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2024-04-26
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2023-10-21 11:15:00
What's not to love? Glamour and heart as Puccini's little swallow returns to Opera North
Puccini: La Rondine - Sébastien Guèze, Galina Averina - Opera North (Photo: Tristram Kenton)Puccini: La Rondine; Galina Averina, Sébastien Guèze, Claire Lees, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Philip Smith, director: James Hurley, conductor: Kerem Hasan; Opera North at Grand Theatre, LeedsReviewed 20 October 2023Glorious melodies sung by a youthful cast, 1930s glamour in a production proud of its green credentials, and a story both touching and engaginThe problem with Puccini's La Rondine, if problem there is, is that no-one dies; it is Puccini's only major opera where a significant death does not occur. La Rondine ends with a love triangle where, very even handedly, no-one really gets what they want. The opera was an experiment, coming at a time when Puccini was trying to move his art in other directions. After Madama Butterfly in 1904 came two operas where Puccini changed tack, La Fanciulla del West in 1910 and La Rondine in […]
2022-02-18 10:42:26
Certainly not traditional, but true to the work's spirit and dramaturgy: Edward Dick's production of Bizet's Carmen returns to Opera North with Chrystal E Williams back in the title role
Bizet: Carmen - Opera North (Photo Tristram Kenton) Bizet Carmen; Chrystal E Williams, Sébastien Guèze, Alison Langer, Gyula Nagy, dir: Edward Dick, cond: Anthony Kraus; Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 16 February 2022 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★) An imaginative new setting for a production lit up by the luminous performance of Chrystal E Williams in the title roleWhat would an authentic Carmen staging be, one true to the composer's intention - a French opera, set in Spain, based on a French novel, with a libretto written by two men who specialised in comic operas, and a score by a composer whose previous operas were set in India, Arabia and Bonnie Scotland.The problem with Carmen is that it takes the Opéra Comique setting and peoples it with characters who speak to us today; Carmen and Don Jose's relationship burns through the form leaving the […]
2013-05-08 18:54:33
Manfrino/Guèze/Do/Noguera/Le Cercle de L'Harmonie/Rohrer (Ambroisie)This is an important release, though sadly not a great one. It marks the first appearance on disc of Lodoïska, the opera that made Italian-born Luigi Cherubini's name at its Paris premiere in 1791, identifying him immediately as the musical voice of revolutionary France. It clocked up more than 200 performances in its first year alone. Nowadays, however, we might find ourselves wondering why it caused such a stir, but the narrative unquestionably caught the spirit of the times. We are in Poland, where the hero Floreski, together with his loquacious servant Varbel, and a Tartar army under its gentlemanly leader, Titzikan, sets out to rescue Floreski's lover, Lodoïska, held captive by the tyrant Dourlinski. The text insists we view nobility in terms of individual humanity rather than class. The score, meanwhile, was the first to demand that the quintessential French form of opéra comique […]
2012-12-15 18:55:00
La Traviata Bruxelloise
The World's best TV --Arte of course!-- will be live broadcasting the new production of La Traviata from the World's best opera house -- La Monnaie/DeMunt -- in a little more than an hour time [20:00 CET]. Andrea Breth, one of the most talented and most accomplished theater directors today, produced the show [I saw her recent Wozzeck and Lulu at the Staatsoper in Berlin (UdL) and loved them both immensely; I also saw (with some delay) her Kat'a Kabanova also staged in Brussels, that matched in quality the famous Christoph Marthaler production -- which should be by now in textbooks], Adam Fischer conducts the LaMonnaie orchestra, which will be a curiosity on its own [Fischer is huge in Mozart operas, and I can only guess the level of subtleties in conducting La Traviata], and the cast looks exactly what you would expect from […]
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