| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Mar-2013 Theater an der Wien | Harnoncourt's Fidelio sees a remarkable directing debut in Vienna |
 The Theater an der Wien has a storied history with Fidelio, having hosted the première of the work’s first and second versions in 1805 and 1806 respectively. In 2013 this is a house more oriented to the present than the past, and in interviews prior to this new production, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and director Herbert Föttinger warned that those accustomed to Beethoven’s only opera being performed by “war horse” or “armoured cruiser” orchestras would get “their ears cleaned out” by the work’s third version.Read full review... | |
| 26-Apr-2012 Wigmore Hall | All’s Fair in Love and War: The Academy of Ancient Music at the Wigmore Hall |
 There are some musical compositions that have always been a bit of a gamble, for composers, performers and even listeners. They might be exceptionally difficult, require extraordinary forces, or show such originality as to be perpetually startling.Read full review... | |
| 19-Jun-2011 Westergasfabriek: Gashouder | Wolfgang Rihm's Dionysos makes Nietzsche sing |
 Friedrich Nietzsche’s life was not that of an isolated contemplative but rather full of personal frustration, eventually ending in syphilitic madness. While his work has been often linked with music--most notably in his relationship with Wagner and Richard Strauss’s tone poem based on Also sprach Zarathustra--making his life into an opera may seem a dubious proposition. But that is exactly what Dionysos, a new music theater work by Wolfgang Rihm that is currently being seen at the Holland Festival, attempts to do.
Read full review... | |
