This was an evening of big voices and grand theatrical vision. When Christof Loy’s production of Verdi’s La forza del destino was first seen at the Royal Opera House, in…
Category: Staged Operas
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt: ambitious, provocative, probing music theatre from Belarus Free Theatre
Belarus Free Theatre’s world premiere production at the Barbican Theatre of King Stakh’s Wild Hunt is stunning, sometimes bewildering and absolutely immersing: a sort of dramatic cross-breeding of the worlds…
At the Venice Fair: Bampton Classical Opera bring a Salieri premiere to St John’s Smith Square
Opera-in-the-garden can be rather a hit-and-miss affair, given the vagaries of an English summer. One night the sky is blue, the sun is benevolently warm, the breeze brushes gently and…
Strikingly impressive Das Rheingold from the Royal Opera House
One might argue with Covent Garden’s pre-publicity claim that this Rheingold is‘a bold new imagining’, but this first collaboration between director Barrie Kosky and conductor Anthony Pappano brings a wonderfully…
FIFOE in Entrecasteaux
That’s Festival International Film d’Opéra d’Entrecasteaux (a tiny village in Provence). The two films of this inaugural year were Francesco Rosi’s 1984 Carmen and Luigi Comencini’s 1988 La boheme (lead photo). The surprisingly…
555: Verlaine en prison: a tender and troubled portrait of poetic profundity at the Arcola Theatre
‘The long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor.’ The first lines of Paul Verlaine’s ‘Chanson d’automne’ exemplify the poignant melancholy of Verlaine’s poetry…
Nabucco at the Arena di Verona
The Arena di Verona has just hosted its 100th year of summer opera. Long ago the Arena had places for 30,000 Romans, now, with one-third of the monumental structure as an…
The Greek Passion at the Salzburg Festival
Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů was a WWII refugee to the U.S. who returned to Europe (Switzerland) in his last years (d. 1959) where he turned Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis’ Christ…
Falstaff and Macbeth at the Salzburg Festival
Falstaff at the hands of old-guard avant-gardistes Christof Marthaler and Anna Viebrock. Set on a sound stage somewhere (certainly Hollywood) where Orson Wells is acting or directing his three Falstaff…
Parsifal at Bayreuth
There are intractable conventions at Bayreuth. There are no supertitles. Parsifal is done every year (though it was not during WWII due to ideological incompatibility). There is no applause after…