By Paul E. Robinson

Classical Travels

Knowlton Festival Diary

The tiny hamlet of Knowlton (Québec, Canada) was awash with tourists and classical music-lovers for ten days in August this year.

Tourists are a familiar sight in these parts, drawn by the beauty of the location, the antique stores and boutiques selling lavender products and a tempting variety of other country fare. Classical music-lovers, however, are a relatively new phenomenon, attracted by the new (2008) Knowlton Festival.

At its weekend opening concert in the Chapiteau, (photo above: bar area) the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) under Kent Nagano offered another lyrical and transparent Brahms performance – this time the Fourth Symphony – and earlier in the day there was some fine singing to be heard in two different locations.

Cagli’s Master Class an Education in Bel Canto Technique
This morning event was held in the charming Old Brick Church in West Brome. Bruno Cagli (photo: right), the president of the distinguished Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, presented a master class in bel canto with some young singers he had brought with him from Italy. In fact, these singers were already pretty accomplished in bel canto and Cagli spent less time teaching them and more time educating the audience of about 200 – a full house in this intimate setting – in the “rules” of bel canto.

Cagli took his captivated audience through the history of singing, with particular emphasis on nineteenth century composers, including Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Tosti, and some of the most renowned singers from that period. There was also considerable talk about breathing and “proper” voice production.

Each of the singers contributed very good performances. One of them, tenor Antonio Poli, sounded like a major talent. All of them will be heard again during the festival in a concert with the Festival Orchestra.

Domingo’s Rising Stars Take the Stage
Later, I dropped by the Saint Édouard Chapel in Knowlton to hear a recital by winners of Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition.

This concert was announced in the programme as featuring “Winners Operalia 2008″ (Québec City). Only Ukrainian soprano Oksana Kramaryeva (photo: above left), who took “The People’s Prize” there, fit that description. The other soloists were fairly recent Operalia winners in other countries. All were well worth hearing and have deservedly advanced beyond the promising “student” stage to become busy professional artists.

Had I been pressed to choose a favourite, it would have been Kramaryeva. She is a genuine Verdi dramatic soprano with presence, richness of tone and considerable dramatic skills. Kramaryeva and her Operalia colleagues were all featured again later in the festival, withKent Nagano conducting excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugen Onegin” and Massimilliano Murrali conducting excerpts from Bellini’s “I Capuleti e I Montecchi.”

Canada’s own Ben Heppner is in constant demand at all the top opera houses in the world and it was a coup for the festival to be able bring him here. He chose for his programme a group of six songs by Strauss, including the beloved “Zueignung,” along with some less popular pieces.

In the opening bars of “Cäcilie”, we heard Heppner’s effortless purity of sound and beauty of phrasing. The darkly imaginative “Ruhe meine Seele” was also given a fine performance with Nagano taking care over every detail and the members of the OSM playing beautifully. We heard five Strauss songs presented as well as one is likely ever to hear them.

Then came “Befreit”. Suddenly, Heppner’s voice simply failed him. It was painful to hear and undoubtedly most painful for Heppner himself. One could only reflect on the vagaries of the human voice.

Texts, Translations, Projections?
As a festival grows, it learns from its mistakes and tries to improve things that need improvement. For any festival that makes vocal music the core of its mission, great care must be taken to provide the audience with texts for songs, operatic excerpts and complete operas being performed. This can be accomplished by means of texts and translations in the printed programmes or through the use of modern technology with projections on screens situated around the auditorium. Whatever the means used, it is not only important – some might add ‘respectful’ – to provide audience members a comfortable way into a full appreciation of the music they are hearing.

Next: Bellini’s “La Sonnambula”, starring Sumi Jo, with Nagano conducting; Les Violins du Roy under Bernard Labadie in an all Handel programme including Handel’s very popular “Water Music”, and featuring soprano Hélène Guilmette.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photos by Marita