We left at the interval...

  Only when getting ready to write about May did I realise that I'd forgotten to post about Opéra Magazine 's favourite recording in April. So here are April and May together. The magazine’s April pick of the month, what it calls its ‘ coup de coeur ,’ was Lully’s Alceste , starring Véronique Gens - ‘ simplement magistrale ’ as I can well imagine, with Nathan Berg, Cyril Auvity, many others and  Les Epopées under Stéphane Fuget. ‘This new performance of Lully’s Alceste consecrates the profound affinity Stéphane Fuget and his Les Epopées ensemble have with the tragédie lyrique genre.’   In May, their choice is Lucile Richardot's Northern Light ,  with Caroline Weynants, Caroline Bardot, Antonin Rondepierre, Sebastian Myrus and the Ensemble Correspondances under Sébastien Daucé. This is a compilation of north-European works mainly from the late 17th century, focusing on death. 'A miracle of eloquence.'

Théâtre de l’Athénée-Louis Jouvet, Paris, Tuesday April 15 2025 Conductor: Dylan Corlay. Production: Valérie Lesort. Sets and Costumes: Vanessa Sannino. Lighting: Pascal Laajili.Video: Vanessa Sannino, Julie Boissy, Joris Thouvenin. Choreography: Rémi Boissy. Puppets and Masks: Carole Allemand, Louise Digard, Einat Landais, Jérémie Legroux. Cendrillon, Le petit Poucet, Chaperon Rouge: Anaïs Merlin. La fée Morgane: Julie Mathevet. Olibrius: Romain Dayez. Le Prince Charmant: Enguerrand de Hys. Madame de Houspignoles: Lara Neumann. Le Chat Botté: Camille Brault. Aurore: Eléonore Gagey. Javotte: Hortense Venot. Croquemitaine, Meunier, Huissier: Richard Delestre. La Pinchonniere, Barbe-Bleue: Philippe Brocard. La reine Guillaumette: Lucile Komitès. Le roi Guillaume: Geoffroy Buffière. Chorus and Orchestra: Les Frivolités Parisiennes. Photos: © Fabrice Robin Quand vous sentez des brûlures, Des lourdeurs et du pyrosis, De la gêne, des boursouflures, Agissez vite, sans sursis (...) Prenez du b...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Wednesday April 9, 2025 Conductor: Simone Young. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video: Denis Guéguin. Choreography: Claude Bardouil. Don Carlos: Charles Castronovo. Elisabeth de Valois: Marina Rebeka. Philippe II: Christian Van Horn. La Princesse Eboli: Ekaterina Gubanova. Rodrigue: Andrzej Filończyk. Le Grand Inquisiteur: Alexander Tsymbalyuk. Un Moine: Sava Vemić. Thibault: Marine Chagnon. Une voix d’en haut: Teona Todua. Le Comte de Lerme: Manase Latu. Un héraut royal: Hyun-Jong Roh. Un coryphée: Christian Rodrigue Moungoungou. Six députés flamands: Amin Ahangaran, Niall Anderson, Alejandro Baliñas Vieites, Vartan Gabrielian, Florent Mbia, Milan Perišić. Charles Quint: Yann Collette. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Franck Ferville/ONP This is the third time I’ve seen this Warlikowski production. I saw it first as Don Carlos , in 2017, starring Kaufmann, Yoncheva...

ONP Garnier, Paris, Wednesday March 26, 2025 Conductor: Kent Nagano. Production: Claus Guth. Sets: Étienne Pluss. Costumes: Gesine Völlm. Lighting: Fabrice Kebour. Video: Roland Horvath/rocafilm. Electroacoustics: Thierry Coduys. Dante: Bo Skovhus. Virgilio: David Leigh. Giovane Dante: Christel Loetzsch. Beatrice: Jennifer France. Lucia: Danae Kontora. Voce dei dannati: Dominique Visse. Narratore: Giovanni Battista Parodi. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: © Bernd Uhlig/Opéra National de Paris Pascal Dusapin is probably better known in France and Belgium than elsewhere, though his Faustus, the Last Night (2006) premiered in Berlin. But like me, he’s getting on for 70, and Il Viaggio, Dante , first performed at the Aix festival, in the summer of 2022, is something like his tenth opera, depending on how you classify his works: he apparently calls this one an ‘operatorio’. It’s the fourth I’ve seen, and browsing back through my posts, I find that various th...

Opéra Comique (Salle Favart), Paris, Wednesday March 19, 2025 Conductor: Raphaël Pichon. Production: Claus Guth (revived by Romain Gilbert). Sets: Étienne Pluss. Costumes: Ursula Kudrna. Lighting & Videos: Bertrand Couderc. Samson: Jarrett Ott. Dalila: Ana Maria Labin. Timna: Julie Roset. Achisch: Mirco Palazzi. Elon: Laurence Kilsby. L'Ange: Camille Chopin. Premier Juge/Un Convive: Richard Pittsinger. Deuxième convive: René Ramos Premier. La mère de Samson (spoken role): Andrea Ferréol. Un sans-abri (spoken role): Pascal Lifschutz. Samson as a child: Isaac Muniesa. Ensemble Pygmalion. Photos: Stefan Brion Back to Rameau again this week with Samson , my third Rameau production in as little as three months, after Les Fêtes d'Hébé in the same house, and Castor et Pollux at the Palais Garnier. All three are linked, as Rameau reused music from the aborted Samson in each of the others. Samson as presented by Raphaël Pichon and Claus Guth is not an attempt to reconstitute the...

La Monnaie at Bozar, Brussels, Sunday March 9 2025 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Magna Peccatrix: Manuela Uhl. Una Poenitentium: Jacquelyn Wagner. Mater Gloriosa: Ilse Eerens. Mulier Samaritana: Nora Gubisch. Maria Aegyptiaca: Marvic Monreal. Doctor Marianus: Corby Welch. Pater Ecstaticus: Christopher Maltman. Pater Profundus: Gábor Bretz. La Monnaie Orchestra and Chorus. Belgian National Orchestra. La Monnaie Choir School and Children's Chorus. Vlaams Radiokoor (Flemish Radio Choir). Photo: Marco Borggreve This performance of Mahler’s Symphony N°8 at the Bozar in Brussels will probably be my last ever Mahler concert. I’ve tried over the years, hoping that one day I’d get what others see in his symphonies. More than twenty years ago, after a performance of his Symphony N°2, at the Châtelet, under Salonen , I wrote: ‘I booked this concert thinking that, perhaps, the Philharmonia under a famous conductor might work some kind of epiphany on me and that finally I'd understand. It di...

Théâtre de l'Athénée Louis-Jouvet, Paris, Monday March 3 2025 Photo: DAVID HARTLEY/Shutterst/SIPA Soprano: Dame Felicity Lott. Piano and vocals: Jason Carr. Georges Auric: Printemps Francis Poulenc: Violon, Hier, La Dame de Monte Carlo Georges Auric: Pas d'âge pour l'amour, Bonjour Tristesse, It's April again Richard Rodgers: Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Never say no, To keep my love alive, Bewitched Cole Porter: You don't know Paree Reynaldo Hahn: Automne Joseph Kosma: Autumn Leaves Noël Coward: Useless useful phrases, I'll follow my secret heart, If Love were all Maurice Yvain: Yes! Francis Poulenc: Les chemins de l'amour Some of my blog's habitués (they do exist) will know that I sometimes quote the people around me at the opera. 'My neighbour', 'the man behind', 'a Frenchman'... One of these was 'the little old lady'. This was Dodo , and she adored Dame Felicity Lott. ' Quelle classe! ' she would exclaim. Which i...

The March issue of France’s Opéra Magazine is here already, so it's still going after all. Its favourite recording this month, to which it awards one of its ‘Diamonds’, is Vannina Santoni’s Par Amour, a recital of French and Italian operatic arias from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. All of it seems to be available free on YouTube .

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday February 23 2025 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Pierre Audi. Video: Chris Kondek. Sets: Michael Simon. Costumes: Petra Reinhardt. Lighting: Valerio Tiberi. Siegfried: Bryan Register. Gunther: Andrew Foster-Williams. Alberich: Scott Hendricks. Hagen: Ain Anger. Brünnhilde: Ingela Brimberg. Gutrune: Annett Fritsch. Waltraute: Nora Gubisch. Erste Norn: Marvic Monreal. Zweite Norn: Iris Van Wijnen. Dritte Norn: Katie Low. Woglinde: Tamara Banješević. Wellgunde: Jelena Kordić. Flosshilde: Christel Loetzsch. La Monnaie Orchestra and Men’s Chorus. Photos: © Monika Rittershaus As I mentioned in my last article (on the subject of Calixto Bieito’s production of Das Rheingold at the Paris Opera ), in what the French might call une histoire belge , La Monnaie’s Ring cycle started with Romeo Castellucci as its director, and is now ending with Pierre Audi. What I didn’t mention was that I actually missed Audi’s much-admired  Siegfried in September, as I was...