Murder amidst orientalist excess: Opéra de Baugé's Aida

By Roger Smith, 06 August 2013

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Reviewed at Centre Culturel René d'Anjou, Baugé-en-Anjou on 3 August 2013

Verdi, Aida

Philip Hesketh, Conductor

Aivale Cole, Aida

Bernadette Grimmett, Producer

Magdalen Ashman, Amneris

Shaun Dixon, Radamès

Simon Thorpe, Amonasro

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

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

Innocence: Saariaho’s final opera receives New York premiere

Kurt Gottschalk, 6th April

At the Metropolitan Opera, Innocence proves a gripping and perhaps divisive piece which feels real because it is a reflection of our reality, with no realistic hope of finding peace.

*****

Bless this house: a Passiontide Parsifal in Erl

Peter Quantrill, 2nd April

Alpine mountains and streams set the scene for an illuminating production of Wagner's 'play to consecrate a stage'.

****1

Petrenko and Serebrennikov forge a new Ring in Salzburg

Phillip Richter, 1st April

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s much-anticipated return to Salzburg gets off to an impressive musical start. Kirill Serebrennikov’s staging raises numerous questions, but answers few of them.

****1

Eyes wide shut for Berlin’s new Ballo

Mark Pullinger, 29th March

At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Rafael R Villalobos addresses the problems he perceives with Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, although the musical performances – led by Anna Netrebko – compensate.

***11

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Roger Smith

Roger Smith was born in London and studied for BA in Music at Kingston University, followed by an MMus in Music Theory and Analysis at Goldsmiths College. He studied opera at Birkbeck College, the City Lit and Morley College.