(Photo: Kristaps Kains, Latvian National Opera) Latvia National Opera’s production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” was musically and visually excellent, but the director Claus Guth’s underlying concept was not, at least initially, easy to grasp, despite his clearly written program notes. His underlying idea is that it is Carlo’s energy, values and behavior set against a despotic society, in which faceless {…}
(Credit: Monika Ritterhaus) Jonas Kaufmann has been to New York over the past few years, mainly to do concert performances at Carnegie Hall. But the last time that the tenor was in New York to do a full-blown theatrical production was five years ago when he headlined a brief stint of performances of “La Fanciulla del West” at the Met {…}
It’s late September in New York and a major European director is staging a unique new work at a historic venue. And it stars Jonas Kaufmann, making his return to the Big Apple for the first time in two years. Described by director Claus Guth as a “highly emotional trip” in a recent interview with OperaWire, “Doppelgänger” is gracing the {…}
(Photo Credit: @Guergana Damianova – OnP) When Claus Guth’s spatial version of “La Bohème” opened in 2017, the Opéra Bastille shook with all the insults it received. Puccini’s opera is often understood as an artefact, and productions will flirt with disaster if they do not depict a snow-globe Paris, crystallized in everyone’s mind. Guth did not abandon a visually beautiful {…}
(Photo: Monika Rittershaus) To mark the 700th anniversary of Dante Aligheri’s death in September 1321, the Aix-en-Provence festival staged the world premier of French composer Pascal Dusapin’s opera “Il Viaggio, Dante,” based upon the poet’s iconic narrative poem “The Divine Comedy.” To say that this is an ambitious undertaking is an understatement, especially as the work has been compressed into {…}
Originally, the Teatro Real de Madrid was supposed to present a new production of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” co-produced with the Festival D’Aix-en-Provence. But instead, the company presented the Claus Guth production from Salzburg. The German stage director is no stranger to Madrid’s opera house, having helmed “Don Giovanni” last season with the company. He is famous (or infamous?) {…}
((c) ROH 2021) The Royal Opera House’s first new production of Leoš Janáček’s “Jenůfa” in over twenty years was one of the first casualties of the 2020 lockdown, shelved on the cusp of opening in March that year. A starry cast made it an especially hot ticket then, especially given the involvement of imaginative German director Claus Guth, and {…}
This review is for the performance on Dec. 8 and featured Maria Jose Moreno’s first performance in the role of Donna Anna. Claus Guth, the stage director, is famous for his scandalous and modern productions. He certainly did not disappoint with his approach to Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” which was presented at the Teatro Real 15 times throughout the holiday season. {…}
(Photo: Monika Rittershaus) Murderous political machinations and pandemic debauchery in the Kingdom of Lombardy in the 7th century were as rampant as any episode of “Game of Thrones” over a millennium later. A neophyte watching the latest series of the Westeros saga without any prior knowledge of its protagonists would find it similarly challenging to work out who is trying {…}
When a lyricist describes his composer’s head as “full of maggots”, the chances of a harmonious collaborative outcome would seem slim. For Charles Jennens, the aesthete aristocratic librettist of Handel’s oratorio “Saul,” such a jeremiad was not a solitary instance. The principal object of Jennens’ ire was Handel’s highly original orchestration, especially the invention of a tinkling bell-like keyboard called a “Carillon” {…}
On Dec. 12, 2017, Medici.tv will present Puccini’s “La Bohème” from the Paris Opera. The new production by Claus Guth, which takes place in space, stars Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Rising star Aida Garifullina stars as Musetta while Atalla Ayan is Rodolfo and Artur Ruciński is Marcello. When the production opened audiences booed it but critics were {…}