We left at the interval...

ONP Garnier, Wednesday September 26 2013 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production: Olivier Py. Sets & costumes: Pierre-André Weitz. Lighting: Bertrand Killy. Admète: Yann Beuron. Alceste: Sophie Koch. Le Grand Prêtre d’Apollon: Jean-François Lapointe. Evandre / soli ténor: Stanislas de Barbeyrac. Un Hérault d’armes, Apollon: Florian Sempey. Hercule: Franck Ferrari. Coryphée / soli soprano: Marie-Adeline Henry. L’Oracle, Un Dieu infernal: François Lis. Soli alto: Bertrand Dazin. Chorus and Orchestra of the Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble. " Alceste: what a waste of 200 euros ". Gluck That was, I'm sorry to say, the text message I sent to a friend just after this week's performance of Alceste . I was exaggerating a bit: not about the waste, but about the price. I'd rounded it up from 195 euros. When you go to see Alceste you expect (at least until Hercule comes blustering in) to be roused by the majestic nobility of it - not bored: Olivier Py's co...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday September 1 2013 Conductor: Marc Piollet. Concept, production and sets: Alain Platel. Lighting: Carlo Bourguignon. Costumes: Dorine Demuynck. Additional music: Steven Prengels. Coro Intermezzo - Teatro Real Madrid. C de la B dance company. La Monnaie orchestra. Giuseppe Verdi Messa da Requiem (Dies Irae, Tuba mirum, Agnus Dei, Libera me) Nabucco (Va pensiero) Macbeth (Patria oppressa!) La Traviata (Parigi, o cara, Preludio Atto III, Preludio Atto I) Richard Wagner Lohengrin (Vorspiel, Heil! König Heinrich!) Tannhäuser (Pilger-Chor, O du, mein holder Abendstern) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wach auf!, Vorspiel 3. Aufzug) La Monnaie’s 2013-2014 season opened, not with an opera, but with C(h)oeurs , a hybrid work commissioned by Gerard Mortier for Madrid. As my intention, with these write-ups, is to give impressions of operas, as an ordinary, amateur opera-goer, and as this was definitely not one, I’ve been wondering what to write a...