We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday June 15 2025 Conductor: Nathalie Stutzmann. Production, sets and dialogues: Dmitri Tcherniakov. Costumes: Elena Zaitseva. Lighting: Gleb Filshtinsky. Carmen: Stéphanie d’Oustrac. Don José: Attilio Glaser. Micaëla: Anne-Catherine Gillet. Escamillo: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Zuniga: Christian Helmer. Moralès: Pierre Doyen. Frasquita: Louise Foor. Mercédès: Claire Péron. Le Dancaïre: Guillaume Andrieux. Le Remendado: Enguerrand De Hys. L’administrateur: Pierre Grammont. La Monnaie Orchestra, Chorus, Youth and Children’s Choirs. Photos: © Bernd Uhlig La Monnaie’s new Carmen was originally staged in Aix in 2017. Like thousands of others, I saw it on video afterwards, and though I was impressed by Michael Fabiano’s fervent commitment to Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production concept, otherwise didn’t enjoy it much. I was bored by the unchanging set, and, though I’d found it intriguing when it was a novelty in 2012 , a bit fed up, thirteen years and several productions...

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...

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...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 8 2024 An edited version of t his post will be published on Parterre.com Conductor: Ariane Matiakh. Production: Ivo Van Hove. Sets and Lighting: Jan Versweyveld. Costume Designer: An D’Huys. Video: Christopher Ash. Helena Ekdahl: Susan Bullock. Oscar Ekdahl: Peter Tantsits. Emilie Ekdahl: Sasha Cooke. Fanny: Lucie Penninck. Alexander: Jay Weiner. Bishop Edvard Vergerus: Thomas Hampson. Justina: Anne Sofie von Otter. Isak Jacobi: Loa Falkman. Ismaël: Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. Aron: Alexander Sprague. Carl Ekdahl: Justin Hopkins. Lydia: Polly Leech. Gustav Adolf Ekdahl: Gavan Ring. Alma Ekdahl: Margaux de Valensart. Paulina: Marion Bauwens. Esmeralda: Blandine Coulon. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra. Photos: © Matthias Baus Back to Brussels last Sunday for my third new opera of the season (after The Time of our Singing , also at La Monnaie, and Picture a day like this , at the Opéra Comique): Mikael Karlsson’s Fanny and Alexander, with a libretto by Ro...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday October 27, 2024 Conductor: Kwamé Ryan. Production: Ted Huffman. Sets: Johannes Schütz. Costumes: Astrid Klein. Lighting: Bernd Purkrabek. Video: Pierre Martin. Choreography: Alan Barnes. Delia Daley: Claron McFadden. William Daley: Mark S. Doss. David Strom: Simon Bailey. Jonah: Levy Sekgapane. Joey: Peter Brathwaite. Ruth: Abigail Abraham. Lisette Soer: Lilly Jørstad. Robert Rider: Hervé Loka Sombo. La Monnaie Chamber Orchestra. Jazz Ensemble: Robin Verheyen, Lander Gyselinck, Nicolas Thys, Hendrik Lasure. Equinox Children's Choir under Zeno Popescu. Photos: Ⓒ Bernd Uhlig As I missed La Monnaie’s Siegfried because I was still sunbathing in Greece, and Paris’s Butterfly because I couldn’t be bothered, my new season starts with three new works - new to me at any rate. Later this week, at the Opéra Comique, I’ll discover George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this . Later this year, Mikael Karlsson’s Fanny and Alexander . But I begin in Brussels, with Kr...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday June 30 2024 Conductor: Ouri Bronchti. Production and Costumes: Christophe Coppens. Sets: Christophe Coppens and I.S.M.Architecten. Lighting: Peter Van Praet. La Principessa Turandot: Ewa Vesin. L’Imperatore Altoum: Ning Liang. Timur: Michele Pertusi. Il Principe Ignoto (Calaf): Stefano La Colla. Liù: Venera Gimadieva. Ping/Un Mandarino: Leon Košavić. Pang/Il Principe di Persia: Alexander Marev. Pong: Valentin Thill. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Choral Academy, La Monnaie Children's and Youth Choirs. All photos except the general view of the set below: Matthias Baus/La Monnaie ' Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels in 1924, leaving the score of his last opera unfinished. A century on, director Christophe Coppens and conductor Ouri Bronchti reveal just how much more there is to the work than its trademark aria "Nessun dorma". Coppens sets his version of Turandot in modern-day Hong Kong, where a wealthy family is corrupted by power...

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 ...