Goyescas | The Grange Festival at The Wallace Collection

GOYESCAS

AT THE WALLACE COLLECTION Saturday 11th November

GOYESCAS AT THE WALLACE COLLECTION Saturday 11th November

A UNIQUE EVENING AT THE WALLACE COLLECTION A performance by The Grange Festival of Enrique Granados’ 1915 opera Goyescas in the resplendent setting of the Collection’s Great Gallery The Wallace Collection’s latest exhibition El Greco to Goya – Spanish Masterpieces from the Bowes Museum will be open for viewing throughout the evening

Doors open: Performance starts: Performance finishes: Reception continues: Evening concludes

6.30pm 7.00pm 8.00pm 8.00pm 8.30pm

Performed by The Grange Festival Michael Chance CBE, Artistic Director

In association with Via Brooklyn

PERFORMING THIS EVENING

Rosario Pepa Fernando Paquiro

Filipa van Eck Emma Stannard Alexander Sprague Grant Doyle

CHORUS Soprano

Jennifer Clark Frances Israel Jenny Stafford

Mezzo

Elspeth Marrow Elizabeth Humphries Leila Zanette

Tenor

Will Smith Daniel Bartlette Robert Forrest

Bass

Jevan McAuley Alistair Ollerenshaw Samuel Oram

Violin 1 Violin 2 Viola Cello

Guy Button Tamara Elias Elitsa Bogdanova Sébastien van Kuijk

Piano

Thomas Ang

Conductor

Mark Austin

Introductory remarks by Director of the Wallace Collection, Dr Xavier Bray and Michael Chance CBE, Artistic Director of Grange Festival Goya, Francisco Jose de (1746 – 1828), Portrait of Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés, 1797 © The Bowes Museum, County Durham.

PERFORMING THIS EVENING

Mark Austin (Conductor) Mark Austin is a conductor of integrity.

His sensitive and mature performances of operatic and orchestral repertoire have earned a reputation for their “eloquent intensity” (Guardian).

Mark was invited to work on the music staff of the inaugural Grange Festival in 2017, and returns in 2018 as assistant conductor for Il barbiere di Siviglia. He will be assistant conductor for the Royal Opera’s world premiere production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera Coraline in spring 2018 at the Barbican Theatre. Recent opera conducting credits include: Hansel and Gretel (Mercury Theatre), La Traviata, Le comte Ory (Opera South), Tosca (Musique Cordiale International Festival) and Sweeney Todd (Dartington International Festival). Mark regularly works as assistant conductor with figures including Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, David Hill and the late Sir Colin Davis, with orchestras including BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC Proms), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hangzhou Philharmonic, China. He was awarded an International Opera Awards Bursary in 2017.

Mark conducts his own Faust Chamber Orchestra at Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, and West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge and holds the position of Musical Assistant to The Bach Choir. Born in London, he had lessons in violin and piano from an early age. He played in the National Youth Orchestra, and went on to study at Cambridge University, where he obtained a BA in French and German with distinction and an MPhil in European Literature and Culture. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he received numerous prizes and was appointed a Junior Fellow.

Filipa van Eck (Rosario) South African/Portuguese soprano Filipa van Eck studied at the University of Cape Town, and at RCM International Opera School as the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar. Filipa recently made her debut at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon in Der Zwerg, she will return this season as 5 Magd Elektra. Other recent appearances include the Opera Highlights Tour (Scottish Opera); Mercedes Carmen (The Grange Festival); Maria West Side Story (Cape Town Opera); and Giulia in Niccolo Porpora’s L’Agrippina (Barber Institute). On the operatic stage Filipa has performed the title role of the Cunning Little Vixen; Maria West Side Story and Valencienne Die lustige Witwe (Cape Town Opera); Sabine Adriano in Siria (Classical Opera Company); Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Lisetta La Gazzetta, Gabrielle La Vie Parisienne, L’enfant L’enfant et les sortilèges and Laurette Le Docteur Miracle (RCM); the title role in Arianna in Creta

and Rosmene Imeneo (London Handel Festival); Barbarina The Little Green Swallow by Jonathan Dove (BYO) and Poppea L’incoronazione di Poppea (ETO).

Emma Stannard (Pepa) Cumbrian mezzo-soprano Emma Stannard began her training at the Royal Northern College of Music as a student of Peter Wilson. She has recently graduated from the Royal Academy Opera Course (RAO), where she studied with Yvonne Howard and Joseph Middleton.

For RAO Emma performed the roles of Ruggiero, Alcina, Junon, Orfée aux enfers, Hanna, May Night and Poppea, L’incoronazione di Poppea. On leaving she was presented a Regency Award for her successes with the company. She has since performed the role of Minerva in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria for The Grange Festival, studied as a Britten-Pears Young Artist and has toured staged performances of Verdi’s Requiem for The Merry Opera Company. In 2018, Emma will return to the MOC to perform the role of Cherubino, Le Nozze di Figaro before covering the role of Sesto, Giulio Cesare for Bury Court Opera. For the Glyndebourne Festival Opera Chorus, Emma has appeared in Carmen, Poliuto, Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni and La Traviata.

Emma was awarded the ‘Audrey Strange Memorial Award’ for her performance in the final of the Royal Oversea’s League vocal competition (2016) and the ‘Amanda Von Lobb Award’ and the ‘Van Smit prize’ for her performances for RAO.

This year she was a finalist at the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform with duo partner Keval Shah and returned to the Festival in October to perform a selection of Brahms songs.

An alumni of Georg Solti Accademia, Italy, Emma represented the academy in a concert at the Victoria Hall, Geneva with the L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève.

She appears regularly on the concert platform and travelled to China in March this year for an Opera Gala with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra. Closer to home, Emma has given song recitals at the Leeds Lieder Festival, St Martin-in-the Fields and the Lewes Festival of Song.

Alexander Sprague (Fernando) Alexander Sprague’s current and future engagements include Graf Elemer Arabella Theater Dortmund, Don Basilio/ Don Curzio Le Nozze di Figaro and Eduardo Exterminating Angel Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, The Fairy Queen Staatstheater Stuttgart, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni Opera Theatre Company Dublin, Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos Opera de Nancy, Jonathan Dale Kevin Put’s Silent Night Atlanta Opera, Gonzalvez L’heure espagnole Angers Nantes Opera and Birtwistle’s The Last Supper BBCSSO. Career highlights have included Shepherd/Apollo L’Orfeo Royal Opera House, Covent Garden at the Roundhouse, Ywain Birtwistle’s Gawain Salzburger Festspiele, Albert Herring (title role) Opera North, Electrician Powder Her Face English National Opera, Royal Danish

Opera Copenhagen, and appearances at Wexford Festival, Welsh National Opera, Gothenburg Opera, Scottish Opera, Edinburgh Festival and Stadttheater Klagenfurt and with Les Talens Lyriques at the Salle Pleyel, Paris. Alexander has sung in concert with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, London Festival Orchestra and London Handel Players in venues such as Wigmore Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, and St Martin in the Fields.

He sang recitals for Leeds Lieder Festival, London Handel Festival and Ludlow English Song Festival. He studied at the National Opera Studio and the Royal Academy of Music and is the winner of the Michael Oliver Prize at the London Handel Singing Competition.

of Sir Thomas Bertram in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park at the inaugural festival at The Grange.

Other recent and future engagements include Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro for Longborough Festival Opera, Teucer Dardanus for ETO, the Royal Opera House premiere of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead and Zurga Les pêcheurs de perles for Opera Queensland. He sings Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Copenhagen Philharmonic under David Hill.

Grant Doyle (Paquiro) Born in Adelaide, Grant Doyle completed his studies at the Royal College of Music in London before joining the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has worked with orchestras including Bournemouth Symphony, Hallé and Philharmonia at venues including Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Cathedral.

Grant Doyle has also performed at Scottish Opera, Opera North, Glyndebourne on Tour, Komische Opera Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro Pérez Galdós Las Palmas, State Opera of South Australia, Opera Australia and Pinchgut Opera. Earlier this year he sang the role

Diego Velázquez The Lady with a Fan Spain, c. 1640 © The Wallace Collection

PROGRAMME NOTES ON GOYESCAS

Opera in one act and three tableaux Libretto by Fernando Periquet y Zuaznabar Music by Enrique Granados First performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 28, 1916.

The story of Goyescas is based on a series of six paintings from Francisco Goya’s early career, inspired by the stereotypical young men and women of the majismo movement. These majos and majas are known for their bohemian attitude and soft spot for finery. The opening scene is directly based on his 1791 painting ‘El Pelele’, painted for Charles IV of Spain to hang in his textile mill, although the painting implies a satire of the monarch’s popularity.

First Tableau The majos and majas are enjoying an afternoon outside the Church of San Antonio de la Florida. As the Manzanares River meanders in the distance, the fun loving troupe spend their time dancing, feasting, and playing a traditional game known as the pelele. This game involves a human replica made of straw being thrown up in the air by a group using a stretched-out sheet. As they flirt and chatter, Paquiro enters, surrounded by women. He calls all the ladies unique garden flowers, and they swoon for him, but all of them know who he supposedly belongs to. Pepa enters the scene riding her dog cart, and the men crowd around her excitedly, as she thanks them for making her feel welcome. Suddenly, the attention is on two richly dressed lackeys bearing a sedan-chair, and in which the high born lady Rosario waits for her lover.

Paquiro wastes no time approaching this mystery woman. He recalls a time when she appeared at one of their lantern-lit balls, and invites her again that very night.

Rosario ignores him, but her indifference goes unnoticed by Fernando, captain of the royal guard, who was hiding away and spying on her and Paquiro. Fernando assumes that she was flirting, and although she flatly denies it, he does not trust her. They continue arguing while Pepa and the ladies mock them. Fernando decides that Rosario will accept the invitation, but that he will accompany her.

They leave promptly, and after sharing their plans to ruin the lovers, Pepa and Paquito leave on their dog cart.

Second Tableau At the ball that night, all the majas are dancing, while the majos watch eagerly.

Fernando enters dragging Rosario, whom Pepa proceeds to make fun of the minute she walks through the door. Fernando assures Rosario that he will defend her honour. Upon this, Paquiro makes a spectacle of asking Rosario to dance, and Pepa questions his motives jealously.

Fernando insults Paquiro’s honour, while Rosario protests. Paquiro suggests a duel to prove his valour. A brawl begins, the women holding back Paquiro and the men from rushing Fernando, and Rosario faints in the excitement. After setting the time and place of the duel, Fernando leaves with Rosario. Pepa, returning to the centre of attention, engages the crowd in a fandango.

Third Tableau Later that night, Rosario sits on a bench in the palace garden, listening to the sad song of a nightingale under the light of the moon. As she moves to go inside, Fernando approaches the house, calling to her. She responds sorrowfully, but always lovingly, and he doubts her claims of total devotion. They share a loving moment, ruined by the presence of Paquiro, who is dressed in a black cloak with Pepa trailing furtively. Fernando makes ready to leave, and Rosario clings to him, begging him to stay. Fernando tears himself away, promising to return victorious, and leaves.

Rosario follows, and the duel begins. Two screams signal the end of the duel, one

by Fernando being mortally wounded, the other by Rosario. Paquiro flees, dragging his cloak behind him. Rosario drags the mortally wounded Fernando to the bench where they had just shared their tender moment. She holds him against her bosom, and they share one last kiss before he dies in her arms.

“ I am enamoured with the psychology of Goya, with his palette, with him, with his muse the Duchess of Alba, with his quarrels with his models, his loves and flatteries. That whitish pink of the cheeks, contrasting with the blend of black velvet; those subterranean creatures, hands of mother-of-pearl and jasmine resting on jet trinkets, have possessed me.” Enrique Granados

DIRECTOR’S WELCOME

A NOTE ON ENRIQUE GRANADOS

A note on Enrique Granados Born in Lleida, Spain, in 1887, Granados studied piano and improvisation in Barcelona and Paris. He premiered his suite for solo piano, Goyescas, in 1911, as a set of six solo pieces based on paintings of Francesco Goya. The public success of these encouraged him to expand the suite and in 1914 write an opera based on the same subject using much of the same musical material.

The libretto had to be fitted to existing melodies, the reverse of the usual way of writing an opera. The success of the Met première of Goyescas led indirectly to Granados’s death. He was invited by President Woodrow Wilson to perform a piano recital at the White House, causing him to postpone his return to Spain.

Granados and his wife lost their lives on March 24, 1916 when their ship, the French steamer Sussex, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the English Channel.

Director’s Welcome In September 2017 The Wallace Collection opened the exceptional exhibition, El Greco to Goya – Spanish Masterpieces from the Bowes Collection, which I hope you have had the opportunity of enjoying this evening.

For many of our visitors, The Wallace Collection’s Spanish Golden Age paintings, including Velázquez’s stunning The Lady with a Fan and Murillo’s tender scenes of the Holy Family, are much loved friends. Given the beauty and prominence of our Spanish paintings, we warmly welcomed the opportunity to combine forces with The Bowes Museum, our regional partner at Barnard Castle in County Durham and repository of an equally fascinating, but very different, collection of Spanish painting. We have been given the unique opportunity of celebrating the bicentenary of the founding of this great collection by showcasing no fewer than thirteen masterpieces here in central London for the first time.

As you observe and enjoy this evening’s performance of, I hope that you will contemplate, in particular, the two striking Goya paintings featured in the exhibition.

Goya’s ghostly Interior of a Prison, with its diffuse bright light accentuating the

dark figures abandoned in despair, was painted between 1793 and 1794 as one of a series of twelve small ‘cabinet’ pictures.

Painted entirely from his imagination, a ‘fantasy and invention’ (capricho y la invención) this work gives us an insight into the possibilities, depths and recesses of Goya’s mind.

The second Goya exhibited is a portrait of his good friend, Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés. This work is an outstanding example of his inventive portrait style, demonstrating his characteristic honesty and reluctance to flatter his sitters. The sober mood of the portrait is enhanced by the monochromatic background, which helps focus attention on the sitter’s expressive face and eyes. This emotive portrait is indicative of the stirring portraiture which inspired Enrique Granados’ to compose Goyescas.

It is my great hope that you will have the opportunity to take in both the exhibition and the Wallace’s permanent collection of Spanish Art this evening. The Lady with the Fan will greet you on the left hand side as you enter the great gallery this evening and Murillio’s beautifully rendered masterpieces surround the performance space.

GRANGE FESTIVAL’S UPCOMING SEASON

Grange Festival’s upcoming season The stunning neoclassical buildings nestling in the lush Candover Valley in Hampshire provide the setting for the Grange Festival. Guests arrive in time to enjoy a drink in the lake view champagne bar and explore the grand mansion with its restaurant, art display and Lady Ashburton’s shop. As the bell rings they take their seats in the award winning theatre, elegant and intimate, for a world class production of opera or dance. A 100 minute interval provides generous time for fine dining in the classical mansion or picnics in the grounds in marquees,

private pavilions or rugs on the lawns.

In 2017 each production received at least one 5-star review. For June 2018 our Artistic Director, world renowned countertenor Michael Chance, is presenting Rossini’s comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville, Handel’s scintillating satire on Ancient Rome Agrippina, one of opera’s most outrageous leading ladies, Mozart’s ever popular Abduction from the Seraglio and a single performance with West End cast of Leonard Bernstein’s witty Candide. In a ground-breaking move for country house opera the Festival also includes two nights of dance in collaboration with Wayne McGregor, Edward Watson and dancers from The Royal Ballet and Studio Wayne McGregor.

Little over an hour from West London by car or a 45 minute train journey with a bus shuttle this secret corner of Hampshire is easily accessible and a pleasure not to be missed. thegrangefestival.co.uk

The Wallace Collection Hertford House Manchester Square London W1U 3BN United Kingdom T +44 (0)20 7563 9500 W wallacecollection.org @WallaceMuseum /wallacecollection