Bach again

As a choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral I used to love this time of year. Lent/Holy Week and Easter could always be relied upon to provide many musical highlights. I will never forget singing Lotti’s stunning ‘crucifixus’ to a  packed cathedral each Good Friday, the low late-winter sun usually streaming through the West end window and creating a quite remarkable atmosphere.

More recently, the run up to Easter has been associated with numerous performances of Bach’s Passions, with a realisation that I could sing Bach relatively well opening myself up to an almost guaranteed set of concerts each March. The involvement in the Bach passions can vary significantly from concert to concert for the Tenor. Evangelist one night, Arias only another night, both Evangelist and Arias or only Tenor 2 aria (for the Matthew Passion), so many combinations one could become confused…..

Bach at Home

I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to fit any Passions in this year, with my living in Germany but, just before I moved here, I was booked to sing one aria and recit. in the Matthew Passion on Good Friday (today), up in Bad Canstatt, about 7 minutes U Bahn ride from my flat.

Singing Bach in German brings its own challenges. Inevitably, any German pronunciation that I have been confident of for years suddenly seems unsure. In order to counter this I prepared my two numbers with some German colleagues and so, by Wednesday morning, I was confident with what I could bring to the rehearsal yesterday.

I was booked for this concert, before I moved to Germany, through an agent I had contacted on the advice of some UK based singer friends. Having introduced myself by email to the agent, they expressed an interest in me, particularly since I was going to be in Stuttgart where they are based, and coincidentally they were looking for a Stuttgart based tenor for a Matthew Passion.

I got permission from the Opera house to take the engagement and received the contract when I arrived in Stuttgart in September. All clear, so I thought. Rehearsal for soloists on Thursday, concert Friday. I filled in the right form to get absence from the Opera house for the Thursday rehearsal and had, for the last six months, been looking forward to 2.30 on the 2^nd of April when I would get to rehearse some Bach with a great orchestra.

A few weeks ago I received the detailed rehearsal schedule and noted my Thursday rehearsal time, Thursday being the day I was contracted to rehearse, and noted that the only Tenor numbers listed were ‘O Schmerz’ and ‘Ich will bei meinem Jesu’, both accompanied by the choir. These are two of my favourite bits from the Passion so, despite only singing those two numbers out of a 3 hour evening, I was happy.

Come Wednesday and I am sitting in Starbucks following a great coaching on Cosi Fan Tutte at the Opera House. My internet is currently down so I was joining the crowds of slow drinkers making the most of the free internet when I received a call:

                ‘where are you? You have a rehearsal, why are you not there?’

I was confused, inevitably. I said I was rehearsing tomorrow, it is on the rehearsal breakdown.

                ‘They are expecting you an hour ago!’

I was told, as I wracked my brain for an explanation as to why I had made this mistake or whether, in fact, it was some cruel April fool on the part of the agency.

It wasn’t an April fool. I was the fool. I had in fact been hired to sing the other Tenor aria and recit, ‘Mein Jesus Schweigt’ and ‘Geduld’, though this was not specified on my contract and the rehearsal had been scheduled for the Wednesday afternoon when I was not called. I rushed to Bad Canstatt frustrated and mildly upset. I am never late, never out of line, always as professional as possible and now I was rocking up 75 minutes late to a rehearsal with a man I wasn’t entirely sure I could explain this all to. I also hadn’t prepared the aria I was going to be singing….. nightmare!

I won’t bore you with the minutiae of the following 36 hours, but happily it was all explained. The misunderstanding between the three parties was understood and time was found for me to rehearse the aria and receive a few tips on my German pronunciation. I also got the chance to hear some of the other soloists rehearse, including the Evangelist who is German himself. For a non-German speaking Tenor to hear a native singing this part is a great chance to learn and reassess some of the decisions I have made when singing it myself.

Back at home

Last weekend I returned to the UK for a couple of days to sing for the Burford Singers, a choir I have sung for on three occasions now. The music this time was ‘spring’ from Haydn’s ‘The Seasons’, and ‘Requiem’ by the English composer Bob Chilcott, two pieces I hadn’t performed before and both of which I very much enjoyed singing. Bob Chilcott was actually conducting the concert, as a guest during the usual conductors one term sabbatical, so there was added pressure to sing it all right!

I was struck, once again, by the stark contrast in concert routines between the UK and Germany. Take the Matthew Passion over here, with almost 14 hours of rehearsals scheduled for the two days leading up to the concert today and much time allocated to each number to really rehearse it. Where as in Burford I turned up at 2.30 for the three hour rehearsal during which there was only just enough time to run some numbers twice with minimal time to go into much detail. Much of the difference is down to necessity, there has never been the money in the UK to be able to have lots of rehearsals whereas in Germany there has and still is the funding for this. The English side of me finds some German rehearsals slow and, ironically, inefficient yet found the UK rehearsal last weekend a bit too short particularly as it was the first time performing both pieces. Maybe there is a middle way.

Back at the Opera

Since I am not directly involved in any productions at the moment, neither Rigoletto or Cosi (both of which I cover in) not starting rehearsals for a few weeks, I have only had a few coachings. Both of these were some of the best coaching sessions I have had in Stuttgart, partly I think due to me now being back in good voice, partly due to the work I did with Marianne Cornetti last week which has helped a few arias I was getting stuck in, and partly because the coachings were on Ferrando from Cosi, and I just love the role so much. A few more weeks of coachings on Ferrando and I won’t complain!

Back on holiday

The Easter weekend brings a national holiday in Germany and with no internet I may well rely on DVD’s to fill the time between exercising/learning music and trying hard not to buy every discounted Easter egg and trying to eat them in record time….

I hope you all have a great Easter, until next time.

Tom