parterre box

53 comments

• Henry Holland says:

  SF Guy@43: Interesting backstage info I didn’t know before. Thanks for sharing it.

  Seconded.

  Every work in the list is something that he can have a director and/or designer fuck around with in the fashion they endured for a decade in Salzburg.

  Here’s the rundown on where the productions are coming from in his first season in Madrid:

  Onegin: rented from the Bolshoi
  Graun’s Montezuma: new production, shared with Edinburgh, Hamburg and Mexico, directed by Claudio Valdes Kuri
  Mahagonny: new production, by La Fura dels Baus, some examples of their work here (sorry for no direct link, the last time I tried, I completely screwed it up): http://tinyurl.com/yjc6d7y
  Turn of the Screw: borrowed production, by David McVicar from the Mariinsky, very mainstream
  Rosenkavalier: borrowed from --wait for it-- the Salzburg Festival and Paris Opera, by Herbert Wernecke, updated to the 30′s, the three reviews I read about it liked it
  Iphigénie: the well travelled Robert Carsen production (Chicago, London, San Francisco), here’s a picture: http://tinyurl.com/yhh9osr
  Werther: borrowed production by Willy Decker from Frankfurt
  King Roger: borrowed from Paris Opera, here’s the last 7 minutes:
  

  Mmmmmm…..Mariusz Kwiecien……mmmmmmmmmm.
  Figaro: revival of their traditional production:
  

  
  Saint Francois d’Assise: borrowed from the Ruhr Triennale, this is the production that would have been done at the Park Avenue Armory: http://tinyurl.com/y8cogwu

  Of course, Mortier was appointed to the Madrid job in 11/08 and officially started the job in January, future seasons might be different, but potentially apart from the Mahagonny, doesn’t look too “out there”.

  on March 26, 2010 at 12:06 AM
• Will says:

  Henry, you’re correct, it’s not “out there” at all. Next season, the Boston Lyric Opera is giving us Handel’s Agrippina, Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann, and Tosca — a very similar balance to what Mortier plans for Madrid.

  That’s Boston, where we’ve also had Werther, Onegin, Mahagonny, Turn of the Screw and Iphigenie produced by variously local companies and where I designed the U.S.premiere of Graun’s Montezuma three and a half decades ago. We also had the premiere of a commissioned opera earlier this year. Mortier’s Madrid season is very mainstream for today.

  The big loss was Mortier’s plan to bring St, Francois d’Assise to New York — otherwise even his planning for NYCO, while stimulating, wasn’t path-breaking as some of his choices had already been seen across the plaza at the progressively more adventurous MET.

  on March 26, 2010 at 8:52 AM
• A. Poggia Turra says:

  Salzburg did ‘Mahagonny’ in 1998: Peter Zadek production, with Hadley (personal triumph), Malfitano and Dame Gwyneth – great orchestral performance under Dennis Russell Davies. The production was OK (it’s out on DVD), and while not perfect, is vastly better than the Los Angeles monstrosity that John Doyle cooked up and that unfortunately is also out on DVD.

  The promised production under Mortier that I REALLY want to see (announced for NYCO, now scheduled for Madrid in 2012) is Michael Haneke’s production of Cosi Fan Tutte. If anyone say a nasty (but good) Haneke film called “Funny Games” in2007, the mind boggles at what Haneke will do with Mozart and daPonte’s tale of relationship-duplicity

  on March 27, 2010 at 8:05 AM