| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 8-May-2013 Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts | The stark glory of Robert Carsen's Dialogues des Carmélites with Canadian Opera Company |
 Francis Poulenc’s 1957 opera Dialogues des Carmélites has the virtues of necessity. Director Robert Carsten’s production puts these virtues before us in simple black and white. The virtues begin with the story: Blanche, an aristocrat afraid of the French Revolution who hopes to find refuge in a nunnery, becomes a refugee of religious persecution, and chooses to die a martyr with her sisters. The story is told with a minimum of props and no end of imaginative staging, lighting and costumes.Read full review... | |
| 31-Jul-2012 Bayreuther Festspielhaus | Musically outstanding but landlocked: Der Fliegende Holländer in Bayreuth |
 For any opera lover, a first visit to Bayreuth is something of a pilgrimage to the holy land. Musically, I wasn’t disappointed, as the Dutchman’s leitmotif rose softly from the invisible orchestra, soon to be enveloped by the swirling storm brewed up by Wagner and conductor Christian Thielemann. The orchestra here is one of extraordinary virtuosity, and Thielemann is a thoughtful conductor who knows his Wagner backwards, forwards and sideways.Read full review... | |
