We left at the interval...

Cadmus et Hermione  at the Opéra-Comique in 2008 Every month, France's  Opéra Magazine  rates new recordings (CD and video) on a scale from 1 to 5 and dishes out the occasional ' Diamant ' ('Diamond') to what it considers exceptional ones, for whatever reason. This month, its ' coup de coeur ', complete with a ' Diamant ', is a 2-CD set of Lully's Cadmus et Hermione conducted by Vincent Dumestre, on the Versailles Spectacles label. The review begins (my translation): 'After the sumptuous production at the Opéra-Comique in January 2008, then the acclaimed release of the show on DVD by Alpha Classics, Vincent Dumestre now offers us a Cadmus and Hermione of rare quality, without the visual trappings. With the help of highly inspired singers, he has made up for his first approach, which was somewhat overdone and vocally under-cast. For, let us say it straight out, the voices assembled for this studio recording, in November 2019, are far more co...

Every month, France's  Opéra Magazine  rates new recordings (CD and video) on a scale from 1 to 5 and dishes out the occasional ' Diamant ' ('Diamond') to what it considers exceptional ones, for whatever reason. This month, its ' coup de coeur ', complete with a ' Diamant ', is a DVD of Gay & Pepusch's The Beggar's Opera , in a 2018 production by Robert Carsen, with William Christie conducting. The reviewer writes 'A glittering success (...) A breath of fresh air (and almost of laughing gas) in these gloomy times: who's to say no?' Here's a trailer:

Puzzling Dido from Geneva this evening. I don't know what to make of it. I'm sure some people I know would call it ' foutage de gueule ' (a mockery, a wind-up...). And I don't usually like directors to chop a score up and/or add things of their own; nor do I usually care much for distracting dancers having fits all over the place... But I get the feeling I'll probably read up on it tomorrow, if I find time, and perhaps watch again. Thinking through this kind of production is more interesting to me than sitting through, say, McVicar's  Adriana Lecouvreur  or nearly any of the stuff I've seen in the past year from Vienna. Despite the weak (not to say risible) additional texts, there were some powerful moments - more so dramatically than musically. I was surprised Haïm wasn't a bit livelier.  This is the link to the replay on arte.tv. This is the link to the programme notes. Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Production and choreography: Franck Chartier (Pe...