We left at the interval...

The November issue of France's Opéra Magazine finally turned up in the post the other day. This month's favourite recording is Carlo Vistoli's Vivaldi album, Sacro furore , featuring the Stabat Mater and other sacred works, interspersed with instrumental numbers, on Harmonia Mundi. Georg Kallweit conducts the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. The reviewer writes that this album 'confirms the eminent place he occupies, today, in the rich constellation of countertenors.' They give it the first of this month's 'Diamond' awards. I think if you root around you can probably find all of the album on YT . They give a second ' Diamant ' to Bruno de Sá's Mille Affetti: Opera and Sacred Arias , which this time 'confirms he is one of the most exceptional performers of the baroque repertoire of the beginning of this century.' Jaroslaw Thiel conducts the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, on Erato, and again, I think you can find it all online. One 'da...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Wednesday October 30 2024 An edited version of t his post will be published on Parterre.com Conductor: George Benjamin. Production, sets and lighting: Marie-Christine Soma, Daniel Jeanneteau. Costumes: Marie La Rocca. Videos: Hicham Berrada. Woman: Marianne Crebassa. Zabelle: Anna Prohaska. Lover 1/Composer: Beate Mordal. Lover 2/Composer's assistant: Cameron Shahbazi. Artisan/collector: John Brancy. Actors: Matthieu Baquey, Lisa Grandmottet, Eulalie Rambaud. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Photos: © Jean-Louis Fernandez My first opera of the new season in Paris, after kicking off in Brussels with Kris Defoort’s thought-provoking The Day of our Singing , was another nearly-new work, totally new to me: Sir George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this . Like Benjamin’s much-admired Written on Skin , Picture a day like this has (like all his operas, in fact) a libretto by Martin Crimp, was first performed at the Aix Festival (in this case in 2023), and ha...