Here, I post my reviews and document my love of opera. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to comment on any of my posts or contact me if you wish to.
Have a nice stay!
David Buchler
La Traviata may have inspired countless works – including Moulin Rouge – but the opera itself is actually based on a real life Violetta, who was a courtesan named Marie Duplessis, born in Normandy, France in 1824.
It’s a new dawn at the Theater Basel. It’s all change in the artistic department with a new Artistic Director arriving in 2020, replacing the successful Andreas Beck. The outstanding Henriette Goetz has arrived via ENO and Munich, Christina Poska has taken over as Music Director and was conducting her first new production in the much anticipated La Boheme, directed by the implacable Daniel Kramer
Verdi’s penultimate opera is probably his greatest tragic musical masterpiece and the opening night of Keith Warner’s 2017 production did not disappoint. Warner’s production followed in the footsteps of Elijah Moshinsky’s glorious 30 year old production. The sets designed by Boris Kudlicka are made up of sliding and moveable fragments that either open the stage, such as in the outstanding opening storm scene, or close the stage when intimacy is required.
The Welsh National Opera’s history began in 1943 as a result of the efforts of a group of miners, teachers and doctors. It tours across the UK reaching some 30 theatres across Wales and England, entertaining audiences with operas and concerts and showing future generations that opera is rewarding, relevant and a powerful universal art form.
For more than 20 years the Samling Institute for Young Artists has brought together emerging singers together with international artists who act as a bridge and tutor between the conclusion of studies and the beginning of professional life. The roster of Samling Artists who have forged an incredible professional life is impressive and this year the score of wonderful musical talent is unlikely to disappoint.
The fourth of ENO’s contrasting Orpheus myth operas is perhaps its strongest. Philp Glass’s Orphee based on Jean Cocteau’s 1950 film is directed by Netia Jones with vivid modern black and white set designs by Lizzie Clachan. Lucy Carter is an outstanding Lighting Designer with the necessary choreography by Danielle Agami.
The Wexford Festival Opera, which began in 1951 under a group of opera lovers led by Tom Walsh, goes from strength to strength. David Agler’s tenure as the seventh Artistic Director in Wexford’s history comes to an end this year and his wonderful associate Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi has been appointed to take over. Agler will have had 13 years at the helm; one year more than Elaine Padmore, but one year less than the first Artistic Director, Tom Walsh himself.
The evening didn’t start well. The writer’s request for a complimentary programme to enhance information for a review was soundly rebuffed by the Vorderhausmanager in charge of the Opera House, Charles Edward Maxwell. His riposte of ‘This is not how it’s done in Germany, you have to write and fill out a form’ was somewhat akin to ‘We have ways of making you feel unwelcome’! But then perhaps Mr Maxwell’s unkindly intervention could be somewhat reflective of the rather stiff attitude at the top at the Munich Staatsoper?
Why is Milly Forrest so important? This wonderful lyric soprano put on an interesting Church Hall performance of wide variety showing her talent at its fullest. For a 25 year old fledgling singer she showed remarkable poise, flexibility and variation of sound.
The wonderful new Copenhagen Opera House, now amongst the most modern opera houses in the world, is located in central Copenhagen on the river. It is also one of the most expensive opera houses ever built, with a construction cost of over USD 500m donated by the Moller Foundation, which was the co-founder of the shipping company now known as Maersk. It opened in 2005 and can seat up to 1,700 people with a large orchestra pit that can fit 110 musicians.
In a joint production with Munich and four other Opera Houses the opera director Barrie Kosky has put together an interesting and illuminating up-to-date version of Handel’s earliest complete opera, which premiered in 1707 in Venice.
Jules Massenet took a novel from Goethe to compose a lyrical 4 act opera from a French libretto by Eduard Blau. It was meant to have its premiere at the Paris Opera Comique in 1887, but due to a fire at the Opera House this did not happen and it did not take place until 1892 in a German language translation in Vienna. The French language premiere followed that year in Geneva.
Aviel Cahn has arrived at the newly opened Geneva Opera House and in the first production under his control has taken the City and opera scene by storm. This is a man of incredible pedigree having taken the Vlaanderen Opera – he was in charge for 10 years – to its peak in 2019 by obtaining the International Opera Award for Best Opera Company. Instead of starting his new tenure in Geneva with a Puccini/Verdi/Strauss banker, his first opera is out of left field, Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach.
For over 100 years the Arena in Verona has formally hosted opera, with Aida being at the forefront of the entertainment on show. The huge Verona Arena, which is a first century Roman amphitheatre, is at the centre of activities in this old medieval town. The Arena originally hosted 30,000 people every night during the summer but, even in Italy, health and safety gradually reduced this sum to 25,000, 20,000 and today 15,000 maximum capacity.
Eat your heart out Florez and Dessay. A new pair of principals have hit London and star in Laurent Pelly’s 12 year old production of La Fille du regiment. The mishmash production is very much a ‘Dad’s Army’ fun billing. The comedy is always at the forefront and is infectious and the two new principals bring the house down. In fact there appears no singing weak link in a most enjoyable evening.
Based on Oscar Wilde’s original French play Salome, Strauss composed this opera to a German libretto and whilst there is indeed a 1907 French version, it is this German version that is performed so widely today.
One of Dvorak’s most well-known operas composed at the beginning of the twentieth century is a lyric fairy tale in three acts and sung in Czech. This production by Melly Still is more an imitation of the Hans Christian Andersen version of The Little Mermaid with tragedy at its core, but little to delight the fairy tale purists until a powerfully struck ending, both visually and musically, enables redemption at last.
The original Greek Director Rodula Gaitanou, with design by Takis, produced an attractive moveable wooden panelled set that was used throughout this opera - apart from the great entrance of the Fortune Teller. In this Young Artist performance the direction was taken on by Rachel Hewer, who has worked on a number of shows at the Royal College of Music and Glyndebourne. She had Sion Corder as her Lighting Director, Steve Elias as the Movement Director and Brett Yount as the Fight Director, all from the main production. The work was updated to the 1940s, but still retained its ambiguous eccentricities and disguised assassin’s violence, which were a pre-cursor to the death of Gustavo. The area of concern was always the replacement of the cemetery scene with a hospital scene, which didn’t necessarily reflect the storyline, particularly the need for Amelia to suffer injections to cure her love. Bizarre!
This one act seven scene version of modest Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov is incredibly powerful in its own right, but when it is cast with an outstanding group of singers the musicality is hugely enhanced, as was the case on this night – even if there was not a complete Russian born cast.
ENO & Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre teamed up to provide a musical feast – literally – of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel. Directed by the long-term Director of the Regent’s Park Opera Timothy Sheader and supported by the ‘Tony Award’ nominated, Peter McKintosh, as the Set and Costume Designer, Lizzi Gee as the Movement Director and Oliver Fenwick as the Lighting Director. The team really produced a fun staging culminating in a great candy house with lots of colourful gingerbread men.
