Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Peter Konwitschny

Two fascinating casts make Peter Konwitschny's stripped-down Traviata a must-see artistic event in Seattle.

Peter Konwistchny scores audience success with his new production of Boris Godunov, a theatrically inventive critical take on manipulation and the disfiguring effects of power.

Konwitschny's bold approach to Rihm's musical dialectic surprises, challenges, and bewilders. The glorious soundscape created in the Felsenreitschule makes this Eroberung von Mexico a unique, unmissable operatic experience. 

The bright colours and childishness of Konwitschny’s production for the Bayerische Staatsoper shock but succeed. The cast and orchestra shine, especially in the final act.

Two years ago, when this controversial production by Peter Konwitschny was first seen at English National Opera, I was completely knocked sideways by it. Could it deliver the same emotional blow to the solar plexus this time around?

Before they even started, the twin opening of Johannes Harneit and Gero Troike’s operas Abends am Fluss (“Evening on the river”) and Hochwasser (“Flood”) were hailed as operatic highlights, indeed as important cultural political events - and the performance of the Heidelberg Opera Ensemble was spectacular, with both these operas placed in the tradition of Theatre of the Absurd and performed convincingly with their politically explosive strength of message.

Peter Konwitschny’s Tannhäuser at Dresden’s Semperoper dates back to 1997, making it relatively old for an opera production, and though I sense this may be its last revival, it is still modern and engaging.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Attila is not an opera that one hears often. Composed during his self-styled “galley period” – before he found his mature musical voice with Rigoletto – Attila has inherent musical and dramaturgical weaknesses. With one foot still firmly rooted in bel canto tradition, the numerous cabalettas can be exhausting, even ridiculous, considering the dramatic nature of the text.

Of the many and varied operatic openings, that of La Traviata is one that I find increasingly demanding on an emotional level. The mournful harmonies and diaphanous scoring for strings that start off the prelude notoriously portray ill-fated Violetta moments before she dies of TB, returning in the final act as her destiny is about to be fulfilled.

It is customary in German-speaking countries to perform Wagner’s Parsifal on Good Friday, so it was quite a bold move for the Semperoper in Dresden to put on Tannhäuser instead, especially in Peter Konwitschny’s strongly anti-Christian production.

Bo Skovhus und Maria Bengtsson begeistern in Peter Konwitschnys gelungenem Wiederbelebungsversuch einer Rarität. Lasst uns träumen und leben, statt uns zu Tode zu konsumieren.

Fehlende Spannung in musikalischer wie szenischer Hinsicht konnten bei dieser Wiederaufnahme auch gute Einzelleistungen nicht wettmachen.

Renaissance trifft Moderne, trifft Industriezeitalter. Der Münchner Holländer hat schrille Kontraste zu bieten, bevor er schließlich mit krachender Pyrotechnik endet.

Mit Augenmerk auf die politische Dimension kann die Inszenierung von Halévys La Juive am Nationaltheater Mannheim aufgrund komischer Brechungen und einer gemischten Gesangsleistung nicht überzeugen.

Peter Konwitschnys zeitlose Inszenierung von Puccinis Klassiker wartet mit ausdrucksstarken Bildern auf und setzt dabei auf klassische Personenführung.

Schlank ist schön: Gekürzt und auf Violettas Kampf um Leben und Liebesglück fokussiert, begeistert Peter Konwitschnys Grazer Traviata-Inszenierung die Wiener. Marlis Petersen in der Titelpartie ist ein Ereignis.