We left at the interval...

 

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 17 2023 Conductor: Timur Zangiev. Production & Sets: Dmitri Tcherniakov. Costumes: Elena Zaytseva. Video Art Direction & Lighting: Gleb Filshtinsky. Czar Saltan: Ante Jerkunica. Czaritza Militrisa: Svetlana Aksenova. Tkachikha: Stine Marie Fischer. Povarikha: Bernarda Bobro. Babarikha: Carole Wilson. Czarevitch Gvidon: Bogdan Volkov. Czarevna Swan-Bird/Lyebyd: Olga Kulchynska. Skomorokh/Shipman: Alexander Vassiliev. Messenger/Shipman: Nicky Spence. Old man/Shipman: Alexander Kravets. La Monnaie Orchestra, Chorus and Children's Choir. Photos: Forster/La Monnaie This run of Czar Saltan is a reprise of Dmitri Tcherniakov's 2019 production in the same house. It was actually included that year in my old-fogey-special Sunday matinee subscription, but I missed it because I was away for work. So I'd only seen it on video so far, and was very glad to have a chance to see it live, both because I think Rimsky is scandalously underperf

  The French Opéra Magazine ’s favourite new recording (‘ coup de coeur ’) in the November issue, with a 'Diamond' award, is Christian Immler's CD, with Andreas Frese at the piano, combining Schumann songs with Jörg Widmann's Das heisse Herz , a series of eight Lieder . On Alpha Classics.  'Prodigious!' exclaims the reviewer. 'Though rarely appearing on disc, German bass-baritone Christian Immler is nonetheless one of the most fascinating Lied singers of our time. His new album is a gem whose beauty will literally take your breath away.'

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday November 5 2023 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production, sets, costumes and lighting: Romeo Castellucci, with Paola Villani (sets), Clara Strasser (costumes), Benedikt Zehm (lighting). Choreography: Cindy Van Acker. Wotan: Gábor Bretz. Donner: Andrew Foster-Williams. Froh: Julian Hubbard. Loge: Nicky Spence. Fricka: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Freia: Annett Fritsch. Erda: Nora Gubisch. Alberich: Scott Hendricks. Mime: Peter Hoare. Fasolt: Ante Jerkunica. Fafner: Wilhelm Schwinghammer. Woglinde: Eleonore Marguerre. Wellgunde: Jelena Kordić. Flosshilde: Christel Loetzsch. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra. Photos: Monika Rittershaus An artist I know well has nearly always worked on long-term projects, in some cases spanning ten years or more, with exhibitions marking various stages along the way as the projects - and the artist's life - progress. Each 'iteration' both develops and transforms what's gone before. It contains external references - for exam

Something totally new for those in London: November 29th will see the UK premiere of a staged song cycle for soprano, baritone, narrator & pianist, called Closing Time . The music is by Ross Fiddes, the soprano is Daniella Sicari, the Baritone John Ieuan Jones, the pianist Nicole Panizza, and the narrator Karin de Novellis. According to the flyer, ' During lockdown, Karin wrote a collection of poems , Closing Time at the Kings Head, reflecting on everyday situations and some of the feelings she and her husband experienced while living with dementia (...) This staged performance shows how, in spite of the challenges, a care-partnership can embrace understanding, compassion and love, making the journey easier and better for all concerned . Fiddes’ music inhabits the words in such a way that the listener cannot help but be drawn into this moving and powerful piece .' The world premiere of Closing Time was staged in September in Australia at Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastl

    The French Opéra Magazine ’s favourite new recording (‘ coup de coeur ’) in the November issue is Christophe Rousset’s studio set of Lully’s Thésée .  Having described it as ‘magnificent’ and praised its ‘remarkable eloquence’, the reviewer goes on to say that ‘the French conductor and harpsichordist carries this new opus to the heights’, with a 'faultless' cast, among them Karine Deshayes and Matthias Vidal. The recording, on Aparté, which ‘easily eclipses the only other existing version by Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs,’ is awarded one of their ‘Diamond’ ratings. At the time of writing, the recording is available in full on YouTube . though on my computer the tracks are interspersed with loud advertisements  much louder than the Lully.

  The French Opéra Magazine 's favourite new recording in October 2023 was the Palazzetto Bru Zane's new recording of Massenet's Ariane , a 'major discovery' and 'one of Massenet's most captivating operas.' They hope that this complete recording will lead to staged performances, especially at the Paris Opera. 

ONP Bastille, Tuesday October 24 2023 Conductor: Alexander Soddy. Production: Kirill Serebrennikov. Sets: Olga Pavluk. Costumes: Tatiana Dolmatovskaya. Lighting: Franck Evin. Videos: Alan Mandelshtam. Choreographer: Evgeny Kulagin. Dramaturge: Daniil Orlov. Heinrich der Vogler: Kwangchul Youn. Lohengrin: Piotr Beczała. Elsa von Brabant: Johanni van Oostrum. Friedrich von Telramund: Wolfgang Koch. Ortrud: Ekaterina Gubanova. Der Heerrufer des Königs : Shen Yang. Brabantischer Edler: Bernard Arrieta, Chae-Hoon Baek, Julien Joguet, John Bernard. Edelknabe: Isabelle Escalier, Joumana El-Amiouni, Caroline Bibas, Yasuko Arita. Chorus and Orchestras of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Charles Duprat/ONP I'm going to begin this post by indulging my puzzled obsession with 'production churn' at the Paris Opera in supposedly straitened times, so please feel free to skip the part in blue if not interested. Yesterday, I Googled for 'Paris Opera Finances'; the following is a

ONP Bastille, Tuesday October 17 2023. Conductor: Susanna Mälkki. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video: Denis Guéguin. Emilia Marty: Karita Mattila. Albert Gregor: Pavel Černoch. Vitek: Nicholas Jones. Krista: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Jaroslav Prus: Johan Reuter. Janek: Cyrille Dubois. Kolenaty: Károly Szemerédy. Hauk-Sendorf: Peter Bronder. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos © Bernd Uhlig / Opéra national de Paris   Janacek is, without a doubt, one of my favourite composers, Makropoulos is one of my favourite operas, and Warlikowski's production of this fascinating and moving work is one of both his and the Paris Opera's best. I saw it in 2007 (see this initial report for a description of the production), 2009 and 2013, yet it has remained curiously elusive online, and given the Paris house's capricious tendency to discard its productions ( Warlikowski's memorable Parsifal neve

Whatever the rating and whether audio or video, few recordings are reviewed in the ' Guide ' section of September's Opéra Magazine . I guess the reviewers were all at the beach in August. Their ' Coup de Coeur ' wins a 'Diamond' rating: Konstantin Krimmel's recording of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin , with Daniel Heide, on Alpha Classics. 'In the Lieder Pantheon, at 30 years old, German baritone Konstantin Krimmel brings us, on Alpha Classics, a performance of Die schöne Müllerin which immediately crowns him as the best Lieder singer of his generation.' No less.

© Agathe Poupeney   Opéra Magazine 's coup de coeur for this summer's two-month issue, i.e. its favourite recording, with the magazine's 'Diamond' award, is Charpentier's David et Jonathas , recorded in the chapel at the Palace of Versailles in a staging by Marshall Pynoski. Reinoud Van Mechelen sings David, Caroline Arnaud Jonathas, and the Ensemble Marguerite louise is conducted by Gaétan Jarry. 'Rarely recorded,' writes the reviewer, ' David et Jonathas is one of the masterpieces of French 17th century opera. Here it is in a modern reference version, recorded in Versailles and with the CDs and DVD packaged together.' He goes on to say that it 'offers a more or less ideal audio version of this master work, equal to the one by the lamented Michel Corboz (1981), still splendid in spite of its age. As far as the DVD, directed by the excellent Olivier Simonnet, is concerned, it outclasses the one made at the Aix Festival in 2012, under Willia

ONP Bastille, Tuesday June 20 2023 Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Production: Thomas Jolly. Sets: Bruno de Lavenère. Costmes: Sylvie Dequest. Lighting: Antoine Travert. Choreography: Josépha Madoki. Fights: Ran Arthur Braun. Juliette: Elsa Dreisig. Roméo: Benjamin Bernheim. Frère Laurent: Jean Teitgen. Capulet: Laurent Naouri. Stephano: Lea Desandre. Gertrude: Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo. Mercutio: Huw Montague Rendall. Mercutio: Florian Sempey. Benvolio: Thomas Ricart. Tybalt: Maciej Maciej Kwaśnikowski. Pâris: Sergio Villegas Galvain. Gregorio: Yiorgo Ioannou. Le Duc de Vérone: Jérôme Boutellier. Manuela: So-Hee Lee. Pepita: Izabella Wnorowska-Pluchart. Angelo: Vincent Morell. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos : Vincent Pontet/ONP     Roméo et Juliette is the fourth of Thomas Jolly's opera productions I've attended (the others were Eliogabalo in 2016, Fantasio in 2017, and Dusapin's Macbeth Underworld in Brussels in 2019), and a kind of 'team style&

  Recording of the month (their ' coup de coeur' ) in the June issue of France's Opéra Magazine , with a 'Diamond' rating (the highest), is Strauss's Capriccio from the Semperoper in Dresden, on the Arthaus Musik label. The production is by Jean-Daniel Herzog, and the cast includes Camilla Nylund, Christoph Pohl, Daniel Behle, Nikolay Borchev, Georg Zeppenfeld, Christa Mayer and Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, all under Thielemann. The reviewer says this is a 'Masterly Capriccio' that shoots straight to the top of the video catalogue, alongside Carsen's 2004 production from the Palais Garnier in Paris. At the time of writing this post, the whole opera is available on YouTube :

Opéra Comique, Paris, Sunday May 28 2023 Conductor: Mathieu Romano. Production: Tom Morris. Sets and Costumes: Soutra Gilmour. Lighting: Richard Howell. Video: Will Duke. Bess McNeill: Sydney Mancasola. Jan Nyman: Jarrett Ott. Dodo McNeill: Wallis Giunta. Mother: Susan Bullock. Dr Richardson: Elgan Llŷr Thomas. Terry: Mathieu Dubroca. Councilman: Andrew Nolen. Sadistic Sailor: Pascal Gourgand. Young Sailor: Fabrice Foison. Ensemble Aedes. Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. Photo: James Glossop   The first post on this blog is about a performance of Jenufa in Braunschweig's production , with Karita Mattila, at the Châtelet on May 24 2003, so in a way We left at the interval is celebrating its 20th anniversary (the article dates back 20 years, but the blog itself only dates from 2007). I'm now about to mark the occasion with a lame story... At the last minute, urged by a virtuoso friend intimately involved in contemporary music, I bought some cheap tickets to attend the opening Sun

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday May 21 2023 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Olivier Py. Sets and Costumes: Pierre-André Weitz. Lighting: Bertrand Killy. Henry VIII: Lionel Lhote. Don Gomez de Féria: Ed Lyon. Le Cardinal Campeggio: Vincent Le Texier. Le Comte de Surrey: Enguerrand de Hys. Le Duc de Norfolk: Werner Van Mechelen. Cranmer: Jérôme Varnier. Catherine d’Aragon: Marie-Adeline Henry. Anne de Boleyn: Nora Gubisch. Lady Clarence: Claire Antoine. Garter/Un officier: Alexander Marev. Un huissier de la cour: Leander Carlier. Quatre dames d’honneur: Alessia Thais Berardi, Annelies Kerstes, Lieve Jacobs, Manon Poskin. Quatre seigneurs: Alain-Pierre Wingelinckx, Luis Aguilar, Byoungjin Lee, René Laryea. La Monnaie Orchestra and Chorus. Photos: Baus/La Monnaie La Monnaie has a track record in doing relative rarities proud, and it looks as if the success of Olivier Py's production of Les Huguenots was behind the decision to offer him Henry VIII . It turned out to be, so I thoug

ONP Garnier, Thursday May 18 2023 Conductor: Harry Bicket. Production, sets and lighting: Robert Carsen. Sets and costumes: Luis F. Carvalho. Lighting: Peter Van Praet. Choreography: Nicolas Paul. Ariodante: Emily D'Angelo. Il re di Scozia: Matthew Brook. Ginevra: Olga Kulchynska. Lurcanio: Eric Ferring. Polinesso: Christophe Dumaux. Dalinda: Tamara Banjesevic. Odoardo: Enrico Casari. The English Concert. Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Agathe Poupeney/ONP After some delay owing to strikes over pension reform (which doesn't actually affect the ONP's special régime , so I suppose they just went out in sympathy), the Paris Opera now has a good-looking new production of Ariodante by Robert Carsen, characteristically detailed and professionally directed, more entertaining than searchingly profound or moving, with a strikingly well-balanced, equally professional cast. It might be summed up as 'the Windsors at Balmoral.' The sets reproduce, full scale or m