Heart Of ‘Parsifal’ Beats Clearly In Bayreuth Staging
By James L. Paulk
BAYREUTH – Uwe Eric Laufenberg’s new production of Wagner's Parsifal represents a startling turn from the recent festival practice of filling the stage with multiple complex references, and the result is psychologically satisfying.
Women Flourish With Baton At Lucerne Festival
By Rebecca Schmid
LUCERNE – In a showcase that challenged an orchestral culture weighed down by its own conservatism, the 2016 festival featured a special event in which Anu Tali and four other women conductors led personally selected fare.
Destined For Met, Eerie ‘Angel’ Bows At Salzburg Fest
By Rebecca Schmid
SALZBURG – Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel, inspired by Buñuel's surreal dinner party film, largely lived up to high expectations. Tom Cairns' gripping production heads next to London, New York and Copenhagen.
Bloody Whispers, Ripped From The Headlines Of 1590
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Salvatore Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici, inspired by Gesualdo’s crime, creates a realm where human emotion is stripped down to elemental vibrations. The Staatsoper staging is memorable for its committed performances.
Hungary Affords Worthy Option To Bayreuth’s ‘Ring’
By James L Paulk
BUDAPEST – The appeal of this semi-staged Ring to Wagner enthusiasts is a story of magic, pluck, and luck, but also one of artistic success at a high level. The star is Ádám Fischer, who rivals the greatest Wagnerian conductors.
‘Incantesimi’ Plays With Spells, But Magic Is Missing
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Julian Anderson’s Incantesimi, or magic spells, introduced by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, shows Mahlerian foreboding at moments but never quite casts its own spell, despite an obviously caring performance.
The Tragic Visage Of Lachenmann’s ‘Little Match Girl’
By Johanna Keller
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Spoleto Festival USA presented the American premiere of Helmut Lachenmann's stark, abstract opera, with John Kennedy conducting large forces in a complex score heightened by Dickensian shadow puppets.
Dreamy ‘Juliette’ Weaves A Spell In Berlin Debut
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN - The Staatsoper im Schiller Theater Berlin's first production of Bohuslav Martinů's surrealistic work should give opera houses around the world an incentive to invest resources in this 20th-century masterpiece.
Coming Events: Festival Bounty Awaits In France
DATE BOOK – Perplexities are seldom more pleasant than what these summer fests propose: Stay in Paris for the likes of Raphaël Pichon's Ensemble Pygmalion at Festival de Saint-Denis? Or head for splendor out of town?
Eclectic Fest By The Neckar, From Brahms To Jazz
By Rodney Punt
HEIDELBERG, Germany – The 20th Heidelberg Spring tended to its Romantic-era roots with Brahms and Schumann, but also reflected the city’s innovative present with pop and avant-garde events, and Thomas Quasthoff sang jazz.
Fresh From 1709, Steffani’s ‘Amor’ Bows As If Anew
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Agostino Steffani's international style was a model for Handel and Telemann. His renaissance seems belated, but it came at last with Amor vien dal destino at Staatsoper Berlin, the first time in more than 300 years.
Bavarian Radio SO Opens Tour With Korngold, Mahler
By Charles T. Downey
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Led by Mariss Jansons on a six-city North American tour, the Bavarians paired a specialty, Mahler's epic Fifth Symphony, with a touch of swashbuckling Hollywood glamour by way of Korngold's Violin Concerto.
Historical Context Sharpens Focus On Music From Japan
By Ken Smith
NEW YORK – Japanese music from the past 15 years, as curated by musicologist Yuji Numano, gave the impression of a new shared movement in the context of a continuum, almost a conversation among the composers themselves.
‘Tristan und Isolde’ As Stark Love In Repressive Times
By Rebecca Schmid
BADEN BADEN – Mariusz Treliński's darkly cynical take on Tristan und Isolde, which is headed for the Metropolitan Opera in September, plays out on a modern warship under the shrouded sun of imperial surveillance and melancholy.
Noh Plays Inspire New Magic From Saariaho, Sellars
By Johanna Keller
AMSTERDAM — Only the Sound Remains, Saariaho's iridescent new opera directed by Peter Sellars with abstract translucent designs of Julie Mehretu, heads via the Dutch National's Opera Forward Festival to the U.S. in June.
‘Orfeo ed Euridice’: Music Transcends A Deathly Concept
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – The Staatskapelle conducted by festival founder Daniel Barenboim was more compelling than the murky abstraction of director Jürgen Flimm and designer Frank Gehry at the Staatsoper's springtime Festtage.
Modernist ‘Parsifal’ Redefines Grail In Quest Across Time
By Susan Brodie
STOCKHOLM - Christof Loy’s moving, wonderfully sung production of Wagner’s Parsifal, starring Michael Weinius at the Royal Swedish Opera, is a deceptively traditional staging disguising a modern query into key themes.
After Too Many Lifetimes, A Life Hollowed Out
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Deutsche Oper’s busy, superficial staging of The Makropulos Case distracts from Janáček's restless score and detracts from the opera’s spiritual core, a tale of an artist who becomes a victim of society and of art itself.
Russian Tenement Lends New Twist To ‘Katja’s’ Anguish
By Susan Brodie
WIESBADEN, Germany – Matthew Wild's production of Janáček's Katja Kabanova places the action in today's Russia: Putin's face glares from a bus shelter by the concrete apartment block where Katja's life crumbles.
