Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi is no masterpiece. Drawing on Matteo Bandello’s account of the Romeo and Juliet legend, rather than Shakespeare, its creaking plot is typical of early 19th century Italian opera, combining tensions between love and loyalty…
The Bartered Bride given in a German translation in Aachen may seem an odd choice for a British opera excursionist but, after Bieito’s awful Mahagonny in Antwerp (see my blog of 1st July), it came as a blessed relief. Responsible…
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, the Brecht/Weill fable of a society created purely for wealth and the commodification of people and love, would appear to be an ideal work for the talents of Catalan director Calixto…
I had heard such good things about Wagner at Longborough that I went to Tannhäuser for my first visit there with high expectations. I have to admit that I was to be somewhat disappointed. Not with the theatre and its…
As part of its “Young Directors” programme, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein is offering an imaginative double bill of contemporary American works: Elliott Carter’s What Next? and Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti. The first of these, Carter’s only opera, written…
Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann is a key work in the history of contemporary opera and one of the most significant of the post-World War II period, perhaps the equivalent to Wozzeck of the interwar years. If it is…
Contemporary operas often adapt works of literature or ancient myths, with which audiences might be reasonably familiar. This can take care of the narrative dimension, allowing composers to concentrate on exploiting their musical creativity and devising a score which reflects…
My only previous encounter with Prokofiev’s opera The Gambler, based on Dostoyevsky – a performance by the Dutch Opera Zuid – had disappointed. I found it difficult to engage with the fate of a group of unattractive people whose preoccupation…
A worthy second evening of the Sofia Ring. Some of the qualities described and reservations expressed in relation to Rheingold carry over. The orchestra and conductor Manfred Mayrhofer again disappointed. In contrast, I was even more impressed by Plamen Kartaloff’s…
The Ring cycle was not performed in Bulgaria until 1943 and though that country has a fine reputation for opera, with large-voiced singers prominent on the international scene, Wagnerian music drama is not “natural” for them. Nor, it would seem…
When did you see a 19th century opera which began with a strike in a factory? Probably never. But Albert Lortzing, better known for his comic pieces, notably Zar and Zimmerman, wrote such a piece, Regina, apparently influenced by the…
Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt creates difficulties for performers in two respects. The leading roles require voices capable of sustained lyricism above a large orchestra; and the stage director has to provide a convincing blend of fantasy and realism, while…
After years of neglect Zemlinsky’s operas have become widely appreciated. Der Zwerg, generally in harness with Eine florentinische Tragödie, has been around since the 1970s. The rediscovery of Der Traumgörge has been more recent, understandably because, although written in 1909…
What Leoncavallo faced when Puccini also composed an opera on Murger’s Vie de Bohème was also Manfred Gurlitt’s lot when he decided, at the same time as Berg, to produce an operatic version of Büchner’s Woyzeck. It is unlikely that…
I was bowled over by Stefan Herheim’s production of Parsifal at Bayreuth: imaginative, beautiful to look at, rich in detail, if also complex. Then came the disappointment of his Serse at Düsseldorf which was simplistic, communicating little about the work….
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, the play by Frank McGuinness on three hostages in Lebanon, is powerful and poignant. It also has an impressive structure, raising and lowering tension, mingling despair with hope, fantasy with grim reality, religiosity with agnosticism,…
Founded in 2004 by Jane Anthony, Leeds Lieder has had the laudable aim of fostering performances of, and growth of audience interest in, an area of music making somewhat neglected in the regions. It has not been an easy challenge….
Halévy’s La Juive has enjoyed a number of revivals in recent years along with other “grand” operas by his near contemporary Meyerbeer. The French themselves have been somewhat contemptuous of this strand in their musical history, quite unjustifiably as this…
The German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin committed suicide in September 1940 in a village on the French-Spanish border rather than escape and emigrate to America. The reason for his decision has fascinated scholars and historians; and one can understand why the…
Viktor Ullmann’s Emperor of Atlantis is an elusive work. Fantasy or allegory on death and political power, should it be played as a comic, grotesque parable or else as a dramatic exploration of tyranny and brutality from which the only…