We left at the interval...

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...

The ' coup de coeur ', i.e. recording of the month, in the May 2023 issue of France’s Opéra Magazine is a CD entitled Teatro Sant'Angelo , with mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet and Le Consort under Théotime Langlois de Swarte. It’s a recital of arias from works by Vivaldi and less famous composers presented at the Sant’Angelo in Venice, inaugurated in 1677, a dozen of them never previously recorded.