Can Haiku be improved by staging? Gyˆrgy Kurt·g’s Kafka-Fragmente (op. 24), is a masterpiece of zen-like purity.
Author: Anne Ozorio
Angelika Kirchschlager, German Lieder 1830-40 Wigmore Hall
Angelika Kirchschlager and Malcolm Martineau at the Wigmore Hall showed what real Lieder singing should be.
Haydn: L’isola disabitata, London
Haydn’s L’isola disabitata is ideally suited to the modern taste for chamber opera. This is Haydn for those who think they don’t like his operas or even baroque form.
Piotr Beczala: RomÈo et Juliette, Royal Opera
Charles Gounod’s RomÈo et Juliette is almost more musical than opera. Everyone knows the story, and it would be hard to compete with Shakespeare. Gounod wisely focused on music, rather than drama.
Oxford Lieder Festival 2010
The Oxford Lieder Festival is small, but is extremely important. It’s quite an achievement, extremely well organized and comprehensive, a model for intelligently-presented festivals of any kind.
Technicolour Radamisto at ENO
Handel’s Radamisto came to the ENO at the Coliseum in glorious technicolour.
Bizet Les PÍcheurs de Perles – Royal Opera House
Bizet’s Les PÍcheurs de Perles is notoriously hard to stage. Because the plot’s so grandiose, the imagination works overtime, dwarfing the music, making it seem puny in comparison. There’s a lot to be said in favour of concert performances because they shift the balance back to Bizet.
An experience In the Penal Colony
Kafka’s In the Penal Colony set as an opera by Philip Glass? Against all expectations, it was a powerful and deeply moving experience.
CosÏ fan tutte, Royal Opera House
Everyone loves Mozart. The Royal Opera House’s 2010-2011 season began with CosÏ fan tutte, and simultaneous live international broadcast.
New Adriana Lecouvreur in London — Alessandro Corbelli
A completely new production of Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur is coming to the Royal Opera House, London.