The Met saved the best of the season for the end of it, revivals of their first-rate productions of two twentieth-century masterpieces, J·naček’s Makropoulos Case and Britten’s Billy Budd.
Year: 2012
Damrau Dazzles in Geneva
It is not long into Act One of Mignon at Geneva’s Grand Theatre when Diana Damrau glides on stage as Philine, commands our rapt attention, and sweeps all before her.
VÈronique Gens, Wigmore Hall, London
VÈronique Gens’s recital at the Wigmore Hall, London, was an almost ideal distillation of the belle Èpoque in song.
BartÛk and Szymanowski, Barbican Hall
In this, the second of two LSO concerts in which PÈter Eˆtvˆs replaced
Pierre Boulez, one continued to feel the loss of the latter in his repertoire,
yet one equally continued to value his replacement, very much his own
man.
My Big Fat American Moustache: A Wartime CosÏ Fan Tutte
An energetic and exceptionally entertaining production of CosÏ fan tutte sung in English and set during World War II, when the Americans often got the girls.
The Barber of Seville, San Diego
Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ classic play The Barber of
Seville, set by Rossini to perfectly paced and irresistibly comic music,
was first performed in Rome in 1816, and remains one of the world’s favorite
operas.
The Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2012
This year’s Kathleen Ferrier Awards final was both a competition and a
celebration, marking as it did the centenary anniversary of the great singer’s birth.
Torsten Kerl to Perform Tannh‰user
Casting changes continue at the Bayreuth Festival, now only three months
away.