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€.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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:
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 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.
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.
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.
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 Faustsomehow 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.
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)?
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.
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 Passengerfor 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.
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