Les Troyens gone blue in Karlsruhe: David Hermann offers the best production of this opera ever, and Heidi Melton rocks

I am enchanted. The musical treat of rare quality, and a magnificent production by David who I knew/felt was capable of delivering this big a show (he and Christof Hetzer.)

Who the hell is Heidi Melton? A jaw-dropping Didon in all departments: Didon of the century, no less.

Orchestra, chorus, maestro... Amazing!

Heidi Melton singing Adieu, fière cité...

Will blog when I return to Paris.

Carsen's Tannhäuser paints Elisabeth in Paris

Tannhäuser, Opéra Bastille in Paris, October 6th 2011

Robert Carsen, Sophie Koch, Mark Elder, Christopher Ventris, Nina Stemme

Sir Mark Elder ..... Conductor
Robert Carsen ..... Director

Nina Stemme ..... Elisabeth
Sophie Koch ..... Venus
Christopher Ventris ..... Tannhäuser
Stéphane Degout ..... Wolfram von Eschenbach
Christof Fischesser ..... Hermann Landgrave 

Stanislas De Barbeyrac ..... Walther von der Vogelweide
Tomasz Konieczny ..... Biterolf
Eric Huchet ..... Heinrich der Schreiber
Wojtek Smilek ..... Reinmar von Zweter

Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

To share

Despite its unbearable snootiness the Bayerische Staatsoper [BSO] in Munich remains one of those rare places in Europe where you can see the opera stars regularly singing in very good productions.  Fidelio, Mitridate and Rusalka, all premiered last season, are good illustrations of how good and artistically healthy that opera house is [Fidelio was visually ruined by a memorably bad filming --if you only saw the webcast-- but its content is becoming more resonant with what the current economical situation entails...]

Months ago I've ordered the tickets for the new BSO production of Les Contes de Hoffmann [directed by Richard Jones, with our dear-dear Diana Damrau making her debut in four roles, with Rolando Villazon hopefully back to his memorable Hoffmann-mode, and with the rock-solid John Rellyea.] Unfortunately in late August I received a mail from BSO informing me that all seats were sold out to subscribers (sic!) Tough luck and I decided to go to Basel instead and see Wozzeck (FANTASTIC! - will blog soon about that one too) and Rusalka.

Happily, the world's best TV  -- Arte, natürlich!-- is there to help. They will live broadcast  Les Contes de Hoffmann from Munich on Monday, November 21, starting from 20:30 cet. Good!

Another good news to share is that the Birmingham Ring, created in the 90's by Graham Vick, was presented last week at La Cité de la Musique in Paris and Arte Live Web provided the live webcast, that will be available for about 6 months for free viewing (all four videos also embedded below)

This is orchestrally a thinned version, that Jonathan Dove adroitly and cleverly scaled down to about 20-30 instruments. The story is slightly alternated, cut at several places as to make the whole cycle manageable by the small sized theaters without ruining anything to the flow of dramatic action in all four operas. The cycle is called the Ring Saga. It is different, and you might actually like it!
Peter Rundel is a briliant conductor and the ensemble of singers is definitely interesting.


Yes, there is also Cherubini's Médée from Brussels also available for free viewing (La Monnaie rocks!), but I think I should write a few helpful lines to help you better "read" through this MAGNIFICENT production by Warlikowski.

Mahagonny in Antwerp: Whata show!

Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Flanders Opera in Antwerp (Vlaamse Opera), October 9th 2011

Director ..... Calixto Bieito
Conductor ..... Yannis Pouspourikas
Sets ..... Rebecca Ringst


Jim Mahoney ..... John Daszak
Leocadia Begbick ..... Leandra Overmann
Fatty der Prokurist ..... Erin Caves
Dreieinigkeitsmoses ..... Claudio Otelli
Jenny Hill ..... Noëmi Nadelmann
Jack O'Brien/Tobby Higgins .... Gijs Van der Linden
Sparbüchsen Billy ..... William Berger
Alaska Wolf Joe ..... Jaco Huijpen
Acteur ..... Guntbert Warns

Symphonic Orchestra of the Flanders Opera
Flanders Opera Chorus

 

Hello from Antwerp

I said I might, and in the end I did come to Antwerp to see the new Calixto Bieito production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. 

Flanders Opera in Antwerp

After the fantastic premiere of the Robert Carsen production of Tannhäuser  in Paris last Thursday, last night I saw a true gem production --and a rarity these days--  War and Peace at Köln Oper.

After atrocious Salomé and Faust in Paris, this week feels like cortisone to my love for opera. So, it's all good.

Will blog about all three shows later tonight when I come back to Paris.

Now I should go to see what the Flanders Opera looks like from the inside.
Greetings from the rainy city of diamonds.

Love La Monnaie

Been extremely busy! Will blog Friday night... Many things to blog about but the most important is that my dear and beloved La Monnaie/De Munt and the amazing Peter de Caluwe won the title of the BEST OPERA HOUSE IN 2010-2011. Together with the Komische Oper Berlin and Theater Basel this is definitely the most exciting and artistically invigorating opera house in the world and I am more than happy that Opernwelt acknowledged it.  Congrats and thank you to all the great and competent stuff of La Monnaie.

This is the kind of prize that falls regularly in right hands. I didn't blog about Les Huguenots (the best production of 2010-2011) but I will soon (next weekend). Die Passagierin also received a prize (very deserved as well -- too bad the London crowd prefered Puccini and Gounod to the fascinating life story and highly non-trivial Shostakovich-kind music by Moisey Weinberg). SUPERB Wozzeck by Andrea Breth in Berlin, and wonderful Rusalka by Kusej in Munich got their honorable mention too...

So all good stuff got honored by this prestigeous selection committee.  And yes, congrats to our beloved tiny Urbain from Les Huguenots -- Julia Lezhneva -- the best young singer of 2010-2011!

Habemus Nanni Moretti

OK questo qua lo provero fare in italiano.

Sono riuscito finalmente liberarmi per andare vedere l'ultimo film di Nanni Moretti -- Habemus Papam. Come al solito Nanni trova un modo per raccontarci una storia semplice ma comunque strana --à la Marthaler-- la storia di un uomo che si trovi in una situazione impossibile: che nonostante i suoi sogni realizzati non riesce a godere il suo momento supremo a causa di una depressione psicologica che sembra essere più forte di lui.

Sunday Rant -- S#!t happens... and more

This morning I was supposed to take the fast train and go to Ghent to see the new Calixto Bieito gem,  Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Flanders Opera.

From the new Calixto Bieito show at the Flanders Opera: Rise and Fall of the city of Mahagonny

Picnicking with your computer: Turn the Screw to Glyndebourne today

Today --Sunday, August 21-- at 19:00 (cet) you can watch the live broadcast of The Turn of the Screw from Glyndebourne. This is a magnificent opera and this particular production (premiered in 2006) might actually be very good.

Jonathan Kent recently offered us a brilliant production of The Fairy Queen and although his Don Giovanni presented at Glyndebourne last year was not so good, we can be optimistic and hope for a thrilling show tonight. Will be interesting how he will cope with the ambiguity of the main character: is she insane or actually possessed by the ghosts?!

The cast is promising with always superb Toby Spence and with Miah Persson opening a non-Mozartian chapter of her career.

You can watch the web-stream either on the Glyndebourne Festival website, or on The Guardian website.  See also an introduction to this opera very well organized by The Guardian staff (and a Trailer below)
Enjoy!

It is maybe a moment to remind you of the extraordinary production of this opera presented at Aix several years ago (DVD available), directed by Luc Bondy, conducted by Daniel Harding, and with equally extraordinary Mireille Delunsch in the role of the Governess.

Lohengrin from Bayreuth now

See here

Klaus Florian Vogt

Melancholia

And so I FINALLY saw a great movie: Melancholia by Lars von Trier.  It opened in Paris this week and a friend was so excessively excited about the existential issues tackled by this movie that I couldn't ignore it.  These days it is extremely rare that art gets close to the big screens, but when it happens it feels really great.

I liked the rawness of von Trier's Antichrist (I loved The Idiots the most!),  but Melancholia is so much broader: it is existential, it is psychological, it is socio-cultural, it touches the malaise of our society without sniffing to psychoanalysis, and it constantly sparkles with philosophy.

I believe Lars wanted it to be operatic in form: the opening is like an operatic overture with a magnificent imagery, while the proper film is split into two parts (two acts) - Justine and Claire.  It unfolds in so many non-trivial directions without ever becoming pretentious: the story-line, the dialogues, the unspoken messages, the collision of all sorts of characters, our inability to deal with at least one aspect of our life... everything is in there. Human depression is in the center of it all but it is in no way trivial.

One more time on The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic

Before The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic is given at Teatro Real (one of the artistically most exciting Opera houses in Europe right now), and at Theater Basel (widely considered the artistically best Opera House in Europe) --in April and June 2012 respectively-- thanks to  adorablelight we can see a few video excerpts posted on YT [also appended below]

There is also a good trailer on the MIF (Manchester Intl Festival) website.

Live Concert from Salzburg for free

René Fleming will sing several songs by Richard Strauss and a scene from Arabella. She will be accompanied by the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Christian Thielemann, who will then in the second part perform An Alpine Symphony.

The concert will be live broadcast on Medici.tv starting from 9 p.m. (CET), this coming Monday, August 8th. Here is your link.

From the famous Confiserie Fürst in Salzburg [where you can also find the "real" Mozartkugeln -- the blue ones!]

The program of songs includes Befreit, Winterliebe, Traum durch die Dämmerung, and Gesang der Apollopriesterin.

Konwitschny's Tannhäuser in Dresden

Tannhäuser, Semperoper Dresden, April 22 2011

Musical Director ..... Peter Schneider
Staging ..... Peter Konwitschny


Landgraf Hermann von Thüringen ..... Michael Eder
Tannhäuser ..... Stephen Gould
Wolfram von Eschenbach ..... Christoph Pohl
Walther von der Vogelweide ..... Tom Martinsen
Biterolf ...... Tilmann Rönnebeck
Heinrich der Schreiber ..... Aaron Pegram
Reimar von Zweter ..... Tomislav Lucic
Elisabeth ..... Marjorie Owens
Venus ..... Tichina Vaughn
Ein junger Hirt ..... Christiane Hossfeld
Erste Edelfrau ..... Beate Siebert
Zweite Edelfrau ..... Ute Siegmund
Dritte Edelfrau ..... Barbara Leo
Vierte Edelfrau ..... Claudia Mößner

Staatsopernchor
Sinfoniechor Dresden e.V.
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Do not forget to see Lohengrin live from Bayreuth

I unfortunately did not see the Hans Neuenfels production of Lohengrin when I was in Bayreuth last year, and so I will be more than happy to watch it live from Bayreuth on Sunday, August 14, starting from 16:00 (cet).

Komische Oper 'Festival 2011: Dialogues des carmélites

Dialogues des carmélites [Gespräche der Karmelitinnen],  Komische Oper in Berlin,  July 16 2011

 Calixto Bieito ..... director

    Stefan Blunier ..... conductor

    Claudio Otelli ..... Le marquis de La Force

    Maureen McKay ..... Blanche de La Force

    Joska Lehtinen ..... Le chevalier de la Force

    Christiane Oertel ..... Madame de Croissy

    Erika Roos ..... Madame Lidoine

    Irmgard Vilsmaier ..... Mère Marie de l'Incarnatio

    Ingrid Froseth ..... Sœur Constance de Saint-Denis

    Caren van Oijen ..... Mère Jeanne de l'Enfant-Jésus

    Maren  Schäfer ..... Sœur Mathilde

    Peter Renz ..... Le père confesseur du couvent

    Thomas Ebenstein ..... Le premier commissaire

    Hans-Peter Scheidegger ..... Le second commissaire

Festival in Aix-en-Provence 2012

Bernard Foccroulle implicitly responds to Pereira's disappointing operatic program of the Salzburger Festspiele 2012, by announcing the content of the Festival in Aix-en-Provence 2012.
Super Andreas Homoki will be directing one of 4+1 new productions, Katie Mitchell has a thing for modern and contemporary opera -- and she will keep doing this in Aix, and Richard Brunel's great talent will be tested on Le Nozze.
London Symphony Orchestra and Les Arts Florissants will of course be there too.

• Le Nozze di Figaro,  dir- Richard Brunel, cnd- Jérémie Rhorer 
• David et Jonathas [opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier], dir- Andreas Homoki, cnd-  William Christie 
• Written on Skin [new opera by George Benjamin, text by Martin Crimp], dir- Katie Mitchell, cnd- George Benjamin 
• La Finta Giardiniera, dir- Vincent Boussard, cnd- Andreas Spering 
• L'Enfant et les sortilèges, dir- Arnaud Meunier, cnd- Didier Puntos (young singers performing)

Aix does it better, indeed!

Alek Shrader in Salzburg

I am not going to Salzburg this year for at least three reasons and my only regret is that I won't see one of my dearest operas, The Makropulos Affair, with our favorite Angela Denoke who --together with Johan Reuter and Aleš Briscein-- will certainly make this new Christoph Marthaler production extra special. To that add Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting and you get more than a trip worthy material!

My problem is that this is about the only thing I am truly interested in in Salzburg this summer. Macbeth by Peter Stein, and with his bitterness Maestro Muti in the pit, is not exactly what would make me run to the Felsenreitschule even if I were in Salzburg right now.
As for Die Frau ohne Schatten (FroSch) it is an opera I like very much music-wise but again that alone would not make me make a trip to Salzburg in spite of its smashing cast [sadly the runs of FroSch and Makrop do not overlap, since they are both given at the big Festspielhaus]. Another thing about FroSch is that its premiere was live broadcast on German and Austrian TVs and since the video will be around soon...

Alek Shrader in Salzburg

Finally a revival of the Claus Guth production of Da Ponte Trilogy is of course a nice treat, but since I already saw all three operas both at the Haus für Mozart in Salzburg and on DVD, I guess it's fine to let my place to other folks to discover and enjoy the wonderful festival atmosphere in Salzburg (when the weather is good, that is).

Long Tosca post (Munich, Zurich, DVD, Verbier...)

As you already know Puccini is not my cup of tea. When interestingly staged I can stomach the lacrimosa passages and tons of pathos from time to time.
I was recently offered by a dear friend a copy of DVD Tosca, directed by Robert Carsen and presented a couple of years ago in Zurich, with Kaufmann, Magee and Hampson in the main roles. I promised I would see it, which I eventually did during my trip to Munich. In short - it's a good DVD!

Jingo, Corny, and Cool

From Verbier 2011:

Tout en douceur... Gabriel Fauré

Do NOT tell me you didn't listen to the St. Matthew Passion I told you about a couple of weeks ago (as an alternative to the abysmal production of Aida)! Whether you're religious or not, a refined beauty of this music cannot leave you unmoved. Berlioz said: "Bach, c’est Bach, comme Dieu c’est Dieu."

I am normally not crazy about sacred music but recently, for whatever the reason, I found myself very often listening to Fauré's Requiem. I guess I got soothed in by the first track on my CD, which is Pavane, and then the Requiem unfolds pleasantly. So here is Pavane to make your day nice and easy:



and then two excerpts from the performance at La Salle Pleyel, earlier this year, by Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi (Matthias Goerne is singing)

Wagner in the Swiss Alps

A potentially great concert in Verbier will be live broadcast on medici.tv today, Saturday July 30, starting from 7 p.m. (cet). In the first part Valery Gergiev will conduct the Verbier Festival Orchestra in a performance of Métabole pour orchestre by Henri Dutilleux. They will be then joined by the phenomenal Denis Matsuev to play Burlesque for piano and orchestra by Richard Strauss. In the second part we may enjoy the first act of Die Walküre with the real Dutch deal singing the roles of Sieglinde and Siegmund [Eva-Maria Westbroek and Frank van Aken] together with Matti Salminen as Hunding.

Here is your link.

Medici.tv make a fantastic job by providing many live broadcast concerts and make them available for free viewing to the audience worldwide. If you can afford to subscribe for a month or more to see concerts/operas/documentaries of your choice from their rich archive, please do! It would help them to keep doing what they do. 

OK, not to make this entry too dry, here is a good quote by R.Wagner

Three different types of people take interest in me, if I am correct: those who know my music (and they are rare), those who do not know it but love it and those who hate without knowing it.

Munich Opera Festival 2011: Gloriously sung Rosenkavalier with the smell of Mothballs

Der Rosenkavalier, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, July 23 2011

Bayerische Staatsoper House with its pillars dressed in festive stockings

Conductor ..... Constantin Trinks

Director ..... Otto Schenk

Die Feldmarschallin ..... Anja Harteros

Der Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau ..... Peter Rose

Octavian ..... Sophie Koch

Herr von Faninal ..... Martin Gantner

Sophie ..... Lucy Crowe

Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin ..... Ingrid Kaiserfeld

Valzacchi ..... Ulrich Reß

Annina ..... Heike Grötzinger

Ein Polizeikommissar ..... Christoph Stephinger

Der Haushofmeister bei der Feldmarschallin ..... Kenneth Roberson

Der Haushofmeister bei Faninal / Ein Wirt ..... Francesco Petrozzi

Ein Notar ..... Christian Rieger

Ein Sänger ..... Piotr Beczala

Drei adelige Waise ..... Evgeniya Sotnikova, Martha Hirschmann, Angela Brower

Eine Modistin ..... Hanna-Elisabeth Müller

Ein Tierhändler ..... Dean Power

The Bavarian State Orchestra

The Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera 

Bregenz Festival 2011: Lucky Miss Fortune

Miss Fortune/Achterbahn, Bregenz Festspielhaus July 24 2011

Judith Weir and Paul Daniel

Chen Shi-Zheng ..... director
Paul Daniel ..... conductor


Tina ..... Emma Bell
Fate ..... Andrew Watts
Hassan ..... Noah Stewart
Donna ..... Anne-Marie Owens
Simon ..... Jacques Imbrailo
 Lord Fortune ..... Alan Ewing
  Lady Fortune ..... Kathryn Harries

Prague Philharmonic Chorus 
Wiener Symphoniker

Way to go Sebastian Baumgarten!

Unfortunately I couldn't have a ticket for the new Tannhäuser in Bayreuth but I am so glad to read that Baumgarten made it different and truly special.

The army of traditionalists --who else, beside the lazy critics, could get a ticket for the premiere in Bayreuth?!-- was heavily disturbed not to see recounted the story they already knew.
His staging was obviously innovative in form and in content -- a part of public was placed on the stage and even participated in certain sequences of the show [c.f. this link].

Proof that his experiment worked well are the reactions of the critics who we expected to be incapable  to distinguish art from pedantry. Blessed be Sebastian Baumgarten!

Below you may see a video with several excerpts from the show (©nordbayerischer-kurier)

Operalia 2011: Congrats to Pretty and René!

Pretty Yende, a young South-African soprano --who amazed the Parisian crowd last December by winning the International Bel-Canto Competition Vincenzo Bellini-- is now conquering the world. Last night she's won the Operalia 2011. She actually shared the prize with an excellent American tenor, René Barbera (American tenors are like Swedish sopranos!)

You can watch the whole final night --which took place last night at the Stanislavski Theater in Moscow-- on medici.tv (c.f. this link)

Meet your new stars [videos attached below]

Bayreuth Festival 2011: Tannhäuser (photo album)

A quick post to tell you that the live radio broadcast of the new Bayreuth production of Tannhäuser is underway. Listen here

A photo album of this new Tannhäuser, directed by Sebastian Baumgarten, is attached below.

All photos are © www.br-online.de

Komische Oper 'Festival 2011: Mighty Meistersinger

Since I was in town and since I loved this production first time I saw it  [and since I couldn't get a ticket for  Matsukaze], I decided to see Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Komische Oper Berlin. Repetitio est mater studiorum ;)

Komische Oper 'Festival 2011: Idomeneo for the future

Idomeneo, Komische Oper in Berlin, July 15 2011

    Benedikt von Peter ..... director
    Patrick Lange ..... conductor

    Rainer Trost ..... Idomeneo
    Karolina Gumos ..... Idamante
    Erika Roos ..... Elektra
    Brigitte Geller ..... Ilia

    Anton Hiller ..... Das Kind

Japanese Mix: Acis and Galatea from Aix (webcast)

When you travel for some time open-minded in Japan, you realize the true meaning of cultural differences. It is a whole different level of communication, and the subtle surprises are endless. It is not then surprising to see more and more Japanese directors producing baroque operas, and the Japanese composers doing contemporary operas that are embraced by the Western public.

When planning my trip to Berlin, Matsukaze by Toshio Hosokawa was on my must-see list. Since it is a contemporary opera I thought I could buy the ticket in Berlin. Well, no! Today is the last show and it has been sold out [on the second thought it is not all that surprising since Pablo Heras-Casado is conducting, Sasha Waltz is directing the show, with the phenomenal Barbara Hannigan singing --> see trailer here and here]
After its success this year at La Monnaie in Brussels and at Narodowa in Warsaw this production is finally on at the Staatsoper (DSO-UdL) and the Berlin cultural crème is ecstatic about it.
 

Acis and Galatea in Aix-en-Provence [production pic by Patrick Berger]

As for the Japanese directors bringing something special to the baroque repertoire, I believe it is their meticulous sense for details that resonates with the finesse of the baroque music.
Tonight [July 17 at 21:30 (cet)] you can see the webcast of a new production of Handel's Acis and Galatea live from the Festival in Aix-en-Provence, via Arte Live Web. Directed by a famous choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon will conduct, and the cast includes Joelle Harvey, Pascal Charbonneau, Grigory Soloviov, Rupert Charlesworth, Zachary Wilder.
Video link is embedded below

Komische Oper 'Festival 2011

Contrary to yesterday --when I considered buying a ski-jacket!-- today Berlin is bathing in summer, so this blog entry will be relatively short.

It's the Festival time at the Komische, the season's finale when they present all the new productions unveiled in 2010-2011. On the stairs --after entering the theater-- several young girls and boys carrying platters with glasses of white wine or water offer you your welcome drink. You climb up a flight of stairs to the house's atrium, and there is a cool string quartet performing the chamber music by Mozart, thus preparing you to smoothly immerse in a peculiar world of Mozart's Idomeneo, prepared by my favorite director of this generation, Benedikt von Peter (BvP).

Two likely good shows live for free: Arte Live Web love you too

TWO opera shows will be live broadcast simultaneously on Arte Live Web this Saturday, July 16 2011 starting from 21:30 (cet)

1. La Traviata from the Festival in Aix-en-Provence, with Natalie Dessay, Charles Castronovo and Ludovic Tézier (among others). This new production is directed by a talented French theater director Jean-François Sivadier --someone capable of bringing a deeper content of the piece, with a peculiar style-- and with Louis Langrée conducting the London Symphonic Orchestra.
2. Cosí fan tutte live from Opéra National de Lyon (one of the artistically exciting opera houses in France) will be streamed for public viewing on big screens in several towns around Lyon and in front of the city hall in Lyon. This year they decided to share that pleasure with all of us giving one stream pipe to Arte Live Web too. Directed by Adrian Noble, and with Stefano Montanari conducting (very good in Mozart rep!), this should be a good show also thanks to a very good cast: Maria Bengtsson, Tove Dahlberg, Daniel Behle, Vito Priante, Elena Galitskaya, Lionel Lhote

Both video links are embedded below.
There is no geographical restriction, i.e. both webcasts will be freely accessible to everyone.

Also note that after the live broadcast, both videos will remain available for free viewing 105 and 185 days respectively.  

Thanks Aix, Thanks ONL, and Thanks Arte!

Vlaamse Samson et Dalila again: Ce DVD est vraiment fantastique!

Unfortunately I couldn't come to Berlin yesterday to catch on the acclaimed production of Rusalka by Barrie Kosky at the Komische Oper, where the annual Komische-Oper Festival is underway. Hopefully I'll get to see that Rusalka sometimes in 2011-2012. I'm still happy to be here and be able to see the remaining three operas of the festival (if only it wasn't this cold!)

I'm still (and even more) hooked up on Samson et Dalila that I blogged about the other day. It completely changed the way I used to see (and listen to) this opera. Now I'm discovering bits and pieces that I didn't even notice before. This opera is in fact beautiful, and this production is GREAT!

This is a scene in which the High Priest comes to visit Delilah before Samson appears, to convince her to work together and trap Samson. To his surprise Delilah was even more hungry for revenge than him, and their instant complicity transforms into sexually charged moment...
In this production there is no ambiguity about Delilah's feelings for Samson: she's not in love with him at all.

Seriously, this is a must have DVD! 

Bayreuther Tannhäuser approaching fast: Who is Sebastian Baumgarten?

The other day I discussed the revival of Les Brigands at the Opéra Comique in Paris, and I realized that a German version of this work [well, "inspired by this work", would be more accurate a statement ;)] was produced last year at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich by Sebastian Baumgarten -- yes, the same guy who is in charge of this year's opening show of the 100th Bayreuther Festspiele, Tannhäuser, to be premiered on July 25.

Baumgarten (photo Nordbayerischer Kurier)

Alternative to tonight's Aida from Orange

I recently suggested you to see a brilliant concert of Britten's Requiem [for 5 more months you can see it for free!] That concert was a part of the Festival de Saint Denis that ended a week ago by a truly wonderful performance of the Bach's St Matthew Passion, with John Nelson conducting Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, two choruses [Maîtrise de Paris, and Scola Cantorum Oxford], and a mighty cast: Lucy Crowe, Christine Rice, Werner Güra, Nicholas Phan, Stephen Morscheck, and Matthew Brook

So if you like (or might like) sacred music, then this video is definitely the one to see. Lucy Crowe is always fantastic, and Christine Rice will surprise you in this repertoire (bravissima!) All men are brilliant too.  Check out this link [to see it with no interruptions you're gonna have to register (it's free!)]

Big thanks to Medici.tv