This week in London?

[False_Dmitry]

Hello!  I'm unexpectedly in London this week until 13th June.  Of course I can look for myself at the What's On listings, but do our London-based members have any special tips about opera productions (or related concerts & performances) they've seen recently, or plan to see?   I'm open to everything from largescale mainstream through to experimental and off-off-West-End stuff

[Mandryka]

Hello!  I'm unexpectedly in London this week until 13th June.  Of course I can look for myself at the What's On listings, but do our London-based members have any special tips about opera productions (or related concerts & performances) they've seen recently, or plan to see?   I'm open to everything from largescale mainstream through to experimental and off-off-West-End stuff

The Figaro at Covent Garden is a thoroughly enjoyable production. In fact the transition into the garden in the last act is really memorably good. I haven't seen it with the current bunch of singers though. Well worth catching.

I would say avoid ENO.

I'm going to see Paul Lewis:

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/classical/tickets/paul-lewis-piano-45484

Other than that you'll be very disappointed to know you missed an excellent concert this afternoon at the Wigmore Hall with Steven Osborne.

And be sure to explore the elephants which have sprung up all over London -- maybe bid for one at Sotherbys.

[False_Dmitry]

I would say avoid ENO.

Often a good idea   Although I feel a strange nostalgia for the old place   But in happier and better days...  Their productions of new opera (NIXON, LE GRAND MAC etc) have been good, but they can't seem to stage mainstream work adequately?  This silly idea of inviting non-opera-directors to do main works must surely end sometime?  I saw the Zandra Rhodes AIDA and left at half-time.  (I missed KATYA, which was apparently v good - but I can't justify flying around Europe just to see operas!  Anyhow, Berlin is a mere 35-euro no-frills flight fr Moscow, so if I fly to see opera, I tend to go to Berlin )

However, I've found a nice harpsichord recital tomorrow at Handel House, and some "straight" theatre to fill the rest of the week  

[sospiro]

Opera Holland Park if it doesn't rain.

http://www.ohp.rbkc.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36&Itemid=59

[Mandryka]

Opera Holland Park if it doesn't rain.

http://www.ohp.rbkc.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36&Itemid=59

It doesn't matter if it rains. Holland Park opera is under cover.

I have heard good things about Pelleas -- but not from anyone I trust.

While you're there be sure to walk round the Japanese garden

Often a good idea   Although I feel a strange nostalgia for the old place   But in happier and better days...  Their productions of new opera (NIXON, LE GRAND MAC etc) have been good, but they can't seem to stage mainstream work adequately?  . . .

I enjoyed Nixon, but I missed the Ligeti (I have seen it in concert though.)   I enjoyed Carmelites. I enjoyed Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream. I enjoyed King Priam. I enjoyed Billy Budd. And I quite enjoyed War and Peace. And donkey's years ago I quite enjoyed Doctor Faustus.

Yes you're right -- they are all non mainstream.

They often have poor singers who just can't project in such a large space.

I think the worst opera I have ever experienced in my entire life was there. Il Trovatore . . .

Did you know it when Goodall was there?  I only saw one of his last performances -- a Parsifal with Siegfried Jerusalem (I think it was Goodall)


BTW, you should maybe think of taking the train from Victoria and going to Glyndebourne -- I will be going to Hansel and Grettel. Canlt wait -- I've never seen it before!

http://www.glyndebourne.com/

[sospiro]

It doesn't matter if it rains. Holland Park opera is under cover.

Apologies.

I was just going by this http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2010/06/pell%C3%A9as-et-m%C3%A9lisande-opera-holland-park.html

[Mandryka]

Apologies.

I was just going by this http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2010/06/pell%C3%A9as-et-m%C3%A9lisande-opera-holland-park.html

Oh -- obviously not under cover enough!

[False_Dmitry]

Did you know it when Goodall was there?  I only saw one of his last performances -- a Parsifal with Siegfried Jerusalem (I think it was Goodall)

I used to work there, many moons ago   And in fact I was a young newbie in the very latter stages of Goodall's work there, by which time he was already living legend.  I only met him once... but that makes it sound like I actually even had a conversation with him.. which I didn't.    He was so frail at that time in his life that he couldn't physically carry the orchestral score of PARSIFAL around the building with him (even though the Music Library had obligingly sliced it and bound it into separate Acts for him), so I was given the job - for the day - of carrying Mr Goodall's score for him    He was the sternest of taskmasters,  but he worked to a standard thought unattainable by many - not all singers understood him or why he worked the way he did - but those who stood the course earned his sparing but deeply-valued praise.  Others buckled under the pressure, even despite wanting to fulfil the hope he placed in them.  I wonder if any opera-house anywhere (other than perhaps at Bayreuth itself) would now give a conductor a TWO-YEAR series of rehearsals for a new production?

Meanwhile, it looks like London's hottest opera ticket of all this summer will be THE DUCHESS OF MALFI.  Sadly I shall not be in London (I have a run of a show of my own anyhow, and one must never regret being "in work" in this business!).  I saw Punchdrunk's MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH in London 2-3 years ago - it was undoubtedly the most extraordinary undertaking of its kind I've ever seen.  They have a huge cult following, so I would imagine tickets for this new ENO collaboration will be very hard to come by...

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/28464/punchdrunks-malfi-crashes-eno-website?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheStageNews+%28News+Headlines%29