The Richard Strauss Tage, a kind of festival of the Semperoper Dresden, is dedicated to the Bavarian composer Richard Strauss, who has worked for several years at the renown opera house and especially colaborated with the Saxonian Staatskapelle. It was here, that his worldwide reputation as a composer has shown his first success. Several of his operas where first performed here, his major symphonic compositions took birth here. So this year within others saw the celebration of the...

The title is misleading as it is not mentioned to be a historical drama. The libretto of this opera is taken from surrealistic texts by Antonin Artaud dating from 1933, and are enriched by lyrics by Octavio Paz. It is actually a musical drama without a narrative, even it is linked to the historical fact of the conquest of America, but the composer's intention is more to accuse our civilisation, social organisation, capitalism, war and after all the central relation between man and...

The Bayerische Staatsoper’s new production of Lulu has one focus: the drama. Kirill Petrenko leads the Staatsorchester at a brisk pace that keeps the plot moving. Dmitri Tcherniakov’s stark staging keeps the action on the front of the stage. A cast of committed and talented singing actors make the opera’s bizarre series of events a gripping story. The stage is a maze of glass. Reflections multiply the characters in all directions, and people watch each...