| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 28-Jul-2012 National Theatre | Der Rosenkavalier at the Munich OpernFestspiele | Capriccio, capricciomusic.blogspot.com |
 Otto Schenk's production of Der Rosenkavalier is now four decades old but it still looks quite fresh, its opulence unfaded. If "traditional" is your thing, it may be the best around, and though the sets are ultra busy and detailed to the point where it can distract from the human intimacy that is key to this drama, it somehow manages to avoid the chocolate box kitschery of many other long-standing "traditional" productions.Read full review... | ||
| 27-Jul-2012 National Theatre | La Traviata at the Munich OpernFestspiele | Capriccio, capricciomusic.blogspot.com |
 La Traviata is such a warhorse that we often forget how many issues it raises for presenting a staging that can convince us of what is in the first analysis a quite ludicrous story, despite Verdi's veristic intentions. That Violetta is so sympathetic, idealistic, noble and moral can strike one as hopelessly naïve and even patronising given her profession and background, but its very high status amongst Verdi's output speaks of its masterful dramatic thrust and powerful emotional arc, and, by no means least, its superb music.
Read full review... | ||
| 21-Jul-2012 National Theatre | An excellent Tosca in Munich with Terfel, Naglestad and Giordano | Matthew Lynch |
 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... | ||
| 20-Jul-2012 Prinzregententheater | Mozart's Mitridate in Munich through a child's eyes | Zerbinetta |
 Mozart wrote the opera seria Mitridate at the age of fifteen. The Bayerische Staatsoper’s clever and strangely beautiful production positions it as the work of a child, full of rebellious teenagers and projected scenery seemingly drawn from a primary school art class. But unfortunately even excellent singing and much directorial invention cannot disguise that this is a rather bland opera, and its four hours pass slowly.
Read full review... | ||
| 7-Jun-2012 National Theatre | La Cenerentola at the Bavarian State Opera | Matthew Lynch |
 Shortly after Rossini's success with The Barber of Seville came La Cenerentola, a reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale, but with a little less magic, and a lot more worldly comedy. It was an instant success and further established the 25-year-old Rossini as one of the greatest Italian opera composers of his day. Today it is one of Rossini's most performed operas, and has retained the freshness and joie de vivre which it doubtless had at its 1817 première.
Read full review... | ||
| 6-Jun-2012 National Theatre | Andreas Kriegenburg's Wozzeck: A true masterpiece | Matthew Lynch |
 The plight of the introvert, stigmatised by society despite the many benefits of their contemplative natures and inner strength, is an important part of the contemporary Zeitgeist, but it is in fact nothing new. In the early to mid 20th century, fuelled by Freud and psychoanalysis, this concept was particularly strong, and fed into the works of artists of many different stripes, producing some of the greatest works of 20th-century opera.Read full review... | ||
| 13-May-2012 National Theatre | An effervescent Figaro at the Bayerische Staatsoper | Matthew Lynch |
 Although written many years before Rossini's The Barber of Seville, the story of The Marriage of Figaro is in fact the sequel to that of the later opera. This farcical masterpiece of the opera buffa style was the first of three operas Mozart worked on with the Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and was a risky undertaking.Read full review... | ||
| 31-Mar-2012 National Theatre | Otello in Munich: Everything Opera Should Be | Matthew Lynch |
 Wilfried Hösl IMG_6954.jpg) Otello is usually considered to be Verdi’s most mature opera. It was one of the last ones he wrote, the result of a plot by his publisher Riccordi and the conductor Franco Faccio to draw him out of early retirement. The result is a work which combines all the aspects of Verdi’s earlier operatic style with Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. Unlike the operas up to Aida, Otello does away with the strict “aria-recitative” division, moving towards the more fluid style of Wagner.Read full review... | ||
| 10-Dec-2011 National Theatre | Turandot 2.0 | Matthew Lynch |
, Emanuele DAguanno (Pong), Fabio Previati (Ping), in Bayerische Staatsopers production of Turandot, by Wilfried Hösl.jpg) It’s no surprise that Turandot is one of the most performed and best loved operas of all time, coming in at number 15 in the Operabase league table. Its beautiful music and lavish orchestration, along with its very exciting and exotic story are what operatic dreams are made of. The evil princess, who submits all her suitors to a cruel test, with failure punishable by death, provides the perfect starting point for a dramatically charged and emotionally rich opera, and it is this depth and excitement that make Turandot one of my favourite operas in the repertoire.
Read full review... | ||
| 27-Nov-2011 National Theatre | More Bieito than Beethoven: Fidelio at the Bayerische Staatsoper | Matthew Lynch |
 Beethoven took over nine years to write and edit Fidelio, his only opera. It tells the story of Leonore, whose husband Florestan is being illegally held in prison. She disguises herself as a man, Fidelio, and gets a job in the prison in an attempt to save him. Over the course of its creation it turned from a three-act opera into a two-act one, changed its name, and went through four separate overtures!Read full review... | ||
| 12-Nov-2011 National Theatre | A sobering Hoffmann | Intermezzo |
 One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue. For this new production which travels to English National Opera next February, Richard Jones solves the puzzle by turning it into an autobiographical journey which ends with a grand meet-up of all the characters Hoffmann has encountered.
Read full review... | ||
| 6-Nov-2011 National Theatre | Nasty Children at the Bayerische Staatsoper | Matthew Lynch |
 The pairing of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (“The Child and the Spells”) with Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (“The Dwarf”) is an interesting juxtaposition. The two works have some strong similarities: both were written shortly after 1920, with scenarios by authors who were known for their homosexual promiscuity (Colette, and Oscar Wilde respectively) and both are fairytales, with unpleasant children taking the lead roles.Read full review... | ||
| 15-Oct-2011 National Theatre | A Traditional but Warm-blooded Carmen | Matthew Lynch |
 Wilfried Hösl IMG_2755.jpg) Carmen is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world, and with such a variety of interpretations out there it is always difficult to come up with a new one which is simultaneously inventive and effective. Perhaps this is why Bayerische Staatsoper’s current production, alongside the production at the Royal Opera House in London, opts for such traditional staging, but does so which such quality that whatever lack of originality there might be is immaterial.
Read full review... | ||
