We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Thursday April 25 2019 Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video: Denis Guéguin. Boris Timofeyevich Izmailov: Dmitry Ulyanov. Zinoviy Borisovich Izmailov: John Daszak. Katerina Lvovna Izmailova: Aušrinė Stundytė. Sergei: Pavel Černoch. Aksinya: Sofija Petrovic. Tattered peasant: Wolfgang Ablinger‑Sperrhacke. Sonyetka: Oksana Volkova. Schoolmaster: Andrei Popov. Priest, Old Convict: Krzysztof Baczyk. Female convict: Marianne Croux. Police Chief: Sava Vemić. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Muddle Instead Of Music Over dinner with friends after Lady Macbeth the other night, we counted off on our fingers the various Warlikowski productions we'd seen over the years, between Paris, Brussels, London and Berlin. Quite a lot it turned out: Iphigénie en Tauride, Věc Makropoulos, King Roger, Parsifal, Macbeth, Médée, The Rake's Progress, Lulu, Don Giov...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday April 3 2019 Conductor: Harry Bicket. Semele: Brenda Rae. Ino/Juno: Elizabeth DeShong. Jupiter: Benjamin Hulett. Cadmus/Somnus: Soloman Howard. Athamas: Christopher Lowrey. Iris: Ailish Tynan. The English Concert. The Clarion Choir. After this concert, I had a discussion online with a soprano who has twins about how pregnancy may affect a singer’s singing. There's no telling, it seems: it varies from singer to singer and sometimes actually helps. Brenda Rae was quite evidently pregnant, and I wondered whether her surprising and rather frustrating restraint as Semele was due to her condition or just to her holding back for stylistic reasons. She only really let rip in 'Myself I shall adore', which was loudly applauded, but sang the admittedly unreasonable 'No, no, I’ll take no less', which ought to crown a soprano’s evening, practically through gritted teeth and so to less applause. Perhaps Harry Bicket was respon...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Monday April 1 2019 Conductor: Sébastien Rouland. Production: Michel Fau. Sets: Emmanuel Charles. Costumes: Christian Lacroix. Lighting: Joël Fabing. Chapelou/Saint-Phar: Michael Spyres. Madeleine/Madame de Latour: Florie Valiquette. Le marquis de Corcy: Franck Leguérinel. Biju/Alcindor: Laurent Kubla. Rose: Michel Fau. Louis XV: Yannis Ezziadi. Bourdon: Julien Clément. Orchestra and chorus of the Opéra de Rouen Normandie. Accentus chorus. I wasn't sure I really wanted to see Le Postillon de Lonjumeau , but was persuaded to by a sweet old lady living in New York and, ultimately, by the fact that Michael Spyres would be singing the lead. What had put me off for a while was the Opéra Comique's track record in staging cringe-makingly silly, slapstick - and slapdash - productions, as if for imbeciles, of works that deserve better, more intelligent treatment. The right tone is hard to strike, the right degree of knowing complicity with the audience - and...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Friday April 29 2019 Conductor: Bertrand de Billy. Production: Andrei Serban. Sets: Peter Pabst. Costumes: Graciela Galán. Lighting: Joël Hourbeigt. Otello: Roberto Alagna. Iago: George Gagnidze. Cassio: Frédéric Antoun. Roderigo: Alessandro Liberatore. Lodovico: Paul Gay. Montano: Thomas Dear. Desdemona: Aleksandra Kurzak. Emilia: Marie Gautrot. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Maîtrise des Hauts‑de‑Seine/ONP Children’s Chorus. I’ve said it before and even so I’m going to say it again: there seems to be no logic (other than the director’s whim) to the Paris Opera’s decisions to keep or discard productions. Warlikowski’s outstanding Parsifal , seen only once, was replaced by something less outstanding on the grounds it was already ten years old. But already, 15 years ago, I left this dismally conventional Otello (“Bergerac,” muttered my neighbour the other night, meaning the standard was deeply provincial) at the interval. In other word...