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Opéra Magazine's vocal 'pick of the month' ('coup de coeur') for November 2024.

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The November issue of France's Opéra Magazine finally turned up in the post the other day. This month's favourite recording is Carlo Vistoli's Vivaldi album, Sacro furore , featuring the Stabat Mater and other sacred works, interspersed with instrumental numbers, on Harmonia Mundi. Georg Kallweit conducts the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. The reviewer writes that this album 'confirms the eminent place he occupies, today, in the rich constellation of countertenors.' They give it the first of this month's 'Diamond' awards. I think if you root around you can probably find all of the album on YT . They give a second ' Diamant ' to Bruno de Sá's Mille Affetti: Opera and Sacred Arias , which this time 'confirms he is one of the most exceptional performers of the baroque repertoire of the beginning of this century.' Jaroslaw Thiel conducts the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, on Erato, and again, I think you can find it all online. One 'da

Benjamin - Picture a day like this, at the Opéra Comique in Paris

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Opéra Comique, Paris, Wednesday October 30 2024 An edited version of t his post will be published on Parterre.com Conductor: George Benjamin. Production, sets and lighting: Marie-Christine Soma, Daniel Jeanneteau. Costumes: Marie La Rocca. Videos: Hicham Berrada. Woman: Marianne Crebassa. Zabelle: Anna Prohaska. Lover 1/Composer: Beate Mordal. Lover 2/Composer's assistant: Cameron Shahbazi. Artisan/collector: John Brancy. Actors: Matthieu Baquey, Lisa Grandmottet, Eulalie Rambaud. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Photos: © Jean-Louis Fernandez My first opera of the new season in Paris, after kicking off in Brussels with Kris Defoort’s thought-provoking The Day of our Singing , was another nearly-new work, totally new to me: Sir George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this . Like Benjamin’s much-admired Written on Skin , Picture a day like this has (like all his operas, in fact) a libretto by Martin Crimp, was first performed at the Aix Festival (in this case in 2023), and ha

Kris Defoort - The Time of our Singing, at La Monnaie in Brussels

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La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday October 27, 2024 An edited version of t his post will be published on Parterre.com 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

Opéra Magazine's operatic 'pick of the month' ('coup de coeur') for September and October 2024.

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Back from my summer holidays, I found two issues of Opéra Magazine  waiting in the post. Their 'pick-of-the-month' recording for September is Huw Montague Rendall's recital, Contemplation , to which they award one of their 'Diamond' accolades. They say it's a ' coup de maître ' of a kind rarely encountered on disc. 'How long is it since we heard such an extraordinarily successful first recital?' It includes works by Thomas, Gounod, Korngold, Mahler, Britten, Duparc and more, and also involves soprano Elisabeth Boudreault and three boy trebles when required. The whole album is available on YT . They also give one of their 'Diamonds' to bass Luigi De Donato's Polifemo recital, with Polyphemus-related works by Händel, Aliberti, Porpora and others. Again, The whole album is available on  YT . In October, their favourite, again with a 'Diamond', is György Vashegyi's new recording of the eighty-year-old Rameau's last master

Rossini - Ermione

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Vitrifrigo Arena, Pesaro, Saturday August 17, 2024 Conductor: Michele Mariotti. Production: Johannes Erath. Sets: Heike Scheele. Costumes: Jorge Jara. Video: Bibi Abel. Lighting: Fabio Antoci. Ermione: Anastasia Bartoli. Andromaca: Victoria Yarovaya. Pirro Enea Scala. Oreste: Juan Diego Flórez. Pilade Antonio Mandrillo. Fenicio : Michael Mofidian. Cleone: Martiniana Antonie. Cefisa: Paola Leguisamón. Attalo: Tianxuefei Sun. Chorus of the Teatro Ventidio Basso. Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. Photos: Amati Bacciardi Now we have a dog, holidays in Greece involve an August drive across Italy from Mont Blanc, passing close to Pesaro during the festival, to Ancona for a night ferry to Patras. As, to my mind,  Ermione is one of Rossini's greatest works, yet not an easy one to catch, and the cast looked promising, this year I bought tickets, brushed up my Racine, and found myself in the Vitrifrigo arena on a Saturday night. This venue really is a sports stadium. It was probably

1,000,000 page views

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Today, July 17 2024, this blog topped 1 million page views. I started the blog in 2007, but the posts go back before then to May 2003. The first post was about a performance of Jenufa at the Châtelet , in Stéphane Braunschweig's still-memorable production. In all, there are now 546 posts on the blog, not counting this one. Things are about to quieten down for the summer of course, but this year I've decided to stop off in Pesaro on the way to Greece, so there should be a new post in August, all being well. The blog goes on.

Spontini - La Vestale, at the Bastille in Paris

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ONP Bastille, Paris, Monday July 8 2024. Conductor: Bertrand de Billy. Production: Lydia Steier. Sets: Etienne Pluss. Costumes: Katharina Schlipf. Lighting: Valerio Tiberi. Julia: Elza van den Heever. Licinius: Michael Spyres. La Grande Vestale: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Cinna: Julien Behr. Le Souverain Pontife: Jean Teitgen. Le Chef des Aruspices, un consul: Floren Mbia. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. All production photos: Guergana Damianova/ONP Last year, the ever-excellent Palazzetto Bru Zane issued a new recording, under Christophe Rousset and with a strong case, of La Vestale . As it's considered a historically important work, I dutifully listened, more than once, but it didn't click at the time. Still, when it popped up in the Paris Opera's season, in a brand new production (albeit by Lydia Steier - not exactly, based on her Salome , a positive pointer), I bought tickets. I'm glad I did because, despite some misgivings I'll outline below, having

Puccini - Turandot, at La Monnaie in Brussels

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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

Opéra Magazine's operatic 'pick of the month' ('coup de coeur') for July and August 2024.

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There are some months when France's Opéra Magazine dishes out so many of its 'Diamond' awards that you wonder if they're as 'exceptional' as they're claimed to be.  In the July-August 2024 edition, however, there's only one, so perhaps the accolade isn't devalued after all. Unusually, however, it isn't actually the pick of the month that gets this lone 'Diamant' (more below). Instead, this month's ' coup de coeur' is a DVD rated 5 out of 5: 'Less extensive than La Bohème or Tosca , the Manon Lescaut  video catalogue is enriched by a new version, filmed at Barcelona's Liceu in 2018, which is a constant pleasure to watch and listen to. A good way to commemorate, at home, the centenary of Puccini's death.' Liudmyla Monastyrska is Manon, Gregory Kunde is Des Grieux. The production is by Davide Livermore, the conductor is Emmanuel Villaume. That sole 'Diamond' is awarded to the CD set of a Händel rarity,

Opéra Magazine's pick of the month ('coup de coeur') for June 2024

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The June edition of France's Opéra Magazine arrived yesterday. Their pick of the month (' coup de coeur' ) in the recordings section, with one of their so-called ' Diamant ' awards, is Cimarosa's L'Olimpiade (1784), under Christophe Rousset. 'Resurrection of a dazzling score,' they say, and a 'brilliant' way for Château de Versailles Spectacles to salute the Olympic Games (Versailles will host equestrian events and the pentathlon.)  The whole album appears to be available on YT , in Europe at any rate, if you click through to open the following clip on YT itself: Another, earlier 18th-century work (1714, revised in 1730), wins a ' Diamant ': Destouches' Télémaque et Calypso . This is also a Versailles production, this time under Margaux Blanchard and Sylvain Sartre. Apparently also available in full on YT : Interestingly, their third and last ' Diamant ' is awarded to the second DVD issue of Laurent Pelly's now cla

Händel - Berenice, at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris

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Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday May 21, 2024 (In concert) Conductor: Francesco Corti. Berenice: Sandrine Piau. Selene: Ann Hallenberg. Alessandro: Arianna Vendittelli. Demetrio: Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian. Arsace: Rémy Brès-Feuillet. Fabio: Matthew Newlin. Aristobolo: John Chest. Il Pomo d’Oro. Photo: Stéphane Asseline, Région Ile-de-France This concert performance of  Berenice, with Il Pomo d'Oro under Francesco Corti, at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées last Tuesday was outstanding - in a way, unexpectedly so, as it seems to be assumed that because the work is now rare, it must be because it's weak. Is it dogged by its poor initial reception? It turns out (I'd never heard it before) there's absolutely nothing wrong with the score: a string of beautifully-crafted arias, as skilful, imaginative and varied as you'd expect from mature Händel, from the outset. For example, Berenice's first aria has an intriguing, 'shifting' accompaniment, and next t

2024 - 2025 Season

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This is how my 2024 - 2025 season is shaping up so far. I may add one or two more, depending on where I travel during the year. Vitrifrigo Arena Pesaro - Rossini - Ermione La Monnaie - Wagner - Siegfried Athénée Louis Jouvet - Claude Terrasse - Ubu Roi ONP Bastille - Puccini - Madama Butterfly La Monnaie - Kris Defoort - The Time of our Singing Opéra Comique - Benjamin - Picture a day like this Photo: Camilla Greenwell   La Monnaie - Mikael Karlsson - Fanny and Alexander ONP Garnier - Stravinsky - The Rake's Progress Opéra Comique - Rameau - Les Fêtes d'Hébé  ONP Bastille - Janacek - Příhody lišky Bystroušky ONP Garnier - Rameau - Castor et Pollux Opéra Comique - Cherubini - Médée ONP Bastille - Wagner - Das Rheingold La Monnaie - Wagner - Götterdämmerung Athénée Louis Jouvet - Recital, Felicity Lott Photo: DAVID HARTLEY/Shutterst/SIPA   La Monnaie at Bozar -  Mahler - Symphony n° 8 Opéra Comique - Rameau - Samson ONP Garnier - Dusapin - Il viaggio, Dante ONP Bastille - Verdi