We left at the interval...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Tuesday May 22 2012 Conductor: Susanna Mälkki. Production: Richard Brunel. Dramaturgie: Catherine Ailloud-Nicolas et Giordano Ferrari. Sets and Costumes: Bruno De Lavenère. Lighting: Laurent Castaingt. Ircam electronic creation: Carlo Laurenzi. Ircam scientific adviser: Jean Bresson. Singing coaches: Christophe Manien, Joël Soichez. Re Orso, un uomo di potere: Rodrigo Ferreira. Verme, una donna del popolo: Monica Bacelli. Oliba, moglie forzata del Re: Marisol Montalvo. Trovatore: Alexander Kravets. Papiolo, buffone: Geoffrey Carey. Cortigiani: Cyril Anrep, Geoffrey Carey, Daniel Carraz, Piera Formenti. Ensemble Intercontemporain. Re Orso , based on an elaborate 1865 poem by Arrigo Boito, is a simple tale of a murderous, mythical tyrant, with a simple, old-fashioned moral: like all of us, tyrants die. When a lion combats a worm, the worm has the last laugh: "Tutto nel mondo è burla". As the work is brand new I thought it might be useful to sum up ...

ONP Bastille, Wednesday May 2 2012 Conductor: Daniel Oren. Production: Giancarlo Del Monaco. Santuzza: Violeta Urmana. Turiddu: Marcello Giordani. Lucia: Stefania Toczyska. Alfio: Franck Ferrari. Lola: Nicole Piccolomini. Nedda: Brigitta Kele. Canio: Vladimir Galouzine. Tonio: Sergey Murzaev. Beppe: Florian Laconi. Silvio: Tassis Christoyannis. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris, ONP and Hauts de Seine children's choruses. If anyone reads these reports, they may recall I recently referred to Nicolas Joël’s (current) time at the ONP as “misery”. His defenders, however, say he is expanding the Paris repertoire and bringing us better casts. Believe it or not, this production of the famous “ Cav and Pag ” double bill marks Cavalleria Rusticana ’s debut at the Opéra National, so the first claim is vindicated, though I can’t say, personally, that the scheduling of Mireille , or Mascagni’s work or, next season, La Gioconda , does much for me. But at last, also – and...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday April 29 2012 Concert performance Conductor: Evelino Pidò. Otello: Gregory Kunde. Desdemona: Anna Caterina Antonacci. Elmiro: Giovanni Furlanetto. Rodrigo: Dmitry Korchak: Jago: Dario Schmunck. Emilia: Josè Maria Lo Monaco. Lucio: Stefan Cifolelli. Doge/Un Gondoliere: Tansel Akzeybek. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. Ana Caterina Antonacci has only to sing one note for me to think (settling snugly into my seat and, for once, looking forward to a feast): “At last, a real voice!” But what’s a “real” voice? Years ago I remember reading a lengthy attempt (by Gombrich or Pevsner or Clark or someone like that; I tried to find it again yesterday but couldn’t) to define art, that still ended with a cop-out along the lines of ”Anyway, when you’ve had enough of it, you know it when you see it.” After hundreds of opportunities, over the years, to leave at the interval, bored by bland voices and non-existent acting, you know a real voice when you hear one. A...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Monday April 16 2012 Conductor: Alexander Briger. Production and choreography: Chen Shi-Zheng. Sets: Shilpa Gupta. Costumes: Petra Reinhardt. Lighting: Alexander Koppelmann. Video: Olivier Roset. Richard Nixon: Franco Pomponi. Pat Nixon: June Anderson. Henry Kissinger: Peter Sidhom. Mao Zedong: Alfred Kim. Madame Mao (Jiang Qing): Sumi Jo. Chou En-Lai: Kyung Chun Kim. First secretary: Sophie Leleu. Second secretary: Alexandra Sherman. Third secretary: Rebecca de Pont Davies. Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. Chorus of the Châtelet. In the old days, when pubs were still pubs and not yet a cross between a steak house and a disco with only incidental beer, you’d often see a nicotine-stained sign over the counter or dangling from an optic saying “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps”. Several times, recently, it has occurred to me that a similar message might be printed on the cover page of certain opera scores: “You don’t have to be mad to s...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Monday April 9 2012 Conductor : Patrick Davin. Production : Emma Dante. Sets : Carmine Maringola. Sets and costumes : Vanessa Sannino. Lighting : Dominique Bruguière. Fenella : Elena Borgogni. Alphonse : Maxim Mironov. Elvire : Église Gutiérrez. Masaniello : Michael Spyres. Pietro : Laurent Alvaro. Borella : Tomislav Lavoie. Selva : Jean Teitgen. Lorenzo : Martial Defontaine. Orchestra and chorus of La Monnaie, Brussels. The Opéra Comique continues to make up, thank goodness, for misery at the ONP and lean years at the Châtelet by programming interesting rarities, this time La Muette de Portici . For the general public, Auber is a above all a central tube station in Paris, handy for the department stores. His work is probably best known in the operatic world for sparking off the Belgian revolution in 1830. I must say it's surprising to read, even today, that "this co-production between the Opéra Comique, La Monnaie in Brussels and the Palazzetto Bru...

Státní Opera, Prague, Thursday April 5 2012 Conductor: František Drs. Production : Karel Jernek. Sets: Z. Kolář. Costumes: O. Filipi. Rigoletto: Martin Bárta. The Duke of Mantua: Rafael Alvarez. Gilda: Marina Vyskvorkina. Sparafucile: Ladislav Mlejnek. Maddalena: Andrea Kalivodová. Giovanna: Sylva Čmugrová. Monterone: František Zahradníček. Marullo: Jiří Brückler. Borsa: Lubomír Havlák. Orchestra and Chorus of the Prague State Opera. When I found I had an evening free in Prague I hopped on to the Internet hoping there’d be some Janáček at the Národní (after three days there, I’m still in the mood for accents) but the only opera available that night was Rigoletto at the Státní. Oh well, I thought, at least the orchestra and voices will be good. In the event, it was a problematic evening; and to avoid upsetting my Czech friends, I decided I’d say there was probably a ‘flu pandemic in the house. It didn’t affect the secondary parts. Maddalena, looking very much like Gina Lollob...

Opéra de Lille, Sunday March 18 2012 Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Production: Jean-François Sivadier. Sets: Alexandre de Dardel. Lighting: Philippe Berthomé. Costumes: Virginie Gervaise. Poppea: Sonya Yoncheva. Nerone: Max Emmanuel Cencic. Ottavia: Ann Hallenberg. Ottone: Tim Mead. Seneca: Paul Whelan. Drusilla: Amel Brahim-Djelloul. Nutrice/Famigliare di Seneca: Rachid Ben Abdeslam. Arnalta: Emiliano Gonzalez Toro. Fortuna/Venere/Pallade: Anna Wall. Valetto/Virtù: Khatouna Gadelia. Mercurio/Console: Aimery Lefèvre. Damigella/Amore: Camille Poul. Littore/Famigliare di Seneca /Console: Patrick Schramm. Lucano/soldato/tribuno/Famigliare di Seneca: Mathias Vidal. Liberto Capitano/soldato/tribuno: Nicholas Mulroy. Actor: Rachid Zanouda. Le Concert d’Astrée. I was too late booking for Poppea in Lille, so we found ourselves on folding wooden seats (creaking ones, too, when occupied by fidgets) on the second row of the topmost tier, just below the rim of the dome and well to one side. A...