Intermezzo

No more Planet of the Apes

The Bavarian State Opera recently ditched their notorious but memorable 'Planet of the Apes' Rigoletto for an altogether tamer version.

Arpád Schilling's new production, economically set in a stadium, has been dubbed a 'concert in costume' by some of the German critics. It features Joseph Calleja, Franco Vassallo and Patricia Petibon, with Marco Armiliato conducting.

You can see for yourself on Sunday 30 December when the opera is streamed live from Munich at 18:00 CET (5pm UK).

 Here's a trailer:

Xmas Day opera

If you can tear yourself away from the turkey, BBC2 are showing an Italian film of Rossini's La cenerentola on 25 December at 3.15pm.

It was shot at various historical locations in Turin this summer for live broadcast  in Italy.

ENO traviata offer

Upper circle tickets for 2 - 9 Feb shows of ENO's La traviata are half price (£31-£33) with this TimeOut offer.  Seats are only allocated on the night, by the way.

The seats in the offer all have a view of the subtitles. If you don't mind doing without (remember, it's sung in English), seats in the back two rows are even cheaper at £25 (weekday shows only) when you book direct with ENO (no code required).

Diana Damrau crosses over

Another recruit for the dark side. Fresh from popping out her second baby, Diana Damrau has been in Liverpool recording a disk of "popular songs from films and musicals, such as Snow White, The Wizard of Oz, The Snowman and Mary Poppins" together with "classics from the  world of operetta".

OK so it's not quite a Xmas album with Joe McElderry but it's one step down a slippery slope. And some singers can't help sliding all the way to the bottom:

Domingo's Operalia on TV

Plácido Domingo's Operalia winners concert, seen at the Royal Opera House in July, is to be shown on BBC4 tomorrow night (Friday 21 December) at 7.30.

The 90 minute broadcast features Nina Stemme, Joyce Di Donato, Joseph Calleja, Rolando Villazon, Stefan Pop, Julia Novikova and Sonya Yoncheva alongside El Plácido.

If you can't wait:

Barely Don

Christopher Maltman's botty receives a rare public airing on 9 January when Kasper Holten's Don Giovanni-based movie Juan is screened at the Royal College of Music's Britten Theatre.

Warning for purists - this is a film based on the opera, not a film of the opera, so about half the music is cut - and it's sung in English

Tickets are £10 from the RCM website.

A preview:

La boheme is back

La bohème - Royal Opera House, 17 December 2012

When Rodolfo sounds more consumptive than Mimì, you’ve got a problem. Post-surgery, Rolando Villazón has had his ups and downs, but he was singing much better in Salzburg this summer than he could manage last night in the 999th revival of John Copley's La bohème. The notes were (mostly) there; the volume wasn’t. Despite Mark Elder’s considerate restraint, the orchestra often washed over him, and he bottled a few key phrases, not to mention their money notes. I can only hope for Rolando’s sake it was just an off night, perhaps a touch of the respiratory lurgy that seemed to afflict half the audience.

Swiss Welsh Dutchman in London

Der fliegende Holländer - Oper Zürich - Royal Festival Hall, 15 December 2012

As they've done a few times before, Zurich Opera interrupted their home schedule to bring a concert version of a current show to the Royal Festival Hall - orchestra, singers and all.

This time round, it was their new production of Der fliegende Holländer.  Both London houses have tackled it recently. Neither managed, with all the costumes, curtains and furnishing items at their disposal, anything nearly as thrilling as Zurich gave us with a bare stage  - and a few top-class singers.

Richard Wagner is smokin

Put it down, it's not a toy.  This weeny wooden Wagner is a Räuchermann, a kind of incense burner. Pull the maestro's head off, stick in a burning incense cone, then put him back together and watch the smoke puffing out from his mouth.

This special model was commissioned by Volksbank Pirna to celebrate Wagner's 200th birthday, and it's available from branches of the bank for €44.

Massive losses force Met's $100m bond sale

According to Bloomberg, swelling losses are behind the Metropolitan Opera's decision to raise $100m via the sale of bonds at the end of this week.

Losses from operations grew 7 percent last season to $135 million, the third consecutive  increase. At the same time, operating revenue fell to $170.2 million, an 8 percent drop.

The news gets worse. Box office for the first four months of 2012-13 is down on last season.

The bond issue will be used to repay $63.2 million in loans from Bank of America Corp and to cover operating needs. The Bloomberg article also highlights the the threat of unfunded pension obligations (= projected future pension payments not covered by the Met's pension fund itself).

The bonds are expected to be sold to institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies.

GILT secret

The annual Get Into London Theatre offers have just begun.

They include drastically reduced prices for ENO's Mikado and La traviata, with dress circle seats down to £25 and upper circle £15 (including all fees).

Also of interest to Onegin obsessives may be the Deborah Colker Dance Company's Tatyana at the Barbican, with £23 tickets reduced to £15.

The GILT ticket allocation is limited, so it's best to buy as soon as you can.

Book on the GILT site.

KJ @ ROH

No, not that one.

But look at whose name popped up amongst the extra chorus for Robert le diable:

To distinguish Kathyrn Jenkin (pictured below) from the Welsh wannabee, one of her colleagues provides this useful tip - the Royal Opera House soprano is "a delightfully sweet girl with a BEAUTIFUL voice".

 

Renee Fleming's Wiener magic

Renée Fleming /Maciej Pikulski - Barbican, 9 December 2012

Who knew Renee Fleming had a sense of humour? She poked fun at her own OTT golden gown - "I wanted you to get the Klimt connection." She paused between songs to join the bronchial audience in a spot of coughing - "I have a cold too, so I sympathise!". She flubbed her words in one of the encores, then threw up her hands and giggled before starting over.

One knight is enough

Robert le diable - Royal Opera House, 6 December 2012

If this staging has one positive result, it will be to silence once and for all any pleas for more Meyerbeer at the Royal Opera House. The best efforts of all involved do little to disguise a limp plot, flimsy characterisation, vapid melodies and rote composition. Presumably the Parisians who hailed its 1831 debut were taken in by the superficially pretty orchestration and some spectacular vocal gymnastics. It's hard to imagine anyone staying awake otherwise.

Jonas. Lohengrin. Here. Now.

My advice? Download it swiftly, before it gets pulled.

 

*UPDATE* - My heaving mailbag reveals some of you don't know how to download a YouTube video.

The easiest way is to use a YouTube built-in downloading tool. First you need to download a piece of free software called Best Video Downloader. Then, go to the video's YouTube page by left-clicking on the title at the top of the video. You will see a 'Download' button just beneath the video. Click on your preferred file type (MP4 or FLV only) and that's it. It's a large file, so it will take a few minutes to download.

Give Franz a break

Franz Welser-Möst has pulled out of all future opera engagements at the Salzburg Festival, citing unreasonable scheduling.

He complains that the 2013 plan is not feasible for the singers. The first three of five Così fan tutte performances are spread over five days, leaving just a day's rest between each. He had earlier in the week told an interviewer it's unacceptable to begin one of these at 11 am - "because then the singers would have to get up at three o'clock to prepare."(Probably a good job that it starts at 1pm, not 11am, then. Although most singers can and do manage morning engagements from time to time, but let's not digress).

Welser-Möst's outrage has compelled him to cancel not just the three offending performances, but the whole Mozart-Da Ponte cycle he was supposed to be conducting over over three years from 2013 to 2015.

Oddly, he doesn't mention why he didn't spot the flawed timetabling earlier; it's been public for several weeks, in the unlikely event he wasn't told way beforehand anyway. And while his own Vienna State Opera, like most houses, generally leaves two clear days between shows, they also sometimes schedule performances just a day apart - the very issue he's complaining about.

Coincidentally, Welser-Möst has just started rehearsals in Vienna for Ariadne auf Naxos, the dreadful Salzburg Festival production by Sven-Eric Bechtolf, who's also in charge of the Mozart cycle.

Festival management are apparently out of the country at the moment. So sadly we'll have to wait for Alexander Pereira's no doubt feisty response.

Wagner on the wall

Jonathan Meese: "Keine Gurus"

A new exhibition in Berlin takes a look at Wagner from the perspective of more than 50 contemporary artists. Wagner 2013. Kunstlerpositionen opens today at Akademie der Künste  and runs to 17 February 2013.

A comprehensive website gives background information on the featured artists, who include directors, film makers, painters and designers, together with a series of video interviews.

When opera is worse than easyJet

"It would be more comfortable on a packed easyJet flight".

Despite a five year refurbishment programme costing 30 million Swiss francs (£20m),  the seats of the Opéra de Lausanne are not bottom-friendly, customers have complained.

Upgrade work concentrated on the stage and infrastructure.  Modern replacement seating itself wouldn't be too expensive, but in order to accommodate it 200 places would have to be removed. The house simply cannot afford that kind of revenue loss, says its director.

Unlike the ROH and ENO, which faced the same issue not that long ago, the Opéra de Lausanne has promised customers that the seating problems will be addressed. The drawback? They'll have to wait 20 years for it to happen.

Brothel Traviata

Andrea Breth's new production of La traviata for La Monnaie places Violetta in a brothel, the victim of Eastern European sex traffickers. There's an orgy in Act 2, and plucky servant Annina (the redoubtable Carole Wilson) has to give Dr Grenvil a blow job to secure his services.

It's all about the commodification of sex reckons Manuel Brug of Die Welt, who was impressed.

See for yourselves between 5 and 25 January 2013, when the show will be streamed FREE on La Monnaie's web site. Those in continental Europe can catch it a bit sooner; it's shown on Arte Live Web on 15 December.

Jonas talks opera

"The good looking is more important than it was in the past."