Intermezzo

Loose lips from Amsterdam

According to reader 'Anonymous', the DNO Amsterdam may reveal on 16 February a 2012 - 2013 season bearing a more than faint resemblance to the speculation reproduced below. Possibly.

Those of an analytical bent will spot the beginnings of a Ring cycle, which together with a rarely-performed Schreker, a Meistersinger and a new George Benjamin make for a pretty spectacular season.

September: Schreker - Der Schatzgräber
Oct: Benjamin - Written on Skin
Nov: Wagner - Das Rheingold (con. Albrecht, dir. Audi)
Dec: Mozart - Die Zauberflöte
Jan: Glass - Einstein on the Beach
Feb: Rossini - Guillaume Tell
May: Wagner - Die Walkuere (con. Albrecht, dir. Audi)
Jun: Wagner - Die Meistersinger

'Anonymous' adds that there are rumours of a triple Verdi turning up some time: - Un Ballo in Maschera, La Traviata (the Decker one) and something else.

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.

Pianola Museum, Amsterdam

 

Tucked away just outside the centre of Amsterdam is the fabulous Pianola Museum. It's a tiny space, just one room. Inside are stuffed six working player-pianos together with related paraphernalia that include thousands of piano rolls. Luckily for me, my recent visit to the city coincided with the brief opening hours, 2-5pm on Sunday afternoons only.

It's not the sort of museum you wander around. Instead you sit on one of the few chairs while the curator demonstrates each instrument in turn, returning seamlessly to the beginning once he's finished. Over the space of an hour I heard Chopin, Stravinsky, Grieg playing Grieg (there was a vogue at one point for rolls created by famous pianists and composers) and best of all, a piece specially composed for player piano by Conlon Nancarrow. Many of his works are impossible to play manually because of the number and span of simultaneous notes. And of course the recordings sound quite different. So it was a real treat to hear one as it was supposed to be heard.

The museum is a genuinely undiscovered gem - there were only about ten other visitors all the time I was there - and as far as I know it's the only one of its kind. Well worth the diversion if you're in the area.
 
 
 
 

Stefan Herheim's Amsterdam Eugene Onegin - full video

If the video above doesn't work for you, try the source here. The opera itself is preceded by a short background documentary.

(Note - verbinden met videoserver mislukt means 'failed to connect to videoserver'. If you get this message leave it a couple of minutes and it may connect. If not, try the Flash option.)

(With huge thanks to reader Laura for the tip).

Eugene Onegin in Amsterdam

Eugene Onegin - De Nederlandse Opera, Het Muziektheater Amsterdam, 18 June 2011

By telling the story largely in interactive flashback, Stefan Herheim's new production ingeniously restores elements of Pushkin's verse novel absent from Tchaikovsky's adaptation. Flitting between Pushkin's time and today, Onegin and Tatiana take turns to contemplate their past.  At the same time, modern Russia's identity crisis is explored via a procession of national stereotypes from peasant to patriarchs, communists to cosmonauts. This feels over-ambitious, though to be fair it is truthful to the novel, which is drawn on a larger scale than the opera. The production as a whole though is still an extraordinary theatrical experience, enhanced by the brilliant playing of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Stefan Herheim's new Onegin in Amsterdam - the photos

 

Eugene Onegin opened last night at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, in a new production by Stefan Herheim.

The Dutch have really pulled out all the stops for this. The orchestra is the Royal Concertgebouw, and it's conducted by Mariss Jansons. The cast includes Bo Skovhus as Onegin, Krassimira Stoyanova as Tatiana, Elena Maximova as Olga, Andrej Dunaev as Lensky and Mikhail Petrenko as Gremin.

More later - meanwhile here are some production photos (Forster/De Nederlandse Opera).

2011-12 in Amsterdam

Let the 2011-12 opera season announcements begin!

First past the post (as far as I know - feel free to correct me) is De Nederlandse Opera, better known as Amsterdam Opera outside the land of the dikes.

As usual, Pierre Audi presents a bold season, with two world premieres - a contemporary version of the Oresteia called Orest by Manfred Trojahn (!!!) and Waiting for Miss Monroe by Robin de Raff, featuring Laura Aikin as Marilyn Monroe.

Anish Kapoor collaborates with Pierre Audi to create a new Parsifal. Ivan Fischer will conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the cast includes Petra Lang, Chris Ventris and Falk Struckmann.

Marc Minkowski brings in his Les Musiciens du Louvre orchestra for Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride in a Pierre Audi production. And there's another visiting period orchestra - Concerto Koln with Ivor Bolton - for David Alden's new production of Handel's last opera, Deidamia.

Robert Lepage's 2010 Aix-en-Provence Festival success The Nightingale and Other Fables pays a visit and perhaps most promising of all, Dmitri Tcherniakov is let loose on Rimsky-Korsakov's The Legend of the Invisible City Kitesj and the girl Fevronja, which features Kristine Opolais.

Subscriptions are already on sale; individual tickets are (theoretically) sold 3 months before the production starts, though in practice I've been able to buy them much earlier than that.