Tabla de contenidos para January 2022 en Opera Now

A leading German politician has advocated that theatres and opera houses will need to prepare for long-term closures as a protective measure if the Covid situation is here to stay. His words have sent a chill across the opera world, already reeling from almost two years of mothballing, cancellations, postponements, job losses and moving goalposts. Bernd Loebe, the general director of Frankfurt Opera, was the first to respond to Volker Bouffier, minister-president of Hessen (see page 11 of this issue). The minister’s statement, he concluded, was tantamount to spelling the end of opera in Germany, the world’s largest national producer of the artform. Loebe’s despair was accompanied by a heartfelt plea to his political masters: ‘Please do not destroy what we have built up over decades.’ An email that I received…

The opera world has expressed its deep concern at suggestions from a high-level German politician that closing cultural institutions should be considered as a far-reaching protective measure to combat the spread of the coronavirus. A statement made by the minister-president of Hessen, Volker Bouffier, at a press conference towards the end of last year, advocated that opera houses and theatres should operate at a much-reduced level in order to contain the future spread of any virus. Bernd Loebe, general director of Oper Frankfurt, was one of the first to express his fears, which are widely held by his colleagues in Europe. He pointed out the stringent measures already operating at most German opera houses to prevent the spread of the virus: ‘Audience members wear masks, are fully vaccinated and have…

Pretty Yende’s story is one that embodies opera’s power to transform lives. Within a decade of winning at the three most distinguished vocal competitions in Europe, the South African soprano has achieved international recognition with a string of triumphant debuts: the Metropolitan Opera in 2013, followed by Vienna, La Scala, Covent Garden, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, the major German opera houses – the world seemed to be her oyster until Covid paralysed the opera world. The beauty and purity of her still mainly light-lyric vocal instrument is dazzling: luminous and creamy, with a lustrous sheen even at the top of the register and a colour that never sounds dry. Yende’s glorious voice, an engaging presence, acting ability and the sheer joy she emanates while performing, have combined to make her one…

Opera tourism is back. For almost two years music-lovers have been unable to travel internationally to visit performances and festivals. Even when operas were eventually staged again, with due attention to social-distancing regulations, strict quarantines meant that no one crossed borders to enjoy the show. This was a shame because travel and opera have gone hand in hand ever since the 1960s when flying became more generally affordable. But the good news is that international travel to the opera resumes in 2022, and there will be a lot for us to visit, from classic Italian events like the Verdi Festival in Parma and Puccini in Torre del Lago through to a new Ring at Bayreuth and Wagner’s complete dramatic works staged in Leipzig, the city of his birth. Travel will…

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New National Theatre Tokyo MUSIC STAGING The audience erupted, clapping hard as the curtain fell on the first night of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT). Although accompanied by a single ‘boo’, probably directed at the modern metatheatrical interpretation, the clapping was the happy response of an audience in masks who had had to wait for more than a year to witness this new production. They more or less got what they wanted. The co-production with the Salzburg Easter Festival, Semperoper Dresden and the NNTT had its world premiere in Salzburg in April 2019 then moved to Dresden in January 2020. It was bound for Tokyo that summer, between the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. Alas, it was not to be. The Japanese premiere was…

1 What is Cio-Cio-san’s son called in Madama Butterfly? 2 Who turn out to be Figaro’s parents in Le nozze di Figaro? 3 I can be yellow, foreign or a gypsy – what am I? 4 I am the answer to Question 3 – but here I’m specifically a Cretan mountain, and can provide an international aid loan. What is my name? 5 Which Britpop star composed an opera, premiered at the 2011 Manchester International Festival, and what was the name of the opera? All a blur? Well, fiddle-de-dee! 6 Which Verdi opera is also a very large bottle of Champagne (15L to be precise!) 7 Who is a common subject of operas by Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Braunfels? 8 A friend once told Rossini that he had seen Act II of…

Covid double standards I travelled to the opera by train in early December. Due to the usual round of rail cancellations (staff shortages because of Covid…), my carriage was packed with people, with no possibility of social distancing and with very few travellers wearing masks (which did not seem a requirement at the time). The drinks trolley trundled its way through every now and again, causing us all to squash up even more. At the opera, on the other hand, I arrived at an airy theatre with reduced audience seating to comply with social distancing regulations. There was a brief interval – no bar. And we had to wear masks throughout the performance. Why the double standards? It seems that Covid regulations go out of their way to penalise the…

‘W hat I like most about working in the theatre is that one cannot be an egoist. One has to be humble. In fashion, the designer is boss – both as far as the concept of a collection is concerned, and its presentation to the public; whereas in stage design, the opposite is true! It is the director of the production who decides, and I am there to illustrate his imagination. Sometimes it’s very precise, both in terms of shapes and colours, and sometimes it’s much freer. But my pleasure and satisfaction lie in sketching according to the director’s wishes.’ So declared master couturier Christian Lacroix after designing one of his first operas, Carmen at the Arènes de Nîmes in the South of France more than 30 years ago. Now,…

Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London MUSIC STAGING The resurrection of lesser-known operas can bring huge delight; such was the case here with this Bizet/Viardot double-bill. Bizet’s operetta Le docteur Miracle was premiered in Paris at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in 1857. Only 18 at the time of writing, Bizet came joint first in a competition launched by Offenbach. The story of Le docteur Miracle is pure farce: disguises abound, with Captain Silvio (the lover of Laurette) appearing as Pasquin, a hapless domestic servant, and later as ‘Le docteur Miracle’. It all hinges on an omelette; and if Bizet’s score is known for anything, it is the ‘omelette quartet’, the characters’ reactions to a basically inedible meal that is allegedly poisoned, and for which Dr Miracle has the…

Deutsche Oper Berlin MUSIC STAGING Much anticipated and much delayed, the new Ring at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, staged by the lauded Norwegian director Stefan Herheim was finally unveiled in full last November and is set to return for a second Cycle in January. Die Walküre, Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung had been performed already – in that order – starting at the beginning of last season. Siegfried was seen for the first time only as part of the complete Cycle. One can only have sympathy for a creative and administrative team buffeted to and fro on the unpredictable waves of the Covid pandemic. It is some achievement from all concerned that the complete cycles were able to go ahead. When Die Walküre had been unveiled over a year ago,…

Amata dalle tenebre Anna Netrebko DG 486 0531 Séguedilles Marianne Crebassa Erato 902667689 Bach / Handel Sabine Devieilhe Erato 902667786 Mitridate, re di Ponto Mozart Erato 9029661757 Sadko Rimsky-Korsakov Bel Air BAC188 Rusalka Dvorák Unitel / CMajor 759508 CDs and Downloads A new solo album from Anna Netrebko is big news, not least because it is her first for five years. Amata dalle tenebre is a frustrating experience. I listened thrice – once with headphones, then at a neighbour-friendly level, and finally played at a cheerfully overwhelming blast. Each encounter was surprisingly different. At a lower volume the voice seemed murky and problematic; the headphones proved too reverberative as the voice is over-favoured in the mix. But at full throttle everything suddenly sprang to life. To concentrate on the good points,…

Performance runs starting in January and February 2022. Listings are in alphabetical order by city within each country heading. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings are available at www.operabase.com UNITED KINGDOM CARDIFF WELSH NATIONAL OPERA www.wno.org.uk Don Giovanni | Mozart FEB 18, 19, 26, 27; MAR 17 ON TOUR FROM MARCH-MAY Conductor Tobias Ringborg Stage director John Caird Lighting designer David Hersey Costume designers John Napier/Yoon Bae CAST Don Giovanni Andrei Kymach/Duncan Rock Il Commendatore (Commendatore) James Platt Donna Anna Marina Monzó / Linda Richardson Don Ottavio Trystan Llŷr Griffiths Donna Elvira Sarah Tynan/Meeta Raval Leporello Simon Bailey/Joshua Bloom Masetto James Atkinson Zerlina Harriet Eyley/Isabelle Peters Jenůfa | Janáček MAR 5, 12, 18 ON TOUR FROM MARCH-MAY Conductor Tomáš Hanus Stage director Katie Mitchell Designer Vicky Mortimer Lighting Designer Nigel Edwards CAST Jenůfa Elizabeth…

The Kennedy Center’s‘Artistic Advisor at Large’, soprano Renée Fleming, has inaugurated a new season of her VOICES that continues into the spring, exploring the power of the voice across a wide range of genres, from jazz to Broadway, to opera and more. The genesis of the series goes back to 2016, when curating a new vocal series was at the top of Fleming’s wish list as artistic adviser at the Kennedy Center. It stems from her belief that classical singing has gradually been shut out of the mainstream, and that perceptions can be changed by featuring exceptional vocalism of every kind, from every culture, including artists and styles that have not traditionally been presented in of concert halls. ‘Opera is one of the only places audiences can still experience the…

Hanover State Opera MUSIC STAGING The Staatsoper Hannover presented a sensational opening production for its new season: Immo Karaman’s new staging of Verdi’s Otello. This was the first time the company had presented a full-scale opera since the start of the pandemic. The twittering of birds can be heard, everything seems to be normal and peaceful. A man rises from a grubby mattress which is on the floor. He leans on a tall American-style fridge then walks uneasily to and fro. He looks like a vagrant, wearing a tatty bathrobe, hair unkempt. Fearfully he peers through the window blind. All of a sudden the music begins in a glaring fortissimo and the man starts as if struck by lightning. He has fearful visions of explosions, mushroom clouds, the thunder of…

Favourite time of day? Irregularly for an opera singer I love the mornings, getting up early, making a nice coffee and resist turning the bloody phone on. Crisp sunny mornings in the countryside, going for a nice walk at 6am. If I have to learn music, I always get up early, but I’m quite good at the odd nap… Favourite season? A nice English early summer when everything’s becoming green. I always get very excited when the leaves come out on the trees. Favourite colour? Blue, all kinds of blue –I wear a lot of navy blue. I just did a trip to Sweden and without even realising it absolutely everything I put in my suitcase was blue – I’m a blue kind of guy…. Favourite artist? A recent discovery…