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...

Bozar, Brussels, Sunday September 2 2018 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Piano: Katia and Marielle Labèque. Orchestre Symphonique de La Monnaie. Beethoven: Coriolan Overture , Op. 62 Bruch: Concerto for Two Pianos,  Op. 88a Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition . [Encore - Glass: Four Movements for Two Pianos, IV ] Bozar in Brussels The Sunday matinée subscription I have had for over 25 years in Brussels is a set menu: you pays your money and you gets no choice. And as La Monnaie usually offers interesting seasons and good productions with very decent teams of singers, that's fine. I was surprised, though, not to say a bit miffed, to find my first "opera" of the season would be an orchestral concert. It wasn't a programme that would have caught my eye in Paris, even if Cleveland or Dresden were coming to play it, let alone La Monnaie's pit band. But I supposed the house needed to save money after the presumably costly plastic-tent fiasco a coupl...

ONP Bastille, Monday July 2 2018 Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski. Production: Ivo van Hove. Boris Godunov: Ildar Abdrazakov. Fyodor: Evdokia Malevskaya. Xenia: Ruzan Mantashyan. Nurse: Alexandra Durseneva. Prince Shuysky: Maxim Paster. Andrey Shchelkalov, Clerk of the Duma: Boris Pinkhasovich. Pimen: Ain Anger. Grigoryi Otrepiev: Dmitry Golovnin. Varlaam: Evgeny Nikitin. Missail: Peter Bronder. Innkeeper: Elena Manistina. The Yuródivïy (Innocent): Vasily Efimov. Mityukha: Mikhail Timoshenko. Police Officer: Maxim Mikhailov. A boyar, voice in the crowd: Luca Sannai. Sets and lighting: Jan Versweyveld. Costumes: An D’Huys. Video: Tal Yarden. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine / Paris Opera Children’s Choir.  The ever-excellent ConcertoNet headlined its review of this new production of Boris at the Bastille “Un tsar et un chef” (a Czar and a conductor, only it doesn’t sound as good in English) and I can understand why. Ildar Abdrazak...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday April 23 2006 Conductor: Kazushi Ono. Production: Klaus Michael Grüber. Boris Godunov: José van Dam. Feodor: Janja Vuletic. Xenia: Irina Samoilova. Xenia’s nurse: Nina Romanova. Prince Suisky: Ian Caley. Andreï Shchelkalov: Andrej Breus. Pimen: Anatoli Kocherga. Grigori, Dimitri: Vsevolod Grivnov. Varlaam: Vladimir Matorin. Missaïl: Vjaceslav Vojnarovskij. Hostess: Ekaterina Gubanova. Nikitch / Police Officer: Jacques Does. Simpleton: Dmitri Voropaev. Orchestra and chorus of La Monnaie. What would we do without critics and their superior intellects? There are times when, like the oldest daughter in The Sound of Music , with a mental age of just 16 going on 17, we need someone older and wiser to explain to us things beyond our ken. La Monnaie is one of those theatres where subscribers all come on the same day and in the same seats, so you get to know your neighbours and chat at the interval. No-one in my vicinity seemed to find this production of Boris outs...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Friday December 9 2005 Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Production: Victor Kramer. Boris Godunov: Evgeny Nikitin. Fyodor, his son: Maria Matveyeva. Xenia, his daughter: Irina Mataeva. Xenia's nurse: Olga Markova-Mikhailenko. Prince Vasiliĭ Ivanovič Shuĭskiĭ: Alexei Steblianko. Andreĭ Ščelkalov, council secretary: Vassili Gerello. Pimen, chronicler, anchorite: Vladimir Vaneev. Pretender (False Dimitriĭ, Grigoriĭ): Oleg Balachov. Varlaam, itinerant monk: Vladimir Ognovenko. Misail, itinerant monk: Nikolai Gassiev. Hostess of the inn: Olga Savova. Simpleton (Yurodivyĭ): Evgeny Akimov. Nikitič, police officer: Alexei Tannovitski. Orchestra and Chorus of the Mariinski Theatre, St Petersburg. Boris (lost?) in Space An all-Russian opera performance is so different from our usual western fare you wonder (even without a sci-fi production: more of that later) if Russia is on another planet, and need a whole new language (Klingon?) to describe it. Their tenors sound like...

(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. ...