This was in almost every respect an excellent performance — which therefore exacerbates the problem lying at the heart, or whatever it is that lies in its place, of the work itself.
Month: February 2014
Carmen in Bilbao
Bilbao is always news, Calixto Bieito is always news, Carmen with a good cast is always news. So here is the news.
La Favorite in Toulouse
French mistresses are much in the news these days, and now the ThÈ‚tre du Capitole’s new production of Donizetti’s La Favorite has added considerable fuel to the fire.
Benjamin Britten: Paul Bunyan
In a 1960 BBC interview, Britten explained to Lord Harewood: ‘I was very much influenced by [W.H.] Auden …
Tippett’s King Priam
Michael Tippett’s opera King Priam premiered as part of the
same arts festival in Coventry for which Britten’s War Requiem was
written and in fact the two works have something in common, dealing with the
issues of war and its consequences.
Die Fledermaus in Chicago
In Lyric Opera of Chicago’s recent performances of Johann Strauss’s
Die Fledermaus several debuts are notable to both American and Chicago
audiences.
Rigoletto, ENO
One wonders if it wasn’t rather risky of ENO to stage a new version of Rigoletto when Jonathan Miller’s ‘mafioso’ production, which served the company so well for a quarter of a century, is still fresh in opera-goers’ minds and hearts?
John Dowland: In Darkness
Its soothing wooden walls gently bathed in aquamarine light, the very modern Hall at King’s Place made a surprisingly fitting venue for a musical journey to the intimate Elizabethan chamber.
Lucia di Lammermoor in Marseille
A handsome new production, beautifully staged in Marseille’s fine old opera house cried out for a cast to make the opera bel canto.
Theodora at the Barbican
Harry Bicket and the English Concert brought Handel’s wonderful late oratorio Theodora to the Barbican on Saturday 8 February 2014 after a Tour in America and now taking in Birmingham, London and Paris.