A fine-sounding Santa Fe Opera orchestra, excellently conducted by FrÈdÈric
Chaslin, was barely into the haunting, delicate prelude to Act I of La
traviata, when a funeral procession, wet umbrellas unfurled, arrived to
wend its way though a stage full of big grey marble rectangular boxes,
handsomely abstracted tomb shapes, soon to be the courtesan Violetta
ValÈry’s destination. So much for the Prelude to Act I.
Author: Gary Hoffman
An Evening at PËre Lachaise [Or, Natalie Dessay Attempts Violetta]
Munich opera director says public taste is always behind the times
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4512659,00.html
Bought and Paid-for Magic — Bernstein Tahiti in Munich’s CuvilliËs Theater
There she is, in her inch or two of sarong, floating, floating…Oh, excuse me, where was I?
A knock-out Ariadne auf Naxos at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera Festival
There are rare times when a critic can just enjoy, and say “Wow!”
Tosca at the Baths of Caracalla, Rome
Tosca is the quintessential Roman opera, with a plot located in
three infamous landmarks of Rome, its 1900 premiere in Rome was bound to be
enormously successful.
Festival Aix-en-Provence by StÈphan Lissner
The Aix Festival imagines itself one of Europe’s great festivals, defining itself as the crossroads of European culture.
Gˆtterd‰mmerung at Aix-en-Provence — A Human Symphony
This year’s program at the Aix-en-Provence Festival includes
Gˆtterd‰mmerung, the much-anticipated final installment of the
Ring co-sponsored by Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Osterfestspiele Salzburg.
Mozart Mistreated at Aix-en-Provence Festival
At the festival of Aix-en-Provence, now in its sixty-first year, the final installment of Wagner’s “Ring,” with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, has hogged the spotlight.