The Vienna Philharmonic is like a box of chocolate

The Wiener Philharmoniker’s concert with Zubin Mehta at the Carnegie Hall on February 25th was a sort of bric-à-brac – you would never now what you would get next, but the bottom line was some sort of lightness. When the first bars of Wagner’s Rienzi Overture echoed in the hall, one could not repress a [...]

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A Cherry Orchard yet to blossom

I believe that the first and foremost quality of Chekhov’s plays is the hallmark Russian melancholy that results from the characters’ sharp understanding of the social, cultural, psychological, you-name-it forces that crush them into the inability to change circumstances. In his staging for both the BAM and The Old Vic Theatre, when director Sam Mendes [...]

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Empty stage

The Metropolitan Opera House has been more faithful to Russian opera than many important opera houses around the world outside Russia. Many Russian singers have achieved international fame at the Met – and the New York audience is quite keen on this repertoire. That said, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Oneguin is not necessarily a work in [...]

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Trovatore, ma un po’ perduto

Il Trovatore is widely acknowledged as opera’s most ridiculous libretto – an opinion I do not share. If you know something about Spanish theatre, you happen to know that the idea is really going over the top – especially during the days of Romanticism. And I tell you – Spanish language does make the 100% [...]

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From the heart – to the heart

Von Herzen – möge es wieder – zu Herzen gehen – Beethoven wrote this at the head of the score of his tremendous Missa Solemnis. Since then, it has become a famous Beethovenian quote – and one I am willing to quote when I write about Venezuelan playwright Moisés Kaufman’s new play, 33 Variations. Everybody [...]

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Una voce che carezza e uccide

According to the Princess of Bouillon, this is how Adriana Lecouvreur’s voice is supposed to sound and, well, I must confess that this is probably the best description of Maria Guleghina’s big, ungainly and intense soprano. Before she could open her mouth in this run of performances of  the most “telefono bianco” of Italian operas, Guleghina has [...]

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And, yes, I’m in New York

Although the Alice Tuly Hall is not ready yet, it looks wonderful, a perfect example of how an architect should embellish and make even more functional an uninspired building. On the other hand, the new Metropolitan Opera Shop is horrid – it may be perfect to sell Renée Fleming’s fragrance, but it is a lame CD [...]

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Auch mit gedämpften…

… schwachen Stimmen is a famous aria from Bach’s Cantata BWV 36, but could also be a summary of my impressions on Helmut Rilling’s performance of Haydn’s Die Schöpfung in the Carnegie Hall.  Last year, I had the opportunity to attend Rilling’s annual concert in the same hall with Kathy Saltzman Romey’s ”festival chorus” and was positively impressed by the outstanding [...]

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More Handel

A review of William Christie’s video of Handel’s Orlando has been added to the discography on re: opera.

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Bramo aver mille vite

Although I don’t have a thousand lives to consecrate to Handel, I could spare two or three nights to complete the review of Alan Curtis’s video of Handel’s Ariodante from Spoleto. You can check it on re: opera. More Handel operas will follow – so check back in a few days.

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