Welcome to Issue 10 \u2013 we are now in double figures! For this issue we have travelled along the Mediterranean and arrived in Italy. We\u2019re looking at three Italian operas: one by Verdi and two by the lesser-known composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew Kofi Waldren conducted Verdi\u2019s Un Ballo in Maschera <\/em>earlier this year at Opera Holland Park, London. Previously a singer for ten years before becoming a conductor, Matthew has a very well rounded understanding of opera, and the Italian repertoire in particular. It was fascinating to hear about his relationship with Verdi\u2019s music, and the particular nature of preparation required for a successful performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spoke with John Andrews\nabout Wolf-Ferrari\u2019s Il Segreto di\nSusanna<\/em> whilst he was still in rehearsals (also at Opera Holland Park), and\nthe production went on to receive incredible reviews and recognition. Branded\n\u2018the best performance of the year\u2019 and \u2018one of OHP\u2019s greatest achievements\u2019 I\nfelt very lucky to have cornered him early on in the process! Il Segreto di Susanna <\/em>is an unusual work\nand very difficult to conduct. In this second interview, John explains how he\ndeals with Wolf-Ferrari\u2019s ever-shifting styles, comic timing and characterisation\n(along with much more!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Studying Il Segreto di Susanna <\/em>inspired me to look further into the\nWolf-Ferrari repertoire. Frederich Haider is the conductor who rediscovered the\ncomposer (in a second hand bookstore in London), and continues to be one of Wolf-Ferrari\u2019s\nmain advocates. Reviving lost works can be such an exciting part of a\nconductor\u2019s role, so it was a delight to be able to speak with Friedrich about\nhis journey of discovery. He has now recorded a number of Wolf-Ferrari\u2019s works,\nincluding the opera he discussed with me: Il\nGioielli della Madonna<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Italian opera and the bel\ncanto repertoire are of particular interest to you, I strongly suggest you also\ntake a look at the interviews with Sir Mark Elder (Issue 1: July 2017) and\nDuncan Ward (Issue 2: October 2017), which contain a huge wealth of information\nand wisdom that can be applied to your own score study or research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As always, I would like to thank Matthew, John and Friedrich for their time and involvement with the project. Huge thanks also to Opera Holland Park, who put me in touch with Matthew and John and inspired me to look further into the work of Wolf-Ferrari. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy Reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Hannah Baxter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to Issue 10 \u2013 we are now in double figures! For this issue we have travelled along the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","pmpro-has-access","clearfix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8YX8Q-93","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}