Sommaire pour April 2022 de Opera Now

The human consequences of war are many, and the horrifying scenes that we see daily as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues is a reminder of the cruelty and fragility of life. At a time of such catastrophe, there are many things to think about other than opera, but since this magazine is a forum for matters operatic, this needs to be my focus here. The response of the opera world to the plight of Ukraine has been heartening. Major opera houses have organised fundraising events on behalf of Ukrainians, with prominent artists (including Russian singers and conductors) donating their services for free, and proceeds from box-office and online viewing all going towards helping victims of the war. It’s a difficult time for Russians in the opera world. Singers at…

Teatro di San Carlo, Naples MUSIC SEMI-STAGING This was simply one of most thrilling experiences in my long opera-going life – and I know of no superlatives that could adequately evoke its magic. In a single evening that I wished would never end, Sondra Radvanovsky performed the Finales from Donizetti’s three operas about three famous British Queens: Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux, the latter about Elizabeth I and her vengeful passion for Robert, Earl of Essex. Anna Bolena was premiered at the Teatro Carcano in Milan during the carnival season 1830-31 with Giuditta Pasta in the title role. Maria Stuarda was actually commissioned by the Teatro San Carlo in 1834 but did not receive its premiere there, owing to censorship by King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies…

English National Opera The Coliseum, London MUSIC STAGING Pretty soon now, actually staging an opera – any opera – is going to become impossible: there just won’t be time for it, once the director’s main job of dramatising the bingo-sheet of fashionable concerns is done. Are there enough women/people of colour/disadvantaged children/transgender activists on stage? Importantly, do they all have Agency? Have we made it clear how much we disapprove of Western civilisation and white humans (particularly ‘men’)? Got a big global warming scare in? OK – let’s have a quick decco what Puccini, Mozart, Janáček etc have to say… I suppose another way of looking at this is that all the clutter and Guardian style box-ticking is just a way of filling up the time if you have nothing much…

Northern Ireland Opera Lyric Theatre, Belfast MUSIC STAGING As a James Lapine-Stephen Sondheim collaboration, Into the Woods is all about the words. Words heightened by music reveal to us a cast of diverse characters, immersing us in their hopes and fears. Under the sensitive yet sure direction of its artistic director Cameron Menzies, Northern Ireland Opera delivered a captivating production of this late 20th-century musical gem. Wit abounds, as does pathos. Every aspect of this production serves the text, the music, and the story. Peter Mitchell directs an articulate and expressive chamber orchestra in a pleasingly coherent rendition of Sondheim’s score. Jennifer Rooney’s smart stage movement deftly blends the choreographic with the practical: the eye is always satisfied but never distracted. A smart response to this intelligent direction comes from…

Two of the most interesting new productions at the start of the year in Berlin were both operas from the 1920s. At the Deutsche Oper, Rued Langgaard’s enigmatic ‘Church Opera’ Antikrist was staged as part of its loose ongoing series showcasing works from that decade; and at the Staatsoper Unter Den Linden, Janáček’s penultimate masterpiece, The Makropulos Case, appeared as part of its leisurely Janáček cycle conducted by Simon Rattle. Both works were composed in the same decade, both last about 90 minutes and feature libretti fashioned by their respective composers. But that’s about where the similarities end, and while Janáček’s process of adapting Karel Čapek’s play was by all accounts straightforward, Laanggaard’s route to his own text was, as laid out by Deutsche Oper, somewhat complex. A first version…

Joyce DiDonato follows her hugely successful album and tour entitled In War and Peace with a new release, Eden; she is also performing a series of staged concerts worldwide based on the concept. With In War and Peace she posed the question, ‘In the midst of chaos, how do you find peace?’, and cleverly balanced a series of arias and songs, interweaving works of aggression with those of calm and repose. Eden is less complex in its structure, based around the query, ‘In this time of upheaval, what seed will you plant today?’ It is a direct response to the need to replenish not just the natural world but our sense of selves, of our inner wellbeing, following the unsettled times and restlessness of what DiDonato calls the ‘Great Pause’.…

Performance runs starting in March and April 2022. Schedules are subject to changes and cancellations due to Covid restrictions. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings with regular updates are available online at www.operabase.com UNITED KINGDOM CARDIFF WELSH NATIONAL OPERA www.wno.org.uk Jenůfa | Janáček ON TOUR UNTIL MAY Conductor Tomáš Hanus Stage director Katie Mitchell Designer Vicky Mortimer Lighting Designer Nigel Edwards CAST Jenůfa Elizabeth Llewellyn Kostelnička Buryjovka Helena Zubanovich Laca Peter Auty/Peter Berger Števa Adam Gilbert Madama Butterfly | Puccini ON TOUR UNTIL MAY Conductors Carlo Rizzi/James Southall Stage director Lindy Hume Lighting designer Elanor Higgins Set designer Isabella Bywater Choreographer Denni Sayers Video Ash J Woodward CAST Cio-Cio-San Joyce El-Khoury/Alexia Voulgaridou/Meeta Raval B.F. Pinkerton Leonardo Caimi/Peter Auty Suzuki Anna Harvey/Kezia Bienek Sharpless Mark Stone Don Giovanni | Mozart ON TOUR UNTIL-MAY Conductor Tobias…

Language matters I agree with Benjamin Poore in his well balanced article on surtitles (‘Surtitles – an art in themselves?’, Opera Now, January 2022), when he remarks that ‘Surtitles are a way of sharpening what can he hard to hear, whether in vernacular or translation’. Even operas in English sung by English-native speakers can be hard for other nativespeakers to hear because of the heavy enunciation. So, I would suggest that it would be of enormous benefit to one’s appreciation of an opera if surtitles could always display the language in which the text is being sung. One could immediately decode the singing in terms of the words actually being sung – rather than depend on the translation to recognise the words being sung in English. As many translations don’t…

Florida Grand Opera Ziff Opera House, Miami MUSIC STAGING André Previn’s operatic version of A Streetcar Named Desire, based on Tennessee Williams’ quintessential American play, inaugurated the Florida Grand Opera’s 80th season on its main stage in the Arsht Center in Miami. Back in its home venue after a two-year absence during the pandemic, the company is putting an emphasis on contemporary American operas, dealing with some of today’s most hotly debated issues: violence against women, mental illness, and sexuality identity. A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around the mental and moral collapse of a once-glamorous and wealthy Southern belle, Blanche DuBois, who is raped by her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. The neurotic, fragile Blanche lives in her own imaginary world with Southern genteel pretentiousness. She discovers her husband in bed with…

Regents Opera St John’s Church, Fulham MUSIC STAGING Director Rory Fazan’s imaginative, involving production of Verdi’s La forza del destino takes as D a starting point his idea that this is Verdi’s most Shakespearean work (though opera’s literary origins are actually Spanish with a touch of Schiller). Fazan talks about drama on the ‘broadest canvas’ and refers to the inclusion of both ‘high themes’ and ‘base comedy’ (this last reflected in the raw bawdiness of the surtitled translation). Religion and destiny are two major concerns of Forza, and one certainly feels the impact of both in this new production. This is one of Verdi’s strongest scores, and there is no higher praise for Regents (formerly Fulham) Opera’s account that one felt that musico dramatic strength full on. There four principal…

ROH/Irish National Opera Linbury Theatre, London MUSIC STAGING The re-emergence of Vivaldi’s operas is certainly to be celebrated – especially when presented in such a visceral production as this by Adele Thomas. Bajazet is the first Vivaldi opera to be staged at Covent Garden. Although premiered in Verona in 1735 with a plot that concentrates on the fallout after the defeat of the Ottoman Emperor Bajazet by the Turko-Mongol conqueror Tamerlano, the themes seem so relevant today. Molly O’Cathain’s set presented claustrophobic confinement within four walls, with Bajazet chained to a massive ceiling hook, abused and humiliated. Fight director Kev McCurdy certainly had plenty to choreograph. Tamerlano (also known as Timur) was infamous for decapitating the population of whole villages. Plus ça change, sadly. Thomas directed Handel’s Berenice with great…

Made for Opera Nadine Sierra DG 486 0942 Mozart X 3 Elsa Dreisig Erato 9029641225 Russian Roots Katharina Konradi/Trio Gaspard Chandos CHAN 20245 The Snow Queen Abrahamsen Bayerische Staatsoper BSOREC 1002 Fidelio Beethoven Opus Arte OA1334D Don Giovanni Mozart Opus Arte OABD7295D CDs and Digital I was enthusiastic about Nadine Sierra’s debut album, There’s a Place for Us, but less so about her new release Made for Opera. In 2018 I wrote: ‘She doesn’t sing a word that she doesn’t mean’; but four years later, I fear she sings quite a few. When she recorded this album Sierra had not sung Violetta onstage (since rectified) and I question the wisdom of starting with the Acts I and III arias from La traviata. They were beautifully vocalised, but not lived in.…

‘This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman’– Ambroise Thomas, about Cécile Chaminade I Firenze Helena Munktell Sterling CDO-1127 Helena Munktell (1852-1919) was a Swedish composer who was encouraged by her affluent family, being formally trained in music and becoming a pupil of D’Indy and Godard, and she followed the latter into composing a light opera. I Firenze (1889), set to a Swedish libretto, mixes romance with comedy: artist Stefano enters a competition set by a mysterious Duchess. The prize is for the best female portrait and he falls for his model, Gemma, and ends up in a duel for her against the archetypal baritone badboy, Bardi. Ultimately, Stefano wins the competition and proves his love for the girl, who turns out to be…

Favourite time of day? I love sunset and I remember when I was about 13, I felt beautiful in that light even as a kid. Favourite season? Autumn – because I’m an autumn baby born in April in Australia. In America you get that potential of an Indian summer. In Britain too, you have some of the remnants of warm summer with the leaves changing – and it’s not as cold as winter. Favourite colour? To wear, red. And I love the blue that’s the colour of [son] Bacchus’ eyes. I call it ‘Panama Blue’ because it looks like the sea in Panama. Favourite artist? Van Gogh – I like his moodiness and all the brushstrokes. Favourite building? My high school, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in California, which…

Khori Dastoor is a fast-rising phenomenon in the US opera world. Her training as a talented singer and her experience as a clear-sighted administrator are among a range of skills that have landed her a prominent role as boss of one of America’s leading opera companies, Houston Grand Opera. For an opera singer, career-building generally involves expanding their repertoire of roles. For Khori Dastoor, singing is merely one facet of an extraordinarily all-encompassing career as a soprano, scholar, funder, administrator, mentor, consultant, reformer … and inspiring leader. In January this year, Dastoor began her tenure as general director and CEO at Houston Grand Opera (HGO), becoming the first woman of colour to lead a top-tier US opera company. The combination of skills she brings to the position is likewise rare.…

What sort of specific training does the Lindemann Program offer? ‘Our programme provides access to various forms of singer and coach/pianist development including private lessons, coaching, language, diction, movement, dramatic work, financial advice, and industry-specific business information. We also try to engage the singers in contracts on stage, but they tend to be singing or covering small roles in operas that could be important to their future development. Sometimes we have artists who are ready to sing bigger roles while they are still part of the programme but that is not commonplace. At what stage do young artist programmes have most impact on a singer’s career? In running the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, I am looking for artists with potential for world-class impact. Also, since this is a…

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Scottish Opera Theatre Royal, Glasgow MUSIC STAGING There were hijinks galore in director Dominic Hill’s spellbinding take on Britten’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perhaps the most magical thing about this Scottish Opera production was that it made it to the stage at all, having been one of the early casualties of the first lockdown in March 2020. There was a sense of an excited return to normality among the audience who packed the Theatre Royal (despite masks still being a requirement in Scotland at the time). As artistic director of Glasgow’s Citizen’s Theatre, Hill is one of Scotland’s foremost directorial talents. His keen sense of drama and humour, combined with an acute insight into character, added a textural richness to this familiar tale. Take the children’s chorus:…

There are several Barbara Hannigans on stage at the Barbican. One looms large above the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), facing the audience via an enormous screen. The other stands on the podium, her gesticulations serving both to conduct and act as she simultaneously sings the role of Elle, the star of Poulenc’s one-act opera La voix humaine. While in the original version of Jean Cocteau’s 1928 monologue we have to guess the estranged lover’s responses, in Poulenc’s score – superbly realised by the LSO – we hear hints of frustration, remorse and annoyance. The telephone has its own leitmotiv, a trilling glockenspiel that accompanies each reconnection. Hannigan, as she explains in a filmed introduction (broadcast after the stirring performance of Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen and perfectly timed to acclimatise audience members…

Theater Magdeburg MUSIC STAGING In Lydia Steier’s production of Le nozze di Figaro in Hanover a gang of thugs bash up the count at the end of Mozart’s opera. This proves a perfect introduction to Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce, which had its German premiere in Magdeburg. Aficionados of Nozze di Figaro are bound to find great joy in this turbulent continuation. The renowned director Sir David Pountney, who has written the libretto for the British-Russian composer Elena Langer, turns to Beaumarchais’ L’autre Tartuffe ou La mère coupable (1790) and Ödön von Horváth’s Figaro lässt sich scheiden (1936). In this way the libretto builds a bridge from the 18th to the 20th century and the music leads into our present age. But both time and location are undefined in…

Feasting and Fasting in Opera: From Renaissance Banquets to the Callas Diet by Pierpaolo Polzonetti University of Chicago Press Musicologist Pierpaolo Polzonetti’s Feasting and Fasting in Opera addresses the unappetisingly selftitled research field of ‘gastromusicology’. Polzonetti notes that in opera, men and women bond over food and drink, from La traviata to La bohème. The death of Carmen in the last act of Bizet’s opera is preceded by an onstage chorus of orange vendors. And in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the street cries of a woman selling strawberries is equally haunting. Until the era of Richard Wagner, we are informed, eating and drinking by audiences during opera performances was ‘admissible and even encouraged’. Lavish baroque-era banquets traditionally accompanied the early phases of the art form. Yet with time, body consciousness…