This was a truly outstanding performance, thoroughly worthy of its standing ovation. The only problem now will be of upholding such standards throughout the Barbican’s Birtwistle at 80 series.
Category: Reviews
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, Glyndebourne 2014
Der Rosenkavalier opened Glyndebourne’s 80th anniversary season, dedicated to the memory of George Christie, who created country house opera as we know it today.
La clemenza di Tito at Lyric Opera of Chicago
For its final production of the 2013-14 season Lyric Opera of Chicago featured Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in a staging originating at the
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, in co-production with the Théatre du Capitole de Toulouse and l’Opéra de Marseille.
Baden-Baden: Proficient Puccini as Easter Treat
Baden’s Easter Festival centerpiece was a solid production of Manon Lescaut that was well-intended, well-designed, and well-performed.
The Marriage of Figaro, Royal Opera
“Oh! Woman! Woman! Woman!” So, cries Beaumarchais’s Figaro, in his
angry, self-chastising, at times self-pitying diatribe against the injustices
of ‘life’. “Oh, servants, servants, servants!” might be the Count’s
complaint in David McVicar’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro,
revived here for the sixth time.
StÈphane Degout, Wigmore Hall, London
Excellent Wigmore Hall recital with StÈphane Degout and Simon Lepper. Degout is one of the great names in French repertoire and in French baroque in particular.
Thebans: World Premiere at ENO
Julian Anderson’s Thebans at the Coliseum, London, absolutely justifies the ENO’s mission: opera, in English, and of national significance. Anderson is one of the most influential figures in modern British music.
Les Mamelles de TirÈsias in San Francisco
Poulenc’s racy little 1947 confection took stage within Kurt Weill’s peculiar little 1927 singspiel Mahagonny all framed within the current California drought and doomsday predictions of impending global aridity.
A Coffin in Egypt: A Tour-de-Force for von Stade
Librettist Leonard Foglia based his elegant and literate text on the late Horton Foote’s play, A Coffin in Egypt, and the opera has the original play’s dramatic punch.