We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday September 30 2018 Conductor: Ben Glassberg. Production, sets, costumes, lighting: Romeo Castellucci. Choreography: Cindy Van Acker. Algorithmic architecture: Michael Hansmeyer. Artistic collaboration: Silvia Costa. Added dialogues: Claudia Castellucci. Sarastro: Gabor Bretz. Tamino: Ed Lyon. Sprecher: Dietrich Henschel. Königin der Nacht: Sabine Devieilhe. Pamina: Sophie Karthäuser. Erste Dame: Tineke Van Ingelgem. Zweite Dame: Angélique Noldus. Dritte Dame; Esther Kuiper. Papageno: Georg Nigl. Papagena: Elena Galitskaya. Monostatos, ein Mohr: Elmar Gilbertsson. Erster Priester / Zweiter geharnischter Mann: Guillaume Antoine. Zweiter Priester / Erster geharnischter Mann: Yves Saelens. Drei Knaben: Sofia Royo Csoka, Tobias Van Haeperen, Elfie Salauddin Crémer. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, MM Academy & La Monnaie's Children's and Youth Chorus. Mozart As it happens, I was quite amused just this last week by a cartoon in VI...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille, January 26 2005 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production: Alex Ollé and Carlos Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus. Tamino: Paul Groves. Erste Dame: Ingela Bohlin. Zweite Dame: Marina Comparato. Dritte Dame: Ekaterina Gubanova. Papageno: Stéphane Degout. Papagena: Claire Ormshaw. Sarastro: Ain Anger. Monostatos: Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke. Pamina: Mireille Delunsch. Königin der Nacht: Erika Miklosa. Der Sprecher: Olaf Bär. Drei Knaben: Soloists of the Tölzer Knabenchor. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Narrators: Dominique Blanc, Pascal Greggory. A flute too far? Or just not enough magic? If you’ve ever been, in the US, to one of those “Olde Worlde” jousting places, in a plasterboard fort on an industrial estate in the suburbs, where you eat chicken with your fingers while aspiring actors pretend to joust, you’ll know what I mean: the louder the supporters of the blue team boo the success of the red team, the louder the red team’s fans c...