This review is for the performance on Jan. 17, 2023. Having lived in Paris for a while, I can say I have more than once seen a stage director booed. Once, a conductor was vaguely disproved of by few operagoers. But until tonight, I have never seen a soprano booed so virulently as Parisians jeered Mary Elizabeth Williams’ Isolde. Why {…}
The Opéra National de Paris is set to showcase “Peter Grimes,” opening on January 26, 2023. The opera is directed by Deborah Warner, whose production premiered at the Teatro Real de Madrid in 2021. Conductor Alexander Soddy, who worked as the music director at the Nationaltheater Mannheim between 2016-22, will make his Paris Opera debut in the pit. Headlining the {…}
The Opéra National de Paris is set to present Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” starting on Jan. 21, 2023. The opera, which will run through Feb. 17, 2023 for nine performances, will be conducted by Carlo Rizzi. It will star Anna Pirozzi as Leonora with Yusif Eyvazov as Manrico. In the role of Il Conte di Luna, audiences will see Étienne Dupuis. {…}
The Opéra National de Paris is set to present a series of concerts featuring artists from the Académie au Palais Garnier. First up will be an aria and ensembles concert. That showcase will feature music by Rossini, Thomas, Poulenc, Britten, Gounod, Massenet, and Donizetti from such operas as “Guillaume Tell,” “Semiramide,” “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” “Hamlet,” “Dialogues des Carmélites,” “Gloriana,” {…}
(Credit: Charles Duprat / Opéra national de Paris) (This review is for performances on November 25 and 27) Netia Jones’ staging proves how much an ill-conceived mis-en-scene can affect the music, even when it is Mozart. In Portuguese, we say that Mozart’s music must be as a perfect and smooth as a rare pearl. There is even an adjective “perolado” {…}
This review is based on performances on Nov. 15 & 18, 2022. In every opera house, there is always an informal smoker’s meeting outside in the entr’acte. It is the best place to “feel the mood” of how an opera performance is being received. Hence, I am there solely for journalistic reasons, and nothing more. On this occasion, I went {…}
(Credit: Agathe-Poupeney) This review compiles performances attended on Oct 15, 18 and Nov. 5. When conductor Simone Young entered the stage to be applauded after her performance in Paris Opéra’s new production of “Salome,” some incipient voices started to boo her. The booers quickly realized their error; they actually wanted to hoot the staging team commanded by Lydia Steier. It {…}
(© photo : Eléna Bauer/OnP) Le Fonds Unisson has changed its name to Fonds Tutti and its founding members being Sandra Lagumina, Marie Lambert, and Philippe Do have announced its Programme Tremplin. The foundation will select eight singers to be part of the Programme Tremplin with the intent of supporting them in their career through private vocal lessons, public master {…}
French President Emmanuel Macron has bestowed conductor Gustavo Dudamel with the distinction of being an Officer in the French Order of Arts and Letters. He was issued with the honor following the performance of “Tosca” at the Opéra Bastille on Sept. 3, 2022. Dudamel was previously named Chevalier in the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2009 by former French {…}
© photo : Eléna Bauer/OnP The Académie de l’Opéra National de Paris has announced its 2022-23 season. For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal and operatic performances. Artists of the Académie and the Chorus of the Opéra de Dijon will present Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” under conductor Anass Ismat. Performance Date: Sept. 13, 2022 The {…}
(Credit: Vincent Pontet / ONP) The week Rafael Nadal lifted his trophy for an unprecedented 14th victory at the Roland Garros tennis tournament in Paris, the opera public attending Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” at the Opéra National de Paris at the Bastille saw tenor Simon O’Neill triumphantly raise a supersized Holy Grail chalice with a shape that had an uncanny resemblance {…}