Leonard Butler News
composer
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Last update
2024-04-25
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2024-04-23 13:44:23
With music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, David Adjmi’s drama at the Golden Theatre, New York, follows tangled recording sessions by a 1970s rock band
2024-03-11 07:32:00
Something astonishing: Olivia Fuchs' new production of Britten's Death in Venice for Welsh National Opera involved a collaboration with circus arts, NoFit State
[…] baritone roles, Alexander Chance as Apollo, Gareth Brynmor John as the English Clerk, and Peter Van Hulle as the Hotel Porter. The circus artists were Antony César as Tadzio, Diana Salles as the Polish Mother, Vilhelmiina Sinervo and Selma Hellmann as the daughters, and Riccardo Saggese as the Governess and Jaschiu. The remaining roles were taken by two WNO Associate Artists and 19 members of WNO Chorus. The designer was Nicola Turner, the lighting designer was Robbie Butler, and the video designer was Sam Sharples. The circus consultant was Tom Rack, and the circus designer and director was Firenza Guidi, both from NoFit State. The conductor was Leo Hussain. Nicola Turner's set was simple, a basic black space with four pillars used by the circus artists for climbing, but occasionally used by Roderick Williams and Alexander Chance. This was a production that took things upwards. There was a small amount of set dressing, Aschenbach's […]
2024-01-17 17:37:00
Così fan tutte, Komische Oper, 14 January 2024
[…] the gaze of us all that boundaries blur and dissolve whether we like it or not—and the implication would be that most, perhaps all, of us do. We are all actors, playing roles here, Ferrando explicitly in assuming the metatheatrical, ambiguous with respect to diegetic status, role of ‘a singer’ in ‘Un’aura amoroso’, ‘credited’ at its close by Don Alfonso. That extends, moreover, to gender roles, surely a tribute to the much-maligned yet ever-relevant Judith Butler. It ultimately comes as no surprise, perhaps even as a strangely satisfying fulfilment, that the title scrawled at the back by Don Alfonso is corrected to ‘Così fan tutti,’ tellingly ‘girlish’ hearts atop the ‘i's a further turn of the dialectical gender-screw (as it were). And yet, this remains a deeply disillusioning experience for all, the modern anomie of what are either hotel rooms or a modern apartment so fashionable it might as […]
2023-12-31 18:04:00
Over at Boulezian, Mark Berry has a summary of his operatic year, and after reading it, I decided to do one myself. In the process, I discovered that three operas never made it onto the list of operas I've seen, so, I'm particularly glad to have gone through this exercise. Here's what I saw in 2023, in alphabetical order by composer.Aa, van der, Blank OutBates, The Revolution of Steve JobsBritten, The Rape of LucretiaDavis, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Met HD)Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande (Two productions, superb in every way at LA Opera, a muddled production at Santa Fe)Dvořák, RusalkaFrank, El último sueño de Frida y DiegoGiddens and Abel, OmarMartinez, Cruzar la Cara de la LunaMonteverdi, L'OrfeoMonteverdi, L'incoronazione di PoppeaMoravec, The ShiningOh, The EmissaryPuccini, Madama ButterflyReagon and Reagon, Octavia Butler's The Parable of the SowerSaariaho, Adriana MaterSchoenberg, ErwartungShearer, Prospero's GhostStrauss, Die Frau ohne SchattenStravinsky, The NightingaleVerdi, Il TrovatoreVerdi, FalstaffWagner, Die Fliegende HollanderWagner, LohengrinWallen, Dido's […]
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- timeline: Composers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): B...