The 67th edition of the prestigious Festival d’Aix-en-Provence opened on July 2 with an explosive production of Handel’s Alcina followed the next night by an explosive production of Mozart’s Die Entf¸hrung aus dem Serail.
Author: Michael Milenski
Two Women in San Francisco
Why would an American opera company devote its resources to the premiere of an opera by an Italian composer? Furthermore a parochially Italian story?
Les Troyens in San Francisco
Berlioz’ Les Troyens is in two massive parts — La prise de Troy and Troyens ‡ Carthage.
Fedora in Genoa
It is not an everyday opera. It is an opera that illuminates a larger verismo history.
Tosca in Marseille
Rarely, very rarely does a Tosca come around that you can get excited about. Sure, sometimes there is good singing, less often good conducting but rarely is there a mise en scËne that goes beyond stock opera vocabulary.
Die Meistersinger and The Indian Queen
at the ENO
It has been a cold and gray winter in the south of France (where I live) made splendid by some really good opera, followed just now by splendid sunshine at Trafalgar Square and two exquisite productions at English National Opera.
Eine florentinische Tragˆdie and I pagliacci in Monte-Carlo
An evening of strange-bedfellow one-acts in high-concept stagings, mindbogglingly delightful.
Idomeneo in Lyon
You might believe you could go to an opera and take in what you see at face value. But if you did that just now in Lyon you would have had no idea what was going on.
IphigÈnie en Tauride in Geneva
Hopefully this brilliant new production of IphigÈnie en Tauride from the Grand ThÈ‚tre de GenËve will find its way to the new world now that Gluck’s masterpiece has been introduced to American audiences.
Tristan et Isolde in Toulouse
Tristan first appeared on the stage of the ThȂtre du Capitole in 1928, sung in French, the same language that served its 1942 production even with Wehrmacht tanks parked in front of the opera house.