On the 21st of January 2023, the Basel Opera premiered a new production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” directed by the French stage director Vincent Huguet. The result was an abstract, new production with a strong cast and a great conductor, a successful result all around that was recognized by the audience. A Promising Star Vincent Huguet is one of the most {…}
(Photo: INO, Kip Carroll) “Least Like The Other” continues the Royal Opera House’s partnership with Irish National Opera in Covent Garden’s Linbury Theatre, following last year’s “Bajazet.” This new work is centuries away from Vivaldi’s pasticcio and a world apart stylistically, but what binds them both is the unerring pursuit of bracing theatrical intensity. “Least Like The Other, Searching for {…}
(Photo credit: Prudence Upton) The stories on which Puccini based his much-loved opera “La Bohème” (Henri Murger’s “Tales from Bohemian Life”) were set in Paris in the 1830s. Puccini and his librettists distilled from Murger’s diverse and diffuse vignettes of life amid the crowded echelons of poorer Parisian society a throughline of love and dying among four young struggling artist-friends {…}
On February 22nd, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo inaugurated a new era under the direction of Cecila Bartoli. To open her first season, Bartoli chose to present Handel’s 1735 opera seria “Alcina,” in which she stars in the title role. “Alcina” has become one of the most frequently staged works by Händel. This past year alone has seen productions at Covent {…}
(Photo: Zani-Casadio) The rehabilitation of Vivaldi’s operas continues apace. Over the past five or six years, the number of performances of his works has soared so that productions, which would have only recently been classed as welcome but rare events, are now becoming increasingly common. At least, that is the case in Italy and one or two other countries. It {…}
This review is for the performance of January 21, 2023 Unearthing the bodies of “Il Trovatore,” La Fura dels Baus and Àlex Ollé found the first great war. This is not a literary metaphor used by this pedantic critic, but what actually was presented in the stage. Large tombs are raised and lowered into rows of graves on the stage {…}
(Credit: Richard Termine) Japan Society, as part of Beth Morrison and Kristin Marting’s PROTOTYPE Festival 2023, presented the world premiere of Composer David Lang and Director Yoshi Oida’s newest opera, “note to a friend,” on January 12th, 14th and 15th. Based on the texts of Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa, in an invented way, this opera mirrored the complex subconsciousness of {…}
Photos: Carlos Castaneda One of the numerous illusions about United States history among Americans is that the country is the ultimate force for good in the world, “a shining city upon a hill,” as President Ronald Reagan declared. We believe in the fiction of rugged individualism, exceptionalism, the solitary figure on horseback with a six-shooter and a Remington, and our unassailable {…}
(Credit: Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera) John Dexter’s production of “Dialogues des Carmélites” remains one of the treasures of the Met stage. Especially during a time when directors are bringing rather bland new productions to timeless classics, here’s a staging that is both traditional in its concept and imagery, but simultaneously modern in its economy of execution. Black and white {…}