Harnoncourt offers a richly varied Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna

By Chanda VanderHart, 10 March 2014

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Reviewed at Theater an der Wien, Vienna on 8 March 2014

Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) (In Concert)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor

Felix Breisach, Director

Christine Schäfer, Countess Almaviva

Mari Eriksmoen, Susanna

Elisabeth Kulman, Cherubino

Bo Skovhus, Count Almaviva

Andrè Schuen, Figaro

Peter Kálmán, Doctor Bartolo

Christina Gansch, Barbarina

Ildikó Raimondi, Marcellina

Concentus Musicus Wien

Arnold Schoenberg Choir

Comedy in the madhouse: A risky twist on Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro

Chanda VanderHart, 13th April

“Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life,” stated the late, great Marlon Brando. Felix Breisach took this idea to heart when staging his modernized Figaro in a mental institution.

***11

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

Diamonds and steel: Anna Pirozzi rules in La Scala’s Turandot revival

Laura Servidei, 12th April

Visually enchanting and meticulously staged, this centenary revival confirms Livermore's production as a modern classic.

****1

Regents Opera’s Salome lands a knockout punch at York Hall

Mark Pullinger, 10th April

Mark Ravenhill directs a brutal, bloody Salome for Regents Opera at the spiritual home of British boxing, York Hall.

****1

Art imitates art in ETO’s bracing new Pagliacci

Dominic Lowe, 10th April

Divorced from Cavalleria rusticana, English Touring Opera’s contemporary take on Leoncavallo’s masterpiece ticks all the boxes.

****1

Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno returns to Rome

Pia Maltri, 7th April

Robert Carsen’s staging of Handel's oratorio arrives, via Salzburg, in the city where Handel composed it in 1707.

****1

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Chanda VanderHart

Dr. Chanda VanderHart is a pianist, musicologist and creative who lives, works and plays in Vienna, Austria. For more on Chanda and her projects, click here.