A lady of coarse and vulgar inclinations
A stark, sweltering performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk shocks the Komische Oper Berlin.
Graham Vick
13 pieces since 2006 — at 3 companies, most often at Metropolitan Opera.
13
pieces
3
companies
21
years
The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie
This July, Munich played host to hordes of football fans in town for the European Championship—and arguably the two finest working sopranos today.
That with music loud and long
The flashing eyes, the floating hair, and the inexplicable barefootnedness during the second half of Saturday night’s performance confirmed one thing: Kristine Opolais is back.
So damn bored
It’s nasty world, Shostakovich seems to say, where life alternates between boring and terrifying.
Touch me in the mourning
“How far should we give way to grief? How far dare we, without disaster?”
‘Tis new to thee
Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor returned to Chicago Lyric Opera on Saturday evening.
Half a million marks
Unlike my friend Greg Freed, who entertainingly wrote of his ambivalence about seeing Il trovatore in a movie theater this season, I have embraced the Met Live in HD transmissions as a part of the modern operagoing experience.
Trapped in the web of love
Which operatic character could be best described as a spider?
The year in Yohalem
My memory is fading but the events I recall most vividly of the last season seem largely to have been concert performances.
Katerina’s insomnia
Throw in a trio of murders and a healthy splash of vodka and you have, more or less, the plot of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
Parting shot
Somewhere around the early 80’s, stage directors realized that the odious theatre practice of “audience involvement” was over.
Just around the corner
Cubes and Macbeth seem to have been a successful pairing in the recent Regietheater. Graham Vick’s production of Macbeth at the Teatro alla Scala in the 1997/98 season had become famous, or infamous, for centering its spirit and energies on a big cube dominating both sets and singers. David Pountney exploited the same idea of […]
Tough guy
Joseph Volpe‘s memoir The Toughest Show on Earth (see, La Cieca can get the title right when she wants too) is a book about a working-class kid from Queens who wanted to be Rudolf Bing when he grew up. Or, rather, it’s about a stage carpenter who was bright enough and ambitious enough to do […]