Back to the beach

I was in this prematurely air-conditioned supermarket and there were all these aisles and they had these bathing caps you could buy that had these sort of Fourth of July plumes on them that were red and yellow and blue and I wasn’t tempted to buy one but I was reminded of the fact that I had been avoiding the beach.

But now it’s time to grab Albert Einstein for a lengthy swim, as did the Théatre du Chatelet with Philip Glass’ ensemble in 2014, basically recreating the legendary production by Robert Wilson which had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House on 21 November 1976.

Most likely you missed my Midweek Special, posted on Wednesday: Simon Keenlyside sang his first Golaud in a new Pelléas et Mélisande at Wiener Staatsoper last Sunday, and was awarded the title of Kammersänger the next day.

His fellow cast members are Adrian Eröd (Pelléas), Olga Bezsmertna (Mélisande), Franz-Josef Selig (Arkel), and Bernarda Fink (Geneviève) in her company debut. Alain Altinoglu conducts.

In a city where you can’t turn a corner without running into a choirboy, Yniold is, inexplicably, sung by a woman.

A stage machinery malfunction at the beginning of Act III, scene iii caused Altnoglu to halt the performance for approximately five minutes (we still have the best that 1955 can offer; no turntable). I have edited this out, but you may hear a slight blip where the cut occurs.

The final performance of the run on 30 June will be available on Staatsoper’s Livestream platform. Marco Arturo Marelli’s production returns in October for four performances with only Keenlyside reprising his role (and this time with a tenor – Bernard Richter – as Pélleas).