BBC Proms 12, 13, 14 & 15
Royal Albert Hall, London SW7
Iolanta/ La Gioconda
Opera Holland Park, London W8, to Sat Aug 9
Last Sunday's Doctor Who Prom (Prom 13), up thither with the Last Night as the hottest tag of the season, saw the Tardis and miscellaneous Daleks join a loretta Young audience and its emotional parents in tolerating Copland, Holst, Wagner and Mark-Anthony Turnage as the leontyne Price for some jaunty music from the cult TV series. Normal service was resumed that evening as the centenary of Olivier Messiaen's nascence was pronounced by a rare operation of his vast cantata La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur J�sus-Christ (Prom 14).
Faith - both religious and musical - was surely required to stay rhapsodic for virtually two unbroken hours as Thierry Fischer led the huge forces of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, septet instrumental soloists and 2 BBC choirs totalling cc voices through and through its 14 movements. The problem with Messiaen's only oratorio is that it consists of a long series of set pieces with none of the narrative drive or organic growth required to actuate such workings forward. This was a noble public presentation, with fine solo performing from pianist Gerard Bouwhuis and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton helping to capture the work's devotional fervour; merely messianic Messiaen is sure music that preaches to few but the born-again.
This year's other Proms centenary, that of the (still with us) American composer Elliott Carter, was marked the following eve with a virtuoso performance of his dazzling hautboy concerto from Nicholas Daniel, with the BBC Symphony under David Robertson (Prom 15). Only trey other Carter works flesh in the season, as opposed to a sum up of 17 for Messiaen, while our own Thomas Ad�s merits but one.
His brooding 20-minute look poem Tevot fell somewhat flat amid the Mussorgsky and Borodin (Prom 12) with which he chose to programme it for the CBSO, along with a sparkling performance of Prokofiev's first piano concerto from the French-Canadian Louis Lortie.
Opera Holland Park is ending another vintage season with deuce rarely seen gems which should render the major houses ideas. Tchaikovsky's 90-minute one-acter Iolanta was written in 1892 as a companion piece to The Nutcracker, which has since established a separate identity as a favourite among Christmas ballets. The touching tale of a princess who is blind only doesn't know it is tastefully staged by Annilese Miskimmon, suavely conducted by Stuart Stratford and attractively sung by Orla Boylan, Peter Auty, Mark Stone and Mikhail Svetlov.
Ponchielli's La Gioconda is c. H. Best known for the heroine's climactic aria 'Suicidio!' and its magical if excess ballet, the Dance of the Hours, made notable by Walt Disney's Fantasia (and even more so by Allan Sherman's 'Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh'). Alongside the urbane Tchaikovsky, this is high melodrama involving poison, betrayal and dying in Renaissance Venice. Martin Lloyd-Evans's staging draws high-octane performances from Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, Yvonne Howard, David Soar and Olafur Sigurdarson, with Peter Robinson and the City of London Sinfonia relishing the sweeping score. Hurry, you have just one more week to catch them.
More info
