Are they all like that? Staatsoper Hamburg's new Così

By Alexander Hall, 09 September 2018

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“Maria Bengtsson... her peaches-and-cream delivery rich in nuance”

Reviewed at Hamburgische Staatsoper: Main Hall, Hamburg on 8 September 2018

Mozart, Così fan tutte

Staatsoper Hamburg

Sébastien Rouland, Conductor

Herbert Fritsch, Director, Set Designer

Victoria Behr, Costume Designer

Maria Bengtsson, Fiordiligi

Ida Aldrian, Dorabella

Dovlet Nurgeldiyev, Ferrando

Kartal Karagedik, Guglielmo

Pietro Spagnoli, Don Alfonso

Sylvia Schwartz, Despina

Carsten Sander, Lighting Designer

Johannes Blum, Dramaturgy

Eberhard Friedrich, Choirmaster / chorus director

Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Frauenliebe und -sterben: Kratzer’s triple bill at Staatsoper Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 15th April

Director Tobias Kratzer engineers a haunting pasticcio of Schumann, Bartók and Zemlinsky, tracing the domestic sphere’s shift from romantic surrender to the blood-soaked secrets of a century-spanning house.

****1

Vampires, Disney and Donald Trump: Monster’s Paradise in Hamburg

Kevin W Ng, 1st February

Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek take on Donald Trump in their latest operatic collaboration.

****1

Unsuk Chin's opera Die dunkle Seite des Mondes premieres in Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 31st May

At Staatsoper Hamburg, Unsuk Chin’s new opera The Dark Side of the Moon immerses audiences in an hypnotic, introspective journey, where dreams, science and psyche collide in a rigorously crafted, thought-provoking spectacle.

****1

Franciscan virtues for a modern age: a multimedia Messiaen remix

Peter Quantrill, 2nd June

No half measures in a triple-decker Hamburg staging of Saint François d'Assise at the Elbphilharmonie.

***11

Staatsoper Hamburg's new Boris Godunov traverses Russian history

Alexander Hall, 16th September

Opening the new opera season, Kent Nagano powerfully directs Mussorgsky's great psychodrama about a famous tsar, marred only by Frank Castorf's visually confusing and symbolically overweighted production.

****1

Beauty and the beast: Sciarrino's Venere e Adone premieres in Hamburg

Alexander Hall, 28th May

What does opera in the 21st century look and sound like? Streets removed from anything Mozart, Verdi or Wagner would have recognised. But Salvatore Sciarrino is his own man.

***11

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Alexander Hall

Alexander Hall divides his time between London and Hamburg, where he had a career in academic administration and teaching. He reviews for Bachtrack and Opera Today, and has also reviewed for Classical Source. A connoisseur of the great orchestras of the world, his musical memories stretch back to Karajan/Berlin Phil, Mravinsky/Leningrad Phil, Bernstein/Vienna Phil, and he has seen most of the great conductors from the past, including Böhm, Klemperer, Kubelik, Ormandy and Szell.