Labelled a “parable of oppression” by the late musicologist, Philip Brett, Britten’s provincial comedy, Albert Herring, is a tough nut to crack.
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Moby Dick in San Francisco
Forget Herman Melville, forget struggling with deep human complexities. At least those that possessed nineteenth century Americans.
I Capuleti e i Montecchi in San Francisco
Give me good verses, I’ll give you good music, said Bellini to his librettist Felice Romani. Give me a good director and I’ll give you good opera surely thought San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley.
Santa Fe 2012
The venerable Santa Fe Opera served up a richly eclectic mix of high-caliber offerings that surely is one of their best festivals in recent seasons.
La bohËme at the Salzburg Festival
It is difficult to speak with excessive enthusiasm of the programming of a Salzburg Festival that included both Carmen and La bohËme, though it would subsequently be redeemed in part by a staging of Die Soldaten.
Ariadne auf Naxos, Salzburg Festspiele
When announced in November, this was trailed as the original version of Ariadne auf Naxos, a rare treat indeed.
Otello, Royal Opera
Elijah Moshinsky’s Otello, first seen at Covent Garden in 1987,
and revived numerous times with a range of stellar casts, may be traditional
and conservative, even — excepting the thunderous opening storm scene —
somewhat uninventive;
Written on Skin at the Aix Festival
Not about tattoo art, not an evocation of the Holocast, and let us not even try to put our finger on what it is about.
Susan Graham, Wigmore Hall
Embodying a range of iconic female characters from history, literature and song — both the ‘good’ and the ‘not-so-good’ — Susan Graham delivered a wonderfully suave and entertaining performance before a delighted Wigmore Hall audience.
Les Troyens, Royal Opera House London
A sensational Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House, London. Berlioz, who understood theatrical gestures so well, builds his opera around the most audacious dramatic device in ancient history: the Trojan Horse.