Diary of a Culture Hedonist

We were greeted with a drum rotate at the start of the opera - scenes introducing the characters from the opera. José Fardilha starred in the title role with a lot of subtlety (not just portraying an elderly gentleman), and at time he was able to eek out some sympathy from the audience - just a little. Norina (Erin Morley) and Ernesto (Josh Lovell) were fantastic with their well matched voice and superb acting. Morley's coloraturas were spellbindingly good. Huw Montague Rendall's Malatesta was fun and well matched.  The rotating drum allowed for fast-paced scene changes and intrigues throughout. Ben Glassberg adopted a fairly brisk tempo for the whole opera with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment responding to his every nuance. Great night.

Stéphanie d’Oustrac starred in this one act / single cast Poulenc opera. The minimalist stage (Caroline Ginet) consisted of a tilting platform with an old fashioned dial telephone. But that's all it took for the drama to unfold. d’Oustrac was able to draw us into her conversation, expressing the challenging feelings of frustration, anxiety, disappointment and dare we say hope? A superb performance it was.

The “relief” from La Voix Humaine  was this witty rendition of Les Mamelles de Tirésias . Elsa Benoit was Thérèse. Her annoyance and tantrum in front of her husband (played by Régis Mengus) was fun yet provocative. The floating mamellles were delightful. The best part was the appearance of the 40,049 babies on stage! All in all it was surreal, as Apollinaire / Poulenc intended.

Danielle de Niese as Cendrillon was able to characterise the downtrodden country girl as well as the alluring star of the Prince's ball. And an extra star for her dashing back from Cardiff Singer of the World competition the night before. Kate Lindsey in the trouser role of the Prince was superb too - especially in the duet towards the end of the ball scene. Lionel Lhote as Pandolfe delivered his lovely aria with a rich and mature tone. Fiona Shaw's production and Jon Bausor's design were magical. The clever use of semi-seethrough mirrors was so effective in portraying the fleeting nature of love between Cendrillon and the Prince. The gradual yet unmistakble appearance of the count-down clock was spine-tinkingly good. Most people would be familiar with Massenet's better known operas such as Werther and Thais. Cendrillo, this lighthearted and farytale opera, is rarely staged. I hope this fantastic production will make many happy returns.

Did Berlioz intend to have La damnation de Faust staged? Perhaps he did. But the score had everything in it. So it's interesting to see any staged performance of this fantastic work. What worked? I thought Richard Jones's direction for recreating various imaginary scenes on an austere stage set worked pretty well, from the beer halls along the Rhine through to Marguerite's prison. Christopher Purves was a good, not-too-intrusive Méphistophélès. Allan Clayton attacked the challenging role of Faust with sensitivity. Robin Ticciati waved his stick and the super LPO complied. What didn't work? Sixty-odd singers in the chorus didn't do the work justice. Berlioz intended a big chorus sound. The velvety Songe de Faust sounded thin, and the big drinking song climax was disappointing. When Mark Elder did Faust recently with the Hallé (Feb 2019), there were over 100 men, plus a big children's chorus - Berlioz would like to have 200-300 children in the final scene - ...

Indeed it was a rare opportunity to see Samuel Barber's Vanessa. Keith Warner's direction was super - working in sync with Ashley Martin-Davis's stage design of big mirror cases - to bring this intriguing plot to life. Emma Bell was a pensive and stoic Vanessa, but occasionally out-shown by Virginie Verrez's portrayal of Erika. Jakub Hrůša led the London Philharmonic to deliver this lush Barber sound world.

What a superb revival production directed by Barrie Kosky. The big choruses were done with the singers doing slo-mo mannerism action. Markus Brück was particularly fine with Saul, and the rest of the cast did a super job to bring this oratorio to life.  Laurence Cummings maintained dramatic momentum with the OAE while darting from the rostrum to the organ - including playing the solo intro on a spinning organ on stage!

I think this David McVicar production of Giulio Cesare really brings to life this rather long Handel opera. This revival retains all the freshness and fun of the well-known Caesar meets Cleopatra tale, enough action to be entertaining, but subtle for those introspective moments.  Sarah Connolly was Giulio Cesare - which was sung with intelligence and pose. Cleopatra was sung by an athletic Joélle Harvey - don't know how she managed to dance and sing those difficult arias at the same time. The highligh was the playing of OAE, under the baton of William Christie, which delivered the superb Baroque sound world that really let the music shine.

Another revival of Richard Jones's production of Der Rosenkavalier. This time, Kate Lindsey gave us a less tomboy Octavian compared to the previous production. Rachel Willis-Sørensen was a strong Marschallin and Brindley Sherratt was a growly Ochs. Second act worked the best, the shiny presentation of the rose and the tender duet between Octavian and Sophie (Elizabeth Sutphen) with the nouveau riche stage set. Robin Ticciati help the LPO deliver a lush Straussian sound.

The Prologue. A fun filled act with snippets of the melodies to come. Music Master (Thomas Allen) busied himself with everyone else. Angela Brower's Composer was urgent and torn. The Opera. While Erin Morley (Zerbinetta) delivered some fine vocal pyrotechnic, it was Lise Davidsen (Ariadne) who was the true star of the act. Her soaring and penetrating soprano lines were Wagnerian in quality, and we were in no doubt of her torments and doubts. Sadly, AJ Glueckert's Bacchus was completely out-sung by Davidsen toward the end (at least he kept his voice, unlike the first night of this production a couple of years back when the tenor barely made it to the end). Conductor Cornelius Meister took everything at a pretty brisk pace, he also let the somewhat decadent side of the music emerge. The LPO played everything beautifully.

As expected, Danielle de Niese was great as Concepción in L'heure. she was wonderfully witty and playful. The whole cast worked really well together. L'enfant was very well put together. The outsized furniture added that fantasy quality to it. All the creatures were fun and added something to the story. Robin Ticciati really did Ravel's score justice - and the LPO responded beautifully.

It was my first time seeing Donizetti's Poliuto - also UK's professional premier of the work. Michael Fabiano, with his chesty tenor voice, made a convincingly torn (emotionally, religiously) Poliuto. Ana María Martínez's portrayal of Paolina was excellent. The voices of these two lead roles matched very well. The LPO played exceedingly well under the baton of Enrique Mazzola. The set, however, was a little disappointing. I guess the designer Julia Hansen didn't want to dwell too much on Armenian history. Still, everything felt a little static, devoid of historical and cultural references.

There was lots of skepticism around this very early Mozart opera (that's the one before Idomeneo). One can see why - the music is light, limited character development, and a somewhat chaotic plot. Hats off to Frederic Wake-Walker, the director who used movements and gestures to make the plot and music work. A strong cast coupled with Robin Ticciati's clear direction made the show work.

New staging by Richard Jones, conducted by the new music director Robin Ticciati, and with a strong cast - there was much anticipation. The Marschallin, sung by Kate Royal, was well cast: a great voice with that Straussian sheen and enough gravitas to carry the role. Tara Erraught's Octavian was androgenous enough. Teodora Gheorghiu as Sophie was pretty good. Lars Woldt's rendition of Ochs was funny and tragic at the same time.  Now onto the set design (Paul Steinberg) - I thought it was funny in the first two acts with larger than live tables, neon signs and trappings. The last act didn't do it for me - the dining room scene was just too contrived. Luckily that didn't get in the way of the trio Hab' mir's gelobt . Still, the music shone where it needed - a rewarding Glyndebourne experience.

It was simply superb! Saw it first time round and was already very impressed by Christopher Oram's design. This revival allowed me to enjoy the production from a different perspective (sitting somewhere else in the auditorium). Mark Padmore really stepped up to the role of Captain Vere - with his wide emotional range. Jacques Imbrailo was the youthful and handsome Billy Budd - who sang it handsomely.

Something light-hearted at Glyndebourne. A new production of Don Pasquale. Alessandro Corbelli sang the title role with bags of experience. Vocally dramatic, but never too serious. Enough gusto. Danielle de Niese's Norina was, as expected, full of that joie de vivre . After a little over-acting at the beginning, she settled well into her role as the mischievous "bride". Nikolay Borchev's Malatesta was not bad either. Julia Hansen's rotating set design was fun and light-hearted. Just the right amount. Mariame Clément' direction was interesting - not least by introducing a bit of double-entendre into the relationship between Malatesta and Norina (was there something going on?) Enrique Mazzola was secure at the helm of the LPO.

It was a delight to go to Glyndebourne to watch one of my favourite opera -Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos . The set design by Julia Müer was very effective. Act 1 was set in a modest stately home (contradiction in terms here?) looked a bit like Glyndebourne. Act 2. The end of Act 1 hinted at what might happen in Act 2 ... the bombed country home now turned into a sanitorium. Kate Lindsey sang the role of the Composer, and surprisingly she returned on stage in a non-singing part. Zerbinatta was sung by Laura Claycomb - lots of vocal pyrotechnic and she carried her role in solo well. But when singing at her opposite Ariadne (Soile Isokoski) she seemed a bit less sympathetic. Prima Donna / Ariadne started out somewhat subdue, but by Act 2 she was well in command of the role. And it was a shame that Sergey Skorokhodov (Bacchus) was losing his voice soon after the opening phrases. Vladimir Jurowski conducted the opening performance (to be his last season at this house). The LPO played won...