Staging Ariadne auf Naxos is no simple task. Beneath its apparent simplicity – modest duration and relatively small forces – the work presents real challenges, not least in balancing comedy and gravity….
INTERMEZZO | Semperoper
Depending on your point of departure, Dresden may not be the most accessible destination in Germany. For those living in Paris, as the author of these lines does, the least…
DER ROSENKAVALIER | Staatsoper Berlin
After the triumph of Elektra and the less conclusive venture of Ödipus und die Sphinx, Hofmannsthal felt the need to step back from tragedy and attempt a genre more accessible…
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE | Oper Frankfurt
Oper Frankfurt opens the early spring season with a revival of Katharina Thoma’s 2020 production. The staging is marked by Johannes Leiacker’s pared‑back set design, the same throughout all three…
LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK | Komisch Oper Berlin
The aesthetic violence matches the musical intensity. Remembering that, for its composer, this opera was a “satirical tragedy”, where “satirical” means an indictment of the cynicism and contempt of Russia’s…
DON CARLO | Deutsche Oper Berlin
Long acclaimed for its merits, the current Don Carlo at the Deutsche Oper nonetheless proves a revelation to those approaching it anew. The eye is first caught by Marco Arturo…
SALOME | Bayerische Staatsoper
Somewhere between the 1930s and 1940s, a group of Jewish men and women gathers in a vast and richly stocked library. As in all places where books are handled and…
DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES | Den Kongelige Opera
The spareness of the décor presages that of the work itself. From the instant the curtain rises, space is yielded to the full dramatic amplitude such an act of remembrance…
VIOLANTA | Deutsche Oper Berlin
The work is as rare as it is concise (barely eighty minutes) yet sufficiently incandescent to leave upon its listeners an imprint commensurate with the ardour of its passions and…