We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Wednesday February 22 2022 Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen. Production: Andrei Șerban. Sets, costumes: Richard Hudson. Lighting: Yves Bernard. Choreography: Laurence Fanon. Prince Ivan Khovansky: Dimitry Ivashchenko. Prince Andrey Khovansky: Sergei Skorokhodov. Prince Vasily Golitsin: John Daszak. Shaklovity: Evgeny Nikitin. Dosifey: Dmitry Belosseslkiy. Marfa: Anita Rachvelishvili. Susanna: Carole Wilson. Scrivener: Gerhard Siegel. Emma: Anush Hovhannisyan. Varsonofyev: Wojtek Smilek. Kuzka: Vasily Efimov. Streshnev: Tomasz Kumiega. First Strelets: Volodymyr Tyshkov. Second Strelets: Alexander Milev. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine/ONP Children's Chorus. All photos Guergana Damianova / ONP Andrei Șerban's production of Khovanshchina is over twenty years old, and the present run is its third. Given Paris's habit of changing productions like the rest of us change underpants, it must be one of the longest-lived in th...

La Philharmonie, Paris, Monday, February 7 2022 Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda. Pianist: Beatrice Rana. London Symphony Orchestra. Beethoven: Piano Concerto N° 5 (Emperor) Shostakovich: Symphony N°15. I don't often go to La Philharmonie because, to be frank, I don't like it. In particular, I don't buy into the hall's PR claims, echoed faithfully by the press, it has outstanding acoustics. After my first evening there, I did some in-depth Googling and found a long but interesting article about acoustic variability , prompted by a visit to the brand-new house by Willem Boning, an acoustical and architectural designer working at Arup in New York, which includes the remark: 'So, when people ask me how the Philharmonie sounded, I don’t know what to say. From the two sections I sat in, it sounded terrible and it sounded amazing.' However, as, apparently, it all depends on where you sit (and even, according to Mr Boning, whether you sit back or lean forward in your seat)...

Photo: Stefan Brion After a January break for a special issue devoted to opera festivals, France's Opéra Magazine is back to its usual, monthly format. Its pick of the month for February 2022, embellished with a ' Diamant ' for outstanding achievement, is the DVD/Blu-ray of something many of us will have seen during our lockdown evenings of streamed opera, Mondonville's 'magical' Titon et l'Aurore , recorded in a near-empty Salle Favart in January last year. 'For its first entry in the DVD catalogue,' writes the magazine's critic, 'Mondonville's "pastorale héroïque" is blessed with an edition which is outstanding all round.'  Reinoud van Mechelen is Titon, Gwendoline Blondeel Aurore, the production is by Basil Twist and Les Arts Florissants are conducted by William Christie, on Naxos.