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
What fun, as is usual when young singers perform together in any environment and this was no exception. Four Sopranos, each different and each one showing us an incredible range and repertoire was a real treat.
Paul Bunyan is an American legend – a giant lumberjack with Titanic power and strength. In folklore, he and his blue ox named Babe are said to be responsible for the creation of several American landscapes and natural wonders including the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, Mount Hood and the Grand Canyon. Today undoubtedly, in Trump’s America, they would regard this as ‘fakelore’!
As the thunderstorm roared and the rain fell on the canvas roof, Opera Holland Park’s Ariadne got off to a slow and uncertain start. The prologue and particularly The Party Planner of Eleanor Bron were most difficult to hear, that is until the entrance and the ecstasy of The Composer sung by the Swedish soprano, Julia Sporsen. She was a revelation with flawless delivery and a performance that tugged at the heartstrings, particularly when confronting her relationship with the Zerbinetta of Jennifer France.
Not particularly well received at its premiere, as with others he directed, specifically Meistersingers, Kasper Holten’s production of Don Giovanni, revived by Amy Lane, becomes a much more interesting and user friendly production third time round.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
The overall success of Glyndebourne as the leading country opera house was cemented in 2018 with two very high quality operas.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
