Director Remodels ‘House Of The Dead’ With Heavy Hand
By Rebecca Schmid
MUNICH – Director Frank Castorf peppers Janáček’s drama at the Bavarian State Opera with excerpts from Dostoevsky's works through video and added dialogue, with results that can be either enhancing or disruptive.
Updated Staging Of Baroque Satire Is Timely Theater
By Susan Brodie
PARIS – The Beggar’s Opera is given a contemporary spin in Robert Carsen’s hard-driving, athletically choreographed new production that features Les Arts Florissants and an energetic British cast that excels in song and dance.
Frosch As Android: ‘Regietheater’ Comes To ‘Die Fledermaus’
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Time travel and the social effects of technology are themes in Rolando Villazón’s new staging of the Johann Strauss operetta for Deutsche Oper. But the performances are often so hammed up that comic moments fall flat.
‘Falstaff’ Updated, With Sir John As Berlin Gang Boss
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Now back at home on the Boulevard Unter den Linden, the Staatsoper mounted Falstaff in a new Mario Martone production starring Michael Volle as Sir John, top dog in the city's graffiti-laden underground.
Neglected Opera By Korngold Turns Out To Be A Gem
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Even more than Die tote Stadt, Korngold's best-known opera, Das Wunder der Heliane reveals the composer's dramatic power at its height. In Deutsche Oper’s staging, Sara Jakubiak abandons herself to the title role.
Beauty Of Cilea’s ‘L’Arlesiana’ Shines In Concert Revival
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN - The performance at the Deutsche Oper, featuring tenor Joseph Calleja and young soprano Mariangela Sicilia, pointed up the music’s vivid character portraits in a work known mainly for the tenor's "Lamento di Federico."
Music From Japan: Uncompromising Avant-Garde Vibe
By John Fleming
NEW YORK – The two-day Festival 2018 presented ten contemporary works, including three world premieres, by six Japanese composers in Victor Borge Hall. The music was by turns playful, dreamlike, intense, and exhilarating.
Schreker Revival Takes Original To Still Darker Place
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – The sexually victimized women of Franz Schreker's 1918 opera Die Gezeichneten (The Stigmatized) become preyed-upon young boys in director Calixto Bieito's production created for the Komische Oper.
Handel’s ‘Jephtha’ Comes To Life In Dramatic Staging
By James L. Paulk
PARIS – With the chorus and orchestra of Les Arts Florissants under William Christie's direction and tenor Ian Bostridge in the title role, Claus Guth offered an imaginative staging of the oratorio at the Paris Opera.
Staging Captures ‘L’Enfance du Christ’ As Living Nativity
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester ushered in the holidays with a scenic arrangement of Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ that aimed to involve the choristers as witnesses and to exploit the full space of the Philharmonie.
Vibrant ‘Prophète’ Goes The Five-Act Distance (Almost)
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN - A new production of Meyerbeer's opera by French director Olivier Py makes a strong case for performing the work more often, even if certain musical and theatrical aspects fall short of the composer's demands.
Rattle, Berlin Aim To Tempt Appetite For Musical ‘Tapas’
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Unsuk Chin's 11-minute Chorós Chordón leaves the listener wanting more. Premiered by the Berlin Phil and slated for an Asia tour, it is one of the brief musical "tapas" commissioned by chief conductor Simon Rattle.
Sondheim’s ‘Follies’ Once More Shown In All Its Grandeur
By Matthew Gurewitsch
LONDON – You might say that in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, daytime drama aspires to the condition of Wagner's Götterdämmerung. Aspires to, and, in Dominic Cooke’s National Theatre revival, pretty well achieves it.
‘Wozzeck,’ Chamber Scaled, Still Packs Its Violent Punch
By Rebecca Schmid
VIENNA – In Robert Carsen's new staging of Berg's opera starring Florian Boesch and Lise Lindstrom at the Theater an der Wien, themes of war-induced alienation and decay took on added resonance given today's global instability.
Kaufmann Excels In Problematic Paris ‘Don Carlos’
By Susan Brodie
PARIS - Although director Krzysztof Warlikowski was booed, his staging of Verdi's five-act version included stellar performances by tenor Jonas Kaufmann, soprano Sonya Yoncheva, and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča.
Past As Prologue: ‘Tempest’ Revisited In Caustic Sequel
By Matthew Gurewitsch
PARIS – Katie Mitchell’s staging of Miranda at the Opéra-Comique is billed as a “semi-opera after Shakespeare and Purcell.” It features the return of Prospero’s daughter from exile and glorious Baroque instrumentation.
‘Flower Of Hawaii,’ In Revival, Shows Bloom Is Off Lei
By Matthew Gurewitsch
BASEL – The 1931 opera, composed by Paul Abraham to a cliche-steeped libretto by a committee of three, bollixes Hawaiian matters historical and geographical, but the grass skirts get some laughs in this new staging at Theater Basel.
Swirling Episodes Of Sound Probing New Sonics? ‘Yes’!
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Experimental dramaturgy reigned in a Musikfest concert that opened with a Rebecca Saunders world premiere inspired by Molly Bloom’s monologue in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Did Yes justify its 75-minute length? No.
Connections Made, Or Missed, Across Many Cultures
By Rebecca Schmid
LUCERNE – With a densely packed “special event day,” this city’s illustrious festival deserves praise for tackling classical music's role in an increasingly globalized society, even if artistic values were sometimes compromised.
