Michael Mayer’s glitzy neon lights production, set in Rat Pack-era Sin City, proves a fitting backdrop for an opera about a curse
Month: February 2013
Munich’s Rambunctious Ring
Bavarian State Opera’s recent staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen was often a restless, even reckless affair, but there is no denying its substantial musical assets.
Hugo Wolf, Wigmore Hall
Fun and Hugo Wolf ? Wolf’s songs are the epitome of art song, due great reverence. But they’re also vibrant with good-hearted wit. This latest concert in Julius Drake’s ongoing “Perspectives” series at the Wigmore Hall brought together Sophie Daneman, Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake, all of whom have been working together for many years. The chemistry was almost palpable.
Charpentier’s Medea at ENO
In 1704, 11 years after its first performance in 1693 before the royal court
of Louis XIV, and 17 years after the death of Lully — and at a time when
the relative merits of respective French and Italian aesthetics were constantly
and fiercely being debated — Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s MÈdÈe was
condemned by the ‘Lullist’ faction, who were determined to defend
their leader’s guardianship of the tragÈdie en musique, as an
‘abomination’: hard, dry and characterised by excess.
Stuttgart: Too Hot to Handel
With its staging of Alcina, Stuttgart Opera seems to set out to prove that George Friedrich Handel can be all ‘sexypants.’
Welcome to awards night at the opera
http://www.standard.co.uk/arts/welcome-to-awards-night-at-the-opera-8493092.html
Elektra in Marseille
Sadistic revenge and sadistic challenge in equal parts. You know the story — if Oreste had not slaughtered his mother Elektra would have. And did over and over in nearly two hours of raving about killing her mother. Elektra is one of the repertory’s more beloved operas.
Festival d’Aix en Provence 2013
Plans for July’s Aix-en-Provence Festival were announced and opera is, of course, at the center of the program with a particularly noteworthy Richard Strauss production.
The New Season at Teatro Real
It is another “What Could Have Been” moment. The debut of Brokeback
Mountain by Charles Wuorinen is part of Madrid?s Teatro Real coming
season.