Purcell - Dido and Aeneas (arte.tv)

Posted


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 (Peeping Tom). Additional music: Atsushi Sakaï. Sets: Justine Bougerol. Costumes: Anne-Catherine Kunz. Lighting: Giacomo Gorini. Dido, Sorceress, Spirit: Marie-Claude Chappuis. Dido (actress): Eurudike De Beul. Æneas, Sailor: Jarrett Ott. Belinda, 2nd Witch: Emőke Baráth. 2nd Woman, 1st Witch: Marie Lys. Grand Théâtre de Genève Chorus. Orchestre du Concert d’Astrée.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spontini - La Vestale, at the Bastille in Paris

Posted
Image
ONP Bastille, Paris, Monday July 8 2024. Conductor: Bertrand de Billy. Production: Lydia Steier. Sets: Etienne Pluss. Costumes: Katharina Schlipf. Lighting: Valerio Tiberi. Julia: Elza van den Heever. Licinius: Michael Spyres. La Grande Vestale: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Cinna: Julien Behr. Le Souverain Pontife: Jean Teitgen. Le Chef des Aruspices, un consul: Floren Mbia. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. All production photos: Guergana Damianova/ONP Last year, the ever-excellent Palazzetto Bru Zane issued a new recording, under Christophe Rousset and with a strong case, of La Vestale . As it's considered a historically important work, I dutifully listened, more than once, but it didn't click at the time. Still, when it popped up in the Paris Opera's season, in a brand new production (albeit by Lydia Steier - not exactly, based on her Salome , a positive pointer), I bought tickets. I'm glad I did because, despite some misgivings I'll outline below, having...
Read more

Puccini - Turandot, at La Monnaie in Brussels

Posted
Image
La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday June 30 2024 Conductor: Ouri Bronchti. Production and Costumes: Christophe Coppens. Sets: Christophe Coppens and I.S.M.Architecten. Lighting: Peter Van Praet. La Principessa Turandot: Ewa Vesin. L’Imperatore Altoum: Ning Liang. Timur: Michele Pertusi. Il Principe Ignoto (Calaf): Stefano La Colla. Liù: Venera Gimadieva. Ping/Un Mandarino: Leon Košavić. Pang/Il Principe di Persia: Alexander Marev. Pong: Valentin Thill. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Choral Academy, La Monnaie Children's and Youth Choirs. All photos except the general view of the set below: Matthias Baus/La Monnaie ' Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels in 1924, leaving the score of his last opera unfinished. A century on, director Christophe Coppens and conductor Ouri Bronchti reveal just how much more there is to the work than its trademark aria "Nessun dorma". Coppens sets his version of Turandot in modern-day Hong Kong, where a wealthy family is corrupted by power...
Read more

Strauss - Salome, at the Bastille in Paris

Posted
Image
ONP Bastille, Sunday May 12 and Wednesday May 22, 2024 Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth. Production: Lydia Steier. Sets and video: Momme Hinrichs. Costumes: Andy Besuch. Lighting: Olaf Freese. Salome: Lise Davidsen. Herodes: Gerhard Siegel. Herodias: Ekaterina Gubanova. Jochanaan: Johan Reuter. Narraboth: Pavol Breslik. Page der Herodias: Katharina Magiera. Erster Jude: Matthäus Schmidlechner. Zweiter Jude: Éric Huchet. Dritter Jude: Maciej Kwaśnikowski. Vierter Jude: Tobias Westman. Fünfter Jude: Florent Mbia. Erster Nazarener: Luke Stoker. Zweiter Nazarener: Yiorgo Ioannou. Erster Soldat: Dominic Barberi. Zweiter Soldat: Bastian Thomas Kohl. Cappadocier: Alejandro Baliñas Vieites. Ein Sklave: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Charles Duprat/ONP I'd already seen Lydia Steier's über -icky production of Salome in 2022 ('beyond nausea,' as one French critic wrote, see my account here ), and wouldn't normally have wanted to cringe thro...
Read more