My Opera Highlights 2023
All-round Performance Rimsky-Korsakov, Fairy Tale of Tsar Sultan – Hanover A production full of imagination and intelligence (Eva Maria Hockmayr/Julia Rösler) with modern stage technology and brilliant lighting effects. A conductor (James Hendry) alive to all the facets of the…
Faccio’s Amleto in Verona
Franco Faccio is a name unfamiliar to modern opera-goers. In the second half of the 19th century, he was best known as a conductor, but he also wrote some stage works and the fact that he was a good friend…
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE AT VICENZA’S TEATRO OLIMPICO
Did you know that there is an opera festival in Vicenza? I did not, but the prospect of hearing Pelléas et Mélisande given by Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra was appealing; and at the Teatro Olimpico, one of…
Götterdämmerung in Klagenfurt
Götterdämmerung in Klagenfurt was a rarity: a Wagner production in a German-speaking country which had no Regiekonzept. There was nothing in Aron Stiehl’s staging and the designs of Okarina Peter and Timo Dentler to shock traditionalists, nor even to communicate…
Salome in Vienna
I am in Vienna for Richard Strauss’s Salome. First surprise: this is being performed not at the Staatsoper but the Volksoper where lighter works are generally offered. Second surprise: this is not a home-grown production but the recreation of a…
INO’s Faust at the Dublin Theatre Festival
The Irish National Opera stages for the first time the old warhorse, Gounod’s Faust. To breathe fresh life into it, what should be the strategy? Assembling a strong cast is essential; and all of the singers engaged were certainly first-rate….
The UK Premiere at Leeds of Frida by Robert Rodriguez
The Northern Opera Group can be relied on to come up with something enterprising at its annual Leeds Opera Festival, especially now that they have a venue at the Leeds School of Arts which offers enhanced theatrical facilities; and this…
Reimann’s Bernarda Albas Haus in Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen’s Musiktheater in Revier has always been known for adventurous approach and its recent performance of Aribert Reimann’s Bernarda Albas Haus showed that that reputation was being maintained. “Viel spass !” (Have fun!), the theatre lady said to me as…
Giordano’s Siberia in Bonn
Under Bernhard Helmich’s leadership, the Bonn opera company has in recent years done a splendid job in unearthing forgotten works, on this occasion sharing the production with the Bregenz Festival. The chosen piece, Giordano’s Siberia, may not be a masterpiece,…
La forza del destino in Saarbrücken
La forza del destino is not as often performed as you would expect of a late Verdi opera and, given the strength of its musical content, the explanation must lie with its dramatic structure which is episodic and lacking coherence….
Arabella in Essen
Notwithstanding some glorious music, the Strauss/Hofmannstahl opera Arabella is a problematic piece. For a start, plausibility is stretched beyond breaking-point by the heroine’s sister Zdenka being dressed as a boy because her parents cannot afford to find a suitable husband…
Szymanowski’s King Roger in Gdansk
Although it may be regarded as Poland’s greatest contribution to the operatic repertoire, King Roger is not often staged, even in that country. The cool reception given by the audience at the Baltic Opera Gdansk to an outstanding performance may…
Gothenburg’s travelling production of Don Pasquale
The Gothenburg Opera’s travelling version of Don Pasquale given at a small town in the region was a model of how to present a 19th century comic opera to an audience, many of whom may have been unfamiliar with the…
Stradella’s Forza dell’amor paterno in Birmingham
Alessandro Stradella’s La forza dell’amor paterna, disinterred by the Barber Opera for its first outing in modern times at Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre, is a good example of early Italian baroque, with its fluent mixture of coloratura aria, arioso and duet….
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Hamburg
When, some years ago, I was working in Hamburg my frequent visits to the Staatsoper there tended to be disappointing; a mixture of quirky productions and some (often famous) singers not performing to their potential. What a joyful surprise when…
La Clemenza di Tito in Osnabrück
On the surface, Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito is about the values associated with governance and the exercise of power. The emperor Tito is at the centre of political intrigue, not least to determine who shall be his wife and thus…
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Fairy Tale of Tsar Sultan at Hanover
The man sitting next to me at the Hanover performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Tale of Tsar Saltan related how he had recently seen a production of the work given by the Mariinsky Theatre which was traditional and heavy with feudal costumes…
Verdi’s Stiffelio in Aachen
Verdi’s opera, dating from his middle period, is infrequently performed. This is less attributable to its earlier problems with the censors who did not like the fact that it appeared to condone adultery and more to its awkward dramatic structure….
My Operatic High(and low)lights 2022
All-Round Performance Semele – Opéra de Lille For Handel, you cannot do better than the combination of Emmanuelle Haïm as conductor and Barrie Kosky as stage director (production from Komische Oper Berlin). Production Anna Bolena – Netherlands Opera – Jetske…
Die Fledermaus at the RNCM
You might have thought that, for a performance by students, Die Fledermaus would be considered a pushover; but you would be wrong. Musically, Viennese operetta requires, above all, style in vocalisation. Then there is the large amount of spoken text,…