Before I say anything about this evening’s performance, I must warn you that I cannot say that I really like Verdi’s Falstaff. I acknowledge the ingeniousness and creativity, but the music does not really plucks any string in my heart. The last time I have seen it live in 2005 at the Met, I remember [...]
Archive for February, 2010
Falstaff, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, 26.02.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Anna Caterina Antonacci, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Caitlin Hulcup, Chen Reiss, Daniele Gatti, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Verdi's Falstaff on February 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Königskinder, Opernhaus Zürich, 21.02.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Humperdinck's Königskinder, Ingo Metzmacher, Isabel Rey, Jens-Daniel Herzog, Jonas Kaufmann, Liliana Nikiteanu, Opernhaus Zürich on February 22, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel is one of the best loved works in German language in the operatic repertoire. It is only curious that few opera-goers fancy to discover the composer’s other opera, Königskinder. The ready-made opinion about it is that this is a failed Märchenoper, but the truth is that Königskinder is a far [...]
Idomeneo, Opernhaus Zürich, 20.02.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Eva Mei, Julia Kleiter, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Mozart's Idomeneo, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Opernhaus Zürich, Saimir Pirgu on February 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
While Idomeneo and Idamante had to work on their father-son relationship, Nikolaus and Philipp Harnoncourt are doing really well in that department – it is their collaboration that maybe needs some rethinking. Their teamwork has resulted the production of Mozart’s Idomeno first seen in Graz in 2008 and now reprised in the Opernhaus Zürich. Harnoncourt, [...]
Molière in London
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Damian Lewis, Molière's The Misanthrope, Thea Sharrock on February 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Martin Crimp’s version of Molière’s The Misanthrope is a curious experiment. Not satisfied to update the text to contemporary style, he also updated the plot to the present day. As one could expect, all sorts of adjustments had to be made – Alceste becomes a playwright, Célimène becomes the American movie actress Jennifer, her friends [...]
Agrippina, Staatsoper Unter den Linden 07.02.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Staatsoper Unter den Linden; René Jacobs; Alexandrina Pendatschanska; Jennifer Rivera; Anna Prohaska; Marcos Fink; Bejun Mehta; René Jacobs; Handel's Agrippina on February 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
If you regret that HBO series “Rome” did not have a third season and if you happen to like baroque music, then Handel’s Agrippina is your opera. If someone deserved to have an opera for herself, a woman who was the great-granddaughter of both Augustus and Mark Anthony, sister to Caligula and mother of Nero [...]
Lohengrin, Deutsche Oper, 6.02.2010
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Ben Heppner, Deutsche Oper, Wagner's Lohengrin, Waltraud Meier on February 6, 2010 | 5 Comments »
A series of Wagner operas presented in a relatively short time span is a challenge to any opera house. It is impossible to have new productions for every title and I wonder how much time for rehearsal the orchestra is actually getting. In circumstances like that, the choice of conductors is the key element for [...]
The wheat and the chaff
Posted in Reviews, tagged Deutsche Oper, Donald Runnicles, Klaus Florian Vogt, Markus Brück, Michaela Kaune, Ulrike Helzel, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on February 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is one of the the toughest cookies in the operatic repertoire. Technically, it is a comedy – but if you get ten instances of laughing during its almost five-hour length, this was a hilarious staging. Then the score involves impossibly complex ensembles with intricate counterpoint for soloists and chorus. To make things [...]
Unvollendet ist das große Werk
Posted in discographies on February 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Although it seems I was fishing for compliments, the truth is that re:opera needed revampment. It still does; that is why I have opted for a soft opening. It has a new name, a new address, it has lost weight and is supposed to be user-friendlier, but it wasn’t born ready. In order to mark [...]
As good as Gould
Posted in Reviews, tagged Deutsche Oper, Petra Maria Schnitzer, Stephen Gould, Wagner's Tannhauser on February 1, 2010 | 2 Comments »
In the context of the Wagnerian Wochen, Kirtsten Harms’s production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser has been revived with a different cast and conductor, but the concept of having one singer for both Venus and Elisabeth, central to the production’s “message”, persists. In the original production, Nadja Michael proved to be miscast in both roles. Not the [...]
