Of the San Francisco Opera Manon Lescauts (in past seasons Leontyne Price, Mirella Freni, Karita Mattila among others, all in their full maturity) the latest is Armenian born Parisian finished soprano Lianna Haroutounian in her role debut. And Mme. Haroutounian is surely the finest of them all.
Category: Reviews
A lukewarm performance of Berlioz’s RomÈo et Juliette from the LSO and Tilson Thomas
A double celebration was the occasion for a packed house at the Barbican: the 150th
anniversary of Berlioz’s birth, alongside Michael Tilson Thomas’s fifty-year association with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Mahler’s Third Symphony launches Prague Symphony Orchestra’s UK tour
The Anvil in Basingstoke was the first location for a strenuous seven-concert UK tour by the Prague Symphony Orchestra – a venue-hopping trip, criss-crossing the country from Hampshire to Wales, with four northern cities and a pit-stop in London spliced between Edinburgh and Nottingham.
From Darkness into Light: Antoine Brumel’s Complete Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday
As a musicologist, particularly when working in the field of historical documents, one is always hoping to discover that unknown score, letter, household account book – even a shopping list or scribbled memo – which will reveal much about the composition, performance or context of a musical work which might otherwise remain embedded within or behind the inscrutable walls of the past.
Rigoletto past, present and future: a muddled production by Christiane Lutz for Glyndebourne Touring Opera
Charlie Chaplin was a master of slapstick whose rag-to-riches story – from workhouse-resident clog dancer to Hollywood legend with a salary to match his status – was as compelling as the physical comedy that he learned as a member of Fred Karno’s renowned troupe.
Rinaldo Through the Looking-Glass: Glyndebourne Touring Opera in Canterbury
Robert Carsen’s production of Rinaldo, first seen at Glyndebourne in 2011, gives a whole new meaning to the phrases ‘school-boy crush’ and ‘behind the bike-sheds’.
Predatory power and privilege in WNO’s Rigoletto at the Birmingham Hippodrome
At a party hosted by a corrupt and dissolute political leader, wealthy patriarchal predators bask in excess, prowling the room on the hunt for female prey who seem all too eager to trade their sexual favours for the promise of power and patronage. ‘Questa o quella?’ the narcissistic host sings, (this one or that one?), indifferent to which woman he will bed that evening, assured of impunity.
Virginie Verrez captivates in WNO’s Carmen at the Birmingham Hippodrome
Jo Davies’ new production of Carmen for Welsh National Opera presents not the exotic Orientalism of nineteenth-century France, nor a tale of the racial ‘Other’, feared and fantasised in equal measure by those whose native land she has infiltrated.
Die Zauberflˆte brings mixed delights at the Royal Opera House
When did anyone leave a performance of Mozart’s Singspiel without some serious head scratching?
Haydn’s La fedelt‡ premiata impresses at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama
‘Exit, pursued by an octopus.’ The London Underground insignia in the centre of the curtain-drop at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Silk Street Theatre, advised patrons arriving for the performance of Joseph Haydn’s La fedelt‡ premiata (Fidelity Rewarded, 1780) that their Tube journey had terminated in ‘Arcadia’ – though this was not the pastoral idyll of Polixenes’ Bohemia but a parody of paradise more notable for its amatory anarchy than any utopian harmony.