We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Friday April 29 2019 Conductor: Bertrand de Billy. Production: Andrei Serban. Sets: Peter Pabst. Costumes: Graciela Galán. Lighting: Joël Hourbeigt. Otello: Roberto Alagna. Iago: George Gagnidze. Cassio: Frédéric Antoun. Roderigo: Alessandro Liberatore. Lodovico: Paul Gay. Montano: Thomas Dear. Desdemona: Aleksandra Kurzak. Emilia: Marie Gautrot. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Maîtrise des Hauts‑de‑Seine/ONP Children’s Chorus. I’ve said it before and even so I’m going to say it again: there seems to be no logic (other than the director’s whim) to the Paris Opera’s decisions to keep or discard productions. Warlikowski’s outstanding Parsifal , seen only once, was replaced by something less outstanding on the grounds it was already ten years old. But already, 15 years ago, I left this dismally conventional Otello (“Bergerac,” muttered my neighbour the other night, meaning the standard was deeply provincial) at the interval. In other word...

Hungarian State Opera, Friday November 16, 2012 Conductor: Domonkos Héja. Production: László Vámos, staged by Sándor Palcsó. Sets: Attila Csikós. Costumes: Nelly Vágó. Otello: Marius Vlad. Desdemona: Andrea Rost. Iago: Anatolij Fokanov. Emilia: Éva Pánczél. Cassio: Zoltán Nyári. Rodrigo: Tivadar Kiss. Montano: Sándor Egri. Lodovico: Tamás Szüle. Un AraldoZoltán Somogyi. Orchestra and Chorus of the Hungarian State Opera. If or when you get Otello in your season you may, I think, be forgiven for wondering what to expect. But the last time I was in Budapest I was pleased to find a wholly Eastern European cast offering “generous, professional, committed singing of what’s now an old school” (quote from my write-up of Rosenkavalier ) not to mention the excellent orchestra, chorus and the “third best acoustics in Europe,” as one punctilious, locally-written guide book put it. So I had high hopes for Otello this time round, and they were fulfilled. Once again, the cast was admirably...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday April 29 2012 Concert performance Conductor: Evelino Pidò. Otello: Gregory Kunde. Desdemona: Anna Caterina Antonacci. Elmiro: Giovanni Furlanetto. Rodrigo: Dmitry Korchak: Jago: Dario Schmunck. Emilia: Josè Maria Lo Monaco. Lucio: Stefan Cifolelli. Doge/Un Gondoliere: Tansel Akzeybek. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. Ana Caterina Antonacci has only to sing one note for me to think (settling snugly into my seat and, for once, looking forward to a feast): “At last, a real voice!” But what’s a “real” voice? Years ago I remember reading a lengthy attempt (by Gombrich or Pevsner or Clark or someone like that; I tried to find it again yesterday but couldn’t) to define art, that still ended with a cop-out along the lines of ”Anyway, when you’ve had enough of it, you know it when you see it.” After hundreds of opportunities, over the years, to leave at the interval, bored by bland voices and non-existent acting, you know a real voice when you hear one. A...

Opéra National de Paris-Bastille - March 23 2004 Conductor: James Conlon. Production: Andrei Serban. Otello: Vladimir Galouzine. Iago: Jean-Philippe Lafont. Desdemona: Barbara Frittoli. Cassio: Jonas Kaufmann. Roderigo: Sergio Bertocchi. Emilia: Elena Cassian. Lodovico: Giovanni Battista Parodi. Montano: Christophe Fel. Herald: Rodrigo Garcia. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Andrei Serban’s new production of Otello at the Bastille got off to a rousing start, with storm scenes projected on gauzes and sets, and the chorus massed on the dark stage in black oilskins. (We could have done without the canned thunder, however.) It carried on successfully with some very impressive “fire” during the scenes of rejoicing and drink. From the moment Otello and Desdemona were left alone, it went rapidly downhill. Just what it was that made it so irritating is hard to pin down. It degenerated into scrappiness, disjointedness, inconsistencies that reviews in the press have ...