It is a truth universally acknowledged that an interesting opera production will be met with incomprehension and lazy, philistine hostility by vast swathes of the audience in many, perhaps most, of the world’s ‘major’ houses, a truth that renders one all the more grateful for the Royal Opera showing the courage to stage this new — to London — production of Rusalka.
Year: 2012
Beatrice and Benedict at the Wales Millennium Centre
Welsh National Opera presented a rather undercooked account of Berlioz’s tricky opera, in a revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s classic production
The Opera House that Almost Wasn’t — Le Palais Garnier in Paris
One of the main performing arts venues for opera, ballet and modern dance is
Le Palais Garnier in Paris.
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Based on performances given on 2 and 3 March 2011 (at the Barbican, London), Valery Gergiev’s recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is an engaging and persuasive reading of the score.
John Adams — Death of Klinghoffer, London
John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer is on at the English National Opera, London.
“Figures from the Antique”, Wigmore Hall
Modern and historic responses to classical tragedy and myth formed the unifying focus for this latest stage of Ian Bostridge’s year-long ‘Ancient and Modern’ project at the Wigmore Hall.
Bryan Hymel, Rusalka’s Prince
New Orleans native Bryan Hymel is singing the role of The Prince in Antonin Dvo?·k’s Rusalka at the Royal Opera House, London.
Moby-Dick, San Diego
When Captain Ahab sailed the Pequod into San Diego this week, he brought a new American opera with him. Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick is a stunning work likely to have universal appeal.
Fleming in Strauss’s Capriccio
Is there somewhere in Italian opera repertory where, as a comic interlude, the portentous clichÈs of German opera come in for a skewering amid the luscious sunshine of Italianate lyricism?
Gran Teatre del Liceu Reverses Course
Barcelona’s opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, has reversed course and restored cuts in the current season made earlier this month.