We left at the interval...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday May 28 2019 Direction: Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro, assisted by continuo leader Thomas Dunford. Semi-staging: Mathilde Etienne. Costumes: Karine Godier, Sébastien Blondin. Orfeo: Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro. Euridice, Musica: Giulia Semenzato. Pastore: Mathias Vidal. Pastore: David Szigetvari. Apollo: Fulvio Bettini. Pastore, La Speranza: Eva Zaïcik. Proserpina: Mathilde Etienne. Plutone, Pastore: Frédéric Caton. La Messagiera: Lea Desandre. Pastore, Caronte: Jérôme Varnier. Ninfa: Maud Gnidzaz. I Gemelli. My love affair with Monteverdi's Orfeo goes back a long way. I was acquainted with it from the radio before I went up to university. As an undergraduate, I was excited to be invited to play in a performance at the university's Senate House, and disappointed when I turned up with my instrument for the first rehearsal to be told by the surprised conductor - Stephen Barlow IIRC - that he hadn't expected and didn't need a double b...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Friday May 12, 2006 Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Production: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. La Musica/Euridice: Kerstin Avemo. Orfeo: Michael Slattery. Ninfa: Kimy McLaren. Pastori: Pascal Bertin, Ed Lyon, Finnur Bjarnason, Jonathan Brown. Messaggiera: Renata Pokupic. La Speranza: Marina De Liso. Caronte: Andrea Silvestrelli. Proserpina: Aurélia Legay. Plutone: Paul Gay. Apollo: Finnu Bjarnason. Eco: Simon Wall. Spiriti: Amine Hadef, Simon Wall, Kevin Kyle, John Mackenzie, Jonathan Brown. Le Concert d’Astrée orchestra and vocal ensemble. Les Sacqueboutiers . It’s odd that Emmanuelle Haïm should be so deficient in Händel yet so good in Monteverdi. I wonder if it depends on her employing what in France are called “intermittents” – the showbiz equivalent of casual labour – or if it is simply that her forces and the way they play are suitable for Monteverdi but wrong for Händel. Whatever controversy some of her decisions spark off among baroque fundamentalists (over ...