The repertory for the 2012-2013 season of the English National Opera (also known as “Peter Gelb‘s shopping list”) boasts the premiere of a new opera by Philip Glass, The Perfect American, which imagines the last days of Walt Disney. It’s a co-production with Madrid’s Teatro Real and stars bass Christopher Purves as the legendary filmmaker. The company’s program also features nine new productions, including stagings by Peter Konwitschny, Calixto Bieito, David McVicar and Richard Jones. [the arts desk]
If it wasn’t anything special as art or even entertainment, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s recent production of Rinaldo (March 24) does offer an excellent peg on which to hang an argument about the future of opera in America. And if this Rinaldo is an example of where we’re heading, that future looks very much like a mediocre dub of the past. Read more »
Forgive La Cieca’s less-than-avid posting schedule over the last few days, please! She’s been making preparations for a quick trip to Chicago to catch Calixto Bieito‘s production of Tennessee Williams‘ Camino Real (pictured) and LOC’s Rinaldo, not, unfortunately, pictured.
In what surely must count as La Cieca’s idea of a perfect storm, Zachary Woolfe interviews Calixto Bieito in the New York Times.
Following the jump, about 45 minutes of highlights from last week’s telecast of Bizet’s opera from the Gran Teatre del Liceu, as sung by Fabio Armiliato, Béatrice-Uria Monzon, Maria Bayo and Kyle Ketelsen, directed by Calixto Bieito.
A reminder to the Regie-fanciers among the cher public: this afternoon at 19:45 (1:45 PM EDT), the Munich Festival will present a live webcast of Fidelio featuring Anja Kampe (Leonore) and Jonas Kaufmann (Florestan) with Adam Fischer conducting the Bayerische Staatsorchester. The production is directed by Calixto Bieito! UPDATE: The webcast player is now on the Bayerische Staatsoper website.
Our Own JJ (not pictured) gets the Staatsoper Stuttgart experience off his chest, to the tune of about 4,000 words, in his new blog post at Musical America. Included is a massive and (one hopes) final deconstruction of the Calixto Bieito Parsifal.
Our own JJ (not pictured) has finally begun to unburden himself on the subject of the recent, much-discussed “Regietournee.” For reviews of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Rusalka and Cosi fan tutte in Berlin, please go to Musical America‘s Rough and Regie. (Photo: Monkia Rittershaus)
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