We left at the interval...

WNO at Birmingham Hippodrome, Saturday November 17 2018 Conductor: Tomáš Hanus. Production: David Pountney. Sets: Robert Innes Hopkins. Costumes: Marie-Jeanne Lecca. Lighting: Malcolm Rippeth. Video: David Haneke. Andrei: Jonathan McGovern. Natasha: Lauren Michelle. Pierre: Mark Le Brocq. Princess Marie Akrossimova, Princess Marya, Aide de Camp de Murat, Mavra Kuzminichna: Leah-Marian Jones. Hélène, Prince Eugène’s Aide de Camp, Dunyasha: Jurgita Adamonytė. Anatole, First General, Kutuzov’s Aide de Camp, Bonnet, Barclay: Adrian Dwyer. Count Rostov, Tichon, Berthier, Ramballe, Beningsen: James Platt. Old Prince Bolkonsky: Jonathan May. Jacquot, Second General, General Belliard, Yermolov: Donald Thomson. Dolokhov, Denisov, Napoleon, Raevsky: David Stout. Balaga, Kutuzov, Davout: Simon Bailey. Sonya, Peronskaya, Kondratyevna: Samantha Price. Servant, Dr Métivier: Julian Boyce. Housemaid, Vasilisa: Carolyn Jackson. Valet, Gavrila, Matveyev: Laurence Cole. Joseph: George Newton-Fitzgeral...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday October 9 2018 Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Pianist: Denis Matsuev. Wiener Philharmoniker Prokofiev Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet: Montagues and Capulets Juliet as a Young Girl Masks Romeo at the Tomb of Juliet Concerto pour piano n° 2 op. 16 Symphony n° 6 op. 111 This concert with the VPO under Gergiev had a markedly different temperature (or perhaps the word is temperament) from the one last week with the Philharmonia under Salonen. While both were virtuoso performances, naturally, Salonen’s was relatively cool and restrained and the Philharmonia’s sound overall was what I called “matter of fact”, while Gergiev’s thermometer went frequently up to red hot and occasionally - as in the angular (“constructivist”, the programme notes suggested) 6th symphony - white and, just as I said Salonen was not, paroxystic. Yet Gergiev can also do meltingly tender when the work calls for it. As I remarked later to an old lady livin...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Thursday February 3, 2011 Conductor: Tugan Sokhiev. Production: Martin Duncan. Sets and costumes: Alison Chitty. Lighting: Paul Pyant. Choreography: Ben Wright. Don Jerome: Brian Galliford. Ferdinand: Garry Magee. Louisa: Anastasia Kalagina. The Duenna: Larissa Diadkova. Don Antonio: Daniil Shtoda. Clara d’Almanza: Anna Kiknadze. Mendoza: Mikhail Kolelishvili. Don Carlos: Yuri Vorobiev. Padre Augustin: Eduard Tsanga. Father Elustaf/ 1st Masker: Vasily Efimov. Father Chartreuse/ 2nd Masker: Marek Kalbus. Father Benedictine/ 3rd Masker: Mischa Schelomianski. Lauretta: Eleonora Vindau. Orchestra and chorus of the Capitole de Toulouse. It’s been a long time since I trundled out my threadbare line that opera-going is a triumph of hope over experience. I just browsed back through my reports to see when I last had a really fantastic evening at the opera and lo and behold, it was almost exactly a year ago in the same house, the Salle Favart, for The Fairy Queen . But I al...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday January 28 2007 Conductor: Kazushi Ono. Production: Richard Jones. Sets: John Macfarlane. Costumes: Nicky Gillibrand. Ruprecht: Tómas Tómasson. Renata: Elena Popovskaya. Fortune-Teller: Elena Manistina. Landlady: Beata Morawska. Mephistopheles: Leonid Bomshteyn. Agrippa von Nettesheim: Vitali Taraschenko. Johann Faust: Ante Jerkunica. Inquisitor: Vladimir Samsonov. Mother Superior: Maria Gortsevskaya. Jacob Glock: Lorenzo Caròla. Doctor: Zeno Popescu. Mathias Wissmann: Andrej Baturkin. Innkeeper: Nabil Suliman. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. Sometimes it takes an exceptional performance to crack a thorny work. I have two recordings of The Fiery Angel , one in French and the other in Russian, and have seen it at least once before. But in my mind it remained pigeonholed as an incomprehensible (in fact mad) story set to a noisy score. This Brussels production made sense of both. It was clear from the opening bars that the orchestra of La Monnaie was on es...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille, Monday December 4 2006 Conductor: Alexander Lazarev. Production: Gilbert Deflo. Le Roi de Trèfle: Philippe Rouillon. Le Prince: Charles Workman. La Princesse Clarice: Patricia Fernandez. Léandre: Guillaume Antoine. Trouffaldino: Barry Banks. Pantalon: Jean-Luc Ballestra. Tchélio: Alain Vernhes. Fata Morgana: Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet. Linette: Letitia Singleton. Nicolette: Natacha Constantin. Ninette: Aleksandra Zamojska. La Cuisinière: Victor von Halem. Farfarello: Antoine Garcin. Sméraldine: Lucia Cirillo. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. There’s always a risk, when you take a production the second season running because you liked it so much the first, of disappointment. But if anything, this excellent show – which really ought to be on DVD – struck me as even more outstanding this year than last. All I said about it last year remains true, in spades. And on the singing side, apart from a weaker Princesse Clarisse, the few cast ...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille, Saturday December 17 2005 Conductor: Sylvain Cambreling. Production: Gilbert Deflo. Sets and costumes: William Orlandi. Le Roi de Trèfle: Philippe Rouillon. Le Prince: Charles Workman. La Princesse Clarice: Hannah Esther Minutillo. Léandre: Guillaume Antoine. Trouffaldino: Barry Banks. Pantalon: Jean-Luc Ballestra. Tchélio: José Van Dam. Fata Morgana: Béatrice Uria-Monzon. Linette: Natacha Constantin. Nicolette: Letitia Singleton. Ninette: Aleksandra Zamojska. La Cuisinière: Victor von Halem. Farfarello Jean-Sébastien Bou. Le Héraut: David Bizic. Orchestra and chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Christmas fare in Paris: three oranges and a turkey It isn’t easy putting on the Christmas show at the Opéra National. You need something festive for the families (for instance, three years back the ballet choice was Ivan the Terrible ). But it has to be in good enough taste to satisfy the local aesthetes, for whom Paris remains the world’s arbiter ...

Théatre du Châtelet, Paris, Wednesday December 14 2005 Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Olga Borodina, Mezzo-Soprano. Ildar Abdrasakov, Bass. Lambert Wilson, Narrator. Chorus and orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. Alexander Nevsky; Ivan the Terrible Talking of wild applause (as I did at the end of my review of Il viaggio a Reims the other day), rarely have I heard it so long and loud and larded with bravos after a concert as last night at the Châtelet. I wish I’d kept a copy of Le Figaro’s review of Boris , which included an excellent account of the Mariinski orchestra; I could have translated it and pretended it was my own. It takes a far cleverer writer than I to describe an orchestra’s specific sound, and goodness knows the Mariinski’s is specific. All I can say is “er….” Darker, richer, fuller, riper, louder, as if their strings were twice as thick but twice as supple, their bows twice as long, their resin twice as sticky, their brass twice as brassy and their hearts twi...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille, March 17 2005 Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski. Production: Francesca Zambello. Sets: John Macfarlane. Costumes: Nicky Gillibrand. Prince Andrei Bolkonski: Bo Skovhus. Natasha Rostova: Olga Guryakova. Sonia/aide de camp to Marshal Murat: Larisa Kostyuk. Maria D. Akhrossimova: Felicity Palmer. Madame Peronskaïa: Irina Bogatcheva. Count Ilia A. Rostov/General Bennigsen: Leonid Zimnenko. Count Piotr Bezukhov: Michaël König.. Countess Hélène Bezukhova: Elena Zaremba. Anatoly Kuragin/General Barclay de Tolly: Vsevolod Grivnov. Princess Maria: Susana Poretsky. Prince Nikolai A. Bolkonski: Gleb Nikolsky. Balaga/Tikhon Cherbaty/Matveiev: Vladimir Matorine. Gipsy Matriocha: Irina Doljenko. Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov: Vladimir Ognovenko. Napoleon: Vassili Gerello. Platon Karataïev: Nikolai Gassiev. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Prokofiev It was marvellous to see this great production on its third outing in Paris. I was afraid that nove...