Intermezzo

Die Fledermaus bats for ENO

Die Fledermaus - Coliseum, 30 September 2013 (first night)

This was a frustrating evening. A few good ideas are buried in Christopher Alden's surreal take on Die Fledermaus but they simply don't cohere. The director's Freudian perspective is awkwardly framed in a Weimar-meets-Rocky Horror aesthetic, each diluting the impact of the other. There was romance and realism, there was out-there absurdism, but they failed to mesh. It was clear we were not in for an evening of golden-hued Andre Rieu-style nostalgia, but what Alden left in its place was too unfocused to be called a 'concept'. Next to his superb, pointed Midsummer Night's Dream, this show seems thrown together.

Orlando in Dresden

Orlando - Semperoper Dresden, 3 March 2013

Musical Director: Jonathan Darlington
Staging: Andreas Kriegenburg
Set Design: Harald Thor
Costume Design: Andrea Schraad
Lighting Design: Stefan Bolliger
Choreography: Zenta Haerter
Dramaturgy: Valeska Stern

Casting 03 Mar 2013

Orlando: Christa Mayer
Angelica: Carolina Ullrich
Medoro: Gala El Hadidi
Dorinda: Barbara Senator
Zoroastro: Georg Zeppenfeld

With generous support of the foundation of the Semperoper Dresden
 

Since Fabio Luisi abandoned ship three years ago, Dresden Semperoper has been without a music director. (Christian Thielemann is chief conductor of the Staatskapelle orchestra, a position technically without opera or management responsibilities). And for more than a year there’s been no artistic director either; when the late Ulrike Hessler’s illness became serious, her place as Intendant was ‘temporarily’ filled by the commercial director, a position he still holds.

 This artistic management void must go some way toward explaining the colossal balls-up that is Dresden’s new production of Handel’s Orlando. Its only redeeming quality is the touching commitment of the performers.

Bus Stop Opera

"With the first light, always before everyone else, I wake up, take the S60 train from Birkenwerder." That's the first line of Yvonne, a new mini-opera to be performed in Tel Aviv's usually frantic Central Bus Terminal while it's closed to passengers on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Underwear sniffing, violence, and hot dogs are incorporated into a plot set in the lingerie section of a Berlin department store built on the ruins of a synagogue.  A cross between Fassbinder movies and Are You Being Served? reported one dress rehearsal witness.

Wagnerpants!

Admit it, you've been waiting for these a long, long time. The world's first ever Wagnerpants® have arrived courtesy of Aussie leggings legends Black Milk.

Crafted in pure polyester with a touch of spandex, the Fire Horse Legging depicts Brünnhilde riding into Siegfried's funeral pyre as Valhalla goes up in flames - whew, some eyecatching mane positioning there guys.

(Credit to Olivia Giovetti for spotting.)

Carmen, meet Dick

Carmen - Coliseum, 21 November 2012 (first night)

There are underpants aplenty in ENO’s ‘new’ (actually 13 year old) Carmen, but, contrary to reputation, director Calixto Bieito seems unwilling to drop them. When it gets down to the real meat and potatoes, only one todger is served up. To the orchestral opening of the third act, a wafty, homoerotic dance solo suggests the soldier in question can only be at peace in his fantasies. Well, if you've got to stick a willy in Carmen, I suppose that's not a bad place to do it. 

L'elisir d'amore - Royal Opera House

L'elisir d'amore - Royal Opera House, 13 November 2012 (first night)

This gently remodelled and reverentially paced revival of Laurent Pelly's 2007 production is not a vintage night at the opera. Slightly corked more like.

Pelly's cosy Cath Kidston faux-50s perspective is not a patch on Jonathan Miller's edgier ENO production for wit, warmth and vitality. And what Pelly hasn't sucked out, Bruno Campanella's connoisseurly savouring of every last note drained down to the dregs. Luckily, this is the best cast it's had so far, and the superb individual performances make it a show worth seeing.