We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Monday May 25 2015 Conductor: Philippe Jordan. Production: Graham Vick. Sets and costumes: Paul Brown. Lighting: Adam Silverman. Genièvre: Sophie Koch. Arthus: Thomas Hampson. Lancelot: Roberto Alagna. Mordred: Alexandre Duhamel. Lyonnel: Stanislas de Barbeyrac. Allan: François Lis. Merlin: Peter Sidhom. Un Laboureur: Cyrille Dubois. Un Chevalier: Tiago Matos. Un Écuyer: Ugo Rabec. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. If I seemed reserved in my praise of the musical side of Sunday's Ballo in Brussels, I can be quite unreserved about that of Le Roi Arthus last night: it was simply magnificent, as magnificent, sensitive yet generous a performance as you could hope to hear. Having said that, what can I usefully add? (Eight more paragraphs, perhaps?) Though I've seen it before in Brussels , like most of us, I imagine, I know the work mainly from Jordan senior's recording with Teresa Żylis-Gara. That being so, I was surprised to see S...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday March 19 2014 Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer op. 19 Chausson: Poème for violin and orchestra op. 25 Paganini: I Palpiti for violin and orchestra, after Rossini's Tancredi Schumann: Symphony n° 2 op. 61 Ann Hallenberg: mezzo-soprano. Laurent Korcia: violin. Jean-Jacques Kantorow: conductor. Orchestre de chambre de Paris Chausson In the last few years I've drifted away from concert halls and spent my time (and pots of hard-earned money) almost exclusively in opera houses. This is no doubt a mistake: hours and hours of second-rate music indifferently performed have probably corrupted my taste irretrievably. So my opinion on concerts should be taken with a big pinch of salt. This one, it seemed to me, was odd and frustrating. The combination of works was odd enough. But the order they were played in was odder still. It seemed unfair on Ann Hallenberg to have her start with the strangest and most demanding ...

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...