We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Thursday April 7 2022 Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Production: Mariame Clément. Sets and Costumes: Julia Hansen. Lighting: Ulrik Gad. Video: Etienne Guiol. Cendrillon: Tara Erraught. Madame de la Haltière: Daniela Barcellona. Le prince charmant: Anna Stéphany. La fée: Kathleen Kim. Noémie: Charlotte Bonnet. Dorothée: Marion Lebègue. Pandolfe: Lionel Lhote. Le roi: Philippe Rouillon. Le Doyen de la faculté: Cyrille Lovighi. Le Surintendant des plaisirs: Olivier Ayault. Le Premier Ministre: Vadim Artamonov. Six Esprits: Corinne Talibart, So-Hee Lee, Stéphanie Loris, Anne-Sophie Ducret, Sophie Van de Woestyne, Blandine Folio Peres. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Monika Rittershaus / ONP I know Cendrillon is quite a lot of people's favourite Massenet opera, but, despite my admiration for some of his work, I'm sorry to say I've never managed to get my head round this particular score. The vocal lines seem to meander one way while the orche...

ONP Garnier, Monday March 30 2015 Conductor: Michel Plasson. Production: Charles Roubaud. Sets: Emmanuelle Favre. Costumes: Katia Duflot. Lighting: Vinicio Cheli. Chimène: Sonia Ganassi. L’Infante: Annick Massis. Rodrigue: Roberto Alagna. Don Diègue: Paul Gay. Le Roi: Nicolas Cavallier. Le Comte de Gormas: Laurent Alvaro. Saint Jacques: Francis Dudziak. L’Envoyé maure: Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin. Don Arias: Luca Lombardo. Don Alonzo: Ugo Rabec. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris.  I've often said it's much easier to describe a bad evening at the opera than a good one. There was something special about Monday night's Le Cid at Garnier, yet it was far from flawless, so I've been wondering what gave it that particular buzz. Massenet For a start, it can't have been the production, which was pretty much forgettable. By setting the work in the Spain of the 1930s, Charles Roubaud raised expectations of a concept (Rif war? Civil war?) which were ...

ONP Bastille, Tuesday January 10 2012 Conductor: Evelino Pido. Production: Coline Serreau. Sets: Jean-Marc Stehlé and Antoine Fontaine. Costumes: Elsa Pavanel. Manon: Natalie Dessay. Le Chevalier des Grieux: Giuseppe Filianoti. Lescaut: Franck Ferrari. Le Comte des Grieux: Paul Gay. Guillot de Morfontaine: Luca Lombardo. De Brétigny: André Heyboer. Poussette: Olivia Doray. Javotte: Carol Garcia. Rosette: Alisa Kolosova. L’Hôtelier: Christian Tréguier. Deux Gardes: Alexandre Duhamel, Ugo Rabec. “ Manon massacred at Bastille.” “Unfortunately, this new Paris production is no break with (Joël’s) form: under the directorship of Nicolas Joel the house on the Seine seems more and more to be  bidding farewell to living, advanced music theatre.” “The year has got off to a bad start at the Paris Opera: this Manon (…) is indeed a total failure and was greeted with copious booing.” “This Manon , the worst production we have seen in a long time, is a disgrace to the Paris Opera.” “A hot...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 11 2011 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Laurent Pelly, Benoît De Leersnyder. Sets: Barbara de Limburg. Costumes: Laurent Pelly, Jean-Jacques Delmotte. Choreography: Laura Scozzi, Karine Girard. Lighting: Duane Schuler. Cendrillon: Rinat Shaham. Le Prince Charmant: Frédéric Antoun. Mme de la Haltière: Nora Gubisch. La Fée: Eglise Gutiérrez. Noémie: Ilse Eerens. Dorothée: Angélique Noldus. Pandolfe: Lionel Lhote. Le Doyen: Yves Saelens. Le Surintendant des plaisirs: Quirijn de Lang. Premier Ministre: Donal J. Byrne. Le Roi: Patrick Bolleire. Premier Esprit: Yuhmi Iwamoto. Deuxième Esprit: Charlotte Cromheeke. Troisième Esprit & Une Jeune Fille: Caroline Jestaedt. Quatrième Esprit & Une Jeune Fille: Amalia Avilan. Cinquième Esprit & Une Jeune Fille: Audrey Kessedjian. Sixième Esprit: Camille Merckx. Le Héraut: Pascal Macou. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. There are times when operas are like corporation buses: you wait a...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Wednesday March 9 2011 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production: Benjamin Lazar. Choreography: Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubeck. Sets: Adeline Caron. Costumes: Alain Blanchot. Lighting: Christophe Naillet. Cendrillon: Judith Gauthier. Le Prince charmant: Michèle Losier. La Fée: Église Gutiérrez. Mme de La Haltière: Ewa Podleś. Pandolfe: Laurent Alvaro. Noémie: Aurélia Legay. Dorothée: Salomé Haller. Le Roi: Laurent Herbaut. Le Doyen de la Faculté: Vincent de Rooster. Le Surintendant des plaisirs: Julien Neyer. Le Premier Ministre: Paul-Henri Vila. Orchestra and Chorus of the Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble. I remember once reading (you can probably tell me where) that Strauss’s operas were “luxury” works requiring “luxury” performers to succeed. I think the same can be said of Massenet. There’s a potential for outdated mawkishness in the texts (think: “Adieu notre petite table” – or in this particular case, Cinderella reminiscing tearfully about an armchair) and...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday May 16 2010 Conductor: Nicholas Jenkins. Production: Laurent Pelly. Sets: Barbara de Limburg. Costumes: Laurent Pelly. Lighting: Joël Adam. La belle Dulcinée: Silvia Tro Santafé. Don Quichotte: José van Dam. Sancho Panza: Werner Van Mechelen. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. For his farewell, after 50 years, to his country’s royal opera house, José Van Dam – described in more than one review as a “living national treasure” – chose Don Quichotte . It was either that or Falstaff , I suppose. His lower range is now (indeed has been for some time) fleshless and breathless and his upper range has a husky, "old man’s" sound; only a few notes in the middle ring out from time to time. So this was a Don Quichotte in which often, in duets (I think of the windmill scene), the Don was outshone, vocally, by his younger partners; a Don Quichotte often without its hero. But this is no time, of course, as he bows out, applauded by his fellow countrymen ...

Opéra National de Paris Bastille, Tuesday January 26 2010 Conductor: Michel Plasson. Production: Benoît Jacquot. Sets: Charles Edwards. Costumes: Christian Gasc. Werther: Jonas Kaufmann. Albert: Ludovic Tézier. Le Bailli: Alain Vernhes. Charlotte: Sophie Koch. Sophie: Anne-Catherine Gillet. Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris. Maîtrise des hauts-de-seine ⁄ chœur d’enfants de l’Opéra national de Paris. Is Jonas Kaufmann the greatest living tenor? It certainly sounded that way the other evening. The first two acts of Werther may be a waste of time* (those drunkards! You might as well stay at the bar yourself), but things pick up considerably after the break and not for nothing is "Pourquoi me réveiller" a famous aria. His rendering (the word is appropriate in its painterliness) was magnificent.    To be honest, as I don't listen much to recordings and though of course I'd heard of him many times, I'd never actually heard him before at all** (which is why I...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 16 2007 Conductor: Kazushi Ono. Production: Guy Joosten. Werther: Andrew Richards. Le Bailli : Gilles Cachemaille. Charlotte : Sophie Koch. Sophie : Hendrickje Van Kerckhove. Albert : Jean-François Lapointe. Schmidt : Yves Saelens. Johann : Lionel Lhote. Käthchen : Anneke Luyten. Brühlmann : Olivier Berten. Orchestra and children's chorus of La Monnaie. To cut a long story short, this Brussels production of Werther was a lot better in the second half than the first, possibly because that's the way Werther is, but more probably on account of the production. Now for the long story, production first. This was basically a single-set staging with a change of props per act. The permanent space was triangular, with pale grey, flat-panelled walls meeting in a point at the rear. Set into this was, in acts one to three, a basic bourgeois interior: a door and a window in walls "papered" with a romantic landscape that changed colour with t...

"Baritone version," concert performance Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, April 29 2004 Conductor: Michel Plasson. Werther: Thomas Hampson. Charlotte: Susan Graham. Albert: Stéphane Degout. Sophie: Sandrine Piau. Le Bailli: René Schirrer. Schmidt: François Piolino. Johann: Laurent Alvaro. Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. Excellent Werther. More Massenet, please If there's anything wrong with Massenet, it isn't his music. Is it the words, then? Are his texts too soppy for modern tastes? Personally, I see no reason why, if people flock to something as soppy as La Bohème , they shouldn't flock to Massenet. His exoticism and overall "sexiness" ought these days to have broad appeal. There's a whole repertoire of French opera waiting for a revival, works that can be made to work provided houses find the right conductor and singers, willing to take them seriously and perform them with conviction. Those old Decca recordings taught us that. Wednesday...