We left at the interval...

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...