We left at the interval...

This is how my 2024 - 2025 season is shaping up so far. I may add one or two more, depending on where I travel during the year. Vitrifrigo Arena Pesaro - Rossini - Ermione La Monnaie - Wagner - Siegfried ONP Bastille - Puccini - Madama Butterfly La Monnaie - Kris Defoort - The Time of our Singing Opéra Comique - Benjamin - Picture a day like this La Monnaie - Mikael Karlsson - Fanny and Alexander ONP Garnier - Stravinsky - The Rake's Progress Opéra Comique - Rameau - Les Fêtes d'Hébé  ONP Bastille - Janacek - Příhody lišky Bystroušky ONP Garnier - Rameau - Castor et Pollux Opéra Comique - Cherubini - Médée ONP Bastille - Wagner - Das Rheingold La Monnaie - Wagner - Götterdämmerung La Monnaie at Bozar -  Mahler - Symphony n° 8 Opéra Comique - Rameau - Samson ONP Garnier - Dusapin - Il viaggio, Dante ONP Bastille - Verdi - Don Carlos ONP Bastille - Puccini - Il Trittico La Monnaie - Bizet - Carmen ONP Garnier - Offenbach - Les Brigands .  

ONP Bastille, Sunday May 12, 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 through it again. I didn&

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday May 5 2024 Conductor: Antonio Méndez. Production: Andrea Breth. Sets: Raimund Orfeo Voigt. Costumes: Carla Teti. Lighting: Alexander Koppelmann. The Prologue: Ed Lyon. Governess: Sally Matthews. Miles: Samuel Brasseur Kulk, Noah Vanmeerhaeghe. Flora: Katharina Bierweiler. Mrs Grose: Carole Wilson. Peter Quint: Julian Hubbard. Miss Jessel: Allison Cook. La Monnaie Chamber Orchestra. Photos: Bernd Uhlig I was saying just this morning that we don't get enough Britten in Paris and have to go elsewhere to find him. Brussels has done a better job over the years, and once again, for this Turn of the Screw,  has fielded a strong production with a strong cast. Andrea Breth's staging seems strongly influenced by Belgian surrealism. It's dark, sometimes very dark, lit only by eight candles, and oppressive. Grey, panelled walls close in on the characters, objects such as chairs or even wall lights slither silently into place, characters crawl in and out of

In the recordings section of the May 2024 issue of France’s Opéra Now , the pick of the month (i.e. their ‘ coup de coeur ’), with a ‘Diamond’ award, is a DVD: Il barbiere di Siviglia from Vienna in 2021. It stars Florez, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya and Etienne Dupuis, among others, in a Herbert Fritsch production, conducted by Michele Mariotti. ‘While the agitation on stage may, at times, seem a bit too much,’ they write, ‘this unusually designed production offers a resolutely buffo , joyful vision of Il barbiere di Siviglia . It will delight both viewers primarily interested in the theatrical, visual side of opera, and those for whom the voice comes first.’ The whole performance is available on YouTube , in Europe at least: