(Credit: Inés Bacher) A mysterious traveler climbed onto the stage, draped in a long garment. A burnished gold and bronze curtain rose slowly on her approach as she sought to enter it. Slowly, a second curtain began to rise. All was suspended, still. It seemed as if time began to peel away. We were elsewhere as well as right there. {…}
(Photo: Monika Rittershaus) Due to the pandemic, the new production of “Khovanshchina” planned for 2020 could only be realized this season at the Staatsoper unter den Linden. Now, Modest Mussorgsky’s monumental, melancholy music unfolds in all its splendour, not least thanks to the phenomenal performance of the chorus. “Khovanshchina” is an unfinished opera in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky, which {…}
One of the main events at this year’s Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam was a Sophocles-inspired double bill featuring Stravinsky’s 1927 work “Oedipus Rex” and the world premiere of Samy Moussa’s new composition “Antigone.” Although neither piece is defined as an opera as such, both sit comfortably at home within the repertoire. “Oedipus Rex” is described as an opera-oratorio and {…}