We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday March 8 2020 Conductor: Antonello Manacorda. Production and costumes: Jean-Philippe Clarac, Olivier Deloeuil (> Le Lab). Sets: Rick Martin. Lighting: Christophe Pitoiset. Video: Jean-Baptiste Beïs, Timothée Buisson. Fiordiligi: Lenneke Ruiten. Dorabella: Ginger Costa-Jackson. Guglielmo: Iurii Samoilov. Ferrando: Juan Francisco Gatell. Despina: Caterina Di Tonno. Don Alfonso: Riccardo Novaro. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. So, as I was saying last week... The idea at La Monnaie is to present the Mozart-Da Ponte operas as three episodes of a single work, in a single set and with the same cast, setting it in present-day Brussels and attempting at least to raise contemporary sexual and gender issues. As La Monnaie's programme is issued in French and Flemish, I thought it might be useful to translate a selection of phrases from an interview with the directors. ' What interests us as we work on the repertory is to give it a contemp...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday June 2 2013 Conductor: Ludovic Morlot. Production: Michael Haneke. Sets: Christoph Kanter. Costumes: Moidele Bickel. Lighting: Urs Schönebaum. Fiordiligi: Annett Fritsch. Dorabella: Paola Gardina. Guglielmo: Andreas Wolf. Ferrando: Juan Francisco Gatell. Despina: Kerstin Avemo. Don Alfonso: William Shimell. Orchestra and chorus of La Monnaie. " Yes , [Mozart's characters] are overwhelmed as well as overwhelming and set challenges for one another. They go astray and end up not knowing which way to turn. They want to ‘save face’ and, to do so, lose track more and more of who they really are. It’s a lot to do with self-assertion and fear ". (Michael Haneke on La Monnaie's website.) I was at first concerned to read, in La Libre Belgique , that Michael Haneke had "chosen and imposed" the cast for this production of Così fan tutte . Stage directors do too much "imposing" of casts, forcing us to put up with voiceless wo...

Opéra National de Paris - Palais Garnier, Monday September 26 2005 Conductor: Gustav Kuhn. Production: Patrice Chéreau. Sets: Richard Peduzzi. Fiordiligi: Erin Wall. Dorabella: Elina Garanca. Guglielmo: Stéphane Degout. Ferrando: Shawn Mathey. Despina: Barbara Bonney. Don Alfonso: Ruggero Raimondi. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Our Paris season got off to a good start this week with two strong productions, Cosí fan tutte from the Aix Festival and Hindemith’s Cardillac . A certain amount of turbulence has surrounded Chéreau’s production of Cosí . It didn’t go down too well in Aix, perhaps because people found it too “drab” for a summer festival, or wanted a “frothier” approach, or simply expected something more startling from Chéreau; perhaps also because Daniel Harding’s conducting was considered “controversial”. Then, in Paris, probably by threatening to strike, the opera orchestra forced Harding out, and Barbara Bonney was booed on the opening night a...