Continuing their MOZART 250 series, The Mozartists/ Classical Opera began dipping into the operatic offerings of 1768 at Wigmore Hall in January, when they presented numbers from Mozart’s La finta semplice, Jommelli’s Fetonte, Hasse’s Pirano e Tisbe and Haydn’s Lo speziale.
Category: Reviews
Schubert Schwanengesang revisited—Florian Boesch, Wigmore Hall
Schwanengesang isn’t Schubert’s Swan Song any more than it is a cycle like Die schˆne M¸llerin or Winterreise. The title was given it by his publishers Haslingers, after his death, combining settings of two very different poets, Ludwig Rellstab and Heinrich Heine. Wigmore Hall audiences have heard lots of good Schwanengesangs, including Boesch and Martineau performances in the past, but this was something special.
Rinaldo: The English Concert at the Barbican Hall
“After such cruel events, I don’t know if I am dreaming or awake.” So says Almirena, daughter of the Crusader Goffredo, when she is rescued by her beloved warrior-hero, Rinaldo, from the clutches of the evil sorceress, Armida.
Hamlet abridged and enriched in Amsterdam
French grand opera and small opera companies are an unlikely combination. Yet OPERA2DAY, a company of modest means, is currently touring the Netherlands with Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas.
The ROH’s first production of From the House of the Dead
Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production for the ROH of From the House of the Dead is ‘new’ in several regards. It’s (astonishingly) the first time that Jan·?ek’s last opera has been staged at Covent Garden; it’s Warlikowski’s debut at Covent Garden; and the production uses a new 2017 critical edition prepared by John Tyrrell.
CosÏ fan tutte at Lyric Opera of Chicago
With artifice, disguise, and questions on fidelity as the basis of Mozart’s CosÏ fan tutte, the composer’s mature opera has returned to the stage at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
WNO’s Wheel of Destiny rolls into Birmingham
Welsh National Opera’s wheel of destiny has rolled into Birmingham this week, with Verdi’s sprawling tragedy, La forza del destino, opening the company’s ‘Rabble Rousing’ triptych at the Hippodrome.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal College of Music
The gossamer web of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is sufficiently insubstantial and ambiguous to embrace multiple interpretative readings: the play can be a charming comic caper, a jangling journey through human pettiness and cruelty, a moonlit fairy fantasy or a shadowy erotic nightmare, and much more besides.
Les FunÈrailles Royales de Louis XIV recreated at Versailles
Les FunÈrailles Royales de Louis XIV, with Ensemble Pygmalion, conducted by RaphaÎl Pichon now on DVD/Blu -ray from Harmonia Mundi. This captures the historic performance at the Chapelle Royale de Versailles in November 2015, on the 300th anniversary of the King’s death.
Robert Carsen’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream returns to ENO
Having given us Christopher Alden’s strangely dystopic production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2011, English National Opera (ENO) has opted for Robert Carsen’s bed-inspired vision for the latest revival of the opera at the London Coliseum.