We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Thursday March 24 2022 Conductor: Susanna Mälkki. Production: William Kentridge with Luc De Wit. Sets: Sabine Theunissen. Costumes: Greta Goiris. Lighting: Urs Schönebaum. Video: Catherine Meyburgh. Wozzeck: Johan Reuter. Tambourmajor: John Daszak. Andres: Matthew Newlin. Hauptmann: Gerhard Siegel. Doktor: Falk Struckmann. Erster Handwerksbursch: Mikhail Timoshenko. Zweiter Handwerksbursch: Tobias Westman. Der Narr: Heinz Göhrig. Marie: Eva‑Maria Westbroek. Margret: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Ein Soldat: Vincent Morell. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Hauts-de-Seine and Opéra National de Paris Children's Choirs.  Photos : Agathe Poupeney/ONP With Christoph Marthaler's 'old' Paris staging (which I'd gladly have seen again) still in mind alongside unenthusiastic comments from people who'd seen William Kentridge's in New York, I went to this 'new' production here thinking it might be a let-down, but no, it turned o...

Opéra Royal, Versailles, Tuesday March 22 2022 Conductor: Leonardo García Alarcón. Production and choreography: Angelin Preljocaj. Sets: Prune Nourry. Costumes: Jeanne Vicérial. Lighting: Eric Soyer. Zéphyr, Le Sommeil: Nicholas Scott. Atys: Matthew Newlin. La Déesse Cybele: Giuseppina Bridelli. Sangaride: Ana Quintans. Celaenus, Le Temps: Andreas Wolf. Iris, Doris, Divinité fontaine, La Déesse Flore: Gwendoline Blondeel. Idas, Phobetor, Un songe funeste: Michael Mofidian. Morphée, Dieu de fleuve: Valerio Contaldo. Phantase: José Pazos. Le Fleuve Sangar: Luigi De Donato. Melisse, Divinité fontaine: Lore Binon. Cappella Mediterranea. Chorus and Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Photos: Gregory Batardon First, a selection of quotations from online reviews of the Geneva performances of this production, before it moved to Versailles - apart from Forum Opéra , at the time of writing I haven't yet seen any covering the Versailles performances: Opera-online.com : The miracle of Atys...

ONP Garnier, Wednesday March 16 2002 Conductor: Kent Nagano. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video: Kamil Polak. Dede: Claudia Boyle. François: Frédéric Antoun. Junior: Gordon Bintner. Sam: Russell Braun. Funeral director: Colin Judson. Bill: Régis Mengus. Susie: Hélène Schneiderman. Analyst: Loïc Félix. Doc: Jean-Luc Ballestra. Mrs Doc: Emanuela Pascu. Mourners: Marianne Croux, Ramya Roy, Kiup Lee, Niall Anderson. Dinah: Johanna Wokalek. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Bernd Uhlig, ONP Apparently Alexander Neef, director of the ONP, has decided to schedule more American operas, which is fine by me, and the first result is this crystalline production of A Quiet Place . Bernstein's 1983 sequel to Trouble in Tahiti seems, like many works in opera history, to have been dogged unfairly by its reputation of being a flop (it wasn't well received, initially), and as a result, tinkered wit...

Badische Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Tuesday March 1 2022 Conductor: Lars Ulrik Mortensen. Production: Floris Visser. Sets and Costumes: Gideon Davey. Lighting: Malcolm Rippeth. Hercules: Brandon Cedel. Dejanira: Ann Hallenberg. Iole: Lauren Lodge-Campbell. Hyllus: Moritz Kallenberg. Lichas: James Hall. Händel Festival Choir. German Händel Soloists. Production photos: Falk von Traubenberg For various reasons to do with the production, acoustics and casting, Hercules at Karlsruhe's 44th International Händel Festival turned out to be a frustrating experience.   Not that the production is weak. On the contrary, it's logical and thought-through, detailed and carefully rehearsed - almost as much a directorial tour de force as Jonathan Kent's Fairy Queen . The action starts during the overture with Dejanira in a strait-jacket in her bedroom, grasping at constellations mapped out on the walls, as if searching for her late husband. It alternates between flashbacks and courtroom scen...

The March 2022 'pick of the month' in France's Opéra Magazine , with its top 'Diamant' rating, is a new recording of Rameau's Les Paladins , with Mathias Vidal, Sandrine Piau, Florian Sempey, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Nahuel Di Pierro, Philippe Talbot and La Chapelle Harmonique, all under Valentin tournet, on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label. 'Outstanding Paladins ,' says the magazine. 'Recorded at the Palace of Versailles, this new version of the last of Rameau's operas to be premiered while he was alive fulfills our every expectation (...) Valentin Tournet is the revelation of this complete recording. Not only did he prepare the edition used, giving us, in the appendix, numbers "withdrawn during rehearsals" but he also conducts with a degree of conviction that immediately wins us over. Lively but balanced tempi , a taste for orchestral colour... bringing Les Paladins back to life with elegance and dynamism.'