The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: René Pape
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* Notes * The penultimate performance this season of Don Carlo at Staatsoper Unter den Linden was last Monday. The opera was presented in Italian as four acts, which does not start off with Don Carlo and Elisabetta meeting in Fontainebleau. Philipp Himmelmann's production included many scrims and walls, designed by Johannes Leiacker. The set…
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* Notes * The April performances of Don Giovanni at Staatsoper Unter den Linden began last night, conducted by Asher Fisch. There were a few times that the orchestra and singers were not quite together, but worse was all the banging coming from backstage. Doubtless this will improve over time, but it was not particularly…
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August 29 2008- March 26 2009: CleofideAugust 31 2008- May 16 2009: Die ZauberflöteSeptember 3 2008- July 8 2009: Der RosenkavalierSeptember 14-20 2009: Don CarloSeptember 26- October 4 2008: MacbethOctober 8-24 2008: TannhäuserOctober 10 2008- April 14 2009: TurandotOctober 11-25 2008: Il TrovatoreOctober 15-27 2008: Don GiovanniOctober 26- December 27 2008: Hänsel und GretelOctober 29…
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* Notes * The Met's simulcast of Macbeth aired today. The production, by Adrian Noble, is new to the Met and opened October 22, 2007. Set after World War II, Mark Thompson's set and costumes are dark, lots of black, grey, olive, khaki. There were many leather jackets and machine guns, Banquo, for example, seemed…
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* Notes * Peter Mussbach’s production of Fidelio, which premiered at Bayerische Staatsoper in 1999, is infuriating and yet strangely dull. The set is boring, despite the many scene changes. It was also rather loud, the scrims made all sorts of sounds as they banged against the stage and a certain metal door squealed when…
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The Münchner Festspiele and the 2002-2003 opera season at the Bayerische Staatsoper ended with a performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. August Everding’s production from 1979 was undoubtedly the best I have seen with this opera company, and naturally, they are getting a new one for next time. Peter Schneider conducted impeccably. The music…
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So in the last week of December, I finally watched a television program in its entirety for the first time in seven years. It was a broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Fidelio. I suspect that part of the reason I do not watch television is because I have no idea what is on…
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Yesterday I went and saw Saint-Saëns most famous opera Samson et Dalila with my father, who was here for the weekend, ostensibly for a pre-auction showing at Butterfields that didn’t happen. The opera was the best one overall that I’ve seen this season. The music and singing were all fairly good, and Olga Borodina, the…
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