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Wagner - Das Rheingold (L'Or du Rhin), at the Paris Opera.

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ONP Bastille, Paris, Tuesday February 11 2025 Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Rebecca Ringst. Costumes: Ingo Krügler. Lighting: Michael Bauer. Video: Sarah Derendinger. Wotan: Iain Paterson. Donner: Florent Mbia. Froh: Matthew Cairns. Loge: Simon O'Neill. Fasolt: Kwangchul Youn. Fafner: Mika Kares. Alberich: Brian Mulligan. Mime: Gerhard Siegel. Fricka: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Freia: Eliza Boom. Erda: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Woglinde: Margarita Polonskaya. Wellgunde: Isabel Signoret. Flosshilde: Katharina Magiera. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Herwig Prammer/ONP These are head-spinning times for Ring cycles, at least as far as I’m concerned. The Paris Opera originally scheduled Bieito’s five years ago. Covid intervened, and it was postponed. In the meantime, at the end of 2023, Brussels launched its own cycle, directed by Romeo Castellucci. His Rheingold and Walküre were among the most enthralling productions I’ve ever seen of anythin...
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Cherubini - Médée, at the Opéra Comique in Paris

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Opéra Comique, Paris, Monday February 10 2025 Conductor: Laurence Equilbey. Production and Video: Marie-Ève Signeyrole. Sets: Fabien Teigné. Costumes: Yashi. Lighting: Philippe Berthomé. Médée: Joyce El-Khoury. Jason: Julien Behr. Créon: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Dircé: Lila Dufy. Néris: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Première suivante de Dircé: Michèle Bréant. Deuxième suivante de Dircé: Fanny Soyer. Actress: Caroline Frossard. Extras: Inès Dhahbi, Sira Lenoble N' Diaye, Lisa Razniewski, Mirabela Vian. Maîtrise Populaire de l'Opéra-Comique. Accentus chorus. Insula orchestra . Photos: Stefan Brion Cherubini’s Médée was first performed in 1797 at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris, of which he was the director. Under Napoleon, the Feydeau and Favart troupes were merged to create the Opéra Comique. So we might say this production is a homecoming, especially as it follows the 2008 critical edition used by Christophe Rousset in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s staging, which I saw in both Brussels ...
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Opéra Magazine's 'pick of the month' recording for February 2025

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  Opéra Magazine didn't show up in January and I thought it might have gone the way of so many arts institutions in these tough times, but it was, after all, just hibernating and is now back. The top new recording (their ‘ coup de coeur ’) in the February 2025 edition, with a ‘Diamond’ sticker denoting an oustanding achievement, is the Palazzetto Bru Zane’s new issue of Massenet’s Grisélidis , with Vanina Santoni, Julien Dran, Thomas Dollié, Tassis Christoyannis, Antoinette Dennefeld, Adèle Charvet, Adriend Fournaison Thibault de Damas and the Montpellier Opera under Jean-Marie Zeitouni. ‘The Palazzetto Bru Zane’s latest recording, carried by Jean-Marie Zeitouni’s precision conducting and talented singers, offers us a magnificent version of this Massenet opera, rare on disc.’
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Rameau - Castor et Pollux (1737 version), at the Paris Opera's Palais Garnier

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ONP Garnier, Paris, Thursday January 23, 2025 Conductor: Teodor Currentzis. Production: Peter Sellars. Sets: Joelle Aoun. Costumes: Camille Assaf. Lighting: James F. Ingalls. Choreography: Cal Hunt. Video: Alex MacInnis. Télaïre: Jeanine De Bique. Castor: Reinoud Van Mechelen. Pollux: Marc Mauillon. Phébé: Stéphanie d'Oustrac. Mars, Jupiter, un athlète: Nicholas Newton. Minerve, Une Suivante d’Hébé: Claire Antoine. L’Amour, Le Grand-Prêtre, un Athlète: Laurence Kilsby. Vénus, une ombre heureuse: Natalia Smirnova. Utopia Orchestra and Chorus.    Photos: Vincent Pontet/OnP   I’m on a sort of Rameau binge at the moment. Since enjoying Les Fêtes d’Hébé just before Christmas, I’ve been reading his biographies, first in French, by Sylvie Bouissou, editor-in-chief of the Rameau Opera Omnia project, which is producing critical editions of all his works in partnership with Bärenreiter, and now in English, by Simon Trowbridge, who, being less of a specialist, focuses slightly mo...
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Janacek - Příhody lišky Bystroušky: The Cunning Little Vixen/La petite renarde rusée, at the Bastille in Paris

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ONP Bastille, Tuesday January 21 2025 Conductor: Juraj Valčuha. Production: André Engel. Sets: Nicky Rieti. Costumes: Elizabeth Neumuller. Lighting: André Diot. Choreography: Françoise Grès. The Vixen: Elena Tsallagova. The Fox: Paula Murrihy. The Forester: Milan Siljanov. The Schoolmaster, the Mosquito: Éric Huchet. The Priest: Frédéric Caton. Harašta: Tadeáš Hoza. The Dog: Maria Warenberg. The Innkeeper: Se-Jin Hwang. The Innkeeper's wife: Anne-Sophie Ducret. The Cockerel, The Jay: Rocio Ruiz Cobarro. The Hen: Irina Kopylova. The Woodpecker: Marie-Cécile Chevassus. The Badger: Sławomir Szychowiak. Sova, The Owl: Marie Gautrot. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir. Photos: Vincent Pontet / ONP Though I’ve sometimes complained that the Paris Opera, while supposedly short of cash, changes its productions nearly as often as the rest of us change our socks, André Engel’s Cunning Little Vixen first appeared there 17 years ago. At th...
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Rameau - Les Fêtes d'Hébé, ou Les Talens Lyriques, at the Opéra Comique (Salle Favart) in Paris

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Opéra Comique, Paris, 17 December 2024 Conductor: William Christie. Production: Robert Carsen. Sets and Costumes: Gideon Davey. Lighting: Robert Carsen, Peter Van Praet. Choreography: Nicolas Paul. Video: Renaud Rubiano. Hébé/Naïade: Emmanuelle de Negri. Sapho/Iphise/Eglé: Lea Desandre. L'Amour/Le ruisseau/Une bergère: Ana Vieira Leite. Momus/Mercure: Marc Mauillon. Hymas/Tirtée: Renato Dolcini. Le ruisseau/Lycurgue: Cyril Auvity. Eurilas/Alcée: Lisandro Abadie. Thélème: Antonin Rondepierre. Le Fleuve: Matthieu Walendzik. Les Arts Florissants. Photos: Vincent Pontet William Christie turned 80 on December 19 this year. He chose, as his present to himself, to perform Rameau’s Les Fêtes d’Hébé in a new staging by Robert Carsen, at the Opéra Comique - Christie's thirteenth production there since the famous Atys of 1987. In doing so, he offered a magnificent Christmas present to us all. As this is one of Rameau’s best, but not best-known, works, I’ll begin with a little bit about ...
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2025

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