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Simon Stone, ruthless explorer of works
In a few days, the premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera, The Dead City, will play in Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. Jonas Kaufmann will be appearing alongside soprano Marlis Petersen in a production by Simon Stone, created in 2015 at the Theater Basel. Let us take a look back at the career of the thirty-year-old director who has been fought over by musical and dramatic institutions alike for some years now. *** Les Trois Soeurs à l'Odéon, par...
Published onthe 16 of November
The Paris Opera presents its 2018-2019 anniversary season, at the meeting point between tradition and modernity
As a national opera, the Paris Opera has historically taken on the role of preserving France's operatic heritage and bringing French opera to life. For all that, opera is obviously a distinctly living art form and since the beginning of his mandate at the head of the Parisian establishment, Stéphane Lissner has also been committed to contributing to updating the repertoire and has been working to diversify the cultural range of France's famous Opera. This is the reason for...
Published onthe 30 of January
Preview: Royal Opera 2017/18 Season
Although Kasper Holten left the post of Artistic Director of the Royal Opera in March 2017, he played the leading role in programming its 2017/18 season and, with a good blend of new productions and strong revivals, it looks to be a particularly fine one. Some composers whose operas have been neglected in recent seasons get a look-in, while several contemporary composers also have the opportunity to present new works. Add in the fact that many evenings feature some of the world’s...
Published onthe 25 of April
Piotr Beczała, a luminous elegance
The time is long gone when popular tenors had a career in films and had their own composed-to-order repertoire, between the expressive intensity of the lyric tenor and the intimate sentimentality of the crooner. It is no accident, or mere opportunity, that Piotr Beczała devoted a recital (Deutsche Grammophon) to Richard Tauber, the irresistible protagonist of Lehár’s last operettas: such a genealogy shows that Beczala has the intelligence not to seek gallantry, the...
Published onthe 09 of August
Thomas Adès, pragmatic contemporary
In the 20th century, there was an opera mystique, the mystique of the impossible and often single work: Schönberg never managed to find a satisfying conclusion to Moses und Aaron, and Messiaen, at age 75 and after eight years of work, delivered an outrageous and fascinating Saint Francis. And then there are others, composers who have long, continuous and productive careers, like Britten or Henze. Thomas Adès, a 45-year-old English composer, is one of the latter. The work...
Published onthe 26 of July
West Side Story: Broadway comes to Salzburg
Philip William McKinley is known as a director of large-scale shows. The musical spectacular ‘‘ShowStoppers’’ at Steve Wynn’s Encore resort in Las Vegas is his latest, and he took over ‘‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,’’ replacing Julie Taymor, in 2011 until the show closed in January 2014. But, as Cecilia Bartoli, the artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, points out, he is also a classically trained pianist and opera...
Published onthe 19 of May
Bryn Terfel : Becoming Boris Godunov
At London’s Royal Opera House, the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel has just completed the run of his debut role as the title character of ‘‘Boris Godunov,’’ the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s only completed opera. ‘‘It’s one of the most iconic pieces written and has been described as a masterpiece,’’ says Terfel. The production, by the English director Richard Jones, is a new one, and the score...
Published onthe 18 of April
Metropolitan Opera : The 2016/17 season
Although the Metropolitan Opera clearly remains a prestigious opera house with one of the great lyric stages, it is well known that the New York institution has in recent years had to make do with a very limited budget – marked by a 22 million dollar deficit in 2014 and just barely in the black by a million dollars for 2015 thanks to the sale of some of its assets, and particularly through drastic cost-cutting measures that are ongoing. For the first time since its 2009-2010 season,...
Published onthe 19 of February
Paris Opera, Lissner Season 2: the 2016/2017 Season
At the Opéra de Paris, Stéphane Lissner, like any new director making his ambitions known, was met by sceptics and naysayers lying in wait for him, along with all those who wished him less than well: the success of his first performances quickly swept away all the reservations and banana peels strewn in his path. His success was obvious, hailed by national and international critics and corroborated by the enthusiasm of the audiences filling the halls.This success is of course...
Published onthe 10 of February
Why Cecilia Bartoli Chose West Side Story for Salzburg
Cecilia Bartoli became the artistic director for the Salzburg Pentecost Festival in 2012, and every year since then the Italian mezzo soprano has put together a programme that puts the spotlight on women, whether strong or sacrificial, harrowing or modest, each year presenting “a new facet of femininity” – whether in the role of Cleopatra in Handel’s Julius Caesar, Norma in Bellini, Angelina Rossini’s La Cenerentola or more recently Iphigenia in Gluck’s...
Published onthe 26 of December
La Damnation de Faust : genesis of a production with Stéphane Lissner
Early this December, the Opéra de Paris will present La Damnation de Faust, by Hector Berlioz, featuring Sophie Koch (in the role of Marguerite), Jonas Kaufmann (playing Faust) and Bryn Terfel (as Mephistopheles), in a new production designed by Alvis Hermanis. A much-anticipated production because of its prestigious casting, of course, but also because it is intended to be emblematic of the work of the newly appointed Stéphane Lissner, officially at the head of the Paris...
Published onthe 07 of December
Portrait: Claus Guth
Beginning 4 August, the Salzburg Festival will give a new production of Fidelio, the unique opera of Beethoven, with Adrianne Pieczonka and Jonas Kaufmann in the lead roles. A new production directed by Claus Guth, whom is praised for the accuracy and the theatrical dimension of its adaptations. While waiting to discover his interpretation of Fidelio in a few days, we analyze the work of this effective storytellers in opera. *** Claus Guth is proof that, despite the naysayers,...
Published onthe 02 of August