(Photo: Jann Wilken) Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie is not an opera house, yet it regularly presents high-calibre concert performances of opera and oratorio—projects that inevitably place artistic and operational pressure on the city’s Hamburg State Opera. This Bellini evening continued that pattern. With Ensemble Resonanz returning after their previous notable “Norma,” the hall again became a theatre of the imagination. In its {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciardi) After the initial success of its premiere in 1819 at Teatro La Scala, Rossini’s “Bianca e Falliero” managed to hold its place on Italian stages and beyond for over 10 years before disappearing completely. It was not until 1986 that its first revival in modern times took place, thanks to the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The {…}
(Photo: Half way through the first act of Teatro Comunale di Bologna’s production of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Bogia,” a chorus of booing and shouts of “Shame on you” rang out from sections of the audience, which was met by enthusiastic applause from other parts of the theatre. Following the interval, some members of the audience voted with their feet and did {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciadi) Rossini’s opera “Moïse et Pharaon” was premiered at the Paris Opera in 1827. Although it is based on his opera “Mosè in Egitto,” written for Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo in 1818, it is largely a new work with significant differences. The libretto, rewritten by Luigi Balocchi and Etienne de Jouy, altered the dramatic structure, for which {…}