Au fait with Orphée: Salzburg celebrates Offenbach's bicentenary

By Matthew Rye, 18 August 2019

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“visual gags, outrageous costumes and gender-bending song-and-dance routines”

Reviewed at Haus für Mozart, Salzburg on 17 August 2019

Offenbach, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld)

Enrique Mazzola, Conductor

Barrie Kosky, Director

Rufus Didwiszus, Set Designer

Victoria Behr, Costume Designer

Joel Prieto, Orphée

Nadine Weissmann, Cupidon

Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Diane

Kathryn Lewek, Eurydice

Max Hopp, John Styx

Frances Pappas, Junon

Martin Winkler, Jupiter

Anne Sofie von Otter, L'Opinion Publique

Rafał Pawnuk, Mars

Peter Renz, Mercure

Marcel Beekman, Pluton

Lea Desandre, Venus

Franck Evin, Lighting Designer

Otto Pichler, Choreography

Susanna Goldberg, Dramaturgy

Vocalconsort Berlin

David Cavelius, Choirmaster / chorus director

Vienna Philharmonic

Siegfried at the RBO: Kosky and Pappano surprise and delight

David Karlin, 17th March

A revelatory orchestral performance and a cast led by Andreas Schager, Christopher Maltman and Elisabeth Strid make this a Siegfried for the record books.

*****

Barrie Kosky directs a ferocious new Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Zenaida des Aubris, 31st January

Shostakovich's opera is laid bare in Berlin, to devastating effect, with a distinguished cast led by Ambur Braid.

****1

Hotel Metamorphosis: Vivaldi reborn through Ovid's lens in Salzburg

Laura Servidei, 8th June

A pasticcio of superb musicianship is the main event at the Venice-themed Whitsun Festival.

****1

Glyndebourne's Saul still packs a punch 10 years on

Nick Boston, 8th June

Returning from the original run, Christopher Purves and Iestyn Davies were joined by a strong cast and chorus for a revival of Barrie Kosky's striking production.

*****

The little man has his day: a nasty and brutish Die Walküre

Peter Quantrill, 1st May

The latest, thrilling instalment of Barrie Kosky's Ring cycle at Covent Garden does not have to strain for contemporary relevance.

*****

Opulent minimalism: Kosky directs a new staging of Akhnaten

Zenaida des Aubris, 23rd March

Barrie Kosky's new production of Philip Glass' Akhnaten for Komische Oper at the Schillertheater removes any egyptological references.

****1

More reviews...

Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).