Cape Consort – Purcell Dido & Aeneas #Woordfees2016 #OperaReview

Reviewed by Andy Wilding

Woordfees 2016, Fismer Hall, 11 & 13 March 2016

Director: Marí Borstlap

Cast: Lente Louw – Dido, Willem Bester – Aeneas, Elsabé Richter – Belinda, Nick de Jager – Towenares, Antoinette Blyth – soprano, Riaan le Roux – bass

Instrumentalists: Hans Huyssen – Musical Director & Baroque cello, Kathleen du Plessis – Baroque violin, Jens Eggers – Baroque violin, Elmarie van der Vyver – Baroque viola, Uwe Grosser – lute; chitarrone; Baroque guitar

About to start: Cape Consort – Dido & Aeneas at Woordfees 2016

From the moment we set foot inside the hall, director Marí Borstlap was already communicating her concept – a modern, innovative, and resourceful interpretation of a 300-year-old opera. If we were expecting a scene from a classical painting, we would have been surprised to see the interior of a hospital. Those who are familiar with modern theatre would quickly have guessed “mental hospital”, and they would have been correct. The sound of waves breaking on the beach added another clue as to the relevance of this location. I enjoyed the minimal set, it had a clean Googlesque modernism, in exciting contrast to the archaic subject. Dramatic use of colour in the lighting of the set, and occasional video projections and sound effects, brilliantly created the various moods and scene changes.

Borstlap also managed to create humour in this dusty Greek myth – the hilarious duet by cell phone between Willem Bester and Nick de Jager. Another highlight for me was the stunning duet “The hero loves as well as you” by Elsabé Richter and Antoinette Blyth, with Lente Louw standing on a chair, beaming and blushing like a new bride, and the cast throwing white paper high into the air to rain down on her like confetti. Borstlap’s concept of Dido required quite an advanced level of acting, which I felt Louw handled extremely well. Playing on the location, her moods swung dramatically from morbidly spaced out and depressed, to a deliriously happy 5-year-old birthday princess drinking up all the attention. She is also a wonderful and dynamic singer, her amazing voice is a treat for the audience. Her diction is excellent, and this requires great skill in finding the balance between the shapes that sound good, and the sounds that are recognisable words.

The entire cast did very well with the libretto, I found I could hear the plot and follow the story with ease. Willem Bester (Aeneas) has a beautiful rich velvet tenor and precise intonation, like a well tailored suit. And the award for Show Stealer goes to countertenor Nick de Jager for his amazing performance as chief monster – a roll I later discovered to be The Sorceress. I enjoyed being able to follow approximately what was happening, without having actually studied this opera before. It was very accessible. (Were I a better Afrikaans reader, I could of course have read the program, but I read it afterwards, searching for interpretation clues.)

With help from Uwe Grosser, who changed his instrument as frequently as the small cast changed rolls, musical director and Baroque cellist Hans Huyssen held the baso continuo and conducted the quintet orchestra with clear body language and attentive sensitivity to the singers. In keeping with Purcell’s score, the four part strings and continuo was the perfect size for the venue. It also enabled the audience to hear the unusual sounds of Grosser’s lute, chitarrone (long neck) and Baroque guitar, the subtle sounds of which are often lost in larger ensembles.

From left: Antoinette Blyth, Willem Bester, Lente Louw, Kathleen du Plessis, Jens Eggers, Hans Huyssen, Elmarie van der Vyver, Uwe Grosser, Nick de Jager, Riaan le Roux, Elsabé Richter

If we did wonder at the interpretation, we needed to remember the context of Woordfees – a festival that celebrates Afrikaans literature. With this in mind, the concept could be a tribute to Ingrid Jonker, who spent some time in a mental hospital suffering with depression. She, like Dido in this production, walked into the sea when she had had enough with life. And does this metaphor extend? In light of the current political changes in the University of Stellenbosch, are we also being warned not to let the Afrikaans language “walk into the sea”? The opera ends with the repetition of the words “Remember me, Remember me…” Director Borstlap has hit the triple word score and accomplished exactly what the University of Stellenbosch Woordfees is all about – keeping the Afrikaans language alive and kicking. And there is genius in achieving this statement and hitting her mark, using an English opera as her medium!

Concert Review: Vivaldi’s Lute – Camerata Tinta Barocca, Uwe Grosser

Reviewed by Andrew Wilding

Camerata Tinta Barocca, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Wed 18 Feb 2015

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The evening opened in a dreamy passacaglia by Biagio Marini, setting an elegant, graceful atmosphere of the finest Italian baroque. Beginning on his bass lute, (chittarone) Grosser provided a basso continuo – a form of accompaniment that encourages improvisation. Talking to him afterwards, Grosser explained how he enjoys arranging the figured bass line much like jazz musicians interpret a standard.

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There is such a wonderful feeling of freshness in these early works, composed when classical music was new and its harmony was still forming. Trends became fashionable and disappeared as quickly as they do today, as Erik Dippenaar mentioned in his pre-concert talk, and it always fascinates my imagination to hear a 17th century compositions played on the instruments of the day as if it were modern, and to think that these early composers could have no idea of what happened in later centuries as a result of their explorations.

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One of the most enjoyable elements in early baroque music for me is the enigmatic logic in the number of bars. Our western ears have become so accustomed to four bar phrases, like walking around a square courtyard. But in baroque music the concrete of this logic had not completely set, so one has a feeling of arriving one bar too soon at a cadence, or that some of these squares must actually be triangles. I imagine this would be either frustrating or delightful depending on one’s level of comfort with odd timings – I find it mesmerizing – like becoming completely lost in a beautiful, elegant palace with many courtyards and gardens, most of which have four walls, some have three, or five, and although blissfully disorientated, one always arrives back at the beginning, just as Douglas Hofstadter’s describes “strange loops” in his book Godel, Escher, Bach, 1979. In clarifying the title, Hofstadter often emphasised that he is indicating our ability to form logic from a seemingly illogical distribution of information in the brain, and I can think of no stimulant more powerful than the psychoacoustic effect of baroque music to facilitate the formation of neural networks. There is something about baroque music that is so orderly, so mathematical, so fresh and peaceful, that it brings to one’s thoughts a sense of sanctuary.

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Quentin Crida and Uwe Grosser playing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Viola d’amore and Lute

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Vivaldi – Concerto in D Major
Most often performed on a guitar, it was a delight to hear this concerto played on the originally intended instrument. Vivaldi developed many techniques for example the pull-off, that were later famously employed by violinists like Paganini, and much later electric guitarists like Van Halen. Grosser performed this extremely technical work with dexterity. He has a wonderful sense of phrasing that can only come with experience – an amazing sense of knowing how to take his time and even to fall slightly behind during the phrase, and yet he lands on “one” perfectly at the beginning of the new phrase. CTB was at this point in the concert a quartet of two violins, cello, and harpsichord, and managed extremely skilled sensitivity to Grosser’s softly spoken lute.

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Vivaldi – Concerto in D minor, RV 540 for Viola d’amore and Lute
Cape Town is very fortunate to have a musician such as Quentin Crida – every bit as serious as granite when he performs, the dry humour of his announcements between pieces verges on stand-up comedy – we were in fits of laughter at the thought of PDQ Bach’s Concerto for bagpipes and lute! The dialogues between violin (Quentin chose this over his viola) and lute were enchanting, Grosser’s stunning right hand technique delivering a light dexterous Shakespearian accompaniment to Crida’s lyrical Largo serenade. I am always impressed with the dynamics in CTB performances. In keeping with the baroque style there is no conductor, and yet the instrumentalists seem to share the same understanding of how the work should be interpreted. They have an awareness of one another that seldom forms in larger orchestras.
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Upcoming Concerts:

Camerata Tinta Barocca – The Clarinet Shall Sound
Danrè Strydom, Head of Winds at UFS performs a fascinating programme of early works for the clarinet. Works by J Stamitz and Fasch.
20h00 Thursday 19 March 2015
Simon’s Town Methodist Church

Uwe Grosser – Duetti – for lutes and voices
Join Uwe Grosser (lute, chitarrone), Vera Vukovic (lute, soprano) and Tessa Roos (mezzo soprano) in an intimate concert of songs and duets by Dowland, Monteverdi, Kapsperger and more. Free entrance, donations welcome. Bring snacks and wine to share. Enquiries: Vera on 076 332 7768
4:00pm Sunday 1 March 2015
Weltevreden, Oranje Road, Noordhoek