General Opera News

[knight66]

They certainly don't go for the standard offerings. I imagine that after so many years they know what the audience will come to.

Mike

[False_Dmitry]

They certainly don't go for the standard offerings. I imagine that after so many years they know what the audience will come to.

There's a noticeable trend amongst smaller companies to programme this kind of repertoire, because it will attract audiences.  Increasingly audiences demand "famous name performers" in the more traditional repertoire, and will stay at home and watch Nathalie Dessay on DVD rather than go to see a live performance.  Having those kind of blockbuster casts beamed into cinemas worldwide is in fact killing the market for mainstream repertoire performed "live". 

It's great to see audiences turning-out for contemporary works by living composers - but I hope the pendulum doesn't swing so far that a generation will grow up who never saw CARMEN, TRAVIATA, BOHEME etc except on the tiny screen in a performance so highly edited that no live performance could ever achieve it

[knight66]

Indeed, there are certainly pieces there I would go to, but I would not like to think that was my sole range of live opera. I have no idea whether there is a ready supply of regular fare in their stamping ground.

I enjoyed the Met broadcasts when they were screened locally, but it was a very different experience from the real thing.

Mike

[listener]

I have no idea whether there is a ready supply of regular fare in their stamping ground.

Long  Beach is about a 1-hr drive from Los Angeles, so they might attract a lot of their audience from the"big city".

[listener]

CARAMOOR FESTIVAL presents "Norma" and "Maria de Rohan"
The complete lineup for the 65th Caramoor International Music Festival - held annually at the Center's distinguished 90-acre garden estate in Katonah, New York - has been announced.

The summer festival program, which will run from June 26 to August 8, offers enormous appeal to all audiences with a rich array of artists and repertoire from the worlds of classical, jazz, Latin, bluegrass and pop music.

Maintaining his deep commitment to presenting great opera at Caramoor, Director of Opera Will Crutchfield leads the festival's 14th annual Bel Canto at Caramoor series with Donizetti's Maria di Rohan on July 24 and two performances of Bellini's Norma on July 10 and July 16. Maestro Crutchfield conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke's in both operas, which will be semi-staged with supertitles in the Venetian Theater.
full article at http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8395.html

[jlaurson]

Nagano Leaves Munich
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/07/nagano-leaves-munich_08.html

[jlaurson]

Latest on Deutsche Welle

MUSIC | 09.07.2010
Conductor Nagano's decision to leave Munich stirs up culture scandal

Munich's cultural scene likes scandals. And it is being turned into a scandal that Music Director Kent Nagano announced this week that he will not renew his contract with the Bavarian State Opera beyond 2013...

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5779005,00.html

[knight66]

Local politicians!

Perhaps Nagano is not really suited to the opera house. From what I read, he seems most vitally engaged with modern and obscure pieces, the standards do not seem to draw the best from mim. Am I wrong?

Mike

[jlaurson]

Local politicians!

Perhaps Nagano is not really suited to the opera house. From what I read, he seems most vitally engaged with modern and obscure pieces, the standards do not seem to draw the best from mim. Am I wrong?

Mike

No, you're right-on, I'd say... and so would most observers I know. I'd modify "modern and obscure", because Ravel, Musorgsky, Prokofiev, Britten, and Poulenc are not necessarily either... but I know what you mean. Unsuk Chin. Messiaen. Busoni. et al.. He did great work in Lyon... but a repertoire house like Munich, with an audience with very set tastes, might ask for a little more than that.

[jlaurson]

No, you're right-on, I'd say... and so would most observers I know. I'd modify "modern and obscure", because Ravel, Musorgsky, Prokofiev, Britten, and Poulenc are not necessarily either... but I know what you mean. Unsuk Chin. Messiaen. Busoni. et al.. He did great work in Lyon... but a repertoire house like Munich, with an audience with very set tastes, might ask for a little more than that.

Just up on WETA

The Politics of Opera: Kent Nagano Leaves Munich
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2152

[Guido]

UK opera next season

ENO:Faust (opens 18 September) NEW
Director – Des McAnuff   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Toby Spence, Melody Moore, Iain Paterson, Benedict Nelson

The Makropoulos Case (opens 20 September)
Director – Christopher Alden   Conductor – Richard Armstrong
Cast includes Amanda Roocroft, Andrew Shore

Radamisto (opens 7 October) NEW
Director – David Alden   Conductor – Laurence Cummings
Cast includes Lawrence Zazzo, Christine Rice, Sophie Bevan, Ailish Tynan

La bohème (opens 18 October)
Director – Jonathan Miller   Conductor – Stephen Lord
Cast includes Gwyn Hughes Jones, Alfie Boe

Don Giovanni (opens 6 November) NEW
Director – Rufus Norris   Conductor – Kirill Karabits
Cast includes Iain Paterson, Katherine Broderick, Rebecca Evans, Brindley Sherratt, Robert Murray, Sarah Tynan

A Dog's Heart by Raskatov (opens 20 November) NEW, UK premiere
Director – Simon McBurney for Complicite   Conductor – Garry Walker
Cast TBC

Lucrezia Borgia (opens 31 January) NEW
Director – Mike Figgis   Conductor – Paul Daniel
Cast includes Claire Rutter, Michael Fabiano

Parsifal (opens 16 February)
Director – Nikolaus Lehnhoff   Conductor – Mark Wigglesworth
Cast includes Iain Paterson, John Tomlinson, Tom Fox, Stuart Skelton, Irene Theorin

The Mikado (opens 26 February)
Director – Jonathan Miller   Conductor – Peter Robinson
Cast includes Alfie Boe, Sophie Bevan, Richard Suart, Donald Maxwell

The Return of Ulysses (opens 24 March at Young Vic) NEW
Director - Benedict Andrews   Conductor – Jonathan Cohen
Cast includes Tom Randle, Pamela Helen Stephen

The Damnation of Faust (opens 6 May) NEW
Director – Terry Gilliam   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Christine Rice, Christopher Purves

A Midsummer Night's Dream (opens 19 May) NEW
Director – Christopher Alden   Conductor – Leo Hussain
Cast includes Iestyn Davies, Willard White, Sarah Tynan, Allan Clayton, Benedict Nelson, Kate Valentine

Simon Boccanegra (opens 8 June) NEW
Director – Dmitri Tcherniakov   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Bruno Caproni, Brindley Sherratt, Roland Wood

Nico Muhly new commission (opens 24 June) NEW World premiere
Director – Bartlett Sher   Conductor – TBC
Cast TBC

Covent Garden
REVIVAL / The Duenna Thomas Linley / Production: English Touring Opera

UK PREMIERE / In the Penal Colony Philip Glass / Production: Music Theatre Wales / September 2010

REVIVAL / Cosí fan tutte Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Director: Jonathan Miller / Conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock / With: Pavol Breslik, Stéphane Degout, Thomas Allen, Maria Bengtsson, Jurgita Adamonyte, Rebecca Evans / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 10th – 24th September 2010

REVIVAL / Don Pasquale Gaetano Donizetti / Director: Jonathan Miller / Conductor: Charles Mackerras / With: Barry Banks, Paolo Gavanelli, Iride Martínez / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 12th – 21st September 2010

UK PREMIERE / Niobe, regina di Tebe Agostino Steffani / Director: Lukas Hemleb / Conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock / With: Véronique Gens, Jacek Laszczkowski, Iestyn Davies / 23rd September – 3rd October 2010

NEW PRODUCTION / Les Pêcheurs de perles (concert performances) Georges Bizet / Conductor: Antonio Pappano / With: Nicole Cabell, John Osborn, Gerald Finley, Raymond Aceto / Production: Royal Opera / 4th – 7th October 2010

WORLD PREMIERE/ Promised End Alexander Goehr / Theatre: Linbury Studio Theatre / Production: English Touring Opera / 9th October 2010

REVIVAL / Rigoletto Giuseppe Verdi / Director: David McVicar / With: Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Paolo Gavanelli, Eglise Gutiérrez, Wookyung Kim / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 11th October – 6th November 2010

JPYA / L'isola disabitata Joseph Haydn / With: ROH Jette Parker Young Artists / 25th – 30th October 2010

REVIVAL / Roméo et Juliette Charles Gounod / Director: Nicolas Joël / Conductor: Daniel Oren / With: Piotr Beczala, Nino Machaidze, María Alejandres / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 26th October – 17th November 2010

Songs From a Hotel Bedroom Weill / Director: Kate Flatt / With: Frances Ruffelle / Theatre: Linbury Studio Theatre / November 2010

NEW PRODUCTION / Adriana Lecouvrer Francesco Cilea / Director: David McVicar / Conductor: Mark Elder / With: Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann, Olga Borodina, Michaela Schuster, Alessandro Corbelli / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 18th November – 7th December 2010

NEW PRODUCTION / Tannhäuser Richard Wagner / Director: Tim Albery / Conductor: Semyon Bychkov / With: Johan Botha, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Michaela Schuster, Christian Gerhaher / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 11th December 2010

REVIVAL / Hänsel und Gretel Engelbert Humperdinck / Director: Patrice Caurier & Moshe Leiser / With: Christine Rice, Ailish Tynan, Thomas Allen, Yvonne Howard, Jane Henschel / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 23rd December 2010 – 7th January 2011

REVIVAL / Il barbiere di Siviglia Gioachino Rossini / Director: Patrice Caurier & Moshe Leiser / Conductor: Rory Macdonald / With: Aleksandra Kurzak, Levente Molnár, John Osborn, Bruno Praticò / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 18th January 2011

REVIVAL / Die Zauberflöte Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Director: David McVicar / Conductor: Colin Davis / With: Joseph Kaiser, Kate Royal, Christopher Maltman, Franz-Josef Selig / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 1st February 2011

WORLD PREMIERE / Anna Nicole Mark-Anthony Turnage / Director: Richard Jones / Conductor: Antonio Pappano / With: Eva-Maria Westbroek / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 17th February – 4th March 2011

REVIVAL / Aida Giuseppe Verdi / Director: David McVicar / Conductor: Fabio Luisi / With: Micaela Carosi, Roberto Alagna, Olga Borodina / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 11th March 2011

NEW PRODUCTION / The Tsar's Bride Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov / Director: Paul Curran / Conductor: Mark Elder / With: Marina Poplavskaya, Ekaterina Gubanova, Dmytro Popov / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Producton: Royal Opera / April 2011

WORLD PREMIERE / Untitled Project James MacMillan / Director: Kate Mitchell / Theatre: Linbury Studio Theatre / Production: ROH2 / May 2011

REVIVAL / Werther Jules Massenet / Conductor: Antonio Pappano / With: Rolando Villazón, Sophie Koch / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 5th May 2011

REVIVAL / Macbeth Giuseppe Verdi / Director: Phyllida Lloyd / Conductor: Antonio Pappano / With: Simon Keenlyside, Martina Serafin / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 24th May 2011

REVIVAL / Fidelio Ludwig van Beethoven / Director: Jurgen Flimm / Conductor: Kirill Petrenko / With: Nina Stemme, Endrik Wottrich / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 29th May 2011

REVIVAL / Tosca Giacomo Puccini / Director: Jonathan Kent / Conductor: Antonio Pappano / With: Karita Mattila, Angela Gheorghiu, Marcello Giordano, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 7th June 2011

REVIVAL / Peter Grimes Benjamin Britten / Director: Willy Decker / Conductor: Andrew Davies / With: Ben Heppner, Amanda Roocroft, Jonathan Summers / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 21st June 2011

REVIVAL / Madama Butterfly Giacomo Puccini / Director: Patrice Caurier & Moshe Leiser / Conductor: Andris Nelsons / With: Patricia Racette, James Valenti, Anthony Michaels-Moore / Theatre: Main Auditorium / Production: Royal Opera / 25th June 2011

WORLD PREMIERE / Paradise Lost Project Luke Bedford / Director: John Fulljames / Production: The Opera Group / July 2011

NEW PRODUCTION / Cendrillon Jules Massenet / Director: Laurent Pelly / Conductor: Betrand de Billy / With: Alice Coote, Joyce DiDonato, Ewa Podlés, Eglise Gutiérrez / Production: Royal Opera / July 2011

Glyndbourne
Richard Wagner

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
A new production for the 2011 Festival
Conductor Vladimir Jurowski Director David McVicar


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Don Giovanni
A revival of the 2010 Festival production
Conductor Robin Ticciati Director Jonathan Kent


Gaetano Donizetti

L'elisir d'amore
A revival of the 2007 Glyndebourne on Tour production
Conductor Enrique Mazzola Director Annabel Arden


Georg Frideric Handel

Rinaldo
A new production for the 2011 Festival
Conductor Ottavio Dantone Director Robert Carsen


Antonín Dvorák

Rusalka
A revival of the 2009 Festival production
Conductor Andrew Davis Director Melly Still


Benjamin Britten

The Turn of the Screw
A revival of the 2006 Glyndebourne on Tour production
Conductor Jakub Hruša Director Jonathan Kent

[Guido]

I'm not completely desperate to see anything here, though Makrupolos, Rusalka, Simon Boccanegra and a few of the premieres appeal. Nothing by my beloved Strauss either.

Nico Muhly is an interesting young composer and completely charming in person - I'll be interested to see his opera. I have very much liked the music of Turnage that I have heard, but is it really in good taste to dramatise and make an entertainment a woman's tragic story, especially as she died only 3 years ago? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Is it usual for the ROH to have 8 world premieres? Seems extraordinary.

Also Glyndbourne - Gerald Finley is going to be Hans Sachs - can't quite see how that is going to work. I know Glyndbourne don't hire "stars" but surely if the project is going to cost this much anyway they can afford Tomlinson (and he only lives down the road!) I can't imagine he'll be doing the role all that much longer.

[False_Dmitry]

The Makropoulos Case (opens 20 September)
Director – Christopher Alden   Conductor – Richard Armstrong
Cast includes Amanda Roocroft, Andrew Shore

Roocroft as Emilia Marty - doesn't get better 

Radamisto (opens 7 October) NEW
Director – David Alden   Conductor – Laurence Cummings
Cast includes Lawrence Zazzo, Christine Rice, Sophie Bevan, Ailish Tynan

Fight for a ticket!  Alden directing Handel, with a top-end cast and Cummings at the harpsichord? Fab!

La bohème (opens 18 October)
Director – Jonathan Miller   Conductor – Stephen Lord
If the sets and costumes haven't been gifted to a museum by now!

A Dog's Heart by Raskatov (opens 20 November) NEW, UK premiere
Director – Simon McBurney for Complicite   Conductor – Garry Walker
Cast TBC

McBurney is the hand to trust in this repertoire!

The Return of Ulysses (opens 24 March at Young Vic) NEW
Director - Benedict Andrews   Conductor – Jonathan Cohen
Errr, is that Jonathan Cohen who used to be the pianist in "Playaway" with Brian Cant???

A Midsummer Night's Dream (opens 19 May) NEW
Director – Christopher Alden   Conductor – Leo Hussain
Cast includes Iestyn Davies, Willard White, Sarah Tynan, Allan Clayton, Benedict Nelson, Kate Valentine

This has all the ingredients of a super show - I would want to know who is designing, though?

Simon Boccanegra (opens 8 June) NEW
Director – Dmitri Tcherniakov   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Bruno Caproni, Brindley Sherratt, Roland Wood
Russia's worst opera director comes to London - why???  Look forward to all the empty mannerisms of post-modern opera, without an ounce of intelligence

[Guido]

This is where having someone "in the know" about directors and productions is great. I'll avoid the Simon Boccanegra then! Makropoulos sounds even more appetising now! It's his toughest opera I think - the music often so harsh like its heroin, but I love the idea.

[False_Dmitry]

It's his toughest opera I think - the music often so harsh like its heroin, but I love the idea.

I can see why you'd think so - it's been performed in that way rather too often, and I think it also depends how you view what happens in the final scene... terrible suffering, or blessed release?   I was lucky enough to hear Rozhdestvensky conduct it here in Moscow (Helikon Opera), and it was a revelation...  he found the lyricism and decadence that's latent in that score    The lead role in that production has lately been taken over by Svetlana Sozdateleva (who was singing Lady Macbeth/Verdi in some Glyndebourne Festival performances two years ago, and also did the whole Glyndebourne-On-Tour run).  She had an unfortunate time with Lady Mac, but she's been doing some vocal work with a new coach, and her Emilia Marty is an astounding achievement.  Rozhdestvensky has passed the production to his pupil & assistant, Alexei Osetrov - claiming that at his age he can no longer stand for so long without extreme discomfort    But Osetrov does a super job with his master's work    Roocroft - after her triumphs in the other Janacek roles at the Coli - is a natural for this role, and I would very much like to hear her.  I'm not a fan of the "oh my dear, you should have heard Tagliabue in 1923" school (!), but Roocroft will be well aware of whose shoes she must fill in that role at the Coliseum - Josephine Barstow's legendary performance, which I still remember    I often think that MAKROPOULOS is my favourite of the Janacek output... but then I think about the others, and I realise that they're all astounding, gripping works


Natasha Zagorinskaya (E.M.) & Svetlana Rossiyskaya (Krista) Helikon Opera Moscow, dir Bertman cond Rozhdestvensky


Sergey Yakovlev (Jaroslav Prus) & Natasha Zagorinskaya (E.M.) Helikon Opera Moscow, dir Bertman cond Rozhdestvensky

[Guido]

Oh yeah, of course, the final scene is key and a beautiful lyrical release, but that's just it, it comes as relief from the music in the rest of the opera, so much of the music dry and uninspired as it tries to make its way and create itself with its poor building blocks, so unfecund compared to say Vixen - this is surely deliberate and a direct reflection of Marty's character, and though in that sense its completely apt and ingeniously done, it doesn't make it easier to listen to. I think we're meant to squirm in our seats.

I've seen the Glyndbourne production.

[False_Dmitry]

so much of the music dry and uninspired as it tries to make its way and create itself with its poor building blocks,

I shall beg to disagree   The "backstage-at-the-opera" stuff (with the cleaner & the stagehand disappearing into the wings for an illicit liaison) and the impassioned memories of the half-dotty Count Hauk-Sendorf (who of course is right, is Elena Montez!  But everyone thinks he's barmy...) add a wistful charm to the whole thing. 

I agree with you about the delicious musical attractions of VIXEN, of course    Although on another thread just recently someone was saying they find the forest-creature setting makes it impossible for them to take the piece seriously    Personally I wish that LJ had found time to turn his attentions to another of the Capek brothers works in addition to MAKROPOULOS...  THE INSECT PLAY.   Now that would have made an astonishing opera indeed   And what a role for a leading tenor! 

[Guido]

I'm not saying its a bad opera by any means, just that as it is completely apt for Vixen to be fresh, vernal, seething, overflowing with life, Makropoulos (is there a "most correct" spelling?) is dry and barren and unlovely and uningratiating musically*... at least that's to my ears! I agree there are these tiny little moments in the score that offer respite - little beautiful patches of warmth, in actions, characterisations, but I'm describing my overal impression. I definitely want to see it again - its an amazing piece of theatre!

*all in the context of Janacek's music of course which is still miles more ingratiating than many other composers.

[Guido]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/susan-boyle/7734530/Dame-Kiri-Te-Kanawa-not-interested-in-Susan-Boyle.html

Did anyone see this article a few months back? I find her rage bizarre, and it's possibly a case of the lady protesting too much - she's sung more cross over Andrew Lloyd Webber, Karl Jenkins schlock than just about any serious opera singer out there...

[knight66]

Over the years the odd unpleasant story about te Kanawa emerges. There is one where she refused to sing with a specific young singer at the Met; probably blighting that career. I don't recall the detail, but I did wonder at the time why she was taking this onto herself. There is an element within her that seem to imply disrespect to herself if things are not quite as she thinks they ought to be.

I stopped listening to her live performances years ago and frankly, her crossover is often stylistically awkward. She claims it predates her move into serious music and is an authentic part of her; but she drags her operatic technique into music where it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Clearly she is going to hawk her bones around for as long as the paycheck turns up.

BBC Radio 2 is a middle of the road/easy listening station with the occasional mix of comedy and serious music. The fact of this being the medium for her competition indicates they are trying to catch the crossover audience. She is right about Bocelli and Jenkins; but ought to be wiser, and perhaps more generous, than to be so hostile.

I doubt if this competition will be full of Wolf, Mahler and Poulenc.

Mike