Bad scene

It is not that I am in a disliking-mood – to start with, I have found Mary Zimmermann’s staging of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor silly and cheap-looking from the moment-one, when Natalie Dessay was the selling-feature of this production. It remains so – it is particularly annoying to have extra twenty minutes in the theatre due [...]

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The Seagull on 48th Street

I have probably written here about Chekhov’s The Seagull more than any other play. I find it structurally difficult, especially because the last two acts tend to mirror somehow the actions of act one and two – and if the director and cast do not find the shift in tone that makes those repetitions illuminating rather than tautological, [...]

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Don Giovannino mio, va tutto così, così…

I have seen wonderful performances at the Met and occasionally some bad ones – but tonight’s Don Giovanni is probably the most lacklustre I have ever seen in that prestigious opera house. Frankly, I left the theatre wondering why it was found necessary to stage it at all.  I understand that the selling feature is supposed [...]

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The naked truth

The fact that Thea Sharrock’s staging of Peter Shaffer’s Equus on Broadway is such a huge success does not puzzle me, but rather depresses me. I won’t beat around the bush – everybody seemed to be there just to see Harry Potter naked. I believe that there must have been someone there who may have [...]

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Low-key Miller

Reading about director Simon McBurney’s impressive accomplishments, I’ve prepared myself for a breathtaking account of Arthur Miller’s All my sons on Broadway.  In an interview on the Playbill, the leading actor, John Lithgow, says he was not tempted by this play until he was finally convinced – and I can tell you why. It is [...]

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Ich bin etwa müde, Tetrach…

Jürgen Flimm’s production of R. Strauss’s Salome for the Met was first shown in 2004 with Karita Mattila in the title role. Four years later, the Finnish soprano tackles again in New York this uniquely challenging role in New York in the same production – but things have changed somehow since last time.
When I write about [...]

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Back to New York

As you may have noticed, I am back from Tokyo, but with a New York-intermezzo. I wish I had more time to write more about Tokyo, but – in a nutshell – this was the most interesting trip I have ever made in my life. Tokyo fulfilled all my expectations and even surprised me. It [...]

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Turandot with a twist

Hiroshi Wakasugi’s production of Puccini’s Turandot for Tokyo’s New National Theater tries to deal with many complex issues involving the opera – its incompleteness, its possible inspiration in Puccini’s private life and, most of all, preconceived notions of Asia turning around the idea of Orientalism. The clever if contrived solution is the magic trick named [...]

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