Reviews — Opera Spy

Welcome to Opera Spy

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

Falstaff at the Royal Opera House

Jul 7

Jul 7 Falstaff at the Royal Opera House

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.

Il barbiere di Siviglia at The Grange Festival

Jun 22

Jun 22 Il barbiere di Siviglia at The Grange Festival

Grange Festival

Michael Chance, the new Artistic Director at the Grange Festival, was an outstanding singer, and is now proving to be somewhat of an extraordinary artistic director in difficult circumstances. He says “We strive to produce work that is informed, supported, creatively imagined and collaboratively executed”.

La Bohème at the Royal Opera House

Jun 20

Jun 20 La Bohème at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

Richard Jones must be delighted by this latest outing of his 2017 new production of La Bohème. The production is tighter and clearer. He and his designer Stewart Laing have put a huge amount of effort into the Act 2 Café Momus scene. It is outstanding, as he provides 3 shopping arcades on the stage, which eventually move apart as the Café Momus set arrives for the main part of that Act.

Mamzer Bastard at the Royal Opera House / Hackney Empire

Jun 17

Jun 17 Mamzer Bastard at the Royal Opera House / Hackney Empire

Royal Opera House, Hackney Empire

The collaboration between the Royal Opera and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama was established in 2013 as an opportunity for one composer every two years to research and write a major operatic work. Na’ama Zisser is the second such composer in residence, and she studied at the Royal College of Music under Turnage. Together with her sister Rachel and her partner Samantha Newton, who jointly wrote the libretto, they have structured a new chamber opera called Mamzer Bastard.

Madama Butterfly & Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne

Jun 16

Jun 16 Madama Butterfly & Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne

The overall success of Glyndebourne as the leading country opera house was cemented in 2018 with two very high quality operas.

La traviata Young Artists at Opera Holland Park

Jun 11

Jun 11 La traviata Young Artists at Opera Holland Park

This has been an interesting year for Traviatas, some good, some not so good. The new production at Opera Holland Park by the young Greek born opera Director, Rodula Gaitanou (who was a former Jette Parker Young Artist), is indeed a real success.

Un Ballo in Maschera at Grange Park Opera

Jun 9

Jun 9 Un Ballo in Maschera at Grange Park Opera

Grange Park Opera

In one of Verdi’s most frustrating experiences, this opera commissioned by Naples in 1857, was actually premiered in Rome in 1859. The original score underwent significant transformations as a result of censorship regulations in both Naples and Rome and the disturbing political situation in France in 1858. The plot concerns the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden, who was killed as the result of a political conspiracy against him. He was shot while attending a masked ball.

Opera Blog - Lohengrin

Jun 7

Jun 7 Opera Blog - Lohengrin

Royal Opera House

Lohengrin is a romantic three act opera, written by Richard Wagner and first performed in Weimar in 1850 under the patronage of King Ludwig. It was indeed this patronage that gave Wagner the means and opportunity to compose and build a theatre for and stage his epic cycle, the Ring of the Nibelung.

Capriccio at Garsington

Jun 1

Jun 1 Capriccio at Garsington

This is the last opera written by Richard Strauss, with a German libretto by Clemens Krauss and is unlike any of his other operas. It is more like a ‘conversation piece for music’ where the Countess has two suitors, Flamand and Olivier, representing music and words. That is the context of the arguments and discussions that run throughout this opera. The question is, what is more important, Music or Word - or should it be Word or Music - and which one of the suitors will take precedence in the heart of the Countess?

Lucia de Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera

Apr 28

Apr 28 Lucia de Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera

In 1760 the Scottish poet, James Macpherson, published translations of poetry by the ancient Celtic bard, Ossian. Thereafter, the vision of the Scottish landscape was a reflection of nostalgic mists and clattering hooves, with lakes, green hills and heather.

Chess at the English National Opera

Apr 27

Apr 27 Chess at the English National Opera

English National Opera

The opening of the rock opera production of Chess was written in 1984 by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice. Chess is the sequel to the English National Opera music theatre production at the Coliseum, which began with Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel, Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close and Carousel starring Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House

Apr 12

Apr 12 Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House

Stephen Benzikie

Royal Opera House

This four act opera by Dmitry Shostakovich was premiered in 1934 in St Petersburg and two days later in Moscow. It is the story of a lonely woman in 19th century Russia, who falls in love with one of her husband’s workers and is driven to murder. It was condemned in 1936 and banned in the Soviet Union for almost 30 years.

Eliahu Inbal: Mahler 6 at the Singapore Esplanade Concert Hall

Apr 6

Apr 6 Eliahu Inbal: Mahler 6 at the Singapore Esplanade Concert Hall

What a treat. Mahler’s brilliant 6th Symphony turned out to be a wonderful experience at the stunning 1,800 seater Esplanade Concert Hall, with 120 musician strong Singapore Symphony Orchestra – of which almost a third were women – of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Marriage of Figaro at the English National Opera

Mar 29

Mar 29 Marriage of Figaro at the English National Opera

English National Opera

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was premiered in Vienna in 1786. It’s a 4 Act opera buffa, with the libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was written several years after the plot of the Barber of Seville and recounts a single day of madness in the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville Spain.

Michael Zaoui Premiere with the Aurora Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Mar 28

Mar 28 Michael Zaoui Premiere with the Aurora Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

What a privileged evening this was.

Michael Zaoui, banker, is a governor of the South Bank. At the age of 14 he tried to join conducting classes at the Paris Music Institute and was instantly rejected. This rejection has lived with him ever since and was only cauterised with this concert, which was Michael’s premiere with the baton. He has worked hard every day over a year on his dream to conduct, and was helped in his efforts by the wonderful Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music. In his ‘dream come true’ moment he was incredibly lucky to not only be the first – even trial – concert at the re-opening of the new Queen Elizabeth Hall, which has been closed for 2.5 years, but also had the privilege of conducting the wonderful Aurora Orchestra, who will be the resident orchestra at the QEH.

Macbeth at the Royal Opera House

Mar 25

Mar 25 Macbeth at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

Verdi’s first version of Macbeth was completed in 1847. It was his first Shakespeare play that he adapted for the operatic stage. This was a golden period of composition by Verdi stretching 16 years, which saw him produce 22 different operas, including, amongst others, Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata.

Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci at the Geneva Opera House

Mar 17

Mar 17 Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci at the Geneva Opera House

First staged as a double bill in New York in 1893, these two operas have been part of the standard opera repertoire as a duet ever since. Geneva Opera provides us with two very contrasting productions, which made for a varied but interesting musical evening.

La Traviata at the English National Opera

Mar 16

Mar 16 La Traviata at the English National Opera

English National Opera

La Traviata had a somewhat complicated beginning. This opera – The Fallen Woman – is a Verdi opera in three acts, adapted from the novel La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas. It opened in 1853 at La Fenice in Venice. Despite the Composer’s wish for a contemporary setting, the local authority insisted that the action be set in the early 18th century and it wasn’t until the 1880s that a more contemporary production was staged. In the original production, the acclaimed soprano singing the lead of Violetta was booed because she was considered to be too old (at 38) and too overweight to credibly play a young woman dying of consumption!

From the House of the Dead at the Royal Opera House

Mar 14

Mar 14 From the House of the Dead at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

Gosh, how depressing! Leos Janacek wrote his opera, From the House of the Dead, in the year of his death in 1928. The opera is effectively a play within a play, set in a Siberian prison, where individual prisoners narrate episodes of their lives.

A Midsummer Night's Dream at the English National Opera

Mar 1

Mar 1 A Midsummer Night's Dream at the English National Opera

English National Opera

A Midsummer Night's Dream, the opera composed by Benjamin Britten was set to a libretto, adapted by both the Composer and the Singer, Peter Pears, from the play by William Shakespeare. It was premiered in 1960 at the Aldeburgh Festival.