Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Nadja Mchantaf

The new version of La bohème at the Komische Oper Berlin follows a hard Verismo-beat.

There’s no doubt that Mélisande endeavours to escape past troubles when she first appears in Barrie Kosky’s production of Debussy’s opera, yet Nadja Mchantaf is no reticent, wispy maiden. Every vocal and physical gesture – always precise and penetrating – displays an atypically forthright quest for vitality, something that Arkel’s chauvinistic world does not readily offer.

Tchaikovsky's opera packs a powerful emotional punch in the Komische Oper's concentrated and dreamlike production.

Damiano Michieletto's new production in Venice sets the operetta in the 1950s. 

Introspected and atmospheric, this late romantic opera appeals to the psychotherapists within us.

Could this be the most perfect fusion of music and visuals known to mankind!?

Barrie Kosky's 2011 production confines the action of the opera to a stark white room. A fine ensemble of singers made for a successful evening.

The genre of semi-opera is a peculiarly British one. Emerging from the courtly Masques during the restoration, the semi-opera served as an English operatic utterance, at a time where opera was emerging as one of the pre-eminent theatrical forms in Europe.

Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) was a renowned opera composer of the eighteenth century. As the Kapellmeister at the Dresden court from 1731 to 1763, he composed a large number of Italian operas and his fame spread all over Europe. His wife, the equally famous mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni (who also sang in Handel’s operas in London), starred in many of his operas.

Cette Flûte Enchantée, aussi visuelle que musicale, est un spectacle pour tous, idéal pour initier à l’opéra les petits comme les grands.

Allzu lange kaute Rameau für den Geschmack des damaligen Publikums auf der Gegenüberstellung von Gut und Böse, Schwarz und Weiß herum. Wäre die Neuproduktion der Komischen Oper Berlin die Uraufführung gewesen, hätte es Rameaus Bühnenmusik wohl auch nicht leichter gehabt. 

Die Neuinszenierung von Richard Heubergers Operette ließ Charme, Ironie und Walzerseligkeit vermissen und konnte, trotz einiger guter Momente, über weite Strecken auch musikalisch nicht gänzlich überzeugen.