Here, I post my reviews and document my love of opera. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to comment on any of my posts or contact me if you wish to.
Have a nice stay!
David Buchler
Sadko is an extraordinary opera, written by Rimsky Korsakov in 1891 and premiered in Moscow in 1898. It is an opera rarely performed today, probably due to its production complexities and the difficulty of finding a tenor to sing the enormously complicated and high lying role of Sadko.
La Traviata (the fallen woman) is one of Verdi’s most popular operas. It is based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas and its world premiere was at La Fenice in Venice in 1853. As with everything to do with opera there was a dispute with the local authority who insisted that a contemporary setting was inappropriate and the production had to be circa 1700. It was not until 1880 that a more contemporary production was staged.
This joint production between Hackney Empire and the English National Opera, presents the European premiere of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird composed by the saxophonist, Daniel Schnyder. It was an extraordinary evening of jazz infused Bebopera, moving at a pulsating pace.
L'elisir d'amore is a two-act comic opera by the Italian composer Donizetti and was premiered in 1832 in Milan. The opera was written in six weeks! It is a love story reflecting on how a young farm worker Nemorino gets his girl, the farm owner Adina, despite the interest of a rival the boastful Sergeant Belcore and using a love potion put together by the dubious Doctor Dulcamara.
Tosca was chosen by Grange Park Opera to open its new theatre at the home of the mercurial Bamber Gascoigne at West Horsley Place in Surrey. The modern horseshoe design on four tiers with a semi-domed roof enables you to enjoy a clear vibrant acoustic sound.
La Rondine has a rather varied history and is often regarded as Puccini’s ‘poor cousin’ opera. He was, even until his death, unhappy with each of the three versions that he wrote (1917, 1920, 1921) and never gave a clear indication as to his preferred ending he preferred.
Carousel, the second musical by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein, opened on Broadway in the Spring of 1945 to critical acclaim from both critics and audiences. It was a work adapted from Ferenc Molnar’s 1909 play Liliom, but instead of a Budapest setting it was transplanted to a setting in New England USA.
It was the last night and last chance to see whether there had been an improvement in this mess of a production. Needless to say, there hasn’t! In fact, with Beckmesser opening a bottle of fizzy orange in this first Act – did I miss this or was it added – in this 1920’s/30’s production, it was clear that Kasper Holten was giving not an inch to his critics.
What a show…….or what a Jaho! The 2003 production by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier gave us a clean stripped back production with no gimmicks. What a relief.
I was lucky enough to attend 2 gala concert/recital events this week - one at the ENO Gala Concert, Rosewood Hotel and the other at Kings Place, Kings Cross, London N1 - meeting 3 different young ladies with great careers ahead of them.
Christopher Alden directed this Olivier award winning 2008 production and it still looks as fresh as a daisy. His revival lighting designer this time was Kevin Sleep, who ensured a very visual and colourful production using the change of lighting to good effect, particularly in act 2.
It’s a mess. Not musically, but in Kasper Holten’s last production for the ROH as Artistic Director he really hasn’t come to terms with the complexities of the piece and too many gimmicks abound, which simply do not make sense. His production of Eugene Onegin was poor, but in some respects this production is really awful.
In Jan 2017, Hamburg celebrated the opening at one of the world’s most acoustically advanced concert halls called the Elbphilharmonie or nicknamed Elphi. It is a new glassy construction hovering above a brick base resembling a hoisted sale or water wave on the edge of the river Elbe.
There are tens of thousands of well-meaning operatic compositions that lay in the waste of time. It is extremely difficult to find the template required for a new work that does more than just have its ‘premiere’.
This was the main operatic success of the composer, Francesco Cilea. He has given us wonderful orchestration and at times a rather long drawn out melody, but it is not a score of gripping intensity or passion, despite the story of the celebrated Parisian actress who’s love for the handsome Count is met by a rival who eventually kills her with poison.
An old friend is back. To see Jonathan Miller’s Rigoletto return to the stage was a great comfort. It has been intelligently revived by Elaine Tyler-Hall and the sets (particularly the art deco at the beginning of Act I and in Act II) as well as the bar scene in Act III are clear, precise and still very relevant today.
My original review of Rosenkavalier was sent on 21 December and there is no further addition to the production, but there are 2 significant changes to the cast, namely the new Marschallin of Rachel Willis-Sorensen and the Octavian of Anna Stephany.
What a supremely beautiful opera house in Wiesbaden. It is small (probably around 1,000 seats) with a great quality of sound. This opera is the second in the Ring Cycle, albeit was Wagner's third in order of conception. He had worked backwards from planning an opera about Siegfried's death and in doing so he needed another opera to tell of his conception.
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.
The original novel, Manon Lescaut, written by French author, Abbe Prevost, was banned upon publication in 1731. A similar treatment to the production by Jonathan Kent would not have gone amiss.
