Madama Butterfly – Puccini – Puccini Festival Torre del Lago

Madama Butterfly – Puccini – Puccini Festival Torre del Lago

David Buchler
Puccini Festival

Covid-19 had ravaged this part of Italy, including the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, but with typical Italian character and guile a reduced Festival starting in August has been possible, albeit at less than 40% capacity with constant Covid testing of artists and all involved. By using a more local fully Italian cast the Festival made it work and put on a real show. It is of course easier to downsize audience when you have nearly 3,500 seats to play with and a beautiful outdoor arena on the lake! Nevertheless there was a large number of medical staff available, temperatures were taken when you entered the grounds and masks were worn. Perhaps this was the first real Corona-Puccini Festival!

Elektra –Strauss – Salzburg Festspiele 2020

Elektra –Strauss – Salzburg Festspiele 2020

David Buchler
Salzburg Festival

Probably the hottest opera ticket was the opening night of a reduced Salzburg Festival in its hundredth year anniversary. A few months ago it was almost inconceivable that there would be any festival at all in August, but as a result of continual Covid testing amongst artists, orchestra and theatre employees, together with proper zoning and social distancing, the first operatic notes were played, sung and streamed simultaneously to the pleasure of all present.

My Favourite Opera Scenes & Arias (Part 2)

David Buchler

I have a list of approximately 20 opera scenes & arias that are amongst my favourites in the operatic repertoire. For my audience purpose, I have taken this list from YouTube, so not all my favourite recordings are in the list, but it is an extraordinary list with extraordinary singers and musicians and I hope you can take as much enjoyment from this group as I have in compiling them. I am dividing my list into groups of approximately six over the next few weeks to give you between 30 and 45 minutes of musical relaxation. Enjoy!

My Favourite Opera Scenes & Arias

David Buchler

I have a list of approximately 20 opera scenes & arias that are amongst my favourites in the operatic repertoire. For my audience purpose, I have taken this list from YouTube, so not all my favourite recordings are in the list, but it is an extraordinary list with extraordinary singers and musicians and I hope you can take as much enjoyment from this group as I have in compiling them. I am dividing my list into groups of approximately six over the next few weeks to give you between 30 and 45 minutes of musical relaxation. Enjoy!

Fidelio – Beethoven – Royal Opera House

Fidelio – Beethoven – Royal Opera House

David Buchler
Royal Opera House

Whilst the first of three versions of Fidelio was premiered in Vienna in 1805, it wasn’t until 1814 that the final version titled Fidelio – as opposed to Leonore for the previous two – was itself premiered to critical acclaim, with the original three Act version now reduced to two Acts. This was Beethoven’s only opera and he best described it in a letter to one of his Librettists, Georg Friedrich Treitschke, that his ‘Cooperation had saved what is best from the shipwreck’.

Agrippina – Handel – Metropolitan Opera New York

Agrippina – Handel – Metropolitan Opera New York

David Buchler
Metropolitan Opera

It is over 300 years since the premiere of this operatic masterpiece by Handel, who was 24 years old at the time of composition. It depicts a Roman story of some 2,000 years ago, satirising the politicians of that day. But of course in this very modern interpretation of this piece by the Director David McVicar, whilst the times have changed the world certainly hasn’t. The Metropolitan Opera’s General Manager Peter Gelb said ‘Agrippina is a dark comedy about corrupt leaders who lie and manipulate in their quest to stay in power. We are grateful to the White House for making Agrippina feel more immediate’.

Maxim Vengerov – Carnegie Hall New York

Maxim Vengerov – Carnegie Hall New York

David Buchler
Carnegie Hall

In honour of the centenary of the birth of perhaps the greatest violinist ever to grace the stage of Carnegie Hall, Isaac Stern, one of our greatest violinists today, the imperious Maxim Vengerov, played a concert of some merit with his piano playing partner, the Russian wunderkind Polina Osetinskaya. The programme had no hint of Russian music, not even in the four encores and perhaps that is why the evening didn’t really take off until the very end.

Carmen – Bizet – English National Opera

Carmen – Bizet – English National Opera

David Buchler
English National Opera

Calixto Bieito, the Director of this production, first seen in 2012, brings his own personal interpretation of an unyielding Carmen in the midst of early 1970’s Franco-type testosterone-filled masculinity.  No quarter is given.  The male soldiers are at the same time playful boys and violent nasty male caricatures.  The misogynistic treatment of women stands out in this stripped back production, but the gratuitous violence that simmers throughout the evening is at times unedifying and disturbing. 

Cosi fan tutte – Mozart – Nice Opera France

Cosi fan tutte – Mozart – Nice Opera France

David Buchler

I would like to think that the seat I occupied at the Nice Opera was once sat on by Napoleon the III himself.  The original 1776 wooden theatre was rebuilt in 1826 and Napoleon the III was known to have been a visitor, particularly when Johann Strauss led the orchestra during the 1860’s.  However, it is very unlikely that a ‘higher’ derriere than mine sat in my seat as that theatre was burnt to the ground during a performance of Donizetti’s Lucia de Lammermoor in 1881 – perhaps Lucia did get her revenge after all – and a new theatre was born in 1885. 

La Boheme – Puccini – Royal Opera House

La Boheme – Puccini – Royal Opera House

David Buchler
Royal Opera House

The intimacy of Richard Jones’s production of La Boheme is well conceived.  However, the rooftop apartment shared by the writers and artists is rather lacking in 19th century Marseilles style.  It has clean lines and beautiful fresh pinewood sets.  There is no hint of atmospheric old town accommodation and even the ladder through the sky roof, constantly open to the elements, does not really make sense, nor does the smoke from the chimney when there is no working fireplace. 

La Boheme – Puccini – Theater Basel Switzerland

La Boheme – Puccini – Theater Basel Switzerland

David Buchler
Theater Basel

It’s a new dawn at the Theater Basel.  It’s all change in the artistic department with a new Artistic Director arriving in 2020, replacing the successful Andreas Beck.  The outstanding Henriette Goetz has arrived via ENO and Munich, Christina Poska has taken over as Music Director and was conducting her first new production in the much anticipated La Boheme, directed by the implacable Daniel Kramer

Otello – Verdi – Royal Opera House

Otello – Verdi – Royal Opera House

David Buchler
Royal Opera House

Verdi’s penultimate opera is probably his greatest tragic musical masterpiece and the opening night of Keith Warner’s 2017 production did not disappoint. Warner’s production followed in the footsteps of Elijah Moshinsky’s glorious 30 year old production. The sets designed by Boris Kudlicka are made up of sliding and moveable fragments that either open the stage, such as in the outstanding opening storm scene, or close the stage when intimacy is required.

Rigoletto – Verdi – Welsh National Opera

Rigoletto – Verdi – Welsh National Opera

David Buchler
Welsh National Opera

The Welsh National Opera’s history began in 1943 as a result of the efforts of a group of miners, teachers and doctors. It tours across the UK reaching some 30 theatres across Wales and England, entertaining audiences with operas and concerts and showing future generations that opera is rewarding, relevant and a powerful universal art form.

Samling & Katerina Mina

Samling & Katerina Mina

David Buchler
Wigmore Hall

For more than 20 years the Samling Institute for Young Artists has brought together emerging singers together with international artists who act as a bridge and tutor between the conclusion of studies and the beginning of professional life. The roster of Samling Artists who have forged an incredible professional life is impressive and this year the score of wonderful musical talent is unlikely to disappoint.

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