Badisches Staastheater’s production of Tosca starts off with a bang.
Category: Performances
Paris: ‘Maler’ or ‘Malheur’?
No one could accuse the Paris Opera of pinching pennies (or Euro cents) in their lavishly expansive (and expensive) staging of Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler.
Wagner Tannh‰user: Royal Opera House, London
The Royal Opera House itself is the star of this new production of Richard Wagner Tannh‰user. An intriguing twist on an opera that pits orgiastic excess against purity, pleasure against morality.
La BohËme, New York
Perhaps the most unexpected occurrence of the evening was the malfunction of the Act I-Act II set change.
Magic Flute, Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emmanuel Schikaneder had known each other for some time before they wrote The Magic Flute.
Cecilia Bartoli at the Barbican Centre, London
Cecilia Bartoli is something of a phenomenon, capable of attracting an enthusiastic capacity crowd.
Handel’s Alcina at Barbican Centre, London
The Barbican’s Great Performers season often acts as a receiving house for continental opera productions, thus giving us in London a chance to hear interesting performances without actually having to travel.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opera Australia
Transplanting Britten’s Shakespeare opera to an Indian setting seems at first an illogical step by Hollywood director Baz Luhrmann.
Die Entf¸hrung aus den Serail, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
With its tricky ‘orientalist’ connotations, Singspiel-originating spoken dialogue, not to mention the problem of finding five outstanding singers who can cope with the considerable demands of the solo roles (and the commercial challenge presented by the need to pay a chorus who sing barely a few bars of music), Mozart’s Die Entf¸hrung aus den Serail does not receive as many stagings as it deserves.