Hello friends,

Welcome to this week's newsletter where we make a pact with the devil and beam you off to Munich to watch the livestream of Gounod's Faust, the new production from the Bayerische Staatsoper featuring a very tasty cast. The next evening, we whisk you off to Vienna for Kristina Mkhitaryan in Traviata.

It's quite the operatic week: not one, not two, but three world premieres reviewed this week – Sebastian Fagerlund's The Morning Star, Olga Neuwirth's Monster's Paradise and a ten-composer commission in Philadelphia, Complications in Sue. How many publications reviewed all three?! Plenty to read in our reviews section...

Mark, Elisabeth and Jo

The Bachtrack Insiders

Personal picks from our site

Mark Pullinger Editor ​​​​​​
Leontyne Price 🎂

The great American soprano Leontyne Price turns 99 on Tuesday! A star the world over, she was particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera, inaugurating the grand opening of the new house in 1966 in Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra. One of her most famous roles was Aida and you can watch her here in "Ritorna Vincitor" and "O patria mia". 

Elisabeth Schwarz Editor
¡Zarzuela! 💃

A couple of weeks ago, I saw my very first zarzuela. Well, it even was the very first zarzuela staged in Vienna: Pablo Luna's Benamor, directed by Christof Loy at MusikTheater an der Wien. Unfortunately, Loy's colourful production isn't available on stream (yet), but here's the production from Madrid's Teatro de la Zarzuela to brighten up your February.

Jo Johnson Head of Marketing
Bach, but not as you know it

Sometimes you need a little light relief in life, and I found this great little article from 2018 that provided several minutes of joy: Bach on mandolins, wooden blocks in a forest, jazz flute, a Moog synthesiser, theremin, sitar, wine glasses and beer bottles. Here's to the endless creativity out there, and of course, to Bach himself, whose music can easily withstand this sort of reinterpretation. Historically-informed performance fanatics, look away now!

Out and about

Our tips on what to see live in the UK this week

Elim Chan & Olivier Stankiewicz
Barbican Hall, London
8th February
A world premiere oboe concerto from Colin Matthews, a folk-inspired celebration of dance by Bartók, plus Rachmaninov’s late, great orchestral showstopper. Elim Chan conducts the LSO.

Pierrot Lunaire
Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre, London
Opens 10th February
In the year of the American choreographer's centenary, The Royal Ballet revives Glen Tetley’s surreal ballet of melancholy and mischief under the moonlight. (Returns only)

Peter Grimes
Grand Theatre, Leeds
13th-21st February
Phyllida Lloyd’s searing production of Britten's opera is an unmissable classic, to which our reviewer awarded 5-stars at its most recent revival in 2023.

Photography credits:
John Williams © Disney;
Makato Ozone © Kentaro Hisadomi;
Faust © Geoffroy Schied, Jakub Józef Orliński | Published by SKP - Celebration Issue » and tag @skpbeijing, La traviata © Michael Pöhn | Wiener Staatsoper, Brad Lubman © Peter Serling;
Mari Palo (The Morning Star) © Ilkka Saastamoinen, Justin Vivian Bond (Complications in Sue) © Steven Pisano, Sarah Defrise and Kristina Stanek (Monster's Paradise) © Tanja Dorendorf