A debuting conductor, two new singers, and a fine ensemble of singers bring unexpected joy to the Met's traditional La bohème with fresh and youthful energy.
After his affectionate treatment of La fanciulla del West for ENO and his devastating Suor Angelica for the Royal Opera, Richard Jones’ new La bohème is disappointingly bland.
Not just a jolly romp through the inconstancies of the heart, Sir David McVicar takes Così fan tutte through a dark lesson for lovers while leaving the music ravishingly intact.
For anyone seeing Carmen for the first time, this Royal Opera revival will have been a more than satisfactory evening. Old hands hoping to see something extra will find it in Hymel's Don José and Car's Micaëla, but not elsewhere.
David McVicar's Don Giovanni for Opera Australia takes its cue from the brutally grim opening of the opera, yet remains true to Mozart’s own description of a “jocular” work (dramma giocoso).
While this concert’s marketing was focused on Mozart’s Requiem, it was Haydn in the first half that made the greater impact, in the form of an ecstatically virtuosic performance of his Cello Concerto no. 1 with soloist Alban Gerhardt.
There can be fewer more idyllic places in the world to see an opera. Behind the floating stage was Sydney’s harbour bridge and opera house; to the left, the lights of the central business district; and to the right, the glittering lights of the Northern Shore and the occasional ferry making its way to Circular Quay.
Georges Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, written some ten years before Carmen, does not enjoy as much recognition as the latter opera. Composed at the age of 25, the opera received harsh criticism from many contemporary critics, although not from Hector Berlioz, who clearly recognised something of Bizet's genius in the work.
The older I get, the more convinced I become that the heart of Mozart’s genius is to be found in his operas. This is no truer than in Don Giovanni, especially when performed by such a talented cast as it was last night in Sydney Opera House, three hours of the most sublime music. I have always believed that great music does not need any gimmicks and should be able to stand on its own.
In an opera of such popularity as Carmen by Georges Bizet, it wouldn’t be easy to please an audience likely to be inured to a variety of performances of arias such as Habanera and The Toreador’s Song. Yet Opera Australia made a thoughtfully constructed and well vindicated attempt.
