Now it's Carla and Sarkozy the opera

Today's Guardian reports - 'The whirlwind romance of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni is set to reach the operatic stage. The highlight of English National Opera's 2009/10 season is the newly commissioned A Dangerous Liaison with a libretto based on the French best-selling book Carla and Nicolas: Chronicle Of A Dangerous Liaison by Chris Laffaille and Paul-Eric Blanrue and music by Damon Albarn.

Singing the lead roles in the production scheduled to open in September 2009 are Michael Ball and Charlotte Church. The new opera is a joint production with the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and New York City Opera and will also be broadcast on BBC4 TV. ENO chief executive Loretta Tomasi said "This exciting new opera follows on from our critically acclaimed productions of Kismet and Aida and underlines our commitment to engage with new audiences".'

Read more about Carla Bruni's musical connections here
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Carla Bruni's musical connections

French first lady Carla Bruni has some interesting classical music connections. Her mother Marisa Borini is an actress and classical pianist who is reported to have had an affair with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Depending on your sources Bruni's biological father is Maurizio Remmert, an Italian businessman who now lives in Brazil Marisa or Marisa Borini's husband, the contemporary composer Alberto Bruni Tedeschi seen in my header photo. Alberto Bruni Tedeschi's distinctions included writing four operas and having one of them filmed with a cast including Charles Aznavour, his own daughter Valeria Bruni and Isabel von Karajan, the daughter of the conductor.

President Sarkozy seems to appreciate ladies with musical connections. His divorced second wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, is the great grand-daughter of Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. Which, interestingly, means the families of both the President's second and third wives are of Sephardic descent.
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Inside the musical avant-garde

Britain is having a love affair with all things French. As well as hosting the current state visit by President Sarkozy and his new wife we have the first IRCAM academy in the UK in April. Is it a sign of these devolved times that the event is not in London, but is being hosted by the BBCSSO and led by Jonathan Harvey in Glasgow on April 7-12? Or is it because, as I've said here before, the BBCSO is on a roll? Read more in today's Guardian, including the inside track by Jonathan Harvey on new IRCAM technologies.

One of the few books to explore IRCAM is the snappily-titled Rationalizing Culture, IRCAM, Boulez and the Institutionalization and the Musical Avant-Garde. Anthropologist and Cambridge don Georgina Born spent a year in IRCAM in Paris producing her ethnographic analysis and if both the title and the book itself reads like a Ph. D. thesis it is not surprising as that is how the book originated. Which means that, unlike Joan Peyser, Georgina Born leaves Boulez's private life off-limits; although it is not all the stuff of dissertations and Michael Jackson receives no less than five mentions.

The 1995 publication date means that the avant-garde is today rather more avant. But, nevertheless, Rationalizing Culture is a brave attempt to get inside the culture of an important and little-understood creative hot-house. Quite appropriately the book is published by the University of California Press using the latest print on demand technology.

More on Jonathan Harvey here.
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Honey I shrunk the soloist

Youth was the musical 'must have' in 2007. Could marriage be the musical 'must have' in 2008? My favourite Christmas disc this year was Ton Koopman playing Christmas Carols on the baroque Van Peteghem organ in St. Martinuskerk, Haringe, Belgium. Wonderful music from Sweelink, Buxtehude, Bull and Bach, wonderful playing by Koopman on the 1778 organ, with wonderful sound from producer Tini Mathot, who just happens to be Mrs Koopman, and the CD really is a family affair as it is released on Koopman's own Antoine Marchand record label. Tini Mathot is a distinguished keyboard player in her own right, and she is seen above playing alongside her husband. I last heard them together several years ago playing the Art of Fugue on two harpsichords ago in the peerless acoustics of St George's Brandon Hill, Bristol.

Tini Mathot and Ton Koopman are the latest in a distinguished line of couples who have worked together as performers and producers. There are Isabella de Sabata and John Eliot Gardiner at Soli deo Gloria, and Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall at Alia Vox (photo below), like Mathot and Koopman both couples work in the early music field, what is it about gut strings? They were preceeded by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, and of course Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Legge. Reminders of other husband and wife performer and production teams please. And yes, I know about Joyce Hatto and William Barrington-Coupe, while Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy don't count, even if the bling-bling President's son is a hip hop producer.


Judging by the number of mentions in recent weeks Belgium is the 'must have' country for 2008. Check out these links, and we are off there next month for John Cage, Morton Feldman et al.
Photo credit Trigonale early music festival. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Music and politics collide in France

'I've lit shows at the Bastille opera house (above) for 17 years. Paris Opera's special pension deal dates back to Louis XIV in 1698. It was put in place for the king's dancers - it's a historical monument. So why change it? We're only around 1,500 backstage employees. Our salaries are low, between €1,500 and €2,000 a month for stagehands and lighting technicians. Sarkozy's catchphrase is "work more to earn more". But he's asking us to work for an extra two and a half years and lose up to 25% of our pensions. Already Paris Opera has had to cancel 10 shows due to strikes, including Wednesday night's opening of the Nutcracker. That's never a pleasure. But the mood is tense and it will worsen if the government doesn't agree to full negotiations' - Gilles Cortesi, 49, striking lighting operator, Paris Opera in today's Guardian.

And here is presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy speaking in April 2007 - 'The music we call 'classical' is the most popular since it has transcended time, fashion, and society to become contemporary. The music of Mozart and Beethoven was perhaps revolutionary, even elitist at the time, but how we can claim it's not popular?'

Read about another time when music and market forces collided. Could this mean the disappearance of classical music in Paris?
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The virtual disappearance of classical music

As France moves into Nicolas Sarkozy's new Presidency here is an exclusive report from Paris by Antoine Leboyer on the worrying changes at a historic music venue:

If we are to be offended by the appearance of West End star Michael Ball for one evening at the BBC Proms, what should we say about the virtual disappearance of classical music from Paris’ historic Le Châtelet? Built in the second half of the 19th century, Le Châtelet used to be a venue that presented all types of music, from operas, ballet, and operettas to classical music concerts. Mahler conducted there and the theatre hosted several seasons of the Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes.

Le Châtelet then focused on light music and operettas until the 1980s when the City of Paris administration ran it as a “competitor” to the Paris Opera. The theatre was run by Stéphane Lissner before he moved to the Aix Festival, the Wiener Festwochen and then La Scala, and by Jean-Pierre Brossman after his time at the Lyon Opera. Very quickly, thanks to these directors, Le Châtelet became internationally recognised as a place of excellence.


Long-lasting relations with ensembles, orchestras, conductors, directors and soloists were established. Le Châtelet was the place where John Eliot Gardiner came every year to perform Mozart, Gluck, Verdi, and he found ideal working conditions there for his complete Berlioz Troyens (header image). For this occasion, national TV even broadcast live a Sunday performance. Ensembles like the Philharmonia Orchestra held long residencies, and performed concerts while still having the time to rehearse operas. This allowed Christoph von Dohnányi to stage many ambitious Strauss works. The Peter Sellars – Kent Nagano team came to premiere works by John Adams (El Nino above) and Kaija Saariaho (L'Amour de loin below), and foreign opera houses including the Berlin Staatsoper under Barenboim and the Kirov under Gergiev stayed for long residencies.

More importantly for French audiences, Le Châtelet became a showcase for regional opera houses from Lyon, Toulouse and other cities to present their best works each year. The programmes had classical music at their core, but found space for other genres.

Everything from Baroque to wonderful Offenbach operettas was given equal prominence, and the team of Marc Minkowsi and Laurent Pelly did wonders for the "Mozart des Champs-Elysées" (which to the French means Offenbach - his La Grand-Duchesse de Gérolstein is below). Jazz and non-classical singers were also invited, and, between operas, the hall was used for recitals and orchestral concerts.

Many halls offer cheap seats but these are often are of poor quality. Le Châtelet offered a wide range of ticket prices, and although the affordable seats were high up they offered satisfactory sound and sight-lines. The theatre became the most egalitarian venue for classical music in Paris, attracting audiences of all ages and from all backgrounds that would not have came to the more elitist Salle Pleyel and Theatre des Champs-Elysées.

All of this has gone. Le Châtelet is now in the second year under a new director, Jean-Luc Choplin, who is repositioning the theatre as a venue for light entertainment. To everyone’s surprise, his main production last year was Francis Lopez’s musical the Singer of Mexico, an insipid outdated operetta. Core programmes (not counting the two seasons of “Sunday Morning concerts” and the “Piano 4 étoiles” series which are hosted by, but not run by, Le Châtelet) included some classical music with Renée Fleming in Thais, a new work from French composer Pascal Dusapin and a staged Bach Passion with Emmanuelle Haïm and Robert Wilson. Given the need to book artists long in advance, it is safe to assume that these performances were planned by Brossman before he left. Orchestral concerts and recitals were almost non-existent, and, for the first time, amplification was used for non-operatic productions.

Many regular patrons were surprised, and assumed that the programmes were due to the transition of management. Choplin however made some controversial statements which seemed to reflect his personal tastes, praising the patience of French audiences who had to contend with “Germanic-like directors, and productions overburdened with meaning”. (For the interview in French follow this link.)


The 2007-8 season leaves no doubt about the future. Le Châtelet will now major one musicals with West Side Story being performed no less than 50 times, and there will be a Zarzuela and popular works from China and Africa. It is no longer Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler being played at orchestral concerts, but film music from Lord of the Rings. A few singers such as Felicity Lott and Simon Keenlyside are listed next to crooners who made their careers in the 70s.

There are no real operas save, perhaps, a rarity by Roussel which looks more like a vehicle for Bollywood director Sanjay Bhansali. Maybe this reflects the new director’s vision for classical music, but, for Parisian audiences, Le Châtelet is becoming the temple of crossover and mass-market entertainment. For years, the theatre’s directors held an open conference to present the forthcoming season. In keeping with his management style Choplin has decided to stop this tradition.

There is nothing basically wrong with performing popular works, and there must be room for all tastes. Where Parisian concert-goers are taking issue however, is that the music Le Châtelet is focussing on is already being performed at many other venues in Paris, as well as on mainstream TV, whereas classical music is having to fight for its existence. Le Châtelet was the venue where audiences went to enjoy quality classical music like the production of Korngold's Die tote Stadt below. But sadly that is no longer the case.


Now read Antoine Leboyer on French orchestras
Production shots from Le Châtelet, most by M.N. Roberts who does such an excellent job of documenting the house's fine productions, in descending order are Berlioz Les Troyens, John Adams' El Nino, Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin, Offenbach's La Grand-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Schoenberg's Erwartung , and Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Sarkozy - a minor change to Europe's borders

'I want an integrated Europe, in other words, a Europe that has borders ... Turkey is in Asia Minor' ~ Nicolas Sarkozy, French President-elect.

'The selection panel for the 2010 European Capital of Culture have recommended that the German town Essen and the Hungarian city of Pécs should share this title together with a third one, Turkey's Istanbul' ~ UNESCO World Heritage website

France's right in retreat

Today's Guardian reports: 'Nicolas Sarkozy is not one to shut himself away. But he is planning to go on a three-day post-victory retreat to an isolated corner of France, perhaps a monastery'.

This would continue the interesting association between the Catholic Church and right-wing parties in France that I have written about here before. And, yes, I have been on retreat at a French monastery reportedly frequented by far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. Which should give The Agonist something else to get wrong.

Nice one BBC Radio 3

Nice that my article Classical music - revolutionary, elitist, popular supplied the closing moments for this morning's BBC Radio 3 programme on the French presidential elections. Even nicer that presenter Iain Burnside name checked On An Overgrown Path twice, and credited, my translation of Nicolas Sarkozy's comment. You can hear the programme here until 29th April; you need to listen at 1 hour 54 minutes, and there is a fast-forward facility.

As I've written here before Iain Burnside's Sunday morning programme is a shining example of intelligent radio, together with Michael Berkeley's Private Passions. It is surrounded by a rising tide of mediocrity, and is one of the few Radio 3 time-slots not yet infiltrated by 'classical joc' of the moment, the dreadful Petroc Trelawny. But for Iain's sake I hope BBC Radio 3 Controller Roger Wright didn't catch the mentions of On An Overgrown Path.

Not only is Iain Burnside an uncommonly intelligent radio presenter. He is also a very fine pianist who plays on one of my all time favourite CDs, Copland's The Gift to be Free, sung by the late-lamented Susan Chilcott - read the full story here.
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Classical music - revolutionary, elitist, popular

Could it happen anywhere else? The four leading French presidential candidates answer questions on classical music. Here is a translation of leading rightwing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy's comment - The music we call 'classical' is the most popular since it has transcended time, fashion, and society to become contemporary. The music of Mozart and Beethoven was perhaps revolutionary, even elitist at the time, but how we can claim it's not popular?

For online translation tool click here. And that's the second appearance here by Sarkozy (photo above) in as many days, which shows untypical impartiality on my part.
With thanks to Clive Davis' blog for the heads-up. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

When Sarkozy comes marching in

Nicolas Sarkozy (left), front-running rightwing candidate in tomorrow's French presidential election, spent the last day of his campaign yesterday electioneering around Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. There are some saints there as well.