Taking risks is part of what Opera Philadelphia’s O19 Festival is all about, and the opening night performance emphatically gambled and won.
Month: September 2019
RomÈo et Juliette in San Francisco
The star-crossed lovers were entrapped in an opera mess worlds away from the smooth elegance of Gounod’s score effected by Canadian conductor Yves Abel.
Martin?’s gripping Greek Passion from Opera North
You can literally count on the fingers of one hand the UK presentations of Martin?’s final opera, The Greek Passion: Welsh National Opera in 1981, Royal Opera in 2000 (both under Charles Mackerras), a revival four years later, and now this new production from Opera North.
A thought-provoking ROH revival of Massenet’s Werther
I’ve always wondered whether Massenet’s Werther actually works as an opera at all. It’s a fundamentally uneven work from a dramatic viewpoint which just happens to have one of the most glorious musical scores of any nineteenth-century opera. How I wish Massenet had written something like Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony; alas, what we have is a reasonably short opera that can seem unbearably long – and with a tenor role which is almost invariably miscast.
Bampton Classical Opera: Bride & Gloom at St John’s Smith Square
Last week the Office of National Statistics published figures showing that in the UK the number of women getting married has fallen below 50%.
A new recording of Henze’s Das Flofl der Medusa
Henze’s Das Flofl der Medusa is in some ways a work with a troubled and turbulent history. It is defined by the time in which it was written – 1968 – a period of student protest throughout central Europe. Its first performance was abandoned because the Hamburg chorus refused to perform under the Red Flag which had been placed on stage; and Henze himself decided he wouldn’t conduct it at all after police stormed the concert hall to remove protesters, among them the librettist Ernst Schnabel.
La traviata at the Palais Garnier
The clatter of information was overwhelmed by soaring bel canto, Verdi’s domestic tragedy destroyed by director Simon Stone, resurrected by conductor Michele Mariotti, a tour de force for South African soprano Pretty Yende.
San Jose Pops the Cork With Fledermaus
Opera San Jose vivaciously kicked off its 2019–2020 season with a heady version of Strauss’ immortal Die Fledermaus that had all the effervescence of vintage champagne.
Tempestuous Francesca da Rimini opens Concertgebouw Saturday matinee series
Two Russian love letters to the tragic thirteenth century noblewoman Francesca da Rimini inaugurated the Saturday matinee series at the Concertgebouw.
GSMD and ROH announce Oliver Leith as new Doctoral Composer-in-Residence 2019-2022
Guildhall School of Music & Drama in association with The Royal Opera today announces Oliver Leith as the fourth Doctoral Composer-in-Residence, starting in September 2019. Launched in 2013, the collaboration…