We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Wednesday February 22 2022 Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen. Production: Andrei Șerban. Sets, costumes: Richard Hudson. Lighting: Yves Bernard. Choreography: Laurence Fanon. Prince Ivan Khovansky: Dimitry Ivashchenko. Prince Andrey Khovansky: Sergei Skorokhodov. Prince Vasily Golitsin: John Daszak. Shaklovity: Evgeny Nikitin. Dosifey: Dmitry Belosseslkiy. Marfa: Anita Rachvelishvili. Susanna: Carole Wilson. Scrivener: Gerhard Siegel. Emma: Anush Hovhannisyan. Varsonofyev: Wojtek Smilek. Kuzka: Vasily Efimov. Streshnev: Tomasz Kumiega. First Strelets: Volodymyr Tyshkov. Second Strelets: Alexander Milev. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine/ONP Children's Chorus. All photos Guergana Damianova / ONP Andrei Șerban's production of Khovanshchina is over twenty years old, and the present run is its third. Given Paris's habit of changing productions like the rest of us change underpants, it must be one of the longest-lived in th...

(Shostakovich orchestration with a finale by J. David Jackson) La Monnaie, Brussels, May 25 2003 Conductor: Kazushi Ono. Production: Stein Winge. Ivan Khovansky: Willard White. Andreï Khovansky: Pär Lindskog. Vassily Golitzin: Glenn Winslade. Shaklovity: Ronnie Johansen. Dossifei: Anatoli Kocherga. Marfa: Elena Zaremba. Emma: Helène Bernardy. If I say once again how rarely, at the opera, everything comes together right, I’ll be blackballed by friends for repeating myself. Or maybe, this time, for contradicting myself, as in a weekend of opera in Paris and Brussels two out of three were winners ( Jenufa , cf my report, and now La Monnaie's Khovanshchina , the rotten apple being J. Miller’s production of La Traviata , despite Patricia Racette's efforts to make the best of a bad job). Mussorgsky With Jenufa , at the Châtelet in Paris , the plot was delivered with the unity, simplicity and force of Greek tragedy. With Khovanshchina in Brussels, we had a real socio-political epic. ...