Vocal excerpts from Wagner operas - which in days of yore were sometimes referred to as 'bleeding chunks' - are not as common as they once were. On this occasion we did not even get a complete evening, but merely a first half consisting of not much more than forty minutes.
The South Korean soprano Sunyoung Seo made a hugely positive impression a couple of years ago in two leading roles (Georgetta and Angelica) in Scottish Opera's great production of Puccini's Trittico, but she is not yet known for her Wagner, which requires a more dramatic type of voice. She has sung Elsa in Lohengrin, perhaps the most lyrical of his leading roles, but fortunately she has not yet attempted the more demanding music from Tannhäuser and Tristan - and perhaps she never will. In the warm, spacious acoustic of the Caird Hall, perfect for Wagner, her keenly focussed soprano filled the space with ease. David Niemann extracted some glorious sounds from the orchestra, who probably don't tackle this music as often as they did a few decades ago when they played for Scottish Opera.
The Wagnerian section of the concert consisted first of two excerpts from Tannhäuser - the Overture and then 'Dich, teure Halle' Elisabeth's Greeting to the Hall of Song - a soaring solo perhaps not heard in this venue since Dame Eva Turner sang it with the LSO and Sir Thomas Beecham over ninety years ago. It was followed by the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. This was at least heard in Dundee more recently, with the RSNO and Paul Daniel supporting Jane Eaglen in a complete Wagner evening in 2005.
The concert was completed by a very good account of Tchaikovsky's final symphony, the so-called Pathétique. It was good to see this deeply serious programme attracting a larger than usual audience that included a significant number of schoolchildren.
Given that the Edinburgh performance took place on 14 February, the programme was marketed as a St Valentine's Day extravaganza. One usually expects this evening to include romantic classics of a generally cheerful nature. However this programme brought us seven deaths in total - two in Tannhäuser and four in Tristan, not forgetting that Tchaikovsky died nine days after the premiere of his Sixth Symphony. However a neighbour in the audience did point out that since Valentine was one of the early Christian martyrs, such a bloodfest was perhaps more appropriate for the date, even if it was perhaps more of a challenge to market.
Altogether this was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and a reminder that the RSNO really doesn't provide a great deal of operatic output in its programming nowadays.
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