Intermezzo

Going Dutch

Reader Bohdan has kindly pointed out that if you fancy seeing any of De Nederlandse Opera's offerings this season, it's possible to fly to Amsterdam and sit in the stalls for less than a top price ticket at Covent Garden. With change left over for an ice cream.

Plentiful flights ( last return at 9.30pm-ish) make a day trip and matinee show a feasible proposition. Easyjet costs from around £50 if you book well in advance, and BA about £80.  The heavily-subsidised tickets run from 62€ to 132€.

Rimsky's Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, a well-cast Willy Decker Don Carlo and Ivan Fischer conducting the Concertgebouw in Parsifal would all make worthwhile expeditions.

The Classical Climate

 
A pair of academic scientists (and part-time classical music buffs) have published a study showing some of the ways weather is depicted in classical orchestral music.

Amongst their findings:  storms are more popular than sunshine,  British composers write more about the weather than other nationalities, and there's no connection between the type of weather composers prefer and the type they choose to portray in music.

Vittorio Grigolo gets something off his chest

 

After tonight's Faust at Covent Garden, simulcast around the world, there was something Vittorio Grigolo just couldn't wait to tell the folks back home.

Wait, it's coming...

 

A swift salute first....

All change at LA Opera

 

“F--k me, I’m famous!”

Best Anna Netrebko interview ever.

Papering the house

Thanks to readers Nick and Jamie for spotting the latest ENO discounts. 

Via Moneysavingexpert.com (scroll down to find the deal), tickets for The Elixir of Love are £10-£15 (Upper Circle) or £20 (rear Dress Circle) - and because they're sold via the ENO website, you get to pick your seat.

Meanwhile, it seems the reason you can't find any discounts for The Passenger is that ENO have been reduced to giving the tickets away. With good reason. Having managed to sit through less than an hour of it on opening night before boredom obliged my exit, I would say 'total dud' is polite.

Renee Fleming tweets divorce

As marriages go, it was never the happiest one. Renee and bel canto, that is. Booed by La Scala's feared loggionisti for her Lucrezia Borgia in 1998, pasted by the critics for last season's regrettable Met Armida, The Beautiful Voice has wisely never invested too much time in bel canto opera anyway.

Now, as she prepares to open in Lucrezia Borgia in San Francisco tonight, she reveals her decision to part  from the genre altogether. And what more ruthlessly efficient medium is there for a break-up than Twitter?

Anna Netrebko frocks out

 

Yesterday was the dress rehearsal of the Met's season-opener, a new Anna Bolena with Anna Netrebko in the title role.

With David McVicar in the driving seat, no-one will be surprised to learn the production has a traditional look. For inspiration, costume designer Jenny Tiramani referenced court portraits, tapestries, actual relics and even wills detailing the deceased's garments, as Vogue.com reveal in more detail.

By happy and flattering coincidence, the historically-accurate swathes of satin and velvet frame Anna's impressive acres of bosom heavage whilst shrouding the remainder of her voluptuous assets in mystery. 

Goethe's curse hits Roberto's Faust

 
Goethe famously declared that the only composer able to do justice to his epic drama Faust was Mozart - by that point inconveniently deceased.  So Gounod's effort to portray the masterpiece in music has always laboured under the mighty poet's curse.

Mr and Mrs Alagna - together again on stage

Angela Gheorghiu has just confirmed - in front of a live audience at a Royal Opera House promotional event - that she'll be sharing the stage with her husband in La Bohème next year.

(If they can find a conductor brave enough.)

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2011 - Vote for Intermezzo!

 
Thanks to your nominations, Intermezzo has made it on to the final shortlist of the 2011 Cosmopolitan Blog Awards, the only music blog to get that far.

Now for the final push.

With stiff competition from the fabulous Bigguysmalldogblog and ten other outstanding blogs, I really need your help.

So I'm asking, no, begging you to support me with your vote. You'll be raising the profile of opera and classical music as well. If you'd like to help out (and I know much you enjoy voting for stuff), here's what you need to do:

• Go to http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/blog-awards-2011-vote
• Enter an email address in the 'Simply enter your details...' box, then hit 'Continue'
• On the next page, hit 'Lifestyle blog with Handpicked Media'
• Find 'Intermezzo' (third down on the left), hit 'Vote Now' and that's it

English Touring Opera back in town

 
English Touring Opera begin their autumn tour on 6 October in the Royal College of Music's delightfully bijou Britten Theatre, tucked away behind the Royal Albert Hall.

There are three operas on offer.  Purcell's Fairy Queen and Handel's Xerxes are new productions; Handel's Flavio a resuscitated greatest hit from 2009. If they're anything like as good as ETO's spring tour offerings, all three nights should be unmissable.

The theatre only holds 400, so tickets have gone quickly, but there are still a handful left on the RCM website, or you can book by phone direct with ETO. The tour then continues at various venues around the country.

The Britten Theatre later hosts a Royal College of Music double bill of two rarely-heard early Bizet operas, Le docteur Miracle and Djamileh - neither exactly masterpieces but worth catching for curiosity value alone.

Another ENO Elixir offer

 
Kelkoo Select are offering tickets for ENO's Elixir of Love on 23 and 25 September for £25 (Dress Circle) or £15 (Upper Circle).

As with the similarly-priced lastminute.com offer, you don't get to pick your own seats.

Alternatively, there's Seetickets' more expensive offer  - Upper Circle tickets reduced from £59 to £35. Again you don't get to choose your seat, but it's valid for all dates, and at least you can see what you've been assigned before you pay.

Highly recommended if you're in the mood for something a bit silly.

Jonas Kaufmann confirms Royal Festival Hall date

From his website:

"I’m pleased to say that the operation to remove a node from my chest that I had to undertake earlier this month went very well and that the recovery is making good progress. Therefor I can start performing as expected in October, first an Aria recital tour with concerts in Essen (10th), Berlin (13th), Athens (19th) and London (24th) followed by a Lied recital at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (30th) and rehearsals for the new production of Gounod's “Faust” at the same place."

So you think the new ROH logo is bad....

Ope Tuttgart?  

Not quite.

This is the new logo for Oper Stuttgart, commissioned for 'a five figure sum' by incoming artistic director Jossi Wieler to mark the start of his reign.

'More fit for a techno festival' was just one of the local grumbles - and a respected graphic design blog wondered if it was a joke.

Faust at the Royal Opera House

Faust - Royal Opera House, 18 September 2011 (first night)

looking for a John Tomlinson impersonator?

Despite some outstanding performances from a top-drawer cast, this second revival of David McVicar's Faust somehow fails to hit the mark. Part of the blame is of course Gounod's - never afraid to cut a flowing story dead in its tracks with a crowd-pleasing ballet or drinking song.

Miss Rene Pape (?) - back at Covent Garden

 

Rene Pape as Méphistophélès in the Royal Opera House's Faust (photo Catherine Ashmore/Royal Opera House).

Il trittico at the Royal Opera House

Il trittico - Royal Opera House, 14 September 2011

How do you handle a death in the family? Try to blot it out in sex without love (Giorgetta in Il tabarro)? Seek solace in religion without faith (Suor Angelica)? Or do you just treat it as a business opportunity, money without scruples (Gianni Schicchi)?

Netrebko sings for beer

 

Champagne may be opera's tipple of choice, but at Dresden Semperoper they prefer lager.

A longstanding sponsorship deal with local brewer Radeberger Pilsner lends a distinctly less elitist touch to those ads in the back of the programme.

Now Radeberger and the Semperoper have snapped up Anna Netrebko for a special concert on 24 February 2012, where she's sharing the bill with cellist Jan Vogler.

It's so exclusive you can't even buy a ticket. Instead, Radeberger are giving them away - together with a night's hotel accommodation. Enter the draw here.

70% off first night tickets for ENO's The Passenger

It's not often ENO flog off first night tickets cheap, but via Time Out you can see the UK premiere of Weinberg's The Passenger for just £24 (Dress Circle) or £12 (Upper Circle). You will be sent a voucher by email, which you then print off and exchange for a ticket at the box office.

*Move quickly - offer expires at midnight today, Saturday 17th now extended to midnight Sunday 18th *

If you miss this one, don't worry - judging by the swathes of unsold seats for every performance there'll be more deals soon.