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Cavalli - La Calisto, at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées (TCE), Paris

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Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday May 6 2026 Conductor: Sébastien Daucé. Production: Jetske Mijnssen. Sets: Julia Katharina Berndt. Choreography: Dustin Klein. Costumes: Hannah Clark. Lighting: Matthew Richardson. Calisto: Lauranne Oliva. Endimione: Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian. Giove/Giove-Diana: Milan Siljanov. Giunone/Eternita: Anna Bonitatibus. Diana: Sun-Ly Pierce. Linfea: Zachary Wilder. Natura/Pane/Furia: Petr Nekoranec. Mercurio: Dominic Sedgwick. Destino/Satirino/Furia: Paul Figuier. Silvano/Furia: José Coca Loza. Ensemble Correspondances. Photos: Monika Ritterhaus, Laurent Guizard Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen’s production of Cavalli’s La Calisto , a work I last saw over thirty years ago (staged by Herbert Wernicke in Brussels), premiered last summer in Aix and has travelled to two or three French regional houses before arriving at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées - another example of the vitality and variety, against all odds, of opera in France’s regions. Mijnssen’s s...
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Glass - Satyagraha, at the Opéra Garnier in Paris

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Palais Garnier, Paris, Thursday April 16 2026 Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher. Production and choreography: Bobbi Jene Smith, Christian Friedländer. Sets: Wojciech Dziedzic. Costumes: John Torres. Lighting: Jacob Mallinson Bird. Countertenor: Anthony Roth Costanzo. Soprano: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Baritone: Davóne Tines. Alto: Adriana Bignagni Lesca. Soprano: Olivia Boen. Mezzo-soprano: Deepa Johnny. Baritone: Amin Ahangaran. Tenor: Nicky Spence. Bass: Nicolas Cavallier. Dancers: Alexander Bozinoff, Lorrin Brubaker, Jeremy Coachman, Jonathan Fredrickson, Marion Gautier de Charnacé, Awa Joannais, Héloïse Jocqueviel, Payton Johnson, Rachel McNamee, Mermoz Melchior, Adrien Ouaki, Ido Toledano. Orchestra and Chorus Of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: © Yonathan Kellerman (600th post on this blog.) ‘Je n’ai rien compris. Mais c’était sublime’ - I didn’t understand a thing, but it was sublime. So said a friend as we waited for the métro after Satyagraha . Overhearing him, a woman a few yards awa...
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Bach - St Matthew Passion (Matthäuspassion, Passion selon Saint Matthieu) at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées

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Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Friday April 3 2026. Conductor: Thibault Noally. Soprano I: Amandine Sanchez. Soprano II: Apolline Raï-Westphal. Soprano III: Clémence Olivier. Alto I: William Shelton. Alto II: Mathilde Ortscheidt. Alto III: Morgane Boudeville. Tenor I (Evangelist): Valerio Contaldo. Tenor II: David Tricou. Tenor III: Gaël Martin. Baritone (Christ): Alexandre Baldo. Bass I: Sebastian Noack. Bass II: Matthieu Walendzik. Bass III: Jérémie Delvert. Les Ambassadeurs-La Grande Écurie. Photo: Wikimedia Commons I hadn't heard a Matthäuspassion since Ton Koopman conducted a performance at the Châtelet over 20 years ago, so I bought tickets for this one, at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.   It was a mistake.  If I really wanted a Saint Matthew, I should no doubt have gone the night before to Versailles, where Raphaël Pichon had Julian Prégardien as his Evangelist and Stéphane Degout, no less, as Jesus. But the night before I had Belgian guests to feed.   ...
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Mozart - Idomeneo, re di Creta, at La Monnaie in Brussels

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La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday March 22 2026 Conductor: Enrico Onofri. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Anna-Sofia Kirsch. Costumes: Paula Kleiné. Lighting: Reinhard Traub/Calixto Bieito. Vidéo: Adrià Reixach. Idomeneo: Joshua Stewart. Idamante: Gaëlle Arquez. Ilia: Shira Patchornik. Elettra: Kathryn Lewek. Gran Sacerdote di Nettuno: Michael J. Scott. La Voce: Frederic Jost. Cretesi e Troiani: Manon Poskin, Nadiia Lys, Taeksung Kwon, Byoungjin Lee. Orchestra and chorus of La Monnaie. Photos: © S. Van Rompay/La Monnaie Calixto Bieito is, so I read, well pleased with how his production of Idomeneo (a co-production with the State Opera in Prague, where it premiered last year), turned out: a dream. His intention, so I also read, was to approach the work as a psychological study of the traumatic after-effects of war on those who’ve waged it, and on their relationships with their family and entourage. The backdrop to this mental landscape, meanwhile, is a fluctuating memory of the sea, where...
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Adams - Nixon in China, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris

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ONP Bastille, Paris, Friday March 20 2026 Conductor: Kent Nagano. Production: Valentina Carrasco. Sets: Carles Berga, Peter Van Praet. Lighting: Peter Van Praet. Costumes: Silvia Aymonino. Richard Nixon: Thomas Hampson. Pat Nixon: Renée Fleming. Zhou Enlai: Xiaomeng Zhang. Mao Zedong: John Matthew Myers. Henry Kissinger: Joshua Bloom. Chiang Ch'ing: Caroline Wettergreen. Nancy Tang: Aebh Kelly. Second Secretary: Ning Liang. Third Secretary: Emanuela Pascu. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: © Vincent Pontet – OnP I saw, enjoyed, and described in some detail this production of Nixon in China during its first run, in 2023. Now it’s back, with very nearly the same cast as before, the only exceptions being that Norwegian soprano Caroline Wettergreen has taken over as Chiang Ch'ing, and Irish mezzo Aebh Kelly as Nancy Tang. More importantly, this time Kent Nagano is conducting, rather than our short-lived former music director Dudamel. This is like night ...
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Matthias Pintscher - Nuit sans aube (Das kalte Herz): French premiere, at the Opéra Comique in Paris

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Opéra Comique (Salle Favart), Paris, Tuesday March 17, 2026 Conductor: Matthias Pintscher. Production: James Darrah Black. Sets: Adam Rigg. Costumes: Molly Irelan. Lighting: Yi Zhao. Vidéo: Hana Kim. Peter: Evan Hughes. Anubis: Marie-Adeline Henry. Mère: Katarina Bradić. Clara: Catherine Trottmann. Vieille femme: Julie Robard-Gendre. Azaël: Hélène Alexandridis. Enfant: Elias Passard. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Photos © Stéphane Brion ‘Un bon opéra c'est d'abord un bon livret,’ i.e. a good opera starts with a good libretto. Discuss. So as not to die an idiot, as the French saying goes, I try to have a couple of new operas lined up every season. The policy has served me quite well: more often than not, the experience turns out to be rewarding. My first discovery this season, Matthias Pintscher’s Nuit sans aube at the Opéra Comique, was, for once, less so, and I think the main reason was that the text (you could hardly call it a ‘plot’) failed to engage my interest...
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Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin (Eugène Onéguine) at the Opéra Garnier in Paris

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Opéra Garnier, Paris, Wednesday February 18 2026 Conductor: Case Scaglione. Production: Ralph Fiennes. Sets: Michael Levine. Costumes: Annemarie Woods. Lighting: Alessandro Carletti. Choreography: Sophie Laplane. Onegin: Boris Pinkhasovich. Tatiana: Ruzan Mantashyan. Lensky: Bogdan Volkov. Olga: Marvic Monreal. Prince Gremin: Alexander Tsymbalyuk. Larina: Susan Graham. Filipievna: Elena Zaremba. Monsieur Triquet: Peter Bronder. Zaretski: Amin Ahangaran. Commander: Mikhail Silantev. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra national de Paris. Photos: © Guergana Damianova - OnP A handful of quotes to start the ball rolling: ‘Moderation is a fatal thing, Lady Hunstanton. Nothing succeeds like excess.’ (Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance.) ‘Le grand ennemi de l’art, c’est le bon goût’ (art’s greatest enemy is good taste). (Marcel Duchamp.) ‘C’est plat’ (as in ‘platitude’). My neighbour at the first interval. ‘J’adore cette partition. Qu’est-ce qu’on s’est ennuyé !’ (I love this score. Were we...
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