I have to confess I was eager to see August Everding’s 15-year old production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for the Staatsoper unter den Linden because of the attempt to reproduce sets and costumes from the famous 1816 Karl Friedrich Schnikel production for the Königlichen Schauspiele, as seen below. In the booklet, Everding and his creative [...]
Archive for April, 2009
Bezaubernd schön?
Posted in Reviews, tagged August Everding, Christof Fischesser, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Staatsoper unter den Linden on April 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar Ding
Posted in Reviews, tagged Andreas Homoki, Brigitte Geller, Elisabeth Starzinger, Friedemann Layer, Jens Larsen, Komische Oper Berlin, R. Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Solveig Kringelborn on April 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If we bear in mind that the Komische Oper is something like the temple of Regietheater, Andreas Homoki’s 2006 production of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier would be something like Otto Schenk’s compared to the other stagings shown in that adventurous opera house. Although the director does interfere with the libretto, I would say that the [...]
A Straussian evening with the Wunderharfe
Posted in Reviews, tagged Anne Schwanewilms, Fabio Luisi, Staatskapelle Dresden on April 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Although it was Richard Wagner who supposedly nicknamed the Staatskapelle Dresden the Wunderharfe, nobody profited of the orchestra’s miraculous sound as Richard Strauss, who premièred some of his masterpieces, such as Salome and Elektra, in the Semperoper. This would be enough to make Dresden a peregrination place for Straussians. Unfortunately I could visit the Semperoper [...]
Colourful, but worn out
Posted in Reviews, tagged Christof Fischesser, Staatsoper unter den Linden, Sylvie Valayre, Verdi's Macbeth, Vladimir Stoyanov on April 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Peter Mussbach’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth for the Staatsoper unter den Linden is almost 10 years old – and one can see that. It looks decidedly worn out, frumpy and quite depressing today. I wonder if it had looked really well in the past. It is a very geometrical/basic-colours production with a (very distant) flavour [...]
Mal per noi
Posted in Reviews, tagged Ferruccio Furlanetto, Opéra de Paris, Stefano Secco, Verdi's Macbeth, Violeta Urmana on April 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Director Dmitri Cherniakov has written that, for a long while, he had understood nothing in Verdi’s Macbeth. Judging from his staging for the Opéra de Paris, I wonder how much progress he has made. It seems that the Opéra Bastille has a tradition of mixing opera and internet – always for dismal results. This time [...]
A Messiah from the continent
Posted in Reviews, tagged Cornelia Horak, Florian Bösch, Handel's The Messiah, Jean-Cristophe Spinosi, Jennifer Larmore, Topi Lehtipuu on April 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Performances of Handel’s most famous oratorio, The Messiah, pop up in England and in the USA like mushrooms – professional performances, amateur performances, Messiah sing-ins (you just have to bring your own score and try your for he shall purify-y-y-y-y-y…) – but they are becoming increasingly more popular in places usually not associated with choral [...]
SIE wird zu Stein
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Christiane Libor, Marc Minkowski, Wagner's Die Feen on April 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »
No mistake here – I am not talking about Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, but a forgotten work Strauss himself championed, which is Richard Wagner’s first opera, Die Feen, staged by the first time in France in the Theatre du Châtelet. The curious Wagnerian has probably got acquainted with the work in Wolfgang Sawallisch’s [...]
Freudian sleepwalking
Posted in Reviews, tagged Bellini's La Sonnambula, Juan Diego Flórez, Mary Zimmerman, Metropolitan Opera House, Michele Pertusi, Natalie Dessay on April 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I had so many things to say about Mary Zimmerman’s production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula before ever seeing it that I have finally decided that I ought to see it – at the movie theatre. My first problem with the Met’s new Sonnambula was its selling feature. In the words of Peter Gelb himself, Bellini’s comédie [...]
