| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 21-Jul-2012 National Theatre | An excellent Tosca in Munich with Terfel, Naglestad and Giordano |
 In Tosca there's a real sense of Puccini being at home. Written shortly after La Bohème, when he was right at the height of his powers, Tosca is a story of love, jealousy and political turmoil, taking place in Rome, the same city in which it was premiered. These are events and characters which Puccini could identify with, and the locale was one he knew, not the alien distance of Paris, the Orient or the US, where some of his other best-known operas are set.Read full review... | |
| 29-May-2011 Theater an der Wien | Luc Bondy's dark Festwochen Rigoletto in Vienna |
 If director Luc Bondy has a muse, it’s the Georgian baritone George Gagnidze, blessed with a bulging eyes and a big, craggy voice. After growling and sneering his way through Scarpia in Bondy’s much-maligned Metropolitan Opera production of “Tosca,” Gagnidze is back to do the same to the title role of “Rigoletto” in Bondy’s new production at the Wiener Festwochen. While Gagnidze’s Scarpia was seen as shockingly grimy, his equally scuzzy Rigoletto is rather conventional. Similarly, this visually stark production does little to shock or disturb.Read full review... | |
