We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Tuesday May 13 2025  Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Production: Christof Loy. Sets: Étienne Pluss. Costumes: Barbara Drosihn. Lighting: Fabrice Kebour. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Guergana Damianova/ONP Gianni Schicchi Gianni Schicchi: Misha Kiria. Lauretta: Asmik Grigorian. Zita: Enkelejda Shkoza. Rinuccio: Alexey Neklyudov. Gherardo: Dean Power. Nella: Lavinia Bini. Betto: Manel Esteve Madrid. Simone: Scott Wilde. Marco: Iurii Samoilov. La Ciesca: Theresa Kronthaler. Maestro Spinelloccio: Matteo Peirone. Pinellino: Vartan Gabrielian. Guccio: Luis-Felipe Sousa. Amantio di Nicolao: Alejandro Baliñas Vieites. Il Tabarro Michele : Roman Burdenko. Giorgetta: Asmik Grigorian. Luigi: Joshua Guerrero. Il Tinca: Andrea Giovannini. Il Talpa: Scott Wilde. La Frugola: Enkelejda Shkoza. Un venditore di canzonette: Dean Power. Un amante: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Suor Angelica Suor Angelica: Asmik Grigorian. La Zia Principessa: Karita Mattila. La Badessa: Han...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Wednesday April 9, 2025 Conductor: Simone Young. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video: Denis Guéguin. Choreography: Claude Bardouil. Don Carlos: Charles Castronovo. Elisabeth de Valois: Marina Rebeka. Philippe II: Christian Van Horn. La Princesse Eboli: Ekaterina Gubanova. Rodrigue: Andrzej Filończyk. Le Grand Inquisiteur: Alexander Tsymbalyuk. Un Moine: Sava Vemić. Thibault: Marine Chagnon. Une voix d’en haut: Teona Todua. Le Comte de Lerme: Manase Latu. Un héraut royal: Hyun-Jong Roh. Un coryphée: Christian Rodrigue Moungoungou. Six députés flamands: Amin Ahangaran, Niall Anderson, Alejandro Baliñas Vieites, Vartan Gabrielian, Florent Mbia, Milan Perišić. Charles Quint: Yann Collette. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Franck Ferville/ONP This is the third time I’ve seen this Warlikowski production. I saw it first as Don Carlos , in 2017, starring Kaufmann, Yoncheva...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Tuesday February 11 2025 Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Rebecca Ringst. Costumes: Ingo Krügler. Lighting: Michael Bauer. Video: Sarah Derendinger. Wotan: Iain Paterson. Donner: Florent Mbia. Froh: Matthew Cairns. Loge: Simon O'Neill. Fasolt: Kwangchul Youn. Fafner: Mika Kares. Alberich: Brian Mulligan. Mime: Gerhard Siegel. Fricka: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Freia: Eliza Boom. Erda: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Woglinde: Margarita Polonskaya. Wellgunde: Isabel Signoret. Flosshilde: Katharina Magiera. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Herwig Prammer/ONP These are head-spinning times for Ring cycles, at least as far as I’m concerned. The Paris Opera originally scheduled Bieito’s five years ago. Covid intervened, and it was postponed. In the meantime, at the end of 2023, Brussels launched its own cycle, directed by Romeo Castellucci. His Rheingold and Walküre were among the most enthralling productions I’ve ever seen of anythin...

ONP Bastille, Tuesday January 21 2025 Conductor: Juraj Valčuha. Production: André Engel. Sets: Nicky Rieti. Costumes: Elizabeth Neumuller. Lighting: André Diot. Choreography: Françoise Grès. The Vixen: Elena Tsallagova. The Fox: Paula Murrihy. The Forester: Milan Siljanov. The Schoolmaster, the Mosquito: Éric Huchet. The Priest: Frédéric Caton. Harašta: Tadeáš Hoza. The Dog: Maria Warenberg. The Innkeeper: Se-Jin Hwang. The Innkeeper's wife: Anne-Sophie Ducret. The Cockerel, The Jay: Rocio Ruiz Cobarro. The Hen: Irina Kopylova. The Woodpecker: Marie-Cécile Chevassus. The Badger: Sławomir Szychowiak. Sova, The Owl: Marie Gautrot. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir. Photos: Vincent Pontet / ONP Though I’ve sometimes complained that the Paris Opera, while supposedly short of cash, changes its productions nearly as often as the rest of us change our socks, André Engel’s Cunning Little Vixen first appeared there 17 years ago. At th...

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...

ONP Bastille, Sunday May 12 and Wednesday May 22, 2024 Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth. Production: Lydia Steier. Sets and video: Momme Hinrichs. Costumes: Andy Besuch. Lighting: Olaf Freese. Salome: Lise Davidsen. Herodes: Gerhard Siegel. Herodias: Ekaterina Gubanova. Jochanaan: Johan Reuter. Narraboth: Pavol Breslik. Page der Herodias: Katharina Magiera. Erster Jude: Matthäus Schmidlechner. Zweiter Jude: Éric Huchet. Dritter Jude: Maciej Kwaśnikowski. Vierter Jude: Tobias Westman. Fünfter Jude: Florent Mbia. Erster Nazarener: Luke Stoker. Zweiter Nazarener: Yiorgo Ioannou. Erster Soldat: Dominic Barberi. Zweiter Soldat: Bastian Thomas Kohl. Cappadocier: Alejandro Baliñas Vieites. Ein Sklave: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Charles Duprat/ONP I'd already seen Lydia Steier's über -icky production of Salome in 2022 ('beyond nausea,' as one French critic wrote, see my account here ), and wouldn't normally have wanted to cringe thro...

ONP Bastille, Thursday March 7 2024 Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth. Production: Peter Sellars. Sets: George Tsypin. Costumes: Camille Assaf. Lighting: James F. Ingalls. Beatrice di Tenda: Tamara Wilson. Filippo Visconti: Quinn Kelsey. Agnese del Maino: Theresa Kronthaler. Orombello: Pene Pati. Anichino: Amitai Pati. Rizzardo del Maino: Taesung Lee. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Franck Ferville/ONP In a recent issue of France's Opéra Magazine , Peter Sellars, interviewed during rehearsals, explained that he'd wanted to stage Beatrice di Tenda for 25 years, in particular for its contemporary relevance: ' Beatrice di Tenda asks these fundamental questions: what is a dictatorship? How does it work, and how does it manage to impose itself? Is it possible to oppose it with beauty and culture? Bellinian melody rises up as the most sublimely human expression, to counter brutal force (...) It is very important to stage Beatrice di Tenda at a time when...