It can be difficult to inject life into a production which has been a staple of a company’s repertoire for over twenty years.
Category: Performances
Macbeth at Bavarian State Opera
If Munichís new Macbeth production does anything, it stirs emotions and draws heated response.
On The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Decades ago a New Yorker cartoon showed a very little girl standing on tip-toe to return a book to a matronly librarian.
Die tote Stadt at San Francisco Opera
Korngold’s third opera Die tote Stadt premiered in 1920 in Cologne, the composer a mere 23 years old. Back then, opera remained a living art form, with the likes of Strauss and Puccini keeping the public excited about new works.
Les PÍcheurs de perles at the Washington National Opera
The second offering of the current WNO season is a San Diego Opera production of Georges Bizet’s Pearl Fishers (1863).
Cool Cavalli at Covent Garden ó La Calisto
Planet Earth laid waste by forces beyond our control, hunger and drought squeezing humanity out of existence whilst those in charge look on, laughing, lusting and concerned only with their own power struggles ñ does this sound familiar?
Paerís Leonora from Bampton Classical Opera
Musically and dramatically Ferdinando Paerís Leonora and Beethovenís Fidelio might be said to belong respectively to pre- and post-revolutionary ages.
Puccini’s Il Trittico at Los Angeles Opera
A few seasons back, Los Angeles Opera invited William Friedkin to direct a double-bill of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Oresteia at Miller Theatre
Iannis Xenakis once stood among the leading composers of the avant-garde, mentioned in a (long, drawn-out, amelodic, taped and fed back) breath with Babbitt, Berio, Boulez, Henze, Penderecki and Stockhausen: internationally famous among academics, ignored or deplored by the concert-going public.
Prom 61 ó Verdi’s Requiem
The Verdi Requiem is a regular feature at the Proms, having appeared every few years in past decades, usually to full houses.