A Romantic ghost story in Darmstadt

By Peter Connors, 03 September 2017

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“Astrid Weber gave a very strong performance as Senta”

Reviewed at Staatstheater Darmstadt: Großes Haus, Darmstadt on 2 September 2017

Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)

Will Humburg, Conductor

Dietrich Hilsdorf, Director

Dieter Richter, Set Designer

Renate Schmitzer, Costume Designer

Krzysztof Szumański, Dutchman

Astrid Weber, Senta

Seokhoon Moon, Daland

Marco Jentzsch, Erik

Elisabeth Hornung, Mary

Michael Pegher, The Steersman

Staatsorchester Darmstadt

Hindemith's Die Harmonie der Welt in Linz

Hugo Shirley, 11th April

Hindemith's opera, based on the life and theories of Johannes Kepler, is impressively realised by the Landestheater

****1

Opera inside out: Ariadne auf Naxos

Matthew Rye, 3rd March

A well-sung revival of a witty and supremely theatrical production of Strauss’ operatic exposé.

****1

Vienna Volksoper: Il trovatore

Snapdragon, 16th November

Since 2013 marks a Verdi anniversary, the Viennese have been treated to two new productions of Il trovatore: Philipp Stölzl’s pacey, offbeat deconstruction that will open in Berlin next week, and this Volksoper co-production with the Theater Bonn where the curtain goes down after every scene.

***11

Albert Lortzing's Der Wildschütz returns to the Volksoper

Snapdragon, 8th May

Under the headline “Why Lortzing?”, the evening’s programme lists 20 reasons by Lortzing biographer Jürgen Lodemann why this composer should not be forgotten, including the fact that Lortzing’s operas were the most-performed in Germany for about 150 years.

***11

Kammerspiel der Gefühle vor Karthago: Didone abbandonata in Meiningen

Michael Vieth, 19th September

In der Meininger Musikaliensammlung wiederentdeckt: am Staatstheater Meiningen wird das von Domenico Sarro vertonte erste Libretto von Pietro Metastasio zum umjubelten Premierenerfolg.

*****

Elizas Tanz am Rhein

Beate Langenbruch, 29th December

Frederick Loewes My Fair Lady im englischen Original mit anspruchsvollem Bild an der Oper Köln.

***11

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Peter Connors

Peter has been attending concerts and operas enthusiastically since his parents took him to see The Mikado in Liverpool when he was a boy of ten and to a “family concert” given by the RLPO a year or so later. Peter studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford and Law in Manchester. After spending twenty years as a pensions lawyer in Manchester, he retrained as a teacher of English as a foreign language, which took him to Germany and to Serbia. With the onset of the pandemic he returned to the UK and now works online and frequents concert halls and theatres in the North West of England.

The Flying Dutchman: a Romantic ghost story in Darmstadt