All tagged Robert Carsen

Falstaff at the Royal Opera House

Giuseppe Verdi had written 27 operas by the time he started a four year project to in 1889 to write only his second comedy opera.  His first comedy work ‘Un giormo di regno’ was staged unsuccessfully in 1840 and Rossini, a great admirer of Verdi, commented that he thought him incapable of writing a comedy. Verdi was concerned that at his advanced age, to start a new substantial project was a real risk.  However, such was his profile that at the world premiere of Falstaff at La Scala Milan in early 1893, the huge success of his work was recognised with an applause lasting almost an hour. 

Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House

What a glorious night of opera.  Of course, the music to Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier is full of the grandest of liqueur.  It was written in 1911 as one of the greatest of social comedies, with a reflective libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.  It was first conducted at the Royal Opera House in 1913 by Thomas Beecham.