In the opera house and on the concert platform, we are accustomed to ‘women being men’, as it were. From heroic knights to adolescent youths, women don the armour and trousers, and no-one bats an eyelid.
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Mefistofele at Orange’s ChorÈgies
This is the one where a very personable devil tells God that mankind is so far gone it isn’t worth his time to bother corrupting it further.
Vintage Audi — Parsifal, Kaufmann, Pape
From the Bayerisches Staatsoper Munich, Wagner Parsifal with a dream cast – RenÈ Pape, Jonas Kaufmann and Nina Stemme, Christian Gerhaher and Wolfgang Koch, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, directed by Pierre Audi. The production is vintage Audi – stylized, austere, but solidly thought-through.
Boris Godunov in San Francisco
Yes, just when you thought Wotan was the only big guy in town San Francisco Symphony (just across a small street from San Francisco Opera), offered three staged performances of the Mussorgsky masterpiece Boris Godunov in direct competition with San Francisco Opera’s three Ring des Nibelungen cycles.
Così fan tutte: Opera Holland Park
Absence makes the heart grow fonder; or does it? In Così fan tutte, who knows? Or rather, what could such a question even mean?
Remembering Debussy
This concert might have been re-titled Remembrance of Musical Times Past: the time, that is, when French song, nurtured in the Proustian Parisian salons, began to gain a foothold in public concert halls. But, the madeleine didn’t quite work its magic on this occasion.
Grands motets de Lalande
MajestÈ, a new recording by Le PoËme Harmonique, led by Vincent Dumestre, of music by Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726) new from Alpha Classics. Le PoËme Harmonique are regular visitors to London, appreciated for the variety of their programes. On Friday this week, (11/5) they’ll be at St John’s Smith Square as part of the London Festival of Baroque, with a programme titled “At the World’s Courts”.
The Moderate Soprano
The Moderate Soprano and the story of Glyndebourne: love, opera and Nazism in David Hare’s moving play
Moody, Mysterious Morel
Long Beach Opera often takes willing audiences on an unexpected journey and such is undeniably the case with its fascinating traversal of The Invention of Morel.
Turandot in San Diego—Prima la voce
The big musical set pieces in Turandot require voice, voice, and more voice, and San Diego Opera has gifted us with a world-class cast of singing actors.