Performer: Annely Peebo

Emmerich Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza is celebrating her 90th birthday this year, but just like my slightly younger great-aunts, who introduced me to this operetta at the tender age of five, she is far from ready for a care home. Thomas Enzinger and set/costume designer Toto have come up with another imaginative response to the question of why and how the bygone genre of operetta should be produced today.

Mahler’s Symphony no. 8 had not been heard in Milan for 27 years. Tonight, Riccardo Chailly returned to perform the “Symphony of a Thousand” with his former band, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.

Die Csárdásfürstin is set at the beginning of World War I, a time of uncertainty and fear, but also one where the ruling classes of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were partying like there was no tomorrow.

Lotte de Beer schickt in ihrer Inszenierung Hoffmann zur Therapie – vergeblich. Musikalisch überzeugen vor allem die Frauen.

Just an Arturo Toscaninis 150. Geburtstag fand die Volksopernpremiere von Alfredo Catalani 1892 uraufgeführter Oper La Wally statt. Das ist ein interessanter Zufall, denn Toscanini war von dieser Oper so angetan, dass er seine ersten beiden Kinder nach zwei ihrer Partien nannte – Walter und Wally. Für Gustav Mahler war La Wally überhaupt „die beste italienische Oper“.

Obwohl Sebastian Holecek als Titelheld beeindruckte, blieb Alexander Borodins Oper in einer eindimensionalen Inszenierung mit durchwachsener musikalischer Umsetzung insgesamt blass.

Every summer, Saaremaa Opera Festival and Narva Opera Days are held at the extreme west and eastern ends of Estonia – far from everyday life, where things can become uncanny, unpredictable and fantastical.