Diary of a Culture Hedonist

Wasn't Bryan Hymel fabulous as Henri? All those conflicting and torturous emotions. Nice to see this sumptuous production returning to the Royal Opera.

Another tear jerking performance. Loved Mariusz Kwiecień as Marcello. Nicloe Car's Mimi was ok.

This prom concert was 15 minutes late starting, which was very unusual as it was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. And the rehearsal didn't finish even when the audience started to come into the hall. Leonidas Kavakos was the soloist in the Brahms violin concerto. Truth be told, the whole concerto felt uneven - everyone was together, it's a standard repertory piece, but somehow musicians on stage didn't gel. No fault to Kavakos as he played well. The Filarmonica della Scala sounded like a different orchestra under Riccardo Chailly in Respighi's Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. Perhaps the orchestra is more accustomed to more atmospheric (and operatic) sounds. The bright light of Pines of the Villa Borghese was shinny, The Pines of the Janiculum was beautifully balanced with the mandated nightingale songs, and finally The Pines of the Appian Way brought the concert to an epic end.

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.

The buzz was huge just getting into the house, invaded by opera glitterati and pan-European fans of the one star we were here to see: Jonas Kaufmann. He didn't disappoint. Kaufmann gave a nuanced, thoughtful and emphatic performance. His portrayal of Otello was multi-faceted. The duet with Iago (Marco Vratogna) was gripping, so was the murder scene in the last act. Maria Agresta's Desdemona was excellent - particularly the willow song in the last act. Keith Warner's direction was excellent in the last act - with all that contrasting emotions and dramas. But the first act somehow lacked direction - there were times when even Otello was milling about. Set designer Boris Kudlička's dark and moody motive went along with the drama, rather than contrasting against it. So after a while, I got bored looking at the set. Wish there were more colours. Pappano took a brisk tempo throughout, at times risking the choral and orchestral ensemble, but the rewards was a full...

Somewhat hypnotic choreography made for a fun night out with friends. It took me a while to get to the idiom of the dancing, but finally got there. The Ictus Ensemble played Steve Reich’s "Music for 18 Musicians" metronomically. Altogether a satisfying night out.

Having not watched the film before, I was somewhat baffled by the whole opera. Surreal it was for certain. I felt the dramatic development was not so much supported by the music nor the direction - even when the soprano Leticia repeated the aria / action there was not sufficient oomph to get the audience to realise "this is the way out".