| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 15-Sep-2012 Semperoper | La bohème at the Dresden Semperoper |
 In his whole career as an opera composer Puccini only wrote one pure comedy, Gianni Schicchi, and even that forms part of his trilogy Il Trittico, of which the other parts could hardly be more tragic. However, La bohème is also a comedy in its own way, a comedy cut short by tragedy. It starts as all best rom-coms do, with a classic “boy meets girl” moment, when Mimì pops over to Rodolfo’s flat to borrow some matches. It’s love at first sight, and Rodolfo doesn’t let Mimì’s coughing or fainting spells bother him.Read full review... | |
| 17-Jun-2012 Semperoper | Fidelio an enduring ode to freedom in Dresden |
 The Dresden Semperoper premiered a new production of Fidelio scarcely a month before the fall of East Germany. Much has changed in the intervening decade and a bit, but the Semperoper is still playing the same Fidelio. It doesn't take much knowledge of recent German history to understand why it was a sensation at the time.Read full review... | |
| 15-Nov-2011 Theater an der Wien | Lera Auerbach's Gogol: a world premiere at the Theater an der Wien |
 Before writing a note of Gogol, composer Lera Auerbach immersed herself in the writer’s complete works and over twenty books written about him. It would take similar efforts to begin to understand this opera: taking us inside the fevered mind of its title character, Gogol is less a biographical narrative set to music than a phantasmagorical, psychological investigation. Given a virtuosic staging by director Christine Mielitz, it is also an overwhelming theatrical experience.Read full review... | |
