Intermezzo

Watch Der Freischütz from Baden Baden live on Monday

Set your controls for arte.tv.

The French TV arts channel will be broadcasting Robert Wilson's new production of Der Freischütz live from Baden-Baden on Monday 1 June - with simultaneous online streaming. And it's free!

Streaming begins at 6.30pm local time (5.30pm UK time) with interviews and backstage stuff, and the performance itself starts at 7pm (or 6pm here).

The production's costumes by Viktor & Rolf are spectacular even by operatic standards, featuring men dressed as trees, women dressed as bouquets, and gazillions of Swarovski crystals. In a programme at 10.30pm tonight (but sadly not online), Arte discuss the project with the designers.

teh crystals!

 

Bob Wilson yet again fails to embrace pictorial realism:

Lots more info, photos - even a full libretto - on Arte's website. And here's a video of rehearsal clips the Festspielhaus have put together:

and here's one with Viktor and Rolf about the costumes:

Lacroix files; Renee dials

The New York Times reports the sad news that the fashion house of Christian Lacroix filed for bankruptcy earlier today. No real surprise. The uncompromisingly exuberant maximalism of Lacroix, one of the last of the true couturiers, couldn't be more out of tune with the times.

Luckily for M.Lacroix, his second career - costume design for the stage - is flourishing. His recent operatic commissions include gowning Renee Fleming for the Met's opening gala (above). Perhaps that puffy mess of boudoir curtainage and balled-up kleenex is not one of his best. But he redeemed himself with the exquisite frocks he crafted for Renee's Thaïs (below), embodying carnal temptation in daring cuts, sumptuous fabrics, cunning trompe l'oeil and sneaky boning. Before she was Lacroixed, who would ever have guessed that mumsy Renee could look so hawt?

More of Christian Lacroix's stage designs can be seen in this pdf exhibition catalogue from France's Centre National du Costume de Scène - where he also explains his love of the stage:

"I have always been attracted to costume design and possibly even before I started fashion design. This comes from a passion for history that has been with me since my childhood, within my imaginative universe and the games I played. I’ve always enjoyed searching for historical truths or restoring them by designing scenery, furniture and costumes. It’s fascinating to dress one’s age. But it’s even more exhilarating and deeply moving to experience the wings, the dressing rooms, the make-up, the powder and the magic of theatre. A fashion show does not create this silent dialogue with the public. I feel it deeply today as I work on "Nozze di Figaro" costumes for the Aix-en-Provence festival, as I did before working on "Phèdre" for the Comédie- Française, as well as when, for the very first time, I worked on "Chantecler", staged in Nantes twenty years ago. Jean-Luc Tardieu had then come to me for costumes, after seeing my somewhat strange clothes at Patou's. Theatre has become much more than a recreation, as this art cannot bear mediocrity nor lack of passion.”

Looks like he'll have a lot more time for it now.

 

 

 

Production photos: Metropolitan Opera

could YOU come between Renee Fleming and Thomas Hampson?

Buried deep, deep within the tangled bowels of the Royal Opera House website is an exciting (well, if you're a singer anyway) competition. Such is the tortuous navigational path you probably won't even have noticed it unless you got lost on your way to the cinema listings.

It's a singing contest, and the prize is the opportunity to sing live in Trafalgar Square during the intervals of the Big Screen live broadcast of La traviata on 30 June while an audience of thousands rests its ears from the awesome power of the Fleming/Hampson/Calleja machine. 

The winners (one male and one female) will receive coaching at the Royal Opera House during the day and a night at a five star hotel to follow. Plus instant celebrity of course.

You need to video yourself singing an aria and send it in by DVD or upload it to YouTube by 19 June. There's nothing up on YouTube yet, so unless hundreds of shy entrants have been secretly sending in DVDs, I would say you're in with a good chance statistically, whether you're a Guildhall shining star or just a tubsinger with an ego.

Full details here and YouTube page here.

Peter Grimes at ENO - fishy business or armless fun?

Peter Grimes - English National Opera, 18 May 2009

German Expressionist cinema seems to be having a bit of a 'moment' on the London stage. Last night I saw the National Theatre's new All's Well That Ends Well improbably backdropped by Murnau's Nosferatu. And despite ENO's misleading fishfinger-ad poster, above, David Alden's inspiration for Peter Grimes is his old friend The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

In echt Expressionist style we see the whole thing through the eyes of the protaganist, Peter Grimes. This is both the genius and the flaw of Alden's production. It isn't simply contrary to Britten's intentions. It also, inevitably, makes Peter Grimes himself a more sympathetic, understandable character. And, crucially, it removes the moral and dramatic ambiguity that underpins the work. Is Peter Grimes a serial child abuser, or just a misunderstood mistreated misfit? Britten wanted his audience to continue pondering that question even after they'd seen the whole show. But Alden eliminates any doubt. The opening trial is harsh and unfair, because Grimes of course sees it that way. And although he treats his new apprentice roughly, his death is directly due to the village mob, who scare Grimes so much that he lets go of the rope securing the boy. His 'mad' scene is subdued and introspective, his eventual end a noble sacrifice.

It's coherent, it works - on its own terms. I don't see the 'contradictions' that some of the press reviewers do. Stuart Skelton's huge ginger baby of a Peter Grimes is so perfectly wrought that his every action and perception is at one with his hulking vulnerability. But at the same time I didn't need the production to solve the puzzle for me. Motivations are rarely cut and dried in Britten. Doubt is a critical element not just here but in Billy Budd, Death in Venice, The Turn of the Screw. Applying the feelgood certainties of the Broadway musical to the subtly nuanced construction makes a less compelling drama of this simple story.

Massive though this flaw is, it's surprisingly easy to set aside. Indeed anyone who came to this production with no prior knowledge or background probably wouldn't even notice it. Alden believes utterly in his concept/perspective, and the production is immaculately crafted around it.

Skewed and sloping surfaces suggest a contorted and perverted reality, a community simultaneously falling apart and collapsing in on itself. Grimes feels scarcely more comfortable inside his vertiginously sloping hut than he does in the oppressive confines of the village. Only the wide open spaces of the beach and the sea, exquisitely evoked in dreamily-painted sky and grey northern light, offer his troubled mind any semblance of tranquillity.

Peter Grimes, isolated from the villagers, can barely tell them apart. So they are robotic drudges who can act only in perfect conformity (often strictly choreographed) with their neighbours. At the end, they turn into a baying mob of flag-waving little-Englanders, symptoms of a wider malaise.

The principal characters are grotesquely caricatured - Grimes sees them not as people but as a collection of faults, so that's how they're presented to us. Leigh Melrose's oily, spivvy Ned Keene, Matthew Best's tutu-sporting Swallow, Gerald Finley's one-armed yachtie Balstrode, Rebecca de Pont Davies's crop-haired trouser-suited Auntie and her demented twin schoolgirl Nieces (even Britten didn't bother to give them names, so why not?) are all beautifully drawn. The silent Apprentice is a huge, almost adult boy yet he cowers like a dog, a readymade receptacle for Grimes to offload his own persecutions.

Only Amanda Roocroft's warmly sympathetic Ellen Orford, the only one Grimes can trust and confide in, appears in a recognisably human light.

Stuart Skelton's definitive and often quite beautifully-delivered Grimes aside, the singing is technically patchy. But it's dramatically effective. Who cares if Amanda Roocroft screeches a few notes when she's playing a woman in the utmost turmoil? And Felicity Palmer's Mrs Sedley is a nutty old lady, so why shouldn't she sound like one? In fact every aspect of the acting is utterly convincing, from the blocking to the powerful individual conviction. These singers make some 'proper' actors look like rank amateurs.

Musically, it was a near-unqualified success. Since he joined as music director, Edward Gardner has deserved the highest praise for battling through a difficult job in often trying circumstances. No wonder he's going grey. I haven't always been equally impressed by his achievements in the pit. But this was his most complete and convincing display to date - firmly driven and punctuated by blistering bursts of power. Some of the ebb and flow of the sea was sacrificed to his implacable momentum, but the colours were rich and the detail always finely drawn. The ENO orchestra, rehearsed to near-perfection, were at their absolute best in the mini-dramas of the stormy Sea Interludes.

The 21 May performance is broadcast on Radio 3 on 11 July 2009 and not to be missed.

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more tickets available for Jonas Kaufmann's Munich Lohengrin

Did you like me miss out in the mad ticket scramble for Jonas Kaufmann's Lohengrin debut in Richard "Wallpaper" Jones's forthcoming Munich Opera Festival production?

Then you will be thrilled to discover that a very small number of seats, presumably returns, are now available.

Buy here.

You pay the money, you pick the show

Chicago Opera Theater have come up with a terrific fund-raising plan.

This year, the same as last, punters are being given the opportunity to choose which one of three shortlisted operas they'd like the company to produce next season. At $1 per vote, and no limit on the number of votes allowed, COT are hoping to raise a tidy sum towards their costs. Last year's vote put $45,000 in their pockets.

More on the story here and voting details here.

Royal Opera House social media FAIL

Forbes magazine reveals that the Royal Opera House's Facebook and Twitter pages have lured a mere 100 ticket buyers since December 2007.

teh Cancellitis plague spreads !!! - first Anna, now JDF

Many thanks to reader Manou, who shares with us an email she received from the Royal Opera House today:

"I am writing to you as someone who has booked for The Royal Opera's performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia on Monday 13 July. I am very sorry to have to inform you that Juan Diego Flórez has withdrawn from the role of Count Almaviva for this performance. As is sometimes the case, when artists are contracted several years in advance, other factors may arise closer to the dates of their performances which may affect previously agreed scheduling. The Royal Opera House is relaying the performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia to Big Screens around the country on 15 July; as a result, Juan Diego Flórez has re-examined his schedule and decided that the day between the performances on 13 and 15 July does not allow him sufficient time to rest his voice. It is with regret that he has therefore decided to withdraw from the performance on 13 July.

We are delighted to announce that the young South African tenor Colin Lee, who is already scheduled to sing the role of Count Almaviva on 18 July, will now also sing the role on 13 July......The rest of the cast remains unchanged with Simon Keenlyside as Figaro, Joyce DiDonato as Rosina, Alessandro Corbelli as Doctor Bartolo, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Basilio, Changhan Lim as Fiorello and Jennifer Rhys-Davies as Berta. Antonio Pappano conducts. "

As Manou eloquently puts it: "It seems the other members of the cast can manage with one day's rest..." but it seems JDF would rather play it safe than risk a crash and burn. (Might be one reason why, unlike some of his contemporaries, he still has a voice left).

Still, better two months' notice than 24 hours........

Arianna in Creta in London

Arianna in Creta - Academy of Ancient Music / Hogwood - Barbican, 17 May 2009

Two three hour Handel operas in London in one day. Arianna in Creta at the Barbican began just an hour after Zurich Opera's excellent Agrippina ended at the Royal Festival Hall. Neither was anything like full. Why can't venues check each other's diaries?  I'm sure plenty of people picked just one because they didn't have the iron constitution for both. Despite my best intentions, I was wilting before this one even started.

Christopher Hogwood is a more fastidious observer of the exactitudes of historical performance than Monsieur Minkowski. My heart sank at the sight of his natural horns. And it was to prove an astringent reading, probably better appreciated by fresher ears than mine. The splayed notes of the horns aside, it was hard to fault the playing. But Mr Handel was sparing with his tunes in this one and Mr Hogwood is not the sort to pop in a dab of Chopin to jolly things up. Despite the latent dramatic potential of the Theseus and the Minotaur storyline, many stretches proved less than engrossing. It was wonderful to have the rare opportunity to experience a live performance, but I wasn't too surprised to find this was its first UK airing for many years.

The singing though was of almost uniformly high quality, even if with most noses buried in scores it wasn't always as communicative as it might have been.

Filling in for the sick Angelika Kirchschlager as Teseo was Kristina Hammarström, who leapt from note to note with tremendous agility, but remained a little laid back for a monster-slaying hero. The silvery bloom of Miah Persson's soprano enchanted in the title role. Lisa Milne made a bold and assertive Alceste, confidently delivered, and Sonia Prina showcased the most energetic coloratura of the evening in her feisty Carilda. A few wobbly moments from the lone bass were the only intrusion.

If only I'd had a less Handel-packed day, I'm sure I would have appreciated it all more.

 

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Stop Press!!! Netrebko and Hvorostovsky cancel tomorrow's Royal Festival Hall gig

I knew it was too good to be true.

This is the sicknote email I just received:

Dear patron,
We are sorry to announce that Anna Netrebko is suffering from influenza and has today withdrawn from the concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 19 May 2009. At such short notice, it has not been possible to offer an alternative programme with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Ion Marin, and so regretfully, the performance tomorrow will not take place. We are working to identify an alternative date for the concert in the future months.

Aaaaargh!!!

Zurich Opera's Roman remains

Agrippina - Zurich Opera / Orchestra La Scintilla / Marc Minkowski - Royal Festival Hall, 17 May 2009

I don't know if many opera houses would dare copy what Zurich Opera did at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday afternoon. That's bring a whole new opera production - minus sets and costumes but including full cast and orchestra - all the way to London halfway through its first ever run (10 to 26 May). Crazy! But it meant we got to see a superbly rehearsed orchestra, a top flight international cast (the best that deep Swiss pockets could purchase) and a semi-staging alive with the wit and vitality of David Pountney's production.

Pountney sees Handel's tale of scheming Romans as a comic satire. Marc Minkowski agrees. Hairshirt historical purists would have been horrified by his arching phrases, vibrato, and - worst of all - a teeny quote from Chopin's Marche funèbre tucked behind the premature announcement of Emperor Claudio's death. On a plug-in organ no less. How 'correct' it all is remains debatable, but it certainly sounded 'right'.

In front of the orchestra on the unadorned Royal Festival Hall stage and stripped of her Zurich appurtenances of leopardskin coat and hanging carcases, Vesselina Kasarova's Bette Davis style mugging in the title role was as bizarre as her mannered singing with its pronounced register break between velvety chest and gleaming top. But her coloratura was precise, her pianissimi secure, and her every appearance on stage was undeniably captivating.

None of the remaining cast could match her on the scenery-chewing front, but they all threw themselves whole-heartedly into convincing physical portrayals, with some enterprising use of the limited space around the podium and behind the orchestra. There was some impressive singing from the other two mezzos, Marijana Mijanović as the trusting Ottone and Anna Bonitatibus as Agrippina's dim son Nerone. Eva Liebau's sweet Poppea didn't seem much of a schemer compared with Kasarova, but her lovelorn arias were more convincing.

It was a pleasure to hear László Polgár's inimitably sonorous bass as Claudio - and how deftly his heavy instrument handled the ornamentation. Baritone Ruben Drole and countertenor José Lemos as the easily-duped Pallante and Narciso provided some purely comic relief. Even the small parts of Giunone and Lesbo were handled with style by Wiebke Lehmkuhl and Gabriel Bermudez.

In all, it was a demonstration of how much a well-directed staging, however limited by space and equipment, can add to to a concert performance. Not to mention how much more clearly Handel's music is revealed when interpreted with instinct as well as intellect.

Photos from the Zurich production here.

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swansong

Lohengrin - Royal Opera House, 16 May 2009

Last night saw the final performance of Lohengrin at Covent Garden. It was my third visit of the run, so there's not much remaining unsaid. Though being very close to the stage this time, I did notice that what we all thought was sand strewn across the stage actually bears a closer resemblance to ready-grated parmesan cheese, or the stuff you put in the bottom of a hamster's bedding to soak up the wee. Diva litter?

The knight in a nightie was Simon O'Neill, clearly more relaxed than he was first time round. He delivered a first and second act of some beauty, his tone more open and varied than on his debut. Unfortunately fatigue or phlegm or something set in for Act Three, and it was a far bumpier ride. But he got the biggest ovation, and deserved it.

Edith Haller was also excellent, with none of the tremulousness of her first night performance remaining. Only the colossal strain of her exposed high note in the second act again let her down.

Petra Lang's fabulously detailed Ortrud was nearly matched by Gerd Grochowski's Telramund for dramatic impact. Any other time they could be accused of scenery-chewing, but in this listless production, they provide the only signs of life.

But the real reason I decided to return again was to hear Semyon Bychkov's magnificent conducting one more time, with its remarkable flow and detail. Although the brass weren't flawless on this occasion, Bychkov conjured thrilling fanfares out of them, and the unity and lyricism of the strings and woodwinds cast an Italianate glow. His reading has gathered pace throughout the run, and was dramatically all the better for it - none of the first night's dragging moments.

Bychkov recently recorded Lohengrin with some of the same cast - an SACD that despite its hefty price tag might be worth checking out.

The orchestra clearly love him, as they demonstrated with their applause at the beginning and end of the third act. 

A pit-side photo-tribute:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Classical Brits - the edited lowlights

Classical Brits - Royal Albert Hall, 14 May 2009

Well, I have survived my first (and probably last) Classical Brits. The things I'll sit through for five minutes of Jonas Kaufmann.

Onr of the low points came early on. A scratchily-amplified Plácido competing with caterwauling Jenkins. Words by teh Pope (the ex-goalie, not the ex-Nazi), tune forgettable. Waste of a tenor.

 

The phenomenally irritating David Mellor gassed on for an eternity before presenting Sir Charles Mackerras with an award for his Mozart CD.

 

Lang Lang bashed out Chopin's 'Heroic' Polonaise in crowd-pleasing style.

 

............ oh yus, there's more of this stuff. Over teh page ............

L’elisir d’amore resuscitated at the Royal Opera House

L’elisir d’amore - Royal Opera House, 12 May 2009

Only 18 months old, and already this Laurent Pelly production is looking tired. Actually, that's not quite fair. It's more that it leans too heavily on wow factor. Once you've seen the mountain of haystacks, the tenor on a tractor, the soprano on a Mobylette, and the most adorable Jack Russell ever - well, that's it really. You don't need to see it again. In 2007 I was persuaded, but second time around the sparkle of novelty has gone. Still, the fifties setting has an innocent charm, even if the relentless mugging of the cast grates after a while.

The best thing in the production by some distance is Diana Damrau's Adina (in SJP wig). Her bantering brother/sister relationship with Giuseppe Filianoti's Nemorino was beautifully handled, and sweetly touching when it melts into love. Effortless rippling coloratura topped off the silvery brilliance of her singing.

Filianoti is another question. His acting is terrific - never was there a more amiable dimwit. And he has a real rapport with Damrau. He sings cleanly I suppose, he hits the notes. But his tone is patchy, his colouring limited, and his top end is effortfully stretched, with only a spot of naughtily-interposed falsetto saving Una furtiva lagrima from crash-and-burn.

What about the rest? Thankfully Simone Alaimo's well-practiced Dulcamara was the real thing - I suspect in spite of the direction rather than because of it. I couldn't see why the lovely Adina would fall for Anthony Michaels-Moore's stiff and formal Belcore though. A little more oily charm was needed. Eri Nakamura had enough stage presence to make Giannetta's two minutes of glory memorable.

I'm not sure what conductor Bruno Campanella was aiming for. Clean, vibrato-free playing was combined with slowish, sometimes sluggish pacing - was he simply being considerate of certain singers? At least the pit/stage co-ordination was as accurate as we can hope for, and we were spared the ghastly village band sound favoured by many visiting conductors.

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Dmitri Hvorostovsky to replace Rolando in ROH recital (UPDATED with booking link)

 

Following Rolando Villazón's enforced withdrawal from his Royal Opera House recital with Antonio Pappano on 24 June, his place will now be taken by the silver-haired leather-trousered barigod Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the ROH have just announced.

This concert will be Dmitri's first solo recital at the Royal Opera House and the programme will include songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov in the first half, and Italian arias and Neapolitan songs in the second. Whether he'll be cooking up Siberian ravioli in the interval hasn't been confirmed.

Existing ticket holders can apply for a refund, and no doubt some will, which means more tickets should be available at some point. So chin up if you missed out first time round - there may yet be hope.

 

******   UPDATE - tickets now available - here   ******

 

Royal Opera House on Radio 3 is ready for take-off

On 16 May, Radio 3 begin eight weeks of Saturday night Royal Opera House broadcasts with Rolando Villazón in Les Contes d'Hoffman. Check out the link - beefed-up online content now includes videos, interviews and photos as well as the expected cast list and synopsis (though navigation remains as dismal as ever).

For the first time, the broadcasts will be available on the iPlayer afterwards as well.

Here's the rest of the season:

23 May    Korngold: Die tote Stadt
30 May   Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
6 June   Bellini: I Capuleti e I Montecchi
13 June   Richard Strauss: Elektra
20 June   Purcell: Dido and Aeneas and Handel: Acis & Galatea
27 June   Wagner: Lohengrin
4 July   Berg: Lulu

London Philharmonic clearout sale

The LPO, in conjunction with the Evening Standard, are again offering 2 tickets for the price of 1 to selected concerts, as follows:

Wednesday 27 May - Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov and Dvorak - with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Aldo Ciccolini
Sunday 31 May - Mahler, Mendelssohn and Rasch - with Vladimir Jurowski and René Pape
Friday 5 June - Debussy, Elgar and Beethoven - with Mario Venzago and Thorleif Thedéen

Full concert details here.

Seats cost between £9 and £55 each, and bookings must be made before 2pm on the day before the concert to qualify for the offer.

To book, call the London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office on 020 7840 4242 (no fee) or the Southbank Centre on  0871 663 2530 (£2.50 fee), quoting 'Eros Card offer', or visit the Southbank Centre.

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Tickets for the 31 May concert are also available on lastminute.com for £10

ENO's Cosi, Butterfly and TokenModernWork for just £10!

English National Opera are again offloading their otherwise-unshiftable tickets at the bargain price of £10 each.

Seats are at the back of the circle (clips the view of the top of the stage) or the balcony (only for tiny people with miniature bottoms).

Not all productions are included in the promotion though.

The operas on offer are Così fan tutte  (a new production whose Aix-en-Provence debut was described as "a four hour endurance effort with only a single intermission to relieve the boredom"), the venerable Minghella Madam Butterfly, and another new production, Kaija Saariaho’s 2000 opera L’Amour de loin (a 21st century Tristan, perhaps.)

Follow the instructions here to buy tickets.

Gotterdammerung in Manchester - the final score

Götterdämmerung - Hallé Orchestra / Elder - Bridgewater Hall Manchester, 9-10 May 2009

Sir Mark Elder conductor    Katarina Dalayman Brünnhilde    Attila Jun Hagen    Peter Coleman-Wright Gunther    Susan Bickley Waltraute    Yvonne Howard Second Norn    Katherine Broderick Woglinde    Leah-Marian Jones Flosshilde    Lars Cleveman Siegfried    Andrew Shore Alberich    Nancy Gustafson Gutrune    Ceri Williams First Norn    Miranda Keys Third Norn    Madeleine Shaw Wellgunde    Hallé Choir    Gentlemen of the BBC Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Chorus Royal Opera House Chorus and Royal Opera House Extra Chorus

The first half of the Hallé's concert Götterdämmerung was very good, but the second, performed on the following day, was extraordinary. It's tempting to view the weekend as one big show with a twenty hour interval, but in reality there was a different sort of electricity in Sunday night's air.

Though after a dismally dull afternoon's football at Old Trafford (even Sir Alex agreed), just the pre-show harp tuning was a comparative thrill.

I think a change of seat helped. I took in the Saturday performance from the circle on the first level - a great view, and, anecdotally, the best sound. But on Sunday in the front stalls the visceral rush from the massed musical forces was overwhelming, even though the unraked seating offered an over-long opportunity to contemplate the array of baldy heads between myself and the shoes of Mark Elder.

And the singers seemed on even better form. Katarina Dalayman's Brünnhilde (a recent Met success too) displays a rare combination of strength, sensitivity and intelligence. So what if she wasn't quite technically flawless. She could hardly have been more moving, especially in the tragic resignation of her final scene. Her noble and magnificent presence dominated both evenings.

Lars Cleveman projected far more convincingly on his second outing (according to a commenter on my earlier post he had a throat problem on Saturday). He offers a different sort of Siegfried to the usual - expressive, understated, sympathetic. How nice not to be shouted at. I'm not sure how it would work on stage, but the beauty of a concert performance is that it doesn't matter.

Attila Jun, Peter Coleman-Wright and the great Andrew Shore made a terrific trio of villains. And how well Jun's dark, thuggish Hagen was complemented by the massed Gibichung chorus (there must have been at least 150 of them) resonating around the hall. Nothing like strength in numbers, and a peculiarity of the acoustic made it seem as if the sound was coming from every direction, like some epic hi-fi demonstration. 

Was this the orchestral highlight? Or was it perhaps the rippling majesty of the Rhine journey interlude? Or the preludes, measured masterpieces each? I think Mark Elder can be excused for lavishing the most attention on the most exposed parts of the work, where splendid detailing was apparent throughout. 

More difficult to pardon was his pre-concert dig at "ghastly, modern productions" - enthusiastically received but hardly constructive. Unless of course his next Royal Opera House engagement - a concert performance of Linda di Chamounix - should be basketed with this Götterdämmerung as a statement of intent. Should be popular with the purse-string pullers at least.

But I digress - it takes nothing away from a magnificent performance that was received with an immediate and lengthy standing ovation all round, and rightly so.

To be broadcast on Radio 3 on 8 and 9 June - and not to be missed.

*UPDATE* - check out the Hallé Choir's Facebook wall for audience comments and more.

 

standing ovation:

 

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Manchester International Festival publicity FAIL

Look what I spotted on a poster outside Manchester Piccadilly station. It looks like the way Carlos fills his tights has made MIF's publicist drop their H's. Either that or they've been reading Tim Asley in the Guardian:

  

And because that was really too tiny to read, here's the embiggened version: