Opera

Fidelio in Amsterdam : Leonore against 'the huge comet of shadow"

https://youtu.be/azzgY5WB9qg Context of the composition There are a few basic points to bear in mind when discussing Fidelio, the first of which, already mentioned above, is…

Turandot in Vienna : Melting ice

Contexts In Naples, Vassily Barkhatov staged an impressive performance, with the set design and the development of the chorus filling the space, even though, to…

"Die Fledermaus" (The Bat) in Munich : Dionysus Follies

Listen with interest to the conversation between Vladimir Jurowski and Barrie Kosky, interviewed by Christopher Warmuth about this production (in English with English subtitles). https://youtu.be/C3zTwCLQEOs Video…

United by blood, divided by hate

In this case, McVicar succeeds in making an utterly far-fetched and bizarre plot attractive, which has sometimes justified productions in which the characters have…

“War and Peace” at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich : a punch in the face

Again war, again suffering, necessary to nobody, utterly uncalled for : again fraud, again the stupefaction and  brutalization of man. Lev Tolstoy, 1904   This quotation from Tolstoy…

"…or not to be"

https://youtu.be/ReOau8_zfRY William Shakespeare's play provided opera with sufficiently powerful literary and dramaturgical material to inspire the Romantic generation with powerful masterpieces, from Bellini to Gounod…

The chemistry of pain

For this production, the famous largest curtain in the world is replaced by a transparent canvas on which faces and perspectives in warm colours…

Rex Progress

Stravinsky long dithered around the opera genre, using reduced and composite forms in which musical theatre met oratorio – with the spoken and sung…