We left at the interval...

Opéra National de Paris – Palais Garnier, December 19 2003 Conductor: Pinchas Steinberg. Production: Laurent Pelly. Majordomo: Waldemar Kmentt. Music Master: David Wilson-Johnson. Composer: Sophie Koch. Tenor, Bacchus: Jon Villars. Dance Master: Graham Clark. Zerbinetta: Natalie Dessay. Primadonna, Ariadne: Katarina Dalayman. Naiad: Henriette Bonde-Hansen. Dryad: Svetlana Lifar. Echo: Sine Bundgaard. Harlequin: Stéphane Degout. Scaramuccio: Daniel Norman. Truffaldino: Alexander Vinogradov. Brighella: Norbert Ernst. Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris. The cast in the current Paris production of Ariadne auf Naxos is excellent; the problem is the director. In the early 80s, the Opéra Comique’s production of Ariadne ended with a magical coup de théâtre , a spine-tingling surprise. The Opera was set in the oval saloon of a Jugendstil palace, with Ariadne’s desert island in the middle. Bacchus arrived in a plain cape. As the scene moved to its climax, he reversed the cape to reveal glitter...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, November 19th 2003 Conductor: Bernard Haitink. Dresdner Staatskapelle. Bela Bartok, Concerto for Orchestra Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, Symphony N°6 in B minor, Pathétique, op. 74. When Bernard Haitink planned, as part of his 75th birthday celebrations, to bring the Dresdner Staatskapelle to Paris for a concert of Bartok and Tchaikovsky, he probably didn’t expect, at the end of part one, to be booed. It must have come as an unpleasant surprise. He certainly looked grim about it, as if he felt like booing back or spitting. The orchestra looked bemused. Admittedly, this was a lone booer, though – bad sign for Haitink - his booing wasn’t drowned, as is usually the case, by a surge of clapping and cheers. The polite, lukewarm applause continued. Bartok Now, booing, I know, is not much approved of on the fora I frequent. And of course, the lone booer wasn’t me. But I think I may have guessed how he felt. When he planned, coughing up a substantial sum – perhaps even a...

La Monnaie, Brussels, November 2 2003 Conductor: Daniele Callegari. Production: Matthew Jocelyn. Genièvre: Hélène Bernardy. Arthus: Andrew Schroeder. Lancelot: Klaus Florian Vogt. Mordred: Philippe Georges. Lyonnel: Yves Saelens. Allan: Jacques Does. Merlin: Olivier Lallouette. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. Chausson La Monnaie’s website has this to say about Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus (my translation): “It was at the Monnaie [Belgium’s Royal Opera House, in Brussels] that Ernest Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus had its premiere in November 1903. The composer, who was also the librettist of his only opera, took as his source the Arthurian legends. The theme of irresistible passion between Lancelot and Guinevere, the wonderful message of forgiveness and worldly renouncement delivered by Arthur and above all the mystical dimension of the work link it to the symbolist movement then in vogue […] but also to the artistic world of Richard Wagner and, more specifically, Tristan and Parsifal . C...

Opéra National de Paris Bastille, October 29 2003 Conductor: Maurizio Benini. Production: Francesca Zambello. Manrico: Roberto Alagna. Leonora: Sondra Radvanovsky. Azucena: Dolora Zajick. Ines: Martine Mahé. Luna: Roberto Servile. Ferrando: Orlin Anastassov. Ruiz: Jean-Luc Maurette (Ruiz). Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. It’s all very well, whenever Il Trovatore comes along, to trot out that old line about success only requiring the four best singers in the world. We understand the truth behind the cliché, but what are the chances of our getting them? We should be grateful for smaller mercies, and in this case the mercies weren’t so small after all. Let it be said up front, however, that this was a singers’ Trovatore . In France we pay a lot of tax and the Bastille has plenty of money. Francesca Zambello has at times put this to good use: Billy Budd, War & Peace . This production, however, seemed to inspire no ideas other than squandered extravagance. W...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Saturday 18 October 2003 Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner. Production: Yannis Kokkos. Didon: Susan Graham. Cassandre: Anna Caterina Antonacci. Anna: Renata Pokupic. Chorèbe: Ludovic Tézier. Panthée: Nicolas Testé. Narbal, Le Grand Prêtre: Laurent Naouri. Iopas: Mark Padmore. Ascagne: Stéphanie d'Oustrac. Hylas, Hélénus: Topi Lehtipuu. Le Fantôme d'Hector: Fernand Bernadi. Priam, Mercure: René Schirrer. Hécube: Danielle Bouthillon. Monteverdi Choir, Chorus of the Théâtre du Châtelet. Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Everything you ever wanted to know about Sax… “October 11 2003 will be remembered as a historic date both for opera and for Hector Berlioz, the date, quite simply, when Les Troyens was first performed complete in Paris. […] Meeting the challenge, the Théâtre du Châtelet neared perfection, with an exceptional cast, staging and orchestra […] possibly the most sumptuous production since Jean-Pierre Brossmann took over the theatre...

Opéra National de Paris - Bastille - September 26 2003 Conductor: James Conlon. Production: Lev Dodin. Salome: Karita Mattila. Herodes: Chris Merritt. Herodias: Anja Silja. Jochanaan: Falk Struckmann. Narraboth: William Burden. Lev Dodin has made rather a dubious name for himself in Paris with some "controversial" productions. What, we wondered, might he do with Salome ? In the event, not very much. This was a rather dull production with three "ideas:" Jochanaan's cage, a magnificent affair as tall as the Bastille's very high proscenium, slid slowly out of the left-hand wall to let him sing without staying in the wings; the moon, which crossed the sickly yellow sky from right to left, was eclipsed when Salome got her way; and Salome stripped naked (the "veils" were layers of her black and silver skirt) except for a sheer black top. Otherwise it was a simple set: dark, vaguely art déco façades to left and right, various levels and steps, and at the...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday September 23 2003 Conductor: Réne Jacobs. Production: David McVicar. Agrippina: Anna Caterina Antonacci. Nerone: Malena Ernman. Poppea: Miah Persson. Claudio: Lorenzo Regazzo. Ottone: Lawrence Zazzo. Pallante: Antonio Abete. Narciso: Dominique Visse. Lesbo: Lynton Black. Concerto Köln. Just one week after William Christie's voiceless wonders, René Jacobs showed that baroque opera really doesn't have to be like that. David McVicar's production of Ag rippina , shared with Brussels, is on its second outing in Paris. It is, in my opinion, a great modern Händel production, a model of how Händelian opera can be made to work, and work well, as theatre today. Händel The potential for staging this tale of political scheming, corruption and power play like Dynasty is there in the libretto, snide asides and all. Agrippina is the Joan Collins of the show, a tall, dark, glamorous, sexy, rich bitch in little black dress and five-inch heels, a g...

Opéra National de Paris - Palais Garnier - September 17 2003 Conductor: William Christie. Production: Andrei Serban. Les Arts Florissants. I realized, as this revival approached, rather to my surprise, that I have probably only ever heard Les Indes Galantes performed by Christie and Les Arts Florissants, whether on CD or in the theatre, in Alfredo Arias' "punk" production and in this one in the Paris opera repertoire. Rameau Rameau's "Opéra-Ballet" in a prologue and four acts has no continuous storyline, it's simply a series of vignettes. As such, it is probably konzept -proof. Serban's approach is faux-naïf , a story-book production for adult children, close in spirit to British pantomime (though this would be pretty chic as pantomimes go), complete with pantomime dame (Bellone is played as a petulant baroque drag-queen), in which Turks have giant turbans, sailors wear broad white trousers and striped jerseys, pirates have huge styrofoam musc...

Châtelet, Paris, Friday June 27 2003 Conductor: Hans Graf. Production: Temur Tchkeidze. Liubasha: Elena Manistina. Sobakine: Denis Sedov. Marfa: Olga Triofonova. Griaznoï: Ludovic Tézier. Skuratov: Albert Schagidullin. Lykov: Mikhaïl Dawidoff. Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Chorus of the Opéra National de Bordeaux. Ill-timed strikes hit wrong opera I’d planned at this time to write a post about  Don Giovanni , tacking on brief coverage of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Czar’s Bride at the end. In the event, strikes have hit the end of the season in Paris and summer festivals throughout France. So, instead of Don Giovanni at the Bastille I had an unexpectedly early dinner, without the Commandatore, at the brasserie next door, and all I have left to recount is the very forgettable production of the Czar’s Bride . This was presented as part of a “Festival of the Regions” and was the city of Bordeaux’ contribution, rounding off a Russian season at the Châtelet (a kind of Paris equival...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille - Friday May 23, 2003 Conductor: Nicola Luisotti. Director: Jonathan Miller. Violetta Valery: Patricia Racette. Flora Bervoix: Svetlana Lifar. Annina: Allison Cook. Alfredo Germont: Tito Beltran. Giorgio Germont: Roberto Frontali. Gastone: Mihajlo Arsenski. Barone Douphol: Michael Druiett. Marchese d'Obigny: Yuri Kissin. Dottor Grenvil: Christian Tréguier. My approach to La Traviata is to fear the worst, in the hopes of a nice surprise. It has never yet worked. Jonathan Millers' career can only, to me, be understood in the UK context. His Paris production of La Traviata was everything UK critics like: no ideas*, mediocre, "realistic" scenery, ugly, ill-fitting costumes, an occasional touch of feeble humor, choreography worse than feeble... Last night at the Bastille we were practically transported to London. It's a cliché to say that the role of Violetta requires at least two kinds of soprano, and that singers can rarel...

Wiener Staatsoper, May 29 2003 Conductor: Christian Thielemann. Production: Günter Krämer. Tristan: Thomas Moser. Isolde: Deborah Voigt. King Marke: Robert Holl. Brangäne: Petra Lang. Kurwenal: Peter Weber. Melot: Markus Nieminen. Shepherd: Michael Roider. Sailor: John Dickie. Steersman: In-Sung Sim. Orchestra and Chorus of the Wiener Staatsoper. “A spectacular Isolde” ( www.andante.com ). “Lyrical beauty and sumptuous colorings… where other Isoldes turn strident or even resort to faking when the vocal line lifts above high A here and there, Ms. Voigt, whose top voice is her glory, reveled in those ecstatic high C's” (New York Times). “… Nothing tentative or unformed about it. The opulent voice, with its rich bloom, took full command of the music and asserted itself impressively even during the most climactic orchestral passages. And Voigt gave color and shape to the words” (International Herald Tribune). “One glorious torrent of sound” (Financial Times). The professionals have spo...

(Shostakovich orchestration with a finale by J. David Jackson) La Monnaie, Brussels, May 25 2003 Conductor: Kazushi Ono. Production: Stein Winge. Ivan Khovansky: Willard White. Andreï Khovansky: Pär Lindskog. Vassily Golitzin: Glenn Winslade. Shaklovity: Ronnie Johansen. Dossifei: Anatoli Kocherga. Marfa: Elena Zaremba. Emma: Helène Bernardy. If I say once again how rarely, at the opera, everything comes together right, I’ll be blackballed by friends for repeating myself. Or maybe, this time, for contradicting myself, as in a weekend of opera in Paris and Brussels two out of three were winners ( Jenufa , cf my report, and now La Monnaie's Khovanshchina , the rotten apple being J. Miller’s production of La Traviata , despite Patricia Racette's efforts to make the best of a bad job). Mussorgsky With Jenufa , at the Châtelet in Paris , the plot was delivered with the unity, simplicity and force of Greek tragedy. With Khovanshchina in Brussels, we had a real socio-political epic. ...

Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet, May 24, 2003 Conductor: Sylvain Cambreling. Production: Stéphane Braunschweig. Jenufa: Karita Mattila. Kostelnicka: Rosalind Plowright. Laca: Stefan Margita. Steva: Gordon Gietz. Buryjovka: Menai Davies. Starek: Ivan Kusnjer. Judge: René Schirrer. Judeg's wife: Galina Kuklina. Orchestre de Paris. The less said about bad opera productions (leaving more space to discuss good ones), the better, we might feel. But it turns out to be a great deal harder to do justice in writing to an outstanding evening than to a more commonplace one. Stéphane Braunschweig’s 1996 production of Jenufa was one of the finest I have ever seen. Ever the optimist, I was afraid that when at last it returned to the Châtelet the revival might prove a disappointment. But it didn’t: with a different cast, the magic nevertheless worked again. Janacek The production, as befits the work, is dark and spare. The story is told straight, helped by a few stunning theatrical gestures, not hinde...