Intermezzo

Cheap Butterfly

Madama Butterfly, opening on Saturday at the Royal Opera House, is always a popular draw, so discount offers are unlikely. However there are a couple of ways to nab a cheapish ticket.

The ROH have just released over a hundred stalls circle stage-side seats over the pit for each night (initially set aside in case the orchestra needed the space for acoustic purposes). These are all under £50, with some under £20. Be warned that views are restricted and the sound is raw.

Alternatively, prices for the 8 July and 15 July performances are capped at £37.50. The catch? These shows will be recorded in 3D, which necessitates bulky cameras at each front corner and a crane stretching over the orchestra pit, slap bang in the middle. From balcony and amphitheatre seats, the cameras should be no more than a distraction; lower down, they will impede views. But you may be prepared to put up with the nuisance for the 75% discount.

Meanwhile at the Coliseum, further discount offers for Simon Boccanegra are popping up with the frequency of Giggsy's ex-shags. Check them out here.

Simon Boccanegra -Tcherniakov tries ENO

Simon Boccanegra - ENO Coliseum, 8 June 2011

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s reputation for radical and thought-provoking productions is solidified by his new Simon Boccanegra for ENO. Unfortunately his ideas are so drably clothed and opaquely executed that the experience is a testing one.

Discount Doge

 
Thanks to Nick for spotting this lastminute.com offer - tickets for ENO's forthcoming Simon Boccanegra at £15 (Upper Circle) or £25 (Dress Circle). The only risk is that you don't get to pick your seat, so you could end up in the furthest recesses of the back rows.

Dmitri Tcherniakov's new production has been co-commissioned by the discriminating Bavarian State Opera, so it stands a stronger chance than usual of being half-decent.

*UPDATE*  TravelZoo have an offer at the same price if you want to choose your own seat - book online in the normal way with ENO, entering the code TZSIMON to get the discount.

*UPDATE*  Lastminute.com have a 24 hour sale - and you can get stalls tickets for only £30 - as well as the cheap dress and upper circles that they had before - and it's now been extended to include July dates. (Thanks Faye for spotting).

*UPDATE* And the offers just keep on coming! Time Out are offering best available tickets for £30 each (or two for £30 in the upper circle) - you will need to register with them (free) to get the code. (Thanks Steve for the tip).

Simon Boccanegra from the best seat in the house

Prom 3: Simon Boccanegra (semi-staged) - Royal Albert Hall, 18 July 2010

One of the things I've never liked about the Proms booking system is that you can't choose your seat. I've never complained though because I always seemed to end up with pretty good seats. But I knew my luck would change one day. And so it was that I ended up at the very end of the side stalls for Simon Boccanegra - not just an angled view, but actually behind the orchestra. And costing more than I pay at Covent Garden too. (That's another dirty little Proms secret - the standing tickets may be cheap, but the seats cost more than any other classical venue in London bar the opera houses).

Saturday night in

Just look what happens when you ask for more arts coverage on TV. This Saturday it's like the World Cup Final of opera. 

On BBC2 at 7.30pm there's the Royal Opera House's Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo, as filmed on Monday. The programme is produced by the BBC themselves (not the ROH), so with luck it should feature on the iPlayer later. If you miss this, there's always the free live big screen relay at various venues on 13 July (which will of course be a different performance).

Or if you have access to Arte, you can tune in at 9pm CET for a delayed-action broadcast of that night's Tosca from Munich, featuring Jonas Kaufmann and Karita Mattila. This is the Luc Bondy production first seen at the Met. It looks as if the show won't be webcast, though there's a possibility it may be available as VOD later. A DVD should pop out in the fullness of time, too.

Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo at the Royal Opera House

Simon Boccanegra - Royal Opera House, 29 June 2010

With Berlin, Milan and New York under his belt, Placido Domingo’s now done enough Boccanegras for everyone to realise that him turning into a true baritone was always about as likely as England getting anywhere in the World Cup. True, he has all the notes, but the tenorial burnish is as it ever was. Interestingly, he only strained (a teeny bit) at the very top of his range - a studied attempt at baritonal authenticity, I wonder?

But this is academic territory. What matters is that regardless of theoretical vocal fit, he gave a truly monumental performance by any standard in the opening night of the Royal Opera House's latest run.

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Placido takes a bow

 

Who cares if he's a tenor or a baritone? A magnificent, unforgettable night at the Royal Opera House. Tears all round. More tomorrow.
 

beam me up Placi

Anyone lucky enough to get a ticket for the Royal Opera House's 26 June dress rehearsal of Simon Boccanegra may be wondering why the start time was pulled forward to 10.30am.

The reason is that its famously multitasking star Plácido Domingo has signed up for another gig that night - and it's 1000 miles away.

The "Musikalische Rückschau der Direktion Holender 1991-2010" at the Vienna State Opera is a gala concert celebrating outgoing Intendant Ioan Holender's 20-ish years at the helm. Other stars appearing include two more from Simon Boccanegra - Tony Pappano and Ferruccio Furlanetto - and Anna Netrebko, who is scheduled (though who knows) to appear in Covent Garden's Manon the night before.

The dress rehearsal ends at 1.30pm and the Holender-fest starts at 6.30pm (which is 5.30pm in the UK). So if Pláci can't spare a moment to warp the space/time continuum it looks as if an economically-shared private jet is in order. 

(On a related note, Intermezzo is eagerly awaiting the famously dirt-dishing Herr Holender's autobiography, expected any day soon.)

(ありがとうございました for the tip and see you soon!)

opera on BBC TV this summer

There's now a firm timetable for the season of opera-related programming the BBC unveiled a few months ago.

No real surprises, but there's a morsel of comfort for anyone who missed out on tickets for Placido's Simon Boccanegra - it's broadcast on 10 July.

Simon Boccanegra rehearsal booking

This will be of interest to ROH Friends only, but anyway - a reader has just forwarded me a ROH email - if you have already booked the maximum two permitted tickets for Simon Boccanegra this summer, you will not be allowed to book for the 26 June general rehearsal tomorrow too, as it's included in the two-ticket total. Weep now and save your tears tomorrow.

Royal Opera House Summer Season 2010

And so 2009/10 draws to a close with the usual tourist-friendly summer fare from the Royal Opera House.

The highlight (especially since he had to cancel Tamerlano) is Plácido Domingo's appearance in and as Simon Boccanegra (29 June to 15 July). We've all found out by now that he's not exactly a perfect fit - but then these days, who is? And it might be his last appearance at Covent Garden. And WTF he's Plácido Domingo. That's enough to make it essential. A cast that includes Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Joseph Calleja with Maestro Pappano himself conducting should compensate for Elijah Moshinsky's tired production.

Running it close is a new Laurent Pelly production of Massenet's Manon (22 June to 2 July) with Anna Netrebko in the title role. Pappano conducts again, and gorgeous Vittorio Grigolo makes his Covent Garden debut.

David McVicar's slightly fussy but intelligent Le Nozze di Figaro (31 May to 17 June) makes a swift return, with Erwin Schrott and a delightful springer spaniel vying for the cuteness award. As if that's not enough, Sir Colin Davis conducts most dates, making it a must-see.

Another McVicar, Salome (3 July to 16 July), has its first revival, with Angela Denoke in the title role and Hartmut Haenchen conducting. "Contains scenes of nudity and violence" - but not where you'd think.

Angela Gheorghiu lovers will be flocking to La Traviata (8 July to 17 July), though it may be James Valenti and Zeljko Lucic who make it worth seeing. Richard Eyre's production is a fine and thoughtful one, though anyone who catches it in May with Ermonela Jaho doesn't really need to see it again.

A swift resuscitation of Francesca Zambello's godawful Carmen (5 June to 26 June) has little to recommend it this time round apart from perhaps Christine Rice in the title role.

In the Linbury Studio, George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill (23 July to 26 July), here coupled with Berio's Recital I, comes highly recommended.

The Bolshoi visit in August, with a critically-acclaimed production of Eugene Onegin the only opera amidst endless nights of ballet (which to be honest, is probably a safer bet).

Friends' booking opens on 3 March and general booking on 6 April.

the Met's Simon Boccanegra - where to see it in London

If you're hoping to see Placido Domingo impersonating a baritone live from New York on Saturday, you've left it a bit late mate. Most of the London cinemas showing Simon Boccanegra sold out of tickets ages ago.

However, there is still hope. At the time of writing, the Picturehouse cinema in Stratford East still had a fair number of tickets left. And although the Barbican screening and BFI IMAX screenings are currently sold out, both permit customers to return tickets, so if you keep checking the websites you may get lucky. The others operate strict no-refund policies, but it may be worth turning up on the night and seeing if any customers have spare tickets to sell - this has worked for me in the past.

This is a list of all the London cinemas participating in the Met's Live in HD season:

Barbican Centre

Everyman Belsize Park  

BFI IMAX 

Ritzy Brixton  

Picturehouse Clapham 

Picturehouse Greenwich 

Everyman Hampstead 

Everyman Haverstock Hill 

Curzon Mayfair 

Gate Notting Hill 

Picturehouse Stratford East

And here's a full list of all UK cinemas.

Placido Domingo IS Simon Boccanegra - in photos

Most of us won't I guess be lucky enough to be present at Placido Domingo's baritone debut as Simon Boccanegra in Berlin tomorrow. But at least we can look at the pictures.

Here they are, all by Monika Rittershaus for Staastoper unter den Linden:

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Royal Opera House 2009/10 season - all the details

Here first! - a full list of all the Royal Opera House's main stage productions for the 2009/10 season.

The 2009/10 Covent Garden season opens with neither bang nor whimper but with a credit-crunching concert performance on 7 September (repeated on 14 September). Makes a change from last year's Sun readers' special I suppose.

The opera in question is Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, and the conductor is bel canto genius Mark Elder. The cast includes potential Next Big Things Stephen Costello, Eglise Gutierrez and Luciano Botelho, plus the incomparable Alessandro Corbelli, the first of several welcome appearances this season.

The first staged opera of the season is Nicholas Hytner's lego-loving Don Carlo, with - OMG!- Jonas Kaufmann !!! in the title role. John Tomlinson joins him as the Grand Inquisitor, and the rest of the cast is lifted straight from the first run - Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, fans' favourite Ferruccio Furlanetto, Sonia Ganassi and Pumeza Matshikiza.The conductor is Semyon Bychkov.

This season's contribution to the 2013 Wagnerversary is a new Christof Loy production of Tristan und Isolde. Antonio Pappano conducts Ben Heppner, Nina Stemme, Matti Salminen, Michael Volle and Sophie Koch.

Neigh! Francesco Zambello's ghastly Carmen returns in October, with the latest Covent Garden favourite Elina Garanca back for the title role, fighting off Roberto Alagna, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, and a farmyard full of furry friends. Bertrand de Billy conducts. It's resuscitated again in June 2010 with a distinctly 'B' cast.

October also sees one of Richard Jones's more subtle and effective efforts back on stage - and attractively cast. The shouldn't-work-but-it-does double bill of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (Christine Rice, Yann Beuron, Christopher Maltman, Andrew Shore and Bonaventura Bottone) and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (Thomas Allen, Maria Bengtsson and Stephen Costello) is conducted by Pappano.

Francesco Zambello steps into Tchaikovsky's The Slippers in November. The new production will be conducted by Alexander Polianichko and features some serious talent fresh from the Mariinsky - Olga Guryakova, Vsevolod Grivnov, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Matorin and Maxim Mikhailov.

John Schlesinger's elderly Der Rosenkavalier is dusted off in December. Kirill Petrenko conducts and the cast includes Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Thomas Allen and Lucy Crowe.

Littering the December and January schedules is the inevitable La Bohème. This time Andris Nelsons conducts most of the double-cast performances, which begin with Piotr Beczala and Hibla Gerzmava and end with not a few tbc's.

Robert Lepage's intermittently effective Rake's Progress returns in January 2010. Ingo Metzmacher, Toby Spence (a Tom Rakewell tdf), Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen and Stephanie Blythe promise much on the musical side.

Female conductor alert! Top Lisboan Julia Jones wields the baton over Jonathan Miller's Cosi fan Tutte in January. The cast includes Charles Castronovo and Sally Matthews.

A new Richard Jones production of Prokofiev's The Gambler in February is conducted by Pappano, with a cast including Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson and Jurgita Adamonyte.

Plácido Domingo's first appearance of the season is as a tenor. Graham Vick's acclaimed production of Handel's Tamerlano (recorded in Madrid and available on DVD con Plácido) makes its first visit to Covent Garden in March with Christianne Stoijn, Sara Mingardo and Christine Schäfer. Baroque specialist Ivor Bolton conducts.

Bill Bryden's family-friendly The Cunning Little Vixen returns in March with Emma Matthews, Christopher Maltman and Emma Bell, though the presence of Charles Mackerras on the podium has to be the main draw.

Caurier and Leiser's lovely Il Turco in Italia is back in April, with Maurizio Benini conducting, and Aleksandra Kursak, Colin Lee, Alessandro Corbelli, Thomas Allen and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the cast.

Aida is subjected to the David McVicar magic in April. His new production is conducted by Nicola Luisotti and features Micaela Carosi, Marcelo Alvarez and Luciana D'Intino. Bare naked elephants?

The last of the Big Three, Richard Eyre's subtly intelligent La Traviata, makes its annual appearance in May and July. This time her name's in the programme - Our first Lady of the Camellias is the fabulous former Netrebko sub Ermonela Jaho. Joining her in her long-awaited return to Covent Garden in May are Saimir Pirgu and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. July's 'B' Violetta is Angela Gheorghiu, who makes do with James Valenti and Zeljko Lucic. Yves Abel conducts.

Laurent Pelly's now-legendary La Fille du Régiment returns in May with the unbeatable original cast of Juan Diego Flórez, Natalie Dessay, Alessandro Corbelli and Felicity Palmer back in place. Bruno Campanella conducts.

What would tempt Sir Colin Davis back into the pit? How about David McVicar's Le Nozze di Figaro? Erwin Schrott, Camilla Tilling, Maruisz Kwiecen. Annette Dasch, Soile Isokoski and Christine Schäfer head the strong cast.

Antonio Pappano conducts Laurent Pelly's new Manon, coming to Covent Garden in June with the announced cast including Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Anyone fancy a bet?

In one of those rare operatic fairy stories, June sees a baritone with less than a year's experience thrust into a leading role at Covent Garden. Yes, it's Plácido Domingo again, and this time he's Simon Boccanegra. Antonio Pappano conducts a strong cast including Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Joseph Calleja. It's the 1991 Elijah Moshinsky production by the way, not the Ian Judge one seen last year.

The season ends in July 2010 with the first revival of David McVicar's controversial Salome. Angela Denoke takes the central role, with Johan Reuter as Jokanaan. Hartmut Haenchen conducts.

No link yet, but more details expected on the Royal Opera House website sometime next week.

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*******UPDATE 22/4*******

The Royal Opera House's press releases are now available on their website. Go here for the summary, here for the opera details and here for the ballet.

Covent Garden's new old Simon Boccanegra gets the FF factor

Simon Boccanegra - Royal Opera House, 4 May 2008

After the last disappointment (which wasn't the first), I swore off Sunday matinees at Covent Garden. But this ended up as the only Simon Boccanegra performance which fitted in with my schedule. And at least it featured the unexpected bonus of a starry late substitute in Ferruccio Furlanetto.

This time, the problem wasn't so much the performance as the production itself. Inexplicably revived after ten very understandable years on the shelf, it's like a Primark version of Zeffirelli's Metstravaganzas. The gorgeous Caravaggio-coloured costumes and simple multipurpose set aren't objectionable, just rather unimaginative. But it's desperately short on dramatic purpose, virtually inert, reliant totally on whatever sparks of enlightenment the singers can dredge up if it's to have any life at all.

It reminded me of those semi-staged concert performances which sink or swim in line with the performers' enthusiasm to step out from behind the music stands. Had the singers been abandoned to their own devices here too? There was no lack of enthusiasm, and once they'd moved beyond the cliched cape-flouncing monotony of the first half, the second was far more vital and engaging - but most of the credit here must go to Verdi and Boito for packing the last hour with an disproportionate share of death and denouement.

The late replacements Anja Harteros and Ferruccio Furlanetto had the least rehearsal time and the most impact. There was nothing girlish about Harteros. Her Amelia had a powerful dramatic presence and a big-boned sound, veering towards the coarse-grained a little too often. She wiped the floor with every man present, including Lucio Gallo, a hugely likeable but rather lightweight Boccanegra, and Marcus Haddock, an energetic but desperately un-Italian Adorno.

Ferruccio Furlanetto is of course a complete legend. It seemed almost as if he'd been dropped on to the stage to show the lesser mortals how it's done. He imposed his presence in the subtlest way, without any attention-grabbing antics, grave and noble. Impeccable legato and the the most elegant colouring made his Fiesco a delight to the ear. A pity for anyone not there that he's only scheduled for this one performance, but I'm now looking forward even more to his Philip in next month's Don Carlo.

And there was always the music. John Eliot Gardiner isn't the obvious Verdi choice, but he drew a lucid and polished performance from the orchestra, with the sort of candlelit warmth that few of his fellow period practice dudes can muster.

And all the passion and excitement was there for the big moments, the effect magnified in fact by his comparative restraint elsewhere. The orchestra played immaculately for him, scarcely a wobble, and he was remarkably attentive to the singers, every entrance neatly cued, and a perfect balance between stage and pit.

And check out that opium smokin jacket!  A Shanghai Tang velvet pyjama I think, but how practical and elegant.

At last - a cancellation to cheer about

The Royal Opera House's cancellation-plagued Simon Boccanegra adds yet another name to the lengthy list of no-shows. This time it's Orlin Anastassov, who's pulled out of the opening performance on 4 May due to ill-health.

The silver lining to this cloud is the replacement Fiesco - the mighty Ferruccio Furlanetto, conveniently in town rehearsing for next month's Don Carlo. If his performance is anything like the one I saw him give last year in Vienna, watch out - he may just blow everyone else off the stage.