Claus Guth created this production of Strauss/Hofmannsthal’s The Woman without Shadow (Die Frau ohne Schatten) 2013 for La Scala. After later shown at Covent Garden, London it is now being staged at the Berlin State Opera as part of the Easter Festival 2017, scenic rehearsal by Julia Burbach. Contrary to other concepts with directors elevating the over-mystified, ferry-tale like plot into full abstraction (Loy for Salzburg or Ponnelle for Cologne many years ago), Guth and...

It is David Bösch fifth direction at the Bavarian State Opera and this new creation shows the characteristics of his work and his stage designer Patrick Bannwart. The whole story takes place in a dark and miserable, nearly apocalyptical environment to be dedicated to the late 70s - costumes by Meentje Nielsen. The city of Nuremberg is preparing the prestigious open air event of Johannisnacht and the Meistersinger competition on the mainsquare. The star of the evening, Munich...

What a happy idea Stéphane Lissner had for his first season in reprising the last (and necessarily melancholy) production by Hugues Gall a little more than 10 years ago, when he left the Paris Opera:there is an implicit homage, and the sign of a desire for continuity in excellence.For the excellence is there, in the prodigious staging by Robert Carsen, perhaps one of his most successful:in this setting, which is an elegant mise en abyme of the Opéra Garnier, the...