We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 28 2025 Conductor: George Petrou. Production: Christophe Coppens. Sets: Christophe Coppens & I.S.M.Architecten. Lighting: Peter Van Praet. Video: Supersauce - Georgie Pin. Pollione: Enea Scala. Oroveso: Alexander Vinogradov. Norma: Sally Matthews. Adalgisa: Raffaella Lupinacci. Clotilde: Lisa Willems. Flavio: Alexander Marev. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. Photos: Simon Van Rompay This production of Norma at La Monnaie is one that was hit, like many at the time, by Covid. When it was performed in front of an audience, in December 2021, vaccination certificates and masks were required, strict social distancing was in force, and few people could, as a result, actually get seats. (As I remember, in Belgium, the maximum audience per house was set at 200.) It was streamed instead. Now it’s back, with much the same cast - and no pandemic. Sally Matthews is a regular at La Monnaie, and La Monnaie is where I’ve always seen her, except for the...

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...

ONP Bastille, Thursday June 5 2008 Conductor: Evelino Pidò. Production: Robert Carsen. Sets & Costumes: Michael Levine. Lighting: Davy Cunningham. Capellio: Giovanni Battista Parodi. Giulietta: Anna Netrebko. Romeo: Joyce DiDonato. Tebaldo: Matthew Polenzani. Lorenzo: Mikhail Petrenko. Orchestra & Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. What on earth does it take to make anything remotely approaching a silk purse out of this sow's ear of an opera? We had Netrebko, we had DiDonato and we had Polenzani in a Carsen production, and were still so bored (my neighbour had already turned to me and groaned "Je m'ennuie" during a scene change) that after what seemed like hours, all three of us in agreement, we escaped to dinner at the end of act 1. I doubt very much that Carsen came back to supervise this reprise; if he did (who's to tell? The programme notes said nothing) it didn't show. The neighbour I mentioned above complained, as we crossed the square to fin...