finesse and finish: anne sofie von otter's australian debut extravaganza

xiii. sydney opera house concert hall nov 3

this is clearly turning into the year of classical music, aka returning unashamedly to my roots! i don't understand why each concert at the opera house has a different ticket price. in any case the under 30s tickets that the sydney symphony has going is a pretty darn good deal, leaving sufficient funds to invest in opera glasses, which i probably actually should have done. the audience demographics were very interesting and i will leave it at that.

the vocal program was split clearly into 'classical' with selections from canteloube's chants d'auvergne and then the pop section. the former was better than i expected, though in some places the orchestra was too loud. overall i thought there was less swooping than the version on youtube conducted by minkowski, though the latter definitely brought together the selected songs together in a more cohesive way. sometimes highdef video doesn't give you the whole picture.

i don't know what to think of there consistently being excess furniture on the stage, as it were, during the small orchestra pieces, it felt slightly unprofessional, and it just doesn't look nice to have a quartet of strings with empty seats streaming out to the sides and full woodwind section behind.

the pop song section was alright, i suppose. it's interesting that the comfortable range varies so much between classical (around C5/D5? i think? i don't actually ever think of music as being typed out) and pop (around F4/G4?) modes. the gentleman sitting in front of me chatted with his lady friend during the interval about his appreciation of von otter's ariodante (i cheered inside) and subsequently his theory regarding why opera singers start to sing pop songs. i am inclined to agree, the second half was alright but didn't seem to require as much concentrated effort. actually it may have been better than expected, that's how well i prepared my expectations. also! no shoes on the concert hall stage! i can't even begin to guess the last time that would have happened with the sydney symphony. the encore was 'smile', nice and mellow.

my only complaint really is not a complaint but i was sitting so far back that i couldn't see her face.

that is until i lined up and got my (mozart gluck haydn) opera arias booklet signed, which i had had the foresight to bring to work that day. they weren't selling them, so my pre-appreciation was obvious. i'm short but not that short but even sitting down she seemed really tall. all i can say is imagine the ice-cool white witch of narnia with the regally kind and yet slightly detached demeanour of aslan, with a head to match almost a la donald sutherland in pride and prejudice. all in the best way possible. cooler than tilda swinton and that is saying something.

eta: oh yes here have a quick cam pic

xiv. sydney opera house utzon room nov 6

this was an entirely different room, designed specifically for acoustic chamber music, and the sound was fantastic. the layout was a little unwieldy though, the long rectangular room had the stage at mid-length and chairs arranged 270 degrees around, actually giving those sitting on the short sides quite a poor view. luckily i showed up early and snagged a good seat in the 4th row (out of 5!) directly facing the stage. (i'm pretty sure i surprised the attendant when i rocked up in my adidas sneakers and held out my ticket, i think she was going to ask if i was lost.) i could count on one hand the people in the room younger than the others by at least a couple of decades.

again classical and pop sections with differing vocal styles and ranges to match. this time the classical consisted of scandinavian lieder and some percy grainger, including an energetic 'handel in the strand' from bengt forsberg. up close the dynamics and phrase-endings were finessed to perfection. if anything (and this is serious nit-picking on my part, especially because i'm only going by my own taste and freely admit i don't actually know much) i wondered sometimes whether there is some kind of deeper pitch barrier to break through before the pitch note's body begins, particularly in classical mode (again, pop mode seems 'easier' and more fun than serious). am i even making sense? i wonder if this is contributing to the swooping in more recent youtube live videos, though live it isn't as obvious any more. or something technically has changed/reverted, for the better in my opinion.

svante henryson's bass background and percussive talents were on display and he loves his harmonics! pop included jobim, abba, and a great version of blackbird. the audience lapped it up. encore was mi mancherai, finally some italian to finish off!

i would have loved some german lieder. with the cello why not some brahms? ah well. no i mean i would have loved an australian debut showcasing career greatest achievements but that'd be impossible for anybody.