and glass, built in Dresden in 1928. Architect Peter Birkenholz (d 1961) Click on the pic to enlarge for detail.  Plans were laid to build a row of them, like a galaxy of planets in orbit. That was the spirit of the age. Very "futurist". Needless to say anything so interesting was denounced by the Nazis as "degenerate". Prince Charles would have loved the way they got rid of modern architecture!  It was pulled down in 1938. The "Arc" aka the Ove Arup building that looms over the A4 is a distant descendant. There's a glass dome in modern Dresden, too, built as a memorial to the Kugelhaus, but it's not quite the same. Read more HERE

Mole at Ashmolean, Oxford

Oppressive as it was impressive the "old" Ashmolean Museum in Oxford symbolized its period. The huge marble staircase is still there but the warren of rooms is now counterbalanced by a central atrium filled with light, with smaller staircases, more free flowing. It's like a work of art in itself - an installation of light and inspiration. On one floor, seats have been placed so you can gaze on it. For more photos see Martin Beek's photostream HERE, it's excellent and informative.

The "new" airy ambience reflects the open-minded spirit in which the Ashmolean was conceived in 1683. In the Age of the Enlightenment, the wonders of the world were collected because they were stimulating and different. Among the Dutch Masters paintings, there's a still life where tropical shells are painted together with porcelain and fruit. For the painter and his viewers, this was a window on some strange, exotic paradise. The Ashmolean brought things together in a non=judgemental way - Egyptian sarcophagi, Tang horses, Roman coins, Pre-Raphaelites. By the time the V&A was built, the ethos had shifted towards a more materialist Victorian approach.

"The British have nothing to offer the Achenese". A paraphrase of a statement by the Sultan of Acheh in Northern Sumatra in the 17th century, when the British were trying to compete with the Dutch for the Indonesian trade. The doughty Achenese were not "colonized", holding out against the Dutch well into the 20th century. The phrase greets you as you enter Room 35 where there's an exhibition "West meets East". It's a lively, alternative way of looking at the way West and East met in the baroque period.

How amazing it must have been for Europeans to uncover an unlimited supply of fabulous (in the true sense of the word) consumer and luxury goods. There are sewing boxes intricately carved in ivory, western-style dining chairs of oriental lacquer and porcelains painted in vaguely western styles, but made in the potteries of central China. No Jingdezhen, perhaps no Limoges or Dresden. Think back and imagine what it must have been like, when suddenly objects like these entered western life.

As the Sultan of Acheh observed, the flow went mainly one way. Which is why the British used opium to lever their way into China, with horrific social consequences, the extent of which cannot be underestimated, even today. But there's one magnificent example of something western that impressed the Chinese. A huge French tapestry, not dissimilar perhaps to something made for Louis XIV, adorns a wall in the Ashmolean. It was a commission woven for the Qianlong Emperor and depicts bizarre animals like a tapir, a capybara, a leopard, a crocodile. All together in a woodland setting where oaks meet palm trees. No wonder they're fighting - in the tropics, crocodiles didn't often get sheep for dinner. It reminded me of another piece in the Ashmolean, an early European painting of animals in a forest fire, all standing about looking bemused.

This tapestry was stored away in the Summer Palace in Beijing, which is why the colours are so vividly preserved. How magnificent French tapestries must have been when new! Most of those we see now are faded. But the Summer Palace was razed to the ground after the Second Opium War, when a military expedition was sent to punish the Chinese for resisting the trade. The magnificent palace, a showcase of the wonders of the world, was ransacked by soldiers who had no idea what they were destroying. This tapestry was looted too, but luckily it ended up at the Ashmolean.
Later I'll write more about the Ashmolean, including its collection of musical instruments, with a Strad that's never been played since new.

Transfigured Night - city version

Once I drove into Dallas just as a freak of sunlight hit the city's gleaming glass canyons, each pane reflecting another, multiplying the beams of light from many angles. Dallas is totally dwarfed by Hong Kong, which is urban theatre on a grand scale.

All year round, the Hong Kong skyline is a giant installation of light and movement but in December it goes into extreme overdrive. The vertical planes of the buildings (some of the tallest in the world) become canvases of light and colour, circuses of electric excess. This clip is fairly tame - you should see the shopping malls - and shows only one promenade on the quieter, more discreet side of the harbour, but it's close up and the comments are cute. (a woman mimics the word "merry" to her kid, it's a play on cow sounds)

Coming up : preview of what's on in January - can hardly wait !

Simon Bainbridge, Rebecca Saunders : music as sculpture

The joy of being in cities like London is that there's so much on, you're spoiled for choice. Last Saturday alone there were 6 different good things on offer. The one I wish I'd been at was the Wigmore Hall where the Arditti Quartet and the Hilliard Ensemble played several new works, including Simon Bainbridge's Tenebrae.

This is what the Times, said, "a tough but atmospheric work that appeared to take its cue from the English title — Shadows — of the Paul Celan poem it set. Certainly the use of silence, and of strings to cushion the gentle, overlapping chanting of the voices on eerie chords, seemed to suggest an “otherworld” shadowing the human. I just wished that the voices had something more interesting to do. All the extrovert break-outs came from the strings." The Times is not the place to go to read about new music but at least that helps a bit. I wish I'd been there! Bainbridge is one of the most original current British composers, quite different from the "religious" crowd like Finnissy, MacMillan, Harvey, Tavener.

Bainbridge previously set Primo Levi, extremely well, in Ad Ora Incerta and Four Primo Levi Settngs, so Paul Celan should follow naturally. Indeed, I've always thought of Bainbridge in terms of Paul Celan, so I'm kicking myself for missing this. Last night I was listening to the recording, about which I'll write more later.

Magnus Lindberg said “music is making notes vibrate in space”. There’s also the often-quoted phrase describing architecture as “frozen music”. Hence, Simon Bainbridge’s Music Space Reflection addresses itself to Daniel Liebeskind’s innovative building for the Imperial War Museum North. The music was created to be heard in that building, the audience encouraged to look up and around them, even to move around to appreciate how movement adapted what they heard. The idea, I think, is that the listener can process sound in relation to space, and respond to surroundings in a musical way. I heard it in the flat, conventional auditorium at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which almost certainly limited the experience. There were wide screen projections of images like glass and metal – nothing more explicit – but these were distracting rather than helpful.

The orchestra played in four equally balanced blocks across the platform, amplified sensitively by microphones and speakers in unusual formations, such as above and behind the audience. The resonances were quite bizarre, genuinely imparting a sense that sound was coming from four dimensions, and adding a low, rumble giving a depth of sound not otherwise possible from conventional instruments. It felt as though we were hearing the very pulse of the earth.

The music unfolds against a deep electronic deep reverberation, moving swiftly in different directions, sometimes creating angular dissonances, sometimes rotating in whimsical flurries. Sometimes the sounds turn on a sudden pivot, changing direction as if they were rounding corners. You don’t need visual clues, but you can “feel” glass and metal in the clear, sharp textures, solid forms against transparent. This is very expressive music, though not at all “programmatic”: it’s far too imaginative and quirky. Just as architecture is a means of giving shape to “empty” space, even silence is part of Bainbridge’s concept. At the end, sounds gradually dissipate, but even then, there’s a structure to the way they fade into the computer-enhanced hum, so understated that only sensitive ears can pick it up. In nature, too, there are many sounds almost imperceptible to human ears, but they are there, nonetheless, and affect us subliminally.

Driving home I listened to BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now programme on the Berlin Avant Garde. Quite interesting speakers though I'm not sure about the music. One piece reminded me of many hours spent in an intensive care unit praying the machines didn't deviate from relentless hum because of what that might mean. But forward it to 22 minutes, when Rebecca Saunders comes on. Blauuw, written for the trumpeter Marco Blauuw is a wonderful piece, so listen before it goes off air on 14th.

Music is invisible, but it's created by sound waves and vibrations which are physical phenomena, and affected by where they are made. Saunders's music is extremely physical. She uses sound like probes, exploring the space around it: sound waves expand or retract differently in different environments, subtly adapting to the space in which they are heard. At the Proms in 2009, her Traces was performed. Read about it HERE If you think in conventional thematic development, it seems formless, til you realize that what's she's doing is using music to "feel" a way around ideas, like a blind person might use their fingers to explore what they can't see. It's a whole new way of thinking about music, extremely sensual and physical but in a subtle way that grows out of space rather than existing in limbo. Rebecca Saunders sculpts with sound, the way a sculptor might shape a piece of marble, following the natural form inherent in the stone.

THIS is where I went Saturday night - Britten Sinfonia at the QRH. I went because the programme was very well chosen, designed to showcase Elliott Carter's Dialogues, from 2005, an important work that has been recorded 3 times already as far as I know. It's a very important work in the vast Carter canon, and needs to be known by anyone wanting to understand Carter's work. Performance was good enough, but the last time I heard this live it was conducted by Pierre Boulez, Carter's friend for over 50 years, who's one of the best Carter interpreters of all. The Britten Sinfonia is a good orchestra, but the booklet presentation could have been better.